23 



CHAPTEE II. 



A BOAR-HUNT IN THE SIERRA. 



Late one March evening we encamped on the spurs of a 

 great Andalucian sierra. Away in the west, beyond the 

 rolling prairie across which we had been riding all day, 

 the sun was slowly sinking from view, and to the east- 

 Ward the massive pile of San Christoval reflected his 

 gorgeous hues in a soft rosy blush, which mantled its 

 snow-streaked summit. Below in the valley we could 

 discern the little white hermitage of La Aina, once the 

 prison of a British subject, a Mr. Bonnell, who, captured 

 in 1870* near Gibraltar, was carried thither by sequestra- 

 dores, and concealed in this remote spot till the stipulated 

 ransom had been lodged by the Governor of Gibraltar in 

 the consulate at Cadiz : an incident which led to unpleasant 

 correspondence between the British and Spanish Govern- 

 ments, and which was luckily closed by the tragic deaths 

 of all the offenders. 



These miscreants had also formed a plan for an attack 

 upon a private house at Utrera ; but their intentions 

 having become known (through treachery) to the Civil 

 Guards, the latter surrounded the house, and drove the 

 robbers into the patio, where a simultaneous volley ter- 

 minated the careers of the whole crew. For advancing 

 the ransom, £6,000 (which, after various adventures, in- 

 volving more bloodshed, fell finally into the hands of a 



* The sporting incidents here narrated occurred twenty years ago, 

 viz., in March, 1872. This was the atithors' first shooting expedition 

 together : for which reason we place its record in the first chapter. 



