ing to the ground, ran off down a neighbouring
lane, round the corner of which he fancied, on first reaching the
window, that he saw the skirt of a man's coat disappear. Leaving the
Count, who was now regaining consciousness, in charge of Paco, Torres
hurried out to give the alarm and cause an immediate pursuit.

But in vain, during the whole of that day, was the most diligent search
made throughout the town for the fugitive Carlist. Every place where he
was likely to conceal himself, the taverns and lower class of posadas,
the parts of the town inhabited by doubtful and disreputable characters,
the houses of several suspected Carlists, were in turn visited, but not
a trace of Baltasar could be found, and the night came without any
better success. Herrera was furious, and bitterly reproached himself for
his imprudence in leaving the prisoner alone even for a moment. His
chief hope, a very faint one, now was, that Baltasar would be detected
when endeavouring to leave the town. Strict orders were given to the
sentries at the gates, to observe all persons going out of Pampeluna,
and to stop any of suspicious appearance, or who could not give a
satisfactory account of themselves.

The hour of noon, upon the day subsequent to Baltasar's disappearance,
was near at hand, and the peasants who daily visited Pampeluna with the
produce of their farms and orchards, were already preparing to depart.
The presence of Cordova's army, promising them a great accession of
custom, and the temporary absence from the immediate vicinity of the
Carlist troops, who frequently prevented their visiting Christino towns
with their merchandise, had caused an unusual concourse of
country-people to Pampeluna during the few days that the Christino army
had already been quartered there. Each morning, scarcely were the gates
opened when parties of peasants, and still more numerous ones of
short-petticoated, brown-legged peasant women, entered the town, and
pausing upon the market-place, proceeded to arrange the stores of fowls,
fruit, vegetables, and similar rustic produce, which they had brought on
mules and donkeys, or in large heavy baskets upon their heads. Long
before the sun had attained a sufficient height to cast its beams into
the broad cool-looking square upon which the market was held, a
multitude of stalls had been erected, and were covered with luscious
fruits and other choice products of the fertile soil of Navarre. Piles
of figs bursting