ge body of Christino troops
was assembled on the fifteenth day after Rodil's entrance into
Navarre. The numerous forces which that general found under his
command, after uniting the troops he had brought with him with those
already in the province, had enabled him to adopt a system of
occupation, the most effectual, it was believed, for putting an end to
the war. In pursuance of this plan, he established military lines of
communication between the different towns of Navarre and Alava,
garrisoned and fortified the principal villages, and having in this
manner disseminated a considerable portion of his army through the
insurgent districts, he commenced, with a column of ten thousand men
that remained at his disposal, a movement through the mountainous
regions, to which, upon his approach, the Carlists had retired. His
object was the double one of attacking and destroying their army, and,
if possible, of seizing the person of Don Carlos, who but a few days
previously had arrived in Spain. The heat of the weather was
remarkable, even for that usually sultry season; the troops had had a
long and fatiguing march over the rugged sierra of Urbasa; and Rodil,
either with a view of giving them rest, or with some intention of
garrisoning the villages scattered about the valley, which had
hitherto been one of the chief haunts of the Carlists, had come to a
halt in the Lower Amezcoa.

It was two in the afternoon, and, notwithstanding the presence of so
large a body of men, all was stillness and repose in the valley. The
troops had arrived that morning, and after taking up their cantonments
in the various villages and hamlets, had sought refuge from the
overpowering heat. In the houses, the shutters of which were carefully
closed to exclude the importunate sunbeams, in the barns and stables,
under the shadow cast by balconies or projecting eaves, and along the
banks of the stream which traverses the valley, and is noted in the
surrounding country for the crystal clearness and extreme coldness of
its waters, the soldiers were lying, their uniforms unbuttoned, the
stiff leathern stock thrown aside, enjoying the mid-day slumber, which
the temperature and their recent fatigue rendered doubly acceptable.
Here and there, at a short distance from the villages, and further
off, near the different roads and passes that give access to the
valley through or over the gigantic mountain-wall by which it is
encircled, the sun flashed upon the poli