ater seven or eight Spaniards, two of them mounted, fired upon
us from behind a bush. We were none of us wounded, and my two hussars
replied to the fire, and killed each his man. Then, drawing their
swords, they dashed at the rest. I should have been very glad to follow
them, but my horse had lost a shoe among the stones and was limping, so
that I could not get him into a gallop. I was the more vexed because I
feared that the hussars might let themselves be carried away in the
pursuit and get killed in some ambush. I called them for five minutes;
then I heard the voice of one of them saying, in a strong Alsatian
accent, 'Ah! you thieves! you don't know the Chamborant Hussars yet. You
shall see that they mean business.' My troopers had knocked over two
more Spaniards, a Capuchin mounted on the horse of the poor lieutenant,
whose haversack he had put over his own neck, and a peasant on a mule,
with the clothes of the slaughtered soldiers on his back. It was quite
clear that we had got the murderers. The Emperor had given strict orders
that every Spanish civilian taken in arms should be shot on the spot;
and, moreover, what could we do with these two brigands, who were
already seriously wounded, and who had just killed three Frenchmen so
barbarously? I moved on, therefore, so as not to witness the execution,
and the hussars shot the monk and the peasant, repeating, 'Ah, you don't
know the Chamborant!' I could not understand how an officer and two
privates of Ney's corps could be so near Taragona when their regiments
had not come that way; but most probably they had been captured
elsewhere, and were being taken to Saragossa, when their escort learned
the defeat of their countrymen at Tudela, and massacred their prisoners
in revenge for it.

After this not very encouraging start I continued my journey. We had
gone for some hours, when we saw a bivouac fire of the detachment
belonging to the advance guard which I had left at Taragona. The
sub-lieutenant in command, having no tidings of Ney, was prepared to
return to Taragona at daybreak, in pursuance of his orders. He knew that
we were barely two leagues from Agreda, but did not know of which side
that town was in possession. This was perplexing for me. The infantry
detachment would return in a few hours, and if I went back with it, when
it might be that in another league I should fall in with Ney's column, I
should be giving a poor display of courage, and laying myself open t