ifty thousand
cartridges were all he possessed, and those were soon consumed, as well
as some that were taken from the Christinos. It was very difficult and
costly to get powder from France, which could only be introduced in
quantities of three or four pounds, or little more. Unable to support
the delay and expense of this, Zumalacarregui established manufactories
in secluded corners of Navarre and the Basque provinces; and then, with
infinite risk, caused saltpetre to be brought from the very heart of
Arragon, and subsequently from France. The powder that was at first
produced was very weak and bad, and the manufacturers worked day and
night till they found means of improving it. The rules introduced into
the battalions, in order to economize this precious commodity, were
singular enough. The soldiers were forbidden to load their muskets till
the very moment of commencing an action; and then were only to fire when
the enemy was very near and fully exposed. Even the guards and pickets,
in view of the Christinos, had but a single musket loaded, which the
sentinels passed from one to another when relieved. Zumalacarregui
himself made frequent inspections of the men's ammunition, and would
often stop soldiers whom he met in the street or on the road, to
ascertain that they had not lost or wasted their cartridges.

The security of the Carlist army did not so much depend on the vigilance
of outposts and advanced guards, as on the system of transmitting
information that was established amongst the village alcaldes, and on
the zeal and fidelity of the _confidentes_ or spies. Without reckoning
those persons who acted in the latter capacity in the vicinity of their
own homes, Zumalacarregui always had about him eighteen or twenty
regularly paid spies; and to these, even in the moments of his greatest
poverty and difficulty, he showed himself liberal to prodigality.
Notwithstanding that it was out of his power to recompense sufficiently
the risks they ran, and the important services they rendered, these men
performed their arduous duties with admirable fidelity. Zaratiegui
relates an anecdote of one of them who, having been guilty of some
neglect, received, by order of Zumalacarregui, two hundred blows with a
stick, and was then turned out of the camp. The evening of the same day
on which this took place, when the general called as usual for his
_confidentes_, the man who had been beaten made his appearance with the
others. Altho