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CONVERSATIONS WITH A SPANISH LIBERAL,-No. II. 



ROMERO ALPUENTE TORRENO PALAFOX MUNOZ AND THE 

 QUEEN CHRISTINA. 



" BY Santiago the Moor Killer," I exclaimed, on meeting my 

 Spanish friend at the club, and whom I found endeavouring to re- 

 concile the conflicting statements of I,a Gazette de France, and the 

 official organ of the French government, La Journal des Debats " by 

 the patron of Compostella, while I have been killing grouse on the 

 Yorkshire hills, the affairs of Spain have been marching a reculons 

 with a vengeance. Scarce a month has elapsed since our last con- 

 versation, and Europe has beheld her capital a prey to anarchy and 

 confusion. I heard the walls of her Cortes ringing with the declara- 

 tion of a national bankruptcy." 



" The internal state of Spain/' rejoined my companion, " is, I 

 grant you, far from being so flattering as the patriotism of every well 

 wisher of his country could desire. But, nil desperandum." 



" Sub auspice Rodil, or sub auspice Torreno, I suppose you would 

 add," said I, interrupting him. " The former, I candidly confess 

 to you, has greatly disappointed my expectations. In Zumalacarre- 

 guy he has not a Peruvian Gamarra or a La Mar to deal with. The 

 conduct of your doughty general has set at defiance all the calcu- 

 lations < de la same tactique' Why, when it was so obviously his 

 policy to have confined the insurrection to Navarre, he should have 

 allowed the Carlists to have made the Basque provinces the theatre 

 of operations, the territorial configuration of which is not only so fa- 

 vourable for an obstinate guerilla warfare, but, moreover, by its ex- 

 tensive line of coast, will afford them the opportunity of receiving 

 supplies both from this country and Holland, has surprised every 

 one." 



" In spite of all your tactical acumen, Amigo," said the Spaniard, 

 " Don Carlos has not even the shadow of chance in his favour 

 thanks to the difficult nature of the seat of war, he may yet for some 

 time elude the pursuits of the Queen's forces ; but he wants that 

 prestige which enabled Napoleon to advance from Frejus to Paris 

 sans coup ferir to clear the road to Madrid. The arrival of Mina, 

 too, on the soil of his country, will prove a death-blow to what 

 slender hopes he may yet entertain of success. Rodil will not fail to 

 profit by the consummate skill and the personal influence of this old 

 guerilla chief. No one in the world is better acquainted than Mina 

 with the narrow tracts of country to which the operations of the con- 

 tending parties are now confined ; there is not a nook or corner of 

 Navarre, or of the Basque provinces, which he did not turn into an 

 ambuscade during the French occupation. Again, familiar with the 

 tactics of the guerillas, he will defeat their plans almost as soon as 

 they are conceived ; add to this, the notoriety of his name, and the 

 prestige of his well-earned fame upon the population of the insurgent 

 provinces, and depend upon it that Mina's arrival will modify their 

 opinions, and be followed up by the most important results. I 



