182 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



and they predicted that many days would not elapse 

 ere La Collegiala would return to the Spanish lines 

 with the blood of Marquinez's assassin on her knife- 

 blade. If this supposition was the correct one, if 

 such was the motive which induced her to abandon 

 the cause of her country, she was unable to accom- 

 plish her design ; for, a few days after her desertion, 

 the order came from ISTapoleon to send back to France 

 all the foreign troops in the French service for the 

 purpose of their being disbanded. Italians, Poles, 

 and Germans were all sent across the frontier, and 

 with them marched the murderer of Marquinez. 



La Collegiala continued with the French, and 

 commanded, with the rank of captain, a band of 

 about a hundred irregular cavalry, composed of the 

 men who had deserted with her, and of others who 

 subsequently came over. On the evacuation of Spain 

 by the French troops, which occurred soon afterwards, 

 she accompanied them, and remained in France till 

 an amnesty was published, of which she took advan- 

 tage and returned to her own country. Bidding 

 adieu to her masculine dress and habits, she became 

 exceedingly devout, and gave up the whole of her 

 time to religious exercises and the education of her 

 children a more praiseworthy than poetical termin- 

 ation to the career of the adventurous amazon who 

 had shared the hardships and perils of Marquinez 

 the guerilla. 



