Bilbuena, three leagues from Castrillo.  Manuel took advantage of a dark night to steal into the town in disguise, and to speak with the Empecinado.  He informed him that the superior of the Bernardine Monastery, in the Sierra de Balbuena, had been advised that it was the intention of the Empecinado’s enemies to deliver him over to the French, in order that they might shoot him.  The Empecinado replied, that he strongly suspected there was some such plot in agitation, and desired his brother to seek out Mariano Fuentes, and order him to march his band into the neighbourhood of Castrillo, and that on their arrival he would send them word what to do.

Eight days elapsed, and the Empecinado was now completely cured of his wounds, so that he was in much apprehension lest he should be sent off to Ciudad Rodrio before the arrival of Fuentes.  On the eighth night, however, his brother came to the window, and informed him that the partida was in the neighbourhood, and only waited his orders to march upon Castrillo, rescue him, and revenge the treatment he had received.  This the Empecinado strongly enjoined them not to do, but desired his brother to come to his prison door at two o’clock the next morning with a led horse, and that he had the means to set himself at liberty.  Manuel Diez did as he was ordered, wondering, however, in what manner the Empecinado intended to get out of the posito, which was a solidly constructed edifice with a massive door and grated windows.  But the next night, when the guerilla heard the horses approaching his prison, he seized the door by an iron bar that traversed it on the inner side, and, exerting his prodigious strength, tore it off the hinges as though it had been of pasteboard.  His feet being fastened together by a chain, he was compelled to sit sideways upon the saddle; but so elated was he to find himself once more at liberty that he pushed his horse into a gallop, and with his fetters clanking as he went, dashed through the streets of Castrillo, to the astonishment and consternation of the inhabitants, who knew not what devil’s dance was going on in their usually quiet town.

At Olmos, a village a quarter of a league from Castrillo, the fugitives halted, and roused a smith, who knocked off the Empecinado’s irons.  After a short rest at the house of an approved friend they remounted their horses, and a little after daybreak reached the place where Fuentes had taken up his bivouac.  The Empecinado was received with great rejoicing, and immediately resumed the command.  He passed a review of his band, and found it consisted of two hundred and twenty men, all well mounted and armed.