POLITICAL TROUBLES. 490 



pell-mell. I quote now from the bulletin mentioned, omitting such portions aa do not specially 

 interest the general reader. It was near 10 o'clock. 



Th.- insurgents nunilH-rrd throe hundred and fifty men of the Valdivia regiment, twenty- 

 three of the Ohucabuco, about thirty firemen, and some reckless young men and rabble to the 

 number of four hundred more. Urriola demanded the surrender of the artillery, stating that 

 the whole of the troops were under his control ; but was answered by Col. Maturana that he 

 should only deliver it to the government. When the former approached the cuartel with so 

 large a force, there were only thirty men within it under the command of the gallant Matu- 

 rana; and on the instant a desperate conflict must have commenced, had not the Chacabuco 

 regiment appeared on two separate points of Santa Lucia. These diverting the attention of 

 the enemy, saved Col. Maturana, and the handful of brave men he commanded, the necessity of 

 displaying their courage and devotion in vain. A part of the force of the besiegers moved 

 to dislodge Lieut. Col. Videla (of the Chacabucos); but he, passing along the hill, descended by 

 the south fort, and succeeded in entering the cuartel door before they could re-occupy their 

 position in the Canada. With this reinforcement, arrived at a moment so decisive, the defence 

 could count a hundred men ; and the two chiefs, agreeing to spare the effusion of blood to the 

 last extremity, kept the doors and windows closed and withheld their fire. The delay embold- 

 ened the attacking party, who having taken their chosen positions, detached a body of rabble 

 to assault the doors and windows with stones. These they also threw upon the roof, and in a 

 very little time there were apertures in the walls beside the principal door, as well as below 

 that in Calle Recojidas. Balls penetrated the shutters on the two streets, and soon the position 

 within was as unsafe as without the cuartel. Things having reached this extreme, a piece of 

 artillery was dragged into the street, and a dreadful fire of cannon and small-arms ensued, 

 alarming the whole city. In the midst of it Col. Garcia appeared in Calle de las Augustinas 

 with about 400 of the National Guards in close columns. Col. Urriola was not discouraged by 

 the arrival of a reinforcement that made his adversaries in number equal, and in power by 

 reason of their artillery superior to his own, but despatched a strong division of the Valdivias 

 to follow in their rear ; and the National Guards soon found themselves between two fires, in a 

 street only 23 feet wide. The destruction of life was terrible. The commandant of battalion 

 No. 1, Don Ignacio Ortuzar, Maj. Navarro, serving as volunteer aid to Col. Garcia, and Lieut. 

 Hurtado, together with Captains Castro, Aspillaga, Soto, and Lieut. Torres of No. 2, fell 

 wounded. Hurtado died in a few minutes, and Navarro last night; indeed the street was cov- 

 ered with bodies of the wounded. 



" A moment of frightful confusion succeeded the surprise of this attack, more impressive on the 

 National Guards, no matter how intrepid or what disposition they possess. As the commandant 

 of the gun placed in that street required that his front should be opened, the civic troops 

 entered the cuartel by the door of Calle Recojidas, which was the object Col. Garcia had in view. 



"Col. Urriola continued pouring a galling fire on the National Guards on the very mass in 

 whose name he pretended to have taken up arms ; but Divine justice willed that the transgres- 

 sion should be punished by those against whose laws he had rebelled. A ball reached him and 

 he fell from his horse, saying, in accents of indignation, l Me han enganado' (They have 

 deceived me). He had asserted that there would be no resistance, that it would be but a mili- 

 tary show, that the legitimate executors of the laws had sold themselves, and that the National 

 Guards were on his side. The unfortunate man fell at a short distance from the bodies of the 

 very National Guards whom he had sacrificed. 



"The division of the Valdivias abandoned its position and returned to incorporate itself with 

 the main body in the Canada. Col. Arteaga the second in command of the insurgents 

 mounted behind a servant and escaped to the house of the North American envoy, where he 

 still finds asylum. Then began one of the bloodiest combats of armies ever noted. The insur- 

 gents succeeded in placing a ladder against the corner of the cuartel, and, by means of shirts 

 dipped in turpentine, twice set fire to the eaves, though at the loss of two men. The magni- 



