MARQUINEZ AND LA COLLEGIALA. 167 



a name given to her from the circumstance of her 

 youth having been spent in a college, which exists at 

 Valladolid for the education of the female children 

 of noble families. She had already been engaged in 

 several skirmishes, and had displayed a degree of 

 courage which had gained for her the rank of an 

 officer, and the respect and admiration of the hardy 

 soldiers amongst whom she lived, when an opportunity 

 occurred of proving her devotion and attachment to 

 the man for whom she had sacrificed her fair fame 

 and her domestic ties. 



It Avas in the early part of the month of March. A 

 succession of heavy rains had nearly suspended all 

 military operations in the plains of Valladolid and 

 Palencia. Marquinez's hussars, at this time nearly 

 two thousand in number, were in cantonments in 

 some small villages a few leagues to the right of 

 the highroad from Burgos to Valladolid, and were 

 awaiting the return of fine weather to recommence 

 the campaign. The activity and intrepidity of their 

 leader had caused him to become a formidable 

 opponent to the French generals, who were anxious 

 to rid themselves of nearly the only chief who 

 ventured to attack them on equal terms in the 

 plain, and frequently came off the conqueror. For 

 Marquinez, disdaining the more cautious system of 

 mountain warfare adopted by other guerilla leaders, 

 had not raised any infantry, but kept the open 

 country with his light cavalry. Several of the 



