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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Romantic Spain, by John Augustus O'Shea
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Romantic Spain
+       A Record of Personal Experiences (Vol. II)
+
+Author: John Augustus O'Shea
+
+Release Date: March 7, 2010 [EBook #31532]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROMANTIC SPAIN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by the
+Digital & Multimedia Center, Michigan State University
+Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ROMANTIC SPAIN:
+
+_A RECORD OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCES._
+
+
+
+
+ROMANTIC SPAIN:
+
+A Record of Personal Experiences.
+
+BY
+
+JOHN AUGUSTUS O'SHEA,
+
+AUTHOR OF
+
+"LEAVES FROM THE LIFE OF A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,"
+"AN IRON-BOUND CITY," ETC.
+
+"Oh, lovely Spain! renowned, romantic land!"
+CHILDE HAROLD.
+
+IN TWO VOLUMES.
+
+VOL. II.
+
+LONDON:
+WARD AND DOWNEY,
+12, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C.
+1887.
+[_All Rights Reserved._]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS OF VOL. II.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+                                                         Page
+
+A Tidy City--A Sacred Corpse--Remarkable Features
+of Puerto--A Calesa--Lady Blanche's Castle--A
+Typical English Engineer--British Enterprise--"Success
+to the Cadiz Waterworks!"--Visit to a
+Bodega--Wine and Women--The Coming Man--A
+Strike                                                   1-18
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+The Charms of Cadiz--Seville-by-the-Sea--Cervantes--Daughters
+of Eve--The Ladies who Prayed and
+the Women who Didn't--Fasting Monks--Notice to
+Quit on the Nuns--The Rival Processions--Gutting
+a Church--A Disorganized Garrison--Taking it Easy--The
+Mysterious "Mr. Crabapple"--The Steamer
+_Murillo_--An Unsentimental Navvy--Bandaged
+Justice--Tricky Ship-Owning--Painting Black
+White                                                   19-41
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Expansion of Carlism--A Pseudo-Democracy--Historic
+Land and Water Marks--An Impudent Stowaway--Spanish
+Respect for Providence--A Fatal
+Signal--Playing with Fire--Across the Bay--Farewell
+to Andalusia--British Spain                             42-50
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Gabriel Tar--A Hard Nut to Crack--In the Cemetery--An
+Old Tipperary Soldier--Marks of the Broad
+Arrow--The "Scorpions"--The Jaunting-Cars--Amusements
+on the Rock--Mrs. Damages' Complaint--The
+Bay, the Alameda, and Tarifa--How
+to Learn Spanish--Types of the British Officer--The
+Wily Ben Solomon--A Word for the Subaltern--Sunset
+Gun--The Sameness of Sutlersville                       51-75
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+From Pillar to Pillar--Historic Souvenirs--Off to
+Africa--The Sweetly Pretty Albert--Gibraltar by
+Moonlight--The Chain-Gang--Across the Strait--A
+Difficult Landing--Albert is Hurt--"Fat Mahomet"--The
+Calendar of the Centuries Put Back--Tangier:
+the People, the Streets, the Bazaar--Our Hotel--A
+Coloured Gentleman--Seeing the Sights--Local
+Memoranda--Jewish Disabilities--Peep at a Photographic
+Album--The Writer's Notions on Harem
+Life                                                    76-102
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+A Pattern Despotism--Some Moorish Peculiarities--A
+Hell upon Earth--Fighting for Bread--An Air-Bath--Surprises
+of Tangier--On Slavery--The
+Writer's Idea of a Moorish Squire--The Ladder of
+Knowledge--Gulping Forbidden Liquor--Division
+of Time--Singular Customs--The Shereef of Wazan--The
+Christian who Captivated the Moor--The
+Interview--Moslem Patronage of Spain--A Slap for
+England--A Vision of Beauty--An English Desdemona:
+Her Plaint--One for the Newspaper Men--The
+Ladies' Battle--Farewell--The English Lady's
+Maid--Albert is Indisposed--The Writer Sums up
+on Morocco                                             103-135
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Back to Gibraltar--The Parting with Albert--The
+Tongue of Scandal--Voyage to Malaga--"No Police,
+no Anything"--Federalism Triumphant--Madrid _in
+Statu Quo_--Orense--Progress of the Royalists--On
+the Road Home--In the Insurgent Country--Stopped
+by the Carlists--An Angry Passenger is
+Silenced                                               136-151
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+On the Wing--Ordered to the Carlist Headquarters--Another
+_Petit Paris_--Carlists from Cork--How
+Leader was Wounded--Beating-up for an Anglo-Irish
+Legion--Pontifical Zouaves--A Bad Lot--Oddities
+of Carlism--Santa Cruz Again--Running
+a Cargo--On Board a Carlist Privateer--A Descendant
+of Kings--"Oh, for an Armstrong Twenty-Four
+Pounder!"--Crossing the Border--A Remarkable
+Guide--Mountain Scenery--In Navarre--Challenged
+at Vera--Our Billet with the Parish Priest--The Sad
+Story of an Irish Volunteer--Dialogue with Don
+Carlos--The Happy Valley--Bugle-Blasts--The
+Writer in a Quandary--The Fifth Battalion of
+Navarre--The Distribution of Arms--The Bleeding
+Heart--Enthusiasm of the Chicos                        152-187
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+The Cura of Vera--Fueros of the Basques--Carlist Discipline--Fate
+of the _San Margarita_--The Squadron
+of Vigilance--How a Capture was Effected--The
+Sea-Rovers in the Dungeon--Visit to the Prisoners--San
+Sebastian--A Dead Season--The Defences of a
+Threatened City--Souvenirs of War--The Miqueletes--In
+a Fix--A German Doctor's Warning                       188-210
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+Belcha's Brigands--Pale-Red Republicans--The Hyena--More
+about the _San Margarita_--Arrival of a Republican
+Column--The Jaunt to Los Pasages--A
+Sweet Surprise--"The Prettiest Girl in Spain"--A
+Madrid Acquaintance--A Costly Pull--The Diligence
+at Last--Renteria and its Defences--A Furious Ride--In
+France Again--Unearthing Santa Cruz--The
+Outlaw in his Lair--Interviewed at Last--The Truth
+about the Endarlasa Massacre--A Death-Warrant--The
+Buried Gun--Fanaticism of the Partisan-Priest          211-238
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+An Audible Battle--"Great Cry and Little Wool"--A
+Carlist Court Newsman--The Religious War--The
+Siege of Oyarzun--Madrid Rebels--"The Money of
+Judas"--A Manifesto from Don Carlos--An Ideal
+Monarch--Necessity of Social and Political Reconstruction
+Proclaimed--A Free Church--A Broad
+Policy--The King for the People--The Theological
+Question--Austerity in Alava--Clerical and Non-Clerical
+Carlists--Disavowal of Bigotry--A Republican
+Editor on the Carlist Creed--Character of
+the Basques--Drill and Discipline--Guerilleros _versus_
+Regulars                                               239-268
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+Barbarossa--Royalist-Republicans--Squaring a Girl--At
+Irun--"Your Papers?"--The Barber's Shop--A
+Carlist Spy--An Old Chum--The Alarm--A Breach
+of Neutrality--Under Fire--Caught in the Toils--The
+Heroic Thomas--We Slope--A Colleague Advises
+Me--"A Horse! a Horse!"--State of Bilbao--Don
+Carlos at Estella--Sanchez Bregua Recalled--Tolosa
+Invites--Republican Ineptitude--Do not Spur a Free
+Horse--Very Ancient Boys--Meditations in Bed--A
+Biscay Storm                                           269-299
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Nearing the End--Firing on the Red Cross--Perpetuity
+of War--Artistic Hypocrites--The Jubilee Year--The
+Conflicts of a Peaceful Reign--Major Russell--Quick
+Promotion--The Foreign Legion--The Aspiring
+Adventurer--A Leader's Career--A Piratical
+Proposal--The "Ojaladeros" of Biarritz--A Friend
+in Need--Buying a Horse--Gilpin Outdone--"Fred
+Burnaby"                                               300-317
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+NOTES OF THE TRANSCRIBER
+
+
+
+
+ROMANTIC SPAIN.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     A Tidy City--A Sacred Corpse--Remarkable Features of Puerto--A
+     Calesa--Lady Blanche's Castle--A Typical English Engineer--British
+     Enterprise--"Success to the Cadiz Waterworks!"--Visit to a
+     Bodega--Wine and Women--The Coming Man--A Strike.
+
+
+PUERTO de Santa Maria has the name of being the neatest and tidiest city
+in Spain, and neatness and tidiness are such dear homely virtues, I
+thought I could not do better than hie me thither to see if the tale
+were true. With a wrench I tore myself from the soft capital of
+Andalusia, delightful but demoralizing. I was growing lazier every day I
+spent there; I felt energy oozing out of every pore of my body; and in
+the end I began to get afraid that if I stopped much longer I should
+only be fit to sing the song of the sluggard:--"You have waked me too
+soon, let me slumber again." Seville is a dangerous place; it is worse
+than Capua; it would enervate Cromwell's Ironsides. Happily for me the
+mosquitoes found out my bedroom, and pricked me into activity, or I
+might not have summoned the courage to leave it for weeks, the more
+especially as I had a sort of excuse for staying. The Cardinal
+Archbishop had promised a friend of mine to let him inspect the body of
+St. Fernando, and my friend had promised to take me with him. Now, this
+was a great favour. St. Fernando is one of the patrons of Seville; he
+has been dead a long time, but his corpse refuses to putrefy, like those
+of ordinary mortals; it is a sacred corpse, and in a beatific state of
+preservation. Three times a year the remains of the holy man are
+uncovered, and the faithful are admitted to gaze on his incorruptible
+features. This was not one of the regular occasions; the Cardinal
+Archbishop had made an exception in compliment to my friend, who is a
+rising young diplomat, so that the favour was really a favour. I
+declined it with thanks--very much obliged, indeed--pressure of
+business called me elsewhere--the cut-and-dry form of excuse; but I
+never mentioned a word about the mosquitoes. I told my friend to thank
+the prelate for his graciousness; the prelate expressed his sorrow that
+my engagements did not permit me to wait, and begged that I would oblige
+him by letting the British public know the shameful way he and his
+priests were treated by the Government They had not drawn a penny of
+salary for three years. This was a fact; and very discreditable it was
+to the Government, and a good explanation of the disloyalty of their
+reverences. If a contract is made it should be kept; the State
+contracted to support the Church, but since Queen Isabella decamped the
+State had forgotten its engagement.
+
+Puerto de Santa Maria deserves the name it has got. It is a clean and
+shapely collection of houses, regularly built. People in England are apt
+to associate the idea of filth with Spain; this, at least in Andalusia,
+is a mistake. The cleanliness is Flemish. Soap and the scrubbing-brush
+are not spared; linen is plentiful and spotless, and water is used for
+other purposes than correcting the strength of wine. Walking down the
+long main street with its paved causeways and pebbly roadway, with its
+straight lines of symmetric houses, coquettish in their marble balconies
+and brightly-painted shutters and railings, one might fancy himself in
+Brock or Delft but that the roofs are flat, that the gables are not
+turned to the street, and that the sky is a cloudless blue. I am
+speaking now of fine days; but there are days when the sky is cloudy and
+the wind blows, and the waters in the Bay of Cadiz below surge up sullen
+and yeasty, and there are days when the rain comes down quick, thick,
+and heavy as from a waterspout, and the streets are turned for the
+moment into rivulets. But the effects of the rain do not last long;
+Spain is what washerwomen would call a good drying country. Beyond its
+neatness and tidiness, Puerto has other features to recommend it to the
+traveller. It has a bookseller's shop, where the works of Eugène Sue and
+Paul de Kock can be had in choice Spanish, side by side with the Carlist
+Almanack, "by eminent monarchical writers," and the calendar of the
+Saragossan prophet (the Spanish Old Moore); but it is not to that I
+refer--half a hundred Andalusian towns can boast the same. It has its
+demolished convent, but since the revolution of '68 that is no more a
+novelty than the Alameda, or sand-strewn, poplar-planted promenade,
+which one meets in every Spanish hamlet. It has the Atlantic waves
+rolling in at its feet, and a pretty sight it is to mark the feluccas,
+with single mast crossed by single yard, like an unstrung bow, moored by
+the wharf or with outspread sail bellying before the breeze on their way
+to Cadiz beyond, where she sits throned on the other side of the bay,
+"like a silver cup" glistening in the sunshine, when sunshine there is.
+The silver cup to which the Gaditanos are fond of comparing their city
+looked more like dirty pewter as I approached it by water from Puerto;
+but I was in a tub of a steamer, there was a heavy sea on and a heavy
+mist out, and perhaps I was qualmish. Not for its booksellers' shops,
+for its demolished convent, or for its vulgar Atlantic did this Puerto,
+which the guide-books pass curtly by as "uninteresting," impress me as
+interesting, but for two features that no seasoned traveller could,
+would, or should overlook; its female population is the most attractive
+in Andalusia, and it is the seat of an agreeable English colony. I
+happened on the latter in a manner that is curious, so curious as to
+merit relation.
+
+I had intended to proceed to Cadiz from Seville after I had taken a peep
+at Puerto, but that little American gentleman whom I met at Córdoba was
+with me, and persuaded me to stop by the story of a wonderful castle
+prison, a sort of _Tour de Nesle_, which was to be seen in the vicinity,
+where the _bonne amie_ of a King of Spain had been built up in the good
+old times when monarchs raised favourites from the gutter one day, and
+sometimes ordered their weazands to be slit the next. This show-place is
+about a league from Puerto, in the valley of Sidonia, and is called El
+Castillo de Doña Blanca. We took a calesa to go there. My companion
+objected to travelling on horseback; he could not stomach the peculiar
+Moorish saddle with its high-peaked cantle and crupper, and its
+catch-and-carry stirrups. We took a calesa, as I have said. To my dying
+day I shall not forget that vehicle of torture. But it may be necessary
+to tell what is a calesa. Procure a broken-down hansom, knock off the
+driver's seat, paint the body and wheels the colour of a roulette-table
+at a racecourse, stud the hood with brass nails of the pattern of those
+employed to beautify genteel coffins, remove the cushions, and replace
+them with a wisp of straw, smash the springs, and put swing-leathers
+underneath instead, cover the whole article with a coating of liquid
+mud, leave it to dry in a mouldy place where the rats shall have free
+access to the leather for gnawing practice, return in seven years, and
+you will find a tolerably correct imitation of that decayed machine, the
+Andalusian calesa. It is more picturesque than the Neapolitan
+_corricolo_; it is all ribs and bones, and is much given to inward
+groaning as it jerks and jolts along. Such a trap we took; the driver
+lazily clambered on the shafts, and away hobbled our lean steed.
+
+The road to Lady Blanche's Castle is like that to Jordan in the nigger
+songs; it is "a hard road to travel"--a road full of holes and quagmires
+and jutting rocks; and yet the driver told me it had once been a good
+road, but that was in the reign of Queen Isabella. Everything seems to
+have been allowed to go to dilapidation since. On the outskirts of
+Puerto we passed an English cemetery; I am glad to say it is almost
+uninhabited. If there is an English dead settlement there ought to be a
+live one, I reasoned, unless those who are buried here date from
+Peninsular battles. The first part of the road to Blanche's Castle is
+level, and bordered with thick growths of prickly pear; there is a view
+of the sea, and of the Guadalate, spanned by a metal bridge--a Menai on
+a small scale. Farther on, as we get to a district called La Piedad, the
+country is diversified by swampy flats at one side and sandy hills at
+the other. Blanche's Castle was a commonplace ruin, a complete "sell,"
+and we turned our horse's head rather savagely. As we were coming back,
+the little American shortening the way by Sandford and Merton
+observations of this nature--"Prickly pear makes a capital hedge; no
+cattle will face it; the spikes of the plant are as tenacious as
+fish-hooks. The fibres of the aloe are unusually strong; they make
+better cordage than hemp, but will not bear the wet so well"--a sight
+caught my eyes which caused me to stare. A tall young fellow, with his
+trousers tucked up, was wading knee-deep in the bottoms beside the road.
+He wore a suit of Oxford mixture.
+
+"Who or what is that gentleman?" I asked the driver.
+
+"An English engineer," was the answer.
+
+I stopped the calesa, hailed him, and inquired was he fond of rheumatic
+fever. He laughed, and pronounced the single word, "Duty." A little
+word, but one that means much. A Spanish engineer would never have done
+this; they are great in offices and at draughting on paper, but they
+seldom tuck up their sleeves, much less their trousers, to labour out of
+doors as the young Englishman was doing. I made his acquaintance, and he
+willingly consented to show me over the works in which he was engaged,
+which were intended to supply Cadiz with water. In England water is to
+be had too easily to be estimated at its proper value. At Cadiz it is a
+marketable commodity. Even the parrots there squeak "agua." Every drop
+of rain that falls is carefully gathered in cisterns, and the
+conveyance of water in boatloads from Puerto across the Bay is a regular
+trade. An English company had been formed to supply the parched seaport
+and the ships that call there with fresh water, and its reservoirs were
+situated at La Piedad. In the bowels of the flats below, where the
+snipe-shooting ought to be good, our countryman told me the water was to
+be sought. Galleries had been sunk in every direction in land which the
+company had purchased, and pumps and engines are soon to be erected that
+will raise the liquid collected there up to the reservoirs which have
+been hewn out of the hills above. These reservoirs, approached by
+passages excavated out of the rough sandstone, are stout and solid
+specimens of the mason's craft directed by the engineer's skill. Here we
+met a second gentleman superintending the labours of the men, but he was
+surely a Spaniard; he spoke the language with the readiness of one born
+on the soil; still, he had a matter-of-fact, resolute quickness about
+him that was hardly Spanish. Doubts as to his nationality were soon
+dispelled; the engineer we had surprised in the swamp presented us to
+his colleague Forrest, engineer to Messrs. Barnett and Gale, of
+Westminster, the contractors, as thoroughbred an Englishman as ever came
+out of the busy town of Blackburn.
+
+Mr. Forrest at once stood to cross-examination by the American, who had
+all the inquisitiveness of his race.
+
+"We employ a couple of hundred men, on an average, here," he said, "all
+of whom, with but two exceptions, are Spaniards, and very fair
+hard-working fellows they are; in the town below we have a small colony
+of English, and if you don't take it amiss I shall be happy to present
+you to our society."
+
+I know little of the technicalities of engineering, but I saw enough of
+this work to be certain that it was well and truly done, and I heard
+enough of the scarcity of water in Cadiz to be convinced it will be a
+great boon when finished. The reservoirs are constructed in colonnades,
+supported by ashlar pillars and roofed with rubble; for the water must
+be shaded from the sun in this hot climate; the pillars are buttered
+over with cement, and there is over a foot of cement concrete on the
+flooring, to guard against filtration. As we paced about the sombre
+aisles, echo multiplied every syllable we uttered; the repetition of
+sound is as distinct as in the whispering gallery of St. Paul's, and I
+could not help remarking, "What a splendid robber's cave this would
+make!"
+
+"Too tell-tale," said the practical American; "make a better cave of
+harmony."
+
+"The only pipes that are ever likely to blow here are water-pipes,"
+smilingly put in the engineer; "we intend to lay them from this to
+Cadiz, some twenty-eight miles distant. Roughly speaking, we are about
+ninety feet above the level of the place, so that the highest building
+there can be supplied with ease."
+
+The Romans were benefactors to many portions of this dry land of Spain;
+they built up aqueducts which are still in use, but they neglected
+Cadiz. The town has been dependent on these springs of La Piedad for its
+water supply, except such as dropped from heaven, for three hundred
+years, and attempts to obtain water from wells or borings in the
+neighbourhood have invariably failed. The water which is found in this
+basin, held by capillary attraction in the permeable strata through
+which it soaks till the hard impermeable stratum is met--retained, in
+short, in a natural reservoir--is excellent in quality, limpid and
+sparkling. Puerto has been supplied from the place for time out of mind,
+and Puerto has been so well supplied that it could afford to sell
+panting Cadiz its surplus. With English capital and enterprise putting
+new life into those old hills, and cajoling the precious beverage out of
+their bosom, which unskilled engineers let go to waste, Cadiz should
+shortly have reason to bless the foreign company that relieves its
+thirst. Clear virgin water, such as will course down the tunnels to
+bubble up in the Gaditanian fountains, is the greatest luxury of life
+here; "Agua fresca, cool as snow," is the most welcome of cries in the
+summer, and temperate Spain is as devoted to the colourless liquid that
+the temperance lecturer Gough and his compeers call Adam's ale, as ever
+London drayman was to Barclay's Entire. Success, then, to the Cadiz
+Waterworks Company: we drank the toast on the hill-side of "Piety" they
+were making fruitful of good, drank it in tipple of their and nature's
+brewing, but had latent hopes that Forrest or his colleague would help
+us to a bumper of the generous grape-juice for which the district is
+famed, when we got down to the pleasant companionship of the English
+colony below.
+
+Nor were our hopes disappointed. There are innumerable bodegas, or
+wine-vaults, in the town, in which bottles and barrels of wine are
+neatly caged in labelled array, according to age, quality, and kind.
+Very clean and roomy these stores of vinous treasure are, with an
+indescribable semi-medicinal odour languidly pervading them. We visited
+a bodega belonging to an Englishman, who ranks as a grandee of the
+first-class, the Duke of Ciudad Rodrigo and eke of Vitoria, but who is
+better known as the Duke of Wellington. The natural wine of this
+district is too thin for insular palates. They crave something fiery,
+and, by my word, they get it. Like that Irish car-driver who rejected my
+choicest, oily, mellow "John Jameson," but thanked me after gulping a
+hell-glass of new spirit, violent assault liquefied, they want a drink
+that will catch them by the throat and assert its prerogative going
+down. What a beamy old imposition is that rich brown sherry of city
+banquets, over which the idiot of a connoisseur cunningly smacks his
+lips and rolls his moist eyes. If he were only told how much of it was
+real and how much artificial, would he not gasp and crimson! It would be
+unmerciful to inform him that his pet cordial is charged with sulphuric
+acid gas, that it is sweetened with cane-sugar, that it is flavoured
+with "garnacha dulce," that it is coloured with plastered _must_ and
+fortified with brandy, before it is shipped. Let us leave him in
+blissful ignorance. We tasted many samples before we left, but I own I
+have no liking for sherries, simple or doctored. Among Spanish wines I
+far prefer the full-bodied astringent sub-acidity of the common Val de
+Peñas, beloved of Cervantes. But the Queen of wines is sound Bordeaux.
+To that Queen, however, a delicate etherous Amontillado might be
+admitted as Spanish maid-of-honour, preceding the royal footsteps, while
+the syrupy Malaga from the Doradillo grape might follow as attendant in
+her train.
+
+From wine to women is an easy transition. Both are benedictions from on
+high, and I have no patience with the foul churl who cannot enjoy the
+one with proper continence, and rise the better and more chivalrous from
+the society of the other. Wine well used is a good familiar
+creature--kindles, soothes, and inspirits: the cup of wine warmed by the
+smile of woman gives courage to the soldier and genius to the minstrel.
+With Burns--and he was no ordinary seer--I hold that the sweetest hours
+that e'er we spend are spent among the lasses. I will go farther and say
+the most profitable hours. And some sweet and profitable hours 'twas
+mine to spend among the fawn-orbed lasses of Puerto, with their
+childlike gaiety, their desire to please, and their fetching freedom
+from affectation. Would that the wines exported from the district were
+half as unsophisticated! These lasses were not learned in the "ologies"
+or the "isms," but they were sincere; and their locks flowed long and
+free, and when they laughed the coral sluices flying open gave scope to
+a full silvery music cascading between pales of gleaming pearl. An
+admixture of this strain with the fair-skinned men of the North should
+produce a magnificent race; and, indeed, if we paid half the attention
+to the improvement of the human animal which we do to that of the equine
+or the porcine, the experiment would not have been left untried so long.
+In-and-in breeding is a mistake, and can only commend itself, and that
+for selfish reasons, to the Aztec in physique and the imbecile in mind.
+The families which take most pride in their purity are the most
+degenerate; the stock which is the most robust and handsome is that
+which has in it a liberal infusion of foreign bloods. In my opinion, the
+coming man, the highest form of well-balanced qualities--moral,
+intellectual, and masculine--the nearest approach to perfection, must
+ultimately be developed in the United States.
+
+Puerto has a wide-spread reputation as the nursery-ground for
+bull-fighters. To the arena it is what Newmarket is to the British turf.
+Everybody there walks about armed, but murder is not more rife in
+proportion than in London. As it happened, a fellow was shot while I was
+there, but that would not justify one in coming to the conclusion that
+homicide was a flourishing indigenous product. Still, the natives did
+not escape the contagion of unrest of their countrymen. For example, the
+last news I heard before leaving my English friends was that the men in
+the vineyards had struck work. These lazy scoundrels had the impudence
+to demand that they should have half an hour after arrival on the
+ground, and before beginning work, to smoke cigarettes, the same grace
+after the breakfast hour, two hours for a siesta in the middle of the
+day, another interval for a bout of smoking in the afternoon, and
+finally that each should be entitled to an arroba (more than three and a
+half gallons English) of wine per acre at the end of the season. They go
+on the same basis as some trades' unions we are acquainted
+with--reduction of hours of labour and increase of wages. "Will you give
+in to them?" I asked of an English settler, in the wine trade. "Give
+in------" but it is unnecessary to repeat the expletive; "I'll quietly
+shut up my bodega."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     The Charms of Cadiz--Seville-by-the-Sea--Cervantes-Daughters of
+     Eve--The Ladies who Prayed and the Women who Didn't--Fasting
+     Monks--Notice to Quit on the Nuns--The Rival Processions--Gutting a
+     Church--A Disorganized Garrison--Taking it Easy--The Mysterious
+     "Mr. Crabapple"--The Steamer _Murillo_--An Unsentimental
+     Navvy--Bandaged Justice--Tricky Ship-Owning--Painting Black White.
+
+
+THE man who pitched on Cadiz as the site of a city knew what he was
+about. Without exception it is the most charmingly-located place I ever
+set foot in. Its white terraces, crowded with white pinnacles,
+belvederes, and turrets, glistening ninety-nine days out of the hundred
+in clear sunlight, rise gently out of a green sea necked with foam; the
+harbour is busy with commerce, crowded with steamers and sailing ships
+coming and going from the Mediterranean shores, from France, from
+England, or from the distant countries beyond the Atlantic; the waters
+around (for Cadiz is built on a peninsula, and peeps of water make the
+horizon of almost every street) are dotted with fishing craft or
+scudding curlews; the public squares are everlastingly verdant with the
+tall fern-palm, the feathery mimosa, the myrtle, and the silvery ash,
+which only recalls the summer the better for its suggestive appearance
+of having been recently blown over with dust; the gaze inland is repaid
+with the sight of hills brown by distance, of sheets of pasture, and
+pyramidal salt-mounds of creamy grey; and the gaze upwards--to lend a
+glow to the ravishing picture--is delighted by such a cope of dreamy
+blue, deep and pure, and unstained by a single cloudlet, as one seldom
+has the happiness of looking upon in England outside the doors of an
+exhibition of paintings. The climate is dry and genial, and not so hot
+as Seville. The Sevillanos know that, and come to Cadiz when the heats
+make residence in their own city insupportable. Winter is unknown;
+skating has never been witnessed by Gaditanos, except when exhibited by
+foreign professors, clad in furs, who glide on rollers over polished
+floors; and small British boys who are fond of snowballing when they
+come out here are obliged to pelt each other with oranges to keep their
+hands in. One enthusiastic traveller compares it to a pearl set in
+sapphires and emeralds, but adds--lest we should all be running to hug
+the jewel--there is little art here and less society.
+
+"Letters of exchange are the only belles-lettres." Indeed. Now this is
+one of those wiseacres who are _in_ a community, but not _of_ it, who
+materially are present, but can never mentally, so to speak, get
+themselves inside the skins of the inhabitants. That city cannot be said
+to be without letters which has its poetic brotherhood, limited though
+it be, and which reveres the memory of Cervantes, as the memory of
+Shakespeare is revered in no English seaport. Wiseacre should hie him to
+Cadiz on the 23rd of April, when the birth of Cervantes is celebrated,
+for in spite of intestine broils, Spaniards are true to the worship of
+the author of "Don Quixote," and his no less immortal attendant, whom
+Gandalin, friend to Amadis of Gaul, affectionately apostrophizes thus:
+
+      "Salve! Sancho with the paunch,
+       Thou most famous squire,
+    Fortune smiled as Escudero she did dub thee
+    Tho' Fate insisted 'gainst the world to rub thee.
+       Fortune gave wit and common-sense,
+         Philosophy, ambition to aspire;
+       While Chivalry thy wallet stored,
+         And led thee harmless through the fire."
+
+With the respect he deserves for this wandering critic and no more, I
+will take the liberty of saying that there is art, and a great deal of
+art, in the site of the clean town; and that there is society, and good
+society, in that forest of spars in the roadstead, and in the fishing
+and shooting in the neighbourhood. When the Tauchnitz editions have been
+exhausted, and when the stranger has mastered Cervantes and Lope de
+Vega, Espronceda, Larra, and Rivas, there is always that book which Dr.
+Johnson loved, the street, or that lighter literature which Moore sings,
+"woman's looks," to fall back upon. I am afraid some prudes may be
+misjudging my character on account of the frequency of my allusions to
+the sex lately; but I beg them to recollect that this is Andalusia, and
+that woman is a very important element in the population of Cadiz. She
+rules the roost, and the courtly Spaniard of the south forgets that
+there was ever such an undutiful person as Eve. Woman played a
+remarkable part in the events of the couple of months after the Royal
+crown was punched out of the middle of the national flag. She is
+political here, and is not shy of declaring her opinions. Ladies of the
+better classes of Cadiz are attentive to the duties of their religion;
+kneeling figures gracefully draped in black may be seen at all hours of
+the day in the churches during this Lenten season, telling their beads
+or turning over their missals. Those ladies are Carlist to a man, as
+Paddy would say; they naturally exert an influence over their husbands,
+though the influence falls short of making their husbands accompany them
+to church except on great festivals such as Easter Sunday, or on what
+may be called occasions of social rendezvous, such as a Requiem service
+for a deceased friend. The men seem to be of one mind with the French
+freethinker, who abjured religion himself, or put off thoughts of it
+till his dying day, but pronounced it necessary for peasants and
+wholesome for women and children. But _les femmes du peuple_, the
+fishwives, the labourers' daughters, the bouncing young fruit-sellers,
+and the like, are not religious in Cadiz. They have been bitten with the
+revolutionary mania; they are staunch Red Republicans, and have the bump
+of veneration as flat as the furies that went in procession to
+Versailles at the period of the Great Revolution, or their great
+granddaughters who fought on the barricades of the Commune. The nymphs
+of the pavement sympathize strongly with the Republic likewise; but
+their ideal of a Republic is not that of Señores Castelar and Figueras.
+They want bull-fights and distribution of property, and object to all
+religious confraternities unless based on the principles of "the Monks
+of the Screw," whose charter-song, written by that wit in wig and gown,
+Philpot Curran, was of the least ascetic:
+
+    "My children, be chaste--till you're tempted;
+       While sober, be wise and discreet,
+     And humble your bodies with--fasting,
+       Whene'er you have nothing to eat."
+
+So long ago as 1834 a sequestration of convents was ordered in Spain,
+but the Gaditanos never had the courage to enforce the decree till
+after the revolution that sent Queen Isabella into exile. A few years
+ago the convent of Barefooted Carmelites on the Plaza de los Descalzados
+was pulled down; the decree that legalized the act provided an
+indemnity, but the unfortunate monks who were turned bag and baggage out
+of their house never got a penny. They have had to humble their bodies
+with fasting since. For those amongst them who were old or infirm that
+was a grievance; but for the lusty young fellows who could handle a
+spade there need not be much pity, for Spain had more of their sort than
+was good for her. Even at that date the revolutionists of Cadiz had some
+respect left for the nunneries. But they progressed; the example of
+Paris was not lost upon them. The ayuntamiento which came into power
+with the Republic was Federal. Barcelona and Malaga were stirring; the
+ayuntamiento made up its mind that Cadiz should be as good as its
+neighbours and show vigour too. The cheapest way to show vigour was to
+make war on the weak and defenceless, and that was what this
+enlightened and courageous municipality did. The nuns in the convent of
+the Candelaria were told that their house and the church adjoining were
+in a bad state, that they must clear out, and that both should be razed
+in the interests of public safety. It was not that the presence of
+ladies devoted to God after their own wishes and the traditions of their
+creed was offensive to the Republic; no, not by any means. The nuns
+protested that if their convent and church were in a dangerous condition
+the proper measure to take was to prop them up, not pull them down. But
+the blustering heroes of the municipality would not listen to this
+reasoning; they were too careful of the lives of the citizens, the nuns
+included; down the edifices must come. The Commune of Paris over again.
+The ladies of Cadiz, those who pass to and fro, prayer-book in hand, in
+the streets, and startle the flashing sunshine with their solemn
+mantillas, were wroth with the municipality. They saw through its
+designs, and they resolved to defeat them. To the number of some five
+hundred they formed a procession, and marched four deep to the
+Town-house to beg of their worships, the civic tyrants, to revoke their
+order. If the convent and church were in ruins, the ladies were prepared
+to pay out of their own pockets the expense of all repairs. That
+procession was a sight to see; there was the beauty, the rank, the
+fashion, and the worth of the city, in "linked sweetness long drawn
+out," coiling through the thoroughfares on pious errand. The fair
+petitioners were dressed as for a _fete_; diamonds sparkled in their
+hair, and the potent fan, never deserted by the Andalusians, was
+agitated by five hundred of the smallest of hands in the softest of
+gloves. But the civic tyrants were more severe than Coriolanus. They
+were not to be mollified by woman's entreaties, but rightly fearing her
+charms they fled. When the procession arrived at the Town-house, there
+was but a solitary intrepid bailie to receive it. They told him their
+tale. He paid them the usual compliments, kissed their feet in the grand
+Oriental way individually and collectively, said he would lay their
+wishes before his colleagues, but that he could give no promise to
+recall the mandate of the municipality--it was more than he dare
+undertake to do, and so forth. The long and short of it was, he politely
+sent them about their business. They came away, working the fans more
+pettishly than ever, and liquid voices were heard to hiss scornfully
+that the Republic, which proclaimed respect for all religions and
+rights, was a lie, for its first thought was to trample on the national
+religion, and to dispossess an inoffensive corporation of cloistered
+ladies of their right to then property. Here the first act of the drama
+ended.
+
+The second was, if anything, more sensational, though infinitely less
+attractive. The Federals bit their thumbs, and cried:
+
+"Ah, this is the work of the priests!"
+
+So it was; not a doubt of that. The Federals meditated, and this was the
+fruit of their meditations:
+
+"Let us organize a counter-procession!"
+
+That counter-procession was a sight to see, too; the feature of elegance
+was conspicuous by its absence, but there was more colour in it.
+Harridans of seventy crawled after hussies of seventeen; bare arms and
+bandannas were more noticeable than black veils and fans; the _improbæ
+Gaditanæ_, known of old to certain lively satirists, Martial and Juvenal
+by name, turned out in force. Mayhap it is prejudice, but Republican
+females, methinks, are rather muscular than good-looking. Still they
+have influence sometimes, and when they said their say at the Town-house
+the ladies plainly betrayed how much they dreaded that influence. They
+wrote to Madrid praying that the municipality should be arrested in its
+course. Señor Castelar did send a remonstrance; some say he ordered the
+local authorities not to touch the church or convent, but they laughed
+at his letter, and contented themselves by reflecting that he was not in
+possession of the facts--that is, if they reflected at all, which is
+doubtful.
+
+Act the third was in representation during my stay. I passed the
+Candelaria one morning. Scaffolding poles were erected in the street
+alongside in preparation for the demolition of the building, and a party
+of workmen in the pay of the municipality were engaged gutting the
+church of its contents, and carting them off to a place of deposit,
+where they were to be sold by public auction. These workmen looked
+cheerful over their sacrilege. A waggon was outside the door laden with
+ornaments ripped from the walls, gilt picture-frames, fragments of
+altar-rails, and the head of a cherub. Half a dozen rough fellows in
+guernseys had their shoulders under a block of painted wood-carving. As
+far as I could make out, it was the effigy of one of the Evangelists. I
+was refused admittance to the building, but I was told the sacramental
+plate had been removed with the same indifference. The nuns escaped
+without insult, thanks to the good offices of some friends outside, who
+brought up carriages at midnight to the doors of the convent and
+conveyed them to secret places of safety put at their disposal by the
+bishop.
+
+The people who committed this mean piece of desecration were all Federal
+Republicans. They disobeyed orders from Madrid, and would disobey them
+again. They were as deaf to the commands of Señor Castelar as to the
+prayers and entreaties of the wives and daughters of respectable
+fellow-citizens. And all this time that the central authority were
+defied, artillerymen and linesmen were loitering about the streets of
+Cadiz. Eventually it was plain they would be disarmed, as they were
+disarmed at Malaga; and they would not offer serious opposition to the
+process. Their officers were barely tolerated by them. The Guardia Civil
+were true to duty, but when the crisis came, what could they do any more
+than their comrades at Malaga? They were but as a drop of water in a
+well. Disarmament is not liked by the old soldiers who have money to
+their credit, but there is a large proportion of mere conscripts in the
+ranks, and they are glad to jump at the chance of returning home.
+
+Troubles worse than any may yet be in store; meanwhile the sun shines,
+and Cadiz, like Seville, takes it easy. But there is a bad spirit
+abroad, and it is growing. A pack of ruffians forcibly entered a mansion
+at San Lucar, and annexed what was in it in the name of Republican
+freedom; the "volunteers of liberty" have taken the liberty of breaking
+into the houses of the consuls at Malaga in search for arms; an excited
+mob attacked the printing-office of _El Oriente_ at Seville after I
+left, smashed the type, and threatened to strangle the editor if he
+brought out the paper again; and the precious municipality of Cadiz has
+nothing better to do than order that no mourners shall be allowed in
+future to use religious exercises or emblems, to sing litanies or carry
+crosses, at the open graves of relatives in the cemeteries.
+
+In the merchants' club (of which I was made free) they were saddened at
+the disrupted state of society, but took it as kismet, and seemed to
+think that all would come right in the end, by the interposition of some
+_Deus ex machinâ_. But who that God was they could not tell: he was
+hidden in the womb of Fate. As Cadiz accepted its destiny with
+equanimity, I accommodated myself to the situation, and did as the
+natives did. I helped to fly kites from the flat housetops--a favourite
+pastime of mature manhood here; I opened mild flirtations with the
+damsels in cigar-shops, and discovered that they were not slow to meet
+advances; I expended hours every day cheapening a treatise on the
+mystery of bull-fighting, with accompanying engravings, in vain--its
+price was above rubies. But my great distraction was a strange character
+I met at dinner at the house of the British Consul. I did not catch his
+name at our introduction, so I mentally named him Mr. Crabapple. He was
+short and stout, had a round wizened face freckled to the fuscous tint
+of a russedon apple, and was endowed with a voice which had all the
+husky sonority of a greengrocer's. He was beardless and sandy-haired,
+and one of those persons whose age is a puzzle to define; he might have
+been anything between fifteen and five-and-thirty. As he talked of
+Harrow as if he had left it but yesterday, I was disposed to set him
+down as a queer public-school boy on vacation, until I was astounded by
+some self-possessed remark on Jamaica dyewoods. We stopped in the same
+hotel. One morning he descended the stairs, a sort of dressing-case in
+hand, and yelled to an urchin at the door:
+
+"Here, you son of a sea-calf, take this down to the waterside for me!"
+
+"Will he understand you?" I said.
+
+"Bound to," Mr. Crabapple replied; "never talk to them any other way,
+anyhow. 'Tis their business to understand. Ta, ta--deuce of a hurry."
+
+"Where are you going, may I ask?"
+
+"Read the Church Service--rather a bore--Sunday, you know."
+
+The nondescript, then, was a chaplain.
+
+The same evening he returned to the hotel, and on the following morning
+I saw him again descending the stairs, the same dressing-case in hand.
+He nodded salute, slung his luggage to the same urchin with the cry,
+"Hook it, you lubber!" and, turning to me, said, "Ta, ta, sheering off
+again."
+
+"Where to now?"
+
+"Mediterranean."
+
+"There's no boat to-day."
+
+"There is, though--there's mine;" and he was off.
+
+The supposed chaplain was a stray-away from a novel by Marryat,
+commanded her Majesty's gunboat _Catapult_, and was at Cadiz on the duty
+of protecting British interests. At the moment his mission was to carry
+important despatches to Gibraltar.
+
+My mission to Cadiz was, partly, to ascertain the progress of the
+inquiry into the case of the _Murillo_ steamer, more than suspected of
+having run down the _Northfleet_, a vessel laden with railway-iron and
+navvies, off Dungeness, on the night of the 22nd of January previous.
+Three hundred lives had been lost on the occasion. I knew something of
+that wreck, for I had seen and spoken with the survivors in the Sailors'
+Home at Dover on the following evening. A dazed, stupid lot they were,
+of an exceedingly low standard of intelligence. The sense of their own
+rescue had overcome the poignancy of grief. I envied them their
+stolidity, which I explained to my own mind by the rush of the engulfing
+waters still swirling and singing knell of sudden doom in their ears.
+
+"Guv'nor," said one clown to me, "I seed my ole 'ooman go down afore my
+eyes, and I felt that grieved a'most as if I was agoin' down myself, and
+I chewed a bit o' baccer."
+
+I saw the _Murillo_ lying quietly a little distance off the land--a
+handsome, shapely craft, fine in the lines, with a sharp stem fashioned
+like that of a ram. She was painted black, with the exception of a band
+of pink above the water-line, where she was coated with Peacock's
+mixture. The British Consul informed me that he understood the inquiry
+into the guilt of the master was to be carried on _secretly_. He would
+not be allowed to attend it. Copies of the depositions of the accused,
+and permission to see them, had also been denied to the agents of the
+British Government, who applied for them for the purposes of the Board
+of Trade inquiry. Though Spaniards, in private conversation, own that
+the _Murillo_ is the criminal ship, they seem, for some unaccountable
+reason, to be anxious that she should escape the penalty of her
+wickedness, as if the national honour were concerned, and the national
+honour would be served by cloaking an offence cruel and mean in itself,
+and awful in its consequences.
+
+There is a sentence in the Comminations which would keep running in my
+mind every time I thought of that emigrant ship sent to the bottom off
+Dungeness--"Cursed is he who smiteth his enemy secretly." But if he who
+smites his enemy secretly is accursed, what is he who smites his
+neighbour and then flees away like a coward in the dark? Is he not twice
+and thrice wicked, and to be branded with malediction deeper still? Such
+a thing the _Murillo_ steamer did--there could be no manner of doubt
+about it; every seafaring man and every Spaniard admits her
+blood-guiltiness; yet there she lies off Puntales, near the Trocadero,
+calmly expecting soon to be under weigh again with her criminal master
+and crew on board, with no punishment registered against her or them.
+The Consul-General of Spain in London wrote to the papers after the loss
+of the _Northfleet_, saying if this man was the wrongdoer he would be
+punished, and sent to Ceuta or Tetuan. But he is the wrongdoer, and he
+will never be sent to Ceuta or Tetuan. The master of the _Murillo_ and
+the sailors of the watch on the fatal night are in prison, but they will
+never be brought to serious account. The figure of Justice in these
+latitudes is true to the sculptor's ideal in one sense: the eyes are
+bandaged, not that Justice shall be impartial, but that she may not
+see.
+
+This instance of the _Murillo_ is but one of many, and as it illustrates
+an artifice of tricky ship-owning, it will be well to state why the
+_Murillo_ will go scot-free, and may audaciously turn up again in
+British waters disguised by a few coats of paint, exhibiting a fresh
+figure-head, and bearing a new name in gilt lettering on her stern.
+
+In the first place, the _Murillo_ belonged not to Spanish so much as
+English owners. The line of steamers of which she was one was the
+property of a company of shareholders. The company was anxious that
+their vessels should fly the Spanish flag, so they made one Don Miguel
+Styles the nominal head of the firm. This individual was a mere clerk in
+their office, a man of straw, and at the date of the catastrophe Don
+Miguel Styles had no more substantial existence than our old friend John
+Styles: he was dead, and in his grave.
+
+Nextly, Mr. Daniel Macpherson, one of the most eminent merchants in the
+port of Cadiz and Lloyd's agent, had been served with an instrument
+claiming damages to the amount of 50,000 pesetas (£2,000), because that
+he had calumniated the good ship _Murillo_, and caused her prejudice and
+injury by detaining her a couple of months in the waters of Cadiz. The
+persons who instituted this action forget that the Spanish courts have
+no jurisdiction in the matter of libels published in England. And as for
+the prejudice caused to the vessel, it is incredible that the British
+Government should be so weak as to wait for letters from Lloyd's agent
+before opening an inquiry into the deaths of some three hundred of its
+subjects and the identity of the dastardly scoundrel who was the cause
+of their deaths, who disabled the ship that held them, and then slunk
+off, leaving them to the mercy of the midnight sea. That the _Murillo_
+was that vessel, even those who maintain that she cannot be proved
+legally guilty do not attempt to deny. It is true, as they say, that
+moral certainty is one thing, legal certainty another. But there was
+seldom a clearer chain of circumstantial evidence pointing to the
+perpetrator of any crime than that which convicted the _Murillo_ of
+being the misdemeanant. She was off Dungeness at the hour of the
+disaster, and she was in contact with a ship; this the imprisoned master
+admitted in his log. But he alleged that the ship could not have been
+the _Northfleet_. He said he came into collision with a vessel; that he
+stood by her for half an hour; that one of her boats put off with some
+persons on board carrying a lantern; that they went round her examining
+whether there was anything wrong; and that no call having been made to
+him for assistance he steamed away. But there was a discrepancy between
+the entry in his log and that in the log of the engineer. The latter, an
+Englishman, stated that the engines of the _Murillo_ were backed before
+the collision, that she went astern afterwards, and then went on ahead.
+The delay altogether was only for a few minutes. No mention of the
+half-hour. The engineer had no object in telling a lie. The master of
+the _Murillo_ had. No other ship was in collision off Dungeness that
+night. Besides, what meant the order to the _Murillo_ to come on at once
+to Cadiz if she had been in collision, and not stop at Lisbon, whither
+she was bound as port of call, if not to get her into limits where
+justice is notoriously blind and halt? Argument is unnecessary and
+childish; it was the _Murillo_ which cut down the _Northfleet_. But
+Spain will never exact retribution for the destruction of the property
+and the sacrifice of the lives of aliens. Cosas de España.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     Expansion of Carlism--A Pseudo-Democracy--Historic Land and Water
+     Marks--An Impudent Stowaway--Spanish Respect for Providence--A
+     Fatal Signal--Playing with Fire--Across the Bay--Farewell to
+     Andalusia--British Spain.
+
+
+TOWARDS the close of February, a grave official report was published in
+the _Gaceta_ of Madrid, announcing that an engagement had been fought
+with the Carlists and a victory scored, _one_ of the enemy having been
+killed. We were now in April, some six weeks later, and Carlism still
+showed lively signs of existence, notwithstanding the death of that
+solitary combatant. The statement of the troops employed against it will
+be the best measure of its importance. These consisted of a battalion
+and two companies of Engineers, four companies of Foot Artillery, a
+battery of Horse and five batteries of Mountain Artillery; eight
+squadrons of Cuirassiers, seven of Lancers, four of Hussars, a section
+of Mounted Chasseurs (Tiradores), and eighteen battalions of Infantry of
+the line, with five of Cazadores, or light infantry. Behind this force
+of regulars were the Francos or Free-shooters of Navarre (who were about
+as good as their prototypes, the _francs-tireurs_ of France--no better),
+some mobilized Volunteers, and the Carabineros, or revenue police. There
+were some who imagined that the hosts of Don Carlos might crown the
+hills of Vallecas, and present themselves before the gate of Atocha to
+the consternation of Madrid, as did those of his predecessor in the
+September of 1837. But the Federals of the south did not mind. What did
+not touch them, they cared not a jot for. They were of the
+pseudo-democracy which wants to live without working, consume without
+producing, obtain posts without being trained for them, and arrive at
+honours without desert--the selfish and purblind pseudo-democracy of
+incapacity and cheek.
+
+As I had no pecuniary interest in salt, wine, phosphate of soda, hides,
+or cork--the chief exports of Cadiz--I left the much-bombarded port on
+the _Vinuesa_, one of the boats of the Alcoy line plying to Malaga. My
+immediate destination was the Hock, but we went no nearer than
+Algeciras, the town on the opposite side of the bay, off which Saumarez
+gave such a stern account of the Spanish and French combined on the 12th
+of July, 1801. The sea was without a ripple. The bright coasts of two
+Continents were in view. On such a day as this the first adventurers
+must have crossed from Africa to Europe. Hero might almost have swum
+across. Even Mr. Brownsmith of Eastchepe might rig a craft out of an
+empty sugar hogshead, set up his walking-stick for mast, tie his
+pocket-handkerchief to it for sail, and trust to the waves in
+safety--that is, if Mr. Brownsmith of Eastchepe had in him the heart of
+Raleigh, not of Bumble. Some men are born to be drivers of tram-cars,
+some to be captains of corsairs. The pioneer of navigation must have
+been cut out by nature to be a High-Admiral of bold buccaneers.
+
+We were only five passengers on the steamer, and we amused ourselves
+comparing notes. One told of a voyage from Barcelona to Alicante which
+he had once undertaken. The first night out they lost a sailor; he was
+seized with a fit and died; and then came the poser. When they would
+arrive at Alicante and muster the crew for the inspection of the health
+officers one would be wanting; suspicions would be aroused that he had
+fallen a victim to contagious disease, and they ran the hazard of being
+stuck into quarantine unless they could succeed in buying themselves off
+with an exorbitant bribe. While they were in a quandary, a white head
+popped above a gangway forward and a voice sang out:
+
+"I'll get you out of the hole for a consideration."
+
+"Who the deuce are you? Where did you spring from?" cried the skipper.
+
+"A stowaway,--a flour-barrel. I'll parade as the dead man's substitute
+for ten dollars and a square meal."
+
+In the end they were glad to accept the impudent proposal; the corpse
+was flung overboard, and the stowaway entered the port of Alicante an
+honest British tar, looking the whole world in the face like
+Longfellow's village blacksmith, and jingling ten dollars in his
+pocket.
+
+We passed by Barrosa, where Graham gave the French such a thrashing in
+1811, and the 87th Irish Fusiliers earned their glorious surname of the
+"Eagle-takers;" and over the waves of Trafalgar where Nelson did his
+duty, and was smitten with a bullet in the spine; and passing into the
+Straits and rounding the point by Tarifa, stood in for the Bay of
+Gibraltar. A spacious swelling spread of live water it is, and safe,
+except, as one of my fellow-passengers informed me, for a rock off the
+Punta del Carnero, or Mutton Point. The rock is covered when the tide is
+high (for there is a tide here), but rears its tortoise-like back over
+the surface for some hours at the ebb. The Channel squadron was coming
+out of Gib some years before when an ironclad grounded on this rock, but
+was got off without more damage than a scraping. As the danger to the
+navigation was outside the limits of the fortress, the British
+authorities applied to the Spanish for permission to clear away the
+obstruction. It was easily to be accomplished. A party of sappers could
+set a caisson round it, bore a gallery, insert a charge, and blast the
+rock into smithereens with safety and despatch. But the Spaniards would
+not consent to such an interference with the designs of Providence; the
+poor fishermen on the coast were often dependent for their livelihood on
+what they could pick up from wrecks, and if this rock were removed
+Nature would be sacrilegiously altered, and the interesting wreckers
+deprived of many an honest coin. I tell the tale as it was told to me. I
+wonder should it be dedicated to the amphibious corps.
+
+Another story bearing on the successful revolution inaugurated by Prim
+is worth relating, as it deals with an episode of Spanish politics which
+is repeated almost every other year with slender variations. The play is
+the same; the scene and the _dramatis personæ_ are merely shifted. One
+of the stereotyped military risings was to be initiated at Algeciras on
+the arrival of Prim from England. The intimation that he was at hand was
+to be made by the firing of two rockets from the ship which carried him.
+On a certain night at the close of August, 1868, two rockets blazed in
+the sky, and were noticed by the impatient conspirators at Algeciras,
+who flew to arms to cries of "Down with the Queen," and "Live Prim and
+Liberty." But no Prim landed. The alarm was premature, the rising a
+flash in the pan. What they had taken for the bright herald of the
+advent of "El Paladino" was the signal of a Peninsular and Oriental
+steamer which had arrived on her passage to Port Said. For the sake of
+appearances, a number of unfortunate fools were set up against a wall
+and had their brains blown out in tribute to law and order. But the
+fruit was ripening. Within little more than a fortnight came the
+insurrection of the fleet at Cadiz, upon the appearance in that port of
+the popular hero, and before the end of the month Queen Isabella had
+fled over the French frontier, never to return to Spain as a sovereign.
+Prim's plot was attended with a fortune in excess of his most sanguine
+hopes; he entered Madrid in triumph in October, and was created a
+Marshal in November. All was joy and enthusiasm, but the hapless tools
+of ambition who had helped to prepare the way for him below in Algeciras
+were not of the jubilee.
+
+At first sight the rock looms up large like a frowning inhospitable
+islet, the stretch of the Neutral Ground being so low that one cannot
+detect it above the sea-level until almost right upon it. We left the
+_Vinuesa_ and entered a boat with a couple of sturdy rowers, who offered
+to pull us across the Bay for five dollars. As I dipped a hand in the
+brine one of them raised a cry of "Take care!" there were "mala pesca"
+there. Mr. Shark, who is an ugly customer, had been cruising in the
+neighbourhood, and had taken a morsel out of an American swimmer a
+little time before. There were three masts protruding over the water at
+one spot, the relics of some gallant ship, and index to one of those
+godsends which the Spanish Government is solicitous to guarantee to the
+distressed and deserving local fishermen. What a pity it was not the
+_Murillo_! That would have been poetic retribution.
+
+No matter: with all thy faults I like thee, Spain, and especially that
+brown dusty province of Andalusia, with its oranges and pomegranates;
+its dancing fountains splashed with sunshine; its winsome damozels with
+such lisping languors of voice; its philosophic waiters upon the morrow,
+happy in a cigarette, a melon and a guitar; its muleteers crooning
+snatches of lazy song; its peasants with hair tied in beribboned
+pigtail; its tawny boys in Manola colours; aye, and its artistic
+beggars.
+
+"Ah! now you see the Neutral Ground; that village to the left is Lineas,
+where you can get a glass of Manzanilla cheap," exclaimed a companion.
+
+I do not set exceeding store by your pale thin Manzanilla, nor do I care
+to load my mouth with the flavour of a drug store.
+
+"There are the sheds we put up the time Prim was expected; they are on
+the Neutral Ground, ha, ha! where the soil is supposed to be inviolate;
+but we have forgotten to take them down since. We were too many for
+them."
+
+And now we are by the landing-stairs, and the Customs' officer demands
+our passport in English. We answer him cheerily that we need none, and
+to his smiling welcome we step on the soil of British Spain; but it
+would be unpardonable to begin describing it at the tail of a chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+     Gabriel Tar--A Hard Nut to Crack--In the Cemetery--An Old Tipperary
+     Soldier--Marks of the Broad Arrow--The "Scorpions"--The
+     Jaunting-Cars--Amusements on the Bock--Mrs. Damages' Complaint--The
+     Bay, the Alameda, and Tarifa--How to Learn Spanish--Types of the
+     British Officer--The Wily Ben Solomon--A Word for the
+     Subaltern--Sunset Gun--The Sameness of Sutlersville.
+
+
+WHERE I went to school, we had a droll lad, whose humour developed
+itself in mispronunciation. In my nonage I considered that unique. Now I
+know it is a rather common order of quaintness. Hugh used to call Sierra
+Leone, "Sarah Alone;" Cambodia, "Gamboge;" Stromboli, "Storm-boiler;"
+and Gibraltar, "Gabriel Tar." How we used to wrinkle with laughter at
+his sallies, launched with an artistically unconscious air, until the
+swooping cane came swishing down on our backs! And here I was in Gabriel
+Tar. I vow the first inclination I felt was to write to Hugh with the
+date engraved on the note-paper, and indeed so I should have done, but
+that I had not seen him for nigh twenty years, and when last I heard of
+him he was married, and had learned to be serious and to speak with
+precision. The fun had been driven out of him by responsibility.
+Propriety had come with prosperity.
+
+Call it by what name you will, Gabriel Tar, or Gibraltar, that
+infinitesimal scrap of territory over which the Union Jack floats, is
+supremely unpalatable and insolently insulting to the Spaniard. It is a
+bitter pill to swallow, an adamantine nut to crack. I suppose he is
+welcome to take it--when he can; but he knows better than to try. It is
+the gate of the Mediterranean. Logically, it is an injustice that a
+stranger should sit in the porter's lodge and swing the key at his
+girdle; but it is as well that the porter is one who is too surly to
+barter his trust for gold. So Gabriel Tar will remain intact, until the
+porter grows feeble or falls asleep.
+
+British Spain, or "the Rock," or Gib, as it is indifferently termed, or
+Sutlersville, as I prefer to name it, can be converted into an island at
+the will of its defenders. The sandy spit of Neutral Ground at one side
+of which Tommy Atkins, fresh-faced, does his sentry-go in brick-red
+tunic and white pith-helmet, and at the other side of which swarthy
+Sancho Panza y Toro, in projecting cap and long blue coat, fondles a
+rifle in the bend of his arm, can readily be flooded; and the bare,
+sheer, lofty north front, with scores of cannon of the deadliest modern
+pattern lying in wait behind the irregular embrasures that grimly pit
+its surface, hardly invites attack. It frowns a calm but determined
+defiance; and even the Cid himself might be excused if he turned on his
+heel and puffed a meditative cigarette after he had surveyed it.
+
+British Spain is small, being but one and seven-eighth square miles
+English in area; but it is mighty strong. The population, comprising the
+garrison, is less than fifteen thousand; but behind that slender cipher
+of souls are the millions of the broadest and biggest of empires. I do
+not know what the population of the cemetery is, but it receives rapid
+and numerous accessions at each periodical outbreak of cholera. I paid a
+visit to it--I have a fondness for sauntering in God's acre--and arrived
+in time to witness a funeral. When the coffin was laid in the grave, a
+young man, probably the husband of the deceased, threw himself prone on
+the turf beside the open burial-trench, and burst into such a passionate
+tempest of heart-rending sobs and moans and wailings, that I had to move
+away. These Southerners are more demonstrative in their grief than the
+men of the North. I question if their sorrows spring from deeper depths,
+or are so lasting. The caretaker of the cemetery, an elderly Tipperary
+soldier, with a short _dudheen_ in his mouth, was seated smoking on a
+head-stone by a goat-willow. We got into conversation.
+
+"There were worse places than Gib--singing-birds were raysonable here,
+and some of them had rayl beautiful plumage."
+
+My countryman, like the Duke of Argyll, had a weakness for ornithology.
+
+"That spread of land beyant was where the races were held, and small-arm
+parties from the fleet sometimes kem ashore and practised there. They
+used to play cricket there, too. The symmetry wasn't a gay place, but
+there were worse. There were some beautiful tombs--now _there_ was a
+parable ov wan; 'twas put up by their frinds to some officers who were
+dhrownded while they were crossing a flooded sthrame on their way back
+from a shooting excursion. The car-drivers, who were dhrownded wid them,
+had no monument. 'Twas a quare world; a poor man had the chance of dying
+wid a rich man, but was not to be berrid in his company. Well, he
+supposed it was for the best," and here he hammered the heel-tap out of
+his pipe on the side of his shoe; "when the last bugle sounded a
+field-officer would feel uncomfortable like if he had to be looking for
+his bones in the same plot wid a lance-corporal."
+
+Truly, a queer world. Death with impartial summons knocks at the cabin
+of the poor and the palace of the wealthy; but in the undertaker's
+interest the equality of the grave must not be conceded. The plebeian
+who commits _felo de se_ is served properly if he is hidden at the
+cross-roads by night and a stake driven through his body. The lunatic
+King who drowns himself, and drags his doctor to the same fate--who is a
+suicide duplicated with the suspicion of murder--is embalmed and laid to
+rest in consecrated ground amid incense and music, lights and flowers,
+the tolling of bells, and the chanting of dirges.
+
+The funeral was over; they were just finishing the _De Profundis_. My
+countryman had to quit me. "_Oyeh!_ that fellow who was making such a
+lamentation might be married agin in a twelvemonth. The army plan was
+the best; after the 'Dead March' in _Saul_ came 'Tow-row-row.'--another
+so'jer was to be had for a shilling. He did not drink; he thanked me all
+the same--had taken the pledge from Father Mathew whin he was a boy, and
+meant to stick by it; but he would accept the price of a singing-bird he
+had set his mind upon, since it was pressed upon him."
+
+Gibraltar is but a huge garrison. In the moat by the gate, as I
+re-entered, a big drummer and a tiny mannikin-soldier with cymbals were
+practising how to lead off a marching-past tune. The "Fortune of War"
+tavern elbows "Horse-Barrack Lane;" a print of "The Siege of Kars" is
+side by side in a shop-window with Dr. Bennett's "Songs for Soldiers."
+The Plazas and Calles of the mainland of Spain have been parted with.
+The names of streets, hostelries, and stores are English. Instead of
+tiendas and almacenes and fondas, you have fancy repositories,
+regimental shoe-shops, and porter-houses. There, for example, is the
+celebrated "Cock and Bottle," and farther on "The Calfs Head Hotel." If
+you traverse Cathedral Square, no larger than an ordinary-sized
+skittle-alley, you arrive by Sunnyside Steps to the Europa Pass. Notices
+are posted by the roadside cautioning against plucking flowers or
+treading on the beds under pain of prosecution. But the bazaar bewilders
+you with its alien figures, its confusion of tongues, and its eccentric
+contrasts of dress. In five minutes you meet Spanish officers; nuns in
+broad-leaved white bonnets; a bearded sergeant nursing a baby;
+bare-legged, sun-burnished Moors; pink-and-white cheeked ladies'-maids
+from Kent; local mashers in such outrageously garish tweeds; stiff
+brass-buttoned turnkeys; Jews in skull-cap and Moslems in fez; and while
+you are lost in admiration of a burly negro, turbaned and in grass-green
+robe, with face black and shiny as a newly-polished stove, you are
+hustled by a sailor on cordial terms with himself who is vigorously
+attempting to whistle "Garry Owen."
+
+But above and before all, the sights and sounds are military. Sappers
+and linesmen and artillerists pullulate at every corner; fatigue-parties
+are confronted at every turn; the bayonet of the sentinel flashes in
+every angle of the fortress from the minute the sun, bursting into
+instantaneous radiance from behind the great barrier of craggy hill,
+lights up the town and bastions and moles, until the boom of the
+sunset-gun gives signal for the gates to be closed. Every tavern looks
+like a canteen; the gossip is of things martial; the music is that of
+the reveille or tattoo--the blare of brass, the rub-a-dub of parchment,
+or the shrill sound-revel of Highland pipes (for there is usually a
+Scotch regiment here). The ladies one meets all have husbands, or
+fathers, or uncles in the Service; even the children--those of English
+parents well understood--keep step as they walk, and the boys amongst
+them compliment any well-dressed stranger with a home face by rendering
+him the regulation salute. This is highly gratifying to the civilian
+sojourning in the place; for he insensibly succumbs to the _genius
+loci_, squares his shoulders, expands his chest, and feels that if he is
+not an officer he ought to be one.
+
+Except the enterprising gentry who devote themselves to cheating the
+Spanish excise by smuggling cigars and English goods across the border,
+the Scorpions live by and on the garrison, and therefore do I name their
+habitat Sutlersville. "Scorpion," I should add, for the benefit of the
+uninitiated, is the _sobriquet_ conferred by Tommy Atkins on the natives
+of the Rock, as that of "Smiches" is merrily applied by him to the
+Maltese, and of "Yamplants" to the denizens of St. Helena. There is a
+tolerable infusion of English blood among the Scorpions, but it is
+hardly of the healthiest or most respectable.
+
+Gib is familiar to thousands of Englishmen, but it must be unfamiliar to
+many thousands more. This is my excuse for exhuming some notes of my
+stay there. Don't be afraid, I am not going to pester you with
+guide-book erudition. Let others take you to the galleries and caves,
+lead you up the ascent to the Moorish tower, inform you that the one
+spot in Europe where there is an indigenous colony of monkeys (the
+patriarch of which is styled the "town major") is here, and enlighten
+you as to the interesting fact that this is the only locality out of
+Ireland where the Irish jaunting-car is to be objurgated. Mine be a
+humbler task.
+
+Society in Gib is select, but limited. It is uniform, like the clothes
+of the influential portion of the inhabitants. Gib is the wrong place to
+bring out a young lady, though Major Dalrymple's daughters, immortalized
+in Lever's novel, could not well have found a better hunting-ground. But
+then Major Dalrymple's daughters were regular garrison hacks--so the
+irreverent subs of the Rovers used to call them--and never stood a
+chance beside the daughters of the county families. There are racing and
+chasing at the station, and theatricals and balls. I arrived at the
+wrong season. The three days' local racing, for horses of every breed
+but English, was over, and most of the men were going to Cadiz by
+special boat next day, _en route_ for the Jerez races, which are the
+best--indeed, I might almost say the solitary--meeting in Spain.
+
+"There are only two things in this land worth talking about," said an
+English merchant to me at Cadiz; "the steamers of Lopez and the races of
+Jerez."
+
+The hunting (thanks to brave old Admiral Fleming for having started that
+diversion) was over too. The meets have to come off, naturally, outside
+the frontier of British Spain. The sport is pretty good--one cannot
+quite expect the Melton country, of course--the riding hard, and the
+horses invariably Spanish; no English horses would do, for no English
+horse would be equal to climbing up a perpendicular bank with sixteen
+stone on his back, and that is a feat the native steeds, bestridden by
+British warriors in pink who follow the Calpe pack, have sometimes to
+accomplish. There is a Spanish lyrical and theatrical troop in the town;
+but it is Holy Week, and lyricals and theatricals are under taboo.
+Occasionally charity concerts are given by amateurs, and plays are even
+performed in Lent Champagne, of the Fizzers, has won a reputation by his
+success on the boards when he dons the habiliments of lovely woman
+beyond a certain age. But, as I told you before, I arrived at the wrong
+season. There are no balls at the Convent, which is the Governor's
+residence; and, touching these balls, I have a grievance to ventilate,
+at the request of Mrs. Quartermaster Damages. She specially imported
+frilled petticoats from England to display in the mazy dance, and she
+assured me they were turning sere and yellow in her boxes. She never
+gets a chance of bringing them out except once in the twelvemonth, when
+she is asked to the "Quartermasters' Ball." But there is a reason for
+everything, and Mrs. Quartermaster Damages is fat and forty, and not
+fair, and--tell it not out of mess--they say she has a tongue.
