state of defence
at first, and then withdrew the garrisons. They engaged whole columns in
defiles, where a company of invisible guerrilleros could tease them.
They acted, in most instances, as if they had no information or wrong
information. The latter, I believe, was nearer the truth. Their system
of espionage was inefficient, as the information they got was
untrustworthy, and always would be, in the northern provinces, for the
feeling of the masses of the people was against them. Instead of making
headway they were losing ground every day, and would so continue until
they received reinforcements with fibre, and were commanded by officers
who really meant to win, and had the knowledge or the instinct to
conceive a proper plan of campaign. The generals could hardly be
censured, for their hands were tied; they were forbidden to be severe;
they dared not squelch insubordination. Capital punishment, even in the
army, and at such a crisis as this, was abolished. There had been, I
heard, something suspiciously resembling a mutiny in the column of
Sanchez Bregua. A certain Colonel Castanon was put under arrest on a
charge of Alfonsist proclivities; but the Cazadores and Engineers
threatened to rebel unless he was liberated; and Sanchez Bregua, instead
of decimating the Cazadores and Engineers, as Lord Strathnairn would
have done, liberated the Colonel.

But to that question of my route. Peradventure the presence to my dozing
vision of the General commanding the Republican troops of the north that
had been might help me towards a solution.

"That had been" is written advisedly, for Sanchez Bregua had been
recalled to Madrid, not a day too soon. He was one of those generals
whose spine had been curved by lengthened bending over a desk. Loma, who
was active and dashing, and had the rare gift of confidence in himself,
had taken his stand at Tolosa, and was awaiting the advent of Lizarraga.
All his men, and every able-bodied male in the town, were diligently
excavating ditches and making entrenchments. Until Tolosa was captured
by the Carlists, no serious attack on Pampeluna was probable; and that
attack was likely to assume the form of an investment. Estella was to
the south of Pampeluna, and all the country round, from which provisions
could be drawn, was in the occupation of the Carlists. Tolosa was the
objective point of the moment, and to Tolosa I determined to go. An
attempt on San Sebastian could not enter into the calcul