ne break-down on the Thames, opposite the outlet
of the main-drainage pipes. That, intensified by strange oaths and
slop-basins, was the passage by the _Alcorta_. But dreary, lonely San
Sebastian was not to be endured. Those poor fellows above, accustomed to
the wild freshness and freedom of the sea, how they must mourn and
repine! By some means or other I must get back to the world that is not
petrified. No diligences dare to affront the dangers of the short
journey to the Irun railway-station, since three were stopped some days
before, the traces cut, the horses stolen, the windows shattered, the
woodwork burned, and the charred wreck left on the roadside, a terror to
those who neglect to obey the commands of the Royalist leaders.

"Royalist prigants, serr!" shouted a corpulent German doctor, connected
with mines in the neighbourhood, who retained fierce recollections of
having been robbed of a "boney, capitalest of boneys for crossing a
mountain."

I told the doctor I was about to trust to luck, and set out on foot if I
could persuade nobody to provide me with a vehicle.

"Serr, you air mad, foolish mad," said the doctor. "Those horrid
beebles, I tell you, are worse than prigants; if you hayff money, they
will dake it; if you hayff not money, they will stroke your pack fifty
times, pecause you hayff it not. They will cut your ears off; they will
cut your nose off; they are plack tevils!"

I determined to trust to luck all the same. The black devils might not
be all out so black as they were painted.

CHAPTER X.

Belcha's Brigands--Pale-Red Republicans--The Hyena--More about the
_San Margarita_--Arrival of a Republican Column--The Jaunt to Los
Pasages--A Sweet Surprise--"The Prettiest Girl in Spain"--A Madrid
Acquaintance--A Costly Pull--The Diligence at Last--Renteria and
its Defences--A Furious Ride--In France Again--Unearthing Santa
Cruz--The Outlaw in his Lair--Interviewed at Last--The Truth about
the Endarlasa Massacre--A Death-Warrant--The Buried Gun--Fanaticism
of the Partisan-Priest.

THERE is fine scope for exaggeration in civil war; but he who wants the
truth about the Montagues does not consult the Capulets. There must be
bad characters amongst the Carlists, I reflected; and when they are on
outpost duty at a distance from officers, and have taken a drop of
aguardiente too much, they may sometimes fail to appreciate the nice
distinction between _meum_