nt
of the Biscayan Carlists flying before the triumphant Christinos. The
troops in the Basque provinces, which, the evening before, had amounted
to five or six thousand men, were now reduced to as many hundreds. Their
arms, ammunition, and artillery, the latter consisting of four guns, had
been abandoned, and were in the power of the conquerors; and so complete
was the dissolution of the Carlist forces, that a vast number of persons
who were compromised by their conduct or opinions, seeing themselves
without defence, crossed the frontier into France. Zumalacarregui, with
three scanty, ill-armed battalions, which he had formed out of the
handful of Navarrese peasants before alluded to, was now the only hope
of the cause. The war was, to all appearance, at an end; and so it
undoubtedly would have been but for Zumalacarregui's extraordinary
qualities. When he left Pampeluna, the three Basque provinces and the
greater part of the Rioja, or plains of the Ebro, were held by the
Carlists. Merino had just issued a proclamation announcing himself to be
at the head of twenty thousand Castilian volunteers. In all, there were
nearly forty thousand men under arms for Don Carlos, and ready to
support the Navarrese rising. Suddenly this brilliant perspective had
disappeared like a scene in a play, and the twelve or fifteen hundred
men, half-naked, without uniform, and badly armed, who were assembled in
the valley of the Borunda, found themselves alone and unprotected in
front of a formidable and well-provided foe. All was confusion and
panic, when Zumalacarregui opposed his zeal and energy to the contagion
of alarm that was rapidly spreading amongst his men. His precautions,
his decided and inflexible character, gave life to a cause apparently at
the last gasp. Encouraging some, rousing others from the lethargy into
which they were sinking, he proceeded resolutely with the organization
of his three battalions, introduced strict discipline and subordination,
and procured five hundred muskets, and a supply of cartridges, from
Biscay and Guipuzcoa. General Villareal, who had saved one battalion
from the wreck of the Alavese troops, joined him; and the juntas and
deputations of the various provinces named Zumalacarregui
commander-in-chief of all the Carlist forces.

Meanwhile, Sarsfield's movements appearing too dilatory to the Christino
government, he was replaced by General Valdes, and appointed Viceroy of
Navarre. The arrival of winter