+
+At this particular time, you perceive, this fortified fragment of the
+empire was dull; but usually it is gay, and the officer quartered there
+has always an excellent opportunity of learning his trade and acquiring
+skill in the gentlemanly game of billiards. He can make maps and surveys
+of the neutral ground, and watch the guard mounting on the Alameda, or
+read the account of the siege in Drinkwater's days; and when he tires of
+the green cloth and its distractions, and of his own noble profession,
+he can throw a sail to the breeze in the unequalled Bay, or take a
+flying trip to Tarifa to sketch the beautiful from the living model, or
+go to Ceuta to see the Spanish galley-slaves and disciplinary regiments,
+forgetful of our own chain-gangs; or steam across to Tangier to riot in
+Nature and a day's pig-sticking.
+
+The Bay, the Alameda, and Tarifa--these are the three delights of
+Gibraltar.
+
+You have heard of the Bay of Naples, and the Bay of Dublin, which equals
+it in Paddy Murphy's estimation. I know both; and Gibraltar, the
+little-spoken-of, leaves them nowhere. The sky, and the undulating
+mirror below that reflects it, are such a blue; the rocks are such an
+ashen-grey; the Spanish sierras such a leonine brown, with summits
+wrapped in clouds like rolling smoke; and the sun goes down to his bath
+in the west 'mid such a vaporous glow of yellowing purple and rosy gold!
+
+The Alameda is a bower of Venus cinctured by Mars. Here is a gravelled
+expanse bounded by hill and sea, with cosy benches under the shade of
+palmitos--the civilization of the West in alliance with the rich
+vegetation of the East. Sometimes, in the morning, five hundred men or
+more--garrison artillery, engineers, and infantry--muster there,
+previous to marching to their posts; there is a banging of drums, a
+blowing of bugles, a bobbing vision of cocked-hats, and a roar of hoarse
+words of command--all the pomp and pride and circumstance of glorious
+war before the fighting begins. Sometimes, in the evening, a band plays,
+and the Alameda is the resort of fashion and of nursery-maids.
+
+Tarifa, shining in the sunset across the water, is a tempting morsel for
+the landscape-painter, and the dwellers in Tarifa are the best teachers
+of Spanish. A British subaltern bent on improving his mind could
+encounter an infinitely better preceptor there than "Jingling Johnny,"
+the self-appointed professor to the garrison, who hires himself on
+Monday, makes you a present of a guitar-tutor on Tuesday, and asks you
+to favour him with six months' payment in advance on Wednesday. To be
+sure, the Spanish those Tarifans speak is slightly Arabified; but their
+tones of voice are persuasive, and their methods of teaching agreeable.
+The professor taken by the British subaltern is invariably a female, and
+the females of Tarifa are not the ugliest in the world. They still
+retain many customs peculiar to their Moorish ancestors. They wear a
+manta, not a mantilla--a sort of large-hooded mantle, with which they
+hide the light of their countenance, except an eye--but that is a
+piercer, ye gods I and they keep it open for business. When a stranger
+passes, especially if he looks like a sucking lieutenant from the
+fortress beyond, the manta falls, disclosing the soft loveliness
+beneath, and the wearer affects a pretty confusion, and hastens with
+judicious slowness to re-adjust its folds. The British subaltern reels
+to his quarters seriously wounded, and may be seen the following
+morning, with his hair blown back, spouting poetry to the zephyrs on
+Europa Point. Oh no!--that only occurs in romances; but he may be seen
+drinking brandy-and-soda moderately in the Club-House.
+
+Poor British subaltern! How Sutlersville does exploit him! He is a
+sheep, and bears his fleecing without a kick. Watch those lazy,
+lounging, able-bodied, smoking, and salivating loons who prop up every
+street-corner, and monopolize the narrow pathways--these all live by
+him; they eat up his substance, and fatten thereupon. These are the
+touting and speculating sons of the Rock, the veritable Scorpions, who
+are ever ready to find the "cap'n" a dog or a horse or a boat, or
+something not so harmless, to help him on the road to ruin, and whisper
+in his ear what a fine fellow he is--"As ver fine a fellow--real
+gemman--as Lord Tomnoddy, who give me such a many dollars when he go
+away." The first word these loons pronounce after coming into the world
+must be _baksheesh_. They are born with beggary in their mouths, and the
+British subaltern acts as if he were born to be their victim. There he
+is below, of every type, lolling outside the hotel-door that looks on
+that Commercial Square which is so thorough a barrack-square, with its
+romping children, its dogs, its dust, its guard-house with chatting
+soldiers on a form in front, and the important sentinel pacing to and
+fro, regular and rigid as a pendulum, keeping vigilant watch and ward
+over nothing in particular. We have a rare company to-day; besides the
+engineers and bombardiers, and the linesmen of the 24th, 31st, 71st, and
+81st, the four infantry regiments on the station, we have men on leave
+from Malta. They came up to the races, and are waiting for the P. and O.
+steamer to take them back. That fat little customer is your sporting
+sub. I only wonder he is not in cords, tops, and spurs. What a hearty
+voice he talks in! He asks for the _Field_ as if he were giving a
+view-halloo. Then there is the moist-eyed, mottle-cheeked, puffy,
+convivial sub, who is knowing on the condition of ale, and is too
+friendly with Saccone's sherry. The convivial sub, I am happy to say, is
+dying out. Then there is the prig, who is "going in" for his profession.
+I call him a prig, because when people are going in for anything they
+should have the good sense not to blow about it. To hear Mr. Shells and
+his prattle about Hamley and Brialmont and Jomini, _kriegspiel_ and the
+new drill, you would imagine he was bound to put the extinguisher on
+Marlborough, Wellington, Wolseley, and the rest of them; and yet the
+chances are, if you meet him twenty years hence, he will be a captain on
+the recruiting service, with no forces to marshal but six growing
+children. Then there is the sentimental sub, the perfect ladies' man,
+who plays croquet and the flute, pleads guilty to having cultivated the
+Nine, and affects a simpering pooh-pooh when he is impeached with having
+inspired that wicked but so witty bit of scandal in the local paper. By
+singularity of pairing, his fast friend is the muscular sub, who walks
+against time, and can write his initials with a hundredweight hanging
+from his index-finger.
+
+Happy dogs in the heyday of life, all of them; how I envy them their
+buoyant spirits, their rollicking enjoyment of to-day, and their
+contempt for the morrow! But the morrow will come nevertheless, and
+with it Black Care will come often. Gib is a haunt of the Hebrews; they
+or their myrmidons beset the subaltern at genial hours, after luncheon
+or after mess, pester him with vamped-up knick-knacks for sale, appeal
+to him to patronize a poor man by buying articles he does not and never
+by any means can want--"pay me when you likes, Cap'n, one yearsh, two
+yearsh." The "cap'n," who may have left Sandhurst but six months, may be
+weakly good-natured, and ignore the fact that his income is not elastic;
+some day that he thinks of taking a run to England Ben Solomon, who
+seems to be able to read the books in the Adjutant-General's Office
+through the walls, pounces upon him with his little bill, and he is
+arrested if he cannot satisfy his Jewish benefactor. Loans are advanced
+at a high rate "per shent" by the harpies, and enable him to stave off
+the temporary embarrassment; the "cap'n" is happy for the moment, but
+the reckoning is only deferred that it may grow. The arrival of Black
+Care is adjourned, not averted. The plain truth of it is, Gibraltar is a
+den of thieves, and has been the burial-pit of many a promising young
+fellow's hopes. There are two tariffs for everything--one for natives,
+the other for the British subaltern and the British tourist; and the
+British subaltern and the British tourist are foolish enough to submit
+to the extortion in most cases. With some half-dozen honourable
+exceptions, the traders are what is popularly known as "Jews" in their
+mode of dealing. They cozen on principle, sell articles that will not
+last, and charge preposterous prices for them; they impose upon the
+young officer's softness or delicate gentlemanly feeling, and consider
+themselves smart for so doing. In this manner Gibraltar, with all its
+discomforts, is dearer than the most expensive and luxurious quarter in
+the British Isles.
+
+But we have other specimens of the genus officer in the lounging
+slaughterers by profession, who are so busy killing time. The lean
+bronzed aristocratic major, whose temper long years in India have not
+soured; the squat pursy paymaster (why are paymasters so fearfully
+inclined to fat?); the raw-boned young surgeon with the Aberdeen accent;
+"the ranker," erect and grizzled, and looking ever so little not quite
+at his ease, you know, for the languid lad with fawn-coloured moustache
+straddling on the chair beside him is an Honourable; the jovial portly
+Yorkshireman, who is in the Highland Light Infantry, naturally; and the
+lively loud-voiced Irishman, laughing consumedly at his own jokes--all
+are here, conversing, smoking, mildly chaffing each other, and
+exchanging "tips" as to the next Derby. They make a book in a quiet way,
+and occasionally invest in a dozen tickets in a Spanish lottery. What
+will you? One cannot perpetually play shop, and the British officer has
+a rooted objection to it, although he does his duty like a man when the
+tug of war arises. Better that he should join in a regimental
+sweepstakes, or lose what he can afford to lose to a comrade, than give
+way to the blues. He does not gamble or curse, like his Spanish
+_confrère_; his potations are not deep, nor is he quick to quarrel. Then
+let him race on the Neutral Ground; let him hunt with the Calpe pack;
+and let him back his fancy for the big event at Epsom. Those are his
+chief excitements at Gib, and help to give a fillip to life in that
+circumscribed microcosm, pending the anxiously expected morn when the
+route will come, or, mayhap, the call to active service, in one of those
+petty wars which are constantly breaking the monotony of this so-called
+pacific reign.
+
+"Guard, turn out!" cries the Highland Light Infantry sentinel under my
+window, and the smart soldier laddies fall in for the inspection of the
+officer of the day. What a thoroughly military town it is! By-and-by the
+evening gun booms from the heights above, where Sergeant Munro, taking
+time from his sun-dial and the town major, notifies the official sunset.
+Bang go the gates. We are imprisoned. Anon the streets are traversed by
+patrols in Indian file to warn loiterers to return to barracks, the
+pipers of the 71st skirl a few wild tunes on Commercial Square, the
+buglers sound the last post, the second gun-fire is heard, and a hush
+falls over the town, broken only by the challenges of sentries or their
+regular echoing footfalls on their weary beats. The thunder of artillery
+wakes you in the morning anew, and if you venture out for a walk before
+breakfast you thread your way through waggons of the army train or
+fatigue-parties in white jackets. You stumble across cannon and
+symmetric pyramids of shot where you least expect them; the line of
+sea-wall is intersected by figures in brick-red tunic, moving back and
+forward on ledges of masonry; the morning air is alive with drum-beats
+and bugle and trumpet-calls; everything is of the barrack most
+barrack-like; the broad arrow is indented in large deep character on the
+Rock. It is impossible to shake off the Ordnance atmosphere. The Irish
+jaunting-cars are all driven by the sons of soldiers' wives; the
+clergy-men are all military chaplains; those goats are going up to be
+milked for the major's delicate daughter; that lady practising horse
+exercise in a ring in her garden is wife to Pillicoddy of the Control
+Department, and is merely correcting the neglected education of her
+youth; the very monkeys--diminishing sadly, it grieves me to say--recall
+associations of the mess-room, for you never fail to hear of that
+terrible sportsman, "one of Cardwell's gents," who thought it excellent
+fun to shoot one some time ago. Luckily, the rules of the service did
+not permit him to be tried by court-martial, or the wretched boy might
+have been ordered out for instant execution, so great was the
+indignation. But if he was not shot he was roasted as fearfully as ever
+St. Laurence was; he was reminded a thousand times if once that
+fratricide is a fearful crime, and if ever Nemesis visits his pillow it
+will be in the shape of a monkey without a tail.
+
+One wearies of the same scenes of beauty, and would fain barter the Cork
+Woods for the chestnuts in Bushy Park; the bright Bay and the watchet
+sky pall on the senses, and a dull river and drab clouds would be
+welcomed for change. The day rises when the conversation of the same
+set, the stories repeated as often as that famous one of grouse in the
+gun-room, and the stale jokes anent the Sheeref of Wazan and the rival
+innkeepers of Tangier, black Martin and "Lord James," cloy like treacle;
+the fiction palmed upon the latest novice that he must go and have a few
+shots at the monkeys, if he wishes to curry favour at headquarters,
+misses fire; the calls of the P. and O. steamers, and the thought that
+their passengers within a week either have seen, or will see, the
+little village works its effect; even bull-fighting is adjudged a bore,
+and one sighs for Regent Street and the "Rag and Famish," flaxen
+ringlets, and roast bee£ A twelvemonth might pass pleasantly on the
+Rock; but after that the "damnable iteration" of existence must jar on
+the nerves like the note of a cuckoo. Still, as my philosopher of the
+cemetery remarked, there are worse places--far worse, Assouan and Aden,
+for example; so let not the gallant gentleman repine whom Fate has
+assigned to a round of duty in Sutlersville. For Tommy Atkins of the
+rank and file, it is wearisome when he is young; he should not be asked
+to stay there longer than a twelvemonth while he is at the age which
+yearns for novelty, and during that twelvemonth he should be drilled as
+at the depôt. For the old soldier it is a good station, and should be
+made a haven of rest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+     From Pillar to Pillar--Historic Souvenirs--Off to Africa--The
+     Sweetly Pretty Albert--Gibraltar by Moonlight--The
+     Chain-Gang--Across the Strait--A Difficult Landing--Albert is
+     Hurt--"Fat Mahomet"--The Calendar of the Centuries Put
+     Back--Tangier: the People, the Streets, the Bazaar--Our Hotel--A
+     Coloured Gentleman--Seeing the Sights--Local Memoranda--Jewish
+     Disabilities--Peep at a Photographic Album--The Writer's Notions on
+     Harem Life.
+
+
+I WAS gradually getting into the mood of Pistol, and cried a foutra for
+the world of business and worldlings base. My soul was longing for
+"Africa and golden joys." Here I was at the elbow, so to speak, of the
+mysterious Continent, where the geographers set down elephants for want
+of towns. Why should I not visit it? I might never have such a chance
+again. I stood in the shadow of one Pillar of Hercules. Why not make
+pilgrimage to the other? Having notched Calpe on my staff, I resolved to
+add Abyla to the record.
+
+I was the more inclined to this, as I had recollection that Tangier had
+been part of the British dominions for one-and-twenty years. In 1662
+Catharine of Braganza, the "olivader-complexioned queen of low stature,
+but prettily shaped," whose teeth wronged her mouth by sticking a little
+too far out, brought it as portion of her dowry to Charles II. The 2nd,
+or Queen's Own Regiment, was raised to garrison the post, and sported
+its sea-green facings, the favourite colour of her Majesty, for long in
+the teeth of the threatening Moors. The 1st Dragoons still bear the
+nickname of "the Tangier Horse," and were originally formed from some
+troops of cuirassiers who assisted in the defence of the African
+stronghold for seventeen years; and the 1st Foot Regiment owes its title
+of "Royal" to the distinction it gained by capturing a flag from the
+Moors in 1680. That was the year when old John Evelyn noted in his diary
+that Lord Ossorie was deeply touched at having been appointed Governor
+and General of the Forces, "to regaine the losses we had lately
+sustain'd from the Moors, when Inchqueene was Governor." His lordship
+relished the commission so little--indeed, it was a forlorn errand--that
+he took a malignant fever after a supper at Fishmongers' Hall, went
+home, and died. In 1683 the Merry Monarch caused the works of Tangier to
+be blown up, and abandoned the place, declaring it was not worth the
+cost of keeping. The Merry Monarch was not prescient. A century
+afterwards Gibraltar was indebted for a large proportion of its
+supplies, during the great siege, to the dismantled and deserted
+British-African fortress. For many reasons Tangier was not to be missed.
+
+By a happy coincidence a party of three in the Club-House Hotel--a
+retired army captain, his wife, and a lady companion--were anxious to
+take a trip to Africa. We agreed to go together, and had scarcely made
+up our minds, when another retired captain, who habitually resided in
+Tangier, gratified us by the information that he was returning there,
+and would be happy to give us every assistance in his power. Retired
+Captain No. 1 was a jolly fellow, fond of good living and not
+overburdened with æstheticism--a capital specimen of a hearty
+Yorkshireman. He looked after the provand. His wife, portly and short of
+temper, was as good-natured as he. She insisted on discharging the
+bills. The lady-companion was thin, accomplished, and melancholy. She
+kept us in sentiment. Retired Captain No. 2 was a fellow-countryman of
+mine, bright-brained and waggish. He was the walking guide-book, with
+philosophy and friendship combined. I was nigh forgetting one, and not
+by any means the least important, member of the party--Albert. Mrs.
+Captain introduced him to me as a sweetly pretty creature. At her
+request I looked after him. Tastes vary as to what constitutes beauty,
+but I candidly think a broad thick head, crop ears, a flattish nose, and
+heavy jowls could not be called sweetly pretty without straining a
+point; and all these Albert possessed. He was a bull-dog (I believe his
+real name was Bill, and that he had been brought up in Whitechapel). As
+a bull-dog he had excellent points, and might be esteemed a model of
+symmetry and breeding by the fancy, or even pronounced a beauty and
+exquisitely proportioned by connoisseurs; but sweetly pretty--never! I
+could not stomach that, especially when Albert growled and laid bare his
+ruthless set of sound white teeth.
+
+Before leaving Gibraltar I had two novel sensations, nocturnal and
+matutinal. The first was a view of the Bay by moonlight, the white
+crescent shining clearly down on a portion of the inner waters brinded
+by shipping, and on the outer spread of sleepy, cadenced wavelets
+rippling phosphorescently under the pallid rays. By the Mole were
+visible the outlines of barques, steamers, coal-brigs, and xebecs; away
+to the left were the _Catapult_ and a few of her mosquito companions;
+and far out rode at anchor a stately frigate of the United States'
+fleet. The twinkling lamps of the city afloat sending out reddish lines,
+and the fuller, clearer, luminous pencillings of the gas-lamps of the
+city ashore, made a not ungrateful contrast to the quivering chart of
+poetic moonbeams. Bending over their edge were the deep shadows of the
+massive Rock; and bounding them, at the other side, the barren
+foot-hills of Algeciras mellowed into a phantom softness by distance and
+the night.
+
+Next morning, as I strolled by the sea-wall towards the Ragged Staff
+Battery, I saw a sight that took away my appetite for breakfast. Pacing
+slowly to their work to the music of clanking chains was a column of
+wretched convicts.[A] What haggard faces, with low foreheads, sunken
+eyes, and dogged moody expression or utter blankness of expression!
+Purely animal the most of that legion of despair and desperation looked,
+and sallow and sickly of complexion. They were a blot on the fresh
+sunshine. How hideous their coarse garb of pied jackets branded with the
+broad arrow, their knickerbockers and clumsy shoes! Wistfully they moved
+along, hardly daring to glance at me, through fear of the turnkeys with
+loaded rifles marching at their sides. I almost felt that, if I had the
+power, I would demand their release, as did the Knight of La Mancha that
+of the criminals on their way to the galleys, although they might have
+been as ungrateful as Gines de Passamonte; but those hang-dog
+countenances banished impulses of chivalry.
+
+The little steamer, the _Spahi_, which conveyed us across the Strait,
+was seaworthy for all her cranky appearance, and made the passage of
+thirty-two miles quickly and comfortably for all her roughness of
+accommodation. She was a cargo-boat, but her skipper was English, and
+did his best to make the ladies feel at home. Besides, Captain No. 1 had
+brought a select basket of provisions and a case of dry, undoctored
+champagne. One of our first experiences as we cleared Algeciras, with
+turrets like our martello-towers sentinelling the hills, and the
+three-masted wreck--"Been twenty-one days there," said the skipper, "and
+not an effort has been made to raise it yet, and not even a warning
+light is hung over it at night"--was to sight a bottle-nosed whale
+puffing and spewing its predatory course.
+
+"What are those ruins upon the Spanish shore for?" asked the
+accomplished lady.
+
+When she was informed that they were the beacons raised in the days of
+old, when the Moorish corsairs haunted that coast, and that the moment
+the pirate sail was descried in the offing (I hope this is correctly
+nautical) the warning fire blazed by night, or the warning plume of
+smoke went up by day, to summon Spain's chivalry to the rescue, she was
+enchanted, and recited a passage from Macaulay's "Armada."
+
+We made the transit in a little over three hours, and, rounding the
+Punta de Malabata, cut into the Bay of Tangier, and eased off steam at
+some distance from the Atlantic-washed shore. There is no pier, but a
+swell and discoloration, projecting in straight line seawards, marks
+where a mole had once stood. That was a piece of British handiwork; but
+the Moor, who is no more tormented by the demon of progress than the
+Turk, had literally let it slide, until it sank under the waters.
+
+The Sultana of Moorish cities Tangier is sometimes called, and truly she
+does wear a regal, sultana-like air as seen from afar, cushioned in
+state on the hillside, her white flat roofs rising one above another
+like the steps of a marble staircase, the tall minarets of the mosques
+piercing the air, and the multitudinous many-coloured flags of all
+nations fluttering above the various consulates. But in this, as in so
+many other instances, it is distance which lends enchantment to the
+view.
+
+We went as near to the shore as we could in small boats, and when we
+grounded, a fellowship of clamouring, unkempt, half-naked Barbary Jews,
+skull-capped, with their shirts tied at their waists and short cotton
+drawers, rushed forward to meet us, and carry us pickaback to dry land.
+The ladies were borne in chairs, slung over the shoulders of two of
+these amphibious porters, or on an improvised seat made by their linked
+hands, but to preserve their equilibrium the dear creatures had to clasp
+their arms tightly round the necks of the natives. This would not look
+well in a picture, above all if the lady were a professional beauty. But
+there was nothing wrong in it, any more than in Amaryllis clinging to
+the embrace of Strephon in the whirling of a waltz. Custom reconciles to
+everything. On stepping into the small boat I had my first difficulty
+with Albert. I trod on his tail. The dog looked reproachfully, but did
+not moan. His mistress scowled, and warned me to take care what I was
+about for an awkward fool. Her husband, with a pained look on his face,
+mutely apologized for her, and I humbly excused myself and vowed
+amendment. I am not revengeful, but I did enjoy it when one of the
+porters, tottering under the weight of the fat lady, made a false step
+and nearly gave her a sousing. I clambered on my particular Berber's
+back, dear Albert in my arms, and we splashed merrily along; but Captain
+No. 1, who turned the scales at seventeen stone two pounds, had not so
+uneventful a landing. Twice his bearer halted, and the warrior,
+abandoning himself to his fate, swore he would make the Berber's nose
+probe the sand if he stumbled.
+
+As I was discharged on the beach, I was confronted by a majestic Moor.
+His grave brown face was fringed with a closely-trimmed jet-black beard,
+and his upper lip was shaded with a jet-black moustache. He wore a white
+turban and a wide-sleeved ample garment of snowy white, flowing in
+graceful folds below his knees; and on his feet were loose yellow
+slippers, peaked and turned up at the toes. This was Mahomet Lamarty,
+better known as "Fat Mahomet," who had acted as interpreter to the
+British troops in the Crimea, and who, at this period, was making an
+income by supplying subalterns from Gib with masquerade suits to take
+home and horses to ride. Mahomet in his sphere was a great man. He was
+none of your loquacious _valets de place_, no courier of the
+Transcendental school. He had made the pilgrimage to Mecca and was a
+Hadji; he was a chieftain of a tribe in the vicinity, and had fought in
+the war against the Spanish infidels; he could borrow his purest and
+finest Arab from the Kadi; he was free to the sacred garden of the
+Shereef, or Pope-Sultan, one of the descendants of the Prophet, Allah be
+praised!
+
+Mahomet, who was known to both the Captains, passed our small
+impedimenta through the custom-house--there is an orthodox custom-house,
+though there is no proper accommodation for shipping--and we trailed at
+his heels up the close, crowded, rough alleys which did duty as streets.
+It would be hard to imagine a more thorough-going change than our scurry
+across the waves had effected. We were in another world completely. We
+had been transported as on the carpet of the magician. It was as if the
+calendar had been put back for centuries, and the half-forgotten
+personages of the "Thousand-and-One Nights" were revivified and had
+their being around us.
+
+Tangier is a walled and fortified town; but Vauban had no hand in the
+fortifications, and it is my private opinion the walls would go down
+before a peremptory horn-blast quicker than those of Jericho. It swarms
+with a motley population much addicted to differences in shades of
+complexion. The Tangerines exhaust the primitive colours and most of the
+others in their features. There are lime-white Tangerines, copper and
+canary-countenanced Tangerines, olive and beetroot-hued Tangerines,
+Tangerines of the tint of the bottom of pots, Tangerines of every--no, I
+beg to recall that, there are no well-defined blue or green Tangerines;
+at least, none that came under my ken. The town is as old as the hills
+and courageously uncivilized. There is no gasholder, no railway-station,
+no theatre, no cab-stand, no daily paper, and no drainage board to go
+into controversy over. It is unconsciously backward, near as it is to
+Europe--a rifle-shot off the track of ships plying from the West to the
+ports of the Mediterranean. It preserves its Eastern aroma with a fine
+Moslem conservatism. Its ramparts of crumbling masonry are ornamented
+with ancient cannon useless for offence, useless for defence. There is
+said to be a saluting-battery; but the legend runs that the gunners
+require a week's clear notice before firing a salute.[B] There is no
+locomotion save in boxes and on the backs of quadrupeds; and quadrupeds
+of the inferior order are usually, when overtaken by death, thrown in
+the streets to decompose. But if the irregularity of the town would
+galvanize the late Monsieur Haussmann in his grave, its situation would
+satisfy the most exacting Yankee engineer. It is huddled in a sheltered
+nest on the fringe of a land of milk and honey; it has the advantage of
+a spread of level beach, and rejoices in the balmiest of climes.
+
+The streets are so narrow that you could light a cigar from your
+neighbour's window on the opposite side; but there is no window, neither
+at this side nor the other. A hole with a grating is the only window
+that is visible. Moors are jealous, and to be able to appreciate their
+household comforts you must first succeed in turning their houses inside
+out. Those who have dived into the recesses say the fruit is as savoury
+as the husk is repulsive. The windowless houses with their backs
+grudgingly turned to the thoroughfares are low for the most part, and
+the thoroughfares are--oh! so crooked--zigzag, up and down, staggering
+in a drunken way over hard cobble-stones and leading nowhere. There are
+mosques and stores entered by horse-shoe arches, a bazaar dotted over
+with squatting women, cowled with dirty blankets, selling warm
+griddle-cakes; moving here and there are the same spectral figures,
+similar dirty blankets veiling them from head to foot; over the way are
+cylinders of mat, with nets caging the apertures at each end, to hold
+the cocks and hens, rabbits and pigeons, brought for sale by Riffians,
+descendants of the corsairs of that ilk, stalwart, brown, and
+bare-legged, with heads shaven but for the twisted scalp-lock left for
+the convenience of Asrael when he is dragging them up to Paradise.
+Hebrews have their standings around, and deal in strips of cotton, brass
+dishes, and slippers, or change money, or are ready for anything in the
+shape of barter. Seated in the shade of that small niche in the wall, as
+on a tailor's shop-board, is an adool, or public notary, selling advice
+to a client; in the alcove next him is a worker in beads and filigree;
+from a dusty forge beyond comes the clang of anvils, where half-naked
+smiths are hammering out bits or fashioning horse-shoes. Mules with
+Bedouins perched, chin on shin, amid the bales of merchandise on their
+backs, cross the bazaar at every moment; or files of donkeys, stooping
+under bundles of faggots, pick their careful way. By-and-by--but this is
+not a frequent sight--a Moslem swell ambles past on a barb, gorgeous in
+caparisons, the enormous peaked saddle held in its place by girths round
+the beast's breast and quarters, and covered with scarlet hammer-cloth.
+If we move about and examine the stalls, we see lumps of candied
+sweetmeats here; charms, snuff-boxes made of young cocoanuts and beads
+there; and jars of milk or baskets of dates elsewhere. At the fountain
+yonder, contrived in the wall, mud approached by rugged, sloppy steps,
+water-carriers, wide-mouthed negro slaves, male and female, with brass
+curtain-rings in their ears, and skins blacker than the moonless
+midnight, come and go the whole day long, and gossip or wrangle with
+loafers in coarse mantles and burnous of stuff striped like
+leopard-skin. Beside the silent, gliding, ghost-like Mahometan women and
+the Hottentot Venus, you have Rebecca in gaudy kerchief and Doña Dolores
+in silken skirt and lace mantilla from neighbouring Spain. In the
+mingling crowd all is novelty, all is noise, all is queer and shifting
+and diversified.
+
+The hotel where we put up was owned by Bruzeaud, formerly a messman of a
+British regiment. It was approached by a filthy lane, and commanded a
+prospect of a square not much larger than a billiard-table. In the
+middle of this square was the limp body of a deceased mongoose. At the
+opposite side of it was a Mahometan school, where the children were
+instructed in the Koran, and their treble voices as they recited the
+inspired verses in unison kept up drone for hours. The build and
+surroundings of the hostelry left much opening for improvement, but we
+had no valid ground for complaint. The beds were clean, Bruzeaud was a
+good cook, the waiter was attentive and smiled perpetually, which made
+up for his stupidity; we had a single agreeable fellow-guest in a
+Frenchman, who spoke Arabic, and had lived in the city of Morocco as a
+pretended follower of the Prophet; and, besides, there was that dry
+undoctored champagne, which it is permissible to drink at all meals in
+Africa.
+
+There was another hotel in Tangier, a more pretentious establishment,
+owned by one Martin--surname unknown. Martin was a character. He was an
+unmitigated coloured gentleman, blubber-lipped and black as the ace of
+spades, with saffron-red streaks at the corners of his optics. He was a
+native of one of the West India Islands, I believe, but I will not be
+positive. Mahomet Lamarty pressed me to tell him in what English county
+Englishmen were born black, and when I said in none, he gravely
+ejaculated that in that case Martin was a liar, and habitually ate dirt.
+To avert possible complications into which I might have been drawn, I
+had to hasten to explain that Martin might possibly have been born in a
+part of England known as the Black Country. He had served in the
+steward's department on the ship of war where the Duke of Edinburgh,
+then Prince Alfred and a middy, was picking up seamanship. Hence his
+Jove-like hauteur. He had rubbed-skirts with Royalty, and to his
+fetter-shadowed soul some of the divinity which hedges kings and their
+relatives had adhered to him. I never met a darkey who could put on such
+fearful and wonderful airs. Where he did not order he condescended. He
+showed me an Irish constabulary revolver which he had received from "his
+old friend, Lord Francis Conyngham--'pon honour, he was delighted to
+meet him. It was good for sore eyes--who'd a-thought of his turning up
+there!" Splendidly inflated Martin was when he spoke of "his servants."
+This thing was entertaining until he grew presumptuous. If you are
+polite to some people they are familiar, and want to take an ell for
+every inch you have conceded. And then you have to tell them to keep
+their place. But Martin, with the instincts of his race, saw in time
+when it was coming to that. What a misery it must be for a coloured
+gentleman of ambition that the tell-tale _odor stirpis_ cannot be
+eliminated! Martin spent extraordinary amounts of money on the purchase
+of essences, but to no effect; he could not escape from himself; the
+scent of the nigger, _che puzzo!_ would hang round him still. He was a
+great coward with all his magniloquence, and when cholera attacked
+Tangier, left it in craven terror, and sequestered himself in a country
+house a few miles off.
+
+The two captains and I "did" Tangier conscientiously, with the zest of
+Bismarck over a yellow-covered novel, and the thoroughness of a Cook's
+tourist on his first invasion of Paris. We crawled into a stifling crib
+of a dark coffee-house, and sucked thick brown sediment out of
+liliputian cups; we smoked hemp from small-bowled pipes until we fell
+off into a state of visionary stupor known as "kiff;" we paid our
+respects to the Kadi, exchanged our boots for slippers, and settled down
+cross-legged on mats as if we were the three tailors of Tooley Street;
+we almost consented to have ourselves bled by a Moorish barber--Mahomet
+Lamarty's particular, who lanced him in the nape of the neck every
+spring--for the Moorish barber still practises the art of Sangrado, and
+also extracts teeth. But in my note-taking I was sorely handicapped by
+my ignorance of the language. Arabic is spoken in the stretch extending
+from Tetuan to Mogador by the coast, and for some distance in the
+interior; Chleuh is the dialect of the inhabitants of the Atlas range,
+and Guinea of the negroes. Spanish is slightly understood in Tangier and
+its vicinity, and is well understood by the Jews. The houses are
+generally built of chalk and flint (_tabia_) on the ground-floor, and of
+bricks on the upper story. Moorish bricks are good, but rough and
+crooked in make. The houses inhabited by Jews are obliged to be coated
+with a yellow wash, those of natives are white, those of Christians may
+be of any colour. The Jews are made to feel that they are a despised
+stock, and yet with Jewish subtlety and perseverance they have managed
+to get and keep the trade of the place in their hands. That fact may be
+plainly gathered from the absence of business movement in the bazaars
+and public resorts of Tangier on the Jewish Sabbath. Your Hebrew does
+not poignantly feel or bitterly resent being reviled and spat upon,
+provided he hears the broad gold pieces rattling in the courier-bag
+slung over his shoulder. He nurses his vengeance, but he has the common
+sense to perceive that the readiest and fullest manner of exacting it is
+by cozening his neighbour. At this semi-European edge of Africa he
+enjoys comparative license, although he is forced to appear in skull-cap
+and a long narrow robe of a dark colour something like a priest's
+soutane. But the son of Israel when he has a taste for finery (and which
+of them has not?) compensates for the gloom of his outer garment by
+wearing an embroidered vest, a girdle of some bright hue, and white
+drawers.
+
+The daughters of Israel--but my conscience charges me with want of
+gallantry towards them in a previous chapter, and now I can honestly
+relieve it and win back their favour. They are the only beautiful women
+who mollify the horizon of Tangier: the Mahometan ladies are not
+visible, those of Spanish descent are coarse, and of English are
+washed-out; while their lips are against the negresses. I have a batch
+of photographs of females in an album--aye, of believers in the Prophet
+amongst them, for it is a folly to imagine you cannot obtain that which
+is forbidden. Hercules, I fancy, must have overcome with a golden sword
+the dragon that watched the gardens of the Hesperides--which, by the
+way, were in the neighbourhood of Tangier, if Apollodorus is to be
+credited. On looking over that album, the majority of the faces are
+distinctly those of Aaronites, and most favourable specimens of the
+family, too There are melting black orbs curtained with pensive lashes,
+luxuriant black hair, regular features, and straight, delicately
+chiselled noses. These Jewesses generally wear handkerchiefs disposed
+in curving folds over their heads, and are as fond of loudly-tinted
+raiment and the gauds of trinketry as their sisters who parade the sands
+at Ramsgate during the season. There is a photograph before me, as I
+write, of a Jewish matron, fat, dull, double-chinned, and sleepy-eyed,
+who must have been a belle before she fell into flesh. She wears massy
+filigree ear-rings, two strings of precious stones as necklaces,
+ponderous bracelets, edgings of pearls on her bodice, and rings on all
+her fingers. Her shoulders are covered with costly lace, and the front
+of her skirt is like an altar-cloth heavy with embroidery. I dare say,
+if one might peep under it, she has gold bangles on her ankles. It would
+surprise me if she had an idea in her head beyond the decoration of her
+person. As we turn the leaf, there is a full-blooded negress with a
+striped napkin twisted gracefully turban-wise round her hair, and coils
+of beads, large and small, sinuously dangling on her breast, like the
+chains over the Debtor's Door at Newgate. A very fine animal indeed,
+this negress, with power in her strong shiny features; a nose of
+courage, thin in the nostrils, and cheek-bones high, but not so high as
+those of a Red Indian. If she were white, she might pass for a
+Caucasian, but for that gibbous under-lip. She lacks the wide mouth and
+the hinted intelligent archness of the Two-Headed Nightingale, and has
+not the moody expression and semi-sensuous, semi-ferocious development
+of the muscular widows of Cetewayo; but for a negress she is handsome
+and well-built, and would fetch a very good price in the market. The
+slave-trade still flourishes in Morocco. On the next page we meet two
+types of young Moorish females: one a peasant, taken surreptitiously as
+she stood in a horse-shoe archway; the other a lady of the harem,
+taken--no matter by what artifice. The peasant, swathed from tip to heel
+in white like a ghost in a penny booth, and shading her face with a
+cart-wheel of a palm-leaf hat looped from brim to crown, and with one
+extremity of its great margins curled, is a prematurely worn,
+weather-stained, common-looking wench, with a small nose and screwed-up
+mouth. She is a free woman, but I would not exchange the dusky
+bondswoman for five of her class. Centuries of bad food, much
+baby-nursing, and field-labour sink their imprint into a race. The harem
+lady, whose likeness was filched as she leaned an elbow against a low
+table, is in a state of repose. She squats tailor-fashion, her fingers
+are twined one in another in her lap, her eyes are closed, and her
+expression is one of drowsy, listless voluptuousness. She is fair, and
+her dress (for she is not arrayed for the reception of visitors) is
+simple--a peignoir, and a sash, and a fold of silk binding her long rich
+tresses. A soft die-away face, with no sentiment more strongly defined
+than the abandonment to pleasure and its consequent weariness. By no
+means an attractive piece of flesh and blood, and yet a good sample of
+the class that go to upholster a seraglio.
+
+I have never had the slightest anxiety to penetrate the secrets of the
+Moslem household, and I consider the man who would wish to poke his nose
+into its seclusion no better than Peeping Tom of Coventry--an insolent,
+lecherous cad. I would not traverse the street to-morrow to inspect the
+champion wives of the Sultan of Turkey and Shah of Persia amalgamated;
+and I deserve no credit for it, for I know that they are puppets, and
+that more engaging women are to be seen any afternoon shopping in Regent
+Street or pirouetting in the ballets of half-a-dozen theatres.
+
+Your lady of the harem is an insipid, pasty-complexioned doll, nine
+times out of ten, and would be vastly improved in looks and temperament
+if she were subjected to a course of shower-baths, and compelled to take
+horse-exercise regularly and earn her bread before she ate it.
+
+How do I know this? it may be asked. Who dares to deny it? is my answer.
+
+But here is a digression from our theme of the condition of the Jews at
+Tangier, and all on account of a few poor photographs! In one sentence,
+that condition is shameful. It is a reproach to the so-called civilized
+Powers that they do not interfere to influence the Emir-al-Mumenin to
+behave with more of the spirit of justice towards his Jewish subjects.
+In Fez and other cities they have to dwell in a quarter to
+themselves--"El Melah" (the dirty spot) it is called in Morocco city;
+and when they leave the Melah they have to go bare-footed. They are not
+permitted to ride on mules, nor yet to walk on the same side of the
+street as Arabs.
+
+The late Sir Moses Montefiore, a very exemplary old man in some
+respects, visited Morocco in his eightieth year to intercede on behalf
+of his co-religionists, and promises of better treatment were made; but
+promises are not always kept.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+     A Pattern Despotism--Some Moorish Peculiarities--A Hell upon
+     Earth--Fighting for Bread--An Air-Bath--Surprises of Tangier--On
+     Slavery--The Writer's Idea of a Moorish Squire--The Ladder of
+     Knowledge--Gulping Forbidden Liquor--Division of Time--Singular
+     Customs--The Shereef of Wazan--The Christian who Captivated the
+     Moor--The Interview--Moslem Patronage of Spain--A Slap for
+     England--A Vision of Beauty--An English Desdemona: Her Plaint--One
+     for the Newspaper Men--The Ladies' Battle--Farewell--The English
+     Lady's Maid--Albert is Indisposed--The Writer Sums up on Morocco.
+
+
+THE Government in Morocco would satisfy the most ardent admirer of
+force. It is an unbridled despotism. The Sultan is head of the Church as
+of the State, and master of the lives and property of his subjects. He
+dispenses with ministers, and deliberates only with favourites. When
+favourites displease him, he can order their heads to be taken off.
+Favourites are careful not to displease him. The land is a _terra
+incognita_ to Europeans, and is rich in beans, maize, and wool, which
+are exported, and in wheat and barley, which are not always permitted to
+be exported. Altogether the form of administration is very primitive and
+simple. It is a rare privilege for a European to be admitted into the
+Imperial presence, and indeed the only occasions, one might say, when
+Europeans have the privilege are those furnished by the visits of
+foreign Missions to submit credentials and presents. It is advisable for
+a private traveller not to go to the chief city unless attached to one
+of these official caravans; but by those who have money a journey to Fez
+may be compassed with an escort. This escort consists of the Sultan's
+very irregular soldiers, who are armed with very long and very rusty
+matchlocks, of a pattern common nowadays in museums and curiosity shops.
+Ostensibly the escort is intended to protect the traveller from the
+regularly organized bands of robbers which infest the interior; but the
+experience of the traveller is that when the robbers swoop down he has
+to protect the escort. Christians are looked upon as dogs by all the
+self-satisfied natives, and treated so by some of them when they can be
+saucy with impunity. It was my lot to be called a dog by a small
+fanatic, who hissed at me with the asperity and industry of a disturbed
+gander, and pelted me with stones. But two can play at that game, and
+that boy will think twice before he lapidates a full-grown Christian
+again. But he will hate him for evermore, and when he has reached man's
+estate will teach his son to repeat the doggerel: "The Christian to the
+hook, the Jew to the spit, and the Moslem to see the sight."
+
+The Sultan collects his revenue (estimated at half a million pounds
+sterling a year, great part of which is derived from the Government
+monopoly of the sale of opium) by the aid of his army; but as he never
+nears the greater portion of his dominions, there must be some nice
+pickings off that revenue by minor satraps before it reaches his sacred
+hands. There is quite a phalanx of under-strappers of State in this
+despotism. For instance, at Tangier there is a Bacha or Governor, a
+Caliph or Vice-Governor, a Nadheer or Administrator of the Mosques, a
+Mohtasseb or Administrator of the Markets, and a Moul-el-Dhoor or Chief
+of the Night Police. There is a leaven of the guild system, too, as in
+more advanced countries. Each trade has its Amin, each quarter its
+Mokaderrin. There is a Kadi, or Minister of Worship and Justice, to whom
+we paid our respects. Justice is quick in its action, and stern in the
+penalties it inflicts. The legs and hands are cut off pilferers, heads
+are cut off sometimes and preserved in salt and camphor, and the
+bastinado is an ordinary punishment for lesser crimes. But the Moors
+must be thick in the soles, nor is it astonishing, as the practice is to
+chastise children by beating them on the feet. Mahomet Lamarty
+volunteered to procure a criminal who would submit to the bastinado for
+a peseta. In the market-place I compassionated an unfortunate thief
+minus his right hand and left leg. We took a walk to the prison, which
+is on the summit of the hill, Captain No. 1 thoughtfully providing
+himself with a basket of bread. What a hell upon earth was that sordid,
+stifling, noisome, gloomy keep, with its crowds of starving
+sore-covered inmates. In filth it was a pig-sty, in smell a
+monkey-house, in ventilation another Black-hole of Calcutta. Turn to the
+next page, reader mine, if you are squeamish. Heaven be my witness, I
+have no desire to minister to morbid tastes; but I have an object in
+describing this dreadful _oubliette_, for it still exists--exists within
+thirty-two miles of British territory, and it is a scandal that some
+effort is not made to mitigate its horrors. Through the bars of a
+padlocked door, from which spurt blasts of mephitic heat, we can descry
+amid the steam of foul exhalations, as soon as our eyes become
+accustomed to the dimness, a mob of seething, sweating, sweltering
+captives, like in aspect as a whole to so many gaunt wild beasts. Some
+are gibbering like fiends, others jabbering like idiots. They are there
+young and old; a few--the maniacs those--are chained; all are crawled
+over by vermin, most are crusted with excretions. The sight made me feel
+faint at the time, the very recollection of it to this day makes my
+flesh creep. We were fascinated by this peep at the Inferno. The moment
+these caged wretches caught a glimpse of us they rushed to the door,
+and on bended knees, or with hands uplifted, or with pinched cheeks
+pressed against the bars, raised a clamour of entreaty. We drew back as
+the rancid plague-current smote our faces, and questioned Mahomet by our
+looks as to what all this meant.
+
+"They want food," he explained.
+
+These prisoners are allowed two loaves a day out of the revenues of the
+Mosques; but two loaves, even if scrupulously given, which I doubt, are
+but irritating pittance. They may make cushions or baskets, but their
+remuneration is uncertain and slender. Those who are lucky get
+sustenance from relatives in the town, but the majority are
+half-starving, and are dependent for a full meal on the bounty of chance
+visitors. We poked a loaf through the bars. It was ravenously snapped
+at, torn into little bits, and devoured amid the howls of those who were
+disappointed. Then a loaf was cast over the door. What a savage
+scramble! The bread was caught, tossed in the air, jumped at, and
+finally the emaciated rivals fell upon one another as in a football
+scrimmage, and there was a moving huddle of limbs and a diabolical
+chorus of shrieks and yells. That could not be done again; it was too
+painful in result Mahomet undertook to distribute the remainder of our
+stock through an inlet in the wall, and we drew away sick in head and
+heart from that den of repulsive degradation, greed, brutality, cruelty,
+selfishness, and all infuriate and debased passion--that damnable
+magazine of disease physical and moral. It is undeniable that there were
+many there whose faces were passport to the Court of Lucifer--murderers,
+and dire malefactors; but better to have decapitated them than to have
+committed them to the slow torture of this citadel of woe. There were
+inmates who had been immured for years--inmates for debt whose hair had
+whitened in the fetid imprisonment, whose laugh had in it a harsh
+hollow-sounding jangle, and whose brows had fixed themselves into the
+puckers of a sullen, hopeless, apathetic submission to fate. Their lack
+of intelligence was a blessing. Had they been more sensitive they would
+have been goaded into raging lunacy.
+
+Let us to the outer freshness and make bold endeavour to fling off this
+weight of nightmare which oppresses us. Passing by the ruinous gate
+yonder with its wild-looking sentry, we reach the open space where
+crouching hill-men are reposing on the stunted grass, and ungainly
+camels, kneeling in a circle, are chewing the cud in patience, or
+venting that uncanny half-whine, half-bellow, which is their only
+attempt at conversation. Let us take a long look at the country beyond
+with its gardens teeming with fruit and musical with bird-voices; walk
+up to the crown of that slant and survey the valleys, the plateaux, the
+brushwood, the flower-patches, spreading away to the hills that swell
+afar until the peaks of the Atlas, cool with everlasting snow, close the
+view. One is tempted to linger there lovingly, though darkness is
+falling. There is a gift of blandness and briskness in the very
+breathing of the air. When you have had your fill of the beauties on the
+land side, turn to the sea, meet the evening breeze that comes floating
+up with a flavour of iodine upon it, range round the sweeping vista,
+from giant Calpe away over the Strait flecked with sails on to
+Trafalgar, smiling peacefully as if it had never been a bay of blood,
+and finish by the vision of the great globe of fire descending into the
+Atlantic billows.
+
+Our stay in Tangier was most gratifying because of its variety and
+unending surprises. Existence there was out of the beaten track, and
+kept curiosity on the constant alert. It was a treat to pretend to be
+Legree, and to negotiate for a strong likely growing nigger-boy. I
+discovered I could have bought one for ten pounds sterling, a perfect
+bargain, warranted free from vice or blemish; but as I was not prepared
+to stop in Africa just then, I did not close with the offer. It may be a
+shocking admission to make, but if I were to settle down in Morocco, I
+confess, I should most certainly keep slaves. There is a deal of
+sentimental drivel spouted about the condition of slaves. Those I have
+seen seemed very happy. In Morocco they are well treated; and if
+desirous to change masters the law empowers them to make a demand to
+that effect. It is true that a slave's oath is not deemed valid, but
+Cuffy bears the slight with praiseworthy equanimity. I am sure if Cuffy
+were in my service he would never ask to leave it, and I would teach him
+to appraise his word as much as any other man's oath (except his
+master's), by my patented plan for negro-training, based on Mr. Rarey's
+theories. As the land about Tangier was rated at prairie value--an acre
+could be had for a dollar--I might have been induced to invest in a
+holding of a couple of hundred thousands of acres, but that my ship had
+not yet come within hail of the port. What a healthy, free, aristocratic
+life, combining feudal dignity with educated zest, a wise man could lead
+there--if he had an establishment of, say, three hundred slaves, a
+private band, a bevy of dancing girls, Bruzeaud for _chef_, an extensive
+library, sixteen saddle-horses, and relays of jolly fellows from
+Gibraltar to help him chase the wild boar and tame bores, eat
+couscoussu, and drink green-tea well sweetened. He should Moorify
+himself, but he need not change his religion, and if he went about it
+rightly, I am sure, like the village pastor, he could make himself to
+all the country dear. Take the educational question, for example. If he
+were diplomatic he would pay the school-fees of the urchins of Tangier.
+These are not extravagant--a few heads of barley daily, equivalent to
+the sod of turf formerly carried by the pupils to the hedge academies in
+dear Ireland, and a halfpenny on Friday. He should affect an interest in
+the Koran, and make it a point of applauding the Koran-learned boy when
+he is promenaded on horseback and named a bachelor. He might--indeed he
+should--follow the career of his _protégé_ at the Mhersa, where he
+studies the principles of arithmetic, the rudiments of history, the
+elements of geometry, and the theology of Sidi-Khalil, until he emerges
+in a few years a Thaleb, or lettered man. Perhaps the Thaleb may go
+farther, and become an Adoul or notary, a Fekky or doctor, nay--who
+knows?--an Alem or sage. Ah! how pleasant that Moorish squire might be
+by his own ruddy fire of rushes, palm branches, and sun-dried leaves;
+and what a profit he might make by judicious speculation in
+jackal-skins, oil, pottery, carpets, and leather stained with the
+pomegranate bark! He would have his mills turned by water or by horses;
+he would eat his bread with its liberal admixture of bran; he would rear
+his storks and rams. The professors who charm snakes and munch
+live-coals would all be hangers-on of his house; and he would have
+periodical concerts by those five musicians who played such desert
+lullabies for us--conspicuously one patriarch whose double-bass was made
+from an orange-tree--and would not forget to supplement their honorarium
+of five dollars with jorums of white wine. Sly special pleaders! They
+argue with the German play-wright: "_Mahomet verbot den Wein, doch vom
+Champagner sprach er nicht._"
+
+From the Frenchman at the hotel, whose knowledge of Morocco was
+"extensive and peculiar," I acquired much of my information on the
+manners and customs of the people. Watches are only worn and looked at
+for amusement. Instead of by hours, time is thus noted: El Adhen, an
+hour before sunrise; Fetour (repast) el Hassoua, or sunrise; Dah el Aly,
+ten in the morning; El Only, a quarter past twelve; El Dhoor, half-past
+one; El Asser, from a quarter past three to a quarter to four; El
+Moghreb, sunset; El Achâ, half-an-hour after sunset; and El Hameir,
+gun-shot. Meals are taken at Dah el Aly, El Asser, and El Moghreb. The
+houses are built with elevated lateral chambers, but there is a narrow
+staircase leading to the Doeria, a reception-room, where visitors can be
+welcomed without passing the ground-floor. The walls are plastered, and
+covered with arabesques or verses of the Koran incrusted in colours. The
+wells inside the houses are only used for cleansing linen; water for
+drinking purposes is sought outside.
+
+Among many singular customs--singular to us--I noted that a popular
+remedy for illness is to play music and to recite prayers to scare away
+the devil. An enlightened Moor might think the practices of the Peculiar
+People quite as strange, and question the infallibility of cure-all
+pills at thirteen-pence-halfpenny the box. The dead in Morocco are
+hurried to their graves at a hand-gallop. That, I submit, is no more
+unreasonable than many English funeral usages, such as incurring debt
+for the pomp of mourning. At Moorish weddings the bride is carried in
+procession in a palanquin to her husband's house amid a _fantasia_ of
+gunpowder--the reckless rejoicing discharges of ancient muskets in the
+streets. Well, white favours, gala coaches, and _feux de joie_ at
+marriages of the great are not entirely unknown among us. Nobody sees
+the Moorish wife for a year, not even her mother-in-law, which I
+consider a not wholly unkind dispensation. The Moorish wife paints her
+toe-nails, which, after all, is a harmless vanity, and less obtrusive
+than that of the ladies who impart artificial redness to their lips.
+And, lastly, the Moorish wife waits on her husband. Personally, I fail
+to discover anything blamable in that act, though I must concede that it
+is eccentric, very eccentric. These allusions to the Moorish wife in
+general lead up naturally to one in particular in whom I took a
+professional interest, for she was as remarkable in her way as Lady
+Ellenborough or Lady Hester Stanhope, or that strong-minded Irishwoman
+who married the Moslem, Prince Izid Aly, and whose son reigned after his
+father's death.
+
+The Shereef has been mentioned. He is the great man of the district,
+with an authority only second to that of the Sultan himself. Claiming
+to be a lineal descendant of Mahomet, he is entitled to wear the green
+turban. His name at full length is long, but not so long as that of most
+Spanish Infantes--Abd-es-Selam ben Hach el Arbi. He is a saint and a
+miracle-worker. He has been seen simultaneously at Morocco, Wazan, and
+Tangier, according to the belief of his co-religionists, wherein he
+beats the record of Sir Boyle Roche's bird, which was only in two places
+at once. Like Jacob, he has wrestled with angels. He is head of the
+Muley-Taib society, a powerful secret organization, which has its
+ramifications throughout the Islamitic world. He draws fees from the
+mosques, and has gifts bestowed upon him in profusion by his admirers,
+who feel honoured when he accepts them. Exalted and wide-spreading is
+his repute where the Moslem holds sway, and unassailable is his
+orthodoxy, yet he has had the temerity to take to himself a Christian
+wife. This lady had been a governess in an American family at Tangier.
+There the Shereef made her acquaintance, wooed and won her. They were
+married at the residence of the British Minister Plenipotentiary; the
+officers of a British man-of-war were present at the ceremony, and
+slippers and a shower of rice, as at home, followed the bride on leaving
+the building. The Shereef and, if possible, the Shereefa were personages
+to be seen, and Mahomet Lamarty was the very man to help us to the
+favour. His Highness lived four miles away, and we formed a cavalcade
+one afternoon and set off for his garden, the ladies accompanying us. We
+passed through cultivated fields of barley and _dra_ (a kind of millet),
+crossed the river Wadliahoodi, and ascended a road which faced abruptly
+towards the hills. An agreeable road it was, and not lonesome; we had
+the carol of birds and the piping of bull-frogs to lighten the way, and
+leafy branches made reverence overhead. There were abundance of fruit
+and such beautiful shrubs that I rail at myself for not being botanist
+enough to be able to enlarge upon them. There were orange-groves, yellow
+broom, dog-rose, and apples, pears, peaches, apricots, plums,
+pomegranates, figs, and vines. It was such an oasis as a very young
+Etonian in the warmth of a midsummer vacation might have likened to
+Heaven. The range of hills of El Jebel rose left and right, and at parts
+presented a steep cliff to the ocean. This ridge is about twelve miles
+in width, and its fertile slopes amply merit to be lauded as the best
+fruit-producers in the empire, "as bounteous as Paradise itself."
+
+Mahomet Lamarty, who was our guide, entered the Shereef's grounds to
+prepare for our introduction; and now the ladies, who had insisted on
+coming with us, rebelled, and said point-blank they would not salute the
+Shereefa as "Your Highness." They were impatient to see her, but they
+declined to give countenance to a Christian who had demeaned herself by
+wedding a heathen.
+
+"The visit was of your own seeking, ladies," I said; "if you are not
+willing to treat Her Highness with deference, better stay outside."
+
+They were not equal to that sacrifice after riding four miles.
+
+"Who'll start the conversation?" said Captain No. 1. "You start it" (to
+me) "like a good fellow, and I'll take up the running."
+
+Captain No. 2 said he would hang about for us outside.
+
+Mahomet beckoned to us and we ventured into the garden. Coming down a
+pathway we saw an austere, swarthy, obese man of the middle height. He
+was white-gloved, and wore a red fez, a sort of Zouave upper garment of
+blue, with burnous, baggy trousers, white stockings, and Turkish
+slippers. It was the Shereef. I had agreed to open the interview, but
+when it came to the trial my Arabic (I had been only studying it for two
+hours) abandoned me. Mahomet did the needful. I thanked His Highness for
+his kindness in admitting us to his demesne, and he smiled a modest,
+solemn smile, and looked greeting from his small eyes. When he
+discovered that I had been travelling in Spain, he asked me--always
+through Mahomet--what they were doing there. On having my reply--that
+they were tasting the miseries of civil war--translated to him, he shook
+his head, shrugged his shoulders, and slowly ejaculated:
+
+"Unhappy Spain! Silly, unfortunate people! That is the way with them
+always. They are at perpetual strife one with another."
+
+And then Mahomet interposed with a parenthesis of his own depreciatory
+of the Spaniards, whom he loathed and despised. He had fought against
+them in the war of 1839-1860, and the Shereef had also headed his
+countrymen, and had shown great courage and coolness in action. His
+presence had infused a high spirit of enthusiasm into the undisciplined
+troops.
+
+"Bismillah!" grunted Mahomet. "The Spaniard is beneath contempt. He was
+almost licked in one battle. He was four months here, and how far did he
+get into the interior?"
+
+Mahomet conveniently forgot the defeat of Guad-el-ras, the occupation of
+Tetuan, and the indemnity of four hundred millions of reals which was
+exacted as the price of peace; but he was literally correct, the
+victorious O'Donnell did not flaunt his flag beyond a very exiguous
+strip of the territory of Sidi-Muley-Mahomet.
+
+We were walking as we talked, and by this time had reached the brow of a
+wooded rise which commanded an uninterrupted prospect of the ocean. The
+flowery cistus flourished on the eminence, and cork-trees, chestnuts,
+and willows shielded us from the fierceness of the sun. Behind and
+around were a succession of richly-planted gardens. We halted, and the
+Shereef, scanning the horizon in the direction of the Rock, suddenly put
+a question to me which almost took my breath away:
+
+"Do they buy commissions over the way still?"
+
+"No; that system has been abolished."
+
+"It is well," he remarked, with a scarcely suppressed sneer. "It was
+incredible that a great nation and a fighting nation should make a
+traffic of the command of men, as if a clump of spears were a kintal of
+maize," and as he relapsed into silence a soldierly fire gleamed in his
+irides, his frame seemed to straighten and swell, and the nature of the
+prophet retired before that of the warrior.
+
+From where we stood we could ferret out a house with a veranda in front,
+built on a terrace and begirt with trees. That was the residence of His
+Highness; but we turned our eyes in another direction, lest we should be
+suspected of rude curiosity by this courteous African. I was trying to
+divine the tally of years our host had numbered. No Arab knows his own
+age, and here it may be useful to tell the reader wherein the
+distinction lies between the Moor and the Arab. Virtually they are the
+same; but the name of Moor is given to those who dwell in cities, of
+Arab to those who roam the plains. Mahomet came to my aid. His Highness
+had whiskers when Tangier was bombarded by Prince de Joinville. That was
+in August, 1844, a good nine-and-twenty years before, so that
+Abd-es-Salam must have long doubled the cape of forty, which would leave
+him considerably the senior of his Frankish wife.
+
+We turned at a noise--the creak of a rustic wooden gate on its hinges; a
+figure approached. And then it was given to me to gaze upon Her Highness
+the Shereefa of Wazan. She was not called Zuleika, but Emily--her maiden
+name had been Keene, and she came not from the rose-bordered bowers of
+Bendemeer's stream, nightingale-haunted, but from the prosaic levels of
+South London, where her father was governor of a gaol. Truly she was a
+vision of gratefulness in that paynim tract--a rich brunette, with
+large black eyes, long black ringletted tresses, and a well-filled shape
+with goodly bust. Her attire was neat and graceful and not Oriental. She
+was clad in a riding-habit of ruby brocaded velvet, with jacket to
+match, had a cloud of lace round her throat, and an Alpine hat with
+cock's feather poised on her well-set head. She might serve as the model
+for a Spanish Ann Chute. Bracelets on her plump wrists and rings on her
+taper fingers caught the sunshine as she occasionally twirled her
+cutting-whip. Her voice was bell-like and melodious, with the faintest
+accent of decision, and her manner, after an opening flush of
+embarrassment, was cordial and debonair. The embarrassment was because
+of her inability to extend to us the hospitality she desired. She
+explained that she had to receive us in the garden as the house was
+undergoing repairs. After the customary commonplaces, she freely entered
+into conversation, and took opportunity at once to deny that she was a
+renegade; she wore European costume, as we saw, and attended the rites
+of the English Church, for it was one of the stipulations of the
+marriage contract that she should have perfect liberty to follow her own
+faith.
+
+"I wish every English girl were as happily married as I," she said, "and
+had as loving a husband."
+
+It was gratifying, therefore, to note that she found herself as women
+wish to be who love their lords. She had been married on the 27th of
+January, and as the Shereef had entered into his present residence but
+recently, they were still at sixes and sevens. It was his habit to spend
+the winter in the country and the summer in town. She had been but two
+years in Morocco, and had not yet mastered Arabic.
+
+"His Highness understands English?" She shook her head, and quickly
+interpreting a lifting of my eyelids, she smilingly added, "Spanish was
+the medium of our courtship." And then, as we promenaded the garden
+path, she became communicative, and dwelt with pardonable expansion on
+the virtues of her lord and master, who followed behind side by side
+with the portly Yorkshireman. His charity, she said, was unbounded.
+Slaves were frequently sent to him as presents, but he kept none. He was
+modest on his own merits, and yet he was the most enlightened of Moors.
+He had visited Marseilles, a war-ship having been put at his disposal by
+the French Government, and was most anxious to take a tour to Paris and
+Vienna, and above all to England. It was his desire that railways should
+be constructed in Morocco, and he was glad when he was told that there
+was some likelihood of a telegraph cable being laid to Tangier.
+
+"Then," interrupted I, "with your Highness's influence on the tribes
+around, exercised through your husband, there should be a fair prospect
+of pushing civilization here."
+
+"Ah, yes!" she exclaimed, with a glow on her cheeks, "that is one of my
+dearest hopes, that is my great ambition. I believe that my marriage,
+which has been cruelly commented upon in England, may effect good both
+for these poor misunderstood Moors and my own country people."
+
+"Is the Shereef on friendly terms with the Sultan?"
+
+"No, I am sorry to say there is a feud between them at the moment. The
+Sultan objects to my husband for using an English saddle."
+
+"Hum!" (to myself mentally) "if the august Muley cannot brook an English
+saddle, what must he think of an English wife? Or do these Moslems, like
+some Christians I know, strain at a gnat and swallow a camel? Mayhap it
+is even so. The pigeon-prompted camel-driver, who built up his creed
+with plentiful blood-cement, saw fit to add a new chapter to the Koran,
+when he fell in love with the Coptic maiden, Mary."
+
+The Shereefa told me that her father and mother had come out to see her.
+They were averse to the alliance at first, but were satisfied that she
+had done the right thing when she told them how content she was, and
+with what high-bred consideration for her wishes in the matter of
+religion her husband had behaved. Their intention was to stop for four
+days, but they extended their visit to fourteen. "And now," she
+continued, "I can use to my lord the words of Ruth to Naomi, 'Whither
+thou goest I will go; and where thou lodgest I will lodge; thy people
+shall be my people'"--a pause--"yes, and 'thy God my God,' for there is
+but one"--archly--"the matter of the Prophet we shall leave aside."
+
+I admired the lady's pluck, and if I were that Moorish squire I have
+tried to sketch, I should esteem it an honour to have her on my visiting
+list. But I am a theological oddity, and my wallet of prejudices, it is
+to be feared, is sadly unfurnished. I never could rise to that
+sublimated self-sufficiency of intellect that I could consign any
+fellow-creature to everlasting pains for the audacity of differing in
+dogma with myself. I have met good and bad of every creed, Mahometans I
+could respect--whose word was their bond--and so-called Christians and
+Christian ministers with a most uncharitable spiritual pride, whom I
+could not respect. The liver of the persecutor was denied me. Were the
+fires of Smithfield to be rekindled, my prayers would be sent up for the
+floods of Heaven to quench them, and for the lightnings of Heaven to
+annihilate the fiends who had piled the faggots.
+
+"By-the-bye," said the Shereefa, "do you know any of those people who
+write for the papers in London?"
+
+I admitted that I had that misfortune.
+
+"Some of them are fools as well as cowards," she went on. "They have
+written articles about me full of ignorance and malice. Have they no
+consideration for the feelings of others?"
+
+"I am afraid, your Highness, some of them are more brilliant than
+conscientious; they would rather point an epigram than sacrifice style
+to truth or good-nature."
+
+"One of them in particular," she said, and there was an irritated ring
+in her voice, "has singled me out for attack, and given me in derision a
+name which he believes to be Mahometan, but which is really Jewish."
+
+And with her cutting-whip she viciously snapped off the heads of some
+poppies. The episode of Tarquin's answer to the emissary of Sextus
+occurred to me, and I felt that if my colleague, Horace St. J----, were
+there, he would have passed a very bad quarter of an hour.
+
+The females of our party joined us, and I formally presented them,
+taking a malicious pleasure in emphasizing the "your Highness." The
+Shereefa received them right graciously, but it was easy to notice that
+a chill came over the conversation. They were careful never to use the
+title to their English sister. In fact, it was a tacit ladies' battle.
+
+It was time to leave, and the Shereefa presented her visitors with two
+nosegays, gathered by her own hands. The act had in it something very
+royal, with the smallest trace of sly condescension. The Shereef
+accompanied us to the outer gate. On the way I motioned to Captain No. 1
+to offer him a cigar. He did; his Highness accepted it, bowed, and
+gravely put it in his pocket. As we stood on the road at parting, a
+peasant was passing with a load of twigs on his shoulders. He cast them
+off, threw himself on his knees, kissed the hem of the holy man's
+garments, and the back of his proffered hand.
+
+We were descending the hill when a rustle in the bushes attracted me,
+and a white face peeped out and a voice besought me in English to stop.
+It was the Shereefa's London lady's-maid. She could not resist the
+temptation of enjoying a few sentences with one of her own race. From
+her I learned that there were twenty-seven Moorish women in her master's
+household; that there was a tank at Wazan large enough to float a ship;
+that her master had been married before, and had two sons and a lovely
+Mahometan child, a daughter, to whom the Shereefa was teaching English
+and the piano; "but remember, please," and here she grew important, and
+had all the dignity of a retainer, with a great sense of what was due to
+her caste and the proprieties, "that my mistress's children, if she have
+any, will be Europeans!"
+
+As we got back to our hotel the muezzins were summoning the faithful to
+their vesper orisons, and Albert was moaning ruefully under the
+sideboard. Mrs. Captain had out her sweetly pretty pet at once, and
+covered him with caresses and endearments.
