178 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



whom Marquinez overtook a few hundred yards 

 further, in a wide part of the road. The officer in 

 command had slackened his pace when he heard other 

 cavalry approaching, thinking it might probably bring 

 some order ; but not for a moment supposing that an 

 enemy had got between him and the headquarters 

 he had so recently left. He was awakened from his 

 security by the voice of Marquinez. "A ellos/" 

 shouted the guerilla, and his men rushed, sabre in 

 hand, upon the French, who, taken by surprise, were 

 thrown one upon the other, and a dozen of them cut 

 off their horses before they had made the slightest 

 resistance. A panic seized the remainder, who, being 

 prevented by the darkness from distinguishing the 

 number of their opponents, imagined themselves be- 

 trayed, and surrounded by a very superior force. The 

 greater part leaped their horses over the hedges and 

 low stone walls on either side of the road, and fled in 

 every direction. Some few threw down their arms 

 and begged for quarter ; but the guerillas were not in 

 a merciful mood, and prisoners would have been an 

 encumbrance on the long march they had before them. 

 The pursued became in their turn the pursuers, and 

 Marquinez had to exert his authority to prevent his 

 soldiers from dispersing in chase of the runaways 

 a chase that would probably have led some of them 

 into the middle of the French infantry. 



Marquinez reached his cantonments at daybreak, 

 and at the same hour the French commenced their 



