I looked round--there were seventy of the accursed malvados at the
least, and within, as I said, a hundred yards. Were I to say that
I stopped to fight seventy men, you would write me down a fool or a
liar: no, sir, I did not fight, I ran away.

I am six feet four--my figure is as well known in the Spanish army
as that of the Count de Luchana, or my fierce little friend Cabrera
himself. "GAHAGAN!" shouted out half-a-dozen scoundrelly voices,
and fifty more shots came rattling after me. I was running--
running as the brave stag before the hounds--running as I have done
a great number of times before in my life, when there was no help
for it but a race.

After I had run about five hundred yards, I saw that I had gained
nearly three upon our column in front, and that likewise the
Christino horsemen were left behind some hundred yards more; with
the exception of three, who were fearfully near me. The first was
an officer without a lance; he had fired both his pistols at me,
and was twenty yards in advance of his comrades; there was a
similar distance between the two lancers who rode behind him. I
determined then to wait for No. 1, and as he came up delivered cut
3 at his horse's near leg--off it flew, and down, as I expected,
went horse and man. I had hardly time to pass my sword through my
prostrate enemy, when No. 2 was upon me. If I could but get that
fellow's horse, thought I, I am safe; and I executed at once the
plan which I hoped was to effect my rescue.

I had, as I said, left the podesta with Sheeny's portmanteau, and,
unwilling to part with some of the articles it contained--some
shirts, a bottle of whisky, a few cakes of Windsor soap, &c. &c.,--