ossan fields,
oh! would you not say, 'No, this Christianity, which goes about sowing
battle; desolation, tears, and blood wherever it passes, is not
ours--no, this Christianity at the bottom of the slaughter of Endarlasa,
of the hecatomb of Cirauqui, of the sack of Igualada, and of a hundred
other cruelties, is not ours. Our religion says "Kill not," and this
murders; says "Steal not," and this robs. No, this is not the
Christian, but the Carlist religion'?"

That is a good specimen of the rhetorical school of writing popular in
Spanish newspapers; but all that is written is not gospel. From personal
observation it was evident to me that these Republicans of the Spanish
towns of the north were not so scrupulous in the outward observances of
religion as the tone of this indignant Christian leading article would
convey; neither were the Carlists the "packs of wolves" they were
represented to be.

Let us see how this inflamed sense of so-called religion affected the
rank and file among the adherents of Don Carlos.

Indubitably the Royalists, with a very few exceptions, were more than
moral--they were sincerely pious, and esteemed it a grateful incense to
the Most High to kill as many of their Republican countrymen as they
could without over-exertion. They bowed their heads and repeated prayers
with the chaplains who accompanied them; as the echoes of the Angelus
bell were heard they were marched to Divine worship every evening, when
they were in the neighbourhood of a church; they were palpably impressed
with deep devotional convictions, and yet they were not sour-faced like
the grim Covenanters of Argyle, nor puritanically uncharitable like the
stern propounders of the Blue Laws of Connecticut. Their beads returned
to the pocket or the prayers finished, they laughed and jested, were
frolicsome as schoolboys in their playhour, and the slightest tinkle of
music set them dancing. Hospitable and fanatic, faithful and ignorant,
temperate and dirty--such are some prominent traits in the character of
the brave Basque people of the rural districts who wished to govern
Spain, but who were Spaniards neither by race, nor language, nor
temperament, nor feeling.

Taken all in all, they are a right manly breed, and, with education to
correct inevitable prejudices, would be capable of great things. But
before they could become efficient soldiers, they needed a severe course
of training. In the flat country, south of the Ebro, it wou