to its final resting-place in accordance with the rites of the Roman Catholic church, of which he had been a member.

In the course of conversation subsequently, Diez informed his guest that he had made a solemn vow of dire vengeance to be inflicted on the head of the deceased, in consequence of the affair already described as having occurred at the venta. Chance, however, had never thrown in his way an opportunity for its fulfilment. The Frenchman had, since that period, been occupied with duties which detained him principally at head-quarters; and even when detached, the guerilla chief had ample employment to engage his attention, and demand his resources, elsewhere; and thus they had never met since the eventful day first described, until, amid a heap of slain on the field of Salamanca, the Empecinado recognised in the bloody corpse before him the once martial figure, and still stern features, of his former foe. do I now regret," said he, "that it has not happened otherwise. Falling as he did, he has died like a brave and gallant man—& fate from which no soldier shrinks-whilst his death has released me from my vow, and fully balanced the account between us. And for your sake, therefore, young man, notwithstanding that he deprived me of two of my most faithful followers, and sought my own life, I rejoice that it has terminated so; for had it been otherwise, I could scarcely have expected the son to grasp friendship the hand which had shed his father's blood."

"Nor

in

For a period of three weeks, during which Captain Dubois remained at the farm-house, he continued to experience the unremitting attentions which his state required-attentions springing from no motive of sordid interest, and characterised by a delicacy and considerateness which excited his astonishment, as proceeding from the untutored peasants, who were its permanent inhabitants. The guerilla leader spent much of his time in his company; and during the periods of his occasional absence -occasions on which, in all probability, he was employed in operations against the French troops; but of which fact, with judicious forbearance, he omitted all mention to Dubois—a guard of three or four of his most stanch and trusty adherents was constantly maintained to watch over the safety of his protégé. In the course of the intimacy which such a state of things naturally produced, the Frenchman had casually expressed a desire to be made acquainted with the facts of some of the many stirring adventures in which the other had been engaged, and the "hairbreadth escapes" he had experienced, the reports of which had frequently reached his ears through the medium of his military friends. These reports, though distorted no doubt in many their particulars, were yet sufficiently invested with the wild and wondrous characteristics of romance to interest the feelings and most powerfully stimulate the curiosity of his youthful and imaginative mind, especially when he remembered that he had himself been in personal contact with the daring partisan. The

of

latter, on his part, exhibited little reluctance to comply with his request; for though, notwithstanding all his dash and gallantry, the Empecinado was really and essentially a modest man, never disposed to dwell ostentatiously on his own exploits, and wholly free from that tendency to braggadocio which attaches so largely to the character of his countrymen in general, it required little of his usual penetration to discover that the inquirer felt a real interest in the events of his career, and would derive a high degree of gratification from his compliance. Dubois having particularly referred to a case in which an officer of his acquaintance, who had been despatched with a party to arrest the guerilla some two years previously, had subsequently been tried by court-martial, and broken for misconduct and failure in the enterprise, the Empecinado immediately proceeded to meet his wishes, by relating as follows the real circumstances of the affair: -

In the northern extremity of Old Castile, and at a distance of some eight or ten leagues from the city of Burgos, was a mountain of peculiar form, which rose from the plain by a gentle and gradual ascent on all sides save the south. In that direction it terminated abruptly in a sheer precipice of six hundred feet in depth, smooth and perpendicular as a wall, presenting, from the base to the summit, a gaunt and grim sterility of barren rock, and without a solitary twig to intercept the course or break the fall of any object thrown from above. Projecting from the top of the cliff into mid air, at about the central point between the two extremities, at which the broad platform of the summit of the mountain commenced gradually to slope downwards towards the east and west, was a portion of the rock which, had it been surrounded with water instead of empty space, would have been called a peninsula on a diminutive scale. It was about six feet in diameter at top, and nearly the same extent in depth, and connected with the main cliff by an isthmus, so to speak, of the same material, of rather more than three feet in length, by perhaps eighteen inches in breadth, and of a depth which had originally been equal to that of the peninsular rock it supported, but which, either by the hand of man, or by some strange convulsion of nature, had been deprived of fully two-thirds of its substance from the upper surface downwards. To one standing a few yards from the edge of the cliff, therefore, the outer and larger portion of the rock-generally called by the inhabitants of the adjacent district "the Devil's Crag "-presented the appearance of a mass of matter self-suspended in space, or supported by some invisible agency, as it was only on a nearer approach to the brink of the frightful gulf that gaped below than would prove agreeable to the nerves of most persons, professional chamois hunters excepted, that the connecting fragment was revealed, from the fact that its upper surface, as already stated, was fully four feet below the level of the adjoining cliff at

both ends. But it was necessary to proceed some distance, either east or west, along the top of the cliff, in order to appreciate aright the apparent frailty of the connecting link, and its seeming disproportion to the comparatively vast weight of solid rock which it sustained, as it was from such a point of view only that the limited depth of the mass became apparent. Then, indeed, especially if viewed from a point somewhat lower than itself, when it would stand out in bold relief against the bright southern sky, it presented an aspect striking and impressive even to sublimity; seeming as if the gentlest sighing of a zephyr would sweep it at once from its precarious position, and forcing on the spectator the belief that any object one atom weightier than thistle-down alighting on the surface of the Devil's Crag, must inevitably bring the whole huge mass crashing into the abyss, which apparently yawned for its reception beneath. And yet its frailty existed much more in appearance than in reality. The hurricanes of a hundred winters had careered around that lone and stern crag, and it had scowled unmoved upon them all: within the memory of man it had undergone no`change; and more than once or twice had the youthful mountaineers who dwelt in the neighbourhood dared to test the truth of the superstitious legend, which told that he who should venture on the eve of All-Hallows along the narrow isthmus, and standing erect on the flat surface of the Devil's Crag, repeat towards each quarter of the compass the formula prescribed, should be permitted to behold the features of the maiden whom fate had destined to be his partner through life.

