res were thickly strewn
around the people's footsteps; murder lurked beneath the wreath of
festivity, and the day which began in prayer, concluded with mourning."

During the three days' rejoicings on occasion of the Queen's majority,
scenes of this sort occurred. "They invited us to a ball," said the people
in the true Madrileno spirit--"they invited us to a ball, and we had to
assist at a funeral." The object sought to be obtained by such barbarous
means, was the intimidation of the populace, and the deterring of
revolutionists and progresistas. The suppression of the national guard
produced another _alboroto_, or disturbance. A crowd assembled, and moved
through the streets, giving _vivas_ for the constitutional Queen, and
_mueras_ for the ministers and the traitors. Narvaez asked no better
chance than this. Out turned the palace guard, composed of strong bodies
of infantry and cavalry, and, without a moment's delay, charged the mob,
which, although principally composed of national guardsmen, was unarmed,
save with a few bayonets and knives. In all the adjacent streets, people
were running for their lives; and the congregations, which were then just
leaving mass--for this occurred on a Sabbath morning--recoiled for safety
into the churches.

As a politician, Narvaez is unquestionably an obstinate and unscrupulous
dunce, who feels his incompetency to rule by any means but the sword, and
has substituted a tyrannical dictatorship supported by bayonets, for the
legal and constitutional government of Spain. In a military point of view
he is more respectable, although even as a general his exploits have been
few and little heard of. In his brief campaign against the Esparterists,
he had no opportunity of showing more than activity and daring; since at
the very moment when he was on the point of measuring strength and
generalship with Seoane and Zurbano at Torrejon de Ardos, the troops under
those two leaders came over to him. During the War of Succession, he gave
proof of some skill as an organizer of armies of reserve, and even fought
a gallant and successful battle with Gomez at Majaceite in Andalusia, in
which, if one might believe the lying Spanish bulletins, he nearly swept
the Carlists from the face of the earth. There is no doubt he mauled them
a little; but neither that nor the various other decisive overthrows
recorded by gazettes, prevented Gomez from returning to the Basque
provinces with a considerable force at