at last with the detained mails of a
week. The machine was horsed in the usual manner--that is, with three
mules and two nags--but how different from usual was the way-bill! With
the exception of the driver and his aide, a youngster who jumped down
from the box every hundred yards, and belaboured the beasts with a
wattle, there was not one passenger fit to carry arms. We had a load of
women and babies, a decrepit patriarch, and two boys under the fighting
age. We halted at Renteria, harnessed a fresh team to our conveniency,
and sent on a messenger to ascertain if the Carlists had been seen on
the road. Everybody in Renteria carried a musket. All the approaches
were defended by loopholed works, roofed with turf, and a perfect
fortress was constructed in the centre of the town by a series of
communications which had been established between the church and a block
of houses in front by _caponnieres_. The church windows were built up
and loopholed, and a semicircular _tambour_, banked with earth to
protect it from artillery, was thrown up against the houses in the
middle of the street, so as to enfilade it at either side in case of
attack. There were troops of the line in Renteria, but no artillerymen,
nor was there artillery to be served. Without artillery, however, the
place, if properly provisioned, could not be taken, if the defending
force was worth its salt.

The messenger having returned with word that all was right, we went
ahead at a fearful pace on a very good road, lined with poplars, and
running through a neat park-like country. Over to the right we could see
the church-spire of Oyarzun, and the smoke curling from the chimneys; a
little farther on we passed the debris of a diligence on the wayside;
the telegraph wires along the route were broken down, and the poles
taken away for firewood; we dived under a railway bridge, but never a
Carlist saw we during the continuous brief mad progress over the eight
miles from Renteria to the rise into Irun.

We clattered up to the rail way-station at a hand-gallop, the people
rushing to the doors of the houses, and beaming welcome from smiling
countenances. There was a faint attempt to cheer us. At the station a
number of officials, a couple of Carabineros, and a knot of idlers were
gathered. The driver descended with the gait of a conquering hero, and
turned his glances in the direction of a cottage close by. An old man on
crutches, a blooming matron with rosary beads at