+
+"Somebody has given him something that has disagreed with him. Was it
+you?" she said to me, and there was that in her tone which made me quake
+in my shoes.
+
+Meekly and truthfully I protested that I had not; I had fed him in the
+morning in her own presence; the darling was in his usual health and
+spirits when we left, but--intercede for me, Puck, and you aerial imps
+of mischief, for no other spirit will--I could not help murmuring in
+audible soliloquy, "The carcase of that mongoose, which was on the
+square outside this morning, is no longer there."
+
+The scene that followed, to borrow the hackneyed phrase, beggars
+description. The house was turned upside down; to my mental vision arose
+sal volatile and burnt feathers, swoons and hysterics. Mahomet's dove
+alone can tell how all might have ended had not the Frenchman suggested
+a bolus. Captain No. 1 and I were commissioned to inquire into the
+mystery of the disappearance of that baleful mongoose. When we got out
+of earshot of the hotel there was the popping of a cork, and we emptied
+effervescing beakers to the speedy recovery of Albert the Beloved.
+Certes, that bull-dog had a very bad fit of dyspepsia; but the bolus did
+him a world of good, and before we retired to rest we had the felicity
+to hear him crunching a bone. Peace spread its wings over our pillows.
+
+The next day we took a trip to the lighthouse on Cape Spartel, the women
+labouring in the field making curious inspection of the cavalcade as it
+wended by, but quickly turning away their faces as we males tried to
+snatch a look at them. The road was no better than a rugged track on a
+stony plateau. There was a spacious view from the Phare, which was an
+iron and stone building put up at the cost of three or four of the
+European Powers (I forget which now), the keepers being chosen from each
+of the contributory nations. The Sultan had given the site, but refused
+to hand over a blankeel towards the expenses, arguing that as he had no
+fleet, he had no personal object in making provision against wrecks. We
+were well mounted, but these Barbary cattle have a nasty trick of
+lashing out, so that it is prudent to give a wide range to their
+hind-hoofs. Mahomet, riding with very short stirrups, led the party. My
+saddle was an ancient, rude, and rotten contrivance, and as I loitered
+on the road home, giving myself up to idle fantasy, my friends got on
+far ahead. Waking from my day-dream I gave the nag the heel, and as it
+sprang forward at a canter the girth turned completely round, and I was
+pitched over in unpleasant nearness to a hedge of cactus. The ground was
+soft, and I was not much bruised; but when I rose the nag had
+disappeared round a corner, and I was left alone in the African
+twilight. Presently a sinewy fiery-eyed Moor came with panther-step in
+sight leading me back the nag. He had a basket of oranges on his back,
+and gave me one with a respectful salaam as I vaulted on my Arab steed
+and galloped Tangier-ward bareback.
+
+Judging from the scanty rags upon him, this man was of the poorest, yet
+he asked for nothing; there were sympathy, innate politeness and
+independence withal in his bearing. To him I abandoned the saddle; it
+was the least he might have for his friendly act. Talking over this
+incident with the Frenchman at Bruzeaud's, who knew the country, he told
+me that the Moor was intelligent, honest, faithful to his engagements,
+and had a go in him that, under advantageous circumstances, would
+enable him to spring again to his former height of power and riches. But
+he struck me as happy, although some of his social customs recalled the
+feudal age, and he lived under the always-present contingency of
+decapitation. May it be long before speculation rears the horrid front
+of a joint-stock hotel in Tangier, or the prospectors go divining for
+copper, coal, iron, silver and gold. I could wish the Moorish women,
+however, would wash their children's heads occasionally, and not take
+them up by the ankles when they spank them. After a sojourn in every way
+pleasurable--pshaw! Albert's illness was a trifle, and we soon resigned
+ourselves to the miseries of the prisoners on the hill--we ate our last
+morsel of the Jewish pasch-bread of flour and juice of orange, cracked
+our last bottle of champagne, and took our leave of the Dark Continent
+with lightsome heart. The impression this little by-journey left upon me
+was so agreeable that I could not avoid the enticement to communicate it
+to the reader. If I have wandered from romantic Spain, it was only to
+take him to a land more romantic still.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+     Back to Gibraltar--The Parting with Albert--The Tongue of
+     Scandal--Voyage to Malaga--"No Police, no Anything"--Federalism
+     Triumphant--Madrid _in Statu Quo_--Orense--Progress of the
+     Royalists--On the Road Home--In the Insurgent Country--Stopped by
+     the Carlists--An Angry Passenger is Silenced.
+
+
+"How like a boulder tossed by Titans at play!" said the sentimental
+lady, as we approached Gibraltar on our return.
+
+"More like a big-sized molar tooth," broke in Mrs. Captain.
+
+And, indeed, this latter simile, if less poetic, gave a better idea of
+the conformation of the fortified hill, with the gum-coloured outline of
+all that was left of a Moorish wall skirting its side. The tooth is
+hollow, but the hollow is plugged with the best Woolwich stuffing, and
+potentially it can bite and grind and macerate, for all the peaceful
+gardens and frescades of the Alameda that circle its base like a belt
+of faded embroidery. At Gibraltar our party separated, the Yorkshire
+Captain and his friends taking the P. and O. boat to Southampton, my
+countryman going back to Tangier after having made some purchases, and I
+electing to voyage to Malaga by one of Hall's packets, which was lying
+at the mercantile Mole discharging the two hundred tons of Government
+material which it is obliged to carry by contract on each fortnightly
+voyage. When Albert and I parted no tears were shed; we resigned
+ourselves to the decree of destiny with equanimity. But I humbly submit
+that Mrs. Captain, when thanking me for my good intentions towards him,
+might have spared me the ironical advice not to volunteer for duties in
+future which I was not qualified to fulfil. "Volunteer," ye gods! when
+she had absolutely entreated me to take him in charge.
+
+Before leaving the Club-House, I was pressed to relate our adventures in
+Africa. I had no pig-sticking exploits to make boast over; but I turned
+the deaf side of my head to certain whispers about holy men who
+imported wine in casks labelled "Petroleum," who affected to be
+delivering the incoherent messages of inspiration when they were merely
+trying to pronounce "The scenery is truly rural" in choice Arabic, and
+who accounted for the black eye contracted by collision with the kerb by
+a highly-coloured narrative of an engagement in mid-air with an emissary
+of Sheitan. Neither did I accord any pleased attention to anecdotes of a
+"lella," or Arab lady, who tempted the Scorpions to charge ten times its
+value for everything she bought by telling them to send them to a
+personage whose title was exalted. Gib is a very small place, and, like
+most diminutive communities, is a veritable school for scandal. I took
+my last walk over the Rock, past the "Esmeralda Confectionery," which
+still had up the notice that hot-cross buns were to be had from seven to
+ten a.m. on Good Friday, and paced to the light-house on the nose of the
+promontory, where the meteor flag, ringed by a bracelet of cannon, flies
+in the breeze. And then I meandered back, and began to ask myself, had
+Marryat aught to do with the sponsorship of this outpost of the British
+Empire? Shingle Point, Blackstrap Bay, the Devil's Tower, O'Hara's
+Folly, Bayside Barrier, and Jumper's Bastion--the names were all
+redolent of the Portsmouth Hard; and I almost anticipated a familiar
+hail at every moment from the open door of "The Nut," and an inquiry as
+to what cheer from the fog-Babylon.
+
+The trip to Malaga on one of the Hall steamers which trade regularly
+between London and that port, calling at Cadiz and Gibraltar, was very
+agreeable, and the change to such dietary as liver and bacon was a
+treat. We were but three passengers--a steeple-chasing sub of the 71st,
+Señor Heredia, of Malaga, and myself. And now I have to make an open
+confession. I am unable to decipher the log of that passage. I have a
+distinct recollection of the liver and bacon, but more important events
+have worn away from my mind. There are the traces of pencil-marks before
+me; I dare say they were full of meaning when I scrawled them down, but
+now I have lost the key. "Jolly captain--left his wife--forty
+years--electric light deceives on a low beach--fourteen children--El
+Cano--break in the head of wine-casks": there is a literal copy of the
+contents of a page, which may mean nothing or anything, frivolity or a
+thesaurus of serious information. Memory, what a treacherous jade thou
+art! It may be said, why did I not take copious notes in short-hand? I
+would have done so were I a stenographer; but I am not. I tried to
+acquire the accomplishment once, and ignobly failed. I could write
+short-hand slightly quicker than long-hand, but when written, I could
+not transcribe my jottings.
+
+Flanking a beautiful coast, mostly hill-fringed--with hills, too, of
+such metallic richness that lead and iron were positively to be quarried
+out of their bosoms--we steamed into the harbour of Malaga, and landed
+at the Custom-House quay. But there were no Customs' officers to trouble
+us with inquiry. A red-bearded, flat-capped, dirty fellow in bare feet,
+holding a bayoneted rifle with a jaunty clumsiness, accosted Señor
+Heredia with a laughing voice. He was a sentinel of the provisional
+government established in Malaga. The nature of that government may be
+judged from his frank avowal: "We've no police--no anything." There were
+French and German war-vessels at anchor, which was some guarantee of
+protection for strangers. A novel tricolour of red, white, and a
+washed-out purple had replaced the national flag. The Federal Republic
+existed there, and yet the city was quiet; and official bulletins were
+extant, recommending the citizens to preserve order. But this quietude
+was not to be relied on over-much. One of the magnificoes under the new
+_régime_ was a dancing-house keeper, and his principal claim to
+administrative ability lay in the ownership of a Phrygian cap. Another,
+who styled himself President of the Republic of Alhaurin de la Torre, a
+territory more limited than the kingdom of Kippen, had stabbed a lady at
+a masked ball a few months previously, for a consideration of sixty-five
+duros. Still, it would be unfair to infer from that example that every
+Malagueño was a mercenary ruffian, Señor Heredia related to me an
+anecdote of a poor man who had found a purse with value in it to the
+amount of thirty thousand reals, and had given it up without mention of
+recompense. But a city where the wine-shops had nine doors, and
+potato-gin was dispensed at a peseta the bottle, and there were "no
+police--no anything," was not a desirable residence; and, as I had no
+call there, and weeks might elapse before another revolution might be
+sprung, I gladly took train to the capital.
+
+Madrid was tranquil, but with no more confidence in the duration of
+tranquillity than when I left it. The army was still in a state akin to
+disruption, with this difference--the rascals who had rifled the pockets
+of the dead Ibarreta a few weeks before, would sell the bodies of their
+slain officers now, if there was any resurrectionist near to make a bid.
+Worse; I was given to understand that there were suspicions that the
+gallant staff-colonel had been shot by his own men. The dismissed
+gunners were still wearily beating the pavements, and a subscription
+organized on their behalf among the officers of the other branches of
+the service by the _Correo Militar_ was open. What were these gentlemen
+to do? There was a rumour that they had been invited to enter the
+French service, to which they would have been an undoubted acquisition,
+bringing with them skill, scientific knowledge, and experience. But they
+were Spaniards, not soldiers of fortune, and would decline to transfer
+their allegiance, even if France were disposed to bid for it. Still, what
+were they to do? In Spain as in Austria--
+
+    "Le militaire n'est pas riche,
+     Chacun salt ça."
+
+But the _militaire_ must live. Othello's occupation being gone, the
+artillery officers had no alternative but to do what Othello would have
+done had he been a Spaniard--conspire.
+
+The usual manoeuvring and manipulations were going on as preparation
+for the election of the Constituent Cortes, and the extreme Republicans
+were full of faith in their approaching triumph all along the line. They
+were awaiting Señor Orense, but if he did not hasten it was thought
+events so important would eclipse his arrival that, when he did come,
+the Madrileños would pay as small heed to him as the Parisians did to
+Hugo when he surveyed the boulevards anew after years of exile. They
+would honour him with a procession, and no more. The venerable
+Republican, by the way, is a nobleman, Marquis of Albaida. But he is not
+equal to the democratic pride of Mirabeau, marquis, who took a shop and
+painted on the signboard, "_Mirabeau, marchand de draps._"
+
+"If you are a true Republican, why don't you renounce your title?"
+somebody asked once of Orense.
+
+"If it were only myself was concerned I would willingly," responded the
+Spaniard; "but I have a son!" Rousseau was a freethinker, but Rousseau
+had his daughters baptized all the same.
+
+Meanwhile the Carlists were making headway. The Vascongadas, Navarre,
+and Logroño, with the exception of the larger towns and isolated
+fortified posts, were now in their power. Antonio Dorregaray, who was in
+supreme command, was reported to have 3,200 men regularly organized,
+well clad, and equipped with Remingtons. The Remington had been selected
+so that the Royalists might be able to use the ammunition they reckoned
+upon helping themselves with from the pouches of the Nationalists. In
+addition to this force of 3,200, which might be regarded as the regular
+army of Carlism, there were formidable guerrilla bands scattered over
+the provinces. Our old acquaintance, Santa Cruz, had 900 followers in
+Guipúzcoa. The other cabecillas in that region were Francisco, Macazaga,
+Garmendia, Iturbe, and Culetrina, all men with local popularity and
+intimate knowledge of the mountains. In Biscay, the commander was
+Valesco, and his lieutenants were Belaustegui, del Campo, and the
+Marquis de Valdespina, son of the chieftain who raised the standard of
+revolution at Vitoria in 1833. Their factions were estimated at 2,500.
+After Dorregaray, the most dangerous opponent to the Government troops
+was Ollo, an old ex-army officer, who was licking the volunteers into
+shape; and after Santa Cruz, the most noted and dreaded chief of
+irregulars was Rada, who was also operating in "the kingdom," as their
+province is proudly called by the daring Navarrese. The elements in
+which the Royalists were wanting were cavalry and artillery; but they
+had some money, foreign friends were active, the French frontier was not
+too strictly watched nor the Cantabrian coast inaccessible, and Don
+Carlos--Pretender or King, as the reader chooses to call him--was biding
+his time in a villa not a hundred miles from Bayonne. When the hour was
+considered favourable, he was ready to cross the border and take the
+field, or rather the hills; and his presence, it was calculated, would
+be worth a _corps d'armée_ in the fillip it would give to the enthusiasm
+of his adherents.
+
+And yet the "only court" held its tertulias, and the doñas talked
+millinery, and bald politicians sighed for a snug post in the
+Philippines, and the gambling-tables and the bull-ring retained their
+spell upon the community. It was the old story: Rome was on the verge of
+ruin, and the senate of Tiberius discussed a new sauce for turbot.
+
+As I saw no immediate prospect of the outburst of those important
+events, which were cloud-gathering over Madrid, and nearly all my
+colleagues had departed, I resolved to pursue my journey to London. I
+had _carte blanche_ to return when I deemed there was no further scope
+for my pen; but there was an obstacle in the way. Miranda was the
+terminus of the rail to the north; the track thence to the Bidassoa had
+been closed by order of the lieutenants of his Majesty _in nubibus_,
+King Charles VII. In other words, 179 kilometres of the main iron line,
+the great artery of communication with France, were held by the
+insurgents. Obstacles are made to be met, and, if steadily met, to be
+overcome. Surely, I reasoned, there must be some intercourse carried on
+in these districts. I passed through territory occupied by Carlists
+before. Why not again? Besides, I had nothing to fear from the Carlists,
+the tramp carols in the presence of the footpad (which, I submit, is a
+neat paraphrase of a classic saw); and if I did chance to meet them,
+there would be that dear touch of romance for which the lady-reader has
+been looking out so long in vain.
+
+I started. The journey to Miranda I pass by. One is not qualified to
+write an essay on a country from inspection through the windows of a
+railway-carriage in motion, more particularly at night. As well attempt
+to describe a veiled panorama, unrolling itself at a hand-gallop. At
+Miranda, which was crowded with soldiers, there was a diligence that
+plied to San Sebastian by tacit arrangement with the knights of the
+road--that is, the adherents of Don Carlos. As the fares were very
+expensive, I suspect the speculator who ran the coach was heavily taxed
+for the privilege, and recouped himself by shifting the imposition to
+the shoulders of passengers. The day was fine, the roads were good, the
+vehicle was well-horsed, and we got away from the boundary of republican
+civilization at a rattling pace. My fellow-voyagers were mostly French,
+some of them of the gentle sex, and chattered like pies until they fell
+asleep. I believe it is admitted by those who know me best that I can do
+my own share of sleep. On the slightest provocation--yea, on what might
+be condemned as no reasonable provocation--I can drop my head upon my
+breast and go off into oblivion. Nor am I particular where I sit or if I
+sit at all. Any ordinary person can fall asleep on a sofa or at a
+sermon, but it requires a practitioner with an inborn faculty for the
+art to achieve the triumphs of somnolence which stand to my credit. I
+have taken a nap on horseback; I have marched for miles, a musket on my
+shoulder, in complete slumberous unconsciousness; I have nodded while
+Phelps was acting, snoozed while Mario was singing, and played the
+marmot while Remenyi was fiddling; awful confession, I have dozed
+through an important debate in the House of Commons! I am yawning at
+present. It is to be hoped the reader is not. And so I burned daylight
+the while we drove through a country reputed to be pregnant with
+surprises of scenery until, at long last, the diligence drew up in the
+straggling street of Tolosa. We halted here for dinner, and resumed our
+journey with a fresh team at an enlivening speed, until about two miles
+outside the town we came to an abrupt stop.
+
+"An accident, driver?"
+
+"No, señor, but the Carlists."
+
+Some of my fellow-passengers turned pale, the ladies did not know
+whether to scream or consult their smelling-bottles; and before they
+could decide, a tall, slight, gentlemanly-looking man of some
+four-and-twenty years, with a sword by his side, a revolver in his belt,
+an opera-glass slung across his shoulder, and a silver tassel depending
+from a scarlet boina, the cap of the country, appeared at the hinder
+door of the diligence, bowed, and asked for our papers. He glanced at
+them much as a railway-guard would at a set of tickets, inquired if we
+were carrying any arms or contraband despatches, and being answered in
+the negative, gave us a polite "Go you with God," and motioned to the
+driver that he might pass on. As we galloped off, all eyes were turned
+in the direction of the stranger; he leisurely walked over a field
+towards a hill, two peasants equipped with rifles and side-arms
+following at his heels. They were young and strong, and wore no nearer
+approach to uniform than their officer.
+
+"This is abominable," cried a French commercial traveller (so I took him
+to be), as soon as we had got out of hearing of the trio. "The notion of
+these three miscreants stopping a whole coachful of travellers in broad
+daylight is atrocious!"
+
+"They did not detain us long," said I.
+
+"They did us no harm," said another.
+
+"And that officer, I am sure, was very polite, and looked quite a
+D'Artagnan--so chivalrous and handsome," added one of the ladies.
+
+"They are no better than bandits," said the commercial traveller.
+"Driver, why did you not resist?"
+
+For reply, the driver pointed with his whip to a wall, under the lee of
+which a party of at least fifty armed men, portion of the main body from
+which the outpost of three had been detached, were smoking, chatting, or
+sleeping. The commercial traveller relapsed into silence. We met with no
+further adventure in our ride to the frontier, but experienced much
+fatigue.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+     On the Wing--Ordered to the Carlist Headquarters--Another _Petit
+     Paris_--Carlists from Cork--How Leader was Wounded--Beating-up for
+     an Anglo-Irish Legion--Pontifical Zouaves--A Bad Lot--Oddities of
+     Carlism--Santa Cruz Again--Running a Cargo--On Board a Carlist
+     Privateer--A Descendant of Kings--"Oh, for an Armstrong Twenty-Four
+     Pounder!"--Crossing the Border--A Remarkable Guide--Mountain
+     Scenery--In Navarre--Challenged at Vera--Our Billet with the Parish
+     Priest--The Sad Story of an Irish Volunteer--Dialogue with Don
+     Carlos--The Happy Valley--Bugle-Blasts--The Writer in a
+     Quandary--The Fifth Battalion of Navarre--The Distribution of
+     Arms--The Bleeding Heart--Enthusiasm of the Chicos.
+
+
+AFTER a short stay in London I was despatched to Stockholm, to attend
+the coronation of Oscar II of Sweden and his spouse, which took place in
+the Storkyrkan, on the 12th of May. At the Hotel Rydberg I met my Madrid
+acquaintance, Mr. Russell Young, who was a bird of passage like myself,
+and had just arrived from Vienna, where he had been detailing the
+ceremonial at the opening of the International Exhibition in the Prater.
+While enjoying myself at a ball at the Norwegian Minister's, I received
+a telegraphic message, ordering me at once to the Austrian capital. I
+was very sorry to leave, for I was delighted with peaceful airy
+Stockholm and the free-hearted Swedes--it was such a change after Spain;
+but I had neither license nor leisure to grumble, and flitted to Vienna
+as fast as steam could carry me. The Weltausstellung did not prove to be
+a lodestone, although in justice it must be admitted it was one of the
+finest shows ever planned, and was fixed in one of the most agreeable of
+sites. It was too far away, however, to attract the British public, and
+there were rumours of cholera lurking in the Kaiserstadt; so I was
+recalled, but to be sent to Spain once more. My mission was to
+penetrate, if possible, to the headquarters of the Carlists, with the
+view of giving a fair and full report of the strength, peculiarities,
+and prospects of their movement.
+
+At the London office of the sympathizers with the cause I was furnished
+with the address of certain Carlists in confidential positions in
+France, and letters were sent on in advance, so as to secure me a
+favourable reception. Armed with a sheet of flimsy stamped in blue with
+the escutcheon of Charles VII., and the legend "Secretaria Militar de
+Lóndres," and with, what was more potent, a big credit on a
+banking-house, I started afresh on the now familiar route.
+
+Before undertaking the journey into the territory in revolt I halted at
+Bayonne to procure the necessary passes. These were obtained with ease
+from the Junta sitting in the Rue des Ecoles, the members of which
+professed that they desired nothing so much as the presence of the
+representatives of impartial foreign journals, so that the truth about
+the struggle should be made known to the rest of Europe. From Bayonne I
+proceeded to Biarritz, where I had a conference with the Duke de La
+Union de Cuba, a warm Carlist partisan, to whom I had an introduction,
+and thence I went to St. Jean de Luz, a drowsy, quaint, world-forgotten
+nook. A _petit Paris_ it was called in a vaunting quatrain by some
+minstrel of yore. But Brussels may be comforted. It is nothing of the
+kind, but something infinitely better. The breezes from the main and the
+mountains, from the Bay of Biscay and the Pyrenees, conspire to supply
+it with ozone. There is music in the boom of the surf as it pulsates
+regularly on the velvet sands of a semicircular inlet, where dogs frisk
+and youngsters gambol in the sunshine.
+
+In a hotel on the edge of that inlet, the Fonda de la Playa, where I put
+up, a young Irish gentleman named Leader was recuperating from a severe
+wound in the leg. He had received it in the service of Don Carlos, in a
+skirmish near Azpeitia, where he was the only man hit. He was out with a
+party of the guerrilleros, and came across a company of the Madrid
+troops. To encourage his own people, or rather the people with whom he
+had cast in his fortunes, he went well to the front, and mounting on a
+bank of earth, hurled defiance at the enemy. He was picked down by a
+stray shot, and if he had been taken prisoner it is probable that he
+would have paid for his temerity with his life. The Spaniards were not
+clement towards foreigners who interposed in their domestic quarrel.
+Leader was carried off by his companions and secreted in a peasant's
+hut. The troops, swearing vengeance, searched the hut next to it, but,
+by some accident, failed to continue the quest to the refuge of the
+wounded man. He bled profusely, but the hæmorrhage was finally arrested
+by some rude bandaging, and at night he was helped astride a donkey, and
+conveyed across the frontier into France. He told me he had suffered
+excruciating torments at every jolt of the jog-trotting animal on that
+mountain journey. Had the bullet struck him an inch higher he would have
+had to suffer amputation; but his luck stood to him, and at the time we
+met he was getting on fairly towards recovery, thanks to youth, a good
+constitution, and the healthy air of St. Jean de Luz. I could not
+understand the ardour of Leader's partisanship for the Carlists. He
+spoke the merest smattering of Spanish, and had no profound intimacy
+with the vexed question of Spanish politics or the rights of the rival
+Spanish houses. The ill-natured whispered that he was crying "Viva la
+República" when he was knocked over. It is possible, for he had fought
+for the French Republic with Bourbaki's army, and may, in his
+excitement, have forgotten under what flag he was serving. I take it he
+was a soldier by instinct, and ranged himself on the side of Don Carlos
+more from the love of adventure than from any other motive. He was a
+fine athletic young fellow, with a handsome determined cast of features.
+He had been an ensign in the 30th Foot, and had resigned his commission
+to enjoy a spell of active service when the Franco-German war was
+proclaimed. That he had behaved bravely in the campaign which led to
+internment in Switzerland was evidenced by the ribbon of the Legion of
+Honour which he wore. Leader was very anxious that an Anglo-Irish legion
+in aid of Don Carlos should be organized. I felt it my duty to warn
+those to whom he appealed to think twice before they embarked on such a
+crusade. He was very wroth with me for having thrown cold water on the
+project, but that did not affect me. I had more experience of such
+follies than he, and my conscience approved me. A man may be justified
+in playing with his own life, but he should be slow in playing with the
+lives of others. He prepares a vexing responsibility for himself if he
+is sensitive.
+
+In the next room to Leader was a fellow-enthusiast, Mr. Smith Sheehan,
+an ex-officer of Pontifical Zouaves, and son of a popular and eccentric
+town-councillor of Cork. He was an agile stripling, skilled in all
+gymnastic exercises. He had also done some fighting with the Carlists,
+and was in France on furlough, which the soldiers in the Royalist force
+appeared to have no insuperable difficulty in getting. He told me there
+was a large infusion of his old regiment amongst the guerrilleros, and
+that they helped to bind the partisan levies in the withes of
+discipline. Most of them had smelt gunpowder at Mentana and Patay. The
+famous cabecilla, Saballs, had been a captain at Rome, and Captain
+Wills, a Dutchman, who had been killed in a brush at Igualada, had been
+sergeant-major in Sheehan's company.
+
+There was another ex-British officer of short service, who had a
+remarkably imposing and well-cultivated growth of moustache. He was a
+violent doctrinaire Carlist, but suffered from a chronic malady which
+prevented him from taking the field; still there was none who could plot
+with a more tremendous air of mystery. He was a Carlist because it was
+"the correct thing" to be one in the fashionable ring at St. Jean de
+Luz, where he had settled, and because he inherited a name associated
+with chivalric insurrection. For the sake of his family I shall call him
+Barbarossa. He was no honour to his house, for he was an inveterate
+gambler, and was not careful in discharging the obligations he wantonly
+contracted. He is dead. His death was no loss to society. In fact, if
+the whole host of gamblers, lock, stock and barrel, were swept by a
+fairy-blast to the regions of thick-ribbed ice, the world would be the
+gainer.
+
+When I left Spain, Carlism was to be put down in a fortnight--in Madrid.
+Now it threatened to last as long as a Chinese play. The Royalists--I
+suppose they had earned the title to be so named by their
+perseverance--had achieved numerous small successes which had raised
+their _morale_, and they were being supplied with arms of precision from
+abroad, and trained to their use. They had even taken some mountain-guns
+from their enemy. Leader made me laugh with his accounts of Lizarraga
+shouting "Artillería al frente!" and a couple of mules, with one
+wretched little piece, moving forward; and of the intimidating clatter
+made by three shrunk cavaliers in cuirasses a world too wide for them,
+and alpargatas, trotting up a village street. The alpargata is the
+mountain-shoe of canvas, with a hempen sole, worn by the Basque
+peasants. The association of surcoats of mail and rope slippers is
+incongruous; but what does that reck? Those cuirasses were _spolia
+opima_.
+
+And Santa Cruz?
+
+The honest gentleman had retired into private life. His excesses had
+raised such a storm of opprobrium against the Carlists that they had to
+request him to desist. Lizarraga summoned him to render himself up a
+prisoner. "Come and take me," replied Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz had near
+two thousand followers; Lizarraga a few hundred. Lizarraga declined the
+invitation. But the priest caused seven-and-twenty Carabineros, taken
+prisoners at the bridge of Endarlasa, near Irun, to be shot, and this
+filled the cup to overflowing. The Carlists averred they would slay him;
+the Republicans vowed they would garrote him for a Madrid holiday; the
+French Government declared its intention of putting him under lock and
+key if it caught him within its jurisdiction. His band was disarmed "by
+order of the King," and dispersed, and the Cura himself nebulously
+vanished--whither we may see anon.
+
+There was a large accretion to the population of St. Jean de Luz in
+Iberian refugees, and as they sat and conversed under the foliage of the
+public promenade, frequent sighs might be overheard, and remarks that if
+this sort of thing were to go on, "Spain would soon be in as bad a
+condition as France." At all hours there came to the beach poor exiles
+of Spain, who turned their eyes sadly to the line where sky met ocean.
+Of what were their thoughts--of home and friends, of the flutters of
+the casino or the ecstasies of the bull-ring? If they were looking for
+the Spanish fleet they did not see it, for a reason as old as the
+"Critic." It was not in sight. They came down in numbers in front of my
+hotel at nine o'clock on the morning of Monday, July 28th, a few days
+after my arrival, when a strange yellow funnel turned the point, and a
+long low Red-Roverish three-masted schooner-yacht steamed into Socoa,
+the roadstead of St. Jean de Luz. If the exiles were correctly informed,
+that was the Spanish fleet in a sense--the notorious Carlist privateer,
+the _San Margarita_, which had recently landed arms and ammunition for
+the Royalists at Lequeieto and elsewhere. She had been doing a stroke of
+business in the same line that morning. In the grey dawn she had dropped
+into the embouchure of the Bidassoa, at a few hundred yards from the
+town of Fontarabia. The work was well and quickly done. Boats
+requisitioned by friends on land put off to her, and returned laden with
+bales of merchandise. These artless bales were packages of
+breechloaders, with bayonets to match, wrapped in sail-cloth. As soon
+as they were received on shore they were distributed amongst some
+thousands of Carlists in waiting, who at once proceeded to fix bayonets,
+fall into ranks, and with shouts of exultation march off in good order.
+
+Meanwhile, the "volunteers of liberty," as the Basque Republicans called
+themselves, ensconced their persons out of range in a sort of castle
+beside the church of Fontarabia's "wooded height," and amused themselves
+taking pot-shots at the rising sun. But they did not venture from their
+shelter; they knew a large body of armed Royalists were watching their
+movements from the summit of Cape Higuer, and only awaited the provoke
+to pounce down upon and swallow them. A detachment of Frenchmen from the
+frontier hamlet of Hendaye quietly took up ground on the strand to see
+that there was no breach of neutrality, and had an uninterrupted view of
+the whole operation. As soon as the daring little privateer had done her
+work she innocently steamed to Socoa; the Carlists on the hills waved
+adieu and disappeared; the French soldiers returned to their quarters;
+and the Fontarabian "volunteers of liberty "--well, most probably they
+swore terribly, and effected a masterly retrograde movement on the
+nearest posada.
+
+I had a call to board the _San Margarita_. Not a boat could be had in
+St. Jean de Luz for love or money; the passage from the sea into the
+harbour is narrow, and the fishermen, though hardy navigators, are shy
+of facing the current when the sea is rough. Leader and myself walked by
+the goat-path on the crags leading to the southern side of the harbour
+so as to avoid the bar, and succeeded in chartering a skiff at Socoa. A
+quarter of an hour's pull brought us alongside the yacht, and on sending
+up our cards we were at once invited on board by the owner. To my
+surprise I discovered that the entire crew was British, as reckless a
+set of dare-devils as ever cut out a craft from under an enemy's guns.
+The skipper, Mr. Travers, was a Cork man, an ex-officer of the Indian
+Navy, who had lost a finger during the Mutiny; but the life and soul of
+the enterprise was an ex-officer of the Austrian and Mexican armies,
+Charles-Edward Stuart, Count d'Albanie, great-grandson of "the Young
+Pretender." His uncle, John Sobieski Stuart, had resigned his claim to
+the throne of England on his behalf,[C] so that I actually shook the
+hand of the man who under other circumstances might be wielding the
+sceptre of that empire on which the sun never sets. Instead of a crown
+he wore the genuine old Highland bonnet--not that modern innovation, the
+military feather-bonnet. In face this descendant of royalty was an
+unmistakable Stuart, with the characteristic aquiline nose, and a proud
+dignity of expression. He might have sat for the portrait of Charles the
+Martyr-King, by Vandyck, in Windsor. He was a convinced and earnest
+supporter of the claims of Cárlos Séptimo, whom he regarded as a cousin,
+and a sort of modern counterpart of the young Chevalier, the "darling
+Charlie" of Jacobite minstrelsy. He received us with the hospitality of
+his nation, and we had a long chat as we paced the deck briskly, the
+Count discussing the prospects of the rising, and then verging off into
+gay anecdotes of his military career in Austria, and inquiries after
+mutual acquaintances in London. By-and-by Captain Travers made his
+appearance, a tall weather-beaten navigator in orthodox naval dress,
+with a glass in his eye. He bowed severely to the Stuart, who as coldly
+returned his salute. It was easy to perceive that there was a restraint
+in the demeanour of the men on both sides; but there was a tacit
+armistice for the occasion. I heard afterwards that they did not talk to
+each other, except on strict matters of duty, and when taking their
+short walks on deck, one confined himself religiously to the larboard,
+the other to the starboard. Travers took me in tow, while the alert
+Count with his quick manner strode to and fro with Leader, and kept up a
+jerky fire of conversation nearly all to himself, occasionally twirling
+his peaked beard. Travers and I lolled over the bulwarks, and laughed
+and sampled the contents of an aqua-vitæ bottle, "Special Jury" whisky
+from Ireland, and I learned that this ill-assorted pair had been
+sharing some close hazards on their audacious cruiser.
+
+A few days previously they had been chased by _El Aspirante_, a Spanish
+gun-boat, which gave them eight shots. One caught them on the port
+quarter, and shivered some timbers, but effected no more serious damage.
+
+"I wish we had only an Armstrong twenty-four pounder close handy," said
+the mate, "and we'd have saved them 'ere dons the price of a coffin, I'd
+take my davy!"
+
+From what I saw of the seamen, I think this was no empty boast. Some of
+them had served with one Captain Semmes on a certain craft called the
+_Alabama_, and had been picked up after the fight with the _Keasarge_,
+off Cherbourg, by Mr. John Lancaster's yacht, the _Deerhound_. There is
+no need for concealment now, so that I may freely admit that the
+_Deerhound_ and the _San Margarita_ were one and the same. Travers, who
+was in love with the yacht, told me if he had another blade to the screw
+he could give leg-bail to the fastest ship in the Spanish navy. At
+leaving, I was asked to take a trip with them; they were about to visit
+their floating arsenal in the Bay of Biscay, load, and try to run
+another cargo. I respectfully declined--fortunately for myself; my
+orders were to get to the Carlist headquarters, not to go playing Paul
+Jones.
+
+Leader and Smith Sheehan were about to cross the border, and readily
+acceded to my request to form one of the party. We rose at daybreak next
+morning and looked out of window for the _San Margarita_. The roadstead
+of Socoa was a blank. She had steamed away during the night. After the
+customary chocolate we started blithely, in a light basket-carriage with
+a pair of fast-trotting ponies, that whisked us in less than two hours
+to the foot of the Pyrenees. Here we had to alight, the road up the
+mountain being impracticable for vehicles. A boy guide was in waiting to
+show us over the border by the smuggler's path--a wild short-cut through
+a labyrinth of brushwood. The guide was a remarkable youth in his way;
+he understood not a syllable of French or Spanish, and spoke only Basque
+which none of us comprehended, so that our parley with him was somewhat
+uninteresting. Yet I was anxious to elicit the opinions of that guide. A
+lad who could strike the path up the mountain with such truth might, by
+some instinct, have seen his way through Spanish politics. Our walk was
+a trial of endurance. I had traversed the Pyrenees in snow, and that was
+fatiguing enough in all conscience; but now the sun was beating cruelly
+on the parched herbage, and plodding up the ascent was like treading
+burning marl. I had to cry halt half-a-dozen times before we reached the
+summit; and yet that marvellous guide, with the baggage of all three on
+his head, kept on with a springy step and serene smile, like the youth
+in "Excelsior." It was an alternation of wheezing and stumbling with me,
+with a continuous ooze of perspiration, till I arrived heaving and
+panting on the crown of the ridge, and flung myself on the turf beside a
+pile of planking fresh from the woodcutter's axe. There was no further
+need to be wary, for this was Spain. We were over the border, and now my
+companions could breathe freely in every sense. Before they had passed
+the imaginary line they were liable to be arrested by the gendarmes,
+conducted back and interned, for they had that about their persons which
+betrayed that they were no innocent travellers. At every noise ahead, a
+scud was made to the cover of the tall ferns and brambles by the
+wayside, and an advance party of one was thrown out to reconnoitre. The
+precautions were superfluous, if we knew but all. From the 15th of July,
+the French patrols had got the hint to be blind. So lax was the cordon
+on the day we crossed, that a brigade of Carlists, each man with a
+repeating rifle on his shoulder and two revolvers in his belt, might
+have gone into Spain and never have had their sight offended by a
+solitary French uniform.
+
+The view from the comb of the hills, as grasped on a sunny day, repays
+all the toil and trouble of the ascent; and looking round, one begins to
+realize the fascination of mountain-climbing. On one side extend the
+plains of France, washed by the greenish-blue waves of the Bay of
+Biscay, and studded as with pearls by the coast-towns of Fontarabia,
+St. Jean de Luz, Biarritz, Bayonne, and so on northwards till the vision
+fails. On the other side rise in convoluting swells the mountains of
+Navarre and Guipúzcoa, their slopes dyed in every shade of green from
+grass and lichen, shrub and tree, except where the naked rocks, bursting
+with ore, expose themselves. Iron, lead, silver, are all to be found in
+the bosom of the earth in this richest and most beautiful of lands.
+Nature has been lavish beyond measure, and man, instead of using her
+gifts, has ungratefully diverted them for generations to the purposes of
+guerrilla warfare and cheating the Custom-House officers. But this high
+moral tone hardly sits well on a man who was aiding and abetting the
+entry of a couple of foreign free-lances, on homicidal thoughts intent,
+and perhaps doing a stroke of contraband on his own account. We suffered
+no molestation; but others might not have escaped unpleasantness. The
+agent of a Hatton Garden jeweller might have had to pay toll, if the
+story were true that a few of the dispersed "Black Legion" had got off
+with their rifles and started a joint-stock company in the
+bush-whacking line, and were doing a pretty fair business.
+
+The descent on the Spanish side was almost precipitous, and had to be
+effected with exceeding care. At times we ran down the track, rugged
+with sharp crags, almost head foremost, and only saved ourselves from
+falling by clinging to the nearest sapling. But there is an end to
+everything, and at last we came on the road that dips into the village
+of Echalar, in the district of Pampeluna, province of Navarre. Here we
+dismissed our guide, and here I encountered, for the first time, a
+regularly organized Carlist company, detached from the fifth battalion
+of Navarre, which was in garrison at Vera, some eight miles distant; but
+as I shall have opportunity to speak of the entire battalion soon, I
+defer comment on its appearance.
+
+My companions were desirous of pushing forward, and the provisional
+alcalde of the village gave us a trap to take us on. There is an
+excellent road by the mountain-side, until a tunnel to the right is
+reached, when we entered a most picturesque, well-wooded defile, through
+which the Bidassoa pours its waters. We dashed along gaily until we
+came in sight of the steeple of the church of Vera at twilight.
+
+A cry of "Who goes there?" from the gloom arrested us at the entrance of
+the town.
+
+Leader sung out, "España."
+
+Again came the sentinel's cry, "What people?" and cheerily ran the
+answer, "Voluntarios de Carlos Séptimo!"
+
+"Pass," was the reply; and we took the street at a trot, and pulled up
+at the door of the parish priest's dwelling, where the Irish soldiers of
+fortune promised me a billet for the night. The kindly pastor was equal
+to expectations; we had a cordial welcome, a good dinner, and beds with
+clean sheets.
+
+Sad tidings met my companions--those of the death of a young friend, Mr.
+John Scannel Taylor, a native of Cork, in the service of Don Carlos. A
+few months previously he had been a promising law student in the Queen's
+University of Ireland, with every prospect of a bright career before
+him. He arrived from England in the middle of June, and attached
+Himself to the partida of General Lizarraga in order to be near his
+fellow-countryman, Smith Sheehan. Previous to Mr. Sheehan's returning to
+Bayonne with despatches, he tossed up a coin to decide whether he or
+Taylor should have the choice of the duty. Poor Taylor won, and elected
+to remain with Lizarraga, as there was likelihood of fighting at hand.
+The very next day Yvero, where the Republicans held a
+strongly-intrenched position, was attacked, and the young Irish
+volunteer made himself conspicuous in the onset. While advancing in the
+open, setting a pattern of bravery to all by the steady way he delivered
+his fire, the gallant fellow was struck by a bullet in the leg. He kept
+on limping until he was touched a second time in the arm, but still he
+persevered with a dogged courage, when a third bullet struck him in the
+forehead, and he dropped with outspread arms, raising a little cloud of
+dust. He must have been stone-dead before he reached the ground. His
+conduct was "muy valiente," so said his Spanish comrades. He was picked
+up after the affair, and decently interred side by side with two
+officers who met their deaths in his company. This was the first time he
+was under fire, as it was the last; but there is a fatality in those
+things.
+
+This young Irishman, Taylor, was luckier than some of his fellows in one
+respect. Short as he had been in the service, he had attracted the
+notice of Don Carlos. His comrade Sheehan and he were pointed out to
+"the King" by Lizarraga as two modest deserving young soldiers who had
+offered to fight in the ranks--a trait of unselfishness that must have
+astonished the Carlist leaders, as most of the volunteers they had from
+France came out with the full intention of commanding brigades, when
+divisions were not to be had.
+
+"I wish I had a thousand like them," said Lizarraga, who was a genuine
+soldier, and one of the few Spaniards not unjust to foreigners.
+
+Don Carlos shook hands with Mr. Taylor and thanked him. His Majesty
+spoke some few minutes in French with Mr. Sheehan, and, as the
+conversation gives some insight into Carlism, I may venture to repeat
+it.
+
+Don Carlos.--"You have served before?"
+
+Irish Soldier.--"Yes, sire, in the Pontifical Zouaves."
+
+Don Carlos.--"Ha! good. In the same company with my brother, perhaps?"
+
+Irish Soldier.--"No; but I had the privilege of knowing Don Alfonso."
+
+Don Carlos.--"He is in Catalonia now, and has many of your old
+companions in arms with him. You are serving the same cause here as in
+Rome--the cause of religion and of order and of legitimate right."
+
+Irish Soldier (bowing).--"I should not be here if I did not feel that,
+your Majesty."
+
+Don Carlos (smiling).--"I thank you sincerely. General Lizarraga tells
+me you are Irish."
+
+Irish Soldier.--"I come from the south of Ireland, sire."
+
+Don Carlos.--"A country I feel much sympathy for. She has been very
+unhappy, has she not? Are things better now?"
+
+Irish Soldier.--"For some years Ireland has been, improving, sire."
+
+Don Carlos.--"That is well. She deserves better fortune, for she has a
+noble, faithful people."
+
+Don Carlos drew back a pace and made a stiff military nod; the Irishman
+brought his rifle to the "present arms," turned on his heel, and marched
+back to the ranks, and thus the interview terminated.
+
+The valley in which the little town of Vera nestles might have been that
+where Rasselas was brought up, so secluded, smiling, and peaceful it
+looks. The Bidassoa, famous in tales of the Peninsular War, flows
+through it, no doubt; but the Bidassoa here is a trout stream winding
+through meadows and fields of maize, and thoughts of bloodshed are the
+last that would occur to anyone contemplating its mild current. The
+mountains walling in the vale are lined with growths of heather, fern,
+and blossoming furze to their very crests, and the verdurous picture
+they hem is one of poetic calm and plenty. Labourers are digging away in
+the fields below, the tinkle of cow-bells is heard from the pastures,
+and anon blends with their Arcadian music the soft chiming of
+church-bells summoning to prayer; there is a mill with its clacking
+wheel, and a foundry with a tuft of smoke curling from its chimney;
+orchards and vineyards lie side by side with patches of corn, and along
+the high-road peasants pass and repass, shortening their way with song
+and laughter, and strings of mules or droves of swine scamper by.
+Another Sweet Auburn of Goldsmith, in another Happy Valley of Johnson,
+this cosy Vera with its river and trees would seem to any English
+tourist ignorant of its history; but how the English tourist would be
+misled! Though the peasants laugh and sing, and the labourers dig, and
+there are outer tokens of peace, there is no peace in the valley or
+town; there are sights and sounds there of war, and that of the worst
+kind--civil war. The mill is grinding corn for the commissariat stores,
+the foundry turns out shot instead of ploughshares, the boxes on the
+mules' backs are packed with ammunition. If you listen, you will hear
+the roll of drums and the shrill blowing of bugles more often than the
+soothing bells; if you watch, you will notice that not one man in ten is
+unprovided with a firearm, for this quiet-looking place is the very
+hotbed of Carlism; the insurrectionary headquarters for the province of
+Navarre; the arsenal and recruiting depôt for all the provinces in
+revolt. The disciples of the rod have fled from it, and those of the
+musket have come in their stead.
+
+At half-past four on the morning after our arrival in the mountains, I
+was roused from a profound sleep by the sound of the bugle. A solitary
+performer was blowing spiritedly into his instrument; what piece of
+music he was trying to execute I could not make out, but that his
+primary object was to "murder sleep" was evident, and he succeeded.
+Losing all note of time and place, I thought for a moment I was in
+London, and that this was a visit from the Christmas waits. But there
+was a liveliness in the tones incompatible with the season when the
+clarionet, trombone, and cornet-à-piston form a syndicate of noise, and
+parade the streets for halfpence. The bugle was in a jocular mood. Judge
+of my astonishment when I learned that this merry melody was the
+Carlist's reveille! The insurgents had got so far with their military
+organization that they had actually buglers and bugle-calls. Nay, more,
+they had drummers and a brass band!
+
+Now I think of it, there is an inadvisability in my calling them
+insurgents while in their power; but what phrase am I to employ? In the
+pass in my pocket I am recommended to "the Chiefs of the Royal Army of
+his Catholic Majesty Charles VII.," as an inoffensive "corresponsal
+particular," to whom aid and protection may be safely extended. But then
+there are the Republicans, and if they catch me giving premature
+recognition in pen-and-ink to the Royalist cause, they may rightly
+complain that a British subject is flying in the face of the great
+British policy of non-intervention. I think I have discovered an escape
+from the dilemma. The Carlists speak of themselves as the Chicos, "the
+bhoys," so Chicos let them be for the future, and their opponents the
+troops--not that it is by any means intended to be conveyed that the
+troops so called are much more martial than the Chicos.
+
+Well, the boys have got buglers who bugle with a will. They blow a blast
+to rouse us, another for distribution of rations; they have the
+assembly, the retreat, the "lights out," and all the rest, as regular as
+the Diddlesex Militia. I got up in the Cora's house, looked at the
+Cura's pictures--which were more meritorious as works of piety than as
+works of art--and hastened to the Plaza, where I was told there was
+about to be a muster of the Chicos, and I would have a leisurely
+opportunity of passing them under inspection. The Plaza is a flagged
+space enclosed on two sides by houses, some of which are over a couple
+of centuries old, with armorial bearings sculptured over the doors; on
+the third by the Municipality; and on the fourth by a grey church, lofty
+and large, seated on an eminence and approached by a flight of stone
+steps. The Municipality is a massive building, level with the street,
+with a colonnaded portico, and a front over which some artist in
+distemper had passed his brush. This façade is eloquent with mural
+painting, if one could only understand it all. There are symbolic
+figures of heroic size, coveys of cherubs, hatchments, masonic-looking
+emblems, and inscriptions. A Carlist sentry, dandling a naked bayonet in
+the hollow of his arm, was pacing to and fro in the portico, and the
+remaining warriors of the post were lounging about, cigarette in mouth,
+much as our own fellows do outside the guard-house on Commercial Square,
+at Gibraltar. I was curious to see the Carlist uniform. Assuredly the
+uniform does not make the soldier, but it goes a great way towards it.
+Uniformity was the least striking feature in the dress of the men before
+me. They were clad in the ordinary garb of the mountain-peasants. Short
+coarse jackets and loose trousers, confined at the waist by a faja, or
+girdle of bright-coloured woollen stuff, were worn by some; blouses of
+serge, knee-breeches, and stockings or gaiters, by others; but all,
+without exception, had the boina, or pancake-shaped woollen cap of the
+Basque provinces, and the alpargatas, or flat-soled canvas shoes.
+By-and-by was heard a bugle-blast and the quick, regular tread of
+marching men, and the head of a company came in sight. In perfect time
+the company paced, four deep, into the Plaza, halted, and fell into line
+in two ranks. Thus, in succession, seven other companies arrived,
+forming the fifth, battalion of Navarre, a vigorous, wiry set of men,
+impressing the experienced eye as excellent raw material for soldiers,
+albeit got up in costume very much resembling that of brigands of the
+Comic Opera. Physically, the natives of the hilly northern provinces are
+the pick of Spain. The battalion had its flag, white between two stripes
+of scarlet, on which was inscribed the name of the corps, and the
+legend, "The country for ever, but always in honour." This was, of
+course, written in Basque, of which my rendering is rather free, but it
+gives exactly the sense of the sentiment. It was soon palpable to
+anybody, who knows anything of such matters, that the Chicos were weak
+in officers of the proper stamp, and still more so in under-officers.
+Smoking was common in the ranks, and when the men stood at ease, they
+stood very much at ease indeed. The officers, in some cases, were
+distinguished in dress from the privates solely by gold or silver
+tassels dependent from their boinas, and their boinas were of blue,
+white, brown, or even Republican red, according to the fancy of the
+wearer. All the officers had revolvers and swords. The men were armed
+somewhat indiscriminately, one company with Chassepots, another with
+Remingtons; there were carbines, and percussion rifles, and
+smooth-bores, and even a few flint-locks; but I failed to discern a
+single specimen of the trabuco, the bell-mouthed blunderbuss we are
+accustomed to associate with the Spanish knight of the road. Ammunition
+was carried in a waist-belt, with a surrounding row of leather tubes
+lined with tin, each of which held a cartridge--in fact, the Circassian
+cartouch-case. There were many grizzled weather-stained veterans in the
+ranks who had fought with Zumalacárregui and Mina in the Seven Years'
+War; but as a rule the Chicos were literally boys in age, and here and
+there a child of twelve or fourteen might be seen measuring himself
+beside a patriotic musket. In relief to the peasant dresses were to be
+noticed frequent attempts at more soldierly costume in the shape of worn
+tunics of the French National Guards or Moblots, and some half-dozen
+uniforms of the Spanish Line, with the glazed képi exchanged for the
+boina. On the top of many of the boinas, fastening the tassel, was a
+huge brass button, with the monogram of the "King," and the inscription,
+"Voluntarios, Dios, Patria, y Rey." Another sign particular of this
+irregular force that impressed me much was a bleeding heart embroidered
+on a small scrap of cloth, and sewn on the left breasts of nearly all on
+the ground. This appeared to be worn as a charm against bullets; and
+with a strong notion that it would protect them in the hour of danger, I
+am convinced nine out of ten of those peasants carried it. It may be as
+well to add that inside that embroidered patch were written, in Spanish,
+the words, "Stop; the heart of Jesus is here; defend me, Jesus." Many
+others of the Carlists carried scapulars, rosary beads, and blessed
+medals as pious reminders. The habit of wearing this representation of
+the heart of the Saviour over the region of the human heart dates so far
+back as the Vendean War, and had been introduced in the present instance
+by M. Cathelineau, grandson of the celebrated French Royalist loader.
+
+The battalion had assembled on the Plaza to give up their old arms, and
+to receive a portion of those which had been landed from the _San
+Margarita_. They deposited those they had with them by sections in the
+Municipality, and emerged with the others, bright, brand-new Berdan
+breechloaders. They seemed proud of their weapons; some went so far as
+to kiss them; and, if looks were any criterion of feelings, their
+glowing faces said, as emphatically as it could be said, "Now that we
+have good tools, we shall show what good work we can do." Boxes of
+metallic ball-cartridges, centre-primed, were piled on the Plaza, and
+were quickly and quietly opened and distributed. Not an accident
+occurred in the process. Many a less wonderful phenomenon has been
+advertised as a miracle. I fully expected to have my coat spattered with
+some warrior's brains every other moment, with such a reckless rashness
+were the rifle-muzzles poked about. One shot did go off, while a high
+private was trying if his cartridge fitted to the chamber; the charge
+singed the hair of a captain, and the bullet lodged in the middle of the
+word "Prudencia" on the façade of the Municipality. The captain would
+have it that he was killed, spun round on his own centre like a
+humming-top, and finally, coming to himself, shook out his clothes in
+search of the lead. There was a roar of laughter, and the careless
+soldier who had endangered the life of his officer was allowed to pass
+without rebuke. That was the worst point in Carlist discipline I had
+seen yet. There was too much familiarity towards superiors; the rank and
+file lacked that fear and respect for the officers which are the
+strongest cement of the military fabric. This was to be explained partly
+because the officers were not above the men in social position, and
+partly because any enterprising gentleman who bought gold braid and
+tassels, sported a sword, and appraised himself an officer, was accepted
+at his own valuation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+     The Cura of Vera--Fueros of the Basques--Carlist Discipline--Fate
+     of the _San Margarita_--The Squadron of Vigilance--How a Capture
+     was Effected--The Sea-Rovers in the Dungeon--Visit to the
+     Prisoners--San Sebastian--A Dead Season--The Defences of a
+     Threatened City--Souvenirs of War--The Miqueletes--In a Fix--A
+     German Doctor's Warning.
+
+
+THESE horrible and bloodthirsty Carlists turned out to be amiable
+individuals on acquaintance. I suppose they could put on a frown for
+their enemies, but for my companions and myself they had nothing but
+open smiles and hearty hand-grips. One great recommendation was our
+being billeted on the parish priest. His reverence had none of the Santa
+Cruz in him; he was a gentle, zealous, studious clergyman, yet was
+filled with the purest enthusiasm for the cause of what he regarded as
+legitimacy. The Don Carlos who raised the standard in 1833, he
+maintained, was the rightful heir to the throne of Spain. The law by
+which the succession had been changed was an _ex post facto_ law, passed
+after his birth, and not promulgated until Ferdinand VII. had a female
+child. In May, 1845, that Don Carlos, really Charles V., resigned in
+favour of his son, Charles VI., and in September, 1868, he, in his turn,
+relinquished his rights to the present claimant to the throne, Charles
+VII., whom might God preserve.
+
+The Cura was unusually civil towards us because we were Irish, and as
+Irish were presumably of clean lineage--that is to say, free from
+kinship with Jews or infidels. As reputed descendants of settlers from
+Bilbao, we were entitled to a full share in all the privileges of the
+province of Biscay. This was as well to know. It was a consolation to us
+to learn that it was an advantage to be Irish somewhere under the sun.
+The King of Spain is but Lord of Biscay, and has to swear under the
+oak-tree of Guernica to respect the fueros or customs of the province.
+Don Carlos had so done; he was in Spain, it was true, but where he was
+at the moment the Cura was unable to say; his court was perambulatory.
+
+The fueros were abolished by the Cortes in 1841 and but partially
+restored in 1844, so that in inscribing them as one of the watchwords on
+their banner, the Basques were fighting for something more solid than
+glory. They cling to their rights as Britons do to Magna Charta, only
+with this difference--they have a clearer conception of what they are. I
+had been trying to arrive at some knowledge of the fueros, and obtained
+much information from a volume by the late Earl of Carnarvon.[D]
+Guipúzcoa, Alava, and Biscay, though an integral part of the Spanish
+monarchy, for ages enjoyed their own laws, and a recapitulation of some
+which were in force in Biscay will be a fair sample of all. Biscay was
+governed by its own national assemblies, arranged its own taxation,
+yielded contributions to the Sovereign as a free gift, had no militia
+laws, was exempt from naval impressment, provided for its own police in
+peace and its own defence in war. No monopoly, public or private, could
+be established there. Only Biscayans by birth could be nominated to
+ecclesiastical appointments; every Biscayan was noble, and his house was
+inviolable; there was perfect equality of civil rights. In short, those
+Basques flourished under the amplest measure of Home Rule, and had all
+the benefits of the Habeas Corpus Act under another name long before
+that Bill was legalized by the Parliament of Charles II. The
+liberty-loving Basques were tolerant as well as independent. The
+Inquisition was never vouchsafed breathing-room in their midst. When
+Protestants escaped from France after the massacre of St. Bartholomew,
+they were treated to asylum amongst them.[E]
+
+We moved about among the guerrilleros. They were mostly light-limbed and
+stalwart men, and were none the worse for the sprinkling of seniors of
+sixty and lads of sixteen. Many had the bow-legs of the mountaineer,
+built like the hinder pair of artillery-horses--the legs that tell of
+muscularity and lasting stamina. Their drill was very loose, and skill
+in musketry left much to be desired. They had no perception of
+distance-judging, and some were so grossly ignorant of the mechanism of
+their weapons that they knocked off the back-sights of their rifles,
+alleging that they hindered them from taking correct aim. The Marquis de
+la Hormazas--a meagre, tall, elderly man--was commandant of the
+battalion, and was stern in the exaction of discipline. During the stay
+of the Navarrese at Vera, a captain was degraded to the ranks for having
+entered the lists of illicit love. The Frenchwoman who was the partner
+of his amour was politely shown over the mountain and warned not to
+return.
+
+The battalion left for the interior of the province. Leader was still
+too weak to enter on a campaign; Sheehan had to look after the
+belongings of his comrade Taylor, and break the news of his death to his
+mother; and I saw plainly that it was out of the question attempting to
+catch up the flitting headquarters of Don Carlos without a horse.
+Besides, I had to complete arrangements for the transmission of letters
+and telegraphic messages when I had any to send, and for the reception
+of money; in sum, to open up communication with a base. So we returned
+to France as we came.
+
+On arriving at St. Jean de Luz, a startling rumour awaited us. The
+steel-built Carlist privateer had been captured at the mouth of the
+Adour; she had been taken a prize to San Sebastian; Stuart and Travers
+were in close custody; and there were alarmists who whispered that they
+would be tried by drum-head as pirates, and hung up in chains in the
+cause of humanity. It was well for me I did not accept the invitation to
+that water-party. I ran over to Bayonne to ascertain what particulars I
+could, saw the Carlist Junta, the British and Spanish Vice-Consuls, and
+from their combined and conflicting narratives was able to sift some
+grains of the authentic. But the sudden first report was undeniable. The
+weasel had been caught asleep.
+
+The _San Margarita_ was a serious loss to the cause. She had cost
+£3,500. She was very fast, being capable of a speed of between ten and
+eleven knots an hour, and should be equal to fourteen knots if her
+lifting screw had another blade. A three-bladed screw had been provided,
+and was to have been fitted to her stern on her return from the
+ill-fated expedition which put an end to her roving career. It was true
+that the descendant of kings was under bolts and bars. The French
+journals described him as a "Monsieur Stuart, a Scotch colonel,
+entrusted by the English Catholics with collections for the Carlist
+cause." They had never heard of his royal lineage, of his connection
+with the Austrian cavalry, or of his exploits by the side of the unhappy
+Maximilian in Mexico. He assumed the responsibility of ownership of the
+vessel. The hue-and-cry description of him was "a man of forty to
+forty-five years of age, over middle height, figure spare, features
+thin, and resolute in expression."
+
+The burly bronzed Corkonian was also in durance, and with the pair of
+officers were a picked crew of thirteen Englishmen, including engineers,
+steward, stokers, and able-bodied seamen, and one Spanish cabin-boy. A
+Basque pilot, an old smuggler, familiar with every nook and crevice of
+the Bay of Biscay, had escaped.
+
+If reports were credible, the _San Margarita_ had already landed two
+millions of cartridges, and an immense quantity of arms. Much vexation
+was caused to the officers of the Spanish navy in those quarters by the
+stories of the daring feats she had achieved, absolutely discharging a
+cargo once on the very wharf of Lequeieto, as if she were a peaceful
+merchantman, and on another occasion sending off rifles and ammunition
+by small boats in the dead of night, a man-of-war lying sleepily
+oblivious of what was going on just outside her. It was felt that her
+continued impunity was a reproach, and three small vessels of the
+Spanish navy were commissioned to cruise between Bilbao and Bayonne on
+the look-out for her. This little squadron of vigilance consisted of _El
+Aspirante_ and _El Capricho_, gun-boats, and the _Buenaventura_, a
+three-gun steam-brig. On Tuesday, August 12th, the _Buenaventura_,
+flying a George's Jack at her peak, was off Fontarabia for a portion of
+the day, close in shore. At nightfall she disappeared--it is now
+supposed into the sheltered and almost invisible inlet of Los Pasages,
+between Fontarabia and San Sebastian. Before daybreak on Wednesday, the
+Carlists under Dorregaray swarmed down from the hills covering Cape
+Higuer. The _San Margarita_ came in sight, and began landing arms in the
+same spot where the undisturbed landing of the 28th July had been
+effected. Not more than three hundred stand had been put on shore, and
+about one hundred thousand cartridges in boxes, labelled in English
+"metallic rolled cartridges, centre-primed," when she had to get away,
+as the daylight began to play the informer. She dropped down towards
+Bayonne, and appears to have reached a point some four miles from the
+French shore (the exact distance is a moot question), where she laid to
+and allowed her furnaces to cool The men were "dead tired out" after
+their night's work, and the captain considered that he was within the
+protection of French waters. But there is a very ancient proverb about a
+pitcher and a veil, and the period of its realization had been reached
+at last Whilst the _San Margarita_ was effecting the landing, a
+coastguard's boat had slipped from under the heights of Fontarabia, and
+given notice of what was going on to the _Buenaventura_ in Los Pasages,
+and the brig steamed out, still with the British colours at her peak
+Whilst the Carlist privateer was motionless in fancied security--there
+was some want of prudence or vigilance there, surely--the gun-brig crept
+down and overhauled her before alarm could be given, and the rakish
+schooner-yacht, the skimmer of the seas, had the humiliation of falling
+a prey to a wretched slow boat that she could laugh at with steam up in
+the open sea. The arrest was made in the usual manner, and the captors
+behaved with the customary naval courtesy. They were over-joyed at their
+good fortune, and gave their prisoners to eat and to drink--champagne to
+the officers and chacoli to the men. They towed their prize into the bay
+of St. Sebastian, and there was triumph. The yellow and scarlet flag of
+Spain was over the wee _San Margarita_ as she entered, and Colonel
+Stuart and Captain Travers and their companions must have felt sore,
+for all the good cheer and generous wine. Still there was quite a
+courtly scene on board--hand-shakings and reciprocal compliments--as
+they were marched off to the dungeon of the Castillo de la Mota on a
+hill in the city, where they were incarcerated. There they did not fall
+on such pleasant lines as afloat. The Republicans lost no time in
+unloading the vessel. They took off her, with a hurry that betrayed
+apprehension, 1,545 carbines and six Berdan breech-loaders, with a
+number of armourer's tools. It was remarked that the rifles supplied to
+the regular troops from Madrid were sighted to eight hundred metres, but
+that the range of those seized from the Carlists did not exceed five
+hundred.
+
+I went over to San Sebastian by tug from Socoa on the 16th of August,
+and sent up my card to M. de Brunet, the British Vice-Consul. He said he
+had called on the prisoners, and that the sailors murmured at their
+treatment. If I went to the citadel, after three--as it was Saturday
+afternoon, and visiting hours commenced then--I could see them without
+difficulty. I did clamber up the hill, and found this was not the case.
+On owning that I had no pass from the military governor, I was denied
+admittance. Happening to meet the commandant, I represented what I
+wanted, and he very civilly granted me leave to visit the prisoners
+"para un momento." As the gates were thrown open Stuart advanced and met
+me, grasping my hand cordially, and slipping a letter up the sleeve of
+my coat. He had caught sight of me labouring up the hill, and had
+immediately hastened to scribble a few lines which he trusted to my
+sympathy with misfortune to smuggle to their destination for him. He was
+not mistaken, and in so doing I had no qualm of conscience. I
+accompanied him to his cell, and he told me the story of the capture of
+the _San Margarita_. It was substantially as I have related; they
+thought they were in a _mare clausum_, at all events they had drifted
+out of it on the tide of fate; but there was a nice question of
+international law. The _ruse_ of hoisting the British flag was
+legitimate if the _Buenaventura_ substituted her own flag before
+proceeding to board them. The _San Margarita_ had the flags of more
+than one nation in her lockers; but the gun-brig had no power to act the
+policeman in neutral waters. There was the point. Travers was in a
+separate lodging; they had been accommodated at first in the one cell,
+but they could not agree--ashore as afloat the old feud existed.
+However, both assented to a truce in order to have a talk with me. They
+were cheerful, had cigars _ad libitum_ (at their own expense, of
+course), and were permitted to get their rations from the Hôtel de
+Londres in the city. The cells they occupied were bare, white-washed,
+low-ceiled rooms, some eight paces by six. They were not so clean or
+well-ventilated as Newgate cells, and the beds were spread on the floor.
+The captives had access to newspapers and writing materials, and it is
+but the due of the officers in charge to testify that they were
+extremely affable and disposed to make their prisoners as comfortable as
+possible. Still, in the close, stifling weather, to be locked up within
+the narrow circuit of a dungeon was limbo. The pair wore their own
+clothes, Travers still retaining a navy-jacket with brass buttons
+engraved with the initials of some yacht club, and did not complain of
+having been subjected to indignities. While I was with them the shadow
+of a face darkened the window; it was a Carlist prisoner who had hoisted
+himself up on the shoulders of a comrade from a yard below; he had a
+letter in his mouth. I took it, and slipped him a bundle of cigars for
+distribution among his fellow cage-birds. From this it may be deduced
+that the gaol regulations were not very stringent. The Carlists were
+treated as forfeit of war, not felons, and had no honest chance of
+illuminating their brows with the martyr halo of Baron von Trenck or
+Silvio Pellico.
+
+San Sebastian is the most modern town in the Peninsula, having been
+re-built in 1816, three years after its destruction by the incensed
+allied troops. It is a great summer resort of wealthy Spanish idlers--a
+sort of Madrid-super-Mare. The attractions of the capital are to be had
+there, with the supplementary advantages of pure air, mountain scenery,
+and luxurious sea-bathing on a level sandy beach. There is a public
+casino, and a score of clandestine hells where a fortune can be lost in
+a night at monté--in short, every infernal facility for Satanic
+gambling. Cigarettes are cheap, and so are knives. There is an Alameda,
+where the band plays, and a passable imitation, of the Puerta del Sol,
+less the fountain, in the broad arcaded Plaza de la Constitution. There
+is a small theatre, a spacious bull-ring, and several commodious
+churches, where Pepita can talk the language of fans to her heart's
+content. Every attraction of Madrid which could reasonably be expected
+is to be had, I repeat, and hidalgos and sloe-eyed senoras speckle the
+promenades in the gloaming, and impart a mingled aroma of garlic and
+gentility, pomade and pretentiousness, to the chief town of Guipúzcoa.
