ed, and the victim of jealous rivalry. He said that he was
prepared, any day the King permitted him, to traverse the four
provinces, and hold his enemies _in terrorem_ with five hundred men. And
he was the very worthy to do it. He complained bitterly that three of
his followers had been shot by Lizarraga. One story relates that they
stole into Guipuzcoa to levy blackmail, another that they merely went to
dig up some money that was interred when the legion was disbanded. In
any case they appeared in arms in a forbidden district, and incurred the
capital penalty. Santa Cruz went to Bordeaux to beg for their lives at
the feet of Dona Margarita. She received him most graciously, and
promised to send a special courier to her husband to intercede in their
behalf. Before the King's reprieve could possibly have arrived the three
were executed.

As we were about to leave, a colleague who was with me asked the Cura if
he would permit him to visit his camp, if it came to pass that he took
up arms again in Spain.

"We shall see," said Santa Cruz; "wait till I am there."

My own conviction is that the priest held correspondents in abhorrence,
and that his first impulse would have been to tie a zealous one up to a
tree, and have thirty-nine blows given him with a stick. Perhaps I did
him wrong, but if ever he did take up arms again, it was my firm
intention to be south when he was north, for he was about the last
person in creation to whose tender mercies I should care to entrust
myself.

CHAPTER XI.

An Audible Battle--"Great Cry and Little Wool"--A Carlist Court
Newsman--A Religious War--The Siege of Oyarzun--Madrid Rebels--"The
Money of Judas"--A Manifesto from Don Carlos--An Ideal
Monarch--Necessity of Social and Political Reconstruction
Proclaimed--A Free Church--A Broad Policy--The King for the
People--The Theological Question--Austerity in Alava--Clerical and
Non-Clerical Carlists--Disavowal of Bigotry--A Republican Editor on
the Carlist Creed--Character of the Basques--Drill and
Discipline--Guerilleros _versus_ Regulars.

WHEN a man's office is to chronicle war and he is within hearing of the
echoes of battle, but cannot reach a spot from which the scene of action
might be commanded, it is annoying in the extreme. Such was my strait on
the 21st of August, a few days after my arrival from San Sebastian. I
was at Hendaye, the border-town of France. From the Spanish fro