ic resort in France, succeeded, but not without difficulty,
in rescuing the Carlist from the fierce clutch of his foe, who clung to
him with bull-dog tenacity till they were actually drawn asunder by main
force.

"_Canalla! infame!_" shouted the stranger, as he writhed and struggled
in the hands of his guards. "By yonder villain have all my hopes in life
been blasted--an adored mistress outraged and murdered, myself tortured
and mutilated in cold blood!" And, tearing off the black fillet that
encircled his head, it was seen that his ears had been cut off. A murmur
of horror ran through the crowd which this scene had assembled. "And
shall I not have revenge?" shouted Ignacio (for he it was) in a voice
rendered shrill by furious passion. And by a violent effort he again
nearly succeeded in shaking off the men who held him.

El Sangrador, whose first terror had probably been caused by
astonishment at seeing one whom he firmly believed numbered with the
dead, had now recovered from his alarm.

"_Adios_, Don Ignacio," cried he with a sneer, as he walked away between
two gendarmes, while his enemy was hurried off in another direction.

The following day El Sangrador was sent to a depot of Spanish emigrants
in the interior of France. On his departure, the authorities, who had
made themselves acquainted with the particulars of this dramatic
incident, released Don Ignacio from confinement; but he was informed
that no passport would be given him to quit Toulouse unless it were for
the Spanish frontier.

At the distance of a few leagues from the town of Oleron, and in one of
the wildest parts of the Pyrenees, is a difficult pass, scarcely known,
except to smugglers and izard-hunters whose hazardous avocations make
them acquainted with the most hidden recesses of these rugged and
picturesque mountains. Towards the close of the summer of 1841, this
defile was occasionally traversed by adherents of the Ex-Queen-Regent
Christina, entering Spain secretly and in small parties, to be ready to
take share in the abortive attempt subsequently made to replace the
reins of government in the hands of Ferdinand's widow. Not a few
Carlists also, weary of the monotonous inactive life they were leading
in France, prepared to join the projected insurrection; and, leaving the
towns in which a residence had been assigned them, sought to gain the
Spanish side of the Pyrenees, where they might lie _perdus_ until the
moment for active operation arr