ges; besides an immense quantity of round-shot
and other projectiles, which at that time were useless to the Carlists,
as they had no artillery.

When, instead of the news which they had been expecting to receive, of
the extermination of the royalist faction, the Pampelonese learned that
Orbaiceta was captured; and that Lorenzo and Oraa had succeeded in
nothing except in knocking up their horses and fagging their men; they
sent to Valdes, the general-in-chief of the army of the North, who was
then in Biscay, imploring him to come and make an end of the Carlists.
Valdes hastened to Pampeluna, and on arriving there at once made a
sortie with five or six thousand men. Zumalacarregui posted himself in a
narrow pass, on the road along which the Christinos were advancing, and
awaited their arrival. Having done this, he sent out a number of
officers and soldiers, who were well acquainted with the country, to
observe the movements of the Queen's troops, and give notice of their
approach. The evening was drawing in, when a peasant came up in all
haste, laden with a large stone of a thin flat form, nearly a foot and a
half long. On reaching the presence of Zumalacarregui, he laid it down,
and requested the general to read what was written on it. One of the
scouts having no writing materials, and thinking the peasant incapable
of bearing a verbal message correctly, had taken this novel means of
conveying intelligence to his chief. In danger of being outflanked,
Zumalacarregui was compelled to abandon his advantageous position. The
following day a skirmish took place without result; and at last Valdes,
finding that he only fatigued his men uselessly, by pursuing an
adversary whom it was impossible to overtake, remained for some days
inactive.

A week had elapsed, which Zumalacarregui had passed at Navascues, busied
in organizing his troops, and making various important administrative
arrangements, when the approach of Oraa compelled him to a change of
place. On the evening of the 17th of February, the Christino general
having put up his infantry in the hamlets of Zubiri and Urdaniz, and the
detachments of cavalry that accompanied him, at a large _venta_ or inn
between those two places, Zumalacarregui resolved upon a nocturnal
attack.

It was at midnight that, by the light of a dozen trees, which had been
set on fire, and served for gigantic torches, the Carlist leader formed
up five companies in a thick wood, and after communica