The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-12 00:00:00

Ojos.
Whether or not Concha and his 300 men ever

left their train, and how, if they did so, they could

avoid a collision with the rebels they were in quest
of, is more than the despatch enables us to make out.
The only important fact is that Prim, who had
moved from Villarubia to Daimiel in a southerly
direction, has now goneback from Daimiel to Villa-
rubia, again from south to north, abandoning, as it
would seem, all, idea of a retreat upon Portugal, and
heedless of the possible encounter he might have
with the column of Zabala which was close on his
rear. All this has Prim done, and we hear as yet
of no engagement either between him and Zabala,
or between him and that Concha who had so nearly
laid his grain of salt on the bird's tail.

Prim's conduct admits only of one explanation.
• His first move was from Aranjuez to Alcala, where
he hoped to be joined by the two regiments quar-
tered there, and whence, at the head of at least
L 1,600 sabres, he might have ventured on a coup de
main on Madrid. Disappointed by the withdrawal
' of the Alcala regiments he fell back on the Tagus ;
and as he there, by sinking the bridge of Fuenti-
duena, had given the slip to Zabala, it was supposed
that he would have made the best of his way to the
eastward, and thrown himself on the partisans whom
he was thought to have in Aragon and Catalonia.
His course, however, was not to the east, but back
to the south and west, where he knew he risked an
encounter with his pursuer, but where, it was con-
jectured, he might make his way to a land of refuge
in Portugal. But he evidently has not made the
best of his south-western move ; once more has he
returned in his own footsteps ; once more placed
himself in the midst of foes whom he seems equally
unwilling to fight •or to escape.
The fact is, Prim's friends aver that the district
Prim now occupies is a battle-field of his own choice.
It is near Villarubia de los Ojos that the rebel
General possesses that country-house and those vast
hunting-grounds which were his favourite haunt
and delight for many months in the year. There
is not a span of earth throughout that wild and
lonely Mancha that is not as familiar to him as the
playground of his boyhood. There is not one of
the hinds and boors of that dreary region that is
not as devoted to him as a foster-brother. If he
choose to play hide and seek with his enemies or
to carry on a harassing guerilla warfare against
them, that is the very spot and those the elements
that will enable him to hold on for months.
South of the Toledo mountains, a climate reigns
that knows no winter, and the land which, with the
favour of the inhabitants, would supply stores just
sufficient for him, would starve any other troops.
Prim's enemies, indeed, describe his followers as ut-
terly exhausted, and demoralised. They represent
Prim himself as suffering severely from affection of
the liver, a complaint to which he is notoriously
liable, so severely, indeed, that "unable to sit his
•
horse, he has himself driven about in a camp carriage
drawn by six mules." But the truth of the matter is
that he is afield yet, and that the superior forces of
the enemy, which have caught more than one glimpse
of him, have not hitherto had either the skill or the
heart-to come to close quarters with- him. The Mar-
chioness of Castillejos, with her children, was seen
driving about at the promenade of Fuents Castel-
lana, yesterday afternoon, bearing on her counte-
nance very little outward concern for her husband's
fate, about which she probably thinks she has reason
to be easy.
If Prim can carry on the game for any length of
time, say for a week or two, it is impossible to fore- •
see what consequences his apparently rash and in-
considerate movement may have on this country.
There hardly ever was one of the many military
pronunciamentos which have had so much influence
on the destinies of Spain, which was not given up as
a failure at the outset. " He who endures conquers"
is nowhere so true as in this " hard land of Iberia." •
That the stir of men's minds is great, both in the
army and the people, and the alarm of the Govern-
ment proportionate, no one in Madrid can doubt.
Battalions and regiments are ordered here and there
with incessant change. Now it is the Chasseurs de ,
Baza, presently the Llerena regiment; next the Re- •
giment de Bourbon that causes O'Donnell uneasiness,
and that must be senth north or south, east or west, '
from one end of the peninsula to the other, or even
quite out of it, to the Morocco fortresses, or the Canary
Islands. The Madrid garrison has been shut tip in its,
barracks since last Wednesday. This is the firstday iu
which any of the soldiers off duty have been seen
about the streets, and they are mostly artillerymen