He turned his back upon him, and ten minutes later, the body of the
unfortunate spy was dangling from the branches of a neighbouring tree,
and the guerillas marched off to seek another and a safer bivouac.

A few days after this incident the other spies returned, and after
receiving their report, and consulting with his lieutenant, Mariano
Fuentes, the Empecinado broke up the little camp, and led his band in
the direction of the _camino réal_.

Along that part of the high-road, from Madrid to the Pyrenees, which
winds through the mountain range of Onrubias, an escort of fifty French
dragoons was marching, about an hour before dusk, on an evening of early
spring. Two carriages, and three or four heavily-laden carts, each drawn
by half-a-dozen mules, composed the whole of the convoy; the value of
which, however, might be deemed considerable, judging from the strength
of the escort, and the precautions observed by the officer in command to
avoid a surprise--precautions which were not of much avail; for, on
reaching a spot where the road widened considerably, and was traversed
by a broad ravine, the party was suddenly charged on either flank by
double their number of guerillas. The dragoons made a gallant
resistance, but it was a short one, for they had no room or time to form
in any order, and were far overmatched in the hand-to-hand contest that
ensued. With the very first who fled went a gentleman in civilian's
garb, who sprang out of the most elegant of the two carriages, and
mounting a fine Andalusian horse led by a groom, was off like the wind,
disregarding the shrieks of his travelling companion, a female two or
three-and-twenty years old, of great beauty, and very richly attired.
The cries and alarm of the lady thus deserted were redoubled, when an
instant later a guerilla of fierce aspect presented himself at the
carriage-door.