The allusion in this Canto to the Basque Guerrillas needs a word of explanation. The Chapelgorris and Chapelchurris are distinguishing names of the Basque mountain peasantry, derived from the colour of their caps. Chacolin is the thin, sour wine of the district. During the late Carlist war, a considerable degree of romantic interest attached to these peasantry for the keenness of their partisan admixture in the strife. One of the most famous events in the Carlist struggle was the siege of Bilbao, which was raised by the Cristino General Cordova, and where the most famous of modern Guerrilleros, Zumalacarregui, received his death-wound. Had this most energetic of the Carlist Generals lived, the war might have had a very different termination. It was he, who, on the wretchedly unprovided state of his men as to arms being remarked to him, pointing to the muskets in the Cristino battalions, said, “There are their arms!” and contrived to arm them very respectably by stripping the Cristinos in repeated brilliant surprises. The circumstances of this rude but powerful hero’s death are recorded in the Cristino song: Ya vienen Chapelchurris Con corneta y clarin, Para entrar en Bilbao A beber chacolin. Mal chacolin tuvieron, Y dia tan fatal, Que con la borrachera Se murió el general! I. “’Twas fraud and treason her destruction doomed.” Rancorous Despite, Disloyal Treason and heart-burning Hate. Spenser, _Fairy Queen_. IV. “The sword Which mighty Carlos at Pavía won, The puny Ferdinand to France restored.” Ὦ σπέρμ’ Ἀχιλλέως, τἄλλα μὲν πάρεστί σοι Πατρῷ’ ἑλέσθαι τῶν δ’ ὅπλων κείνων ἀνὴρ Ἄλλος κρατύνει νυν, ὁ Λαέρτου γόνος.-- Soph. _Philoct._ 364. “Oh, born of Achilles! the rest of what pertained to thy father thou mayst take; but these arms another now possesses--Laertes’ son!” Such was the answer of Ulysses to Neoptolemus, when the latter sought the arms of Achilles, and such should have been the reply of Ferdinand to Napoléon. VII. “And when the Nation woke, ’twas in a glare of light.” See Wordsworth’s “Convention of Cintra.” X. “Castile, unconquered Aragon, Navarre,” &c. Com esta voz Castella alevantada Suas forças ajunta para as guerras, De varias regioens, e varias terras. Camóens, _Lus._ iv. 7. XVI. “His strangled carcase on Domingos’ plain,” &c. ----φρόνησον ... Ὡς νῷν ἀπεχθὴς δυσκλεής τ’ ἀπώλετο. Soph. _Antig._ 49. “Remember, how he perished odious and infamous!” XXVII. “Nor dauntless Manuela be unsung * * Nor thou, Burita, sprung from noblest bed.”