168 TKAVEL, ADVENTUEE, AND SPORT. 



French movable columns had been roughly handled 

 by him, and their dragoons sabred and put to the 

 route by vigorous charges headed by the intrepid 

 guerilla. 



During the few weeks that Marquinez was com- 

 pelled to remain inactive, the French caused his 

 position to be reconnoitred by their spies, and de- 

 vised a plan for seizing his person. The villages and 

 hamlets in which the cavalry were quartered were 

 spread over a considerable extent of country. So 

 large a number of horses would hardly have found 

 sufficient forage or stabling had they been all concen- 

 trated on one point ; and as the roads were cut up 

 and the fields sodden by the rain, there was no appre- 

 hension entertained of any rapid march or surprise on 

 the part of the French, who had their advanced posts 

 in the neighbourhood of Valladolid. Two of the 

 numerous villages occupied by the hussars were nearly 

 a league in advance of the others, and placed on either 

 skirt of a large oak wood. The road from the one to 

 the other of these cantonments described a curve 

 round the front of the wood, and at a central point 

 was crossed by a track which, in one direction, led in 

 amongst the trees, and in the other joined at a distance 

 of a mile or two a country road leading to Valladolid. 

 It was at this spot that it was proposed to surprise 

 Marquinez, who, with the Collegiala and a hundred 

 horse, had taken up his quarters in the village on the 

 right of the wood. 