+San Sebastian would be for Madrileños what Paris is for Bostonians, if a
+few of the attractions of the "only court," which could not reasonably
+be expected, were not lacking--say an occasional walk round of the
+Intransigentes, to show their political muscles; a grandiloquent, frothy
+word-tempest in the Congress, and the Sunday cock-fight. I am speaking,
+be it understood, of San Sebastian in ordinary summers. A short
+twelvemonth before my visit, a pair of pouting English lips told me it
+was "awfully jolly."
+
+At the date with which I am concerned, it was anything but "awfully
+jolly." The fifteen thousand rich visitors who were wont to flock into
+the city during the season had gone elsewhere to recruit their health on
+the sands and lose their money at the gaming-tables. They had been
+frightened to the coasts of France by the apparition of Carlism, and San
+Sebastian was plaintive. Her streets and her coffers were empty. The
+campamento of bathing-huts was ranged as usual on the velvet rim of the
+ear-like bay, but no bathers were there. There were more domestics than
+guests in the hotels; and at the _table d'hôte_ three sat down in a
+saloon designed for a hundred to breakfast in; and we had no butter. The
+peasants in the country round were afraid to bring in the produce of
+their dairies and barn-yards. The bull-ring was to let; conscientious
+barbers shaved each other or dressed the hair on the wax busts in their
+windows, in order to keep alive the traditions of their craft; the
+fiddlers in the concert-room of the casino scraped lamentations to
+imaginary listeners. A Sahara of dust had settled on the curtain of the
+theatre, and fleet-footed spiders made forages athwart it from one
+cobwebby stronghold to another. The once festive resort had lost its
+spirits completely, and all on account of this civil war. It was summer,
+but the city was in a state of hibernation. No business was done in the
+shops, the cafés were empty, most of the resident population who could
+afford it had emigrated, and the public squares were as vacant as if
+there were a perpetual siesta. There was no sign of animation, as we
+understand it in England. There were but three vessels in the west
+bay--the _Buenaventura_, a merchant steamer, and the _San Margarita_,
+pinioned at last, her yellow funnel cold. Sojourn in the place was
+insupportable. I knew not how to kill the tedious hours. I climbed again
+to the Castle of the Mota, inspected some English tombs on the slope of
+the acclivity, and noticed that if the citadel is still a position of
+strength, nature deserves much of the credit. The defences recently
+thrown up had been devised and executed carefully, and if the defenders
+were only true to themselves, the Carlists, with no better artillery
+than they possessed, might as well think of taking the moon as of
+entering San Sebastian. They would have a formidable fire from
+well-planted cannon to face; stockades, and strong earthworks, and more
+than one blockhouse cunningly pierced with loopholes, to carry. Even if
+San Sebastian was entered, the configuration of the streets was such as
+to give every aid to disciplined men as opposed to mere guerrilleros.
+The city is built in blocks, on the American system; the wide
+thoroughfares cross each other at right-angles, and all of them could be
+swept as with a besom by a few guns _en barbette_ behind a breastwork at
+either end. In this sort of work, accuracy of aim is not called for, as
+in that warfare up in the mountains. If it were, not much reliance could
+be placed on the Republican artillery. General Hidalgo had well-nigh
+nullified that arm of the service. A Carlist leader, in whose
+information and whose word confidence could be reposed, assured me that
+not a single Carlist had yet been killed or wounded by the Republican
+gunners. The estimated lists of the enemy's casualties given by both
+parties during the struggle, I may remark _en passant_, were grossly
+exaggerated. The butcher's bill was very small in proportion to the
+expenditure of gunpowder. Returning to the question of the defence of
+San Sebastian--even on the supposition that the main works and town were
+to fall into the hands of the Carlists, the citadel still remained,
+where a determined leader could hold out till relief came, as long as
+his provisions lasted. This lofty citadel is almost impregnable. It was
+hither the French retired in 1813, and it took General Graham all that
+he knew to dislodge them. If I were asked what were the prospects of the
+Carlists getting into the place, I should say there was but one--by
+crossing over a golden bridge. But that implied the possession of money,
+and money was precisely what the Carlists declared they needed most.
+
+There was always the remote hazard of a Carlist rising in San Sebastian,
+for there were in the city the children of settlers from the rural
+districts who bit their thumbs at the sight of the muzzled _San
+Margarita_, and prayed that Charles VII. might have "his ain again." But
+they were in the minority. The Miqueletes, a soldierly body of men in
+scarlet Basque scones very like to the Carlist head-gear, and a blue
+capote with cape attached, garrisoned the citadel. They were brave and
+loyal to the Republic, and the object of deep grudge to the Chicos, for
+they were Basques of the towns. Many of these provincial militiamen had
+come in from the small pueblos in the neighbourhood, where they ran the
+risk of being eaten up by "the bhoys;" and this was the only accession
+to the population which redeemed the dismal, tradeless port from the
+appearance of having been stricken by plague and abandoned, and lent it
+at intervals an artificial bustle.
+
+I sickened of San Sebastian, with its angular propriety; its high,
+haughty houses, holding up their heads in architectural primness; its
+wide geometrical streets, where there is no shade in the sun, no shelter
+in the wind. I began to hate it for its rectilinearity, and dub it a
+priggish, stuck-up, arrogant upstart among cities. What business had it
+to be so straight and clean and airy? Fain would I shake the dust off my
+feet in testimony against it; but here was the trouble. How to get
+away--that was a knotty problem. The railway had been torn up for
+months, and the armour-vested locomotives were rusting on the sidings at
+Hendaye. The dirty hot little tug, the _Alcorta_, that plies between the
+quay and Socoa, had left; and I grieved not, for the thought of a
+passage by her was nausea. Three more torturing hours never dragged
+their slow length along for me than those I spent on board her coming
+over. Try and call up to yourself three hours in a low-class cook-shop,
+coated an inch thick with filth, and fitted over the boiler of a penny
+steamer dancing a marine break-down on the Thames, opposite the outlet
+of the main-drainage pipes. That, intensified by strange oaths and
+slop-basins, was the passage by the _Alcorta_. But dreary, lonely San
+Sebastian was not to be endured. Those poor fellows above, accustomed to
+the wild freshness and freedom of the sea, how they must mourn and
+repine! By some means or other I must get back to the world that is not
+petrified. No diligences dare to affront the dangers of the short
+journey to the Irun railway-station, since three were stopped some days
+before, the traces cut, the horses stolen, the windows shattered, the
+woodwork burned, and the charred wreck left on the roadside, a terror to
+those who neglect to obey the commands of the Royalist leaders.
+
+"Royalist prigants, serr!" shouted a corpulent German doctor, connected
+with mines in the neighbourhood, who retained fierce recollections of
+having been robbed of a "boney, capitalest of boneys for crossing a
+mountain."
+
+I told the doctor I was about to trust to luck, and set out on foot if I
+could persuade nobody to provide me with a vehicle.
+
+"Serr, you air mad, foolish mad," said the doctor. "Those horrid
+beebles, I tell you, are worse than prigants; if you hayff money, they
+will dake it; if you hayff not money, they will stroke your pack fifty
+times, pecause you hayff it not. They will cut your ears off; they will
+cut your nose off; they are plack tevils!"
+
+I determined to trust to luck all the same. The black devils might not
+be all out so black as they were painted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+     Belcha's Brigands--Pale-Red Republicans--The Hyena--More about the
+     _San Margarita_--Arrival of a Republican Column--The Jaunt to Los
+     Pasages--A Sweet Surprise--"The Prettiest Girl in Spain"--A Madrid
+     Acquaintance--A Costly Pull--The Diligence at Last--Renteria and
+     its Defences--A Furious Ride--In France Again--Unearthing Santa
+     Cruz--The Outlaw in his Lair--Interviewed at Last--The Truth about
+     the Endarlasa Massacre--A Death-Warrant--The Buried Gun--Fanaticism
+     of the Partisan-Priest.
+
+
+THERE is fine scope for exaggeration in civil war; but he who wants the
+truth about the Montagues does not consult the Capulets. There must be
+bad characters amongst the Carlists, I reflected; and when they are on
+outpost duty at a distance from officers, and have taken a drop of
+aguardiente too much, they may sometimes fail to appreciate the nice
+distinction between _meum_ and _tuum_. The band of one Belcha, which was
+hovering in the neighbourhood of San Sebastian, had a shady reputation.
+It would be unjust to tempt these simple-minded guerrilleros with the
+sight of a Derringer, a hunting-watch, a tobacco-pouch, or a
+reconnoitring-glass. All these articles are useful on the hills. But
+even Belcha's looters had some conscience; they drew the line at money
+and wedding-rings. Besides, in cases of robbery restitution was
+invariably made when the chiefs of the revolt were appealed to in proper
+form, so that on the whole the Carlists did not deserve the name the
+German doctor had given them. Regular soldiers do not always carry the
+Decalogue in their kit; there was marauding in the Peninsula,
+notwithstanding the iron discipline of the Iron Duke; the Summer Palace
+at Pekin was despoiled of its treasures by gentlemen in epaulettes, and
+the Franco-German War was not entirely unconnected with stories about
+vanishing clocks. So I would not be diverted from my purpose.
+
+Before leaving San Sebastian I tried to obtain permission for a second
+visit to the citadel-prison in order to see the crew of the _San
+Margarita_, but without avail. Yet the officers in charge (all of the
+regular army), and indeed the privates of the local militia, were
+anything but truculent gaolers; they seemed willing to strain a point to
+oblige. The Republicanism of the officers was of a very pale red; but
+there was one hirsute Volunteer of Liberty who acted as chief warder,
+and took a delight in the occupation. He rattled his bunch of keys as if
+their metallic dissonance were music, grumbled at the urbanity of his
+superiors, and bore himself altogether as if their politics were
+suspicious; and he, a pure of the pure, were there as warder over that
+too. I nicknamed him the hyena in my own mind; but I could not conceive
+him laughing anywhere save in front of a garrote with a Royalist neck in
+the rundel, and then his laugh at best would be but the inward chuckle
+of a Modoc.
+
+Stuart took the hyena coolly, regarding him as an amusing phenomenon;
+Travers surveyed him as he would the portrait of the Nabob on London
+hoardings, and pronounced him a whimsical illustration of Republican
+sauce. Stuart, I should have stated, was anxious that it should be
+known that he had caused the name of the whilom _Deerhound_ to be erased
+from the list of yachts, when he chartered her as a merchant-steamer,
+renamed her, and went into the contraband-of-war line. It was contrary
+to his wish to compromise any club. The confiscated cargo was the last
+he had intended delivering, but he told me with a smile that ten
+thousand stand of rifles had already found their way to Vera. There was
+no legitimate explanation of the capture of the hare by the tortoise,
+although Travers was prepared to swear he was in French waters--he
+thought he was, no doubt--but he was just on the wrong side of the
+limit. There was one comfort. On the way to Bayonne a boat-load of men
+had been landed at Socoa on leave, amongst them the Basque pilot, who
+might otherwise have been helped to a short shrift, and the dog's death
+from a yard-arm.
+
+Carlist sympathizers endeavoured to procure me a conveyance to Irun, but
+nobody cared to affront the loss of horses, for Belcha's band
+requisitioned the cattle even of those identical in political
+feeling--the good of the cause was their plea--so at last I was forced
+to say I should be glad of a trap to Los Pasages, a few miles off,
+whence I might be able to go forward on foot.
+
+While I was waiting for the arrival of the vehicle, and reading _El
+Diario_, the local daily paper--a sheet the size of the palm of one's
+hand--until I had the contents by rote, an incident occurred to beguile
+suspense. The vanguard of the corps of Sanchez Bregua, the commander of
+the Republican Army of the North, rode into the city. They had come from
+Zarauz, a seaside village four leagues away--a section of mounted
+Chasseurs in a uniform like to that of the old British Light Dragoons.
+The troopers were in campaign order, with rifled carbines slung over
+their backs, pugarees hanging from their shakoes over their necks, and
+were dust-covered and sunburnt, but soldierly. They were horsed
+unevenly, and for light cavalry carried too great a burden. But that is
+not a fault peculiar to Spanish light cavalry. The average weight of the
+British Hussar equipped is eighteen stone. A quarter of an hour later
+the main body came in sight, a long column of infantry marching by
+fours. It was headed by a party of Civil Guards, acting as guides. As
+the column reached the open space by the quay, it deployed into line of
+companies, a movement capitally executed. The men were bigger and
+tougher than those of the French Line. Their uniform was similar, except
+that they had wings to their capotes instead of worsted epaulettes. All
+wore mountain-shoes, but were not hampered with tenting equipage on
+their knapsacks. Each battalion was led by a staff-officer, who was
+splendidly, or wretchedly, mounted, as his luck had served him. The
+company officers carried alpenstocks, and their orderlies had officers'
+cast foraging-caps on top of their glazed shakoes. I noticed a battalion
+of Cazadores, distinguished by the emblematic brass horn of chase
+wrought on their collars, and two companies of Engineers in uniforms
+entirely blue, with towers on their collars. These latter were robust,
+sinewy young fellows. After the infantry came a company of the 2nd
+Regiment of Mountain Artillery with four small pieces, each drawn by a
+single mule, and behind them a squadron of Mounted Chasseurs, and a
+long cavalcade of pack-horses and mules.
+
+After a deal of exploration a driver was dug up, and after a deal of
+negotiation he consented to take me to Los Pasages. Thanks to Republican
+vigilance, but principally it may have been to the nature of the ground,
+the road thither was clear. We started at six o'clock in the evening,
+and after a lively spin through sylvan scenery drew up in less than an
+hour at the outskirts of a village on the edge of a quiet pool, which we
+had bordered for nigh a mile. No papers had been asked for, on leaving,
+at the bridge over the Urumea, where a post of volunteers kept guard by
+an antique and stumpy bronze howitzer, mounted on a siege-carriage, and
+furnished with the dolphin-handles to be seen on some of the
+last-century guns in the Tower Arsenal. No papers were asked for either
+at the Customs' station, some hundred yards farther on; but the
+Carabineros looked upon me as a lunatic, and significantly sibilated.
+None were asked for at the approach to the village. Scarcely had I
+alighted when a fishwife ran out of a cabin and addressed me in Basque.
+I could not understand her, and motioned her away, when a winsome lassie
+of some eighteen summers, tripping up the road, came to my aid, and
+began speaking in French as if she were anticipating my arrival.
+
+"Monsieur wants a shallop to go to France?"
+
+I was taken aback, but answered, "Yes."
+
+"Monsieur will follow me."
+
+And she gave me a meaning sign--half a wink, half a monition. I
+followed, and examined my volunteer guide more attentively. What a prize
+of a girl! Hair black as night, but with a glossy blackness, was parted
+on her smooth forehead, and retained behind, after the fashion of the
+country, by a coloured snood, but two thick Gretchen plaits escaped, and
+hung down to her waist, making one wish that she had let her whole
+wealth of tresses wander free. Eyes blue-black, full by turns of soft
+love and sparkling mischief; Creole complexion, with blood rich as
+marriage-wine coursing in the dimpled cheeks; teeth white as the fox's;
+lips of clove-pink. And what a shape had she--ripe, firm, and piquant!
+Do you wonder that I followed her with joy? Do you wonder that I began
+weaving a romance? If you do, I pity you. Did I want a shallop? Of
+course I did; but alas! might I not have echoed Burger's lament:
+
+    "The shallop of my peace is wrecked
+     On Beauty's shore."
+
+She was a Carlist, I was sure of that. All the comely maidens were
+Carlists. In the service of the King the most successful crimps were
+"dashing white sergeants" in garter and girdle. And she took me for an
+interesting Carlist fugitive, and she was determined to aid in my
+escape. How ravishing! She was a Flora Macdonald, and I--would be a
+Pretender. I had fully wound myself up to that as we entered Los
+Pasages.
+
+Los Pasages consists of rows of houses built on either side of a basin
+of the sea, entered by a narrow chasm in the high rocky coast. Sailing
+by it, one would never imagine that that cleft in the shore-line was a
+gate to a natural harbour, locked against every wind, and large enough
+to accommodate fleets, and whose waters are generally placid as a lake.
+This secure haven, _statio benefida carinis_, is hidden away in the lap
+of the timbered hills, and is approached by a passage (from which its
+name is borrowed) which can be traversed in fifteen minutes. The change
+from the boisterous Bay of Biscay, with its "white horses capering
+without, to this Venetian expanse of water in a Swiss valley, dotted
+with chalets and cottages, must have the effect of a magic
+transformation on the emotional tar who has never been here before, and
+whose chance it was to lie below when his ship entered. The refuge is
+not unknown to English seamen, for there is a stirring trade in minerals
+with Cardiff, in more tranquil times. But now Los Pasages is deserted
+from the bar down to the uttermost point of its long river-like stretch
+inland, except by the smacks and small boats of the native fishers, a
+tiny tug, and a large steamer from Seville which is lying by the wharf.
+There is no noise of traffic; the one narrow street echoes to our
+tramping feet as I follow my charming cicerone, who has started up for
+me like some good spirit of a fairy-tale. She leads me to an inn, bids
+me enter, and flies in search of the owner of the shallop. The landlord
+comes to greet me, and I recognise in him an acquaintance--Maurice, a
+former waiter in the Fonda de Paris, in Madrid. I questioned Maurice as
+to my chances of getting across to Irun by land that night; but he
+assured me it was too late, and really dangerous; that the road was
+infested by gangs of desperadoes; and that it would be safer for me to
+travel, even in the day-time, without money or valuables. The owner of
+the shallop came, but as he had the audacity to ask eighty francs for
+transporting me round to Fontarabia, and as I had found Maurice, I
+resolved to stop in Los Pasages for the night.
+
+"You have only to cross the water to-morrow morning," said Maurice, "and
+you are in Kenteria, where you will be sure to get a vehicle."
+
+The backs of the houses all overlook the port, and all are balconied and
+furnished with flowered terraces, from which one can fish, look at his
+reflection, or take a header into the water at pleasure. A glorious nook
+for a reading-party's holiday, Los Pasages. Not if fair mysteries like
+my friend crop up there; but where is she, by-the-way? She does not
+re-appear; but Maurice will help me to discover who and what she is.
+
+"Maurice, are there any pretty girls here?"
+
+Maurice looks at me reproachfully.
+
+"Señor, you have been conducted to my house by one who is acknowledged
+to be the prettiest in all Spain."
+
+That night I dreamt of Eugenia, the baker's daughter, the pride of Los
+Pasages, who was waiting for a husband, but would have none but one who
+helps Charles VII. to the throne. I recorded that dream for the
+bachelors of Britain, and conjured them to make haste to propose for
+her--not that the Carlist war was hurrying to a close; but I have
+remarked that girls inclined to be plump at eighteen sometimes develop
+excessive embonpoint about eight-and-twenty. On inquiry, I found a key
+to the enigma which had filled me with sweet excitement. Eugenia, who
+had been to the citadel-prison to carry provisions to a friend in
+trouble, had seen me speaking to Colonel Stuart, and was anxious to
+serve me because of my supposed Carlist tincture. My supposed Carlist
+tincture did not prevent a lusty Basque boatman from charging five
+francs next morning for the five minutes' pull across the water to the
+road to Renteria, where I caught a huge yellow diligence, which had
+ventured to leave San Sebastian at last with the detained mails of a
+week. The machine was horsed in the usual manner--that is, with three
+mules and two nags--but how different from usual was the way-bill! With
+the exception of the driver and his aide, a youngster who jumped down
+from the box every hundred yards, and belaboured the beasts with a
+wattle, there was not one passenger fit to carry arms. We had a load of
+women and babies, a decrepit patriarch, and two boys under the fighting
+age. We halted at Renteria, harnessed a fresh team to our conveniency,
+and sent on a messenger to ascertain if the Carlists had been seen on
+the road. Everybody in Renteria carried a musket. All the approaches
+were defended by loopholed works, roofed with turf, and a perfect
+fortress was constructed in the centre of the town by a series of
+communications which had been established between the church and a block
+of houses in front by _caponnières_. The church windows were built up
+and loopholed, and a semicircular _tambour_, banked with earth to
+protect it from artillery, was thrown up against the houses in the
+middle of the street, so as to enfilade it at either side in case of
+attack. There were troops of the line in Renteria, but no artillerymen,
+nor was there artillery to be served. Without artillery, however, the
+place, if properly provisioned, could not be taken, if the defending
+force was worth its salt.
+
+The messenger having returned with word that all was right, we went
+ahead at a fearful pace on a very good road, lined with poplars, and
+running through a neat park-like country. Over to the right we could see
+the church-spire of Oyarzun, and the smoke curling from the chimneys; a
+little farther on we passed the debris of a diligence on the wayside;
+the telegraph wires along the route were broken down, and the poles
+taken away for firewood; we dived under a railway bridge, but never a
+Carlist saw we during the continuous brief mad progress over the eight
+miles from Renteria to the rise into Irun.
+
+We clattered up to the rail way-station at a hand-gallop, the people
+rushing to the doors of the houses, and beaming welcome from smiling
+countenances. There was a faint attempt to cheer us. At the station a
+number of officials, a couple of Carabineros, and a knot of idlers were
+gathered. The driver descended with the gait of a conquering hero, and
+turned his glances in the direction of a cottage close by. An old man on
+crutches, a blooming matron with rosary beads at her waist, and a
+nut-brown maid with laughing eyes stood under the porch, embowered in
+tamarisk and laurel-rose. The driver strode over to them, crying out
+triumphantly:
+
+"El primero! Lo! I am the first."
+
+"How valiant you are, Pedro!" said the nut-brown maid, advancing to meet
+him.
+
+"How lucky you are!" said the matron, with a grave shake of the head.
+
+"How rash you are!" mumbled the grandfather; "you were always so."
+
+I envied that driver, for the nut-brown maid kissed him, as she had the
+right to do, for she was his affianced, and had not seen him for five
+days.
+
+From the Irun station to Hendaye was free from danger. I walked down
+through a field of maize to the Bidassoa, crossed by a ferry-boat to the
+other side, where a post of the 49th of the French Line were peacefully
+playing cards for buttons in the shade of a chestnut, and a few minutes
+afterwards was seated in front of a bottle of Dublin stout with the
+countryman who forwarded my letters and telegrams from over the border.
+
+Naturally I had a desire to ascertain the whereabouts of Santa Cruz. The
+man had almost grown mythical with me. I had heard at San Sebastian that
+ten thousand crowns had been offered for his scalp at Tolosa, and the
+fondest yearning--the one satisfying aspiration of the hyena--was to
+tear him into shreds, chop him into sausage-meat, gouge out his eyes, or
+roast him before a slow fire. Which form of torment he would prefer, he
+had not quite settled. A sort of intuitive faculty, which has seldom
+led me astray, said to me that Santa Cruz was somewhere near. I revolved
+the matter in my mind, and fixed upon the man under whose roof he was
+most likely to be concealed. I went to that man and requested him
+bluntly to take me to the outlawed priest--I wished very much to speak
+to him.
+
+He smiled and answered, "He is not here."
+
+"The bird is flown," I said, "but the nest is warm. He is not far away."
+
+"True," he said, "come with me."
+
+We drove some miles--I will not say how many--and drew up at an enclosed
+villa, which may have been in France, but was not of it. To be plain, it
+was neutral territory, and my host, who knew me thoroughly, disappeared
+for a few moments, and said Santa Cruz was sleeping, but that he had
+roused him, and that he would be with us presently.
+
+I was sitting on a garden-seat in front of the house where he was
+stopping, when he presented himself on the threshold, bareheaded, and in
+his shirt-sleeves. The outlaw priest was no slave to the
+conventionalities of society. He did not adjust his necktie before
+receiving visitors. I am not sure that he wore a necktie at all. Let me
+try and draw his portrait as he stood there in the doorway, in
+questioning attitude. A thick, burly man under thirty years of age, some
+five feet five in height, with broad sallow face, brawny bull-neck, and
+wide square-set shoulders--a squat Hercules; dark-brown hair, cut short,
+lies close to his head; he is bearded, and has a dark-brown pointed
+moustache; shaggy brows overhang his small steel-gray eyes; his nose is
+coarse and devoid of character; but his jaws are massive, his lips firm,
+and his chin determined. He is dressed like the better class of peasant,
+wears sandals, canvas trousers, a light brownish-gray waistcoat, and has
+a large leathern belt, like a horse's girth, round his waist. His
+expression is severe, as of one immersed in thought; with an occasional
+frown, as if the thought were disagreeable. His brows knit, and a shadow
+passes over his features when anything is mentioned that displeases him;
+but I was told when he smiled, the smile was of the sweetest and most
+amiable. I cannot say I saw him in smiling mood, but I saw him frown,
+and never did anyone so truly translate to me the figure of speech of
+"looking black." He advanced with self-possession, returned my salute
+without coldness or _empressement_, as if it were a mere matter of form,
+and sat down beside me. We had a long chat. Santa Cruz did not take much
+active part in it, but listened as his host spoke, punctuating what was
+said with nods of assent, and now and again dropping a guttural
+sentence. His maxim was that deeds were of more value than words, and he
+adhered to it. His host, I may interpose, was the most devoted of
+Carlists, and had given largely of his means to aid the cause. He had
+great faith in Santa Cruz, and told me in his presence (but in French,
+which the Cura understood but slightly) that while Santa Cruz was in the
+northern provinces, the King had half-a-man in his service, and that if
+he would now call on Cabrera he would have a man and a half, for that
+Santa Cruz would act with Cabrera.
+
+"If Don Carlos does not consent to that," said my host, "you will see
+that he will have to return into France, and live in ignominy for the
+rest of his days!"
+
+This Cura, represented in the Madrid play-house as half-drunk and
+dancing lewdly, was the most abstemious and chastest of men, and neither
+smoked nor drank wine. His fame went on increasing, as did the number of
+his followers. He effected prodigies with the means at his command. His
+friends in France supplied him with two cannon, which were smuggled
+across the border. He turned the foundry at Vera into a munition
+factory; employed women to make uniforms for his men; and insisted that
+the intervals between his expeditions should be given up to drill. He
+was dreaded, respected, admired by his band; he was strong and hardy;
+faced perils and privations in common with the lowest, but used no
+weapon but his walking-stick The priest, the anointed of God, may not
+shed blood. The affair of Endarlasa was the coping-stone of his career.
+Various accounts were related of that event; it is only fair to let
+Santa Cruz himself speak. This is what he told me:
+
+At three one morning he opened fire on the guard-house occupied by the
+Carabineros, at the bridge over the Bidassoa, between Vera and Irun. A
+white flag was hoisted on the guard-house. He ordered the fire to cease,
+and advanced to negotiate the conditions of surrender. The enemy, who
+had invited him to approach, by the white flag, fired and wounded one of
+his men. He issued directions to take the place, and spare nobody. The
+place was taken, and nobody was spared. Twenty-seven dead bodies
+littered the Vera road that morning.
+
+"Is it true that you pardoned two?" I asked the priest.
+
+"No, ninguno! Porqué?" he answered with astonishment. "Not one. Why
+should I?"
+
+The reason I had asked was that I had been told that a couple of the
+Carabineros had plunged into the Bidassoa and tried to swim to the other
+side; but the Cura, on his own avowal, with Rhadamanthine justice had
+commanded them to be shot as they breasted the current, and they were
+shot. He was no believer in half-measures.
+
+A lady partisan of his, who had dined with him the day before, told me
+he never breathed a syllable of the attack he meditated, to her or any
+of his band. An English gentleman, who visited the ground while the
+corpses were still upon it, assured me that the sight was horrifying,
+and, such was the panic in Irun, that he verily believed Santa Cruz
+might have taken the town the same afternoon, had he appeared before it
+with four men.
+
+To pursue the story of the redoubtable Cura. The bruit of his exploits
+had gone abroad, and among certain Carlists it seemed to be the opinion,
+as one of them remarked to me, that "_Il a fait de grandes choses, mais
+de grandes bêtises aussi._" He was making war altogether too seriously
+for their tastes. Antonio Lizarraga was appointed Commandant-General of
+Guipúzcoa about that period, and ordered Santa Cruz to report to him.
+Santa Cruz, who was in the field before him, and had five times as many
+men under his control, paid no heed to his orders. Lizarraga then sent
+him a death-warrant, which is so curious a document that I make no
+apology for appending it in full:
+
+     TRANSLATION.
+
+     (A seal on which is inscribed "Royal Army of the North, General
+     Command of Guipúzcoa.")
+
+     "The sixteenth day of the present month, I gave orders to all the
+     forces under my command, that they should proceed to capture you,
+     and that immediately after you had received the benefit of clergy
+     they should execute you.
+
+     "This sentence I pronounced on account of your insubordination
+     towards me, you having disobeyed me several times, and having taken
+     no notice of the repeated commands I sent you to present yourself
+     before me to declare what you had to say in your own defence in the
+     inquiry instituted against you by my directions.
+
+     "For the last time I ask of you to present yourself to me, the
+     instant this communication is received; in default of which I
+     notify to you that every means will be used to effect your arrest;
+     that your disobedience and the unqualifiable acts laid to your
+     charge will be published in all the newspapers; and that the
+     condign punishment they deserve will be duly exacted.
+
+    "God grant you many years.
+
+    "The Brigadier-General Commanding.
+
+    (Signed) "ANTONIO LIZARRAGA.
+
+    "Campo Del Honor, 28th of March, 1873.
+
+    "Señor Don Manuel Santa Cruz."
+
+    "Note.--Have the goodness to acknowledge this, my
+    communication."
+
+
+This missive was received by Santa Cruz, but he never acknowledged it.
+His host permitted me to read and copy the original.
+
+"Is not that arbitrary?" he said to me in English; "very much like what
+you call Jedburgh justice; hanging a man first and trying him
+afterwards. Lizarraga says, 'This sentence I pronounced'--all is
+finished apparently there; and yet he cites the man whom he has ordered
+to be immediately executed to appear before him to declare what he has
+to say!"
+
+Another phrase in this death-warrant, which escaped the host, impressed
+me with its naïveté:
+
+"_God grant you many years._"
+
+But Lizarraga, in this politeness of custom, meant no more, it is to be
+presumed, than did the Irish hangman who expostulated with his client in
+the condemned cell:
+
+"Long life to ye, Mr. Hinery! and make haste, the people are getting
+onpatient."
+
+Santa Cruz bit his way out of the toils, however, but not so his band.
+They were surrounded at Vera, caught, with a few exceptions, disarmed,
+assembled and addressed in Spanish by the Marquis de Valdespina, whose
+remarks were translated to them into Basque by the Cura of Ollo. They
+cried "Viva el Rey!" Their arms were subsequently restored to them, and
+the men were distributed among other battalions. But they still regret
+their old leader, and Santa Cruz is popular by the firesides of the
+mountaineers of Guipúzcoa. One of his mountain guns fell into the hands
+of Lizarraga, but the other was buried in some spot only known to
+himself and a few trusted companions.
+
+During my interview I made it my business to study the priest
+attentively, and this is what I honestly thought of him. He was a
+fanatic, a sullen self-willed man with but one idea--the success of the
+cause; and but one ambition--that it should be said of him that it was
+he, Santa Cruz, who put Don Carlos on the throne of his ancestors. The
+globe for him was bounded by the Pyrenees and the sea; he had but one
+antipathy after the heretics (all who did not worship God as he did) and
+the Liberals, and that was Lizarraga. I considered it a mistake that
+Lizarraga was not the Cura of Hernialde, and Santa Cruz the
+Commandant-General of Guipúzcoa. The priest had a natural military
+instinct--I would almost go so far as to say a spice of military
+genius; and had he had a knowledge of the profession of arms would
+probably have developed into a great general of the Cossack type. His
+hatred to Lizarraga led him into littleness and injustice. He chuckled
+at the idea of Lizarraga not being able to find the buried gun, as if
+that were any great triumph over him; and he sneered at the idea of
+Lizarraga, who was not able to take Oyarzun, meditating an attempt on
+Tolosa. I could thoroughly understand that the Carlist priest bore
+malice to the officer who supplanted him and condemned him to death. But
+what Lizarraga did was done in compliance with the King's will. At the
+same time there could be no doubt that Santa Cruz was treated with scant
+courtesy after all he had accomplished, and had a right to feel himself
+ill-used, and the victim of jealous rivalry. He said that he was
+prepared, any day the King permitted him, to traverse the four
+provinces, and hold his enemies _in terrorem_ with five hundred men. And
+he was the very worthy to do it. He complained bitterly that three of
+his followers had been shot by Lizarraga. One story relates that they
+stole into Guipúzcoa to levy blackmail, another that they merely went to
+dig up some money that was interred when the legion was disbanded. In
+any case they appeared in arms in a forbidden district, and incurred the
+capital penalty. Santa Cruz went to Bordeaux to beg for their lives at
+the feet of Doña Margarita. She received him most graciously, and
+promised to send a special courier to her husband to intercede in their
+behalf. Before the King's reprieve could possibly have arrived the three
+were executed.
+
+As we were about to leave, a colleague who was with me asked the Cura if
+he would permit him to visit his camp, if it came to pass that he took
+up arms again in Spain.
+
+"We shall see," said Santa Cruz; "wait till I am there."
+
+My own conviction is that the priest held correspondents in abhorrence,
+and that his first impulse would have been to tie a zealous one up to a
+tree, and have thirty-nine blows given him with a stick. Perhaps I did
+him wrong, but if ever he did take up arms again, it was my firm
+intention to be south when he was north, for he was about the last
+person in creation to whose tender mercies I should care to entrust
+myself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+     An Audible Battle--"Great Cry and Little Wool"--A Carlist Court
+     Newsman--A Religious War--The Siege of Oyarzun--Madrid Rebels--"The
+     Money of Judas"--A Manifesto from Don Carlos--An Ideal
+     Monarch--Necessity of Social and Political Reconstruction
+     Proclaimed--A Free Church--A Broad Policy--The King for the
+     People--The Theological Question--Austerity in Alava--Clerical and
+     Non-Clerical Carlists--Disavowal of Bigotry--A Republican Editor on
+     the Carlist Creed--Character of the Basques--Drill and
+     Discipline--Guerilleros _versus_ Regulars.
+
+
+WHEN a man's office is to chronicle war and he is within hearing of the
+echoes of battle, but cannot reach a spot from which the scene of action
+might be commanded, it is annoying in the extreme. Such was my strait on
+the 21st of August, a few days after my arrival from San Sebastian. I
+was at Hendaye, the border-town of France. From the Spanish frontier the
+report of heavy firing was audible for hours, apparently coming from a
+point between Oyarzun and Renteria. First one could distinguish the
+faint spatter of musketry, and afterwards the undeniable muffled roar of
+artillery. Then came a succession of sustained rolls as of
+volley-firing. About noon the action must have been at its height. The
+distant din was subsequently to be caught only at long intervals, as if
+changes of position were in course of being effected; but at three
+o'clock it regained force, and raged with fury until five, when it
+suddenly died away.
+
+I was burning with impatience, and made several unavailing attempts to
+cross the Bidassoa. The ferryman, acting under instructions from the
+gendarmes, refused to take passengers. By the evening train a delegate
+from the Paris Society for the Succour of the Wounded arrived from
+Bayonne with a box of medicine and surgical appliances. He, too, was
+unable to pass into Spain. Meantime, rumour ran riot. Stories were
+current that there had been fearful losses.
+
+"At eleven o'clock men were falling like flies," said one eye-witness,
+who succeeded in running away from the field before he fell.
+
+Not a single medical man would leave France in response to the call of
+the Paris delegate for volunteers to accompany him. Were they all
+Republicans? Did they fear that Belcha might take a fancy to their
+probes and forcipes? Or did they look upon the big battles and
+tremendous lists of casualties in this most uncivil of civil wars as
+illustrations of a great cry and little wool? If the latter was their
+notion, they were right. Three days after this serious engagement, I
+learned the particulars of what had taken place. General Loma, a
+brigadier under Sanchez Bregua, with a column of 1,500 men, came out
+from San Sebastian to cover a working-party while they were endeavouring
+to throw up a redoubt for his guns on an eminence between Irun and
+Oyarzun, so as to put an end to the tussle over the possession of the
+latter hamlet, which was a perpetual bone of contention. The Carlists
+fired upon him from behind the rocks in a gorge to which he had
+committed himself, but were outnumbered. Word was sent to the cabecilla,
+Martinez, at Lesaca, and he arrived with reinforcements at the double,
+and encompassed Loma with such a cloud of sulphurous smoke that the
+Republicans had to fall back upon San Sebastian. The casualties in this
+Homeric combat were not appalling; there was more gunpowder than blood
+expended. The losses on the Republican side were one killed and fifteen
+wounded. On the Carlist side they were less, for the Carlists kept under
+cover of the fern and furze. But then it must be considered that the
+firing only lasted nine hours!
+
+Don Carlos was not slow in calling the printing-press to his aid. One of
+his first acts after his entry into his dominions was to start an
+official gazette, _El Cuartel Real_, the first number of which is before
+me as I write. I have seen queer papers in my travels, from the
+_Bugler_, a regimental record brought out by the 68th Light Infantry in
+Burmah, to the _Fiji Times_, and the _Epitaph_, the leading organ of
+Tombstone City, in the territory of Arizona; but this assuredly was the
+queerest. It was published by Cristóbal Perez, on the summit of Peña de
+la Plata, a Pyrenean peak. There might be less acceptable reading than a
+_résumé_ of its contents.
+
+_El Cuartel Real_ does not impose by its magnitude. It is about
+one-eighth the size of a London daily journal; but if it is not great by
+quantity it is by quality. Over the three columns of the opening page
+figure the three watchwords of the Royal cause, "God, Country, King."
+The paragraph which has the post of honour is headed "Oficial," and has
+in it a flavour of the _Court Newsman_. Here it is as it appears in the
+original, boldly imprinted in black type:
+
+"S. M. el Rey (q.D.g.) continúa sin novedad al frente de su leal y
+valiente ejército.
+
+"S. M. la Reina y sus augustos hijos continúan tambien sin novedad en su
+importante salud."
+
+As it is not vouchsafed to everyone to understand Castilian, I may as
+well give a rough translation, which read herewith:
+
+"His Majesty the King (whom God guard) continues without change at the
+front of his loyal and valiant army.
+
+"Her Majesty the Queen and her august children also continue without
+alteration in their precious health."
+
+Then _El Cuartel Real_ appends what takes the place of its leading
+article--a reproduction of a letter from Don Carlos to his "august
+brother," Don Alfonso, setting forth the principles on which he appeals
+for Spanish support. This document is so important that I must return to
+it anon. Then comes a circular from the "Real Junta Gubernativa del
+Reino de Navarra," in session at Vera. The purport of this, epitomized
+in a sentence, is to raise money. Next, we arrive at the "Seccion
+Oficial," the most important paragraph of which announces that the
+Chief, Merendon, has inaugurated a Carlist movement in Toledo, with a
+well-armed force, exceeding 280 men--to wit, 150 horsemen and 130
+infantry--and that he hopes shortly to gather numerous recruits. The
+"Seccion de Noticias" makes up the body of the paper, and is richer in
+information. We are told that the most excellent and illustrious Bishop
+of Urgel, accompanied by several sacerdotal and other dignitaries,
+arrived in the town of Urdaniz, at half-past seven on the previous
+Wednesday evening. His Lordship rested a night in the house of the
+Vicar, and left the following morning, escorted by his friend and host,
+the said Vicar, Brigadier Gamundi, and Colonel D. Fermin Irribarren,
+veterans of the Carlist army, for Elisondo. From that the prelate was
+reported to have started to headquarters, "to salute the King of Spain,
+august representative of the Christian monarchy, which is the only plank
+of safety in the shipwreck of the country."
+
+The _Cuartel Real_ warmly congratulates the Bishop on the fact of his
+having come to the conviction that "the present war is a religious war,
+and on that account eminently social"--(social in Spanish must have some
+peculiar shade of meaning unknown to strangers, for otherwise there is
+no sequence here)--and proceeds to speak with an eloquence that recalls
+that wretched Republican, Castelar, of the standard of faith in which
+resides Spanish honour and--here come two words that puzzle me, _la
+hidalguia y la caballerosidad_; but I suppose they mean nobility and
+chivalry, and everything of that kind. The next notice in the royal
+gazette is purely military, and makes known that the siege of the
+important town of Oyarzun has begun. "On the 20th the batteries opened
+fire, and, according to report, the enemy had one hundred men _hors de
+combat_." The batteries! There is a touch of genius in that phrase.
+Reading it, one would imagine that the Royalists had a royal regiment of
+artillery, and that eight pieces of cannon, at the very least, played
+upon the unfortunate Oyarzun. A jennet with a 4-pounder at its heels
+would be a more correct representation of the strength of the Carlist
+ordnance.
+
+To resume the story of the siege of Oyarzun. "On the 21st," adds _El
+Cuartel Real_, "there was talk of a capitulation, and it is possible
+that the place has surrendered at this hour." The paragraph that
+succeeds it is a gem: "Of the 1,010 armed rebels in Eibar (Guipúzcoa),
+210 betook themselves to San Sebastian, when they suspected the approach
+of the Royal forces, and the 800 remaining gave up to General Lizarraga
+their rifles, all of the Remington system." There is no quibble about
+the latter statement. The Carlists had easier ways of procuring arms
+than by running cargoes from England. But is there not something
+inimitable in the epithet "rebels"? There can be no question but that
+everyone is a rebel in romantic Spain--in the opinion of somebody else.
+The only question is, Who are the constituted authorities? Until that is
+settled the editor of _El Cuartel Real_ is perfectly justified in
+treating the volunteers of liberty, in those districts where Charles
+VII. virtually reigns, as armed rebels. Although this town of Eibar had
+frequently risen up against the legitimate authorities named by his
+Majesty, it is pleasant to learn that General Lizarraga did not impose
+the slightest chastisement on the population, thus giving a lesson of
+forbearance to the "factious generals." Next we are informed that on the
+day the Royal forces entered Vergara, the ignominious monument erected
+by the Liberals in record of the greatest of treasons (the treaty
+between the treacherous Maroto and Espartero in 1839) was destroyed
+amidst enthusiasm, and the parchment in the municipal archives
+commemorating its erection was taken out and burned in the public
+square. I may add (but this I had from private sources) that the coin
+dug up from under the monument was cast to the wind as the money of
+Judas. Navarre, continues _El Cuartel Real_, is dominated by our valiant
+soldiers under the skilful direction of his Majesty; Lizarraga has
+occupied in a few days Mondragon, Eibar, Plasencia, Azpeitia, Vergara,
+and other important places in Guipúzcoa, and obtained "considerable
+booty of war;" the standard of legitimacy is waving triumphantly in
+Biscay, and Bilbao is blockaded. There the tale of victory ends; but we
+arrive at matters not less gratifying in another sense. The
+distinguished engineer, Don Mariano Lana y Sarto, has been appointed to
+look after the repair of the bridges destroyed by Nouvilas. Don Matias
+Schaso Gomez, a member of the press militant, has been promoted to be a
+commandant for his valour at Astigarraga, and is nominated for the
+laurelled cross of San Fernando; and the illustrious doctor, Señor Don
+Alejandro Rodriguez Hidalgo, has been named chief of the sanitary staff,
+and entrusted with the establishment of military hospitals.
+
+The last paragraph in this curious little gazette, printed up amid the
+clouds on the summit of the Silver Hill, states that the Royal quarters
+were at Abarzuzu on the 17th instant, and that Estella, close by, was
+stubbornly resisting, but would soon be in the power of the Royalists. A
+column which had attempted to relieve the garrison was energetically
+driven back towards Lerin by two battalions commanded by his Majesty in
+person. But by the time _El Cuartel Real_ came under my notice Estella
+had fallen, and the Carlists had put to their credit a genuine success.
+
+As the question of Carlism is still one of prominent interest--is,
+indeed, what the French term an "actuality," and may crop up again any
+day, the letter of the claimant to the throne to Don Alfonso (alluded to
+some sentences above) is worth translating. It is the authoritative
+exposition of the aims of the would-be monarch, and of the line of
+policy he intended to pursue should he ever take up his residence in
+that coveted palace at Madrid. Its date is August 23rd, 1873, and the
+contents are these:
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"MY DEAR BROTHER,
+
+"Spain has already had opportunities enough to ascertain my ideas
+and sentiments as man and King in various periodicals and
+newspapers. Yielding, nevertheless, to a general and anxiously
+expressed desire which has reached me from all parts of the
+Peninsula, I write this letter, in which I address myself, not
+merely to the brother of my heart, but without exception to all
+Spaniards, for they are my brothers as well.
+
+"I cannot, my dear Alfonso, present myself to Spain as a Pretender
+to the Crown. It is my duty to believe, and I do believe, that the
+Crown of Spain is already placed on my forehead by the consecrated
+hand of the law. With this right I was born, a right which has
+grown, now that the fitting time has come, to a sacred obligation;
+but I desire that the right shall be confirmed to me by the love of
+my people. My business, henceforth, is to devote to the service of
+that people all my thoughts and powers--to die for it, or save it.
+
+"To say that I aspire to be King of Spain, and not of a party, is
+superfluous, for what man worthy to be a king would be satisfied to
+reign over a party? In such a case he would degrade himself in his
+own person, descending from the high and serene region where
+majesty dwells, and which is beyond the reach of mean and pitiful
+triflings.
+
+"I ought not to be, and I do not desire to be, King, except of all
+Spaniards; I exclude nobody, not even those who call themselves my
+enemies, for a king can have no enemies. I appeal affectionately to
+all, in the name of the country, even to those who appear the most
+estranged; and if I do not need the help of all to arrive at the
+throne of my ancestors, I do perhaps need their help to establish
+on solid and immovable bases the government of the State, and to
+give prosperous peace and true liberty to my beloved Spain.
+
+"When I reflect how weighty a task it is to compass those great
+ends, the magnitude of the undertaking almost oppresses me with
+fear. True, I am filled with the most fervent desire to begin, and
+the resolute will to carry out, the enterprise; but I cannot hide
+from myself that the difficulties are immense, and that they can
+only be overcome by the co-operation of the men of notability, the
+most impartial and honest in the kingdom; and, above all, by the
+co-operation of the kingdom itself, gathered together in the
+Cortes which would truly represent the living forces and
+Conservative elements of Spain.
+
+"I am prepared with such Cortes to give to Spain, as I said in my
+letter to the Sovereigns of Europe, a fundamental code which would
+prove, I trust, definitive and Spanish.
+
+"Side by side, my brother, we have studied modern history,
+meditating over those great catastrophes which are at once lessons
+to rulers and a warning to the people. Side by side, we have also
+thought over and formed a common judgment that every century ought
+to have, and actually has, its legitimate necessities and natural
+aspirations.
+
+"Old Spain stood in need of great reforms; in modern Spain we have
+had simply immense convulsions of overthrow. Much has been
+destroyed; little has been reformed. Ancient institutions, some of
+which cannot be revivified, have died out. An attempt has been made
+to create others in their place, but scarcely had they seen the
+light when symptoms of death set in. So much has been done, and no
+more. I have before me a stupendous labour, an immense social and
+political reconstruction. I have to set myself to building up, in
+this desolated country, on bases whose solidity is guaranteed by
+experience, a grand edifice, where every legitimate interest and
+every reasonable personality can find admittance.
+
+"I do not deceive myself, my brother, when I feel confident that
+Spain is hungry and thirsty for justice; that she feels the urgent
+and imperious necessity of a government, worthy and energetic,
+severe and respected; and that she anxiously wishes that the law to
+which we all, great and small, should be subject, should reign with
+undisputed sway.
+
+"Spain is not willing that outrage or offence should be offered to
+the faith of her fathers, believing that in Catholicity reposes the
+truth she understands, and that to accomplish to the full its
+divine mission, the Church must be free.
+
+"Whilst knowing and not forgetting that the nineteenth century is
+not the sixteenth, Spain is resolved to preserve from every danger
+Catholic unity--the symbol of our glories, the essence of our
+laws, and the holy bond of concord between all Spaniards.
+
+"The Spanish people, taught by a painful experience, desires the
+truth in everything, and that the King should be a king in reality,
+and not the shadow of a king; and that its Cortes should be the
+regularly appointed and peaceful gathering of the independent and
+incorruptible elect of the constituencies, and not tumultuous and
+barren assemblies of office-holders and office-seekers, servile
+majorities and seditious minorities.
+
+"The Spanish people is favourable to decentralisation, and will
+always be so; and you know well, my dear Alfonso, that should my
+desires be carried out, instead of assimilating the Basque
+provinces to the rest of Spain, which the revolutionary spirit
+would fain bring to pass, the rest of Spain would be lifted to an
+equality in internal administration with those fortunate and noble
+provinces.
+
+"It is my wish that the municipality should retain its separate
+existence, and the provinces likewise, proper precautions being
+employed to prevent possible abuses.
+
+"My cherished thought as constant desire is to give to Spain
+exactly that which she does not possess, in spite of the lying
+clamour of some deluded people--that liberty which she only knows
+by name; liberty, which is the daughter of the gospel, not
+liberalism, which is the son of disbelief (_de la protesta_);
+liberty, in fine, which is the supremacy of the laws when the laws
+are just--that is to say, conformable to the designs of nature and
+of God.
+
+"We, descendants of kings, admit that the people should not exist
+for the King so much as the King for the people; that a king should
+be the most honoured man amongst his people, as he is the first
+caballero; and that a king for the future should glory in the
+special title of 'father of the poor' and 'guardian of the weak.'
+
+"At present, my dear brother, there is a very formidable question
+in our Spain, that of the finances. The Spanish debt is something
+frightful to think of; the productive forces of the country are not
+enough to cover it--bankruptcy is imminent. I do not know if I can
+save Spain from that calamity; but, if it be possible, a
+legitimate sovereign alone can do it. An unshakable will works
+wonders. If the country is poor, let all live frugally, even to the
+ministers; nay, even to the King himself, who should be one in
+feeling with Don Enrique El Doliente. If the King is foremost in
+setting the example, all will be easy. Let ministries be
+suppressed, provincial governments be reduced, offices be
+diminished, and the administration economized at the same time that
+agriculture is encouraged, industry protected, and commerce
+assisted. To put the finances and credit of Spain on a proper
+footing is a Titanic enterprise to which all governments and
+peoples should lend aid."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Here follow a repudiation of free trade as applied to Spain, and a few
+well-turned periods dealing in the usual Spanish manner with the duties
+of the ruler, laying down, among other axioms, that "virtue and
+knowledge are the chiefest nobility," and that the person of the
+mendicant should be as sacred as that of the patrician.
+
+At the close there is a very sensible sentence, affirming that one
+Christian monarch in Spain would be better than three hundred petty
+kings disputing in a noisy assembly. "The chiefs of parties," continues
+the letter, "naturally yearn for honours or riches or place; but what in
+the world can a Christian king desire but the good of his people? What
+could he want to be happy but the love of his people?"
+
+The letter winds up by the affirmation that Don Carlos is faithful to
+the good traditions of the old and glorious Spanish monarchy, and that
+he believed he would be found to act also as "a man of the present age."
+The last sentence is a prayer to his brother, "who had the enviable
+privilege of serving in the Papal army," to ask their spiritual king at
+Rome for his apostolic benediction for Spain and the writer.
+
+If this document was written _propriâ manu_, by Don Carlos, he must be
+endowed with higher intellectual faculties than most Kings or Pretenders
+possess. It is undeniably clever, and is more progressive than one would
+expect from an upholder of the doctrine of Divine right. It may be, as
+Tennyson sings, that the thoughts of men (even when they are Bourbons)
+are widened with the process of the suns. But I protest that there is
+such a masterly mistiness in it here and there, such a careful elusion
+of rocks and ruggednesses political, and such a fine wind-beating
+flourish of the banner of glittering generality, that I think there were
+more heads than one engaged in the concoction of the manifesto. I have
+studiously refrained from the introduction of the religious topic as far
+as I could in this work--it is outside my sphere; but I should be unjust
+to the reader did I not give him some information (not from the
+controversial standpoint) on a subject which will obtrude itself in any
+discussion on the merits of the conflict which has twice distracted
+Spain and may divide the country again. It is unfortunately indisputable
+that religion was poked into the quarrel. The struggle was described in
+_El Cuartel Real_ as a religious war; the theological allegiance of the
+partisans of Don Carlos was appealed to, and their ardent attachment to
+the Papacy was worked upon, as in the concluding sentence of the
+proclamation of Don Carlos. In those portions of the north where Carlism
+was all-powerful, the authorities were emphatically showing that those
+who served under them must be practical Roman Catholics _nolentes
+volentes_. An austere placard, signed by Barona, member of the Carlist
+war committee, was posted in the province of Alava, and ordained among
+other articles: Firstly, that the town councillors of every municipality
+should assist in a body at High Mass; secondly, that the mayors should
+interdict, under the most severe penalties, all games and public
+diversions, and the opening of all public establishments during Divine
+service; and thirdly, that all blasphemers, and all who worked on a
+holiday, who gave scandal, or who danced indecently, should be
+_scourged_. The first of these articles is lawful enough in a country
+which is almost exclusively Roman Catholic. In England nothing can be
+said against it, seeing that British soldiers of all denominations are
+compelled to attend Church parade, and the prisoners in all gaols have
+to register themselves as belonging to some religion. There is just
+this theoretical objection, however--the article implies that municipal
+honours are to be limited to members of one creed, which is intolerant.
+That which underlay the antipathy of numerous Conservatives outside
+Spain to the Royalist cause, was the belief entertained that the success
+of Don Carlos would lead to the re-assertion of clerical preponderance,
+would destroy liberty of conscience as understood in most European
+nations, and would set up a political priesthood. The manifesto of Don
+Carlos does not deal with those points in the full and categorical
+manner desirable. I was told there were two parties in the Carlist camp,
+the clerical and--for want of a better name, let it be called--the
+non-clerical The former, the Basques, and those who gave Carlism its
+great primary impulsion, were as zealously Roman Catholic as ever Manuel
+Santa Cruz was. They looked forward to the re-acquisition of the
+ecclesiastical domains and the re-establishment of the Catholic Church
+in all its ancient supremacy of wealth and power. The non-clericals knew
+that the Basques, even assuming them all to be Carlists, were but
+660,000 in number, a small minority of the population, and that the
+existence of a State unduly influenced by a Church--things temporal
+controlled by personages bound to things spiritual--was antagonistic to
+the feelings of the majority of Spaniards.
+
+Having met a nobleman distinguished for his services to Carlism, I put
+it to him bluntly, "Would Don Carlos on the throne mean a relapse into
+religious bigotry?"
+
+He answered me with candour, "I am a Roman Catholic, and if I thought so
+I should be the last man to lend a penny to his cause."
+
+"But," I urged, "that is the general impression in England, where he is
+trying to negotiate a loan, and if it is left uncorrected it does him
+injury. Why does he not repel the impeachment?"
+
+"The truth is," he said, "Don Carlos has made too many public
+explanations."
+
+I returned to the charge, challenging my acquaintance to deny that many
+of the supporters of Don Carlos would fall away if they had not the
+thorough belief that his cause was as much identified with the triumph
+of Roman Catholicism as with that of legitimacy. His reply was not a
+denial, but an admission of the fact, with the addition that in war one
+must not be too particular as to the means of enlisting aid, and
+stimulating the enthusiasm of supporters, which is an argument as true
+as it is old. Don Carlos, in his manifesto, goes on the assumption that
+the Republicans are all atheists, or something very like it. It is only
+fair to let the Republicans speak for themselves, and explain what is
+the Republican estimate of the Carlist religion. The San Sebastian
+newspaper, _El Diario_, may be assumed to be a fair exponent of the
+sentiments of the anti-Carlists, and thus emphatically, and not without
+a spice of antithesis, it delivers itself:
+
+"The religion which has the commandment, 'Thou shalt not kill,' forbids
+murder.
+
+"The religion which has the commandment, 'Thou shalt not steal,' forbids
+robbery.
+
+"The religion which is peace, obedience, and love, is no friend of war,
+rebellion, and massacre.
+
+"Resigned and joyous in other days, its martyrs went to death in the
+amphitheatre of Rome, and on the plains of Saragossa, pardon in their
+souls and prayer on their lips; to-day pardon is exchanged for wrath,
+and prayer for reproach. Instead of the martyr's palm, we have the
+Berdan breech-loader and the flash of petroleum.
+
+"Anointed of the Lord, ministers of Him who died invoking blessings on
+His enemies, kindle the fires of fratricidal strife, which they call a
+sacred war, and lead on and inflame their dupes by the pretence that the
+gates of Paradise are to be forced open by gunshot.
+
+"Meanwhile the bishops are silent, Rome is dumb, the moral law sleeps,
+the canon law is forgotten; and these pastors, transforming their flocks
+into packs of wolves, scour the plains, blessing murder and sanctifying
+conflagration.
+
+"'King by Divine right,' they cry, like the legists of the Lower Empire;
+'Die or believe,' like the sons of the Prophet. Apostles without knowing
+it, they seek to achieve the triumph of a Pagan principle by a Saracenic
+process.
+
+"They say that religion is lost, because it is shorn of the honour and
+power their kings gave it; that the portals of heaven are barred,
+because they have forfeited their tithes and first-fruits, their rents
+and fat benefices; and they try to convince us by discharges of musketry
+that our whole future life depends, on the one hand, on a question of
+vanity, and on the other, on a question of stomach.
+
+"Holy Apostles, disciples of Him who had not a stone whereon to lay His
+head, you who conquered the earth with no arms but those of word and
+example, oh! would you not say if you returned here below, 'Those who
+preach by the voice of platoons; those who evangelize from the mouth of
+cannon; those are not, cannot be, our disciples and successors, for they
+are not fishers of souls, but fishers of snug posts under government'?
+
+"And you, glorious martyrs of the Roman circus and Saragossan fields,
+oh! would you not say, 'No, this Christianity, which goes about sowing
+battle; desolation, tears, and blood wherever it passes, is not
+ours--no, this Christianity at the bottom of the slaughter of Endarlasa,
+of the hecatomb of Cirauqui, of the sack of Igualada, and of a hundred
+other cruelties, is not ours. Our religion says "Kill not," and this
+murders; says "Steal not," and this robs. No, this is not the
+Christian, but the Carlist religion'?"
+
+That is a good specimen of the rhetorical school of writing popular in
+Spanish newspapers; but all that is written is not gospel. From personal
+observation it was evident to me that these Republicans of the Spanish
+towns of the north were not so scrupulous in the outward observances of
+religion as the tone of this indignant Christian leading article would
+convey; neither were the Carlists the "packs of wolves" they were
+represented to be.
+
+Let us see how this inflamed sense of so-called religion affected the
+rank and file among the adherents of Don Carlos.
+
+Indubitably the Royalists, with a very few exceptions, were more than
+moral--they were sincerely pious, and esteemed it a grateful incense to
+the Most High to kill as many of their Republican countrymen as they
+could without over-exertion. They bowed their heads and repeated prayers
+with the chaplains who accompanied them; as the echoes of the Angelus
+bell were heard they were marched to Divine worship every evening, when
+they were in the neighbourhood of a church; they were palpably impressed
+with deep devotional convictions, and yet they were not sour-faced like
+the grim Covenanters of Argyle, nor puritanically uncharitable like the
+stern propounders of the Blue Laws of Connecticut. Their beads returned
+to the pocket or the prayers finished, they laughed and jested, were
+frolicsome as schoolboys in their playhour, and the slightest tinkle of
+music set them dancing. Hospitable and fanatic, faithful and ignorant,
+temperate and dirty--such are some prominent traits in the character of
+the brave Basque people of the rural districts who wished to govern
+Spain, but who were Spaniards neither by race, nor language, nor
+temperament, nor feeling.
+
+Taken all in all, they are a right manly breed, and, with education to
+correct inevitable prejudices, would be capable of great things. But
+before they could become efficient soldiers, they needed a severe course
+of training. In the flat country, south of the Ebro, it would be cruel
+and foolish to oppose them to regular troops. As guerrilleros, they
+were without parallel, being content with short commons, and ever ready
+to play ball after the longest march; but they were ignorant of
+soldiering as technically understood. In the copses and crags of their
+own provinces they were invincible, and could carry on the struggle
+while there was a cartridge or an onion left in the land. But where the
+tactics of the "contrabandista" no longer availed, where surprises were
+impossible and mysterious disappearances not easy, and where the bulk of
+the people were not willing spies, the aspect of affairs was different.
+They were mediocre marksmen with long-range arms of precision, and had
+no proper conception of allowances for wind or sun. Target-practice was
+not encouraged, and yet it was not through thrift of ammunition, for the
+waste of powder in every skirmish was extravagant, and one could not
+rest a night in a village held by the Carlists without being disturbed
+by frequent careless discharges.
+
+With the bayonet, as far as I could learn, they were impetuous in the
+onset, and stubborn, especially the Navarrese. But bayonet-charges
+cannot carry stone walls or mud-banks; and in the face of the almost
+incessant peppering of breech-loaders, rushes of the kind have become
+slightly old-fashioned. To the Carlists, in any case, was due the credit
+of readiness to have recourse to the steel whenever there was a rift for
+hand-to-hand fighting. Their military education unfortunately confined
+itself to the rudiments of the drill-book. They fell in, dressed up,
+formed fours by the right, extended into sections on column of march and
+went through the like movements very well--so well that it was a pity
+they had not an opportunity of adding to their stock of knowledge. They
+had an instinctive aptitude for skirmishing, and were expert at forming
+square, the utility of which, by the way, is as questionable nowadays as
+that of charging.
+
+More attention was paid to discipline than to drill. Pickets patrolled
+the towns into which they entered, and repressed all disorder after
+nightfall; outpost duty was strictly enforced; "larking" was not
+tolerated, and punishments were always inflicted for known and grave
+breaches of order.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+     Barbarossa--Royalist-Republicans--Squaring a Girl--At Iron--"Your
+     Papers?"--The Barber's Shop--A Carlist Spy--An Old Chum--The
+     Alarm--A Breach of Neutrality--Under Fire--Caught in the Toils--The
+     Heroic Tomas--We Slope--A Colleague Advises Me--"A Horse! a
+     Horse!"--State of Bilbao--Don Carlos at Estella--Sanchez Bregua
+     Recalled--Tolosa Invites--Republican Ineptitude--Do not Spur a Free
+     Horse--Very Ancient Boys--Meditations in Bed--A Biscay Storm.
+
+
+BARBAROSSA, who had never been over the border, suggested to me that I
+should take a trip to Irun, which was held by the anti-Carlists. It
+would be incorrect to write them down as Republicans; they were sprung
+from the Cristinos of the previous generation, and as such were opposed
+to any scion of the house against which their fathers had fought for
+years. All of them were _de facto_ Republicans, and had more knowledge
+and enjoyment of Republican freedom than those who prattled and raved
+of Republicanism in Madrid and the south; but they did not take kindly
+to the name. As my friend the late J. A. MacGahan wittily said of
+them--"They were the Royalist-Republicans of Spain." They were as fond
+of their fueros as any Carlist in the crowd, but they stood up for
+Madrid less that they cared for the policy or personages of the central
+government, than that they had a deep-seated hereditary hatred of their
+neighbours of the rural districts. At heart they were in favour of a
+restoration of the throne, and on that throne they would fain seat the
+young Prince of the Asturias. In those latitudes the lines of John Byrom
+a century before would well apply:
+
+    "God bless the King, I mean the faith's defender;
+     God bless--no harm in blessing--the Pretender;
+     But who Pretender is, or who is King,
+     God bless us all--that's quite another thing!"
+
+"If you go to Irun," said Barbarossa, stroking his moustache, "I am game
+to go with you."
+
+"I am satisfied," said I; "but recollect, you undertake the job at your
+own risk. You are known as an associate of Carlists, and suspected to
+be a Carlist agent. I am a stranger and comparatively safe."
+
+He had weighed all that, and was ready to face possible perils. But he
+was not fit to undergo probable fatigues. He could sit at a green table
+in an ill-ventilated atmosphere the night long, but he could not walk
+three miles at a stretch. Neither could he (on account of his illness)
+venture on horseback. To effect a crossing by the railway bridge from
+Hendaye to Irun was out of the question; it was barrier impenetrable.
+The Frenchman would not allow you to pass in your own interest; the
+Spaniard declined to admit you in his so-considered interest. To take
+the mountain-route was tedious, and in the case of Barbarossa not to be
+thought of; the bridge of Endarlasa was broken--a most contorted
+specimen of artistic dilapidation. To be sure, one could manage to creep
+to the other side by the submerged coping of the parapet, if endowed
+with the balancing powers of a rope-walker and the lustihood of the
+navvy. But Barbarossa was not a Blondin, and had not a physical
+constitution proof against a wetting. I had got across that bridge
+once, holding on by my teeth and nails, and retained recollection of it
+in a fit of the cold shivers; but I did not care to repeat the
+operation. In our dilemma, Barbarossa, who was a plucky knave, hit upon
+the plan which ought to have commended itself to us at first.
+
+"Let us stray up the river-bank a few hundred yards," he said, "seize a
+boat, and row ourselves across."
+
+No sooner was the proposition made than it was adopted; but we were
+saved from the ephemeral disgrace of posing as petty amphibious pirates,
+degenerate Schinderhannes of the Bidassoa. We saw a boat; a girl was
+near. The boat was her father's; she engaged to take us over for a
+consideration--I am certain she had set her heart on a string of
+straw-coloured ribbons and a sky-blue feather in a shop-window in
+Hendaye--and to await our return at nightfall. We arranged the signal,
+and stealthily stole across, drifting diagonally most of the way; and I
+entrusted the speculative French damsel with my revolver and my Carlist
+pass, and paid her a farewell compliment on her face and figure as I
+stepped ashore. Giving her the revolver and pass enlisted her
+confidence. We strolled along with apparent carelessness, entered a
+posada on the road by the waterside and had refreshments. I said I
+should feel much obliged if they could let us have a trap to Irun and
+back, as we had business there, and my friend was tired and not much of
+a pedestrian. An open carriage was provided, and off we drove by the
+skirt of the hill of St. Marcial, where the Spaniards gave Soult such a
+dressing in 1813, passed a series of outer defences with their covering
+and working parties, and entered one of the gates of the town, and never
+a question was asked. Ditches had been dug round the place and
+earthworks thrown up; but the principal reliance of the garrison seemed
+to be in loophooled breastworks made of sand-bags superimposed. Here and
+there were walls of loose stones--more of a danger than a
+protection--rude shelter-trenches, and mud-built, wattle-knitted
+refuges, round-topped, and disguised with branches. They had made the
+position strong; but they should have gone in for more spade and less
+stones, more mole and less beaver.
