even great kindness, to the wounded and prisoners he took. At last Mina
having ventured out in person with a division of the troops, carried in
a litter because he too ill to sit his horse, was signally beaten by
Zumalacarregui at a place called Siete Fuentes, or the Seven Fountains,
and himself narrowly escaped being taken prisoner. Soon after this
disaster he was deprived of the command, having done nothing whilst he
held it but lose men and forts, and exasperate the Navarrese peasantry
to an unparalleled extent.

An attempt that was made about this time to assassinate Espartero, who
then commanded a moveable column in Biscay, is thus narrated by General
Zaratiegui:--

"The constant passage of Espartero between Bilboa and Orduna, inspired a
peasant, who occupied a farmhouse near Luyando, with the idea of
attempting that general's life. It was said that the man had been robbed
or ill-treated by the soldiers of Espartero's division; but it is quite
as probable that the peasant fancied in his simplicity, that if he could
kill the Christino general, the war and the evils it inflicted on his
country would be at an end. Taking a large tree trunk, he fashioned it
into a sort of cannon, fixed it at a spot where it commanded the
high-road, and loaded it to the very mouth. The next time Espartero
passed that way, the peasant watched his moment, set fire to the fuse of
this singular piece of artillery, and then ran away. The Christino
soldiers hurried to the spot whence the explosion had proceeded, and
found the wooden cannon burst into fifty pieces. It was evidently the
act of an individual; but nevertheless the unlucky village of Luyando,
being the nearest to the scene of the event, was immediately set on
fire. Out of the sixty houses composing it, more than one half were
consumed; and if the others escaped, it was merely because the
Christinos happened to want them at the moment for their own
occupation."

Valdes was the last Christino general opposed to Zumalacarregui. Being
minister of war at the time of Mina's dismissal from the command, he
ordered all the troops that could possibly be spared to march to
Navarre, and himself followed to direct their operations. Upon his
appearance the war assumed a more humane character; and soon afterwards
the arrival of the British commissioner, and his successful
intervention, put an end to the system of reprisals, although after
Zumalacarregui's death it was again more than once res