TERRIBLE FIGHTING IN THE STREETS OF SARAGOSSA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 534, 4 February 1870, Page 3

TERRIBLE FIGHTING IN THE STREETS OF SARAGOSSA.

{From the Eco de Aragon.)

I The Captain-General having ordered the re-organisation of the citizen militia, much agitation was noticeable in the population, which was increased by the entrance into the city of forty or fifty prisoners belonging to the rebel parties of Pedrola and Gallur, in custody of the Civil Guard. At half-past two in the afternoon barricades were erected, and the insurgents opened fire, which lasted to the first hours of this morning in the barrios of San Pablo, in which the people fired from the streets which met at the market, and from the tower of San Pablo, which they occupied very early in the afternoon. The fighting has been prolonged more in the parishes of San Miguel and La Magdalena, in which it commenced at the same time as in Han Pablo, and lasted all the night with great intensity up to ten o'clock this morningy at which hour it ceased, the people, as we are told, retiring by port near the Tower of Bruil, from which point they crossed the Ebro on pontoons. We cannot to day give more details, but will try to do so to-morrow. Neither can we report the casualties, which, we -believe, are very many, and which we deplore, for the blood shed is Spanish blood, and the blood x»f Spanish Liberals. On both sides the combat has been carried on with the valour appropriate to Spaniards. At midday a battalion of Ingeneiros arrived, and more forces are expected. At 3.30 this afternoon alarm has been reproduced by some discharges made from the high park of Corso, but at six— the hour at which we close this number — they have completely ceased. It was 11.30, and not ten o'clock in the morning, that the barricades raised in the Plaza de San Miguel, calles del Heroismo and Cadena, and Puerto del Duque de la Victoria were taken by the troops, after a most protracted struggle, in which both on one side and the other great valour was exhibited. At 3.30 p.m. the Captain-General, accompanied by some of his staff and a small escort, passed through the Plaza de Salomeran, where some shots were fired at him by the people. This gave rise to a renewal of the combat for a quarter of an hour. The rest of the afternoon was passed tranquilly, and also the night. The troops of the garrison were reinforced by two battalions of Ingenieros, one battalion of Cazadores, and a squadron of cavalry. In the first hours of the morning some prisoners were taken. Those taken during the combat exceeded 150. The accounts we have heard respecting the persons said to be at the head of the movement are so very contradictory that we decline for to-day making any allusion to them. During the combat some paisanes from the neighbouring populations made for the city, but forces of cavalry conveniently placed by Captain-General Bassols effectually impeded their entrance. The army had eighteen killed and seventy-five wounded. Of these, six are officers and two captains. Of the people, twenty-two killed and nine wounded were picked up in the streets and carried to the civil hospital, among them some women and children, innocent victims of this struggle. This is without taking count of the unknown numbers of dead and wounded in private houses. During yesterday afternoon and this morning the people have: passed and re-passed through all the capital, visiting particularly the principal points of the struggle where the destruction was the greatest. The affair is ended, and the military tribunal will begin its labours.