+
+We trotted over the narrow paved street, with its flagged sidepaths, and
+drew up on the Plaza, overlooked by the solid square-stone mansion of
+the Ayuntamiento. The windows were screened with planks, and armed
+groups lounged in front; there were barrels of water and heaps of gravel
+at intervals upon the ground; memories of Paris rose to my mind--Irun
+was preparing for bombardment. If the Carlists had no serious artillery
+in fact, they had a powerful ordnance in the apprehensions of their
+adversaries. Perhaps this was the explanation of the rhodomontade about
+the batteries in _El Cuartel Real_. We were congratulating ourselves on
+the ease with which we had run the blockade, when an officer of the
+Miqueletes approached our carriage and demanded our papers. I showed my
+Foreign Office passport, with the visa of the Spanish Consulate at
+London upon it. He gave a cursory look at it, bowed, and returned it to
+me. Then came the turn of Barbarossa, and there was a flash of shrewd
+spitefulness in his eyes.
+
+"Your papers, señor?"
+
+"I have none. I didn't think any were required."
+
+"Ah! doubtless you thought Irun was in Carlist occupation. You are
+wrong."
+
+"No; I knew it was not in Carlist occupation. What has that to do with
+me? I am an Englishman," producing a packet of letters.
+
+"I don't want to see them. I know you. What do you want here?"
+
+"To see a friend."
+
+"Who is your friend?"
+
+Barbarossa was not in the least nonplussed. He said he had heard a
+fellow-countryman, a comrade of his, was in the town.
+
+"You will have to turn back the way you came, and thank your stars you
+are permitted."
+
+"But I am hungry."
+
+"And the horse wants a feed," interposed the driver, who no doubt had
+his own object to serve.
+
+"Well, you may stay here for refreshment, but you must get outside our
+gates before dark."
+
+We drove to the principal inn, where we alighted and ordered dinner.
+Barbarossa sat down, and I went out to look at the place and search for
+a barber's shop, for I sorely needed a shave. Irun is a well-constructed
+town on the shelving slope of a smaller rise between Mounts Jaizquivel
+and Aya, not far from the coast. It has a population of some 5,000, and
+in ordinary years does a good trade in tiles and bricks, tanned leather,
+and smith's work, besides sending wood to Los Pasages for the purposes
+of the boat-builders. The Bidassoa at its base branches, and thus forms
+the islet of Faisanes, off which the prosperous fisherman can fill his
+basket with trout, salmon, and mullet, aye, and lumpish eels, if his
+predilections so tend.
+
+But I have no intention to describe Irun. Théophile Gautier has done
+that before me, and I am not sacrilegious. There was another customer in
+the barber's shop. As I left after the shave he followed, and accosted
+me on the flagway confidentially.
+
+"How are you, captain?"
+
+"You are in error," I answered. "I am no captain."
+
+"What! Did I not see you take a boat for the _San Margarita_ at Socoa?"
+
+"That may be; but I only boarded her through curiosity."
+
+"Do not be afraid," he whispered. "How is Don Guillermo?"
+
+"What Don Guillermo?"
+
+"Señor Leader. I was with him when he was wounded; I am a Carlist. I am
+here on the same mission as yourself; to spy what the vermin are doing."
+
+"Ha! good; ramble on, and don't notice me. It is dangerous."
+
+He sauntered along the causeway, hands in pockets and whistling, and
+presently popped into a tavern, and I re-entered the fonda. Hardly had I
+set foot over the threshold when I was stupefied by a welcome in a
+familiar voice, none other than that of Mr. William O'Donovan, who had
+been my comrade and amanuensis throughout the irksome beleaguerment of
+Paris.[F] We did not throw our arms round our respective necks, hug and
+kiss each other--I reserve my kisses for pretty girls, newly-washed
+babes, and dead male friends, and then kiss only the brow--but we did
+join hands cordially and long. In answer to my query as to what had
+brought him to this queer corner at the back of God-speed, he explained
+that he was acting as correspondent of a Dublin paper; for, it appeared,
+the people of Ireland were consumed with anxiety as to the progress of
+the Carlist rising--details of which, of course, they could not obtain
+in the mere London papers--and were particularly desirous to have record
+of the doings of the Foreign Legion, a great majority of whom were sons
+of the Emerald Isle. His younger brother, a medical student, was likely
+to come out to join that Legion, and as for Kaspar (a name by which we
+knew his brother Edmond, afterwards triumvir at Merv), he was sure to
+turn up. Mother Carey's chicken hovers near when the elements are at
+strife. He was immensely satisfied with his diggings, he said, liked
+the natives, and considered this a splendid chance for improving his
+Spanish. He was reading "Don Quixote" in the vernacular. In a sense, I
+looked upon his presence as a perfect godsend to us, as he came in most
+appropriately as a _Deus ex machinâ_ to create the character of
+Barbarossa's invented friend. O'Donovan was in good standing with the
+Republicans of the town, as he was a staunch Republican himself, and
+could spin yarns of the Republics of antiquity, and of the greatness of
+Paris, and the glories of the United States. He was getting on famously
+with Castilian, and was charmed with the redundancy of its vocabulary of
+vituperation, which was only to be equalled by the Irish, of which his
+father had been such a master. I made Barbarossa and my old chum known
+to one another, and we dined together, pledging the past in a cup of
+wine tempered with the living waters which bubbled up in the sacristy of
+the parish church, and were distributed in bronze conduits through Irun.
+After the meal and the meditative smoke of custom, O'Donovan sat down to
+write a letter, which I guaranteed to post for him in France, and
+Barbarossa and I sallied forth for a walk.
+
+We were lounging about the Calle Mayor gazing at the escutcheons over
+every hall-door--your bellows-mender and cobbler in this democratic town
+were invariably of the seed of Noah in right line--when the alarm was
+raised that fifty horses had been carried off by the Carlists almost at
+the gates, and that two shots had been heard. The bugler sounded the
+call "To arms," and forthwith a little company consisting of thirty-two
+men, the bugler aforesaid, and a captain, set out at a quick step for a
+high ground beside a signal-tower at one end of the town. We hurried
+forward with them, and passed out through one of the four gates, on the
+side next the mountains. The soldiers took a position on the slope of a
+hill a couple of hundred yards from the gate, and Barbarossa and I
+sheltered ourselves behind an orchard-wall, from which there was an
+uninterrupted view of the billowy tract of meadow and pasture land
+beneath, cut into patches by thick hedges. Quick on our heels emerged
+from the town some half-dozen intrepid "volunteers of liberty," and the
+inevitable small boy, a red cap stuck jauntily on three hairs of his
+head and a large cigarette in his mouth. One of the volunteers--he who
+had demanded our papers on the Plaza--looked viciously at Barbarossa,
+who assumed a most artistic pretence of stolidity.
+
+"Come here, señor, and you will have a better vision of your friends,"
+he said with mock suavity.
+
+Barbarossa smiled, thanked him, and walked quietly to the place
+indicated, an exposed opening beside the wall.
+
+"I can see nothing," he said.
+
+I adjusted my long-distance glass, and ranged over the wide stretch of
+landscape, but could see nothing either. As I shut it up and returned it
+to the case, a sergeant advanced from the party of soldiers on the slope
+and marched directly towards me. I was puzzled and, I own, a trifle
+unnerved.
+
+"Señor," he said to me, "I carry the compliments of my captain, and his
+request that you would lend him your glass, as he has forgotten his
+own."
+
+"With pleasure," I answered readily, much relieved. "I will take it to
+him myself, as it is London-made, and he may not understand how it is
+sighted."
+
+This may have been a breach of neutrality, but what was I to do? If I
+refused, the glass would have been taken from me, and I should have been
+compromised. I handed it to the officer with my best bow, explained its
+mechanism to him; he bowed to me, and from that moment I felt that I was
+under his wing. I may be wrong, but I have a notion that in a skirmish
+it is much better to be near regulars than volunteers, and I stood in a
+line with the military a few paces away.
+
+Suddenly there was a spark and a report away down in a field of maize,
+some six hundred yards below us, and the whizz of a bullet was heard.
+
+"Steady, men!" said the captain; "don't discharge your rifles."
+
+The sight was very pretty as they stood in a group on the green hillside
+in attitude of suspense, their weapons held at the ready, and all eyes
+fixed on the front, from which the smoke was rising. It was very like
+to the celebrated picture by Protais, familiar in every cabaret in
+France, "_Avant le Combat;_" but even more picturesque than that, for
+these soldiers were dressed most irregularly--some in tattered capote,
+others in shirt-sleeves, some in shako, others in _bonnet de police_. A
+few civilians had crept out of the town by this time, and the chief of
+the Miqueletes roared peremptorily to have that gate shut. This was not
+an agreeable position for Barbarossa and myself. Our retreat was cut
+off. We were unarmed. If one of those amateur warriors were killed, we
+ran the imminent hazard of being massacred by his comrades. On the other
+hand, there was the liability of being ourselves shot by the Carlists.
+How were they to distinguish a neutral or a sympathizer from their foes?
+I confess I could not help smiling as the thought occurred to me what a
+piece of irony in action it would be if Barbarossa were to be helped to
+a morsel of lead by his friends, the enemy. With a cheerful equanimity I
+contemplated the prospect of his receiving a very slight contusion from
+a spent bullet on a soft part of his frame.
+
+Ping, ping, came a few reports, but evidently out of range. Each
+smoke-wreath was in a different direction.
+
+"This may get hot," I said to myself; "the Carlists may not be
+sharpshooters, but this clump of uniforms in relief on the grass must
+present a blur that will be an enticing target for them. I dare not go
+back to the wall, but it might be discreet to lie down. There is no
+disgrace in offering them a small elevation of corpus." I stretched
+myself on the sward, acted nonchalance, and lit a cigar.
+
+The volunteers could no longer be held in control. They opened action on
+their own account, one fellow distinguishing himself by the rapidity of
+his fire, and the intensity with which he aimed at something--or
+nothing.
+
+"Ah, that's Tomas!" said a portly civilian connoisseur, with his hands
+in his pockets. "We know him, he is making music; he wants to get
+himself remarked."
+
+The soldiers did not deliver a shot, but the volunteers kept cracking
+away, and the invisible Carlists replied. Nobody was hit, though
+bullets could be heard whizzing overhead for twenty minutes, and one
+did actually knock a chip off a wall. That was the sole damage done to
+the Republican position; the damage to the Carlist must have been less.
+Two of the Miqueletes ventured stealthily down a road leading towards
+the point from which the nearest jets of smoke curled, following the
+ditch by the side, stooping and peering through the bushes. There was a
+volley from afar. They hesitated and stood, as if undecided whether to
+advance.
+
+"Sound the retire for those men," said the captain; and as the call rang
+out they returned.
+
+That volley was the last sign the Carlists gave; and after waiting ten
+minutes, the captain shut up my glass, returned it to me, and remarked
+that the attack was a feint, and had no object beyond worrying his men.
+He gave the order "March," the gate was opened, Barbarossa rejoined me,
+and we returned to Irun, taking care to keep as near the regulars as we
+could. "Nada--nothing," cried the captain to an inquiring lady on a
+balcony, and the town-gates were closed after the volunteers had
+returned and tramped to the Plaza with the proud bearing of citizens who
+had done their duty.
+
+How that heroic Tomas did strut! A fighter he of the choicest brand, one
+not to stop at trifles; there was martial ire in his flaming glance;
+defiance breathed from his nostrils; triumph sat on his lips; he swung
+his arms like destructive flails; and as he entered a tavern one could
+only fancy him calling in a voice of Stentor for a jug of rum and blood
+plentifully besprinkled with gunpowder and cayenne pepper to assuage the
+thirst of combat.
+
+O'Donovan gave me his letter. Barbarossa hinted that it was our best
+course to slope, and slope we did, as soon as the horse was harnessed.
+As we passed down the street a grinning face saluted me from a doorway.
+It was that of my acquaintance from the barber's shop. He gave me a
+meaning wink. The artful Carlists had evidently succeeded in their
+object, whatever it might have been. On the river-bank our fair and
+faithful ferry-maid awaited us. We were conveyed over in safety, and at
+the hotel of Hendaye soon forgot the perils we had encountered.
+
+Barbarossa was dead-beat, and threw himself on a sofa, where he sank
+back heavy-eyed and exhausted; and I, almost feared that he would drop
+into a coma, as the penalty of overstraining nature, until the sight of
+a pack of cards restored him as if by a spell to his normal wakefulness.
+
+Even in a disturbed region it is needful to have a change of linen, so
+we got back next morning to St. Jean de Luz, where I had left my
+baggage. There I met M. Thieblin, a colleague, whom I had seen last at
+Metz, previous to the siege of that fortress in the Franco-German war.
+He was now representing the _New York Herald_, and had just returned
+from Estella, at the taking of which place, the most important the
+Carlists had yet seized, he had the luck to be present. He assured me
+that it was utter fatuity to dream of following the Carlists, except I
+had at least one horse--but that it would be sensible to take two if I
+could manage to procure them. It was more than an ordinary man was
+qualified to cope with, to make his observations, write his letters, and
+look after their transmission, without having to attend to his nag, and
+do an odd turn of cooking at a pinch. The riddle was how to get the
+horse--a sound hardy animal that would not call for elaborate grooming,
+or refuse a feed of barley. Horse-flesh was at a premium, but he thought
+I might be able to have what I wanted at Bayonne, on payment of an
+extravagant price. A requisition for forage and corn could be had
+through the Junta; and I should have no trouble in getting an orderly on
+applying with my credentials to the chief of staff of any of the Carlist
+columns to which I might attach myself. We had a long conversation, and
+Thieblin frankly informed me that in his opinion the Carlists had not
+the ghost of a chance outside their own territory. There they were cocks
+of the walk. What the end might be he could not pretend to vaticinate,
+but "El Pretendiente" would never reign in Madrid. The conflict might
+last for months--might last for years; but the Carlists owed the
+vitality they had as much to the divisions and inefficiency of their
+adversaries as to their own strength. There would be no important
+engagements--to dignify them by the epithet--until the organization of
+the insurrectionary forces was regularized, and they had a stronger
+artillery and an adequate cavalry. M. Thieblin did not stray far from
+the bull's-eye in his prophecy.
+
+I went to bed in the mood of Crookback on Bosworth Field, and felt that
+my dream-talk would shape itself into the cry, "A horse! a horse!"
+
+Until that coveted steed had been lassoed, stolen, or bought, I must
+only endeavour to justify my existence--that is to say, render value for
+the money expended on me by picking up "copy" anywhere and everywhere.
+
+I was advised to go to Bilbao by sea, but the advice came too late. The
+last steamer from Bayonne had ventured there four-and-twenty hours
+before I sought my passage, and even on that last steamer the few
+voyagers were unable to insure their lives with the Accidental Company,
+although they consented to promise that they would descend into the hold
+the instant they heard a shot. It was almost as full of jeopardy to
+travel to Bilbao by sea as to sail down the Mississippi with a racing
+captain and a lading of rye-whisky on board. One Monsieur Gueno, master
+of the barque _Numa_, of Vannes, made moan that he was seriously knocked
+about while he lay in the Nervion, off the Luchana bridge, during a
+skirmish between the Carlists and the troops. They both fought
+vigorously, but they gave him most of the blows. One of his crew, in a
+punt behind, was killed, and twenty-five bullets were embedded in a
+single mast. He had the tricolour flying all the time. A
+fellow-countryman of his, Monsieur Jarmet, of the ship _Pierre-Alcide_,
+of Nantes, sent in a claim for an indemnity of £160 for damages
+sustained by his vessel much in the like manner. A Spanish war-craft,
+moored behind him, began pelting the Carlists with shot; the Carlists
+replied, and the _Pierre-Alcide_ came in for the bulk of the favours
+distributed. Three bullets penetrated the captain's cabin, and four rent
+holes in the French flag. Neither pilots nor tugs were for hire at
+Bilbao, and captains of sailing vessels had only to whistle for a
+favouring wind and rely on their own good fortune and skill. Bilbao had
+to be dismissed on the merits.
+
+Taking it for granted that I had that evasive horse, I reasoned, as I
+tossed on my bed, to the restless whimper of the Bay of Biscay, over
+which a storm was brewing, that "el Cuartel Real," the headquarters of
+the King, was the natural goal. There first information was to be had,
+and it was felt that it was about the safest place to be; but the King
+seldom stopped under the same roof two nights successively, and no one
+could tell where he would be two days beforehand. If he was at Estella
+when one started, he might be at Vera or Durango, or goodness knows
+where, when one got to Estella. So far his progress had been a success;
+he was present at the taking of Estella, and exercised his Royal
+clemency by releasing the captured prisoners. It would have been more
+politic to have demanded an exchange, for there were partisans of his
+own in Republican dungeons (Englishmen amongst them); but then prisoners
+have to be fed and guarded, so on the whole it was as well they were set
+free. It was very much the case of the man who won the elephant at a
+raffle. If the stories, spread assiduously by the Republicans, of the
+massacre and maltreatment of captives by the Carlists were correct,
+here was the opportunity for the exercise of wholesale cruelty; but
+there was not a particle of truth in such charges, which, by the way,
+one hears in every civil war. Where Don Carlos might advance next, or
+where severe fighting--not such brushes as that I witnessed at
+Irun--might take place, was a mystery. The movements of the Republican
+leaders were inexplicable, and conducted in contravention of all known
+principles of the art of war. They harassed their men by long and
+objectless marches. They ordered towns to be put in a state of defence
+at first, and then withdrew the garrisons. They engaged whole columns in
+defiles, where a company of invisible guerrilleros could tease them.
+They acted, in most instances, as if they had no information or wrong
+information. The latter, I believe, was nearer the truth. Their system
+of espionage was inefficient, as the information they got was
+untrustworthy, and always would be, in the northern provinces, for the
+feeling of the masses of the people was against them. Instead of making
+headway they were losing ground every day, and would so continue until
+they received reinforcements with fibre, and were commanded by officers
+who really meant to win, and had the knowledge or the instinct to
+conceive a proper plan of campaign. The generals could hardly be
+censured, for their hands were tied; they were forbidden to be severe;
+they dared not squelch insubordination. Capital punishment, even in the
+army, and at such a crisis as this, was abolished. There had been, I
+heard, something suspiciously resembling a mutiny in the column of
+Sanchez Bregua. A certain Colonel Castañon was put under arrest on a
+charge of Alfonsist proclivities; but the Cazadores and Engineers
+threatened to rebel unless he was liberated; and Sanchez Bregua, instead
+of decimating the Cazadores and Engineers, as Lord Strathnairn would
+have done, liberated the Colonel.
+
+But to that question of my route. Peradventure the presence to my dozing
+vision of the General commanding the Republican troops of the north that
+had been might help me towards a solution.
+
+"That had been" is written advisedly, for Sanchez Bregua had been
+recalled to Madrid, not a day too soon. He was one of those generals
+whose spine had been curved by lengthened bending over a desk. Loma, who
+was active and dashing, and had the rare gift of confidence in himself,
+had taken his stand at Tolosa, and was awaiting the advent of Lizarraga.
+All his men, and every able-bodied male in the town, were diligently
+excavating ditches and making entrenchments. Until Tolosa was captured
+by the Carlists, no serious attack on Pampeluna was probable; and that
+attack was likely to assume the form of an investment. Estella was to
+the south of Pampeluna, and all the country round, from which provisions
+could be drawn, was in the occupation of the Carlists. Tolosa was the
+objective point of the moment, and to Tolosa I determined to go. An
+attempt on San Sebastian could not enter into the calculations of the
+Carlist leaders at this stage of their revolt. The stronghold was almost
+inaccessible on the land side, and men, munitions, and provisions could
+be easily thrown into it by water. Irun, Fontarabia, and even Renteria
+(were artillery available) could be seized whenever the comparatively
+small sacrifice of lives involved would be advisable. But the game was
+not worth the candle yet. Were Irun or Fontarabia in the hands of the
+Carlists, there was the always-present danger of shells being pitched
+into them from a gunboat in the Bidassoa; and Renteria, outside of which
+the Republican troops only stirred on sufferance, was to all intents as
+serviceable to the Carlists as if it were tenanted by a Carlist
+garrison, which would thereby be condemned to idleness.
+
+That whirlwind ride from Renteria to Irun would come before me as the
+storm battalions mustered outside, and the waves began lashing
+themselves into violence of temper. What if I had to go to Madrid while
+such weather as this was brooding? To get to the capital one is obliged
+to embark at Bayonne for Santander, and proceed thence by rail--so long
+as no Carlist partidas meddle with the track. Romantic Spain!
+
+But are not those Republicans who affect that they know how to govern a
+country primarily and principally to blame? Only consider the continued
+interruption of that short piece of road between San Sebastian and
+Irun. Is it not disgraceful to them? One of our old Indian officers, I
+dare venture to believe, with eighteen horsemen and a couple of
+companies of foot, could hold it open in spite of the Carlists. But such
+a simple idea as the establishment of cavalry patrols of three, keeping
+vigil backwards and forwards along the line of eighteen miles, with
+stout infantry posts always on the alert in blockhouses at intervals,
+seems never to have entered into the obtuse heads of those officers
+lately promoted from the ranks. Seeing that the intercourse of different
+towns with each other and with the coast and abroad has been so long
+broken up, I cannot fathom the secret of how the population lives. The
+troops arrive in a village one day and levy contributions, the
+guerrilleros arrive the next and do the same; the fields must be
+neglected, trade must droop, yet nobody apparently wants food. True, the
+land is wonderfully fat; but some day the cry of famine will be heard.
+No land could bear this perpetual drain on its resources. And then I
+thought of Carlists whom I met in France, who had given of their goods
+to support the cause. With them I talked on this very subject. They
+were respectable and respected men; they prayed for success to Don
+Carlos with sincere heart; but they had left Spain, and they complained
+that this condition of disturbance was lasting too long.
+
+"You ask me why I did not remain," said one to me; "wait, and you shall
+see."
+
+He opened a door and pointed to three lovely little girls at play, and
+continued, "These are my reasons; I have made more sacrifices than I was
+able for the Royal cause, and they asked me at last for another
+contribution, which would have ruined me. I love my King; but for no
+King, señor, could I afford to make those darlings paupers."
+
+Had these Carlists any glimmer of the sunshine of a victorious issue to
+their uprising? (egad, that was a strong blast, and the waves do swish
+as if they were enraged at last!). Thieblin thinks not. And yet they are
+active, and, like the storm outside, they are gaining strength. Those of
+them under arms are four times as numerous as the Republicans in the
+northern provinces. Leader swears to me that everyone who can shoulder a
+musket is a Carlist. There are no more Chicos to be had, unless the
+volunteers of liberty come over, rifles, accoutrements and all, to
+Prince Charlie--a liberty they are volunteering to take somewhat freely.
+
+I was rash in saying there were no more Chicos. Did not a company of
+"bhoys" trudge over to Lesaca to offer their services recently? But they
+were very ancient boys. The youngest of them was sixty-five. They were
+veterans of the Seven Years' War, and mostly colonels. Their fidelity
+was thankfully acknowledged, but their services were not gratefully
+accepted. The aged and ferocious fire-eaters were sent back to their
+arrowroot and easy-chairs. At all events, they had more of the timber of
+heroism in them than those diplomatic Carlists of the _gandin_ order,
+who are Carlists because it makes them interesting in the sight of the
+ladies, but whose campaigning is confined to an occasional three days'
+incursion on Spanish territory, with a cook and a valet, saddle-bags
+full of potted lobster and _pâté de foie gras_, and a dressing-case
+newly packed with _au Botot_ and essence of Jockey Club. There are
+personages of this class not unknown to society at Biarritz and
+Bayonne, who have been going to the front for the last three months, and
+have not got there yet. One would think their game of chivalry ought to
+be pretty well "played out;" but to the folly of the vain man, as to the
+appetite of the lean pig, there is no limit.
+
+By Jove! There is a clatter; the casement is blown open, and the light
+is blown out, and through the gap whistles the cool, briny breath of the
+Atlantic, and I can almost feel the wash of the white spray in my hair.
+Better a stable cell in the Castle of the Mota to-night than a tumbling
+berth in the _San Margarita_. This was the close of my interview with
+myself, and I turned over on my pillow and fell precipitately into a
+profound dreamless sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+     Nearing the End--Firing on the Red Cross--Perpetuity of
+     War--Artistic Hypocrites--The Jubilee Year--The Conflicts of a
+     Peaceful Reign--Major Russell--Quick Promotion--The Foreign
+     Legion--An Aspiring Adventurer--Leader's Career--A Piratical
+     Proposal--The "Ojaladeros" of Biarritz--A Friend in Need--Buying a
+     Horse--Gilpin Outdone--"Fred Burnaby."
+
+
+AND now I take up the last chapter of this book, and I have not half
+finished with the subject I had set before myself at starting. By the
+figures at the head of the last page I perceive that I have almost
+reached the orthodox length of a volume, and perforce must stop. For
+some weeks past I have been looking and longing for the end, for I have
+been ill, weary and worried, and my labour has become a task. Slowly
+toiling day by day, I knew I must be nearing the goal; yet, like the
+strenuous Webb on his swim from Dover to Calais, the horizon seemed to
+come no closer. The land in sight grew no plainer, although each
+breast-stroke--the pleasure of a while agone, but oh! such a tax
+now--must have lessened the distance. Even to that excursion there came
+an hour of accomplishment and repose; but to this, of pen over paper, I
+cannot flatter myself that the hour is yet. I have to abandon the work
+incomplete. As it has happened to me before, the theme has expanded
+under my hands, and I shall have to rise from my desk before I penetrate
+to the Carlist headquarters, of which I had to say much, or have
+experiences of that strangest of Communes in Murcia, with its sea and
+land skirmishes and its motley rabble of mutineers, convicts, and
+nondescripts, of which I had to say much likewise.
+
+Whether I shall have the privilege of recounting my adventures at the
+court and camp of Don Carlos, and by the side of the General directing
+the siege of Cartagena, who admitted me as a sort of supernumerary on
+his staff, will depend on the reception of this, the first instalment of
+my experiences in Spain.
+
+An act of unjustifiable barbarism or stupidity, or both--for barbarism
+is but another form of stupidity--was perpetrated by some Carlists
+outside Irun while I was negotiating for that indispensable horse. An
+ambulance-waggon, displaying the Red Cross of Geneva, had sallied from
+the town, and was fired upon. The Paris delegate I had met at Hendaye
+was in charge of it, and averred that it was wantonly and wilfully
+attacked. I thought it, singular that nobody was hurt, and reasoned that
+the man was excitable, and got into range unconsciously. The duty of the
+Geneva Society properly begins after, and not during a combat; and when
+gentlemen are busy at the game of professional manslaughter, no
+philanthropic outsider has any right to distract them from their
+occupation by indiscreet obstruction. The Parisian did not view it in
+that light, and downfaced me that these rustics, to whose aid he was
+actually going, tried to murder him of malice prepense. It was useless
+to represent to him that these rustics may have never heard of the
+modern benevolent institution for the softening of strife, and may have
+regarded the huge Red Cross as a defiant symbol of Red Republicanism,
+and perhaps a parody of what is sacred. So in the estimation of that
+citizen of the most enlightened capital in the universe, these Basques
+were ruthless boobies with an insatiable passion for lapping blood. But
+mistakes and exaggerations will occur in every war. The only way to
+obviate them is to put an end to war altogether--_which will never be
+done_! When Christ came into the world, peace was proclaimed; when He
+left it, peace was bequeathed. War has been the usual condition of
+mankind since, as it had been before; and Christians cut each other's
+throats with as much alacrity and expertness as Pagans, often in the
+name of the religion of peace.
+
+I heard two eminent war-correspondents lecture recently, and I noticed
+that those passages where fights were described were applauded to the
+echo. The more ferocious the combat the more vigorous the cheers. The
+faces of small boys flushed, and their hands clinched at the vivid
+recital. The nature of the savage, which has not been extirpated by
+School Boards, was betraying itself in them. Yet these two
+war-correspondents thought it an acquittal of conscience after their
+kindling periods to dwell on the immorality of war. The one spoke of the
+beauty of Bible precepts, the other disburdened himself on the cruelty
+and wickedness of a battle. What artistic hypocrisy! It was as if one
+were to strike up the "Faerie Voices" waltz, and tell a girl to keep her
+feet still; as if one were to lend "Robinson Crusoe" to a boy, and warn
+him not to think of running away to sea. Still, I must even add my voice
+to the orthodox chorus, and affirm that warfare is bad, brutal,
+fraudful, a thing of meretricious gauds, a clay idol, fetish of humbug
+and havoc, whose feet are soaking in muddy gore and salt tears; yet in
+the privacy of my own study I might sadly admit that the Millennium is
+remote, that the Parliament of Nations exists but in the dreams of the
+poet, and that Longfellow's forecast of the days down through the dark
+future when the holy melodies of love shall oust the clangours of
+conflict is a pretty conceit--and no more.
+
+War is inexcusable, and is foolish and ugly; but, like the poor and the
+ailing, we shall have it always with us. It is criminal, except as
+protest against intolerable persecution, or in maintenance of national
+honour or defence of national territory; and even in these cases it
+should be undertaken only when all devices of conciliation have been
+tried in vain. Next to the vanquished, it does most harm to the victor.
+Yet about it, as about high play, there is a fascination, and I have to
+plead guilty to the weak feeling that I would not look with overwhelming
+aversion on an order, should it come to me to-morrow, to prepare to
+chronicle a new campaign and face the chronicler's risks; and they are
+real. But I should not go into it with a light heart, like M. Emile
+Ollivier. I might be, in a quiet way, happy as Queen Victoria was
+(according to Count Vitzthum) for she danced much the night before the
+declaration of hostilities against Russia, but spoke of what was coming
+with amiable candour and great regret.
+
+We are on the eve of a Jubilee Year, when the halcyon shall plume his
+wing, and we shall hear much oratorical trash and hebetude about the
+peacefulness of this happy reign.
+
+Does the reader reflect how many wars we have had in the pacific
+half-century which is lapsing? The tale will astonish him, and should
+silence the thoughtless word-spinners of the platforms. The door of the
+temple of Janus has been seldom closed for long. Our campaigns, great
+and small, and military enterprises of the lesser sort, could not be
+counted on the fingers of both hands. We have had fighting with Afghans
+and Burmese (twice); Scinde, Gwalior, and Sikh wars; hostilities with
+Kaffirs, Russians, Persians, Chinese, and Maoris (twice), Abyssinians,
+Ashantis, Zulus, Boers, and Soudanese, not to mention the repression of
+the most stupendous of mutinies, a martial promenade in Egypt, and
+expeditions against Jowakis, Bhootanese, Looshais, Red River rebels, and
+such pitiful minor fry.
+
+In St. Jean de Luz, the nearest point to the disputed ground and the
+best place from which to transmit information, there was a small and
+select British colony, mostly consisting of retired naval and military
+officers. A dear friend of mine amongst them was Major Russell, who had
+spent a lengthened span of years in the East--an admirable type of the
+calm, firm, courteous Anglo-Indian--who had never soured his temper and
+spoiled his liver with excessive "pegs," who understood and respected
+the natives, who had shown administrative ability, and who, like many
+another honest, dutiful officer, had not shaken much fruit off the
+pagoda-tree, or even secured the C.B. which is so often given to
+tarry-at-home nonentities. Russell used to pay me a regular visit to the
+Fonda de la Playa. One morning as we were chatting, Leader strode into
+the coffee-room, a vision of splendour. He had got on his uniform as
+Commandant of the Foreign Legion--a uniform which did much credit to his
+fancy, for he had designed it himself. He wore a white boina with gold
+tassel, a blue tunic with black braid, red trousers, and brown gaiters.
+He had donned the gala-costume with the object of getting himself
+photographed. Commandant is the equivalent of Major in the British
+service, so we agreed to dub the young Irishman henceforth and for ever,
+until he became colonel or captain-general, Major Leader.
+
+"Promotion is quick in this army," murmured Russell. "I served all my
+active life under the suns of India, and here I am only a major at the
+close. Leader joined the Carlists less than three months ago, and he is
+already my equal in rank."
+
+"The fortune of war, Russell," said I; "don't be jealous. I was offered
+command of a brigade under the Commune, but I declined the tribute to my
+merit, or I would not be here to-day. I met a man in Bayonne yesterday,
+and he was ready to assume control of the entire insurrectionary
+forces."
+
+"Who? Cabrera?"
+
+"No," I answered; "catch Cabrera coming here. He is too much afraid of a
+ruler who is no pretender. The renowned Commander-in-Chief of Aragon and
+Valencia, Don Ramon the Rough and Ready, is Conde Something-or-other
+now, a willing slave to petticoat government. He is to be seen any day
+pottering about Windsor."
+
+"And who is this speculator in bloodshed?"
+
+"A foreign adventurer," I explained, "who does not know a word of
+Spanish, much less Basque, is unacquainted with the topography of the
+country, and has not the faintest inkling of the idiosyncrasies of the
+lieutenants who would serve under him, or of the mode of humouring the
+prejudices of the people of the different provinces in revolt."
+
+"What answer did they give to his application for employment?"
+
+"A polite negative. They told him they could not appoint him a leader
+without offending the susceptibilities of adherents with claims upon
+them men of local influence, and so forth. Behind his back, they laughed
+at his entertaining temerity."
+
+That Foreign Legion never came to maturity. Leader showed me a
+commission authorizing him to organize it. Lesaca was to be the depôt,
+French the language of command, and Smith Sheehan the adjutant. It might
+have developed into a very fine Foreign Legion, but no volunteers
+presented themselves to join it but two young Englishmen, one of whom
+was sick when he was not drunk, and the other of whom felt it to be a
+grievance on a campaign that a cup of tea could not be got at regular
+hours. How Sheehan did chaff this amiable amateur!
+
+"You will have nothing to do but draw your pay, my lad," he said. "The
+cookery is hardly A 1, but 'twill pass. Think of the beds, pillows of
+hops under your head; and every regiment has its own set of
+billiard-markers and a select string-band, every performer an artist."
+
+After an arduous service of one day and a half that gentleman returned
+to the maternal apron-strings, laden to the ground with the most
+harrowing legends of the horrors of war. Leader was not a warrior of
+this stamp--far from it; he had vindicated his manliness at Ladon
+outside Orleans, where Ogilvie, of the British Royal Artillery, had met
+his fate by his side, and there was something soldierly in the way he
+bore himself in his vanity of dress. Not that I think the dandies are
+the best soldiers--that is merest popular paradox. To me it is as
+ridiculous for a man to array himself in fine clothes when he is going
+to kill or be killed, as it would be for him to put on gewgaws when he
+was going to be hanged. As Leader disappears from my account of Carlist
+doings after this--we were associated with different columns--it may be
+of interest to tell of his subsequent career. He served in a cavalry
+squadron on the staff of the King, and when the cause collapsed came to
+London. His uncle tried to induce him to settle down to some steady
+employment in the City. Leader expressed himself satisfied to make an
+experiment at desk-work.
+
+"It was useless," said Leader with a hearty crow as he related the story
+to me. "The friend who had promised to create a vacancy for me in his
+office ordered his chief clerk to lock the safe and send for the police
+when he heard of my antecedents. He invited me to dinner, but candidly
+told me that a rifle was more in my line than a quill."
+
+And yet it was in the service of the quill the young soldier ended his
+days. He got an appointment as an auxiliary correspondent to a great
+London daily paper during the Russo-Turkish war. He was elate; the road
+to fame and fortune now lay open before him. The next I heard of him was
+that he had succumbed to typhoid fever at Philippopolis.
+
+A Scotch _spadassin_ arrived in our midst about this period. He was most
+anxious to draw a blade for Don Carlos, but he had a decided objection
+to serve in any capacity but that of command. He did not appreciate the
+fun of losing the number of his mess as an obscure hero of the rank and
+file, though he would not mind sacrificing an arm, I do think, at the
+head of a charging column, provided that he had a showy uniform on, and
+that the fact of his valour was properly advertised in the despatches.
+He had an idea that would commend itself to Belcha's bushwhackers, but
+it was not entertained. It was to take passage with a few trusty men on
+the tug for San Sebastian when she was reported to be conveying specie
+for the payment of the Spanish Republican troops, to drive the voyagers
+down the hold, throttle the skipper, intimidate the crew, take the wheel
+and turn her head to the coast, seize and land the money under Carlist
+protection, and then scuttle her. The least recompense, he calculated,
+which could be awarded to him for that exploit by his Majesty Charles
+VII. was the Order of the Golden Fleece; and a very appropriate order
+too.
+
+There was a set of Carlist sympathizers known to the fighting-men as
+"ojaladeros," or warriors with much decoration in the shape of polished
+buttons. Their depôt was at Biarritz, an aristocratic watering-place
+born under the second French Empire, and not ignorant of some of the
+vices of the Byzantine Empire. There are healthful breezes there, but
+they do not quite sweep away the scent of frangipani. Warlike, with a
+proviso, the Scot might have been designated, but he was not to be
+compared with these ojaladeros; he would fight if he had a lime-lit
+stage to posture upon; they would not fight at all, but they moved about
+mysteriously, as if their bosoms were big with the fate of dynasties,
+held hugger-mugger caucus, and were the oracles of boudoirs.
+
+At Bayonne there was a better class of Carlist sympathizers; such of
+them as were of the fighting age were there in the intervals of duty. To
+a job-master's in the city by the Adour I was recommended as the most
+likely place to procure a steed. At the Hôtel St. Etienne, where I
+stopped, I was gratified by an unexpected encounter with the genial
+captain[G] (Ronald Campbell), who had brought a juicy leg of mutton at
+his saddle-skirts to the relief of my household after the siege of
+Paris. He went with me to the job-master's--it is as well to have a
+friend with you when you do a horse-deal. I had no choice but Hobson's.
+The job-master was desolated, but he had sold three animals the day
+before to an English milord, a very big gentleman, and his party. He had
+just one horse, but it was a beauty. The horse was trotted out. It was
+well groomed--they always are, and arsenic does impart a nice gloss to
+the hide--and looked imposing, a tall three-quarter-bred bay gelding.
+
+"You'll have to take it," said the captain, "though I fear it will not
+be a great catch for mountain-work. Seems to me that it stumbles--that
+lie-back of the ears is vicious--ha! rears too--and by Jove! it has been
+fired. No matter. Where needs must, you know, there's no alternative.
+Buy it by all means."
+
+I closed with the bargain, got a loan of a saddle, bought a pair of
+jack-boots, and ordered my purchase to be brought round to the door of
+the hotel within half-an-hour. I am no rough-rider, and I had not
+counted on the high mettle of this, which was literally a "fiery,
+untamed steed." It had been fed for the market, and had had no exercise
+for two days previous. I meant to try its paces to St. Jean de Luz, and
+show off before the damsels of Biarritz; but, lack-a-day! what a
+declension was in store for me. It had best be given in the words of a
+letter to my kindly compatriot, written while defeat was fresh in my
+mind. Thus the epistle runs:
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"DEAR CAMPBELL,
+
+"My first essay on my eight hundred francs' worth of horse-power
+was a sight to see.
+
+"_Imprimis_, the stirrup-leathers were long enough for you.
+
+"_En suite_, I gave the dear gelding his head because he took it,
+and he incontinently faced a post of the French army at the Porte
+d'Espagne. The sentry came to the charge and cried, _On ne passe
+pas ici._ The blood-horse went at him, the sentry funked, and then,
+as if satisfied with his demonstration, the blood-horse--the bit
+always in his mouth--made a _demi-tour_, and faced a post of
+douaniers. This also was sacred ground, it appears, but the
+douaniers let the blood-horse pass, not even making the feint to
+prod his inside for contraband. The scene now changes to the Place
+de la Comédie (there's something in a name), where by virtue of
+vigorous tugging at curb and snaffle I just succeeded in keeping my
+gallant gelding off the cobble-stones. He went a burster over the
+bridge by a short turn down a street and to the door of his stable,
+and there he positively stopped, and I swear I felt his sides
+shaking with laughter. I called the groom; said I thought it would
+rain; besides, I did not know the road. On the whole, I had
+reconsidered the matter, and would go to St. Jean de Luz by train.
+The groom was awfully polite, pretended to believe me, and provided
+a man to take forward my eight--oh, hang it! we shan't think of the
+price.
+
+"Humiliation! you will say. Yes, sir, and I feel it; but that horse
+will feel it too. When I get him somewhere that none can see, and
+where sentries, douaniers, and stables of refuge don't abound, I
+shall ask him to try how long he can keep up a gallop; but, by the
+body of the Claimant, I shall have sixteen stone on his back.
+
+"Yours with knees unwearied and soul unsubdued."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At St. Jean de Luz I learned at the principal hotel that the English
+milord was Captain Frederick Burnaby of "the Queen of England's Blue
+Guards." He was supposed to have some secret official mission to Don
+Carlos, to whose headquarters he had directed his steps, and I at once
+took measures to follow in his tracks.
+
+
+
+
+THE END.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+BILLING & SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD.
+
+
+_BY THE AUTHOR OF "ROMANTIC SPAIN."_
+
+
+AN IRON-BOUND CITY; or, Five Months of Peril and Privation. 2 vols. 21s.
+
+    "A story of peril, adventure, privation,
+     Is told, in two vols., to your great delectation,
+     With shrewd common sense and uncommon sensation!
+     Here's the painful account of Parisians defeated:
+     And Paris besieged is most 'specially' treated:
+     Like a trusty Tapleyan, bright, hopeful, and witty,
+     O'Shea tells the tale of 'AN IRON-BOUND CITY.'"--_Punch._
+
+"We can listen with unjaded interest to the oft-told tale of the fall of
+Paris when it is told by so genial and sunny-minded an
+historian."--_Saturday Review._
+
+
+LEAVES PROM THE LIFE OF A SPECIAL
+
+CORRESPONDENT. 2 vols. 21s.
+
+"The great charm of his pages is the entire absence of dulness, and the
+evidence they afford of a delicate sense of humour, considerable powers
+of observation, a store of apposite and racy anecdote, and a keen
+enjoyment of life."--_Standard._
+
+"Redolent of stories throughout, told with such a cheery spirit, in so
+genial a manner, that even those they sometimes hit hard cannot, when
+they read, refrain from laughing, for Mr. O'Shea is a modern Democritus;
+and yet there runs a vein of sadness, as if, like Figaro, he made haste
+to laugh lest he should have to weep."--_Society._
+
+"Delightful reading.... A most enjoyable book.... It is kinder to
+readers to leave them to find out the good things for themselves. They
+will find material for amusement and instruction on every page; and if
+the lesson is sometimes in its way as melancholy as the moral of Firmin
+Maillard's 'Les Derniers Bohemes,' it is conveyed after a fashion that
+recalls the light-hearted gaiety of Paul de Kock's 'Damoiselle du
+Cinquième' and the varied pathos and humour of Henri
+Murger."--_Whitehall Review._
+
+
+WARD AND DOWNEY, PUBLISHERS, LONDON.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] Gibraltar is no longer a penal settlement.
+
+[B] That has all been changed since. There are serviceable rifled guns
+at Tangier now, and the Sultan has some approach to a regular army,
+organized by an ex-English soldier.
+
+[C] Stuart married Lady Alice Hay, grand-daughter of William IV., in
+London, in 1874, and is now dead. He left no heir, so that the House of
+Hanover may rest easy. The story that the Cardinal of York ("Henry
+IX."), who died in 1807, was the last of the Stuart line, is all bosh.
+Charles-Edward had a son by the daughter of Prince Sobieski.
+
+[D] Review of the social and political state of the Basque Provinces, at
+the end of a book on "Portugal and Galicia," published in 1848 by John
+Murray.
+
+[E] It should be noted that in July, 1876, directly after the war was
+over, the fueros were entirely done away with by a special law.
+
+[F] See my last book, "An Iron-Bound City." Poor Willie died in New York
+of a complication of diseases on last Easter Sunday--an anniversary of
+hopefulness. His path of existence here was thorny. Unsurfeiting
+happiness be his portion in the meads of asphodel!
+
+[G] Now Colonel the Baron Craignish, Equerry to his Royal Highness the
+Grand Duke of Saxe-Coburg Gotha.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES OF THE TRANSCRIBER OF THIS ETEXT.
+
+The following typographical errors in the book have been corrected in
+making this etext:
+
+Abd-es-Salem changed to Abd-es-Salam
+
+Dorregarray changed to Dorregaray
+
+Ojoladeros changed to Ojaladeros
+
+Enderlasa changed to Endarlasa
+
+Enderlaza changed to Endarlasa
+
+I deserve no creditor changed to I deserve no credit for
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Romantic Spain, by John Augustus O'Shea
+
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Romantic Spain, by John Augustus O'Shea
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Romantic Spain
+       A Record of Personal Experiences (Vol. II)
+
+Author: John Augustus O'Shea
+
+Release Date: March 7, 2010 [EBook #31532]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROMANTIC SPAIN ***
+
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+Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed
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+
+</pre>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<h1>ROMANTIC SPAIN:</h1>
+
+<h2>A Record of Personal Experiences.</h2>
+
+<p class="c top5">BY</p>
+
+<h2>JOHN AUGUSTUS O'SHEA,</h2>
+
+<p class="c">AUTHOR OF<br/>
+"LEAVES FROM THE LIFE OF A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,"<br />
+"AN IRON-BOUND CITY," ETC.</p>
+
+<p class="c">"Oh, lovely Spain! renowned, romantic land!"<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;"><span class="smcap">Childe Harold.</span></span></p>
+
+<p class="c top5">IN TWO VOLUMES.<br />
+VOL. II.</p>
+
+<p class="c top5">LONDON:<br />
+WARD AND DOWNEY,<br />
+12, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C.<br />
+1887.<br />
+<span class="sml"><b>[<i>All Rights Reserved.</i>]</b></span></p>
+
+<h3><a name="page_v" id="page_v"></a>CONTENTS OF VOL. II.</h3>
+
+<table summary="toc"
+cellspacing="0"
+cellpadding="5">
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td colspan="2" align="center" class="chap"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td>&nbsp;</td><td align="right" class="sml">Page</td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td>A Tidy City&mdash;A Sacred Corpse&mdash;Remarkable Features
+of Puerto&mdash;A Calesa&mdash;Lady Blanche's Castle&mdash;A
+Typical English Engineer&mdash;British Enterprise&mdash;"Success
+to the Cadiz Waterworks!"&mdash;Visit to a
+Bodega&mdash;Wine and Women&mdash;The Coming Man&mdash;A
+Strike</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_1">1-18</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td colspan="2" align="center" class="chap"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td>The Charms of Cadiz&mdash;Seville-by-the-Sea&mdash;Cervantes&mdash;Daughters
+of Eve&mdash;The Ladies who Prayed and
+the Women who Didn't&mdash;Fasting Monks&mdash;Notice to
+Quit on the Nuns&mdash;The Rival Processions&mdash;Gutting
+a Church&mdash;A Disorganized Garrison&mdash;Taking it Easy&mdash;The
+Mysterious "Mr. Crabapple"&mdash;The Steamer
+<i>Murillo</i>&mdash;An Unsentimental Navvy&mdash;Bandaged
+Justice&mdash;Tricky Ship-Owning&mdash;Painting Black
+White</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_19">19-41</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td colspan="2" align="center" class="chap"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td>Expansion of Carlism&mdash;A Pseudo-Democracy&mdash;Historic
+Land and Water Marks&mdash;An Impudent Stowaway&mdash;Spanish
+Respect for Providence&mdash;A Fatal
+Signal&mdash;Playing with Fire&mdash;Across the Bay&mdash;Farewell
+to Andalusia&mdash;British Spain</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_42">42-50</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td colspan="2" align="center" class="chap"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td><a name="page_vi" id="page_vi"></a>Gabriel Tar&mdash;A Hard Nut to Crack&mdash;In the Cemetery&mdash;An
+Old Tipperary Soldier&mdash;Marks of the Broad
+Arrow&mdash;The "Scorpions"&mdash;The Jaunting-Cars&mdash;Amusements
+on the Rock&mdash;Mrs. Damages' Complaint&mdash;The
+Bay, the Alameda, and Tarifa&mdash;How
+to Learn Spanish&mdash;Types of the British Officer&mdash;The
+Wily Ben Solomon&mdash;A Word for the Subaltern&mdash;Sunset
+Gun&mdash;The Sameness of Sutlersville</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_51">51-75</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td colspan="2" align="center" class="chap"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td>From Pillar to Pillar&mdash;Historic Souvenirs&mdash;Off to
+Africa&mdash;The Sweetly Pretty Albert&mdash;Gibraltar by
+Moonlight&mdash;The Chain-Gang&mdash;Across the Strait&mdash;A
+Difficult Landing&mdash;Albert is Hurt&mdash;"Fat Mahomet"&mdash;The
+Calendar of the Centuries Put Back&mdash;Tangier:
+the People, the Streets, the Bazaar&mdash;Our Hotel&mdash;A
+Coloured Gentleman&mdash;Seeing the Sights&mdash;Local
+Memoranda&mdash;Jewish Disabilities&mdash;Peep at a Photographic
+Album&mdash;The Writer's Notions on Harem
+Life</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_76">76-102</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td colspan="2" align="center" class="chap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td>A Pattern Despotism&mdash;Some Moorish Peculiarities&mdash;A
+Hell upon Earth&mdash;Fighting for Bread&mdash;An Air-Bath&mdash;Surprises
+of Tangier&mdash;On Slavery&mdash;The
+Writer's Idea of a Moorish Squire&mdash;The Ladder of
+Knowledge&mdash;Gulping Forbidden Liquor&mdash;Division
+of Time&mdash;Singular Customs&mdash;The Shereef of Wazan&mdash;The
+Christian who Captivated the Moor&mdash;The
+Interview&mdash;Moslem Patronage of Spain&mdash;A Slap for
+England&mdash;A Vision of Beauty&mdash;An English Desdemona:
+Her Plaint&mdash;One for the Newspaper Men&mdash;The
+Ladies' Battle&mdash;Farewell&mdash;The English Lady's
+Maid&mdash;Albert is Indisposed&mdash;The Writer Sums up
+on Morocco</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_103">103-135</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td colspan="2" align="center" class="chap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td>Back to Gibraltar&mdash;The Parting with Albert&mdash;The
+Tongue of Scandal&mdash;Voyage to Malaga&mdash;"No Police,
+no Anything"&mdash;Federalism Triumphant&mdash;Madrid <i>in
+Statu Quo</i>&mdash;Orense&mdash;Progress of the Royalists&mdash;On
+the Road Home&mdash;In the Insurgent Country&mdash;Stopped
+by the Carlists&mdash;An Angry Passenger is
+Silenced</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_136">136-151</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td colspan="2" align="center" class="chap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td>On the Wing&mdash;Ordered to the Carlist Headquarters&mdash;Another
+<i>Petit Paris</i>&mdash;Carlists from Cork&mdash;How
+Leader was Wounded&mdash;Beating-up for an Anglo-Irish
+Legion&mdash;Pontifical Zouaves&mdash;A Bad Lot&mdash;Oddities
+of Carlism&mdash;Santa Cruz Again&mdash;Running
+a Cargo&mdash;On Board a Carlist Privateer&mdash;A Descendant
+of Kings&mdash;"Oh, for an Armstrong Twenty-Four
+Pounder!"&mdash;Crossing the Border&mdash;A Remarkable
+Guide&mdash;Mountain Scenery&mdash;In Navarre&mdash;Challenged
+at Vera&mdash;Our Billet with the Parish Priest&mdash;The Sad
+Story of an Irish Volunteer&mdash;Dialogue with Don
+Carlos&mdash;The Happy Valley&mdash;Bugle-Blasts&mdash;The
+Writer in a Quandary&mdash;The Fifth Battalion of
+Navarre&mdash;The Distribution of Arms&mdash;The Bleeding
+Heart&mdash;Enthusiasm of the Chicos</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_152">152-187</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td colspan="2" align="center" class="chap"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td>The Cura of Vera&mdash;Fueros of the Basques&mdash;Carlist Discipline&mdash;Fate
+of the <i>San Margarita</i>&mdash;The Squadron
+of Vigilance&mdash;How a Capture was Effected&mdash;The
+Sea-Rovers in the Dungeon&mdash;Visit to the Prisoners&mdash;San
+Sebastian&mdash;A Dead Season&mdash;The Defences of a
+Threatened City&mdash;Souvenirs of War&mdash;The Miqueletes&mdash;In
+a Fix&mdash;A German Doctor's Warning</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_188">188-210</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td colspan="2" align="center" class="chap"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td>Belcha's Brigands&mdash;Pale-Red Republicans&mdash;The Hyena&mdash;More
+about the <i>San Margarita</i>&mdash;Arrival of a Republican
+Column&mdash;The Jaunt to Los Pasages&mdash;A
+Sweet Surprise&mdash;"The Prettiest Girl in Spain"&mdash;A
+Madrid Acquaintance&mdash;A Costly Pull&mdash;The Diligence
+at Last&mdash;Renteria and its Defences&mdash;A Furious Ride&mdash;In
+France Again&mdash;Unearthing Santa Cruz&mdash;The
+Outlaw in his Lair&mdash;Interviewed at Last&mdash;The Truth
+about the Endarlasa Massacre&mdash;A Death-Warrant&mdash;The
+Buried Gun&mdash;Fanaticism of the Partisan-Priest</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_211">211-238</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td colspan="2" align="center" class="chap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td>An Audible Battle&mdash;"Great Cry and Little Wool"&mdash;A
+Carlist Court Newsman&mdash;The Religious War&mdash;The
+Siege of Oyarzun&mdash;Madrid Rebels&mdash;"The Money of
+<a name="page_ix" id="page_ix"></a>Judas"&mdash;A Manifesto from Don Carlos&mdash;An Ideal
+Monarch&mdash;Necessity of Social and Political Reconstruction
+Proclaimed&mdash;A Free Church&mdash;A Broad
+Policy&mdash;The King for the People&mdash;The Theological
+Question&mdash;Austerity in Alava&mdash;Clerical and Non-Clerical
+Carlists&mdash;Disavowal of Bigotry&mdash;A Republican
+Editor on the Carlist Creed&mdash;Character of
+the Basques&mdash;Drill and Discipline&mdash;Guerilleros <i>versus</i>
+Regulars</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_239">239-268</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td colspan="2" align="center" class="chap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td>Barbarossa&mdash;Royalist-Republicans&mdash;Squaring a Girl&mdash;At
+Irun&mdash;"Your Papers?"&mdash;The Barber's Shop&mdash;A
+Carlist Spy&mdash;An Old Chum&mdash;The Alarm&mdash;A Breach
+of Neutrality&mdash;Under Fire&mdash;Caught in the Toils&mdash;The
+Heroic Thomas&mdash;We Slope&mdash;A Colleague Advises
+Me&mdash;"A Horse! a Horse!"&mdash;State of Bilbao&mdash;Don
+Carlos at Estella&mdash;Sanchez Bregua Recalled&mdash;Tolosa
+Invites&mdash;Republican Ineptitude&mdash;Do not Spur a Free
+Horse&mdash;Very Ancient Boys&mdash;Meditations in Bed&mdash;A
+Biscay Storm</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_269">269-299</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td colspan="2" align="center" class="chap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td>Nearing the End&mdash;Firing on the Red Cross&mdash;Perpetuity
+of War&mdash;Artistic Hypocrites&mdash;The Jubilee Year&mdash;The
+Conflicts of a Peaceful Reign&mdash;Major Russell&mdash;Quick
+Promotion&mdash;The Foreign Legion&mdash;The Aspiring
+Adventurer&mdash;A Leader's Career&mdash;A Piratical
+Proposal&mdash;The "Ojaladeros" of Biarritz&mdash;A Friend
+in Need&mdash;Buying a Horse&mdash;Gilpin Outdone&mdash;"Fred
+Burnaby"</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_300">300-317</a><a name="page_x" id="page_x"></a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td colspan="2" align="left"><a href="#FOOTNOTES">Footnotes</a></td></tr>
+<tr valign="bottom"><td colspan="2" align="left"><a href="#NOTES">Notes of the transcriber</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><a name="page_1" id="page_1"></a></p>
+
+<h1>ROMANTIC SPAIN.</h1>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h3>
+
+<p class="head">A Tidy City&mdash;A Sacred Corpse&mdash;Remarkable Features of Puerto&mdash;A
+Calesa&mdash;Lady Blanche's Castle&mdash;A Typical English Engineer&mdash;British
+Enterprise&mdash;"Success to the Cadiz Waterworks!"&mdash;Visit to a
+Bodega&mdash;Wine and Women&mdash;The Coming Man&mdash;A Strike.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">P<span class="smcap">uerto de Santa Maria</span> has the name of being the neatest and tidiest city
+in Spain, and neatness and tidiness are such dear homely virtues, I
+thought I could not do better than hie me thither to see if the tale
+were true. With a wrench I tore myself from the soft capital of
+Andalusia, delightful but demoralizing. I was growing lazier every day I
+spent there; I felt energy oozing out of every pore of my body; and in
+the end I began to get afraid that if I stopped much longer I should
+only be fit<a name="page_2" id="page_2"></a> to sing the song of the sluggard:&mdash;"You have waked me too
+soon, let me slumber again." Seville is a dangerous place; it is worse
+than Capua; it would enervate Cromwell's Ironsides. Happily for me the
+mosquitoes found out my bedroom, and pricked me into activity, or I
+might not have summoned the courage to leave it for weeks, the more
+especially as I had a sort of excuse for staying. The Cardinal
+Archbishop had promised a friend of mine to let him inspect the body of
+St. Fernando, and my friend had promised to take me with him. Now, this
+was a great favour. St. Fernando is one of the patrons of Seville; he
+has been dead a long time, but his corpse refuses to putrefy, like those
+of ordinary mortals; it is a sacred corpse, and in a beatific state of
+preservation. Three times a year the remains of the holy man are
+uncovered, and the faithful are admitted to gaze on his incorruptible
+features. This was not one of the regular occasions; the Cardinal
+Archbishop had made an exception in compliment to my friend, who is a
+rising young diplomat, so that the favour was really a favour. I
+declined it with thanks&mdash;very much<a name="page_3" id="page_3"></a> obliged, indeed&mdash;pressure of
+business called me elsewhere&mdash;the cut-and-dry form of excuse; but I
+never mentioned a word about the mosquitoes. I told my friend to thank
+the prelate for his graciousness; the prelate expressed his sorrow that
+my engagements did not permit me to wait, and begged that I would oblige
+him by letting the British public know the shameful way he and his
+priests were treated by the Government They had not drawn a penny of
+salary for three years. This was a fact; and very discreditable it was
+to the Government, and a good explanation of the disloyalty of their
+reverences. If a contract is made it should be kept; the State
+contracted to support the Church, but since Queen Isabella decamped the
+State had forgotten its engagement.</p>
+
+<p>Puerto de Santa Maria deserves the name it has got. It is a clean and
+shapely collection of houses, regularly built. People in England are apt
+to associate the idea of filth with Spain; this, at least in Andalusia,
+is a mistake. The cleanliness is Flemish. Soap and the scrubbing-brush
+are not spared; linen is plentiful and spotless, and water is<a name="page_4" id="page_4"></a> used for
+other purposes than correcting the strength of wine. Walking down the
+long main street with its paved causeways and pebbly roadway, with its
+straight lines of symmetric houses, coquettish in their marble balconies
+and brightly-painted shutters and railings, one might fancy himself in
+Brock or Delft but that the roofs are flat, that the gables are not
+turned to the street, and that the sky is a cloudless blue. I am
+speaking now of fine days; but there are days when the sky is cloudy and
+the wind blows, and the waters in the Bay of Cadiz below surge up sullen
+and yeasty, and there are days when the rain comes down quick, thick,
+and heavy as from a waterspout, and the streets are turned for the
+moment into rivulets. But the effects of the rain do not last long;
+Spain is what washerwomen would call a good drying country. Beyond its
+neatness and tidiness, Puerto has other features to recommend it to the
+traveller. It has a bookseller's shop, where the works of Eugène Sue and
+Paul de Kock can be had in choice Spanish, side by side with the Carlist
+Almanack, "by eminent monarchical writers," and the calendar of<a name="page_5" id="page_5"></a> the
+Saragossan prophet (the Spanish Old Moore); but it is not to that I
+refer&mdash;half a hundred Andalusian towns can boast the same. It has its
+demolished convent, but since the revolution of '68 that is no more a
+novelty than the Alameda, or sand-strewn, poplar-planted promenade,
+which one meets in every Spanish hamlet. It has the Atlantic waves
+rolling in at its feet, and a pretty sight it is to mark the feluccas,
+with single mast crossed by single yard, like an unstrung bow, moored by
+the wharf or with outspread sail bellying before the breeze on their way
+to Cadiz beyond, where she sits throned on the other side of the bay,
+"like a silver cup" glistening in the sunshine, when sunshine there is.
+The silver cup to which the Gaditanos are fond of comparing their city
+looked more like dirty pewter as I approached it by water from Puerto;
+but I was in a tub of a steamer, there was a heavy sea on and a heavy
+mist out, and perhaps I was qualmish. Not for its booksellers' shops,
+for its demolished convent, or for its vulgar Atlantic did this Puerto,
+which the guide-books pass curtly by as "uninteresting," impress me as
+interesting,<a name="page_6" id="page_6"></a> but for two features that no seasoned traveller could,
+would, or should overlook; its female population is the most attractive
+in Andalusia, and it is the seat of an agreeable English colony. I
+happened on the latter in a manner that is curious, so curious as to
+merit relation.</p>
+
+<p>I had intended to proceed to Cadiz from Seville after I had taken a peep
+at Puerto, but that little American gentleman whom I met at Córdoba was
+with me, and persuaded me to stop by the story of a wonderful castle
+prison, a sort of <i>Tour de Nesle</i>, which was to be seen in the vicinity,
+where the <i>bonne amie</i> of a King of Spain had been built up in the good
+old times when monarchs raised favourites from the gutter one day, and
+sometimes ordered their weazands to be slit the next. This show-place is
+about a league from Puerto, in the valley of Sidonia, and is called El
+Castillo de Doña Blanca. We took a calesa to go there. My companion
+objected to travelling on horseback; he could not stomach the peculiar
+Moorish saddle with its high-peaked cantle and crupper, and its
+catch-and-carry stirrups. We took a calesa, as I have said.<a name="page_7" id="page_7"></a> To my dying
+day I shall not forget that vehicle of torture. But it may be necessary
+to tell what is a calesa. Procure a broken-down hansom, knock off the
+driver's seat, paint the body and wheels the colour of a roulette-table
+at a racecourse, stud the hood with brass nails of the pattern of those
+employed to beautify genteel coffins, remove the cushions, and replace
+them with a wisp of straw, smash the springs, and put swing-leathers
+underneath instead, cover the whole article with a coating of liquid
+mud, leave it to dry in a mouldy place where the rats shall have free
+access to the leather for gnawing practice, return in seven years, and
+you will find a tolerably correct imitation of that decayed machine, the
+Andalusian calesa. It is more picturesque than the Neapolitan
+<i>corricolo</i>; it is all ribs and bones, and is much given to inward
+groaning as it jerks and jolts along. Such a trap we took; the driver
+lazily clambered on the shafts, and away hobbled our lean steed.</p>
+
+<p>The road to Lady Blanche's Castle is like that to Jordan in the nigger
+songs; it is "a hard road to travel"&mdash;a road full of holes and quagmires
+and<a name="page_8" id="page_8"></a> jutting rocks; and yet the driver told me it had once been a good
+road, but that was in the reign of Queen Isabella. Everything seems to
+have been allowed to go to dilapidation since. On the outskirts of
+Puerto we passed an English cemetery; I am glad to say it is almost
+uninhabited. If there is an English dead settlement there ought to be a
+live one, I reasoned, unless those who are buried here date from
+Peninsular battles. The first part of the road to Blanche's Castle is
+level, and bordered with thick growths of prickly pear; there is a view
+of the sea, and of the Guadalate, spanned by a metal bridge&mdash;a Menai on
+a small scale. Farther on, as we get to a district called La Piedad, the
+country is diversified by swampy flats at one side and sandy hills at
+the other. Blanche's Castle was a commonplace ruin, a complete "sell,"
+and we turned our horse's head rather savagely. As we were coming back,
+the little American shortening the way by Sandford and Merton
+observations of this nature&mdash;"Prickly pear makes a capital hedge; no
+cattle will face it; the spikes of the plant are as tenacious as
+fish-hooks. The fibres of the aloe are unusually strong; they make
+better cordage than<a name="page_9" id="page_9"></a> hemp, but will not bear the wet so well"&mdash;a sight
+caught my eyes which caused me to stare. A tall young fellow, with his
+trousers tucked up, was wading knee-deep in the bottoms beside the road.
