114 THE BKIT1SH LEGION IN SPAIN. 



yards apart, and conversations are continually carried on between 

 the picquets. At some of the picquets they are all day firing at 

 each other, and where the ninth regiment is a man is wounded al- 

 most e*very day. The Queen's troops and the Carlists whenever they 

 are near each other never agree. 



"The last time I wrote to you, I said I thought I should return to Eng- 

 land this month. I was then only just recovered from the fever ; but 

 I have now determined to remain to the end of the war, and to see it 

 through. A great many officers of the legion are about to return 

 home, and a great many more intend to do so at the expiration of 

 their first year's service. There is, however, another class of men 

 who return home men who, having been previously dismissed, cir- 

 culate the most gross and abominable falsehoods respecting the le- 

 gion, thinking that, by traducing the service from which they have 

 been expelled, they can lessen the disgrace of their dismissal. I re- 

 gret to hear that attention is paid to the falsehoods of these disap- 

 pointed men, and that their statements usually form the ground- 

 work of the attacks almost daily made upon us by the conservative 

 press. Nothing is so bad as not to contain the elements of some 

 good ; and, if these vilifiers and these writers could but see the laughter 

 which their full, true, and particular accounts excite amongst us, 

 they really, I am inclined to believe, would begrudge us that inno- 

 cent amusement, and be surprised that their handy-work should unin- 

 tentionally create a feeling which in their lighter and more ephe- 

 meral productions they so lamentably fail. 



" Yesterday the news arrived in St. Sebastian that the French le- 

 gion, consisting of three thousand men, was a few days ago defeated 

 by fourteen battalions of the enemy. [The French were first engaged 

 with only eleven battalions, and defeated them ; but, three more com- 

 ing up, they were overwhelmed by numbers. Since writing this,we 

 have heard that the French were beaten in the first day's engage- 

 ment in consequence of the illness of their general, and having no 

 person to lead them ; but, on the second day, he commanded him- 

 self, and gave the Carlists a most infernal licking. The French had 

 three battalions in the field, and the Carlists seven ; and about an 

 equal number on both sides was lost. 



" Before I conclude, it would be ungrateful in me not to bear tri- 

 bute to the hospitality and kindness of the people of St. Sebastian. 

 They behave better to the English than the people of any place at 

 which we have been. On the fifth of May they carried in a great 

 many of the wounded. Women even assisted. They brought linen 

 to dress the wounds, and brandy and wine for the poor fellows to 

 drink." 



" A. R. R." 



