The Sun. — 1836-05-21 (London, England)

SEBASTIAN, MAY 12.—My first care on arriving here was, to go over the scene (a tolerably wide one, including various steep hills) of the recent gallant and completely successful attack of the Carlist positions by the British Auxiliary Legion and a supplement of Spanish troops. These positions, even to an eye unskilled in military operations, present the most formidable appearance, and have been declared, by experienced military and naval men of high character, and unconnected with the Legion, to have been of such a nature that with 2,000 troops they might have been successfully defended against the attack of 20,000. They consisted of three lines of entrenchments, many of them formed by natural trenches or long chasms in the soil, and then defended again by numberless breastworks of mound or masonry, and thickly loopholed, whilst the great variety of surface, the whole field of action being a continued succession of height and hollow, gave the most murderous effect to most of the points of defence. When, besides this, it is recollected that the entire scene of struggle was thickly studded with houses in every possible situation, some on the tops and the sides of the hills, and others in the vallies, and that every one of these houses was a fortress, loopholed and filled with a determined enemy, who for a length of time were enabled to mow down their aggressors without receiving any injury themselves, some adequate idea may be formed of the difficulties the British Legion had to encounter, and of the manly firmness and English energy it required on its part to overcome them. The sides of the hills, particularly those under the principal positions, are completely ploughed up and burrowed by shot and shell; and on numberless points of the ground many and sad reminiscences still remain of the deadly strife that had been waged in them; broken stocks of muskets, perforated and beaten-in shakos, torn military jackets, and blood-stained fragments of vests and shirts, odd shoes, and the hempen sandals of the Carlists, either lost in the desperate energy of the attack, or flung off in the terror of the flight— all these intermingled here and there with pools of blood, and the half cooked or half eaten remains of food, exhibit a picture horribly interesting. Of the formidable positions above-mentioned but faint traces will remain in a few days, as some thousands of men are incessantly employed in levelling the breastworks, filling up the ditches, &c., whilst, in the meantime, new batteries and other means of defence are being erected, in order to be fully prepared for any attempt on the part of the Carlists to retake these positions—an event, however, not very likely to occur, at least speedily, after the severe lesson they have had. Yesterday morning, at a quarter past 7 o'clock, as the coachman belonging to the Duke of Beaufort was out exercising a pair of young carriage horses, in the carriagebreak, along Montagu-square, St. Marylebone, by some accident one of the fore wheels came off, and the animals became restive, and set off at a furious rate, proceeding along Montagu-street, dashing fearfully on to the foot pavement, but the coachman succeeded in guiding them without touching either the area railings or lamp-posts until they arrived at the crossing of York- street and Quebec-street, when the unmanageable animals ran against the front of the shop of Mr. Bowler, a baker, and afterwards against the upright area railings, which were instantly torn up, and a number of bars broken; one of the horses was much hurt. The coachman, who was accompanied on the box by a fellow-servant, escaped without injury, as also a little boy, the coachman's son, who was riding in the body of the break,