The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1874-03-29
THE STAR AND CATHOLIC MESSENGER SUNDAY MARCH

LAAsAtSN ~ Il h1L nNb Oh Il AOAAO
may from the guarded lines of the besiegera
Of Bilbao. "Vengan refuerzos y otro
general o encargarse del mando." was his
plaintive telegram to Madried. Rein
forcements and another general to take the
command" such was the petition of the
despairing Moronez and Marshal Serrano
and Admiral Topete and dozen generals
and brigadiers sped from Madrid at the
summons, but we do not fancy that Marshal
Serrano is likely to play his Amorevieta
part over again.
The strategical history of the recent
operations around Bilbao can be told in a
that on the occasion of the former excur-
sion of Morionez to the North at the head
Of $1,000 men, that General was very
nearly surrounded by o superior force of
Carlists under Eiio, and after various
ludicrous flights by sea from Santander to
Santona, and to and fro, was finally COM
in the south of Guipuzcoa. There he re-
NAMED inactive, while his army was being
nearly doubled by the arrival Of reinforce
ments which the Madrid Government sent
to him from all sides. AS soon as his force
had been'swelled to upwards of q, 900 men
with powerful artillery: he formed, by the
advice, it is believed, of old Marshal Es-
partero, a not unskilful plan for dividing
the Carlist forces round Bilbao and for at
tempting the relief of that city. Making
use of the railway from Miranda to
Logrono to mass a number of troops at the
latter town, he feigned to be about to at
tack the neighboring fortress of Estella in
Navarro, priced by the Carlists as the key
Of that provinces The ruse succeeded.
The flower of the Carlist army, including
the famous ~Navarrese battalions, at once
hurried by forced march from Bilbao to
Estella, sixty miles distant, only to learn
on their arrival that Morionez had placed
his entire army in thirteen special trains,
and speeding round by way Of Burgos, had
probably already arrived at Santander and
Bilbao without an obstacle.
1t was terrible moment for the Navar-
rese after their sixty miles of forced march
to Estella. Without delaying an instant,
resolntely set about retracing their steps,
and in spite of passes encountered and
slippery with snow and ice, in spite of
furious TEMPEST of wind and rain, per-
formed the marvellous feat of a return
journey within thirty six hours. Within
three days they had marched one hundred
and twenty miles over some of the most
difficult country in the world. It is to be
apprehended, however, that their exertions
might have been fruitless if the same
temptest which they had defied amid the
bleak hills of Navarro had not checked the
operations of the more effeminate soldiers
OF the Republic, and, in particular, par
alysed the efforts of Republican hotilla
to second the attempts of Moriones against
Portugalete. By the time that Morionez
was prepared to attack in full force, the
united Carlist army had crowned the dan
gerous heights of Somorostro with formida-
BILE entertainments, and when q feigned re-
treat had induced brigade of the Repub-
licans under the impulsive Primo de Rivera
to trust themselves within the circle of the
Carlist works, a sudden bayonet charge of
Navarrese and Guipuzcoan battalions al
most totally destroyed the brigade and
captured large portion of the Krupp
points of the line the Republican defeat was
equally complete, though less disastrous.
What next 1t is not quite easy to say
what will happen next; but if we are to
judge from the admissions of the Epoca
and Impartial, and from the correspondence
published by such anti-Carlist organs as
the Journal DIES Debats and Allgemeime
Zeitung, the cause of the Madrid Republic
will soon be desperate. 1t seems as if at
any moment we may see the Carlists march
ing on Madrid" writes the correspondent
of the Journal deg De1&s, "for there is not
The EpocG publishes the suggestive in
formation that the troops which General
Soria so badly wanted against the powerful !
forces of the Carlist Santes have been re-
called for the protection of Madrid, SO that
the $1,000 Carlists of New Castillo and
Valencia will be masters of those provinces.
The correspondent of the Allgemeine
Zeitung calculates that, on the Lower Ebro,
General Lopez Dominguez would require
&c, 600 men at least to be able to check the
veritable armies which, under the COM
mand of Segarra, Palacios, Wales, and
Corredor, are carrying everything before
them and raising the standards of Carlos
VII. over cities like Vinaroz which defied
even Cabrera. What if the Carlists of
Valencia, Catalonia and New Castillo
march on Madrid while Serrano is vainly
trying to cope with Elio in the North p
London Tablet.