MAEQUINEZ AND LA COLLEGIALA. 169 



About dusk, on a stormy evening, Marquinez, 

 attended by an aide-de-camp, was returning to his 

 quarters, after having visited several of the canton- 

 ments. On arriving at the part of the road described 

 above, he found his further progress impeded by a 

 tree which had fallen across the narrow way in such 

 a manner that its branches, covered with dead leaves 

 and matted with ivy, formed a sort of hedge too high 

 for the horses to leap, and too strong for them to 

 break through. The two horsemen dismounted, and 

 began to open themselves a passage by lopping the 

 boughs with their sabres, when their arms were 

 suddenly seized from behind, and before they could 

 turn their heads they were surrounded by a dozen 

 dismounted dragoons, whose numbers quickly over- 

 coming all resistance, the Spaniards were thrown 

 down and pinioned. A troop of French cavalry 

 emerged from the wood, the men who had effected 

 the capture remounted, and Marquinez and his aide- 

 de-camp, being bound to their saddles and placed 

 between four dragoons, with their carabines unslung 

 and ready for action, the whole party started off at a 

 sharp trot in the direction of Yalladolid. The only 

 witness of the affair was a peasant belonging to the 

 village in which Marquinez had his quarters, and who 

 was about a hundred yards behind that chief at the 

 moment he dismounted. His first movement, when 

 he saw the French, was to throw himself on the 

 ground behind some bushes, and as soon as the last 



