f THE BRfTISH LEGION IN SPAIN. 113 



we eould see the picquets of the fourth regiment running in as fast as 

 possible. We were then ordered to the left ; and when we came up 

 we found that the fourth regiment had been driven back. We imme- 

 diately advanced up a lane, and when we had gone about two hun- 

 dred yards up it the fire was tremendous. We had three fires upon 

 us at once, for the Carlists were on both sides of the lane, and in 

 front. We drove them back in front with the bayonet, and we re- 

 took the houses from which the fourth had been driven. During a 

 part of the action, my company took possession of ahouse in advance, 

 and the regiment retired two or three hundred yards in the rear of it. 

 Theenemy,seeingthis, immediately advanced and surrounded the house; 

 but they received such a warm fire from us that they thought proper 

 to retire. We then vacated the house, and advanced still further. A 

 reinforcement of men having arrived, we soon cleared in double- 

 quick time four or five orchards of the enemy. It was now our turn 

 to retire, in consequence of two or three additional Carlist battalions 

 coming up ; and we again took possession of the house in which we be- 

 fore were. It was now about two o'clock. The sixth regiment came up 

 to our support,andmade acharge, but went too far, and they were nearly 

 cut off, but this we prevented by supporting them in time. We then lay 

 down in an orchard, in skirmishing order, for about two hours. This 

 was the most unpleasant part of the engagement, for the balls came 

 every moment within an inch of our heads, and we could not see 

 what was doing in advance. Whilst laying here, a corporal, close to 

 me, was shot in the neck, and when we were advancing up the lane, 

 the balls absolutely came in showers. The trees were cracking and 

 breaking on all sides, and the men were dropping as fast as possible. 

 Captain Erskine, of my company, had the skin taken off the tip of 

 his nose by a ball, and the scabbard of his sword broken in half. He 

 is the nephew of the earl of Marr, and is one of the best natured and 

 most gentlemanly men in the regiment. A ball slightly grazed my 

 thumb, and made it bleed a good deal, but nothing more. The ac- 

 tion lasted until four o'clock. We had two lieutenants of the eighth 

 wounded, nine men killed in the field> and between fifty and sixty 

 wounded, several of whom have since died. Three or four days af- 

 terwards the enemy made an attack upon the marines at Passages, 

 but they were driven back, and had a general killed. This affair 

 only lasted about an hour. In the action of the 6th of June the Car- 

 lists lost about eight hundred men, and the Queen's troops between 

 two and three hundred. 



" Lord John Hay has just this moment been speaking to the Car- 

 lists with a twenty-four pounder ; and it must have had some weight 

 with them, for the Chapelgorries have given three cheers. It is re- 

 ported here, and generally believed, that Eguia has given up the 

 command of the Carlists. Our officers very often meet the Carlist 

 officers half way between the picquets, and they smoke and drink to- 

 gether. General Evans the other day issued a general order against 

 it, and two officers of the sixth regiment are to be tried by a court 

 martial for having disobeyed it. I went the other day to a picquet- 

 house, where a company of the sixth is stationed, for the purpose of 

 having a view of the Carlists. The two picquet-houses are not thirty 



