for years there was a bitter struggle in Spain, the
strength of the Carlists being in the Basque provinces and Spanish
Navarre,--a land of mountaineers, loyal in nature and conservative by
habit.

The dynasty of the pretender has had three successive claimants to the
throne. The first Don Carlos abdicated in 1844, and was succeeded by Don
Carlos the Second, his son. He died in 1861, and his cousin, Don Carlos
the Third, succeeded to the claim, and renewed the struggle for the crown.
It was this third of the name that threatened to renew the insurrection
during the Spanish-American war of 1898.

This explanation is necessary to make clear what is known by Carlism in
Spain. Many as have been the Carlist insurrections, they have had but one
leader of ability, one man capable of bringing them success. This was the
famous Basque chieftain Zumalacarregui, the renowned "Uncle Tomas" of the
Carlists, whose brilliant career alone breaks the dull monotony of Spanish
history in the nineteenth century, and who would in all probability have
placed Don Carlos on the throne but for his death from a mortal wound in
1835. Since then Carlism has struggled on with little hope of success.

Navarre, the chief seat of the insurrection, borders on the chain of the
Pyrenees, and is a wild confusion of mountains and hills, where the
traveller is confused in a labyrinth of long and narrow valleys, deep
glens, and rugged rocks and cliffs. The mountains are highest in the
north, but nowhere can horsemen proceed the day through without
dismounting, and in many localities even foot travel is very difficult. In
passing from village to village long and winding roads must be traversed,
the short cuts across the mountains being such as only a goat or a
Navarrese can tread.

Regular troops, in traversing this rugged country, are exhausted by the
shortest marches, while the people of the region go straight through wood
and ravine, plunging into the thick forests and following narrow paths,
through which pursuit is impossible, and where an invading force does not
dare to send out detachments for fear of having them cut off by a sudden
guerilla attack. It was here and in the Basque provinces to the west, with
their population of hardy and daring mountaineers, that the troops of
Napoleon found themselves most annoyed by the bold guerilla chiefs, and
here the Carlist forces long defied the armies of the crown.

Tomas Zumalacarregui, the "modern Cid," as h