It is necessary further to state, that in every other quarter the sides of the mountain were clothed with olive and other trees, from the plain below to within a short distance of the summit, leaving merely at the top a clear open platform, of about two acres in extent, bounded on the southern side by the precipice alluded to above.

On a certain bright forenoon, in the spring of 1810, the Empecinado was seated on this platform, within a few feet of the edge of the cliff, and immediately opposite the Devil's Crag, intently scrutinising, with the aid of a telescope, a road which wound among the hills, and swept the base of the mountain on which he had taken his station, and every object on which, to the distance of a couple of leagues, was visible from the spot he occupied. He had received intelligence, through the medium of his spies, that a valuable convoy of treasure and arms for the supply of the French troops would pass on that day, for an attack on which he conceived the guerilla force then under his command sufficiently strong, and had made his dispositions accordingly. He had his followers placed in a convenient situation, and, accompanied by a single individual, ascended the mountain, to watch for the approach of the anticipated prize. But treachery had been at work. The principal fault in the military character

of Diez was a tendency to rash and reckless hardihood, and a reliance so unbounded on his personal resources in emergency, as to lead him habitually to disregard all those precautions which prudence would have suggested, and the adoption of which would have implied no imputation whatever on his courage. Accordingly, on this occasion, as on many others, never conceiving the possibility of a traitor being found among his band, he had made no secret of the nature of his arrangements; and for some days previously, it had been generally known by the men composing it that it was his intention to be on the look-out from the summit of the hill at an early hour in the morning, they having received instructions to repair to the appointed place of rendezvous, and there await his coming, which would be immediately after he had discovered the approach of the convoy. Among the number, however, was one who had already accepted French gold, and who, stimulated by the price which the commander of the imperial troops had offered for the capture or destruction of Diez, had for months previously been watching for an opportunity to betray his unsuspecting leader to a felon's death. That opportunity seemed at length within his grasp. He managed, without incurring suspicion, to put himself in communication with the French authorities; and some hours before sunrise, a company of soldiers, which the traitor conducted by secluded by-paths to the spot, was placed in concealment in a thickly-wooded hollow at the foot of the mountain, in an opposite quarter to that by which Diez was expected to arrive, thereby avoiding all risk of his discovering them before he should be completely in their toils. The faithless caitiff, who had thus sold his gallant and confiding chief, then departed to take up his position at a spot which commanded a view of the course which the apparently doomed guerilla must adopt in his ascent. The forenoon was already considerably advanced, when he again appeared with the intelligence that the Empecinado, accompanied by a single individual, had passed up the mountain, and was in all probability at that time on the summit. The soldiers were instantly in motion, and the officer in command repeated to them the orders he had received from his superior, to the effect that the Empecinado was, if possible, to be taken alive, with the view of making of him an example so public and terrible, as to awe into submission the peasantry of the province, and thus secure the homage at least of their fear, since that of their respect and attachment was not to be obtained. With his companion, he added, they might make short work, as the least troublesome method of disposing of him was the best-the dress and general appearance of the Empecinado being accurately described to them, so as to prevent the possibility of the one being mistaken for the other. The hill, though precipitous on the southern side, being in reality limited extent, a circle was easily formed by the men,

of

very

which enclosed all its accessible portion, and which necessarily contracted as they advanced, its parts naturally approaching nearer to each other as they approached the summit.

Diez was intently gazing on the road by which he expected the convoy, when a loud shout from his companion causing him to turn his head, he beheld a sight well calculated to try the strength of even his iron nerves. Within fifty yards of him were double that number of French sharp-shooters, all armed to the teeth, and each one thirsting for his blood, forming, in extended order, an almost unbroken line between him and the wooded portion of the mountain, and still steadily advancing, and completely surrounding him on all sides, save the one bounded by the precipice, which was naturally considered a sufficient barrier to his escape in that direction. In these circumstances, a man of ordinary mind would have either surrendered at discretion, or sought to reach by instant flight the cover of the adjoining plantation. The companion of Diez was a man of this stamp. To surrender, he must have been well aware, was but to yield himself up to the infliction of certain death, and probably a much more painful and protracted one than that which he should otherwise experience in case even of the failure of an attempt to escape. Adopting, therefore, the latter alternative, desperate as it was, he rushed forward, and made for the wood. Before he had run twenty yards, a few of the nearest files had fired, and half-a-dozen rifle bullets had closed his career for ever!

But the Empecinado was a man of extraordinary mind; and it was on the occasion of such emergencies as the present that his wonderful facility of resource, and promptitude in its display, shone forth in their unrivalled pre-eminence. For a few seconds, indeed, as he afterwards acknowledged, he believed escape to be utterly impracticable, and felt convinced that his hour had come. The idea of escape by flight, whilst a hundred riflemen were prepared to pour in their fire within less than pistol-shot distance, was so absurd, that he disdained to attempt it, not choosing to give his enemies the certain triumph of defeating the effort. For the moment, his only resolution was, in any event, neither to be taken alive, nor to fall unrevenged; and drawn up to his full height, and steady and motionless as the hill on which he stood, he maintained his position close to the verge of the precipice, whilst the circle of military, gradually contracting, closed around him on every other side, and reached within twenty feet of the spot on which he stood. At this moment the officer in command of the party, in his exultation at the capture of the far-famed guerilla, which he considered already effected, and which no doubt would have procured his promotion at least a step, rushed before his men, and placed his grasp on the collar of the Empe cinado. The latter, it has been already stated, was possessed of strength perfectly colossal; but his superiority to ordinary men