"October 12th.—Bayonne has been the seat of numerous intrigues since Valdes arrived. Mina quickly followed him, and has been doing all that lay in his power to shackle the movements of the constitutionalists enrolled under the banner of Valdes. His followers have been instigated to seduce the officers and men of our expedition, in which, however, they succeeded only in the case of some weak-kneed Frenchmen. Happily, we shall now shortly be beyond the reach of their intrigues, and shall have but one enemy to encounter…
"I have twice been into the villages where our men and arms are placed. The first time was with Colonel Minuisir and Navarette, a Spanish engineer officer, to inspect the men and arms. We found the soldiers all anxiety to depart, but bearing their disappointments well. The second journey was of a more important nature. Intelligence having arrived that the sub-prefect of Bayonne intended to seize the arms and ammunition in the depôts at Villa-Franca and Usteritz, Colonel Minuisir, accompanied by myself and three officers, started at eleven at night to walk to the former village, to take measures against a proceeding so fatal to our plans. Some little difficulty was found in getting through the gates so late at night, but a silver key, added to my being metamorphosed into an English physician going to visit a friend who was suddenly taken ill, obtained us a passage. Arrived at Villa-Franca, we aroused six officers, who, with us, immediately proceeded to remove the arms to a place of safety. We chose for this purpose a shed, open on all sides to the weather, as being the most unlikely place for arms to be concealed. This occupied the whole night, and our work was just completed as the morning dawned.…
"October 13th.—This morning we entered Spain. Being appointed aide-de-camp to General Valdes, I was constantly with the officers and messed with the staff. At about 2 o'clock we halted at the little village of
