CONVERSATIONS WITH A SPANISH LIBERAL. 4*79 



ceremony, and this conduct has created a most bitter retaliation. 

 This species of atrocity on either side nothing can defend ; to what 

 extent this spirit is carried the following instance will shew : At the 

 battle of Los Campos de Larion, Zumalacarreguy defeated a division 

 of Rodil's army under the command of General Carandolet. Among 

 the prisoners taken by the Carlists were the Conde de Villa Manuel, 

 a grandee of Spain, and several officers of rank. Zumalacarreguy, 

 who has not the reputation of being a blood-thirsty ruffian, imme- 

 diately despatched a courier to Rodil, informing him of these noble- 

 men and officers being in his custody, and offering to exchange them 

 for several officers of his own who had been taken previously in 

 Biscay and Guipuscoa. In the meantime the prisoners shared the 

 table of their captor, and were treated with all the respect due to 

 their rank. In two days the courier returned, and found the general 

 seated with his prisoners at his mess over a puchero. Rodil's letter 

 was instantly opened, and contained the following laconic reply 

 ( The officers you require I have already shot I ' The fate of the un- 

 fortunate nobleman and his officers is soon told. ' Gentlemen,' said 

 Zumalacarreguy, throwing the letter to them, ' I am sorry it is so, 

 but there is no alternative. Blood for blood ! Send for the con- 

 fessor ; for you have but a few minutes to live !' And, in effect, they 

 were dragged from the very table at which they had been seated 

 together, and shot in the court-yard ! 



" Another act of butchery was perpetrated at Bilboa. The people 

 of the town expected the United Kingdom to arrive laden with arms 

 and ammunition for the troops of Don Carlos, when the Spanish fri- 

 gate, the Pearl, standing towards the harbour, being mistaken for the 

 vessel in question, five boats, containing ninety-five individuals, im- 

 mediately put off to welcome her. They were trepanned on board, 

 and every soul put to death in cold blood ! Among the sufferers 

 were General Arana, a very brave officer, and the companion in arms 

 of General Rodil in Peru, and one of its latest defenders, many gen- 

 tlemen of distinction, a priest, and the major-domo of the Marquis of 

 Valdepenas. 



" This ferocious system of warfare lias now been carried on up- 

 wards of twelve months, and there is scarcely a Basque family in the 

 four provinces that has not to mourn the loss of a child or a parent 

 thus savagely slaughtered. The consequence is that the people of 

 these provinces, the most generous and gentle in all Spain, seem to 

 have changed their nature; they have become ferocious, and seek 

 revenge against the Castilians and Andalusians with the blood-thirsty 

 spirit of banditti. Many years must elapse ere the vindictive feelings 

 aroused by this civil war will subside ; and the consciousness of crime, 

 the stain of innocent blood, must cling to those who have provoked 

 and abetted this hopeless and wicked contest." 



