t. Ladron was taken and
shot, and Lorenzo marched to form the advanced guard of a strong
division which, under the command of Sarsfield, was rapidly nearing
the scene of the insurrection. On the mere approach of the Christino
army, the battalions of Castilian Realistas, which formed, numerically
speaking, an important part of the forces then under arms for Don
Carlos, disbanded themselves and fled to their homes. Sarsfield
continued his movement northwards, took possession, after trifling
resistance, of Logrono, Vittoria, Bilboa, and other towns occupied by
the Carlists; and, after a few insignificant skirmishes, succeeded in
dispersing and disarming the whole of the insurgents in the three
Basque provinces. A handful of badly armed and undisciplined Navarrese
peasants were all that now kept the field for Charles V., and of the
rapid capture or destruction of these, the sanguine Christinos
entertained no doubt. The principal strength of the Carlists was
broken; their arms were taken away; the majority of the officers who
had joined, and of the men of note and influence in the country who
had declared for them, had been compelled to cross the Pyrenees. But
the tenacious courage and hardihood of the Navarrese insurgents, and
the military skill of the man who commanded them, baffled the
unceasing pursuit kept up by the Queen's generals. During the whole of
the winter the Carlists lived like wolves in the mountains, surrounded
by ice and snow, cheerfully supporting the most incredible hardships
and privations. Nay, even under such disadvantageous circumstances,
their numbers increased, and their discipline improved; and when the
spring came they presented the appearance, not of a band of robbers,
as their opponents had hitherto designated them, but of a body of
regular troops, hardy and well organized, devoted to their general,
and enthusiastic for the cause they defended. Their rapid movements,
their bravery and success in several well-contested skirmishes, some
of which almost deserved the name of regular actions, the surprise of
various Christino posts and convoys, the consistency, in short, which
the war was taking, began seriously to alarm the Queen's government;
and the formidable preparations made by the latter for a campaign
against the Carlists, were a tacit acknowledgment that Spain was in a
state of civil war.

In the wild and beautiful valley of the Lower Amezcoa, in the
_merindad_ or district of Estella, a lar