+He wore a suit of Oxford mixture.</p>
+
+<p>"Who or what is that gentleman?" I asked the driver.</p>
+
+<p>"An English engineer," was the answer.</p>
+
+<p>I stopped the calesa, hailed him, and inquired was he fond of rheumatic
+fever. He laughed, and pronounced the single word, "Duty." A little
+word, but one that means much. A Spanish engineer would never have done
+this; they are great in offices and at draughting on paper, but they
+seldom tuck up their sleeves, much less their trousers, to labour out of
+doors as the young Englishman was doing. I made his acquaintance, and he
+willingly consented to show me over the works in which he was engaged,
+which were intended to supply Cadiz with water. In England water is to
+be had too easily to be estimated at its proper value. At Cadiz it is a
+marketable commodity. Even the parrots there squeak "agua." Every drop
+of rain that falls is carefully gathered<a name="page_10" id="page_10"></a> in cisterns, and the
+conveyance of water in boatloads from Puerto across the Bay is a regular
+trade. An English company had been formed to supply the parched seaport
+and the ships that call there with fresh water, and its reservoirs were
+situated at La Piedad. In the bowels of the flats below, where the
+snipe-shooting ought to be good, our countryman told me the water was to
+be sought. Galleries had been sunk in every direction in land which the
+company had purchased, and pumps and engines are soon to be erected that
+will raise the liquid collected there up to the reservoirs which have
+been hewn out of the hills above. These reservoirs, approached by
+passages excavated out of the rough sandstone, are stout and solid
+specimens of the mason's craft directed by the engineer's skill. Here we
+met a second gentleman superintending the labours of the men, but he was
+surely a Spaniard; he spoke the language with the readiness of one born
+on the soil; still, he had a matter-of-fact, resolute quickness about
+him that was hardly Spanish. Doubts as to his nationality were soon
+dispelled; the engineer we had surprised in the swamp presented us to
+his colleague Forrest,<a name="page_11" id="page_11"></a> engineer to Messrs. Barnett and Gale, of
+Westminster, the contractors, as thoroughbred an Englishman as ever came
+out of the busy town of Blackburn.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Forrest at once stood to cross-examination by the American, who had
+all the inquisitiveness of his race.</p>
+
+<p>"We employ a couple of hundred men, on an average, here," he said, "all
+of whom, with but two exceptions, are Spaniards, and very fair
+hard-working fellows they are; in the town below we have a small colony
+of English, and if you don't take it amiss I shall be happy to present
+you to our society."</p>
+
+<p>I know little of the technicalities of engineering, but I saw enough of
+this work to be certain that it was well and truly done, and I heard
+enough of the scarcity of water in Cadiz to be convinced it will be a
+great boon when finished. The reservoirs are constructed in colonnades,
+supported by ashlar pillars and roofed with rubble; for the water must
+be shaded from the sun in this hot climate; the pillars are buttered
+over with cement, and there is over a foot of cement concrete on the
+flooring,<a name="page_12" id="page_12"></a> to guard against filtration. As we paced about the sombre
+aisles, echo multiplied every syllable we uttered; the repetition of
+sound is as distinct as in the whispering gallery of St. Paul's, and I
+could not help remarking, "What a splendid robber's cave this would
+make!"</p>
+
+<p>"Too tell-tale," said the practical American; "make a better cave of
+harmony."</p>
+
+<p>"The only pipes that are ever likely to blow here are water-pipes,"
+smilingly put in the engineer; "we intend to lay them from this to
+Cadiz, some twenty-eight miles distant. Roughly speaking, we are about
+ninety feet above the level of the place, so that the highest building
+there can be supplied with ease."</p>
+
+<p>The Romans were benefactors to many portions of this dry land of Spain;
+they built up aqueducts which are still in use, but they neglected
+Cadiz. The town has been dependent on these springs of La Piedad for its
+water supply, except such as dropped from heaven, for three hundred
+years, and attempts to obtain water from wells or borings in the
+neighbourhood have invariably failed. The<a name="page_13" id="page_13"></a> water which is found in this
+basin, held by capillary attraction in the permeable strata through
+which it soaks till the hard impermeable stratum is met&mdash;retained, in
+short, in a natural reservoir&mdash;is excellent in quality, limpid and
+sparkling. Puerto has been supplied from the place for time out of mind,
+and Puerto has been so well supplied that it could afford to sell
+panting Cadiz its surplus. With English capital and enterprise putting
+new life into those old hills, and cajoling the precious beverage out of
+their bosom, which unskilled engineers let go to waste, Cadiz should
+shortly have reason to bless the foreign company that relieves its
+thirst. Clear virgin water, such as will course down the tunnels to
+bubble up in the Gaditanian fountains, is the greatest luxury of life
+here; "Agua fresca, cool as snow," is the most welcome of cries in the
+summer, and temperate Spain is as devoted to the colourless liquid that
+the temperance lecturer Gough and his compeers call Adam's ale, as ever
+London drayman was to Barclay's Entire. Success, then, to the Cadiz
+Waterworks Company: we drank the toast on the hill-side of "Piety" they
+were<a name="page_14" id="page_14"></a> making fruitful of good, drank it in tipple of their and nature's
+brewing, but had latent hopes that Forrest or his colleague would help
+us to a bumper of the generous grape-juice for which the district is
+famed, when we got down to the pleasant companionship of the English
+colony below.</p>
+
+<p>Nor were our hopes disappointed. There are innumerable bodegas, or
+wine-vaults, in the town, in which bottles and barrels of wine are
+neatly caged in labelled array, according to age, quality, and kind.
+Very clean and roomy these stores of vinous treasure are, with an
+indescribable semi-medicinal odour languidly pervading them. We visited
+a bodega belonging to an Englishman, who ranks as a grandee of the
+first-class, the Duke of Ciudad Rodrigo and eke of Vitoria, but who is
+better known as the Duke of Wellington. The natural wine of this
+district is too thin for insular palates. They crave something fiery,
+and, by my word, they get it. Like that Irish car-driver who rejected my
+choicest, oily, mellow "John Jameson," but thanked me after gulping a
+hell-glass of new spirit, violent assault liquefied, they want a drink<a name="page_15" id="page_15"></a>
+that will catch them by the throat and assert its prerogative going
+down. What a beamy old imposition is that rich brown sherry of city
+banquets, over which the idiot of a connoisseur cunningly smacks his
+lips and rolls his moist eyes. If he were only told how much of it was
+real and how much artificial, would he not gasp and crimson! It would be
+unmerciful to inform him that his pet cordial is charged with sulphuric
+acid gas, that it is sweetened with cane-sugar, that it is flavoured
+with "garnacha dulce," that it is coloured with plastered <i>must</i> and
+fortified with brandy, before it is shipped. Let us leave him in
+blissful ignorance. We tasted many samples before we left, but I own I
+have no liking for sherries, simple or doctored. Among Spanish wines I
+far prefer the full-bodied astringent sub-acidity of the common Val de
+Peñas, beloved of Cervantes. But the Queen of wines is sound Bordeaux.
+To that Queen, however, a delicate etherous Amontillado might be
+admitted as Spanish maid-of-honour, preceding the royal footsteps, while
+the syrupy Malaga from the Doradillo grape might follow as attendant in
+her train.<a name="page_16" id="page_16"></a></p>
+
+<p>From wine to women is an easy transition. Both are benedictions from on
+high, and I have no patience with the foul churl who cannot enjoy the
+one with proper continence, and rise the better and more chivalrous from
+the society of the other. Wine well used is a good familiar
+creature&mdash;kindles, soothes, and inspirits: the cup of wine warmed by the
+smile of woman gives courage to the soldier and genius to the minstrel.
+With Burns&mdash;and he was no ordinary seer&mdash;I hold that the sweetest hours
+that e'er we spend are spent among the lasses. I will go farther and say
+the most profitable hours. And some sweet and profitable hours 'twas
+mine to spend among the fawn-orbed lasses of Puerto, with their
+childlike gaiety, their desire to please, and their fetching freedom
+from affectation. Would that the wines exported from the district were
+half as unsophisticated! These lasses were not learned in the "ologies"
+or the "isms," but they were sincere; and their locks flowed long and
+free, and when they laughed the coral sluices flying open gave scope to
+a full silvery music cascading between pales of gleaming pearl. An<a name="page_17" id="page_17"></a>
+admixture of this strain with the fair-skinned men of the North should
+produce a magnificent race; and, indeed, if we paid half the attention
+to the improvement of the human animal which we do to that of the equine
+or the porcine, the experiment would not have been left untried so long.
+In-and-in breeding is a mistake, and can only commend itself, and that
+for selfish reasons, to the Aztec in physique and the imbecile in mind.
+The families which take most pride in their purity are the most
+degenerate; the stock which is the most robust and handsome is that
+which has in it a liberal infusion of foreign bloods. In my opinion, the
+coming man, the highest form of well-balanced qualities&mdash;moral,
+intellectual, and masculine&mdash;the nearest approach to perfection, must
+ultimately be developed in the United States.</p>
+
+<p>Puerto has a wide-spread reputation as the nursery-ground for
+bull-fighters. To the arena it is what Newmarket is to the British turf.
+Everybody there walks about armed, but murder is not more rife in
+proportion than in London. As it happened, a fellow was shot while I was
+there, but that would<a name="page_18" id="page_18"></a> not justify one in coming to the conclusion that
+homicide was a flourishing indigenous product. Still, the natives did
+not escape the contagion of unrest of their countrymen. For example, the
+last news I heard before leaving my English friends was that the men in
+the vineyards had struck work. These lazy scoundrels had the impudence
+to demand that they should have half an hour after arrival on the
+ground, and before beginning work, to smoke cigarettes, the same grace
+after the breakfast hour, two hours for a siesta in the middle of the
+day, another interval for a bout of smoking in the afternoon, and
+finally that each should be entitled to an arroba (more than three and a
+half gallons English) of wine per acre at the end of the season. They go
+on the same basis as some trades' unions we are acquainted
+with&mdash;reduction of hours of labour and increase of wages. "Will you give
+in to them?" I asked of an English settler, in the wine trade. "Give
+in&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;" but it is unnecessary to repeat the expletive; "I'll quietly
+shut up my bodega."<a name="page_19" id="page_19"></a></p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h3>
+
+<p class="head">The Charms of Cadiz&mdash;Seville-by-the-Sea&mdash;Cervantes-Daughters of
+Eve&mdash;The Ladies who Prayed and the Women who Didn't&mdash;Fasting
+Monks&mdash;Notice to Quit on the Nuns&mdash;The Rival Processions&mdash;Gutting a
+Church&mdash;A Disorganized Garrison&mdash;Taking it Easy&mdash;The Mysterious
+"Mr. Crabapple"&mdash;The Steamer <i>Murillo</i>&mdash;An Unsentimental
+Navvy&mdash;Bandaged Justice&mdash;Tricky Ship-Owning&mdash;Painting Black White.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">T<span class="smcap">he</span> man who pitched on Cadiz as the site of a city knew what he was
+about. Without exception it is the most charmingly-located place I ever
+set foot in. Its white terraces, crowded with white pinnacles,
+belvederes, and turrets, glistening ninety-nine days out of the hundred
+in clear sunlight, rise gently out of a green sea necked with foam; the
+harbour is busy with commerce, crowded with steamers and sailing ships
+coming and going from the Mediterranean shores, from France, from
+England, or from the distant countries beyond the<a name="page_20" id="page_20"></a> Atlantic; the waters
+around (for Cadiz is built on a peninsula, and peeps of water make the
+horizon of almost every street) are dotted with fishing craft or
+scudding curlews; the public squares are everlastingly verdant with the
+tall fern-palm, the feathery mimosa, the myrtle, and the silvery ash,
+which only recalls the summer the better for its suggestive appearance
+of having been recently blown over with dust; the gaze inland is repaid
+with the sight of hills brown by distance, of sheets of pasture, and
+pyramidal salt-mounds of creamy grey; and the gaze upwards&mdash;to lend a
+glow to the ravishing picture&mdash;is delighted by such a cope of dreamy
+blue, deep and pure, and unstained by a single cloudlet, as one seldom
+has the happiness of looking upon in England outside the doors of an
+exhibition of paintings. The climate is dry and genial, and not so hot
+as Seville. The Sevillanos know that, and come to Cadiz when the heats
+make residence in their own city insupportable. Winter is unknown;
+skating has never been witnessed by Gaditanos, except when exhibited by
+foreign professors, clad in furs, who glide on rollers over polished
+floors;<a name="page_21" id="page_21"></a> and small British boys who are fond of snowballing when they
+come out here are obliged to pelt each other with oranges to keep their
+hands in. One enthusiastic traveller compares it to a pearl set in
+sapphires and emeralds, but adds&mdash;lest we should all be running to hug
+the jewel&mdash;there is little art here and less society.</p>
+
+<p>"Letters of exchange are the only belles-lettres." Indeed. Now this is
+one of those wiseacres who are <i>in</i> a community, but not <i>of</i> it, who
+materially are present, but can never mentally, so to speak, get
+themselves inside the skins of the inhabitants. That city cannot be said
+to be without letters which has its poetic brotherhood, limited though
+it be, and which reveres the memory of Cervantes, as the memory of
+Shakespeare is revered in no English seaport. Wiseacre should hie him to
+Cadiz on the 23rd of April, when the birth of Cervantes is celebrated,
+for in spite of intestine broils, Spaniards are true to the worship of
+the author of "Don Quixote," and his no less immortal attendant, whom
+Gandalin, friend to Amadis of Gaul, affectionately apostrophizes thus:<a name="page_22" id="page_22"></a></p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"Salve! Sancho with the paunch,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Thou most famous squire,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Fortune smiled as Escudero she did dub thee</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Tho' Fate insisted 'gainst the world to rub thee.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Fortune gave wit and common-sense,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Philosophy, ambition to aspire;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">While Chivalry thy wallet stored,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">And led thee harmless through the fire."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>With the respect he deserves for this wandering critic and no more, I
+will take the liberty of saying that there is art, and a great deal of
+art, in the site of the clean town; and that there is society, and good
+society, in that forest of spars in the roadstead, and in the fishing
+and shooting in the neighbourhood. When the Tauchnitz editions have been
+exhausted, and when the stranger has mastered Cervantes and Lope de
+Vega, Espronceda, Larra, and Rivas, there is always that book which Dr.
+Johnson loved, the street, or that lighter literature which Moore sings,
+"woman's looks," to fall back upon. I am afraid some prudes may be
+misjudging my character on account of the frequency of my allusions to
+the sex lately; but I beg them to recollect that this is Andalusia, and
+that woman is a very important element in the popula<a name="page_23" id="page_23"></a>tion of Cadiz. She
+rules the roost, and the courtly Spaniard of the south forgets that
+there was ever such an undutiful person as Eve. Woman played a
+remarkable part in the events of the couple of months after the Royal
+crown was punched out of the middle of the national flag. She is
+political here, and is not shy of declaring her opinions. Ladies of the
+better classes of Cadiz are attentive to the duties of their religion;
+kneeling figures gracefully draped in black may be seen at all hours of
+the day in the churches during this Lenten season, telling their beads
+or turning over their missals. Those ladies are Carlist to a man, as
+Paddy would say; they naturally exert an influence over their husbands,
+though the influence falls short of making their husbands accompany them
+to church except on great festivals such as Easter Sunday, or on what
+may be called occasions of social rendezvous, such as a Requiem service
+for a deceased friend. The men seem to be of one mind with the French
+freethinker, who abjured religion himself, or put off thoughts of it
+till his dying day, but pronounced it necessary for peasants and
+whole<a name="page_24" id="page_24"></a>some for women and children. But <i>les femmes du peuple</i>, the
+fishwives, the labourers' daughters, the bouncing young fruit-sellers,
+and the like, are not religious in Cadiz. They have been bitten with the
+revolutionary mania; they are staunch Red Republicans, and have the bump
+of veneration as flat as the furies that went in procession to
+Versailles at the period of the Great Revolution, or their great
+granddaughters who fought on the barricades of the Commune. The nymphs
+of the pavement sympathize strongly with the Republic likewise; but
+their ideal of a Republic is not that of Señores Castelar and Figueras.
+They want bull-fights and distribution of property, and object to all
+religious confraternities unless based on the principles of "the Monks
+of the Screw," whose charter-song, written by that wit in wig and gown,
+Philpot Curran, was of the least ascetic:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"My children, be chaste&mdash;till you're tempted;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">While sober, be wise and discreet,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And humble your bodies with&mdash;fasting,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Whene'er you have nothing to eat."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>So long ago as 1834 a sequestration of convents was ordered in Spain,
+but the Gaditanos never had<a name="page_25" id="page_25"></a> the courage to enforce the decree till
+after the revolution that sent Queen Isabella into exile. A few years
+ago the convent of Barefooted Carmelites on the Plaza de los Descalzados
+was pulled down; the decree that legalized the act provided an
+indemnity, but the unfortunate monks who were turned bag and baggage out
+of their house never got a penny. They have had to humble their bodies
+with fasting since. For those amongst them who were old or infirm that
+was a grievance; but for the lusty young fellows who could handle a
+spade there need not be much pity, for Spain had more of their sort than
+was good for her. Even at that date the revolutionists of Cadiz had some
+respect left for the nunneries. But they progressed; the example of
+Paris was not lost upon them. The ayuntamiento which came into power
+with the Republic was Federal. Barcelona and Malaga were stirring; the
+ayuntamiento made up its mind that Cadiz should be as good as its
+neighbours and show vigour too. The cheapest way to show vigour was to
+make war on the weak and defenceless, and that was what this
+enlightened<a name="page_26" id="page_26"></a> and courageous municipality did. The nuns in the convent of
+the Candelaria were told that their house and the church adjoining were
+in a bad state, that they must clear out, and that both should be razed
+in the interests of public safety. It was not that the presence of
+ladies devoted to God after their own wishes and the traditions of their
+creed was offensive to the Republic; no, not by any means. The nuns
+protested that if their convent and church were in a dangerous condition
+the proper measure to take was to prop them up, not pull them down. But
+the blustering heroes of the municipality would not listen to this
+reasoning; they were too careful of the lives of the citizens, the nuns
+included; down the edifices must come. The Commune of Paris over again.
+The ladies of Cadiz, those who pass to and fro, prayer-book in hand, in
+the streets, and startle the flashing sunshine with their solemn
+mantillas, were wroth with the municipality. They saw through its
+designs, and they resolved to defeat them. To the number of some five
+hundred they formed a procession, and marched four deep to the
+Town-<a name="page_27" id="page_27"></a>house to beg of their worships, the civic tyrants, to revoke their
+order. If the convent and church were in ruins, the ladies were prepared
+to pay out of their own pockets the expense of all repairs. That
+procession was a sight to see; there was the beauty, the rank, the
+fashion, and the worth of the city, in "linked sweetness long drawn
+out," coiling through the thoroughfares on pious errand. The fair
+petitioners were dressed as for a <i>fete</i>; diamonds sparkled in their
+hair, and the potent fan, never deserted by the Andalusians, was
+agitated by five hundred of the smallest of hands in the softest of
+gloves. But the civic tyrants were more severe than Coriolanus. They
+were not to be mollified by woman's entreaties, but rightly fearing her
+charms they fled. When the procession arrived at the Town-house, there
+was but a solitary intrepid bailie to receive it. They told him their
+tale. He paid them the usual compliments, kissed their feet in the grand
+Oriental way individually and collectively, said he would lay their
+wishes before his colleagues, but that he could give no promise to
+recall the mandate of the municipality&mdash;it was<a name="page_28" id="page_28"></a> more than he dare
+undertake to do, and so forth. The long and short of it was, he politely
+sent them about their business. They came away, working the fans more
+pettishly than ever, and liquid voices were heard to hiss scornfully
+that the Republic, which proclaimed respect for all religions and
+rights, was a lie, for its first thought was to trample on the national
+religion, and to dispossess an inoffensive corporation of cloistered
+ladies of their right to then property. Here the first act of the drama
+ended.</p>
+
+<p>The second was, if anything, more sensational, though infinitely less
+attractive. The Federals bit their thumbs, and cried:</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, this is the work of the priests!"</p>
+
+<p>So it was; not a doubt of that. The Federals meditated, and this was the
+fruit of their meditations:</p>
+
+<p>"Let us organize a counter-procession!"</p>
+
+<p>That counter-procession was a sight to see, too; the feature of elegance
+was conspicuous by its absence, but there was more colour in it.
+Harridans of seventy crawled after hussies of seventeen;<a name="page_29" id="page_29"></a> bare arms and
+bandannas were more noticeable than black veils and fans; the <i>improbæ
+Gaditanæ</i>, known of old to certain lively satirists, Martial and Juvenal
+by name, turned out in force. Mayhap it is prejudice, but Republican
+females, methinks, are rather muscular than good-looking. Still they
+have influence sometimes, and when they said their say at the Town-house
+the ladies plainly betrayed how much they dreaded that influence. They
+wrote to Madrid praying that the municipality should be arrested in its
+course. Señor Castelar did send a remonstrance; some say he ordered the
+local authorities not to touch the church or convent, but they laughed
+at his letter, and contented themselves by reflecting that he was not in
+possession of the facts&mdash;that is, if they reflected at all, which is
+doubtful.</p>
+
+<p>Act the third was in representation during my stay. I passed the
+Candelaria one morning. Scaffolding poles were erected in the street
+alongside in preparation for the demolition of the building, and a party
+of workmen in the pay of the municipality were engaged gutting the
+church<a name="page_30" id="page_30"></a> of its contents, and carting them off to a place of deposit,
+where they were to be sold by public auction. These workmen looked
+cheerful over their sacrilege. A waggon was outside the door laden with
+ornaments ripped from the walls, gilt picture-frames, fragments of
+altar-rails, and the head of a cherub. Half a dozen rough fellows in
+guernseys had their shoulders under a block of painted wood-carving. As
+far as I could make out, it was the effigy of one of the Evangelists. I
+was refused admittance to the building, but I was told the sacramental
+plate had been removed with the same indifference. The nuns escaped
+without insult, thanks to the good offices of some friends outside, who
+brought up carriages at midnight to the doors of the convent and
+conveyed them to secret places of safety put at their disposal by the
+bishop.</p>
+
+<p>The people who committed this mean piece of desecration were all Federal
+Republicans. They disobeyed orders from Madrid, and would disobey them
+again. They were as deaf to the commands of Señor Castelar as to the
+prayers and entreaties<a name="page_31" id="page_31"></a> of the wives and daughters of respectable
+fellow-citizens. And all this time that the central authority were
+defied, artillerymen and linesmen were loitering about the streets of
+Cadiz. Eventually it was plain they would be disarmed, as they were
+disarmed at Malaga; and they would not offer serious opposition to the
+process. Their officers were barely tolerated by them. The Guardia Civil
+were true to duty, but when the crisis came, what could they do any more
+than their comrades at Malaga? They were but as a drop of water in a
+well. Disarmament is not liked by the old soldiers who have money to
+their credit, but there is a large proportion of mere conscripts in the
+ranks, and they are glad to jump at the chance of returning home.</p>
+
+<p>Troubles worse than any may yet be in store; meanwhile the sun shines,
+and Cadiz, like Seville, takes it easy. But there is a bad spirit
+abroad, and it is growing. A pack of ruffians forcibly entered a mansion
+at San Lucar, and annexed what was in it in the name of Republican
+freedom; the "volunteers of liberty" have taken the liberty of breaking<a name="page_32" id="page_32"></a>
+into the houses of the consuls at Malaga in search for arms; an excited
+mob attacked the printing-office of <i>El Oriente</i> at Seville after I
+left, smashed the type, and threatened to strangle the editor if he
+brought out the paper again; and the precious municipality of Cadiz has
+nothing better to do than order that no mourners shall be allowed in
+future to use religious exercises or emblems, to sing litanies or carry
+crosses, at the open graves of relatives in the cemeteries.</p>
+
+<p>In the merchants' club (of which I was made free) they were saddened at
+the disrupted state of society, but took it as kismet, and seemed to
+think that all would come right in the end, by the interposition of some
+<i>Deus ex machinâ</i>. But who that God was they could not tell: he was
+hidden in the womb of Fate. As Cadiz accepted its destiny with
+equanimity, I accommodated myself to the situation, and did as the
+natives did. I helped to fly kites from the flat housetops&mdash;a favourite
+pastime of mature manhood here; I opened mild flirtations with the
+damsels in cigar-shops, and discovered that they were not slow to meet
+advances; I ex<a name="page_33" id="page_33"></a>pended hours every day cheapening a treatise on the
+mystery of bull-fighting, with accompanying engravings, in vain&mdash;its
+price was above rubies. But my great distraction was a strange character
+I met at dinner at the house of the British Consul. I did not catch his
+name at our introduction, so I mentally named him Mr. Crabapple. He was
+short and stout, had a round wizened face freckled to the fuscous tint
+of a russedon apple, and was endowed with a voice which had all the
+husky sonority of a greengrocer's. He was beardless and sandy-haired,
+and one of those persons whose age is a puzzle to define; he might have
+been anything between fifteen and five-and-thirty. As he talked of
+Harrow as if he had left it but yesterday, I was disposed to set him
+down as a queer public-school boy on vacation, until I was astounded by
+some self-possessed remark on Jamaica dyewoods. We stopped in the same
+hotel. One morning he descended the stairs, a sort of dressing-case in
+hand, and yelled to an urchin at the door:</p>
+
+<p>"Here, you son of a sea-calf, take this down to the waterside for me!"<a name="page_34" id="page_34"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Will he understand you?" I said.</p>
+
+<p>"Bound to," Mr. Crabapple replied; "never talk to them any other way,
+anyhow. 'Tis their business to understand. Ta, ta&mdash;deuce of a hurry."</p>
+
+<p>"Where are you going, may I ask?"</p>
+
+<p>"Read the Church Service&mdash;rather a bore&mdash;Sunday, you know."</p>
+
+<p>The nondescript, then, was a chaplain.</p>
+
+<p>The same evening he returned to the hotel, and on the following morning
+I saw him again descending the stairs, the same dressing-case in hand.
+He nodded salute, slung his luggage to the same urchin with the cry,
+"Hook it, you lubber!" and, turning to me, said, "Ta, ta, sheering off
+again."</p>
+
+<p>"Where to now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mediterranean."</p>
+
+<p>"There's no boat to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"There is, though&mdash;there's mine;" and he was off.</p>
+
+<p>The supposed chaplain was a stray-away from a novel by Marryat,
+commanded her Majesty's gunboat <i>Catapult</i>, and was at Cadiz on the duty
+of protecting British interests. At the moment his<a name="page_35" id="page_35"></a> mission was to carry
+important despatches to Gibraltar.</p>
+
+<p>My mission to Cadiz was, partly, to ascertain the progress of the
+inquiry into the case of the <i>Murillo</i> steamer, more than suspected of
+having run down the <i>Northfleet</i>, a vessel laden with railway-iron and
+navvies, off Dungeness, on the night of the 22nd of January previous.
+Three hundred lives had been lost on the occasion. I knew something of
+that wreck, for I had seen and spoken with the survivors in the Sailors'
+Home at Dover on the following evening. A dazed, stupid lot they were,
+of an exceedingly low standard of intelligence. The sense of their own
+rescue had overcome the poignancy of grief. I envied them their
+stolidity, which I explained to my own mind by the rush of the engulfing
+waters still swirling and singing knell of sudden doom in their ears.</p>
+
+<p>"Guv'nor," said one clown to me, "I seed my ole 'ooman go down afore my
+eyes, and I felt that grieved a'most as if I was agoin' down myself, and
+I chewed a bit o' baccer."</p>
+
+<p>I saw the <i>Murillo</i> lying quietly a little distance<a name="page_36" id="page_36"></a> off the land&mdash;a
+handsome, shapely craft, fine in the lines, with a sharp stem fashioned
+like that of a ram. She was painted black, with the exception of a band
+of pink above the water-line, where she was coated with Peacock's
+mixture. The British Consul informed me that he understood the inquiry
+into the guilt of the master was to be carried on <i>secretly</i>. He would
+not be allowed to attend it. Copies of the depositions of the accused,
+and permission to see them, had also been denied to the agents of the
+British Government, who applied for them for the purposes of the Board
+of Trade inquiry. Though Spaniards, in private conversation, own that
+the <i>Murillo</i> is the criminal ship, they seem, for some unaccountable
+reason, to be anxious that she should escape the penalty of her
+wickedness, as if the national honour were concerned, and the national
+honour would be served by cloaking an offence cruel and mean in itself,
+and awful in its consequences.</p>
+
+<p>There is a sentence in the Comminations which would keep running in my
+mind every time I thought of that emigrant ship sent to the bottom<a name="page_37" id="page_37"></a> off
+Dungeness&mdash;"Cursed is he who smiteth his enemy secretly." But if he who
+smites his enemy secretly is accursed, what is he who smites his
+neighbour and then flees away like a coward in the dark? Is he not twice
+and thrice wicked, and to be branded with malediction deeper still? Such
+a thing the <i>Murillo</i> steamer did&mdash;there could be no manner of doubt
+about it; every seafaring man and every Spaniard admits her
+blood-guiltiness; yet there she lies off Puntales, near the Trocadero,
+calmly expecting soon to be under weigh again with her criminal master
+and crew on board, with no punishment registered against her or them.
+The Consul-General of Spain in London wrote to the papers after the loss
+of the <i>Northfleet</i>, saying if this man was the wrongdoer he would be
+punished, and sent to Ceuta or Tetuan. But he is the wrongdoer, and he
+will never be sent to Ceuta or Tetuan. The master of the <i>Murillo</i> and
+the sailors of the watch on the fatal night are in prison, but they will
+never be brought to serious account. The figure of Justice in these
+latitudes is true to the sculptor's ideal in one sense: the eyes are
+bandaged, not that<a name="page_38" id="page_38"></a> Justice shall be impartial, but that she may not
+see.</p>
+
+<p>This instance of the <i>Murillo</i> is but one of many, and as it illustrates
+an artifice of tricky ship-owning, it will be well to state why the
+<i>Murillo</i> will go scot-free, and may audaciously turn up again in
+British waters disguised by a few coats of paint, exhibiting a fresh
+figure-head, and bearing a new name in gilt lettering on her stern.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, the <i>Murillo</i> belonged not to Spanish so much as
+English owners. The line of steamers of which she was one was the
+property of a company of shareholders. The company was anxious that
+their vessels should fly the Spanish flag, so they made one Don Miguel
+Styles the nominal head of the firm. This individual was a mere clerk in
+their office, a man of straw, and at the date of the catastrophe Don
+Miguel Styles had no more substantial existence than our old friend John
+Styles: he was dead, and in his grave.</p>
+
+<p>Nextly, Mr. Daniel Macpherson, one of the most eminent merchants in the
+port of Cadiz and Lloyd's agent, had been served with an instrument
+claiming<a name="page_39" id="page_39"></a> damages to the amount of 50,000 pesetas (£2,000), because that
+he had calumniated the good ship <i>Murillo</i>, and caused her prejudice and
+injury by detaining her a couple of months in the waters of Cadiz. The
+persons who instituted this action forget that the Spanish courts have
+no jurisdiction in the matter of libels published in England. And as for
+the prejudice caused to the vessel, it is incredible that the British
+Government should be so weak as to wait for letters from Lloyd's agent
+before opening an inquiry into the deaths of some three hundred of its
+subjects and the identity of the dastardly scoundrel who was the cause
+of their deaths, who disabled the ship that held them, and then slunk
+off, leaving them to the mercy of the midnight sea. That the <i>Murillo</i>
+was that vessel, even those who maintain that she cannot be proved
+legally guilty do not attempt to deny. It is true, as they say, that
+moral certainty is one thing, legal certainty another. But there was
+seldom a clearer chain of circumstantial evidence pointing to the
+perpetrator of any crime than that which convicted the <i>Murillo</i> of
+being the misdemeanant. She was off Dungeness<a name="page_40" id="page_40"></a> at the hour of the
+disaster, and she was in contact with a ship; this the imprisoned master
+admitted in his log. But he alleged that the ship could not have been
+the <i>Northfleet</i>. He said he came into collision with a vessel; that he
+stood by her for half an hour; that one of her boats put off with some
+persons on board carrying a lantern; that they went round her examining
+whether there was anything wrong; and that no call having been made to
+him for assistance he steamed away. But there was a discrepancy between
+the entry in his log and that in the log of the engineer. The latter, an
+Englishman, stated that the engines of the <i>Murillo</i> were backed before
+the collision, that she went astern afterwards, and then went on ahead.
+The delay altogether was only for a few minutes. No mention of the
+half-hour. The engineer had no object in telling a lie. The master of
+the <i>Murillo</i> had. No other ship was in collision off Dungeness that
+night. Besides, what meant the order to the <i>Murillo</i> to come on at once
+to Cadiz if she had been in collision, and not stop at Lisbon, whither
+she was bound as port of call, if not to get her into limits where
+justice<a name="page_41" id="page_41"></a> is notoriously blind and halt? Argument is unnecessary and
+childish; it was the <i>Murillo</i> which cut down the <i>Northfleet</i>. But
+Spain will never exact retribution for the destruction of the property
+and the sacrifice of the lives of aliens. Cosas de España.<a name="page_42" id="page_42"></a></p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h3>
+
+<p class="head">Expansion of Carlism&mdash;A Pseudo-Democracy&mdash;Historic Land and Water
+Marks&mdash;An Impudent Stowaway&mdash;Spanish Respect for Providence&mdash;A
+Fatal Signal&mdash;Playing with Fire&mdash;Across the Bay&mdash;Farewell to
+Andalusia&mdash;British Spain.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">T<span class="smcap">owards</span> the close of February, a grave official report was published in
+the <i>Gaceta</i> of Madrid, announcing that an engagement had been fought
+with the Carlists and a victory scored, <i>one</i> of the enemy having been
+killed. We were now in April, some six weeks later, and Carlism still
+showed lively signs of existence, notwithstanding the death of that
+solitary combatant. The statement of the troops employed against it will
+be the best measure of its importance. These consisted of a battalion
+and two companies of Engineers, four companies of Foot Artillery, a
+battery of Horse and five batteries of Mountain Artillery; eight
+squadrons of Cuirassiers,<a name="page_43" id="page_43"></a> seven of Lancers, four of Hussars, a section
+of Mounted Chasseurs (Tiradores), and eighteen battalions of Infantry of
+the line, with five of Cazadores, or light infantry. Behind this force
+of regulars were the Francos or Free-shooters of Navarre (who were about
+as good as their prototypes, the <i>francs-tireurs</i> of France&mdash;no better),
+some mobilized Volunteers, and the Carabineros, or revenue police. There
+were some who imagined that the hosts of Don Carlos might crown the
+hills of Vallecas, and present themselves before the gate of Atocha to
+the consternation of Madrid, as did those of his predecessor in the
+September of 1837. But the Federals of the south did not mind. What did
+not touch them, they cared not a jot for. They were of the
+pseudo-democracy which wants to live without working, consume without
+producing, obtain posts without being trained for them, and arrive at
+honours without desert&mdash;the selfish and purblind pseudo-democracy of
+incapacity and cheek.</p>
+
+<p>As I had no pecuniary interest in salt, wine, phosphate of soda, hides,
+or cork&mdash;the chief exports of Cadiz&mdash;I left the much-bombarded port on
+the<a name="page_44" id="page_44"></a> <i>Vinuesa</i>, one of the boats of the Alcoy line plying to Malaga. My
+immediate destination was the Hock, but we went no nearer than
+Algeciras, the town on the opposite side of the bay, off which Saumarez
+gave such a stern account of the Spanish and French combined on the 12th
+of July, 1801. The sea was without a ripple. The bright coasts of two
+Continents were in view. On such a day as this the first adventurers
+must have crossed from Africa to Europe. Hero might almost have swum
+across. Even Mr. Brownsmith of Eastchepe might rig a craft out of an
+empty sugar hogshead, set up his walking-stick for mast, tie his
+pocket-handkerchief to it for sail, and trust to the waves in
+safety&mdash;that is, if Mr. Brownsmith of Eastchepe had in him the heart of
+Raleigh, not of Bumble. Some men are born to be drivers of tram-cars,
+some to be captains of corsairs. The pioneer of navigation must have
+been cut out by nature to be a High-Admiral of bold buccaneers.</p>
+
+<p>We were only five passengers on the steamer, and we amused ourselves
+comparing notes. One told of a voyage from Barcelona to Alicante which
+he had<a name="page_45" id="page_45"></a> once undertaken. The first night out they lost a sailor; he was
+seized with a fit and died; and then came the poser. When they would
+arrive at Alicante and muster the crew for the inspection of the health
+officers one would be wanting; suspicions would be aroused that he had
+fallen a victim to contagious disease, and they ran the hazard of being
+stuck into quarantine unless they could succeed in buying themselves off
+with an exorbitant bribe. While they were in a quandary, a white head
+popped above a gangway forward and a voice sang out:</p>
+
+<p>"I'll get you out of the hole for a consideration."</p>
+
+<p>"Who the deuce are you? Where did you spring from?" cried the skipper.</p>
+
+<p>"A stowaway,&mdash;a flour-barrel. I'll parade as the dead man's substitute
+for ten dollars and a square meal."</p>
+
+<p>In the end they were glad to accept the impudent proposal; the corpse
+was flung overboard, and the stowaway entered the port of Alicante an
+honest British tar, looking the whole world in the face like
+Longfellow's village blacksmith, and jingling ten dollars in his
+pocket.<a name="page_46" id="page_46"></a></p>
+
+<p>We passed by Barrosa, where Graham gave the French such a thrashing in
+1811, and the 87th Irish Fusiliers earned their glorious surname of the
+"Eagle-takers;" and over the waves of Trafalgar where Nelson did his
+duty, and was smitten with a bullet in the spine; and passing into the
+Straits and rounding the point by Tarifa, stood in for the Bay of
+Gibraltar. A spacious swelling spread of live water it is, and safe,
+except, as one of my fellow-passengers informed me, for a rock off the
+Punta del Carnero, or Mutton Point. The rock is covered when the tide is
+high (for there is a tide here), but rears its tortoise-like back over
+the surface for some hours at the ebb. The Channel squadron was coming
+out of Gib some years before when an ironclad grounded on this rock, but
+was got off without more damage than a scraping. As the danger to the
+navigation was outside the limits of the fortress, the British
+authorities applied to the Spanish for permission to clear away the
+obstruction. It was easily to be accomplished. A party of sappers could
+set a caisson round it, bore a gallery, insert a charge, and blast the
+rock into<a name="page_47" id="page_47"></a> smithereens with safety and despatch. But the Spaniards would
+not consent to such an interference with the designs of Providence; the
+poor fishermen on the coast were often dependent for their livelihood on
+what they could pick up from wrecks, and if this rock were removed
+Nature would be sacrilegiously altered, and the interesting wreckers
+deprived of many an honest coin. I tell the tale as it was told to me. I
+wonder should it be dedicated to the amphibious corps.</p>
+
+<p>Another story bearing on the successful revolution inaugurated by Prim
+is worth relating, as it deals with an episode of Spanish politics which
+is repeated almost every other year with slender variations. The play is
+the same; the scene and the <i>dramatis personæ</i> are merely shifted. One
+of the stereotyped military risings was to be initiated at Algeciras on
+the arrival of Prim from England. The intimation that he was at hand was
+to be made by the firing of two rockets from the ship which carried him.
+On a certain night at the close of August, 1868, two rockets blazed in
+the sky, and were noticed by the impatient conspirators at<a name="page_48" id="page_48"></a> Algeciras,
+who flew to arms to cries of "Down with the Queen," and "Live Prim and
+Liberty." But no Prim landed. The alarm was premature, the rising a
+flash in the pan. What they had taken for the bright herald of the
+advent of "El Paladino" was the signal of a Peninsular and Oriental
+steamer which had arrived on her passage to Port Said. For the sake of
+appearances, a number of unfortunate fools were set up against a wall
+and had their brains blown out in tribute to law and order. But the
+fruit was ripening. Within little more than a fortnight came the
+insurrection of the fleet at Cadiz, upon the appearance in that port of
+the popular hero, and before the end of the month Queen Isabella had
+fled over the French frontier, never to return to Spain as a sovereign.
+Prim's plot was attended with a fortune in excess of his most sanguine
+hopes; he entered Madrid in triumph in October, and was created a
+Marshal in November. All was joy and enthusiasm, but the hapless tools
+of ambition who had helped to prepare the way for him below in Algeciras
+were not of the jubilee.<a name="page_49" id="page_49"></a></p>
+
+<p>At first sight the rock looms up large like a frowning inhospitable
+islet, the stretch of the Neutral Ground being so low that one cannot
+detect it above the sea-level until almost right upon it. We left the
+<i>Vinuesa</i> and entered a boat with a couple of sturdy rowers, who offered
+to pull us across the Bay for five dollars. As I dipped a hand in the
+brine one of them raised a cry of "Take care!" there were "mala pesca"
+there. Mr. Shark, who is an ugly customer, had been cruising in the
+neighbourhood, and had taken a morsel out of an American swimmer a
+little time before. There were three masts protruding over the water at
+one spot, the relics of some gallant ship, and index to one of those
+godsends which the Spanish Government is solicitous to guarantee to the
+distressed and deserving local fishermen. What a pity it was not the
+<i>Murillo</i>! That would have been poetic retribution.</p>
+
+<p>No matter: with all thy faults I like thee, Spain, and especially that
+brown dusty province of Andalusia, with its oranges and pomegranates;
+its dancing fountains splashed with sunshine; its win<a name="page_50" id="page_50"></a>some damozels with
+such lisping languors of voice; its philosophic waiters upon the morrow,
+happy in a cigarette, a melon and a guitar; its muleteers crooning
+snatches of lazy song; its peasants with hair tied in beribboned
+pigtail; its tawny boys in Manola colours; aye, and its artistic
+beggars.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! now you see the Neutral Ground; that village to the left is Lineas,
+where you can get a glass of Manzanilla cheap," exclaimed a companion.</p>
+
+<p>I do not set exceeding store by your pale thin Manzanilla, nor do I care
+to load my mouth with the flavour of a drug store.</p>
+
+<p>"There are the sheds we put up the time Prim was expected; they are on
+the Neutral Ground, ha, ha! where the soil is supposed to be inviolate;
+but we have forgotten to take them down since. We were too many for
+them."</p>
+
+<p>And now we are by the landing-stairs, and the Customs' officer demands
+our passport in English. We answer him cheerily that we need none, and
+to his smiling welcome we step on the soil of British Spain; but it
+would be unpardonable to begin describing it at the tail of a chapter.<a name="page_51" id="page_51"></a></p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h3>
+
+<p class="head">Gabriel Tar&mdash;A Hard Nut to Crack&mdash;In the Cemetery&mdash;An Old Tipperary
+Soldier&mdash;Marks of the Broad Arrow&mdash;The "Scorpions"&mdash;The
+Jaunting-Cars&mdash;Amusements on the Bock&mdash;Mrs. Damages' Complaint&mdash;The
+Bay, the Alameda, and Tarifa&mdash;How to Learn Spanish&mdash;Types of the
+British Officer&mdash;The Wily Ben Solomon&mdash;A Word for the
+Subaltern&mdash;Sunset Gun&mdash;The Sameness of Sutlersville.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">W<span class="smcap">here</span> I went to school, we had a droll lad, whose humour developed
+itself in mispronunciation. In my nonage I considered that unique. Now I
+know it is a rather common order of quaintness. Hugh used to call Sierra
+Leone, "Sarah Alone;" Cambodia, "Gamboge;" Stromboli, "Storm-boiler;"
+and Gibraltar, "Gabriel Tar." How we used to wrinkle with laughter at
+his sallies, launched with an artistically unconscious air, until the
+swooping cane came swishing down on our backs! And here I was in Gabriel
+Tar. I vow the first inclination I<a name="page_52" id="page_52"></a> felt was to write to Hugh with the
+date engraved on the note-paper, and indeed so I should have done, but
+that I had not seen him for nigh twenty years, and when last I heard of
+him he was married, and had learned to be serious and to speak with
+precision. The fun had been driven out of him by responsibility.
+Propriety had come with prosperity.</p>
+
+<p>Call it by what name you will, Gabriel Tar, or Gibraltar, that
+infinitesimal scrap of territory over which the Union Jack floats, is
+supremely unpalatable and insolently insulting to the Spaniard. It is a
+bitter pill to swallow, an adamantine nut to crack. I suppose he is
+welcome to take it&mdash;when he can; but he knows better than to try. It is
+the gate of the Mediterranean. Logically, it is an injustice that a
+stranger should sit in the porter's lodge and swing the key at his
+girdle; but it is as well that the porter is one who is too surly to
+barter his trust for gold. So Gabriel Tar will remain intact, until the
+porter grows feeble or falls asleep.</p>
+
+<p>British Spain, or "the Rock," or Gib, as it is<a name="page_53" id="page_53"></a> indifferently termed, or
+Sutlersville, as I prefer to name it, can be converted into an island at
+the will of its defenders. The sandy spit of Neutral Ground at one side
+of which Tommy Atkins, fresh-faced, does his sentry-go in brick-red
+tunic and white pith-helmet, and at the other side of which swarthy
+Sancho Panza y Toro, in projecting cap and long blue coat, fondles a
+rifle in the bend of his arm, can readily be flooded; and the bare,
+sheer, lofty north front, with scores of cannon of the deadliest modern
+pattern lying in wait behind the irregular embrasures that grimly pit
+its surface, hardly invites attack. It frowns a calm but determined
+defiance; and even the Cid himself might be excused if he turned on his
+heel and puffed a meditative cigarette after he had surveyed it.</p>
+
+<p>British Spain is small, being but one and seven-eighth square miles
+English in area; but it is mighty strong. The population, comprising the
+garrison, is less than fifteen thousand; but behind that slender cipher
+of souls are the millions of the broadest and biggest of empires. I do
+not know what the population of the cemetery is, but it<a name="page_54" id="page_54"></a> receives rapid
+and numerous accessions at each periodical outbreak of cholera. I paid a
+visit to it&mdash;I have a fondness for sauntering in God's acre&mdash;and arrived
+in time to witness a funeral. When the coffin was laid in the grave, a
+young man, probably the husband of the deceased, threw himself prone on
+the turf beside the open burial-trench, and burst into such a passionate
+tempest of heart-rending sobs and moans and wailings, that I had to move
+away. These Southerners are more demonstrative in their grief than the
+men of the North. I question if their sorrows spring from deeper depths,
+or are so lasting. The caretaker of the cemetery, an elderly Tipperary
+soldier, with a short <i>dudheen</i> in his mouth, was seated smoking on a
+head-stone by a goat-willow. We got into conversation.</p>
+
+<p>"There were worse places than Gib&mdash;singing-birds were raysonable here,
+and some of them had rayl beautiful plumage."</p>
+
+<p>My countryman, like the Duke of Argyll, had a weakness for ornithology.</p>
+
+<p>"That spread of land beyant was where the races were held, and small-arm
+parties from the fleet<a name="page_55" id="page_55"></a> sometimes kem ashore and practised there. They
+used to play cricket there, too. The symmetry wasn't a gay place, but
+there were worse. There were some beautiful tombs&mdash;now <i>there</i> was a
+parable ov wan; 'twas put up by their frinds to some officers who were
+dhrownded while they were crossing a flooded sthrame on their way back
+from a shooting excursion. The car-drivers, who were dhrownded wid them,
+had no monument. 'Twas a quare world; a poor man had the chance of dying
+wid a rich man, but was not to be berrid in his company. Well, he
+supposed it was for the best," and here he hammered the heel-tap out of
+his pipe on the side of his shoe; "when the last bugle sounded a
+field-officer would feel uncomfortable like if he had to be looking for
+his bones in the same plot wid a lance-corporal."</p>
+
+<p>Truly, a queer world. Death with impartial summons knocks at the cabin
+of the poor and the palace of the wealthy; but in the undertaker's
+interest the equality of the grave must not be conceded. The plebeian
+who commits <i>felo de se</i> is served properly if he is hidden at the
+cross-roads by<a name="page_56" id="page_56"></a> night and a stake driven through his body. The lunatic
+King who drowns himself, and drags his doctor to the same fate&mdash;who is a
+suicide duplicated with the suspicion of murder&mdash;is embalmed and laid to
+rest in consecrated ground amid incense and music, lights and flowers,
+the tolling of bells, and the chanting of dirges.</p>
+
+<p>The funeral was over; they were just finishing the <i>De Profundis</i>. My
+countryman had to quit me. "<i>Oyeh!</i> that fellow who was making such a
+lamentation might be married agin in a twelvemonth. The army plan was
+the best; after the 'Dead March' in <i>Saul</i> came 'Tow-row-row.'&mdash;another
+so'jer was to be had for a shilling. He did not drink; he thanked me all
+the same&mdash;had taken the pledge from Father Mathew whin he was a boy, and
+meant to stick by it; but he would accept the price of a singing-bird he
+had set his mind upon, since it was pressed upon him."</p>
+
+<p>Gibraltar is but a huge garrison. In the moat by the gate, as I
+re-entered, a big drummer and a tiny mannikin-soldier with cymbals were
+practising how to lead off a marching-past tune. The<a name="page_57" id="page_57"></a> "Fortune of War"
+tavern elbows "Horse-Barrack Lane;" a print of "The Siege of Kars" is
+side by side in a shop-window with Dr. Bennett's "Songs for Soldiers."
+The Plazas and Calles of the mainland of Spain have been parted with.
+The names of streets, hostelries, and stores are English. Instead of
+tiendas and almacenes and fondas, you have fancy repositories,
+regimental shoe-shops, and porter-houses. There, for example, is the
+celebrated "Cock and Bottle," and farther on "The Calfs Head Hotel." If
+you traverse Cathedral Square, no larger than an ordinary-sized
+skittle-alley, you arrive by Sunnyside Steps to the Europa Pass. Notices
+are posted by the roadside cautioning against plucking flowers or
+treading on the beds under pain of prosecution. But the bazaar bewilders
+you with its alien figures, its confusion of tongues, and its eccentric
+contrasts of dress. In five minutes you meet Spanish officers; nuns in
+broad-leaved white bonnets; a bearded sergeant nursing a baby;
+bare-legged, sun-burnished Moors; pink-and-white cheeked ladies'-maids
+from Kent; local mashers in such outrageously garish tweeds;<a name="page_58" id="page_58"></a> stiff
+brass-buttoned turnkeys; Jews in skull-cap and Moslems in fez; and while
+you are lost in admiration of a burly negro, turbaned and in grass-green
+robe, with face black and shiny as a newly-polished stove, you are
+hustled by a sailor on cordial terms with himself who is vigorously
+attempting to whistle "Garry Owen."</p>
+
+<p>But above and before all, the sights and sounds are military. Sappers
+and linesmen and artillerists pullulate at every corner; fatigue-parties
+are confronted at every turn; the bayonet of the sentinel flashes in
+every angle of the fortress from the minute the sun, bursting into
+instantaneous radiance from behind the great barrier of craggy hill,
+lights up the town and bastions and moles, until the boom of the
+sunset-gun gives signal for the gates to be closed. Every tavern looks
+like a canteen; the gossip is of things martial; the music is that of
+the reveille or tattoo&mdash;the blare of brass, the rub-a-dub of parchment,
+or the shrill sound-revel of Highland pipes (for there is usually a
+Scotch regiment here). The ladies one meets all have husbands, or
+fathers, or uncles in the Service; even the children&mdash;those<a name="page_59" id="page_59"></a> of English
+parents well understood&mdash;keep step as they walk, and the boys amongst
+them compliment any well-dressed stranger with a home face by rendering
+him the regulation salute. This is highly gratifying to the civilian
+sojourning in the place; for he insensibly succumbs to the <i>genius
+loci</i>, squares his shoulders, expands his chest, and feels that if he is
+not an officer he ought to be one.</p>
+
+<p>Except the enterprising gentry who devote themselves to cheating the
+Spanish excise by smuggling cigars and English goods across the border,
+the Scorpions live by and on the garrison, and therefore do I name their
+habitat Sutlersville. "Scorpion," I should add, for the benefit of the
+uninitiated, is the <i>sobriquet</i> conferred by Tommy Atkins on the natives
+of the Rock, as that of "Smiches" is merrily applied by him to the
+Maltese, and of "Yamplants" to the denizens of St. Helena. There is a
+tolerable infusion of English blood among the Scorpions, but it is
+hardly of the healthiest or most respectable.</p>
+
+<p>Gib is familiar to thousands of Englishmen, but it must be unfamiliar to
+many thousands more.<a name="page_60" id="page_60"></a> This is my excuse for exhuming some notes of my
+stay there. Don't be afraid, I am not going to pester you with
+guide-book erudition. Let others take you to the galleries and caves,
+lead you up the ascent to the Moorish tower, inform you that the one
+spot in Europe where there is an indigenous colony of monkeys (the
+patriarch of which is styled the "town major") is here, and enlighten
+you as to the interesting fact that this is the only locality out of
+Ireland where the Irish jaunting-car is to be objurgated. Mine be a
+humbler task.</p>
+
+<p>Society in Gib is select, but limited. It is uniform, like the clothes
+of the influential portion of the inhabitants. Gib is the wrong place to
+bring out a young lady, though Major Dalrymple's daughters, immortalized
+in Lever's novel, could not well have found a better hunting-ground. But
+then Major Dalrymple's daughters were regular garrison hacks&mdash;so the
+irreverent subs of the Rovers used to call them&mdash;and never stood a
+chance beside the daughters of the county families. There are racing and
+chasing at the station, and theatricals and balls. I arrived at the
+wrong season. The<a name="page_61" id="page_61"></a> three days' local racing, for horses of every breed
+but English, was over, and most of the men were going to Cadiz by
+special boat next day, <i>en route</i> for the Jerez races, which are the
+best&mdash;indeed, I might almost say the solitary&mdash;meeting in Spain.</p>
+
+<p>"There are only two things in this land worth talking about," said an
+English merchant to me at Cadiz; "the steamers of Lopez and the races of
+Jerez."</p>
+
+<p>The hunting (thanks to brave old Admiral Fleming for having started that
+diversion) was over too. The meets have to come off, naturally, outside
+the frontier of British Spain. The sport is pretty good&mdash;one cannot
+quite expect the Melton country, of course&mdash;the riding hard, and the
+horses invariably Spanish; no English horses would do, for no English
+horse would be equal to climbing up a perpendicular bank with sixteen
+stone on his back, and that is a feat the native steeds, bestridden by
+British warriors in pink who follow the Calpe pack, have sometimes to
+accomplish. There is a Spanish lyrical and theatrical troop in the town;
+but it is Holy Week, and lyricals and theatricals<a name="page_62" id="page_62"></a> are under taboo.
+Occasionally charity concerts are given by amateurs, and plays are even
+performed in Lent Champagne, of the Fizzers, has won a reputation by his
+success on the boards when he dons the habiliments of lovely woman
+beyond a certain age. But, as I told you before, I arrived at the wrong
+season. There are no balls at the Convent, which is the Governor's
+residence; and, touching these balls, I have a grievance to ventilate,
+at the request of Mrs. Quartermaster Damages. She specially imported
+frilled petticoats from England to display in the mazy dance, and she
+assured me they were turning sere and yellow in her boxes. She never
+gets a chance of bringing them out except once in the twelvemonth, when
+she is asked to the "Quartermasters' Ball." But there is a reason for
+everything, and Mrs. Quartermaster Damages is fat and forty, and not
+fair, and&mdash;tell it not out of mess&mdash;they say she has a tongue.</p>
+
+<p>At this particular time, you perceive, this fortified fragment of the
+empire was dull; but usually it is gay, and the officer quartered there
+has always an excellent opportunity of learning his trade and<a name="page_63" id="page_63"></a> acquiring
+skill in the gentlemanly game of billiards. He can make maps and surveys
+of the neutral ground, and watch the guard mounting on the Alameda, or
+read the account of the siege in Drinkwater's days; and when he tires of
+the green cloth and its distractions, and of his own noble profession,
+he can throw a sail to the breeze in the unequalled Bay, or take a
+flying trip to Tarifa to sketch the beautiful from the living model, or
+go to Ceuta to see the Spanish galley-slaves and disciplinary regiments,
+forgetful of our own chain-gangs; or steam across to Tangier to riot in
+Nature and a day's pig-sticking.</p>
+
+<p>The Bay, the Alameda, and Tarifa&mdash;these are the three delights of
+Gibraltar.</p>
+
+<p>You have heard of the Bay of Naples, and the Bay of Dublin, which equals
+it in Paddy Murphy's estimation. I know both; and Gibraltar, the
+little-spoken-of, leaves them nowhere. The sky, and the undulating
+mirror below that reflects it, are such a blue; the rocks are such an
+ashen-grey; the Spanish sierras such a leonine brown, with summits
+wrapped in clouds like rolling smoke; and the<a name="page_64" id="page_64"></a> sun goes down to his bath
+in the west 'mid such a vaporous glow of yellowing purple and rosy gold!</p>
+
+<p>The Alameda is a bower of Venus cinctured by Mars. Here is a gravelled
+expanse bounded by hill and sea, with cosy benches under the shade of
+palmitos&mdash;the civilization of the West in alliance with the rich
+vegetation of the East. Sometimes, in the morning, five hundred men or
+more&mdash;garrison artillery, engineers, and infantry&mdash;muster there,
+previous to marching to their posts; there is a banging of drums, a
+blowing of bugles, a bobbing vision of cocked-hats, and a roar of hoarse
+words of command&mdash;all the pomp and pride and circumstance of glorious
+war before the fighting begins. Sometimes, in the evening, a band plays,
+and the Alameda is the resort of fashion and of nursery-maids.</p>
+
+<p>Tarifa, shining in the sunset across the water, is a tempting morsel for
+the landscape-painter, and the dwellers in Tarifa are the best teachers
+of Spanish. A British subaltern bent on improving his mind could
+encounter an infinitely better pre<a name="page_65" id="page_65"></a>ceptor there than "Jingling Johnny,"
+the self-appointed professor to the garrison, who hires himself on
+Monday, makes you a present of a guitar-tutor on Tuesday, and asks you
+to favour him with six months' payment in advance on Wednesday. To be
+sure, the Spanish those Tarifans speak is slightly Arabified; but their
+tones of voice are persuasive, and their methods of teaching agreeable.
+The professor taken by the British subaltern is invariably a female, and
+the females of Tarifa are not the ugliest in the world. They still
+retain many customs peculiar to their Moorish ancestors. They wear a
+manta, not a mantilla&mdash;a sort of large-hooded mantle, with which they
+hide the light of their countenance, except an eye&mdash;but that is a
+piercer, ye gods I and they keep it open for business. When a stranger
+passes, especially if he looks like a sucking lieutenant from the
+fortress beyond, the manta falls, disclosing the soft loveliness
+beneath, and the wearer affects a pretty confusion, and hastens with
+judicious slowness to re-adjust its folds. The British subaltern reels
+to his quarters seriously wounded, and may be seen<a name="page_66" id="page_66"></a> the following
+morning, with his hair blown back, spouting poetry to the zephyrs on
+Europa Point. Oh no!&mdash;that only occurs in romances; but he may be seen
+drinking brandy-and-soda moderately in the Club-House.</p>
+
+<p>Poor British subaltern! How Sutlersville does exploit him! He is a
+sheep, and bears his fleecing without a kick. Watch those lazy,
+lounging, able-bodied, smoking, and salivating loons who prop up every
+street-corner, and monopolize the narrow pathways&mdash;these all live by
+him; they eat up his substance, and fatten thereupon. These are the
+touting and speculating sons of the Rock, the veritable Scorpions, who
+are ever ready to find the "cap'n" a dog or a horse or a boat, or
+something not so harmless, to help him on the road to ruin, and whisper
+in his ear what a fine fellow he is&mdash;"As ver fine a fellow&mdash;real
+gemman&mdash;as Lord Tomnoddy, who give me such a many dollars when he go
+away." The first word these loons pronounce after coming into the world
+must be <i>baksheesh</i>. They are born with beggary in their mouths, and the
+British subaltern acts as if he were born to be<a name="page_67" id="page_67"></a> their victim. There he
+is below, of every type, lolling outside the hotel-door that looks on
+that Commercial Square which is so thorough a barrack-square, with its
+romping children, its dogs, its dust, its guard-house with chatting
+soldiers on a form in front, and the important sentinel pacing to and
+fro, regular and rigid as a pendulum, keeping vigilant watch and ward
+over nothing in particular. We have a rare company to-day; besides the
+engineers and bombardiers, and the linesmen of the 24th, 31st, 71st, and
+81st, the four infantry regiments on the station, we have men on leave
+from Malta. They came up to the races, and are waiting for the P. and O.
+steamer to take them back. That fat little customer is your sporting
+sub. I only wonder he is not in cords, tops, and spurs. What a hearty
+voice he talks in! He asks for the <i>Field</i> as if he were giving a
+view-halloo. Then there is the moist-eyed, mottle-cheeked, puffy,
+convivial sub, who is knowing on the condition of ale, and is too
+friendly with Saccone's sherry. The convivial sub, I am happy to say, is
+dying out. Then there is the prig, who is "going in" for his profession.
+I call him a<a name="page_68" id="page_68"></a> prig, because when people are going in for anything they
+should have the good sense not to blow about it. To hear Mr. Shells and
+his prattle about Hamley and Brialmont and Jomini, <i>kriegspiel</i> and the
+new drill, you would imagine he was bound to put the extinguisher on
+Marlborough, Wellington, Wolseley, and the rest of them; and yet the
+chances are, if you meet him twenty years hence, he will be a captain on
+the recruiting service, with no forces to marshal but six growing
+children. Then there is the sentimental sub, the perfect ladies' man,
+who plays croquet and the flute, pleads guilty to having cultivated the
+Nine, and affects a simpering pooh-pooh when he is impeached with having
+inspired that wicked but so witty bit of scandal in the local paper. By
+singularity of pairing, his fast friend is the muscular sub, who walks
+against time, and can write his initials with a hundredweight hanging
+from his index-finger.</p>
+
+<p>Happy dogs in the heyday of life, all of them; how I envy them their
+buoyant spirits, their rollicking enjoyment of to-day, and their
+contempt for the morrow! But the morrow will come never<a name="page_69" id="page_69"></a>theless, and
+with it Black Care will come often. Gib is a haunt of the Hebrews; they
+or their myrmidons beset the subaltern at genial hours, after luncheon
+or after mess, pester him with vamped-up knick-knacks for sale, appeal
+to him to patronize a poor man by buying articles he does not and never
+by any means can want&mdash;"pay me when you likes, Cap'n, one yearsh, two
+yearsh." The "cap'n," who may have left Sandhurst but six months, may be
+weakly good-natured, and ignore the fact that his income is not elastic;
+some day that he thinks of taking a run to England Ben Solomon, who
+seems to be able to read the books in the Adjutant-General's Office
+through the walls, pounces upon him with his little bill, and he is
+arrested if he cannot satisfy his Jewish benefactor. Loans are advanced
+at a high rate "per shent" by the harpies, and enable him to stave off
+the temporary embarrassment; the "cap'n" is happy for the moment, but
+the reckoning is only deferred that it may grow. The arrival of Black
+Care is adjourned, not averted. The plain truth of it is, Gibraltar is a
+den of thieves, and has been the burial-pit of many<a name="page_70" id="page_70"></a> a promising young
+fellow's hopes. There are two tariffs for everything&mdash;one for natives,
+the other for the British subaltern and the British tourist; and the
+British subaltern and the British tourist are foolish enough to submit
+to the extortion in most cases. With some half-dozen honourable
+exceptions, the traders are what is popularly known as "Jews" in their
+mode of dealing. They cozen on principle, sell articles that will not
+last, and charge preposterous prices for them; they impose upon the
+young officer's softness or delicate gentlemanly feeling, and consider
+themselves smart for so doing. In this manner Gibraltar, with all its
+discomforts, is dearer than the most expensive and luxurious quarter in
+the British Isles.</p>
+
+<p>But we have other specimens of the genus officer in the lounging
+slaughterers by profession, who are so busy killing time. The lean
+bronzed aristocratic major, whose temper long years in India have not
+soured; the squat pursy paymaster (why are paymasters so fearfully
+inclined to fat?); the raw-boned young surgeon with the Aberdeen accent;
+"the ranker," erect and grizzled, and looking ever<a name="page_71" id="page_71"></a> so little not quite
+at his ease, you know, for the languid lad with fawn-coloured moustache
+straddling on the chair beside him is an Honourable; the jovial portly
+Yorkshireman, who is in the Highland Light Infantry, naturally; and the
+lively loud-voiced Irishman, laughing consumedly at his own jokes&mdash;all
+are here, conversing, smoking, mildly chaffing each other, and
+exchanging "tips" as to the next Derby. They make a book in a quiet way,
+and occasionally invest in a dozen tickets in a Spanish lottery. What
+will you? One cannot perpetually play shop, and the British officer has
+a rooted objection to it, although he does his duty like a man when the
+tug of war arises. Better that he should join in a regimental
+sweepstakes, or lose what he can afford to lose to a comrade, than give
+way to the blues. He does not gamble or curse, like his Spanish
+<i>confrère</i>; his potations are not deep, nor is he quick to quarrel. Then
+let him race on the Neutral Ground; let him hunt with the Calpe pack;
+and let him back his fancy for the big event at Epsom. Those are his
+chief excitements at Gib, and help to give a fillip to life in that<a name="page_72" id="page_72"></a>
+circumscribed microcosm, pending the anxiously expected morn when the
+route will come, or, mayhap, the call to active service, in one of those
+petty wars which are constantly breaking the monotony of this so-called
+pacific reign.</p>
+
+<p>"Guard, turn out!" cries the Highland Light Infantry sentinel under my
+window, and the smart soldier laddies fall in for the inspection of the
+officer of the day. What a thoroughly military town it is! By-and-by the
+evening gun booms from the heights above, where Sergeant Munro, taking
+time from his sun-dial and the town major, notifies the official sunset.
