e Christino commanders in concerting
a combined movement upon the Carlist lines in Guipuscoa. An attack was
made upon them by General Evans on the 15th of March. His forces were
collected at Loyola, the right of the line being composed of Spaniards,
and the left of the British legion, which amounted to between four and
five thousand men. The attack was at first successful: the Carlists,
having maintained a furious fire, after a five hours' conflict abandoned
their last defence, and fell back to Hernani. On the following day,
however, matters took a different turn: while the victorious troops were
preparing to descend upon Hernani, on a sudden solid masses of infantry
appeared behind the town, under the command of Don Sebastian. These
troops consisted of ten fresh battalions; and their charge was so
impetuous, that the British legion and the Spanish troops were obliged
to give way. From this time the army of Don Carlos gained courage, and
province after province was invaded by his guerilla chiefs. Still no
decisive event favoured his design upon the Spanish throne. In one grand
point he, however, succeeded, that of annihilating or dispersing the
British legion. Unsupported by the people for whom they fought, many
of them were slain in various engagements of desultory warfare; and
at length those who remained laid clown their arms, and the British
auxiliary legion ceased to exist. Before this event General Evans had
returned to England, disheartened by the want of co-operation in the
Spanish generals. But the year closed, and the Carlists and Christinos
were still arrayed in arms against each other. People of the same nation
and the same blood were seeking each other's destruction with a deadly
animosity.

In Portugal, also, there were strifes and divisions, and rumours of
intended insurrections. In that country, moreover, the British who had
defended the cause of the queen were ill treated. The unpopularity of
the English increased daily, and the ambition and selfishness of Great
Britain were the constant themes of the popular press. So odious
were our countrymen that the English admiral in the Tagus thought it
necessary to issue the following general order to his captains:--"The
unsettled state of the country, and the differences known lately to have
existed between her most faithful majesty and her present ministers,
as well as the difficult position in which his royal highness Prince
Ferdinand is placed with regard to