A CARLIST MASSACRE.-HORRIBLE BRUTALITY.

Auckland Star, Volume V, Issue 1495, 25 November 1874, Page 2

A CARLIST MASSACRE.-HORRIBLE BRUTALITY.

You have, doubtless, by this time received all the p.irticutais of the horrid massacre of Valfogona. There was not even the pretence of a court-martial. The captive Carbineers were taken from their original place of confinement by two Carlist chiefs, Bosch and Bru, acting under the orders of Sahalls, tied with ropes in couples, and conveyed on foot to Llayers, under escort of fifty Carlists. One of them, who was lame, and could not bear the fatigue of the march, was dispatched with bayonets on the road, and left for burial in the hands of some woodmen. Upon their arrival at Llayers the others were shut up in the parish church, where presently Federico Bru intimated to them that they were to prepare for instant execution, for " they were all rascals of Carabineros, and {Saballs was determined that not one of them should live." He allowed them the assistance of three priests, and only one hour's respite. They were mostly married men, and tried to save their lives by clubbing the little money they had and tendering it as their ransom ; but Bru observed with a sneer, that he had already their money safe at his discretion. They then snatched from each other's hands such pencils and small slips of paper as they could lay hold of, and wrote hasty farewells to tbeii wives and families. At 11 o'clock Bru re appeared, and they vainly implored him ! for the delay of another hour. But i their hour had struck. Bosch drew up a ! shooting party in the churchyard, and a first I couple was led out and made to stand with j their backs against the walls of the church. The word was given, a volley was heard, and all was over with them. The report of the rifles allowed their comrades within the church no doubt as to the fate which awaited them. Pinioned as they were, they tried to embrace each other, and nerved up their courage by mutual exhortations and loving leave takings. So affecting was the scene inside the church that one of the priests fainted, and had to be conveyed to j the parsonage. One unhappy pair was thus led out after another, first tho-e who were most downcast and resigned, then those who strugcled and clung to the walls, to the posts, and even to the dead bodies on the ground of those of their comrades who had gone before them. In the rear of the shooting-party was the little Carlist party, whose duty it was to dispatch with the bayonet those men whom the rifle-balls had no immediate fatal effect. At half-past twelve all was over. Eighty-four perished. Only one, by name Avolas, a native of ! Llayers and fellow-townsman of Bosch, was I allowed to go free. —Correspondent " London Times" on Spanish frontier, August 31.