+Bang go the gates. We are imprisoned. Anon the streets are traversed by
+patrols in Indian file to warn loiterers to return to barracks, the
+pipers of the 71st skirl a few wild tunes on Commercial Square, the
+buglers sound the last post, the second gun-fire is heard, and a hush
+falls over the town, broken only by the challenges of sentries or their
+regular echoing footfalls on their weary beats. The thunder of artillery
+wakes you in the morning anew, and if you venture out for a walk before
+breakfast you thread your way through<a name="page_73" id="page_73"></a> waggons of the army train or
+fatigue-parties in white jackets. You stumble across cannon and
+symmetric pyramids of shot where you least expect them; the line of
+sea-wall is intersected by figures in brick-red tunic, moving back and
+forward on ledges of masonry; the morning air is alive with drum-beats
+and bugle and trumpet-calls; everything is of the barrack most
+barrack-like; the broad arrow is indented in large deep character on the
+Rock. It is impossible to shake off the Ordnance atmosphere. The Irish
+jaunting-cars are all driven by the sons of soldiers' wives; the
+clergy-men are all military chaplains; those goats are going up to be
+milked for the major's delicate daughter; that lady practising horse
+exercise in a ring in her garden is wife to Pillicoddy of the Control
+Department, and is merely correcting the neglected education of her
+youth; the very monkeys&mdash;diminishing sadly, it grieves me to say&mdash;recall
+associations of the mess-room, for you never fail to hear of that
+terrible sportsman, "one of Cardwell's gents," who thought it excellent
+fun to shoot one some time ago. Luckily, the rules of the service<a name="page_74" id="page_74"></a> did
+not permit him to be tried by court-martial, or the wretched boy might
+have been ordered out for instant execution, so great was the
+indignation. But if he was not shot he was roasted as fearfully as ever
+St. Laurence was; he was reminded a thousand times if once that
+fratricide is a fearful crime, and if ever Nemesis visits his pillow it
+will be in the shape of a monkey without a tail.</p>
+
+<p>One wearies of the same scenes of beauty, and would fain barter the Cork
+Woods for the chestnuts in Bushy Park; the bright Bay and the watchet
+sky pall on the senses, and a dull river and drab clouds would be
+welcomed for change. The day rises when the conversation of the same
+set, the stories repeated as often as that famous one of grouse in the
+gun-room, and the stale jokes anent the Sheeref of Wazan and the rival
+innkeepers of Tangier, black Martin and "Lord James," cloy like treacle;
+the fiction palmed upon the latest novice that he must go and have a few
+shots at the monkeys, if he wishes to curry favour at headquarters,
+misses fire; the calls of the P. and O. steamers, and the thought that
+their passengers<a name="page_75" id="page_75"></a> within a week either have seen, or will see, the
+little village works its effect; even bull-fighting is adjudged a bore,
+and one sighs for Regent Street and the "Rag and Famish," flaxen
+ringlets, and roast bee£ A twelvemonth might pass pleasantly on the
+Rock; but after that the "damnable iteration" of existence must jar on
+the nerves like the note of a cuckoo. Still, as my philosopher of the
+cemetery remarked, there are worse places&mdash;far worse, Assouan and Aden,
+for example; so let not the gallant gentleman repine whom Fate has
+assigned to a round of duty in Sutlersville. For Tommy Atkins of the
+rank and file, it is wearisome when he is young; he should not be asked
+to stay there longer than a twelvemonth while he is at the age which
+yearns for novelty, and during that twelvemonth he should be drilled as
+at the depôt. For the old soldier it is a good station, and should be
+made a haven of rest.<a name="page_76" id="page_76"></a></p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h3>
+
+<p class="head">From Pillar to Pillar&mdash;Historic Souvenirs&mdash;Off to Africa&mdash;The
+Sweetly Pretty Albert&mdash;Gibraltar by Moonlight&mdash;The
+Chain-Gang&mdash;Across the Strait&mdash;A Difficult Landing&mdash;Albert is
+Hurt&mdash;"Fat Mahomet"&mdash;The Calendar of the Centuries Put
+Back&mdash;Tangier: the People, the Streets, the Bazaar&mdash;Our Hotel&mdash;A
+Coloured Gentleman&mdash;Seeing the Sights&mdash;Local Memoranda&mdash;Jewish
+Disabilities&mdash;Peep at a Photographic Album&mdash;The Writer's Notions on
+Harem Life.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">I <span class="smcap">was</span> gradually getting into the mood of Pistol, and cried a foutra for
+the world of business and worldlings base. My soul was longing for
+"Africa and golden joys." Here I was at the elbow, so to speak, of the
+mysterious Continent, where the geographers set down elephants for want
+of towns. Why should I not visit it? I might never have such a chance
+again. I stood in the shadow of one Pillar of Hercules. Why not make
+pilgrimage to the other? Having notched Calpe on my staff, I resolved to
+add Abyla to the record.<a name="page_77" id="page_77"></a></p>
+
+<p>I was the more inclined to this, as I had recollection that Tangier had
+been part of the British dominions for one-and-twenty years. In 1662
+Catharine of Braganza, the "olivader-complexioned queen of low stature,
+but prettily shaped," whose teeth wronged her mouth by sticking a little
+too far out, brought it as portion of her dowry to Charles II. The 2nd,
+or Queen's Own Regiment, was raised to garrison the post, and sported
+its sea-green facings, the favourite colour of her Majesty, for long in
+the teeth of the threatening Moors. The 1st Dragoons still bear the
+nickname of "the Tangier Horse," and were originally formed from some
+troops of cuirassiers who assisted in the defence of the African
+stronghold for seventeen years; and the 1st Foot Regiment owes its title
+of "Royal" to the distinction it gained by capturing a flag from the
+Moors in 1680. That was the year when old John Evelyn noted in his diary
+that Lord Ossorie was deeply touched at having been appointed Governor
+and General of the Forces, "to regaine the losses we had lately
+sustain'd from the Moors, when Inchqueene was Governor."<a name="page_78" id="page_78"></a> His lordship
+relished the commission so little&mdash;indeed, it was a forlorn errand&mdash;that
+he took a malignant fever after a supper at Fishmongers' Hall, went
+home, and died. In 1683 the Merry Monarch caused the works of Tangier to
+be blown up, and abandoned the place, declaring it was not worth the
+cost of keeping. The Merry Monarch was not prescient. A century
+afterwards Gibraltar was indebted for a large proportion of its
+supplies, during the great siege, to the dismantled and deserted
+British-African fortress. For many reasons Tangier was not to be missed.</p>
+
+<p>By a happy coincidence a party of three in the Club-House Hotel&mdash;a
+retired army captain, his wife, and a lady companion&mdash;were anxious to
+take a trip to Africa. We agreed to go together, and had scarcely made
+up our minds, when another retired captain, who habitually resided in
+Tangier, gratified us by the information that he was returning there,
+and would be happy to give us every assistance in his power. Retired
+Captain No. 1 was a jolly fellow, fond of good living and not
+overburdened with æstheticism&mdash;a capital specimen<a name="page_79" id="page_79"></a> of a hearty
+Yorkshireman. He looked after the provand. His wife, portly and short of
+temper, was as good-natured as he. She insisted on discharging the
+bills. The lady-companion was thin, accomplished, and melancholy. She
+kept us in sentiment. Retired Captain No. 2 was a fellow-countryman of
+mine, bright-brained and waggish. He was the walking guide-book, with
+philosophy and friendship combined. I was nigh forgetting one, and not
+by any means the least important, member of the party&mdash;Albert. Mrs.
+Captain introduced him to me as a sweetly pretty creature. At her
+request I looked after him. Tastes vary as to what constitutes beauty,
+but I candidly think a broad thick head, crop ears, a flattish nose, and
+heavy jowls could not be called sweetly pretty without straining a
+point; and all these Albert possessed. He was a bull-dog (I believe his
+real name was Bill, and that he had been brought up in Whitechapel). As
+a bull-dog he had excellent points, and might be esteemed a model of
+symmetry and breeding by the fancy, or even pronounced a beauty and
+exquisitely proportioned by connois<a name="page_80" id="page_80"></a>seurs; but sweetly pretty&mdash;never! I
+could not stomach that, especially when Albert growled and laid bare his
+ruthless set of sound white teeth.</p>
+
+<p>Before leaving Gibraltar I had two novel sensations, nocturnal and
+matutinal. The first was a view of the Bay by moonlight, the white
+crescent shining clearly down on a portion of the inner waters brinded
+by shipping, and on the outer spread of sleepy, cadenced wavelets
+rippling phosphorescently under the pallid rays. By the Mole were
+visible the outlines of barques, steamers, coal-brigs, and xebecs; away
+to the left were the <i>Catapult</i> and a few of her mosquito companions;
+and far out rode at anchor a stately frigate of the United States'
+fleet. The twinkling lamps of the city afloat sending out reddish lines,
+and the fuller, clearer, luminous pencillings of the gas-lamps of the
+city ashore, made a not ungrateful contrast to the quivering chart of
+poetic moonbeams. Bending over their edge were the deep shadows of the
+massive Rock; and bounding them, at the other side, the barren
+foot-hills of Algeciras mellowed into a phantom softness by distance and
+the night.<a name="page_81" id="page_81"></a></p>
+
+<p>Next morning, as I strolled by the sea-wall towards the Ragged Staff
+Battery, I saw a sight that took away my appetite for breakfast. Pacing
+slowly to their work to the music of clanking chains was a column of
+wretched convicts.<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> What haggard faces, with low foreheads, sunken
+eyes, and dogged moody expression or utter blankness of expression!
+Purely animal the most of that legion of despair and desperation looked,
+and sallow and sickly of complexion. They were a blot on the fresh
+sunshine. How hideous their coarse garb of pied jackets branded with the
+broad arrow, their knickerbockers and clumsy shoes! Wistfully they moved
+along, hardly daring to glance at me, through fear of the turnkeys with
+loaded rifles marching at their sides. I almost felt that, if I had the
+power, I would demand their release, as did the Knight of La Mancha that
+of the criminals on their way to the galleys, although they might have
+been as ungrateful as Gines de Passamonte; but those hang-dog
+countenances banished impulses of chivalry.<a name="page_82" id="page_82"></a></p>
+
+<p>The little steamer, the <i>Spahi</i>, which conveyed us across the Strait,
+was seaworthy for all her cranky appearance, and made the passage of
+thirty-two miles quickly and comfortably for all her roughness of
+accommodation. She was a cargo-boat, but her skipper was English, and
+did his best to make the ladies feel at home. Besides, Captain No. 1 had
+brought a select basket of provisions and a case of dry, undoctored
+champagne. One of our first experiences as we cleared Algeciras, with
+turrets like our martello-towers sentinelling the hills, and the
+three-masted wreck&mdash;"Been twenty-one days there," said the skipper, "and
+not an effort has been made to raise it yet, and not even a warning
+light is hung over it at night"&mdash;was to sight a bottle-nosed whale
+puffing and spewing its predatory course.</p>
+
+<p>"What are those ruins upon the Spanish shore for?" asked the
+accomplished lady.</p>
+
+<p>When she was informed that they were the beacons raised in the days of
+old, when the Moorish corsairs haunted that coast, and that the moment
+the pirate sail was descried in the offing (I hope<a name="page_83" id="page_83"></a> this is correctly
+nautical) the warning fire blazed by night, or the warning plume of
+smoke went up by day, to summon Spain's chivalry to the rescue, she was
+enchanted, and recited a passage from Macaulay's "Armada."</p>
+
+<p>We made the transit in a little over three hours, and, rounding the
+Punta de Malabata, cut into the Bay of Tangier, and eased off steam at
+some distance from the Atlantic-washed shore. There is no pier, but a
+swell and discoloration, projecting in straight line seawards, marks
+where a mole had once stood. That was a piece of British handiwork; but
+the Moor, who is no more tormented by the demon of progress than the
+Turk, had literally let it slide, until it sank under the waters.</p>
+
+<p>The Sultana of Moorish cities Tangier is sometimes called, and truly she
+does wear a regal, sultana-like air as seen from afar, cushioned in
+state on the hillside, her white flat roofs rising one above another
+like the steps of a marble staircase, the tall minarets of the mosques
+piercing the air, and the multitudinous many-coloured flags of all
+nations fluttering above the various consu<a name="page_84" id="page_84"></a>lates. But in this, as in so
+many other instances, it is distance which lends enchantment to the
+view.</p>
+
+<p>We went as near to the shore as we could in small boats, and when we
+grounded, a fellowship of clamouring, unkempt, half-naked Barbary Jews,
+skull-capped, with their shirts tied at their waists and short cotton
+drawers, rushed forward to meet us, and carry us pickaback to dry land.
+The ladies were borne in chairs, slung over the shoulders of two of
+these amphibious porters, or on an improvised seat made by their linked
+hands, but to preserve their equilibrium the dear creatures had to clasp
+their arms tightly round the necks of the natives. This would not look
+well in a picture, above all if the lady were a professional beauty. But
+there was nothing wrong in it, any more than in Amaryllis clinging to
+the embrace of Strephon in the whirling of a waltz. Custom reconciles to
+everything. On stepping into the small boat I had my first difficulty
+with Albert. I trod on his tail. The dog looked reproachfully, but did
+not moan. His mistress scowled, and warned me to take care<a name="page_85" id="page_85"></a> what I was
+about for an awkward fool. Her husband, with a pained look on his face,
+mutely apologized for her, and I humbly excused myself and vowed
+amendment. I am not revengeful, but I did enjoy it when one of the
+porters, tottering under the weight of the fat lady, made a false step
+and nearly gave her a sousing. I clambered on my particular Berber's
+back, dear Albert in my arms, and we splashed merrily along; but Captain
+No. 1, who turned the scales at seventeen stone two pounds, had not so
+uneventful a landing. Twice his bearer halted, and the warrior,
+abandoning himself to his fate, swore he would make the Berber's nose
+probe the sand if he stumbled.</p>
+
+<p>As I was discharged on the beach, I was confronted by a majestic Moor.
+His grave brown face was fringed with a closely-trimmed jet-black beard,
+and his upper lip was shaded with a jet-black moustache. He wore a white
+turban and a wide-sleeved ample garment of snowy white, flowing in
+graceful folds below his knees; and on his feet were loose yellow
+slippers, peaked and turned up at the toes. This was Mahomet Lamarty,
+better<a name="page_86" id="page_86"></a> known as "Fat Mahomet," who had acted as interpreter to the
+British troops in the Crimea, and who, at this period, was making an
+income by supplying subalterns from Gib with masquerade suits to take
+home and horses to ride. Mahomet in his sphere was a great man. He was
+none of your loquacious <i>valets de place</i>, no courier of the
+Transcendental school. He had made the pilgrimage to Mecca and was a
+Hadji; he was a chieftain of a tribe in the vicinity, and had fought in
+the war against the Spanish infidels; he could borrow his purest and
+finest Arab from the Kadi; he was free to the sacred garden of the
+Shereef, or Pope-Sultan, one of the descendants of the Prophet, Allah be
+praised!</p>
+
+<p>Mahomet, who was known to both the Captains, passed our small
+impedimenta through the custom-house&mdash;there is an orthodox custom-house,
+though there is no proper accommodation for shipping&mdash;and we trailed at
+his heels up the close, crowded, rough alleys which did duty as streets.
+It would be hard to imagine a more thorough-going change than our scurry
+across the waves had effected. We<a name="page_87" id="page_87"></a> were in another world completely. We
+had been transported as on the carpet of the magician. It was as if the
+calendar had been put back for centuries, and the half-forgotten
+personages of the "Thousand-and-One Nights" were revivified and had
+their being around us.</p>
+
+<p>Tangier is a walled and fortified town; but Vauban had no hand in the
+fortifications, and it is my private opinion the walls would go down
+before a peremptory horn-blast quicker than those of Jericho. It swarms
+with a motley population much addicted to differences in shades of
+complexion. The Tangerines exhaust the primitive colours and most of the
+others in their features. There are lime-white Tangerines, copper and
+canary-countenanced Tangerines, olive and beetroot-hued Tangerines,
+Tangerines of the tint of the bottom of pots, Tangerines of every&mdash;no, I
+beg to recall that, there are no well-defined blue or green Tangerines;
+at least, none that came under my ken. The town is as old as the hills
+and courageously uncivilized. There is no gasholder, no railway-station,
+no theatre, no cab-stand, no daily<a name="page_88" id="page_88"></a> paper, and no drainage board to go
+into controversy over. It is unconsciously backward, near as it is to
+Europe&mdash;a rifle-shot off the track of ships plying from the West to the
+ports of the Mediterranean. It preserves its Eastern aroma with a fine
+Moslem conservatism. Its ramparts of crumbling masonry are ornamented
+with ancient cannon useless for offence, useless for defence. There is
+said to be a saluting-battery; but the legend runs that the gunners
+require a week's clear notice before firing a salute.<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> There is no
+locomotion save in boxes and on the backs of quadrupeds; and quadrupeds
+of the inferior order are usually, when overtaken by death, thrown in
+the streets to decompose. But if the irregularity of the town would
+galvanize the late Monsieur Haussmann in his grave, its situation would
+satisfy the most exacting Yankee engineer. It is huddled in a sheltered
+nest on the fringe of a land of milk and honey; it has the advantage of
+a<a name="page_89" id="page_89"></a> spread of level beach, and rejoices in the balmiest of climes.</p>
+
+<p>The streets are so narrow that you could light a cigar from your
+neighbour's window on the opposite side; but there is no window, neither
+at this side nor the other. A hole with a grating is the only window
+that is visible. Moors are jealous, and to be able to appreciate their
+household comforts you must first succeed in turning their houses inside
+out. Those who have dived into the recesses say the fruit is as savoury
+as the husk is repulsive. The windowless houses with their backs
+grudgingly turned to the thoroughfares are low for the most part, and
+the thoroughfares are&mdash;oh! so crooked&mdash;zigzag, up and down, staggering
+in a drunken way over hard cobble-stones and leading nowhere. There are
+mosques and stores entered by horse-shoe arches, a bazaar dotted over
+with squatting women, cowled with dirty blankets, selling warm
+griddle-cakes; moving here and there are the same spectral figures,
+similar dirty blankets veiling them from head to foot; over the way are
+cylinders of mat, with nets caging the apertures at each end, to<a name="page_90" id="page_90"></a> hold
+the cocks and hens, rabbits and pigeons, brought for sale by Riffians,
+descendants of the corsairs of that ilk, stalwart, brown, and
+bare-legged, with heads shaven but for the twisted scalp-lock left for
+the convenience of Asrael when he is dragging them up to Paradise.
+Hebrews have their standings around, and deal in strips of cotton, brass
+dishes, and slippers, or change money, or are ready for anything in the
+shape of barter. Seated in the shade of that small niche in the wall, as
+on a tailor's shop-board, is an adool, or public notary, selling advice
+to a client; in the alcove next him is a worker in beads and filigree;
+from a dusty forge beyond comes the clang of anvils, where half-naked
+smiths are hammering out bits or fashioning horse-shoes. Mules with
+Bedouins perched, chin on shin, amid the bales of merchandise on their
+backs, cross the bazaar at every moment; or files of donkeys, stooping
+under bundles of faggots, pick their careful way. By-and-by&mdash;but this is
+not a frequent sight&mdash;a Moslem swell ambles past on a barb, gorgeous in
+caparisons, the enormous peaked saddle held in its place by girths round
+the beast's breast and<a name="page_91" id="page_91"></a> quarters, and covered with scarlet hammer-cloth.
+If we move about and examine the stalls, we see lumps of candied
+sweetmeats here; charms, snuff-boxes made of young cocoanuts and beads
+there; and jars of milk or baskets of dates elsewhere. At the fountain
+yonder, contrived in the wall, mud approached by rugged, sloppy steps,
+water-carriers, wide-mouthed negro slaves, male and female, with brass
+curtain-rings in their ears, and skins blacker than the moonless
+midnight, come and go the whole day long, and gossip or wrangle with
+loafers in coarse mantles and burnous of stuff striped like
+leopard-skin. Beside the silent, gliding, ghost-like Mahometan women and
+the Hottentot Venus, you have Rebecca in gaudy kerchief and Doña Dolores
+in silken skirt and lace mantilla from neighbouring Spain. In the
+mingling crowd all is novelty, all is noise, all is queer and shifting
+and diversified.</p>
+
+<p>The hotel where we put up was owned by Bruzeaud, formerly a messman of a
+British regiment. It was approached by a filthy lane, and commanded a
+prospect of a square not much larger than a billiard-table. In the
+middle of this square<a name="page_92" id="page_92"></a> was the limp body of a deceased mongoose. At the
+opposite side of it was a Mahometan school, where the children were
+instructed in the Koran, and their treble voices as they recited the
+inspired verses in unison kept up drone for hours. The build and
+surroundings of the hostelry left much opening for improvement, but we
+had no valid ground for complaint. The beds were clean, Bruzeaud was a
+good cook, the waiter was attentive and smiled perpetually, which made
+up for his stupidity; we had a single agreeable fellow-guest in a
+Frenchman, who spoke Arabic, and had lived in the city of Morocco as a
+pretended follower of the Prophet; and, besides, there was that dry
+undoctored champagne, which it is permissible to drink at all meals in
+Africa.</p>
+
+<p>There was another hotel in Tangier, a more pretentious establishment,
+owned by one Martin&mdash;surname unknown. Martin was a character. He was an
+unmitigated coloured gentleman, blubber-lipped and black as the ace of
+spades, with saffron-red streaks at the corners of his optics. He was a
+native of one of the West India Islands, I believe,<a name="page_93" id="page_93"></a> but I will not be
+positive. Mahomet Lamarty pressed me to tell him in what English county
+Englishmen were born black, and when I said in none, he gravely
+ejaculated that in that case Martin was a liar, and habitually ate dirt.
+To avert possible complications into which I might have been drawn, I
+had to hasten to explain that Martin might possibly have been born in a
+part of England known as the Black Country. He had served in the
+steward's department on the ship of war where the Duke of Edinburgh,
+then Prince Alfred and a middy, was picking up seamanship. Hence his
+Jove-like hauteur. He had rubbed-skirts with Royalty, and to his
+fetter-shadowed soul some of the divinity which hedges kings and their
+relatives had adhered to him. I never met a darkey who could put on such
+fearful and wonderful airs. Where he did not order he condescended. He
+showed me an Irish constabulary revolver which he had received from "his
+old friend, Lord Francis Conyngham&mdash;'pon honour, he was delighted to
+meet him. It was good for sore eyes&mdash;who'd a-thought of his turning up<a name="page_94" id="page_94"></a>
+there!" Splendidly inflated Martin was when he spoke of "his servants."
+This thing was entertaining until he grew presumptuous. If you are
+polite to some people they are familiar, and want to take an ell for
+every inch you have conceded. And then you have to tell them to keep
+their place. But Martin, with the instincts of his race, saw in time
+when it was coming to that. What a misery it must be for a coloured
+gentleman of ambition that the tell-tale <i>odor stirpis</i> cannot be
+eliminated! Martin spent extraordinary amounts of money on the purchase
+of essences, but to no effect; he could not escape from himself; the
+scent of the nigger, <i>che puzzo!</i> would hang round him still. He was a
+great coward with all his magniloquence, and when cholera attacked
+Tangier, left it in craven terror, and sequestered himself in a country
+house a few miles off.</p>
+
+<p>The two captains and I "did" Tangier conscientiously, with the zest of
+Bismarck over a yellow-covered novel, and the thoroughness of a Cook's
+tourist on his first invasion of Paris. We crawled into a stifling crib
+of a dark coffee-house, and sucked thick brown sediment out of
+liliputian<a name="page_95" id="page_95"></a> cups; we smoked hemp from small-bowled pipes until we fell
+off into a state of visionary stupor known as "kiff;" we paid our
+respects to the Kadi, exchanged our boots for slippers, and settled down
+cross-legged on mats as if we were the three tailors of Tooley Street;
+we almost consented to have ourselves bled by a Moorish barber&mdash;Mahomet
+Lamarty's particular, who lanced him in the nape of the neck every
+spring&mdash;for the Moorish barber still practises the art of Sangrado, and
+also extracts teeth. But in my note-taking I was sorely handicapped by
+my ignorance of the language. Arabic is spoken in the stretch extending
+from Tetuan to Mogador by the coast, and for some distance in the
+interior; Chleuh is the dialect of the inhabitants of the Atlas range,
+and Guinea of the negroes. Spanish is slightly understood in Tangier and
+its vicinity, and is well understood by the Jews. The houses are
+generally built of chalk and flint (<i>tabia</i>) on the ground-floor, and of
+bricks on the upper story. Moorish bricks are good, but rough and
+crooked in make. The houses inhabited by Jews are obliged to be coated
+with a yellow wash, those<a name="page_96" id="page_96"></a> of natives are white, those of Christians may
+be of any colour. The Jews are made to feel that they are a despised
+stock, and yet with Jewish subtlety and perseverance they have managed
+to get and keep the trade of the place in their hands. That fact may be
+plainly gathered from the absence of business movement in the bazaars
+and public resorts of Tangier on the Jewish Sabbath. Your Hebrew does
+not poignantly feel or bitterly resent being reviled and spat upon,
+provided he hears the broad gold pieces rattling in the courier-bag
+slung over his shoulder. He nurses his vengeance, but he has the common
+sense to perceive that the readiest and fullest manner of exacting it is
+by cozening his neighbour. At this semi-European edge of Africa he
+enjoys comparative license, although he is forced to appear in skull-cap
+and a long narrow robe of a dark colour something like a priest's
+soutane. But the son of Israel when he has a taste for finery (and which
+of them has not?) compensates for the gloom of his outer garment by
+wearing an embroidered vest, a girdle of some bright hue, and white
+drawers.<a name="page_97" id="page_97"></a></p>
+
+<p>The daughters of Israel&mdash;but my conscience charges me with want of
+gallantry towards them in a previous chapter, and now I can honestly
+relieve it and win back their favour. They are the only beautiful women
+who mollify the horizon of Tangier: the Mahometan ladies are not
+visible, those of Spanish descent are coarse, and of English are
+washed-out; while their lips are against the negresses. I have a batch
+of photographs of females in an album&mdash;aye, of believers in the Prophet
+amongst them, for it is a folly to imagine you cannot obtain that which
+is forbidden. Hercules, I fancy, must have overcome with a golden sword
+the dragon that watched the gardens of the Hesperides&mdash;which, by the
+way, were in the neighbourhood of Tangier, if Apollodorus is to be
+credited. On looking over that album, the majority of the faces are
+distinctly those of Aaronites, and most favourable specimens of the
+family, too There are melting black orbs curtained with pensive lashes,
+luxuriant black hair, regular features, and straight, delicately
+chiselled noses. These Jewesses generally wear handkerchiefs disposed
+in<a name="page_98" id="page_98"></a> curving folds over their heads, and are as fond of loudly-tinted
+raiment and the gauds of trinketry as their sisters who parade the sands
+at Ramsgate during the season. There is a photograph before me, as I
+write, of a Jewish matron, fat, dull, double-chinned, and sleepy-eyed,
+who must have been a belle before she fell into flesh. She wears massy
+filigree ear-rings, two strings of precious stones as necklaces,
+ponderous bracelets, edgings of pearls on her bodice, and rings on all
+her fingers. Her shoulders are covered with costly lace, and the front
+of her skirt is like an altar-cloth heavy with embroidery. I dare say,
+if one might peep under it, she has gold bangles on her ankles. It would
+surprise me if she had an idea in her head beyond the decoration of her
+person. As we turn the leaf, there is a full-blooded negress with a
+striped napkin twisted gracefully turban-wise round her hair, and coils
+of beads, large and small, sinuously dangling on her breast, like the
+chains over the Debtor's Door at Newgate. A very fine animal indeed,
+this negress, with power in her strong shiny features; a nose of
+courage, thin in the nostrils, and<a name="page_99" id="page_99"></a> cheek-bones high, but not so high as
+those of a Red Indian. If she were white, she might pass for a
+Caucasian, but for that gibbous under-lip. She lacks the wide mouth and
+the hinted intelligent archness of the Two-Headed Nightingale, and has
+not the moody expression and semi-sensuous, semi-ferocious development
+of the muscular widows of Cetewayo; but for a negress she is handsome
+and well-built, and would fetch a very good price in the market. The
+slave-trade still flourishes in Morocco. On the next page we meet two
+types of young Moorish females: one a peasant, taken surreptitiously as
+she stood in a horse-shoe archway; the other a lady of the harem,
+taken&mdash;no matter by what artifice. The peasant, swathed from tip to heel
+in white like a ghost in a penny booth, and shading her face with a
+cart-wheel of a palm-leaf hat looped from brim to crown, and with one
+extremity of its great margins curled, is a prematurely worn,
+weather-stained, common-looking wench, with a small nose and screwed-up
+mouth. She is a free woman, but I would not exchange the dusky
+bondswoman for five of her class.<a name="page_100" id="page_100"></a> Centuries of bad food, much
+baby-nursing, and field-labour sink their imprint into a race. The harem
+lady, whose likeness was filched as she leaned an elbow against a low
+table, is in a state of repose. She squats tailor-fashion, her fingers
+are twined one in another in her lap, her eyes are closed, and her
+expression is one of drowsy, listless voluptuousness. She is fair, and
+her dress (for she is not arrayed for the reception of visitors) is
+simple&mdash;a peignoir, and a sash, and a fold of silk binding her long rich
+tresses. A soft die-away face, with no sentiment more strongly defined
+than the abandonment to pleasure and its consequent weariness. By no
+means an attractive piece of flesh and blood, and yet a good sample of
+the class that go to upholster a seraglio.</p>
+
+<p>I have never had the slightest anxiety to penetrate the secrets of the
+Moslem household, and I consider the man who would wish to poke his nose
+into its seclusion no better than Peeping Tom of Coventry&mdash;an insolent,
+lecherous cad. I would not traverse the street to-morrow to inspect the
+champion wives of the Sultan of Turkey and Shah<a name="page_101" id="page_101"></a> of Persia amalgamated;
+and I deserve no credit for it, for I know that they are puppets, and that
+more engaging women are to be seen any afternoon shopping in Regent
+Street or pirouetting in the ballets of half-a-dozen theatres.</p>
+
+<p>Your lady of the harem is an insipid, pasty-complexioned doll, nine
+times out of ten, and would be vastly improved in looks and temperament
+if she were subjected to a course of shower-baths, and compelled to take
+horse-exercise regularly and earn her bread before she ate it.</p>
+
+<p>How do I know this? it may be asked. Who dares to deny it? is my answer.</p>
+
+<p>But here is a digression from our theme of the condition of the Jews at
+Tangier, and all on account of a few poor photographs! In one sentence,
+that condition is shameful. It is a reproach to the so-called civilized
+Powers that they do not interfere to influence the Emir-al-Mumenin to
+behave with more of the spirit of justice towards his Jewish subjects.
+In Fez and other cities they have to dwell in a quarter to
+themselves&mdash;"El Melah" (the dirty spot) it is called in Morocco city;
+and<a name="page_102" id="page_102"></a> when they leave the Melah they have to go bare-footed. They are not
+permitted to ride on mules, nor yet to walk on the same side of the
+street as Arabs.</p>
+
+<p>The late Sir Moses Montefiore, a very exemplary old man in some
+respects, visited Morocco in his eightieth year to intercede on behalf
+of his co-religionists, and promises of better treatment were made; but
+promises are not always kept.<a name="page_103" id="page_103"></a></p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h3>
+
+<p class="head">A Pattern Despotism&mdash;Some Moorish Peculiarities&mdash;A Hell upon
+Earth&mdash;Fighting for Bread&mdash;An Air-Bath&mdash;Surprises of Tangier&mdash;On
+Slavery&mdash;The Writer's Idea of a Moorish Squire&mdash;The Ladder of
+Knowledge&mdash;Gulping Forbidden Liquor&mdash;Division of Time&mdash;Singular
+Customs&mdash;The Shereef of Wazan&mdash;<a name="page_vii" id="page_vii"></a>The Christian who Captivated the
+Moor&mdash;The Interview&mdash;Moslem Patronage of Spain&mdash;A Slap for
+England&mdash;A Vision of Beauty&mdash;An English Desdemona: Her Plaint&mdash;One
+for the Newspaper Men&mdash;The Ladies' Battle&mdash;Farewell&mdash;The English
+Lady's Maid&mdash;Albert is Indisposed&mdash;The Writer Sums up on Morocco.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">T<span class="smcap">he</span> Government in Morocco would satisfy the most ardent admirer of
+force. It is an unbridled despotism. The Sultan is head of the Church as
+of the State, and master of the lives and property of his subjects. He
+dispenses with ministers, and deliberates only with favourites. When
+favourites displease him, he can order their heads to be taken off.
+Favourites are careful not to displease him.<a name="page_104" id="page_104"></a> The land is a <i>terra
+incognita</i> to Europeans, and is rich in beans, maize, and wool, which
+are exported, and in wheat and barley, which are not always permitted to
+be exported. Altogether the form of administration is very primitive and
+simple. It is a rare privilege for a European to be admitted into the
+Imperial presence, and indeed the only occasions, one might say, when
+Europeans have the privilege are those furnished by the visits of
+foreign Missions to submit credentials and presents. It is advisable for
+a private traveller not to go to the chief city unless attached to one
+of these official caravans; but by those who have money a journey to Fez
+may be compassed with an escort. This escort consists of the Sultan's
+very irregular soldiers, who are armed with very long and very rusty
+matchlocks, of a pattern common nowadays in museums and curiosity shops.
+Ostensibly the escort is intended to protect the traveller from the
+regularly organized bands of robbers which infest the interior; but the
+experience of the traveller is that when the robbers swoop down he has
+to protect the escort. Christians are looked upon as dogs by all the
+self-satisfied<a name="page_105" id="page_105"></a> natives, and treated so by some of them when they can be
+saucy with impunity. It was my lot to be called a dog by a small
+fanatic, who hissed at me with the asperity and industry of a disturbed
+gander, and pelted me with stones. But two can play at that game, and
+that boy will think twice before he lapidates a full-grown Christian
+again. But he will hate him for evermore, and when he has reached man's
+estate will teach his son to repeat the doggerel: "The Christian to the
+hook, the Jew to the spit, and the Moslem to see the sight."</p>
+
+<p>The Sultan collects his revenue (estimated at half a million pounds
+sterling a year, great part of which is derived from the Government
+monopoly of the sale of opium) by the aid of his army; but as he never
+nears the greater portion of his dominions, there must be some nice
+pickings off that revenue by minor satraps before it reaches his sacred
+hands. There is quite a phalanx of under-strappers of State in this
+despotism. For instance, at Tangier there is a Bacha or Governor, a
+Caliph or Vice-Governor, a Nadheer or Administrator of<a name="page_106" id="page_106"></a> the Mosques, a
+Mohtasseb or Administrator of the Markets, and a Moul-el-Dhoor or Chief
+of the Night Police. There is a leaven of the guild system, too, as in
+more advanced countries. Each trade has its Amin, each quarter its
+Mokaderrin. There is a Kadi, or Minister of Worship and Justice, to whom
+we paid our respects. Justice is quick in its action, and stern in the
+penalties it inflicts. The legs and hands are cut off pilferers, heads
+are cut off sometimes and preserved in salt and camphor, and the
+bastinado is an ordinary punishment for lesser crimes. But the Moors
+must be thick in the soles, nor is it astonishing, as the practice is to
+chastise children by beating them on the feet. Mahomet Lamarty
+volunteered to procure a criminal who would submit to the bastinado for
+a peseta. In the market-place I compassionated an unfortunate thief
+minus his right hand and left leg. We took a walk to the prison, which
+is on the summit of the hill, Captain No. 1 thoughtfully providing
+himself with a basket of bread. What a hell upon earth was that sordid,
+stifling, noisome, gloomy keep, with its crowds of starving
+sore-<a name="page_107" id="page_107"></a>covered inmates. In filth it was a pig-sty, in smell a
+monkey-house, in ventilation another Black-hole of Calcutta. Turn to the
+next page, reader mine, if you are squeamish. Heaven be my witness, I
+have no desire to minister to morbid tastes; but I have an object in
+describing this dreadful <i>oubliette</i>, for it still exists&mdash;exists within
+thirty-two miles of British territory, and it is a scandal that some
+effort is not made to mitigate its horrors. Through the bars of a
+padlocked door, from which spurt blasts of mephitic heat, we can descry
+amid the steam of foul exhalations, as soon as our eyes become
+accustomed to the dimness, a mob of seething, sweating, sweltering
+captives, like in aspect as a whole to so many gaunt wild beasts. Some
+are gibbering like fiends, others jabbering like idiots. They are there
+young and old; a few&mdash;the maniacs those&mdash;are chained; all are crawled
+over by vermin, most are crusted with excretions. The sight made me feel
+faint at the time, the very recollection of it to this day makes my
+flesh creep. We were fascinated by this peep at the Inferno. The moment
+these caged wretches caught a glimpse of us they rushed<a name="page_108" id="page_108"></a> to the door,
+and on bended knees, or with hands uplifted, or with pinched cheeks
+pressed against the bars, raised a clamour of entreaty. We drew back as
+the rancid plague-current smote our faces, and questioned Mahomet by our
+looks as to what all this meant.</p>
+
+<p>"They want food," he explained.</p>
+
+<p>These prisoners are allowed two loaves a day out of the revenues of the
+Mosques; but two loaves, even if scrupulously given, which I doubt, are
+but irritating pittance. They may make cushions or baskets, but their
+remuneration is uncertain and slender. Those who are lucky get
+sustenance from relatives in the town, but the majority are
+half-starving, and are dependent for a full meal on the bounty of chance
+visitors. We poked a loaf through the bars. It was ravenously snapped
+at, torn into little bits, and devoured amid the howls of those who were
+disappointed. Then a loaf was cast over the door. What a savage
+scramble! The bread was caught, tossed in the air, jumped at, and
+finally the emaciated rivals fell upon one another as in a football
+scrimmage, and<a name="page_109" id="page_109"></a> there was a moving huddle of limbs and a diabolical
+chorus of shrieks and yells. That could not be done again; it was too
+painful in result Mahomet undertook to distribute the remainder of our
+stock through an inlet in the wall, and we drew away sick in head and
+heart from that den of repulsive degradation, greed, brutality, cruelty,
+selfishness, and all infuriate and debased passion&mdash;that damnable
+magazine of disease physical and moral. It is undeniable that there were
+many there whose faces were passport to the Court of Lucifer&mdash;murderers,
+and dire malefactors; but better to have decapitated them than to have
+committed them to the slow torture of this citadel of woe. There were
+inmates who had been immured for years&mdash;inmates for debt whose hair had
+whitened in the fetid imprisonment, whose laugh had in it a harsh
+hollow-sounding jangle, and whose brows had fixed themselves into the
+puckers of a sullen, hopeless, apathetic submission to fate. Their lack
+of intelligence was a blessing. Had they been more sensitive they would
+have been goaded into raging lunacy.<a name="page_110" id="page_110"></a></p>
+
+<p>Let us to the outer freshness and make bold endeavour to fling off this
+weight of nightmare which oppresses us. Passing by the ruinous gate
+yonder with its wild-looking sentry, we reach the open space where
+crouching hill-men are reposing on the stunted grass, and ungainly
+camels, kneeling in a circle, are chewing the cud in patience, or
+venting that uncanny half-whine, half-bellow, which is their only
+attempt at conversation. Let us take a long look at the country beyond
+with its gardens teeming with fruit and musical with bird-voices; walk
+up to the crown of that slant and survey the valleys, the plateaux, the
+brushwood, the flower-patches, spreading away to the hills that swell
+afar until the peaks of the Atlas, cool with everlasting snow, close the
+view. One is tempted to linger there lovingly, though darkness is
+falling. There is a gift of blandness and briskness in the very
+breathing of the air. When you have had your fill of the beauties on the
+land side, turn to the sea, meet the evening breeze that comes floating
+up with a flavour of iodine upon it, range round the sweeping vista,
+from giant Calpe away<a name="page_111" id="page_111"></a> over the Strait flecked with sails on to
+Trafalgar, smiling peacefully as if it had never been a bay of blood,
+and finish by the vision of the great globe of fire descending into the
+Atlantic billows.</p>
+
+<p>Our stay in Tangier was most gratifying because of its variety and
+unending surprises. Existence there was out of the beaten track, and
+kept curiosity on the constant alert. It was a treat to pretend to be
+Legree, and to negotiate for a strong likely growing nigger-boy. I
+discovered I could have bought one for ten pounds sterling, a perfect
+bargain, warranted free from vice or blemish; but as I was not prepared
+to stop in Africa just then, I did not close with the offer. It may be a
+shocking admission to make, but if I were to settle down in Morocco, I
+confess, I should most certainly keep slaves. There is a deal of
+sentimental drivel spouted about the condition of slaves. Those I have
+seen seemed very happy. In Morocco they are well treated; and if
+desirous to change masters the law empowers them to make a demand to
+that effect. It is true that a slave's oath is not deemed<a name="page_112" id="page_112"></a> valid, but
+Cuffy bears the slight with praiseworthy equanimity. I am sure if Cuffy
+were in my service he would never ask to leave it, and I would teach him
+to appraise his word as much as any other man's oath (except his
+master's), by my patented plan for negro-training, based on Mr. Rarey's
+theories. As the land about Tangier was rated at prairie value&mdash;an acre
+could be had for a dollar&mdash;I might have been induced to invest in a
+holding of a couple of hundred thousands of acres, but that my ship had
+not yet come within hail of the port. What a healthy, free, aristocratic
+life, combining feudal dignity with educated zest, a wise man could lead
+there&mdash;if he had an establishment of, say, three hundred slaves, a
+private band, a bevy of dancing girls, Bruzeaud for <i>chef</i>, an extensive
+library, sixteen saddle-horses, and relays of jolly fellows from
+Gibraltar to help him chase the wild boar and tame bores, eat
+couscoussu, and drink green-tea well sweetened. He should Moorify
+himself, but he need not change his religion, and if he went about it
+rightly, I am sure, like the village pastor, he could make himself to
+all the country dear. Take the educational<a name="page_113" id="page_113"></a> question, for example. If he
+were diplomatic he would pay the school-fees of the urchins of Tangier.
+These are not extravagant&mdash;a few heads of barley daily, equivalent to
+the sod of turf formerly carried by the pupils to the hedge academies in
+dear Ireland, and a halfpenny on Friday. He should affect an interest in
+the Koran, and make it a point of applauding the Koran-learned boy when
+he is promenaded on horseback and named a bachelor. He might&mdash;indeed he
+should&mdash;follow the career of his <i>protégé</i> at the Mhersa, where he
+studies the principles of arithmetic, the rudiments of history, the
+elements of geometry, and the theology of Sidi-Khalil, until he emerges
+in a few years a Thaleb, or lettered man. Perhaps the Thaleb may go
+farther, and become an Adoul or notary, a Fekky or doctor, nay&mdash;who
+knows?&mdash;an Alem or sage. Ah! how pleasant that Moorish squire might be
+by his own ruddy fire of rushes, palm branches, and sun-dried leaves;
+and what a profit he might make by judicious speculation in
+jackal-skins, oil, pottery, carpets, and leather stained with the
+pomegranate bark! He would have his mills turned by water<a name="page_114" id="page_114"></a> or by horses;
+he would eat his bread with its liberal admixture of bran; he would rear
+his storks and rams. The professors who charm snakes and munch
+live-coals would all be hangers-on of his house; and he would have
+periodical concerts by those five musicians who played such desert
+lullabies for us&mdash;conspicuously one patriarch whose double-bass was made
+from an orange-tree&mdash;and would not forget to supplement their honorarium
+of five dollars with jorums of white wine. Sly special pleaders! They
+argue with the German play-wright: "<i>Mahomet verbot den Wein, doch vom
+Champagner sprach er nicht.</i>"</p>
+
+<p>From the Frenchman at the hotel, whose knowledge of Morocco was
+"extensive and peculiar," I acquired much of my information on the
+manners and customs of the people. Watches are only worn and looked at
+for amusement. Instead of by hours, time is thus noted: El Adhen, an
+hour before sunrise; Fetour (repast) el Hassoua, or sunrise; Dah el Aly,
+ten in the morning; El Only, a quarter past twelve; El Dhoor, half-past
+one; El Asser, from a quarter past three to a quarter to four; El
+Moghreb,<a name="page_115" id="page_115"></a> sunset; El Achâ, half-an-hour after sunset; and El Hameir,
+gun-shot. Meals are taken at Dah el Aly, El Asser, and El Moghreb. The
+houses are built with elevated lateral chambers, but there is a narrow
+staircase leading to the Doeria, a reception-room, where visitors can be
+welcomed without passing the ground-floor. The walls are plastered, and
+covered with arabesques or verses of the Koran incrusted in colours. The
+wells inside the houses are only used for cleansing linen; water for
+drinking purposes is sought outside.</p>
+
+<p>Among many singular customs&mdash;singular to us&mdash;I noted that a popular
+remedy for illness is to play music and to recite prayers to scare away
+the devil. An enlightened Moor might think the practices of the Peculiar
+People quite as strange, and question the infallibility of cure-all
+pills at thirteen-pence-halfpenny the box. The dead in Morocco are
+hurried to their graves at a hand-gallop. That, I submit, is no more
+unreasonable than many English funeral usages, such as incurring debt
+for the pomp of mourning. At Moorish weddings the bride is carried in
+procession in a palanquin to her husband's<a name="page_116" id="page_116"></a> house amid a <i>fantasia</i> of
+gunpowder&mdash;the reckless rejoicing discharges of ancient muskets in the
+streets. Well, white favours, gala coaches, and <i>feux de joie</i> at
+marriages of the great are not entirely unknown among us. Nobody sees
+the Moorish wife for a year, not even her mother-in-law, which I
+consider a not wholly unkind dispensation. The Moorish wife paints her
+toe-nails, which, after all, is a harmless vanity, and less obtrusive
+than that of the ladies who impart artificial redness to their lips.
+And, lastly, the Moorish wife waits on her husband. Personally, I fail
+to discover anything blamable in that act, though I must concede that it
+is eccentric, very eccentric. These allusions to the Moorish wife in
+general lead up naturally to one in particular in whom I took a
+professional interest, for she was as remarkable in her way as Lady
+Ellenborough or Lady Hester Stanhope, or that strong-minded Irishwoman
+who married the Moslem, Prince Izid Aly, and whose son reigned after his
+father's death.</p>
+
+<p>The Shereef has been mentioned. He is the great man of the district,
+with an authority only<a name="page_117" id="page_117"></a> second to that of the Sultan himself. Claiming
+to be a lineal descendant of Mahomet, he is entitled to wear the green
+turban. His name at full length is long, but not so long as that of most
+Spanish Infantes&mdash;Abd-es-Selam ben Hach el Arbi. He is a saint and a
+miracle-worker. He has been seen simultaneously at Morocco, Wazan, and
+Tangier, according to the belief of his co-religionists, wherein he
+beats the record of Sir Boyle Roche's bird, which was only in two places
+at once. Like Jacob, he has wrestled with angels. He is head of the
+Muley-Taib society, a powerful secret organization, which has its
+ramifications throughout the Islamitic world. He draws fees from the
+mosques, and has gifts bestowed upon him in profusion by his admirers,
+who feel honoured when he accepts them. Exalted and wide-spreading is
+his repute where the Moslem holds sway, and unassailable is his
+orthodoxy, yet he has had the temerity to take to himself a Christian
+wife. This lady had been a governess in an American family at Tangier.
+There the Shereef made her acquaintance, wooed and won her. They were
+married at the residence of the<a name="page_118" id="page_118"></a> British Minister Plenipotentiary; the
+officers of a British man-of-war were present at the ceremony, and
+slippers and a shower of rice, as at home, followed the bride on leaving
+the building. The Shereef and, if possible, the Shereefa were personages
+to be seen, and Mahomet Lamarty was the very man to help us to the
+favour. His Highness lived four miles away, and we formed a cavalcade
+one afternoon and set off for his garden, the ladies accompanying us. We
+passed through cultivated fields of barley and <i>dra</i> (a kind of millet),
+crossed the river Wadliahoodi, and ascended a road which faced abruptly
+towards the hills. An agreeable road it was, and not lonesome; we had
+the carol of birds and the piping of bull-frogs to lighten the way, and
+leafy branches made reverence overhead. There were abundance of fruit
+and such beautiful shrubs that I rail at myself for not being botanist
+enough to be able to enlarge upon them. There were orange-groves, yellow
+broom, dog-rose, and apples, pears, peaches, apricots, plums,
+pomegranates, figs, and vines. It was such an oasis as a very young
+Etonian in the warmth of a midsummer vaca<a name="page_119" id="page_119"></a>tion might have likened to
+Heaven. The range of hills of El Jebel rose left and right, and at parts
+presented a steep cliff to the ocean. This ridge is about twelve miles
+in width, and its fertile slopes amply merit to be lauded as the best
+fruit-producers in the empire, "as bounteous as Paradise itself."</p>
+
+<p>Mahomet Lamarty, who was our guide, entered the Shereef's grounds to
+prepare for our introduction; and now the ladies, who had insisted on
+coming with us, rebelled, and said point-blank they would not salute the
+Shereefa as "Your Highness." They were impatient to see her, but they
+declined to give countenance to a Christian who had demeaned herself by
+wedding a heathen.</p>
+
+<p>"The visit was of your own seeking, ladies," I said; "if you are not
+willing to treat Her Highness with deference, better stay outside."</p>
+
+<p>They were not equal to that sacrifice after riding four miles.</p>
+
+<p>"Who'll start the conversation?" said Captain No. 1. "You start it" (to
+me) "like a good fellow, and I'll take up the running."<a name="page_120" id="page_120"></a></p>
+
+<p>Captain No. 2 said he would hang about for us outside.</p>
+
+<p>Mahomet beckoned to us and we ventured into the garden. Coming down a
+pathway we saw an austere, swarthy, obese man of the middle height. He
+was white-gloved, and wore a red fez, a sort of Zouave upper garment of
+blue, with burnous, baggy trousers, white stockings, and Turkish
+slippers. It was the Shereef. I had agreed to open the interview, but
+when it came to the trial my Arabic (I had been only studying it for two
+hours) abandoned me. Mahomet did the needful. I thanked His Highness for
+his kindness in admitting us to his demesne, and he smiled a modest,
+solemn smile, and looked greeting from his small eyes. When he
+discovered that I had been travelling in Spain, he asked me&mdash;always
+through Mahomet&mdash;what they were doing there. On having my reply&mdash;that
+they were tasting the miseries of civil war&mdash;translated to him, he shook
+his head, shrugged his shoulders, and slowly ejaculated:</p>
+
+<p>"Unhappy Spain! Silly, unfortunate people! That is the way with them
+always. They are at perpetual strife one with another."<a name="page_121" id="page_121"></a></p>
+
+<p>And then Mahomet interposed with a parenthesis of his own depreciatory
+of the Spaniards, whom he loathed and despised. He had fought against
+them in the war of 1839-1860, and the Shereef had also headed his
+countrymen, and had shown great courage and coolness in action. His
+presence had infused a high spirit of enthusiasm into the undisciplined
+troops.</p>
+
+<p>"Bismillah!" grunted Mahomet. "The Spaniard is beneath contempt. He was
+almost licked in one battle. He was four months here, and how far did he
+get into the interior?"</p>
+
+<p>Mahomet conveniently forgot the defeat of Guad-el-ras, the occupation of
+Tetuan, and the indemnity of four hundred millions of reals which was
+exacted as the price of peace; but he was literally correct, the
+victorious O'Donnell did not flaunt his flag beyond a very exiguous
+strip of the territory of Sidi-Muley-Mahomet.</p>
+
+<p>We were walking as we talked, and by this time had reached the brow of a
+wooded rise which commanded an uninterrupted prospect of the ocean. The
+flowery cistus flourished on the eminence, and<a name="page_122" id="page_122"></a> cork-trees, chestnuts,
+and willows shielded us from the fierceness of the sun. Behind and
+around were a succession of richly-planted gardens. We halted, and the
+Shereef, scanning the horizon in the direction of the Rock, suddenly put
+a question to me which almost took my breath away:</p>
+
+<p>"Do they buy commissions over the way still?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; that system has been abolished."</p>
+
+<p>"It is well," he remarked, with a scarcely suppressed sneer. "It was
+incredible that a great nation and a fighting nation should make a
+traffic of the command of men, as if a clump of spears were a kintal of
+maize," and as he relapsed into silence a soldierly fire gleamed in his
+irides, his frame seemed to straighten and swell, and the nature of the
+prophet retired before that of the warrior.</p>
+
+<p>From where we stood we could ferret out a house with a veranda in front,
+built on a terrace and begirt with trees. That was the residence of His
+Highness; but we turned our eyes in another direction, lest we should be
+suspected of rude curiosity by this courteous African. I was trying<a name="page_123" id="page_123"></a> to
+divine the tally of years our host had numbered. No Arab knows his own
+age, and here it may be useful to tell the reader wherein the
+distinction lies between the Moor and the Arab. Virtually they are the
+same; but the name of Moor is given to those who dwell in cities, of
+Arab to those who roam the plains. Mahomet came to my aid. His Highness
+had whiskers when Tangier was bombarded by Prince de Joinville. That was
+in August, 1844, a good nine-and-twenty years before, so that
+Abd-es-Salam must have long doubled the cape of forty, which would leave
+him considerably the senior of his Frankish wife.</p>
+
+<p>We turned at a noise&mdash;the creak of a rustic wooden gate on its hinges; a
+figure approached. And then it was given to me to gaze upon Her Highness
+the Shereefa of Wazan. She was not called Zuleika, but Emily&mdash;her maiden
+name had been Keene, and she came not from the rose-bordered bowers of
+Bendemeer's stream, nightingale-haunted, but from the prosaic levels of
+South London, where her father was governor of a gaol. Truly she was a
+vision of gratefulness in that<a name="page_124" id="page_124"></a> paynim tract&mdash;a rich brunette, with
+large black eyes, long black ringletted tresses, and a well-filled shape
+with goodly bust. Her attire was neat and graceful and not Oriental. She
+was clad in a riding-habit of ruby brocaded velvet, with jacket to
+match, had a cloud of lace round her throat, and an Alpine hat with
+cock's feather poised on her well-set head. She might serve as the model
+for a Spanish Ann Chute. Bracelets on her plump wrists and rings on her
+taper fingers caught the sunshine as she occasionally twirled her
+cutting-whip. Her voice was bell-like and melodious, with the faintest
+accent of decision, and her manner, after an opening flush of
+embarrassment, was cordial and debonair. The embarrassment was because
+of her inability to extend to us the hospitality she desired. She
+explained that she had to receive us in the garden as the house was
+undergoing repairs. After the customary commonplaces, she freely entered
+into conversation, and took opportunity at once to deny that she was a
+renegade; she wore European costume, as we saw, and attended the rites
+of the English Church, for it was one of the stipulations<a name="page_125" id="page_125"></a> of the
+marriage contract that she should have perfect liberty to follow her own
+faith.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish every English girl were as happily married as I," she said, "and
+had as loving a husband."</p>
+
+<p>It was gratifying, therefore, to note that she found herself as women
+wish to be who love their lords. She had been married on the 27th of
+January, and as the Shereef had entered into his present residence but
+recently, they were still at sixes and sevens. It was his habit to spend
+the winter in the country and the summer in town. She had been but two
+years in Morocco, and had not yet mastered Arabic.</p>
+
+<p>"His Highness understands English?" She shook her head, and quickly
+interpreting a lifting of my eyelids, she smilingly added, "Spanish was
+the medium of our courtship." And then, as we promenaded the garden
+path, she became communicative, and dwelt with pardonable expansion on
+the virtues of her lord and master, who followed behind side by side
+with the portly Yorkshireman. His charity, she said, was<a name="page_126" id="page_126"></a> unbounded.
+Slaves were frequently sent to him as presents, but he kept none. He was
+modest on his own merits, and yet he was the most enlightened of Moors.
+He had visited Marseilles, a war-ship having been put at his disposal by
+the French Government, and was most anxious to take a tour to Paris and
+Vienna, and above all to England. It was his desire that railways should
+be constructed in Morocco, and he was glad when he was told that there
+was some likelihood of a telegraph cable being laid to Tangier.</p>
+
+<p>"Then," interrupted I, "with your Highness's influence on the tribes
+around, exercised through your husband, there should be a fair prospect
+of pushing civilization here."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, yes!" she exclaimed, with a glow on her cheeks, "that is one of my
+dearest hopes, that is my great ambition. I believe that my marriage,
+which has been cruelly commented upon in England, may effect good both
+for these poor misunderstood Moors and my own country people."</p>
+
+<p>"Is the Shereef on friendly terms with the Sultan?"<a name="page_127" id="page_127"></a></p>
+
+<p>"No, I am sorry to say there is a feud between them at the moment. The
+Sultan objects to my husband for using an English saddle."</p>
+
+<p>"Hum!" (to myself mentally) "if the august Muley cannot brook an English
+saddle, what must he think of an English wife? Or do these Moslems, like
+some Christians I know, strain at a gnat and swallow a camel? Mayhap it
+is even so. The pigeon-prompted camel-driver, who built up his creed
+with plentiful blood-cement, saw fit to add a new chapter to the Koran,
+when he fell in love with the Coptic maiden, Mary."</p>
+
+<p>The Shereefa told me that her father and mother had come out to see her.
+They were averse to the alliance at first, but were satisfied that she
+had done the right thing when she told them how content she was, and
+with what high-bred consideration for her wishes in the matter of
+religion her husband had behaved. Their intention was to stop for four
+days, but they extended their visit to fourteen. "And now," she
+continued, "I can use to my lord the words of Ruth to Naomi, 'Whither
+thou goest I will go; and where thou lodgest I will<a name="page_128" id="page_128"></a> lodge; thy people
+shall be my people'"&mdash;a pause&mdash;"yes, and 'thy God my God,' for there is
+but one"&mdash;archly&mdash;"the matter of the Prophet we shall leave aside."</p>
+
+<p>I admired the lady's pluck, and if I were that Moorish squire I have
+tried to sketch, I should esteem it an honour to have her on my visiting
+list. But I am a theological oddity, and my wallet of prejudices, it is
+to be feared, is sadly unfurnished. I never could rise to that
+sublimated self-sufficiency of intellect that I could consign any
+fellow-creature to everlasting pains for the audacity of differing in
+dogma with myself. I have met good and bad of every creed, Mahometans I
+could respect&mdash;whose word was their bond&mdash;and so-called Christians and
+Christian ministers with a most uncharitable spiritual pride, whom I
+could not respect. The liver of the persecutor was denied me. Were the
+fires of Smithfield to be rekindled, my prayers would be sent up for the
+floods of Heaven to quench them, and for the lightnings of Heaven to
+annihilate the fiends who had piled the faggots.</p>
+
+<p>"By-the-bye," said the Shereefa, "do you know<a name="page_129" id="page_129"></a> any of those people who
+write for the papers in London?"</p>
+
+<p>I admitted that I had that misfortune.</p>
+
+<p>"Some of them are fools as well as cowards," she went on. "They have
+written articles about me full of ignorance and malice. Have they no
+consideration for the feelings of others?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid, your Highness, some of them are more brilliant than
+conscientious; they would rather point an epigram than sacrifice style
+to truth or good-nature."</p>
+
+<p>"One of them in particular," she said, and there was an irritated ring
+in her voice, "has singled me out for attack, and given me in derision a
+name which he believes to be Mahometan, but which is really Jewish."</p>
+
+<p>And with her cutting-whip she viciously snapped off the heads of some
+poppies. The episode of Tarquin's answer to the emissary of Sextus
+occurred to me, and I felt that if my colleague, Horace St. J&mdash;&mdash;, were
+there, he would have passed a very bad quarter of an hour.</p>
+
+<p>The females of our party joined us, and I formally<a name="page_130" id="page_130"></a> presented them,
+taking a malicious pleasure in emphasizing the "your Highness." The
+Shereefa received them right graciously, but it was easy to notice that
+a chill came over the conversation. They were careful never to use the
+title to their English sister. In fact, it was a tacit ladies' battle.</p>
+
+<p>It was time to leave, and the Shereefa presented her visitors with two
+nosegays, gathered by her own hands. The act had in it something very
+royal, with the smallest trace of sly condescension. The Shereef
+accompanied us to the outer gate. On the way I motioned to Captain No. 1
+to offer him a cigar. He did; his Highness accepted it, bowed, and
+gravely put it in his pocket. As we stood on the road at parting, a
+peasant was passing with a load of twigs on his shoulders. He cast them
+off, threw himself on his knees, kissed the hem of the holy man's
+garments, and the back of his proffered hand.</p>
+
+<p>We were descending the hill when a rustle in the bushes attracted me,
+and a white face peeped out and a voice besought me in English to stop.
+It<a name="page_131" id="page_131"></a> was the Shereefa's London lady's-maid. She could not resist the
+temptation of enjoying a few sentences with one of her own race. From
+her I learned that there were twenty-seven Moorish women in her master's
+household; that there was a tank at Wazan large enough to float a ship;
+that her master had been married before, and had two sons and a lovely
+Mahometan child, a daughter, to whom the Shereefa was teaching English
+and the piano; "but remember, please," and here she grew important, and
+had all the dignity of a retainer, with a great sense of what was due to
+her caste and the proprieties, "that my mistress's children, if she have
+any, will be Europeans!"</p>
+
+<p>As we got back to our hotel the muezzins were summoning the faithful to
+their vesper orisons, and Albert was moaning ruefully under the
+sideboard. Mrs. Captain had out her sweetly pretty pet at once, and
+covered him with caresses and endearments.</p>
+
+<p>"Somebody has given him something that has disagreed with him. Was it
+you?" she said to me, and there was that in her tone which made me quake
+in my shoes.<a name="page_132" id="page_132"></a></p>
+
+<p>Meekly and truthfully I protested that I had not; I had fed him in the
+morning in her own presence; the darling was in his usual health and
+spirits when we left, but&mdash;intercede for me, Puck, and you aerial imps
+of mischief, for no other spirit will&mdash;I could not help murmuring in
+audible soliloquy, "The carcase of that mongoose, which was on the
+square outside this morning, is no longer there."</p>
+
+<p>The scene that followed, to borrow the hackneyed phrase, beggars
+description. The house was turned upside down; to my mental vision arose
+sal volatile and burnt feathers, swoons and hysterics. Mahomet's dove
+alone can tell how all might have ended had not the Frenchman suggested
+a bolus. Captain No. 1 and I were commissioned to inquire into the
+mystery of the disappearance of that baleful mongoose. When we got out
+of earshot of the hotel there was the popping of a cork, and we emptied
+effervescing beakers to the speedy recovery of Albert the Beloved.
+Certes, that bull-dog had a very bad fit of dyspepsia; but the bolus did
+him a world of good, and before we retired to<a name="page_133" id="page_133"></a> rest we had the felicity
+to hear him crunching a bone. Peace spread its wings over our pillows.</p>
+
+<p>The next day we took a trip to the lighthouse on Cape Spartel, the women
+labouring in the field making curious inspection of the cavalcade as it
+wended by, but quickly turning away their faces as we males tried to
+snatch a look at them. The road was no better than a rugged track on a
+stony plateau. There was a spacious view from the Phare, which was an
+iron and stone building put up at the cost of three or four of the
+European Powers (I forget which now), the keepers being chosen from each
+of the contributory nations. The Sultan had given the site, but refused
+to hand over a blankeel towards the expenses, arguing that as he had no
+fleet, he had no personal object in making provision against wrecks. We
+were well mounted, but these Barbary cattle have a nasty trick of
+lashing out, so that it is prudent to give a wide range to their
+hind-hoofs. Mahomet, riding with very short stirrups, led the party. My
+saddle was an ancient, rude, and rotten contrivance, and as I loitered
+on the road home, giving myself up to idle fantasy,<a name="page_134" id="page_134"></a> my friends got on
+far ahead. Waking from my day-dream I gave the nag the heel, and as it
+sprang forward at a canter the girth turned completely round, and I was
+pitched over in unpleasant nearness to a hedge of cactus. The ground was
+soft, and I was not much bruised; but when I rose the nag had
+disappeared round a corner, and I was left alone in the African
+twilight. Presently a sinewy fiery-eyed Moor came with panther-step in
+sight leading me back the nag. He had a basket of oranges on his back,
+and gave me one with a respectful salaam as I vaulted on my Arab steed
+and galloped Tangier-ward bareback.</p>
+
+<p>Judging from the scanty rags upon him, this man was of the poorest, yet
+he asked for nothing; there were sympathy, innate politeness and
+independence withal in his bearing. To him I abandoned the saddle; it
+was the least he might have for his friendly act. Talking over this
+incident with the Frenchman at Bruzeaud's, who knew the country, he told
+me that the Moor was intelligent, honest, faithful to his engagements,
+and had a go in him that, under advantageous circumstances,<a name="page_135" id="page_135"></a> would
+enable him to spring again to his former height of power and riches. But
+he struck me as happy, although some of his social customs recalled the
+feudal age, and he lived under the always-present contingency of
+decapitation. May it be long before speculation rears the horrid front
+of a joint-stock hotel in Tangier, or the prospectors go divining for
+copper, coal, iron, silver and gold. I could wish the Moorish women,
+however, would wash their children's heads occasionally, and not take
+them up by the ankles when they spank them. After a sojourn in every way
+pleasurable&mdash;pshaw! Albert's illness was a trifle, and we soon resigned
+ourselves to the miseries of the prisoners on the hill&mdash;we ate our last
+morsel of the Jewish pasch-bread of flour and juice of orange, cracked
+our last bottle of champagne, and took our leave of the Dark Continent
+with lightsome heart. The impression this little by-journey left upon me
+was so agreeable that I could not avoid the enticement to communicate it
+to the reader. If I have wandered from romantic Spain, it was only to
+take him to a land more romantic still.<a name="page_136" id="page_136"></a></p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h3>
+
+<p class="head">Back to Gibraltar&mdash;The Parting with Albert&mdash;The Tongue of
+Scandal&mdash;Voyage to Malaga&mdash;"No Police, no Anything"&mdash;Federalism
+Triumphant&mdash;Madrid <i>in Statu Quo</i>&mdash;Orense&mdash;Progress of the
+Royalists&mdash;On the Road Home&mdash;In the Insurgent Country&mdash;Stopped by
+the Carlists&mdash;An Angry Passenger is Silenced.</p>
+
+<p>"How like a boulder tossed by Titans at play!" said the sentimental
+lady, as we approached Gibraltar on our return.</p>
+
+<p>"More like a big-sized molar tooth," broke in Mrs. Captain.</p>
+
+<p>And, indeed, this latter simile, if less poetic, gave a better idea of
+the conformation of the fortified hill, with the gum-coloured outline of
+all that was left of a Moorish wall skirting its side. The tooth is
+hollow, but the hollow is plugged with the best Woolwich stuffing, and
+potentially it can bite and grind and macerate, for all the peaceful
+gardens and frescades<a name="page_137" id="page_137"></a> of the Alameda that circle its base like a belt
+of faded embroidery. At Gibraltar our party separated, the Yorkshire
+Captain and his friends taking the P. and O. boat to Southampton, my
+countryman going back to Tangier after having made some purchases, and I
+electing to voyage to Malaga by one of Hall's packets, which was lying
+at the mercantile Mole discharging the two hundred tons of Government
+material which it is obliged to carry by contract on each fortnightly
+voyage. When Albert and I parted no tears were shed; we resigned
+ourselves to the decree of destiny with equanimity. But I humbly submit
+that Mrs. Captain, when thanking me for my good intentions towards him,
+might have spared me the ironical advice not to volunteer for duties in
+future which I was not qualified to fulfil. "Volunteer," ye gods! when
+she had absolutely entreated me to take him in charge.</p>
+
+<p>Before leaving the Club-House, I was pressed to relate our adventures in
+Africa. I had no pig-sticking exploits to make boast over; but I turned
+the deaf side of my head to certain<a name="page_138" id="page_138"></a> whispers about holy men who
+imported wine in casks labelled "Petroleum," who affected to be
+delivering the incoherent messages of inspiration when they were merely
+trying to pronounce "The scenery is truly rural" in choice Arabic, and
+who accounted for the black eye contracted by collision with the kerb by
+a highly-coloured narrative of an engagement in mid-air with an emissary
+of Sheitan. Neither did I accord any pleased attention to anecdotes of a
+"lella," or Arab lady, who tempted the Scorpions to charge ten times its
+value for everything she bought by telling them to send them to a
+personage whose title was exalted. Gib is a very small place, and, like
+most diminutive communities, is a veritable school for scandal. I took
+my last walk over the Rock, past the "Esmeralda Confectionery," which
+still had up the notice that hot-cross buns were to be had from seven to
+ten a.m. on Good Friday, and paced to the light-house on the nose of the
+promontory, where the meteor flag, ringed by a bracelet of cannon, flies
+in the breeze. And then I meandered back, and began to ask myself, had<a name="page_139" id="page_139"></a>
+Marryat aught to do with the sponsorship of this outpost of the British
+Empire? Shingle Point, Blackstrap Bay, the Devil's Tower, O'Hara's
+Folly, Bayside Barrier, and Jumper's Bastion&mdash;the names were all
+redolent of the Portsmouth Hard; and I almost anticipated a familiar
+hail at every moment from the open door of "The Nut," and an inquiry as
+to what cheer from the fog-Babylon.</p>
+
+<p>The trip to Malaga on one of the Hall steamers which trade regularly
+between London and that port, calling at Cadiz and Gibraltar, was very
+agreeable, and the change to such dietary as liver and bacon was a
+treat. We were but three passengers&mdash;a steeple-chasing sub of the 71st,
+Señor Heredia, of Malaga, and myself. And now I have to make an open
+confession. I am unable to decipher the log of that passage. I have a
+distinct recollection of the liver and bacon, but more important events
+have worn away from my mind. There are the traces of pencil-marks before
+me; I dare say they were full of meaning when I scrawled them down, but
+now I have lost the key. "Jolly captain&mdash;left<a name="page_140" id="page_140"></a> his wife&mdash;forty
+years&mdash;electric light deceives on a low beach&mdash;fourteen children&mdash;El
+Cano&mdash;break in the head of wine-casks": there is a literal copy of the
+contents of a page, which may mean nothing or anything, frivolity or a
+thesaurus of serious information. Memory, what a treacherous jade thou
+art! It may be said, why did I not take copious notes in short-hand? I
+would have done so were I a stenographer; but I am not. I tried to
+acquire the accomplishment once, and ignobly failed. I could write
+short-hand slightly quicker than long-hand, but when written, I could
+not transcribe my jottings.</p>
+
+<p>Flanking a beautiful coast, mostly hill-fringed&mdash;with hills, too, of
+such metallic richness that lead and iron were positively to be quarried
+out of their bosoms&mdash;we steamed into the harbour of Malaga, and landed
+at the Custom-House quay. But there were no Customs' officers to trouble
+us with inquiry. A red-bearded, flat-capped, dirty fellow in bare feet,
+holding a bayoneted rifle with a jaunty clumsiness, accosted Señor
+Heredia with a laughing voice. He was a sentinel of the provisional
+government<a name="page_141" id="page_141"></a> established in Malaga. The nature of that government may be
+judged from his frank avowal: "We've no police&mdash;no anything." There were
+French and German war-vessels at anchor, which was some guarantee of
+protection for strangers. A novel tricolour of red, white, and a
+washed-out purple had replaced the national flag. The Federal Republic
+existed there, and yet the city was quiet; and official bulletins were
+extant, recommending the citizens to preserve order. But this quietude
+was not to be relied on over-much. One of the magnificoes under the new
+<i>régime</i> was a dancing-house keeper, and his principal claim to
+administrative ability lay in the ownership of a Phrygian cap. Another,
+who styled himself President of the Republic of Alhaurin de la Torre, a
+territory more limited than the kingdom of Kippen, had stabbed a lady at
+a masked ball a few months previously, for a consideration of sixty-five
+duros. Still, it would be unfair to infer from that example that every
+Malagueño was a mercenary ruffian, Señor Heredia related to me an
+anecdote of a poor man who had found a purse with value in it to the
+amount of<a name="page_142" id="page_142"></a> thirty thousand reals, and had given it up without mention of
+recompense. But a city where the wine-shops had nine doors, and
+potato-gin was dispensed at a peseta the bottle, and there were "no
+police&mdash;no anything," was not a desirable residence; and, as I had no
+call there, and weeks might elapse before another revolution might be
+sprung, I gladly took train to the capital.</p>
+
+<p>Madrid was tranquil, but with no more confidence in the duration of
+tranquillity than when I left it. The army was still in a state akin to
+disruption, with this difference&mdash;the rascals who had rifled the pockets
+of the dead Ibarreta a few weeks before, would sell the bodies of their
+slain officers now, if there was any resurrectionist near to make a bid.
+Worse; I was given to understand that there were suspicions that the
+gallant staff-colonel had been shot by his own men. The dismissed
+gunners were still wearily beating the pavements, and a subscription
+organized on their behalf among the officers of the other branches of
+the service by the <i>Correo Militar</i> was open. What were these gentlemen
+to do? There was a<a name="page_143" id="page_143"></a> rumour that they had been invited to enter the
+French service, to which they would have been an undoubted acquisition,
+bringing with them skill, scientific knowledge, and experience. But they
+were Spaniards, not soldiers of fortune, and would decline to transfer
+their allegiance, even if France were disposed to bid for it. Still, what
+were they to do? In Spain as in Austria&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Le militaire n'est pas riche,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Chacun salt ça."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>But the <i>militaire</i> must live. Othello's occupation being gone, the
+artillery officers had no alternative but to do what Othello would have
+done had he been a Spaniard&mdash;conspire.</p>
+
+<p>The usual man&oelig;uvring and manipulations were going on as preparation
+for the election of the Constituent Cortes, and the extreme Republicans
+were full of faith in their approaching triumph all along the line. They
+were awaiting Señor Orense, but if he did not hasten it was thought
+events so important would eclipse his arrival that, when he did come,
+the Madrileños would pay as small heed to him as the Parisians did to
+Hugo when he sur<a name="page_144" id="page_144"></a>veyed the boulevards anew after years of exile. They
+would honour him with a procession, and no more. The venerable
+Republican, by the way, is a nobleman, Marquis of Albaida. But he is not
+equal to the democratic pride of Mirabeau, marquis, who took a shop and
+painted on the signboard, "<i>Mirabeau, marchand de draps.</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"If you are a true Republican, why don't you renounce your title?"
+somebody asked once of Orense.</p>
+
+<p>"If it were only myself was concerned I would willingly," responded the
+Spaniard; "but I have a son!" Rousseau was a freethinker, but Rousseau
+had his daughters baptized all the same.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the Carlists were making headway. The Vascongadas, Navarre,
+and Logroño, with the exception of the larger towns and isolated
+fortified posts, were now in their power. Antonio Dorregaray, who was in
+supreme command, was reported to have 3,200 men regularly organized,
+well clad, and equipped with Remingtons. The Remington had been selected
+so that the Royalists might be able to use the ammunition they reckoned
+upon<a name="page_145" id="page_145"></a> helping themselves with from the pouches of the Nationalists. In
+addition to this force of 3,200, which might be regarded as the regular
+army of Carlism, there were formidable guerrilla bands scattered over
+the provinces. Our old acquaintance, Santa Cruz, had 900 followers in
+Guipúzcoa. The other cabecillas in that region were Francisco, Macazaga,
+Garmendia, Iturbe, and Culetrina, all men with local popularity and
+intimate knowledge of the mountains. In Biscay, the commander was
+Valesco, and his lieutenants were Belaustegui, del Campo, and the
+Marquis de Valdespina, son of the chieftain who raised the standard of
+revolution at Vitoria in 1833. Their factions were estimated at 2,500.
+After Dorregaray, the most dangerous opponent to the Government troops
+was Ollo, an old ex-army officer, who was licking the volunteers into
+shape; and after Santa Cruz, the most noted and dreaded chief of
+irregulars was Rada, who was also operating in "the kingdom," as their
+province is proudly called by the daring Navarrese. The elements in
+which the Royalists were wanting were cavalry and artillery;<a name="page_146" id="page_146"></a> but they
+had some money, foreign friends were active, the French frontier was not
+too strictly watched nor the Cantabrian coast inaccessible, and Don
+Carlos&mdash;Pretender or King, as the reader chooses to call him&mdash;was biding
+his time in a villa not a hundred miles from Bayonne. When the hour was
+considered favourable, he was ready to cross the border and take the
+field, or rather the hills; and his presence, it was calculated, would
+be worth a <i>corps d'armée</i> in the fillip it would give to the enthusiasm
+of his adherents.</p>
+
+<p>And yet the "only court" held its tertulias, and the doñas talked
+millinery, and bald politicians sighed for a snug post in the
+Philippines, and the gambling-tables and the bull-ring retained their
+spell upon the community. It was the old story: Rome was on the verge of
+ruin, and the senate of Tiberius discussed a new sauce for turbot.</p>
+
+<p>As I saw no immediate prospect of the outburst of those important
+events, which were cloud-gathering over Madrid, and nearly all my
+colleagues had departed, I resolved to pursue my journey to London. I
+had <i>carte blanche</i> to return when I<a name="page_147" id="page_147"></a> deemed there was no further scope
+for my pen; but there was an obstacle in the way. Miranda was the
+terminus of the rail to the north; the track thence to the Bidassoa had
+been closed by order of the lieutenants of his Majesty <i>in nubibus</i>,
+King Charles VII. In other words, 179 kilometres of the main iron line,
+the great artery of communication with France, were held by the
+insurgents. Obstacles are made to be met, and, if steadily met, to be
+overcome. Surely, I reasoned, there must be some intercourse carried on
+in these districts. I passed through territory occupied by Carlists
+before. Why not again? Besides, I had nothing to fear from the Carlists,
+the tramp carols in the presence of the footpad (which, I submit, is a
+neat paraphrase of a classic saw); and if I did chance to meet them,
+there would be that dear touch of romance for which the lady-reader has
+been looking out so long in vain.</p>
+
+<p>I started. The journey to Miranda I pass by. One is not qualified to
+write an essay on a country from inspection through the windows of a
+railway-carriage in motion, more particularly at night.<a name="page_148" id="page_148"></a> As well attempt
+to describe a veiled panorama, unrolling itself at a hand-gallop. At
+Miranda, which was crowded with soldiers, there was a diligence that
+plied to San Sebastian by tacit arrangement with the knights of the
+road&mdash;that is, the adherents of Don Carlos. As the fares were very
+expensive, I suspect the speculator who ran the coach was heavily taxed
+for the privilege, and recouped himself by shifting the imposition to
+the shoulders of passengers. The day was fine, the roads were good, the
+vehicle was well-horsed, and we got away from the boundary of republican
+civilization at a rattling pace. My fellow-voyagers were mostly French,
+some of them of the gentle sex, and chattered like pies until they fell
+asleep. I believe it is admitted by those who know me best that I can do
+my own share of sleep. On the slightest provocation&mdash;yea, on what might
+be condemned as no reasonable provocation&mdash;I can drop my head upon my
+breast and go off into oblivion. Nor am I particular where I sit or if I
+sit at all. Any ordinary person can fall asleep on a sofa or at a
+sermon, but it requires a practitioner with an<a name="page_149" id="page_149"></a> inborn faculty for the
+art to achieve the triumphs of somnolence which stand to my credit. I
+have taken a nap on horseback; I have marched for miles, a musket on my
+shoulder, in complete slumberous unconsciousness; I have nodded while
+Phelps was acting, snoozed while Mario was singing, and played the
+marmot while Remenyi was fiddling; awful confession, I have dozed
+through an important debate in the House of Commons! I am yawning at
+present. It is to be hoped the reader is not. And so I burned daylight
+the while we drove through a country reputed to be pregnant with
+surprises of scenery until, at long last, the diligence drew up in the
+straggling street of Tolosa. We halted here for dinner, and resumed our
+journey with a fresh team at an enlivening speed, until about two miles
+outside the town we came to an abrupt stop.</p>
+
+<p>"An accident, driver?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, señor, but the Carlists."</p>
+
+<p>Some of my fellow-passengers turned pale, the ladies did not know
+whether to scream or consult their smelling-bottles; and before they
+could decide,<a name="page_150" id="page_150"></a> a tall, slight, gentlemanly-looking man of some
+four-and-twenty years, with a sword by his side, a revolver in his belt,
+an opera-glass slung across his shoulder, and a silver tassel depending
+from a scarlet boina, the cap of the country, appeared at the hinder
+door of the diligence, bowed, and asked for our papers. He glanced at
+them much as a railway-guard would at a set of tickets, inquired if we
+were carrying any arms or contraband despatches, and being answered in
+the negative, gave us a polite "Go you with God," and motioned to the
+driver that he might pass on. As we galloped off, all eyes were turned
+in the direction of the stranger; he leisurely walked over a field
+towards a hill, two peasants equipped with rifles and side-arms
+following at his heels. They were young and strong, and wore no nearer
+approach to uniform than their officer.</p>
+
+<p>"This is abominable," cried a French commercial traveller (so I took him
+to be), as soon as we had got out of hearing of the trio. "The notion of
+these three miscreants stopping a whole coachful of travellers in broad
+daylight is atrocious!"<a name="page_151" id="page_151"></a></p>
+
+<p>"They did not detain us long," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"They did us no harm," said another.</p>
+
+<p>"And that officer, I am sure, was very polite, and looked quite a
+D'Artagnan&mdash;so chivalrous and handsome," added one of the ladies.</p>
+
+<p>"They are no better than bandits," said the commercial traveller.
+"Driver, why did you not resist?"</p>
+
+<p>For reply, the driver pointed with his whip to a wall, under the lee of
+which a party of at least fifty armed men, portion of the main body from
+which the outpost of three had been detached, were smoking, chatting, or
+sleeping. The commercial traveller relapsed into silence. We met with no
+further adventure in our ride to the frontier, but experienced much
+fatigue.<a name="page_152" id="page_152"></a></p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h3>
+
+<p class="head">On the Wing&mdash;Ordered to the Carlist Headquarters&mdash;Another <i>Petit
+Paris</i>&mdash;Carlists from Cork&mdash;How Leader was Wounded&mdash;Beating-up for
+an Anglo-Irish Legion&mdash;Pontifical Zouaves&mdash;A Bad Lot&mdash;Oddities of
+Carlism&mdash;Santa Cruz Again&mdash;Running a Cargo&mdash;On Board a Carlist
+Privateer&mdash;A Descendant of Kings&mdash;"Oh, for an Armstrong Twenty-Four
+Pounder!"&mdash;Crossing the Border&mdash;A Remarkable Guide&mdash;Mountain
+Scenery&mdash;In Navarre&mdash;Challenged at Vera&mdash;Our Billet with the Parish
+Priest&mdash;The Sad Story of an Irish Volunteer&mdash;Dialogue with Don
+Carlos&mdash;The Happy Valley&mdash;Bugle-Blasts&mdash;The <a name="page_viii" id="page_viii"></a>Writer in a
+Quandary&mdash;The Fifth Battalion of Navarre&mdash;The Distribution of
+Arms&mdash;The Bleeding Heart&mdash;Enthusiasm of the Chicos.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">A<span class="smcap">fter</span> a short stay in London I was despatched to Stockholm, to attend
+the coronation of Oscar II of Sweden and his spouse, which took place in
+the Storkyrkan, on the 12th of May. At the Hotel Rydberg I met my Madrid
+acquaintance, Mr. Russell Young, who was a bird of passage like<a name="page_153" id="page_153"></a> myself,
+and had just arrived from Vienna, where he had been detailing the
+ceremonial at the opening of the International Exhibition in the Prater.
+While enjoying myself at a ball at the Norwegian Minister's, I received
+a telegraphic message, ordering me at once to the Austrian capital. I
+was very sorry to leave, for I was delighted with peaceful airy
+Stockholm and the free-hearted Swedes&mdash;it was such a change after Spain;
+but I had neither license nor leisure to grumble, and flitted to Vienna
+as fast as steam could carry me. The Weltausstellung did not prove to be
+a lodestone, although in justice it must be admitted it was one of the
+finest shows ever planned, and was fixed in one of the most agreeable of
+sites. It was too far away, however, to attract the British public, and
+there were rumours of cholera lurking in the Kaiserstadt; so I was
+recalled, but to be sent to Spain once more. My mission was to
+penetrate, if possible, to the headquarters of the Carlists, with the
+view of giving a fair and full report of the strength, peculiarities,
+and prospects of their movement.<a name="page_154" id="page_154"></a></p>
+
+<p>At the London office of the sympathizers with the cause I was furnished
+with the address of certain Carlists in confidential positions in
+France, and letters were sent on in advance, so as to secure me a
+favourable reception. Armed with a sheet of flimsy stamped in blue with
+the escutcheon of Charles VII., and the legend "Secretaria Militar de
+Lóndres," and with, what was more potent, a big credit on a
+banking-house, I started afresh on the now familiar route.</p>
+
+<p>Before undertaking the journey into the territory in revolt I halted at
+Bayonne to procure the necessary passes. These were obtained with ease
+from the Junta sitting in the Rue des Ecoles, the members of which
+professed that they desired nothing so much as the presence of the
+representatives of impartial foreign journals, so that the truth about
+the struggle should be made known to the rest of Europe. From Bayonne I
+proceeded to Biarritz, where I had a conference with the Duke de La
+Union de Cuba, a warm Carlist partisan, to whom I had an introduction,
+and thence I went to St. Jean de Luz, a drowsy, quaint, world-<a name="page_155" id="page_155"></a>forgotten
+nook. A <i>petit Paris</i> it was called in a vaunting quatrain by some
+minstrel of yore. But Brussels may be comforted. It is nothing of the
+kind, but something infinitely better. The breezes from the main and the
+mountains, from the Bay of Biscay and the Pyrenees, conspire to supply
+it with ozone. There is music in the boom of the surf as it pulsates
+regularly on the velvet sands of a semicircular inlet, where dogs frisk
+and youngsters gambol in the sunshine.</p>
+
+<p>In a hotel on the edge of that inlet, the Fonda de la Playa, where I put
+up, a young Irish gentleman named Leader was recuperating from a severe
+wound in the leg. He had received it in the service of Don Carlos, in a
+skirmish near Azpeitia, where he was the only man hit. He was out with a
+party of the guerrilleros, and came across a company of the Madrid
+troops. To encourage his own people, or rather the people with whom he
+had cast in his fortunes, he went well to the front, and mounting on a
+bank of earth, hurled defiance at the enemy. He was picked down by a
+stray shot, and if he had been taken prisoner it is pro<a name="page_156" id="page_156"></a>bable that he
+would have paid for his temerity with his life. The Spaniards were not
+clement towards foreigners who interposed in their domestic quarrel.
+Leader was carried off by his companions and secreted in a peasant's
+hut. The troops, swearing vengeance, searched the hut next to it, but,
+by some accident, failed to continue the quest to the refuge of the
+wounded man. He bled profusely, but the hæmorrhage was finally arrested
+by some rude bandaging, and at night he was helped astride a donkey, and
+conveyed across the frontier into France. He told me he had suffered
+excruciating torments at every jolt of the jog-trotting animal on that
+mountain journey. Had the bullet struck him an inch higher he would have
+had to suffer amputation; but his luck stood to him, and at the time we
+met he was getting on fairly towards recovery, thanks to youth, a good
+constitution, and the healthy air of St. Jean de Luz. I could not
+understand the ardour of Leader's partisanship for the Carlists. He
+spoke the merest smattering of Spanish, and had no profound intimacy
+with the vexed question of Spanish politics or the rights of<a name="page_157" id="page_157"></a> the rival
+Spanish houses. The ill-natured whispered that he was crying "Viva la
+República" when he was knocked over. It is possible, for he had fought
+for the French Republic with Bourbaki's army, and may, in his
+excitement, have forgotten under what flag he was serving. I take it he
+was a soldier by instinct, and ranged himself on the side of Don Carlos
+more from the love of adventure than from any other motive. He was a
+fine athletic young fellow, with a handsome determined cast of features.
+He had been an ensign in the 30th Foot, and had resigned his commission
+to enjoy a spell of active service when the Franco-German war was
+proclaimed. That he had behaved bravely in the campaign which led to
+internment in Switzerland was evidenced by the ribbon of the Legion of
+Honour which he wore. Leader was very anxious that an Anglo-Irish legion
+in aid of Don Carlos should be organized. I felt it my duty to warn
+those to whom he appealed to think twice before they embarked on such a
+crusade. He was very wroth with me for having thrown cold water on the
+project, but that did<a name="page_158" id="page_158"></a> not affect me. I had more experience of such
+follies than he, and my conscience approved me. A man may be justified
+in playing with his own life, but he should be slow in playing with the
+lives of others. He prepares a vexing responsibility for himself if he
+is sensitive.</p>
+
+<p>In the next room to Leader was a fellow-enthusiast, Mr. Smith Sheehan,
+an ex-officer of Pontifical Zouaves, and son of a popular and eccentric
+town-councillor of Cork. He was an agile stripling, skilled in all
+gymnastic exercises. He had also done some fighting with the Carlists,
+and was in France on furlough, which the soldiers in the Royalist force
+appeared to have no insuperable difficulty in getting. He told me there
+was a large infusion of his old regiment amongst the guerrilleros, and
+that they helped to bind the partisan levies in the withes of
+discipline. Most of them had smelt gunpowder at Mentana and Patay. The
+famous cabecilla, Saballs, had been a captain at Rome, and Captain
+Wills, a Dutchman, who had been killed in a brush at Igualada, had been
+sergeant-major in Sheehan's company.<a name="page_159" id="page_159"></a></p>
+
+<p>There was another ex-British officer of short service, who had a
+remarkably imposing and well-cultivated growth of moustache. He was a
+violent doctrinaire Carlist, but suffered from a chronic malady which
+prevented him from taking the field; still there was none who could plot
+with a more tremendous air of mystery. He was a Carlist because it was
+"the correct thing" to be one in the fashionable ring at St. Jean de
+Luz, where he had settled, and because he inherited a name associated
+with chivalric insurrection. For the sake of his family I shall call him
+Barbarossa. He was no honour to his house, for he was an inveterate
+gambler, and was not careful in discharging the obligations he wantonly
+contracted. He is dead. His death was no loss to society. In fact, if
+the whole host of gamblers, lock, stock and barrel, were swept by a
+fairy-blast to the regions of thick-ribbed ice, the world would be the
+gainer.</p>
+
+<p>When I left Spain, Carlism was to be put down in a fortnight&mdash;in Madrid.
+Now it threatened to last as long as a Chinese play. The Royalists&mdash;I
+suppose they had earned the title to be so named<a name="page_160" id="page_160"></a> by their
+perseverance&mdash;had achieved numerous small successes which had raised
+their <i>morale</i>, and they were being supplied with arms of precision from
+abroad, and trained to their use. They had even taken some mountain-guns
+from their enemy. Leader made me laugh with his accounts of Lizarraga
+shouting "Artillería al frente!" and a couple of mules, with one
+wretched little piece, moving forward; and of the intimidating clatter
+made by three shrunk cavaliers in cuirasses a world too wide for them,
+and alpargatas, trotting up a village street. The alpargata is the
+mountain-shoe of canvas, with a hempen sole, worn by the Basque
+peasants. The association of surcoats of mail and rope slippers is
+incongruous; but what does that reck? Those cuirasses were <i>spolia
+opima</i>.</p>
+
+<p>And Santa Cruz?</p>
+
+<p>The honest gentleman had retired into private life. His excesses had
+raised such a storm of opprobrium against the Carlists that they had to
+request him to desist. Lizarraga summoned him to render himself up a
+prisoner. "Come and take<a name="page_161" id="page_161"></a> me," replied Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz had near
+two thousand followers; Lizarraga a few hundred. Lizarraga declined the
+invitation. But the priest caused seven-and-twenty Carabineros, taken
+prisoners at the bridge of Endarlasa, near Irun, to be shot, and this
+filled the cup to overflowing. The Carlists averred they would slay him;
+the Republicans vowed they would garrote him for a Madrid holiday; the
+French Government declared its intention of putting him under lock and
+key if it caught him within its jurisdiction. His band was disarmed "by
+order of the King," and dispersed, and the Cura himself nebulously
+vanished&mdash;whither we may see anon.</p>
+
+<p>There was a large accretion to the population of St. Jean de Luz in
+Iberian refugees, and as they sat and conversed under the foliage of the
+public promenade, frequent sighs might be overheard, and remarks that if
+this sort of thing were to go on, "Spain would soon be in as bad a
+condition as France." At all hours there came to the beach poor exiles
+of Spain, who turned their eyes sadly to the line where sky met ocean.
+Of what were their<a name="page_162" id="page_162"></a> thoughts&mdash;of home and friends, of the flutters of
+the casino or the ecstasies of the bull-ring? If they were looking for
+the Spanish fleet they did not see it, for a reason as old as the
+"Critic." It was not in sight. They came down in numbers in front of my
+hotel at nine o'clock on the morning of Monday, July 28th, a few days
+after my arrival, when a strange yellow funnel turned the point, and a
+long low Red-Roverish three-masted schooner-yacht steamed into Socoa,
+the roadstead of St. Jean de Luz. If the exiles were correctly informed,
+that was the Spanish fleet in a sense&mdash;the notorious Carlist privateer,
+the <i>San Margarita</i>, which had recently landed arms and ammunition for
+the Royalists at Lequeieto and elsewhere. She had been doing a stroke of
+business in the same line that morning. In the grey dawn she had dropped
+into the embouchure of the Bidassoa, at a few hundred yards from the
+town of Fontarabia. The work was well and quickly done. Boats
+requisitioned by friends on land put off to her, and returned laden with
+bales of merchandise. These artless bales were packages of
+breechloaders, with bayonets to match,<a name="page_163" id="page_163"></a> wrapped in sail-cloth. As soon
+as they were received on shore they were distributed amongst some
+thousands of Carlists in waiting, who at once proceeded to fix bayonets,
+fall into ranks, and with shouts of exultation march off in good order.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, the "volunteers of liberty," as the Basque Republicans called
+themselves, ensconced their persons out of range in a sort of castle
+beside the church of Fontarabia's "wooded height," and amused themselves
+taking pot-shots at the rising sun. But they did not venture from their
+shelter; they knew a large body of armed Royalists were watching their
+movements from the summit of Cape Higuer, and only awaited the provoke
+to pounce down upon and swallow them. A detachment of Frenchmen from the
+frontier hamlet of Hendaye quietly took up ground on the strand to see
+that there was no breach of neutrality, and had an uninterrupted view of
+the whole operation. As soon as the daring little privateer had done her
+work she innocently steamed to Socoa; the Carlists on the hills waved
+adieu and disappeared; the French soldiers returned to their quarters;
+and the<a name="page_164" id="page_164"></a> Fontarabian "volunteers of liberty "&mdash;well, most probably they
+swore terribly, and effected a masterly retrograde movement on the
+nearest posada.</p>
+
+<p>I had a call to board the <i>San Margarita</i>. Not a boat could be had in
+St. Jean de Luz for love or money; the passage from the sea into the
+harbour is narrow, and the fishermen, though hardy navigators, are shy
+of facing the current when the sea is rough. Leader and myself walked by
+the goat-path on the crags leading to the southern side of the harbour
+so as to avoid the bar, and succeeded in chartering a skiff at Socoa. A
+quarter of an hour's pull brought us alongside the yacht, and on sending
+up our cards we were at once invited on board by the owner. To my
+surprise I discovered that the entire crew was British, as reckless a
+set of dare-devils as ever cut out a craft from under an enemy's guns.
+The skipper, Mr. Travers, was a Cork man, an ex-officer of the Indian
+Navy, who had lost a finger during the Mutiny; but the life and soul of
+the enterprise was an ex-officer of the Austrian and Mexican armies,
+Charles-Edward Stuart, Count d'Albanie, great-grandson of "the<a name="page_165" id="page_165"></a> Young
+Pretender." His uncle, John Sobieski Stuart, had resigned his claim to
+the throne of England on his behalf,<a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a> so that I actually shook the
+hand of the man who under other circumstances might be wielding the
+sceptre of that empire on which the sun never sets. Instead of a crown
+he wore the genuine old Highland bonnet&mdash;not that modern innovation, the
+military feather-bonnet. In face this descendant of royalty was an
+unmistakable Stuart, with the characteristic aquiline nose, and a proud
+dignity of expression. He might have sat for the portrait of Charles the
+Martyr-King, by Vandyck, in Windsor. He was a convinced and earnest
+supporter of the claims of Cárlos Séptimo, whom he regarded as a cousin,
+and a sort of modern counterpart of the young Chevalier, the "darling
+Charlie" of Jacobite minstrelsy. He received us with the hospitality of
+his nation, and we had a long chat as<a name="page_166" id="page_166"></a> we paced the deck briskly, the
+Count discussing the prospects of the rising, and then verging off into
+gay anecdotes of his military career in Austria, and inquiries after
+mutual acquaintances in London. By-and-by Captain Travers made his
+appearance, a tall weather-beaten navigator in orthodox naval dress,
+with a glass in his eye. He bowed severely to the Stuart, who as coldly
+returned his salute. It was easy to perceive that there was a restraint
+in the demeanour of the men on both sides; but there was a tacit
+armistice for the occasion. I heard afterwards that they did not talk to
+each other, except on strict matters of duty, and when taking their
+short walks on deck, one confined himself religiously to the larboard,
+the other to the starboard. Travers took me in tow, while the alert
+Count with his quick manner strode to and fro with Leader, and kept up a
+jerky fire of conversation nearly all to himself, occasionally twirling
+his peaked beard. Travers and I lolled over the bulwarks, and laughed
+and sampled the contents of an aqua-vitæ bottle, "Special Jury" whisky
+from Ireland, and I learned that this ill-<a name="page_167" id="page_167"></a>assorted pair had been
+sharing some close hazards on their audacious cruiser.</p>
+
+<p>A few days previously they had been chased by <i>El Aspirante</i>, a Spanish
+gun-boat, which gave them eight shots. One caught them on the port
+quarter, and shivered some timbers, but effected no more serious damage.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish we had only an Armstrong twenty-four pounder close handy," said
+the mate, "and we'd have saved them 'ere dons the price of a coffin, I'd
+take my davy!"</p>
+
+<p>From what I saw of the seamen, I think this was no empty boast. Some of
+them had served with one Captain Semmes on a certain craft called the
+<i>Alabama</i>, and had been picked up after the fight with the <i>Keasarge</i>,
+off Cherbourg, by Mr. John Lancaster's yacht, the <i>Deerhound</i>. There is
+no need for concealment now, so that I may freely admit that the
+<i>Deerhound</i> and the <i>San Margarita</i> were one and the same. Travers, who
+was in love with the yacht, told me if he had another blade to the screw
+he could give leg-bail to the fastest ship in the Spanish navy. At
+leaving, I was asked to<a name="page_168" id="page_168"></a> take a trip with them; they were about to visit
+their floating arsenal in the Bay of Biscay, load, and try to run
+another cargo. I respectfully declined&mdash;fortunately for myself; my
+orders were to get to the Carlist headquarters, not to go playing Paul
+Jones.</p>
+
+<p>Leader and Smith Sheehan were about to cross the border, and readily
+acceded to my request to form one of the party. We rose at daybreak next
+morning and looked out of window for the <i>San Margarita</i>. The roadstead
+of Socoa was a blank. She had steamed away during the night. After the
+customary chocolate we started blithely, in a light basket-carriage with
+a pair of fast-trotting ponies, that whisked us in less than two hours
+to the foot of the Pyrenees. Here we had to alight, the road up the
+mountain being impracticable for vehicles. A boy guide was in waiting to
+show us over the border by the smuggler's path&mdash;a wild short-cut through
+a labyrinth of brushwood. The guide was a remarkable youth in his way;
+he understood not a syllable of French or Spanish, and spoke only Basque
+which none of us com<a name="page_169" id="page_169"></a>prehended, so that our parley with him was somewhat
+uninteresting. Yet I was anxious to elicit the opinions of that guide. A
+lad who could strike the path up the mountain with such truth might, by
+some instinct, have seen his way through Spanish politics. Our walk was
+a trial of endurance. I had traversed the Pyrenees in snow, and that was
+fatiguing enough in all conscience; but now the sun was beating cruelly
+on the parched herbage, and plodding up the ascent was like treading
+burning marl. I had to cry halt half-a-dozen times before we reached the
+summit; and yet that marvellous guide, with the baggage of all three on
+his head, kept on with a springy step and serene smile, like the youth
+in "Excelsior." It was an alternation of wheezing and stumbling with me,
+with a continuous ooze of perspiration, till I arrived heaving and
+panting on the crown of the ridge, and flung myself on the turf beside a
+pile of planking fresh from the woodcutter's axe. There was no further
+need to be wary, for this was Spain. We were over the border, and now my
+companions could breathe freely in every sense.<a name="page_170" id="page_170"></a> Before they had passed
+the imaginary line they were liable to be arrested by the gendarmes,
+conducted back and interned, for they had that about their persons which
+betrayed that they were no innocent travellers. At every noise ahead, a
+scud was made to the cover of the tall ferns and brambles by the
+wayside, and an advance party of one was thrown out to reconnoitre. The
+precautions were superfluous, if we knew but all. From the 15th of July,
+the French patrols had got the hint to be blind. So lax was the cordon
+on the day we crossed, that a brigade of Carlists, each man with a
+repeating rifle on his shoulder and two revolvers in his belt, might
+have gone into Spain and never have had their sight offended by a
+solitary French uniform.</p>
+
+<p>The view from the comb of the hills, as grasped on a sunny day, repays
+all the toil and trouble of the ascent; and looking round, one begins to
+realize the fascination of mountain-climbing. On one side extend the
+plains of France, washed by the greenish-blue waves of the Bay of
+Biscay, and studded as with pearls by the coast-towns of<a name="page_171" id="page_171"></a> Fontarabia,
+St. Jean de Luz, Biarritz, Bayonne, and so on northwards till the vision
+fails. On the other side rise in convoluting swells the mountains of
+Navarre and Guipúzcoa, their slopes dyed in every shade of green from
+grass and lichen, shrub and tree, except where the naked rocks, bursting
+with ore, expose themselves. Iron, lead, silver, are all to be found in
+the bosom of the earth in this richest and most beautiful of lands.
+Nature has been lavish beyond measure, and man, instead of using her
+gifts, has ungratefully diverted them for generations to the purposes of
+guerrilla warfare and cheating the Custom-House officers. But this high
+moral tone hardly sits well on a man who was aiding and abetting the
+entry of a couple of foreign free-lances, on homicidal thoughts intent,
+and perhaps doing a stroke of contraband on his own account. We suffered
+no molestation; but others might not have escaped unpleasantness. The
+agent of a Hatton Garden jeweller might have had to pay toll, if the
+story were true that a few of the dispersed "Black Legion" had got off
+with their rifles and started a joint-stock company in the<a name="page_172" id="page_172"></a>
+bush-whacking line, and were doing a pretty fair business.</p>
+
+<p>The descent on the Spanish side was almost precipitous, and had to be
+effected with exceeding care. At times we ran down the track, rugged
+with sharp crags, almost head foremost, and only saved ourselves from
+falling by clinging to the nearest sapling. But there is an end to
+everything, and at last we came on the road that dips into the village
+of Echalar, in the district of Pampeluna, province of Navarre. Here we
+dismissed our guide, and here I encountered, for the first time, a
+regularly organized Carlist company, detached from the fifth battalion
+of Navarre, which was in garrison at Vera, some eight miles distant; but
+as I shall have opportunity to speak of the entire battalion soon, I
+defer comment on its appearance.</p>
+
+<p>My companions were desirous of pushing forward, and the provisional
+alcalde of the village gave us a trap to take us on. There is an
+excellent road by the mountain-side, until a tunnel to the right is
+reached, when we entered a most picturesque, well-wooded defile, through
+which the Bidassoa<a name="page_173" id="page_173"></a> pours its waters. We dashed along gaily until we
+came in sight of the steeple of the church of Vera at twilight.</p>
+
+<p>A cry of "Who goes there?" from the gloom arrested us at the entrance of
+the town.</p>
+
+<p>Leader sung out, "España."</p>
+
+<p>Again came the sentinel's cry, "What people?" and cheerily ran the
+answer, "Voluntarios de Carlos Séptimo!"</p>
+
+<p>"Pass," was the reply; and we took the street at a trot, and pulled up
+at the door of the parish priest's dwelling, where the Irish soldiers of
+fortune promised me a billet for the night. The kindly pastor was equal
+to expectations; we had a cordial welcome, a good dinner, and beds with
+clean sheets.</p>
+
+<p>Sad tidings met my companions&mdash;those of the death of a young friend, Mr.
+John Scannel Taylor, a native of Cork, in the service of Don Carlos. A
+few months previously he had been a promising law student in the Queen's
+University of Ireland, with every prospect of a bright career before
+him. He arrived from England in the middle of June,<a name="page_174" id="page_174"></a> and attached
+Himself to the partida of General Lizarraga in order to be near his
+fellow-countryman, Smith Sheehan. Previous to Mr. Sheehan's returning to
+Bayonne with despatches, he tossed up a coin to decide whether he or
+Taylor should have the choice of the duty. Poor Taylor won, and elected
+to remain with Lizarraga, as there was likelihood of fighting at hand.
+The very next day Yvero, where the Republicans held a
+strongly-intrenched position, was attacked, and the young Irish
+volunteer made himself conspicuous in the onset. While advancing in the
+open, setting a pattern of bravery to all by the steady way he delivered
+his fire, the gallant fellow was struck by a bullet in the leg. He kept
+on limping until he was touched a second time in the arm, but still he
+persevered with a dogged courage, when a third bullet struck him in the
+forehead, and he dropped with outspread arms, raising a little cloud of
+dust. He must have been stone-dead before he reached the ground. His
+conduct was "muy valiente," so said his Spanish comrades. He was picked
+up after the affair, and decently interred<a name="page_175" id="page_175"></a> side by side with two
+officers who met their deaths in his company. This was the first time he
+was under fire, as it was the last; but there is a fatality in those
+things.</p>
+
+<p>This young Irishman, Taylor, was luckier than some of his fellows in one
+respect. Short as he had been in the service, he had attracted the
+notice of Don Carlos. His comrade Sheehan and he were pointed out to
+"the King" by Lizarraga as two modest deserving young soldiers who had
+offered to fight in the ranks&mdash;a trait of unselfishness that must have
+astonished the Carlist leaders, as most of the volunteers they had from
+France came out with the full intention of commanding brigades, when
+divisions were not to be had.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I had a thousand like them," said Lizarraga, who was a genuine
+soldier, and one of the few Spaniards not unjust to foreigners.</p>
+
+<p>Don Carlos shook hands with Mr. Taylor and thanked him. His Majesty
+spoke some few minutes in French with Mr. Sheehan, and, as the
+conversation gives some insight into Carlism, I may venture to repeat
+it.<a name="page_176" id="page_176"></a></p>
+
+<p>Don Carlos.&mdash;"You have served before?"</p>
+
+<p>Irish Soldier.&mdash;"Yes, sire, in the Pontifical Zouaves."</p>
+
+<p>Don Carlos.&mdash;"Ha! good. In the same company with my brother, perhaps?"</p>
+
+<p>Irish Soldier.&mdash;"No; but I had the privilege of knowing Don Alfonso."</p>
+
+<p>Don Carlos.&mdash;"He is in Catalonia now, and has many of your old
+companions in arms with him. You are serving the same cause here as in
+Rome&mdash;the cause of religion and of order and of legitimate right."</p>
+
+<p>Irish Soldier (bowing).&mdash;"I should not be here if I did not feel that,
+your Majesty."</p>
+
+<p>Don Carlos (smiling).&mdash;"I thank you sincerely. General Lizarraga tells
+me you are Irish."</p>
+
+<p>Irish Soldier.&mdash;"I come from the south of Ireland, sire."</p>
+
+<p>Don Carlos.&mdash;"A country I feel much sympathy for. She has been very
+unhappy, has she not? Are things better now?"</p>
+
+<p>Irish Soldier.&mdash;"For some years Ireland has been, improving, sire."<a name="page_177" id="page_177"></a></p>
+
+<p>Don Carlos.&mdash;"That is well. She deserves better fortune, for she has a
+noble, faithful people."</p>
+
+<p>Don Carlos drew back a pace and made a stiff military nod; the Irishman
+brought his rifle to the "present arms," turned on his heel, and marched
+back to the ranks, and thus the interview terminated.</p>
+
+<p>The valley in which the little town of Vera nestles might have been that
+where Rasselas was brought up, so secluded, smiling, and peaceful it
+looks. The Bidassoa, famous in tales of the Peninsular War, flows
+through it, no doubt; but the Bidassoa here is a trout stream winding
+through meadows and fields of maize, and thoughts of bloodshed are the
+last that would occur to anyone contemplating its mild current. The
+mountains walling in the vale are lined with growths of heather, fern,
+and blossoming furze to their very crests, and the verdurous picture
+they hem is one of poetic calm and plenty. Labourers are digging away in
+the fields below, the tinkle of cow-bells is heard from the pastures,
+and anon blends with their Arcadian music the soft chiming of
+church-bells<a name="page_178" id="page_178"></a> summoning to prayer; there is a mill with its clacking
+wheel, and a foundry with a tuft of smoke curling from its chimney;
+orchards and vineyards lie side by side with patches of corn, and along
+the high-road peasants pass and repass, shortening their way with song
+and laughter, and strings of mules or droves of swine scamper by.
+Another Sweet Auburn of Goldsmith, in another Happy Valley of Johnson,
+this cosy Vera with its river and trees would seem to any English
+tourist ignorant of its history; but how the English tourist would be
+misled! Though the peasants laugh and sing, and the labourers dig, and
+there are outer tokens of peace, there is no peace in the valley or
+town; there are sights and sounds there of war, and that of the worst
+kind&mdash;civil war. The mill is grinding corn for the commissariat stores,
+the foundry turns out shot instead of ploughshares, the boxes on the
+mules' backs are packed with ammunition. If you listen, you will hear
+the roll of drums and the shrill blowing of bugles more often than the
+soothing bells; if you watch, you will notice that not one man in ten is
+unprovided with a firearm, for this<a name="page_179" id="page_179"></a> quiet-looking place is the very
+hotbed of Carlism; the insurrectionary headquarters for the province of
+Navarre; the arsenal and recruiting depôt for all the provinces in
+revolt. The disciples of the rod have fled from it, and those of the
+musket have come in their stead.</p>
+
+<p>At half-past four on the morning after our arrival in the mountains, I
+was roused from a profound sleep by the sound of the bugle. A solitary
+performer was blowing spiritedly into his instrument; what piece of
+music he was trying to execute I could not make out, but that his
+primary object was to "murder sleep" was evident, and he succeeded.
+Losing all note of time and place, I thought for a moment I was in
+London, and that this was a visit from the Christmas waits. But there
+was a liveliness in the tones incompatible with the season when the
+clarionet, trombone, and cornet-à-piston form a syndicate of noise, and
+parade the streets for halfpence. The bugle was in a jocular mood. Judge
+of my astonishment when I learned that this merry melody was the
+Carlist's reveille! The insurgents had got so far with their military
+organiza<a name="page_180" id="page_180"></a>tion that they had actually buglers and bugle-calls. Nay, more,
+they had drummers and a brass band!</p>
+
+<p>Now I think of it, there is an inadvisability in my calling them
+insurgents while in their power; but what phrase am I to employ? In the
+pass in my pocket I am recommended to "the Chiefs of the Royal Army of
+his Catholic Majesty Charles VII.," as an inoffensive "corresponsal
+particular," to whom aid and protection may be safely extended. But then
+there are the Republicans, and if they catch me giving premature
+recognition in pen-and-ink to the Royalist cause, they may rightly
+complain that a British subject is flying in the face of the great
+British policy of non-intervention. I think I have discovered an escape
+from the dilemma. The Carlists speak of themselves as the Chicos, "the
+bhoys," so Chicos let them be for the future, and their opponents the
+troops&mdash;not that it is by any means intended to be conveyed that the
+troops so called are much more martial than the Chicos.</p>
+
+<p>Well, the boys have got buglers who bugle with a will. They blow a blast
+to rouse us, another for<a name="page_181" id="page_181"></a> distribution of rations; they have the
+assembly, the retreat, the "lights out," and all the rest, as regular as
+the Diddlesex Militia. I got up in the Cora's house, looked at the
+Cura's pictures&mdash;which were more meritorious as works of piety than as
+works of art&mdash;and hastened to the Plaza, where I was told there was
+about to be a muster of the Chicos, and I would have a leisurely
+opportunity of passing them under inspection. The Plaza is a flagged
+space enclosed on two sides by houses, some of which are over a couple
+of centuries old, with armorial bearings sculptured over the doors; on
+the third by the Municipality; and on the fourth by a grey church, lofty
+and large, seated on an eminence and approached by a flight of stone
+steps. The Municipality is a massive building, level with the street,
+with a colonnaded portico, and a front over which some artist in
+distemper had passed his brush. This façade is eloquent with mural
+painting, if one could only understand it all. There are symbolic
+figures of heroic size, coveys of cherubs, hatchments, masonic-looking
+emblems, and inscriptions. A Carlist sentry, dandling a naked bayonet in
+the<a name="page_182" id="page_182"></a> hollow of his arm, was pacing to and fro in the portico, and the
+remaining warriors of the post were lounging about, cigarette in mouth,
+much as our own fellows do outside the guard-house on Commercial Square,
+at Gibraltar. I was curious to see the Carlist uniform. Assuredly the
+uniform does not make the soldier, but it goes a great way towards it.
+Uniformity was the least striking feature in the dress of the men before
+me. They were clad in the ordinary garb of the mountain-peasants. Short
+coarse jackets and loose trousers, confined at the waist by a faja, or
+girdle of bright-coloured woollen stuff, were worn by some; blouses of
+serge, knee-breeches, and stockings or gaiters, by others; but all,
+without exception, had the boina, or pancake-shaped woollen cap of the
+Basque provinces, and the alpargatas, or flat-soled canvas shoes.
+By-and-by was heard a bugle-blast and the quick, regular tread of
+marching men, and the head of a company came in sight. In perfect time
+the company paced, four deep, into the Plaza, halted, and fell into line
+in two ranks. Thus, in succession, seven other companies arrived,
+form<a name="page_183" id="page_183"></a>ing the fifth, battalion of Navarre, a vigorous, wiry set of men,
+impressing the experienced eye as excellent raw material for soldiers,
+albeit got up in costume very much resembling that of brigands of the
+Comic Opera. Physically, the natives of the hilly northern provinces are
+the pick of Spain. The battalion had its flag, white between two stripes
+of scarlet, on which was inscribed the name of the corps, and the
+legend, "The country for ever, but always in honour." This was, of
+course, written in Basque, of which my rendering is rather free, but it
+gives exactly the sense of the sentiment. It was soon palpable to
+anybody, who knows anything of such matters, that the Chicos were weak
+in officers of the proper stamp, and still more so in under-officers.
+Smoking was common in the ranks, and when the men stood at ease, they
+stood very much at ease indeed. The officers, in some cases, were
+distinguished in dress from the privates solely by gold or silver
+tassels dependent from their boinas, and their boinas were of blue,
+white, brown, or even Republican red, according to the fancy of the
+wearer. All the officers had revolvers and swords.<a name="page_184" id="page_184"></a> The men were armed
+somewhat indiscriminately, one company with Chassepots, another with
+Remingtons; there were carbines, and percussion rifles, and
+smooth-bores, and even a few flint-locks; but I failed to discern a
+single specimen of the trabuco, the bell-mouthed blunderbuss we are
+accustomed to associate with the Spanish knight of the road. Ammunition
+was carried in a waist-belt, with a surrounding row of leather tubes
+lined with tin, each of which held a cartridge&mdash;in fact, the Circassian
+cartouch-case. There were many grizzled weather-stained veterans in the
+ranks who had fought with Zumalacárregui and Mina in the Seven Years'
+War; but as a rule the Chicos were literally boys in age, and here and
+there a child of twelve or fourteen might be seen measuring himself
+beside a patriotic musket. In relief to the peasant dresses were to be
+noticed frequent attempts at more soldierly costume in the shape of worn
+tunics of the French National Guards or Moblots, and some half-dozen
+uniforms of the Spanish Line, with the glazed képi exchanged for the
+boina. On the top of many of the boinas, fastening the tassel, was a<a name="page_185" id="page_185"></a>
+huge brass button, with the monogram of the "King," and the inscription,
+"Voluntarios, Dios, Patria, y Rey." Another sign particular of this
+irregular force that impressed me much was a bleeding heart embroidered
+on a small scrap of cloth, and sewn on the left breasts of nearly all on
+the ground. This appeared to be worn as a charm against bullets; and
+with a strong notion that it would protect them in the hour of danger, I
+am convinced nine out of ten of those peasants carried it. It may be as
+well to add that inside that embroidered patch were written, in Spanish,
+the words, "Stop; the heart of Jesus is here; defend me, Jesus." Many
+others of the Carlists carried scapulars, rosary beads, and blessed
+medals as pious reminders. The habit of wearing this representation of
+the heart of the Saviour over the region of the human heart dates so far
+back as the Vendean War, and had been introduced in the present instance
+by M. Cathelineau, grandson of the celebrated French Royalist loader.</p>
+
+<p>The battalion had assembled on the Plaza to give up their old arms, and
+to receive a portion of<a name="page_186" id="page_186"></a> those which had been landed from the <i>San
+Margarita</i>. They deposited those they had with them by sections in the
+Municipality, and emerged with the others, bright, brand-new Berdan
+breechloaders. They seemed proud of their weapons; some went so far as
+to kiss them; and, if looks were any criterion of feelings, their
+glowing faces said, as emphatically as it could be said, "Now that we
+have good tools, we shall show what good work we can do." Boxes of
+metallic ball-cartridges, centre-primed, were piled on the Plaza, and
+were quickly and quietly opened and distributed. Not an accident
+occurred in the process. Many a less wonderful phenomenon has been
+advertised as a miracle. I fully expected to have my coat spattered with
+some warrior's brains every other moment, with such a reckless rashness
+were the rifle-muzzles poked about. One shot did go off, while a high
+private was trying if his cartridge fitted to the chamber; the charge
+singed the hair of a captain, and the bullet lodged in the middle of the
+word "Prudencia" on the façade of the Municipality. The captain would
+have it that he was killed,<a name="page_187" id="page_187"></a> spun round on his own centre like a
+humming-top, and finally, coming to himself, shook out his clothes in
+search of the lead. There was a roar of laughter, and the careless
+soldier who had endangered the life of his officer was allowed to pass
+without rebuke. That was the worst point in Carlist discipline I had
+seen yet. There was too much familiarity towards superiors; the rank and
+file lacked that fear and respect for the officers which are the
+strongest cement of the military fabric. This was to be explained partly
+because the officers were not above the men in social position, and
+partly because any enterprising gentleman who bought gold braid and
+tassels, sported a sword, and appraised himself an officer, was accepted
+at his own valuation.<a name="page_188" id="page_188"></a></p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h3>
+
+<p class="head">The Cura of Vera&mdash;Fueros of the Basques&mdash;Carlist Discipline&mdash;Fate
+of the <i>San Margarita</i>&mdash;The Squadron of Vigilance&mdash;How a Capture
+was Effected&mdash;The Sea-Rovers in the Dungeon&mdash;Visit to the
+Prisoners&mdash;San Sebastian&mdash;A Dead Season&mdash;The Defences of a
+Threatened City&mdash;Souvenirs of War&mdash;The Miqueletes&mdash;In a Fix&mdash;A
+German Doctor's Warning.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">T<span class="smcap">hese</span> horrible and bloodthirsty Carlists turned out to be amiable
+individuals on acquaintance. I suppose they could put on a frown for
+their enemies, but for my companions and myself they had nothing but
+open smiles and hearty hand-grips. One great recommendation was our
+being billeted on the parish priest. His reverence had none of the Santa
+Cruz in him; he was a gentle, zealous, studious clergyman, yet was
+filled with the purest enthusiasm for the cause of what he regarded as
+legitimacy. The Don Carlos who raised the standard in<a name="page_189" id="page_189"></a> 1833, he
+maintained, was the rightful heir to the throne of Spain. The law by
+which the succession had been changed was an <i>ex post facto</i> law, passed
+after his birth, and not promulgated until Ferdinand VII. had a female
+child. In May, 1845, that Don Carlos, really Charles V., resigned in
+favour of his son, Charles VI., and in September, 1868, he, in his turn,
+relinquished his rights to the present claimant to the throne, Charles
+VII., whom might God preserve.</p>
+
+<p>The Cura was unusually civil towards us because we were Irish, and as
+Irish were presumably of clean lineage&mdash;that is to say, free from
+kinship with Jews or infidels. As reputed descendants of settlers from
+Bilbao, we were entitled to a full share in all the privileges of the
+province of Biscay. This was as well to know. It was a consolation to us
+to learn that it was an advantage to be Irish somewhere under the sun.
+The King of Spain is but Lord of Biscay, and has to swear under the
+oak-tree of Guernica to respect the fueros or customs of the province.
+Don Carlos had so done; he was in Spain, it was true, but where he was
+at the moment<a name="page_190" id="page_190"></a> the Cura was unable to say; his court was perambulatory.</p>
+
+<p>The fueros were abolished by the Cortes in 1841 and but partially
+restored in 1844, so that in inscribing them as one of the watchwords on
+their banner, the Basques were fighting for something more solid than
+glory. They cling to their rights as Britons do to Magna Charta, only
+with this difference&mdash;they have a clearer conception of what they are. I
+had been trying to arrive at some knowledge of the fueros, and obtained
+much information from a volume by the late Earl of Carnarvon.<a name="FNanchor_D_4" id="FNanchor_D_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_D_4" class="fnanchor">[D]</a>
+Guipúzcoa, Alava, and Biscay, though an integral part of the Spanish
+monarchy, for ages enjoyed their own laws, and a recapitulation of some
+which were in force in Biscay will be a fair sample of all. Biscay was
+governed by its own national assemblies, arranged its own taxation,
+yielded contributions to the Sovereign as a free gift, had no militia
+laws, was exempt from naval<a name="page_191" id="page_191"></a> impressment, provided for its own police in
+peace and its own defence in war. No monopoly, public or private, could
+be established there. Only Biscayans by birth could be nominated to
+ecclesiastical appointments; every Biscayan was noble, and his house was
+inviolable; there was perfect equality of civil rights. In short, those
+Basques flourished under the amplest measure of Home Rule, and had all
+the benefits of the Habeas Corpus Act under another name long before
+that Bill was legalized by the Parliament of Charles II. The
+liberty-loving Basques were tolerant as well as independent. The
+Inquisition was never vouchsafed breathing-room in their midst. When
+Protestants escaped from France after the massacre of St. Bartholomew,
+they were treated to asylum amongst them.<a name="FNanchor_E_5" id="FNanchor_E_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_E_5" class="fnanchor">[E]</a></p>
+
+<p>We moved about among the guerrilleros. They were mostly light-limbed and
+stalwart men, and were none the worse for the sprinkling of seniors of
+sixty and lads of sixteen. Many had the bow-legs of the mountaineer,
+built like the hinder pair<a name="page_192" id="page_192"></a> of artillery-horses&mdash;the legs that tell of
+muscularity and lasting stamina. Their drill was very loose, and skill
+in musketry left much to be desired. They had no perception of
+distance-judging, and some were so grossly ignorant of the mechanism of
+their weapons that they knocked off the back-sights of their rifles,
+alleging that they hindered them from taking correct aim. The Marquis de
+la Hormazas&mdash;a meagre, tall, elderly man&mdash;was commandant of the
+battalion, and was stern in the exaction of discipline. During the stay
+of the Navarrese at Vera, a captain was degraded to the ranks for having
+entered the lists of illicit love. The Frenchwoman who was the partner
+of his amour was politely shown over the mountain and warned not to
+return.</p>
+
+<p>The battalion left for the interior of the province. Leader was still
+too weak to enter on a campaign; Sheehan had to look after the
+belongings of his comrade Taylor, and break the news of his death to his
+mother; and I saw plainly that it was out of the question attempting to
+catch up the flitting headquarters of Don Carlos without a horse.<a name="page_193" id="page_193"></a>
+Besides, I had to complete arrangements for the transmission of letters
+and telegraphic messages when I had any to send, and for the reception
+of money; in sum, to open up communication with a base. So we returned
+to France as we came.</p>
+
+<p>On arriving at St. Jean de Luz, a startling rumour awaited us. The
+steel-built Carlist privateer had been captured at the mouth of the
+Adour; she had been taken a prize to San Sebastian; Stuart and Travers
+were in close custody; and there were alarmists who whispered that they
+would be tried by drum-head as pirates, and hung up in chains in the
+cause of humanity. It was well for me I did not accept the invitation to
+that water-party. I ran over to Bayonne to ascertain what particulars I
+could, saw the Carlist Junta, the British and Spanish Vice-Consuls, and
+from their combined and conflicting narratives was able to sift some
+grains of the authentic. But the sudden first report was undeniable. The
+weasel had been caught asleep.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>San Margarita</i> was a serious loss to the cause. She had cost
+£3,500. She was very fast,<a name="page_194" id="page_194"></a> being capable of a speed of between ten and
+eleven knots an hour, and should be equal to fourteen knots if her
+lifting screw had another blade. A three-bladed screw had been provided,
+and was to have been fitted to her stern on her return from the
+ill-fated expedition which put an end to her roving career. It was true
+that the descendant of kings was under bolts and bars. The French
+journals described him as a "Monsieur Stuart, a Scotch colonel,
+entrusted by the English Catholics with collections for the Carlist
+cause." They had never heard of his royal lineage, of his connection
+with the Austrian cavalry, or of his exploits by the side of the unhappy
+Maximilian in Mexico. He assumed the responsibility of ownership of the
+vessel. The hue-and-cry description of him was "a man of forty to
+forty-five years of age, over middle height, figure spare, features
+thin, and resolute in expression."</p>
+
+<p>The burly bronzed Corkonian was also in durance, and with the pair of
+officers were a picked crew of thirteen Englishmen, including engineers,
+steward, stokers, and able-bodied seamen, and<a name="page_195" id="page_195"></a> one Spanish cabin-boy. A
+Basque pilot, an old smuggler, familiar with every nook and crevice of
+the Bay of Biscay, had escaped.</p>
+
+<p>If reports were credible, the <i>San Margarita</i> had already landed two
+millions of cartridges, and an immense quantity of arms. Much vexation
+was caused to the officers of the Spanish navy in those quarters by the
+stories of the daring feats she had achieved, absolutely discharging a
+cargo once on the very wharf of Lequeieto, as if she were a peaceful
+merchantman, and on another occasion sending off rifles and ammunition
+by small boats in the dead of night, a man-of-war lying sleepily
+oblivious of what was going on just outside her. It was felt that her
+continued impunity was a reproach, and three small vessels of the
+Spanish navy were commissioned to cruise between Bilbao and Bayonne on
+the look-out for her. This little squadron of vigilance consisted of <i>El
+Aspirante</i> and <i>El Capricho</i>, gun-boats, and the <i>Buenaventura</i>, a
+three-gun steam-brig. On Tuesday, August 12th, the <i>Buenaventura</i>,
+flying a George's Jack at her peak, was off Fontarabia for a portion of
+the day,<a name="page_196" id="page_196"></a> close in shore. At nightfall she disappeared&mdash;it is now
+supposed into the sheltered and almost invisible inlet of Los Pasages,
+between Fontarabia and San Sebastian. Before daybreak on Wednesday, the
+Carlists under Dorregaray swarmed down from the hills covering Cape
+Higuer. The <i>San Margarita</i> came in sight, and began landing arms in the
+same spot where the undisturbed landing of the 28th July had been
+effected. Not more than three hundred stand had been put on shore, and
+about one hundred thousand cartridges in boxes, labelled in English
+"metallic rolled cartridges, centre-primed," when she had to get away,
+as the daylight began to play the informer. She dropped down towards
+Bayonne, and appears to have reached a point some four miles from the
+French shore (the exact distance is a moot question), where she laid to
+and allowed her furnaces to cool The men were "dead tired out" after
+their night's work, and the captain considered that he was within the
+protection of French waters. But there is a very ancient proverb about a
+pitcher and a veil, and the period of its realization had been<a name="page_197" id="page_197"></a> reached
+at last Whilst the <i>San Margarita</i> was effecting the landing, a
+coastguard's boat had slipped from under the heights of Fontarabia, and
+given notice of what was going on to the <i>Buenaventura</i> in Los Pasages,
+and the brig steamed out, still with the British colours at her peak
+Whilst the Carlist privateer was motionless in fancied security&mdash;there
+was some want of prudence or vigilance there, surely&mdash;the gun-brig crept
+down and overhauled her before alarm could be given, and the rakish
+schooner-yacht, the skimmer of the seas, had the humiliation of falling
+a prey to a wretched slow boat that she could laugh at with steam up in
+the open sea. The arrest was made in the usual manner, and the captors
+behaved with the customary naval courtesy. They were over-joyed at their
+good fortune, and gave their prisoners to eat and to drink&mdash;champagne to
+the officers and chacoli to the men. They towed their prize into the bay
+of St. Sebastian, and there was triumph. The yellow and scarlet flag of
+Spain was over the wee <i>San Margarita</i> as she entered, and Colonel
+Stuart and Captain Travers and their com<a name="page_198" id="page_198"></a>panions must have felt sore,
+for all the good cheer and generous wine. Still there was quite a
+courtly scene on board&mdash;hand-shakings and reciprocal compliments&mdash;as
+they were marched off to the dungeon of the Castillo de la Mota on a
+hill in the city, where they were incarcerated. There they did not fall
+on such pleasant lines as afloat. The Republicans lost no time in
+unloading the vessel. They took off her, with a hurry that betrayed
+apprehension, 1,545 carbines and six Berdan breech-loaders, with a
+number of armourer's tools. It was remarked that the rifles supplied to
+the regular troops from Madrid were sighted to eight hundred metres, but
+that the range of those seized from the Carlists did not exceed five
+hundred.</p>
+
+<p>I went over to San Sebastian by tug from Socoa on the 16th of August,
+and sent up my card to M. de Brunet, the British Vice-Consul. He said he
+had called on the prisoners, and that the sailors murmured at their
+treatment. If I went to the citadel, after three&mdash;as it was Saturday
+afternoon, and visiting hours commenced then&mdash;I could see them without
+difficulty. I did clamber up the hill,<a name="page_199" id="page_199"></a> and found this was not the case.
+On owning that I had no pass from the military governor, I was denied
+admittance. Happening to meet the commandant, I represented what I
+wanted, and he very civilly granted me leave to visit the prisoners
+"para un momento." As the gates were thrown open Stuart advanced and met
+me, grasping my hand cordially, and slipping a letter up the sleeve of
+my coat. He had caught sight of me labouring up the hill, and had
+immediately hastened to scribble a few lines which he trusted to my
+sympathy with misfortune to smuggle to their destination for him. He was
+not mistaken, and in so doing I had no qualm of conscience. I
+accompanied him to his cell, and he told me the story of the capture of
+the <i>San Margarita</i>. It was substantially as I have related; they
+thought they were in a <i>mare clausum</i>, at all events they had drifted
+out of it on the tide of fate; but there was a nice question of
+international law. The <i>ruse</i> of hoisting the British flag was
+legitimate if the <i>Buenaventura</i> substituted her own flag before
+proceeding to board them. The <i>San Margarita</i> had the flags of more<a name="page_200" id="page_200"></a>
+than one nation in her lockers; but the gun-brig had no power to act the
+policeman in neutral waters. There was the point. Travers was in a
+separate lodging; they had been accommodated at first in the one cell,
+but they could not agree&mdash;ashore as afloat the old feud existed.
+However, both assented to a truce in order to have a talk with me. They
+were cheerful, had cigars <i>ad libitum</i> (at their own expense, of
+course), and were permitted to get their rations from the Hôtel de
+Londres in the city. The cells they occupied were bare, white-washed,
+low-ceiled rooms, some eight paces by six. They were not so clean or
+well-ventilated as Newgate cells, and the beds were spread on the floor.
+The captives had access to newspapers and writing materials, and it is
+but the due of the officers in charge to testify that they were
+extremely affable and disposed to make their prisoners as comfortable as
+possible. Still, in the close, stifling weather, to be locked up within
+the narrow circuit of a dungeon was limbo. The pair wore their own
+clothes, Travers still retaining a navy-jacket with brass buttons
+engraved with the initials of some yacht<a name="page_201" id="page_201"></a> club, and did not complain of
+having been subjected to indignities. While I was with them the shadow
+of a face darkened the window; it was a Carlist prisoner who had hoisted
+himself up on the shoulders of a comrade from a yard below; he had a
+letter in his mouth. I took it, and slipped him a bundle of cigars for
+distribution among his fellow cage-birds. From this it may be deduced
+that the gaol regulations were not very stringent. The Carlists were
+treated as forfeit of war, not felons, and had no honest chance of
+illuminating their brows with the martyr halo of Baron von Trenck or
+Silvio Pellico.</p>
+
+<p>San Sebastian is the most modern town in the Peninsula, having been
+re-built in 1816, three years after its destruction by the incensed
+allied troops. It is a great summer resort of wealthy Spanish idlers&mdash;a
+sort of Madrid-super-Mare. The attractions of the capital are to be had
+there, with the supplementary advantages of pure air, mountain scenery,
+and luxurious sea-bathing on a level sandy beach. There is a public
+casino, and a score of clandestine hells where a fortune can be lost in
+a<a name="page_202" id="page_202"></a> night at monté&mdash;in short, every infernal facility for Satanic
+gambling. Cigarettes are cheap, and so are knives. There is an Alameda,
+where the band plays, and a passable imitation, of the Puerta del Sol,
+less the fountain, in the broad arcaded Plaza de la Constitution. There
+is a small theatre, a spacious bull-ring, and several commodious
+churches, where Pepita can talk the language of fans to her heart's
+content. Every attraction of Madrid which could reasonably be expected
+is to be had, I repeat, and hidalgos and sloe-eyed senoras speckle the
+promenades in the gloaming, and impart a mingled aroma of garlic and
+gentility, pomade and pretentiousness, to the chief town of Guipúzcoa.
+San Sebastian would be for Madrileños what Paris is for Bostonians, if a
+few of the attractions of the "only court," which could not reasonably
+be expected, were not lacking&mdash;say an occasional walk round of the
+Intransigentes, to show their political muscles; a grandiloquent, frothy
+word-tempest in the Congress, and the Sunday cock-fight. I am speaking,
+be it understood, of San Sebastian in ordinary summers. A short
+twelvemonth before<a name="page_203" id="page_203"></a> my visit, a pair of pouting English lips told me it
+was "awfully jolly."</p>
+
+<p>At the date with which I am concerned, it was anything but "awfully
+jolly." The fifteen thousand rich visitors who were wont to flock into
+the city during the season had gone elsewhere to recruit their health on
+the sands and lose their money at the gaming-tables. They had been
+frightened to the coasts of France by the apparition of Carlism, and San
+Sebastian was plaintive. Her streets and her coffers were empty. The
+campamento of bathing-huts was ranged as usual on the velvet rim of the
+ear-like bay, but no bathers were there. There were more domestics than
+guests in the hotels; and at the <i>table d'hôte</i> three sat down in a
+saloon designed for a hundred to breakfast in; and we had no butter. The
+peasants in the country round were afraid to bring in the produce of
+their dairies and barn-yards. The bull-ring was to let; conscientious
+barbers shaved each other or dressed the hair on the wax busts in their
+windows, in order to keep alive the traditions of their craft; the
+fiddlers in the concert-room of the casino scraped<a name="page_204" id="page_204"></a> lamentations to
+imaginary listeners. A Sahara of dust had settled on the curtain of the
+theatre, and fleet-footed spiders made forages athwart it from one
+cobwebby stronghold to another. The once festive resort had lost its
+spirits completely, and all on account of this civil war. It was summer,
+but the city was in a state of hibernation. No business was done in the
+shops, the cafés were empty, most of the resident population who could
+afford it had emigrated, and the public squares were as vacant as if
+there were a perpetual siesta. There was no sign of animation, as we
+understand it in England. There were but three vessels in the west
+bay&mdash;the <i>Buenaventura</i>, a merchant steamer, and the <i>San Margarita</i>,
+pinioned at last, her yellow funnel cold. Sojourn in the place was
+insupportable. I knew not how to kill the tedious hours. I climbed again
+to the Castle of the Mota, inspected some English tombs on the slope of
+the acclivity, and noticed that if the citadel is still a position of
+strength, nature deserves much of the credit. The defences recently
+thrown up had been devised and executed carefully, and if the defenders<a name="page_205" id="page_205"></a>
+were only true to themselves, the Carlists, with no better artillery
+than they possessed, might as well think of taking the moon as of
+entering San Sebastian. They would have a formidable fire from
+well-planted cannon to face; stockades, and strong earthworks, and more
+than one blockhouse cunningly pierced with loopholes, to carry. Even if
+San Sebastian was entered, the configuration of the streets was such as
+to give every aid to disciplined men as opposed to mere guerrilleros.
+The city is built in blocks, on the American system; the wide
+thoroughfares cross each other at right-angles, and all of them could be
+swept as with a besom by a few guns <i>en barbette</i> behind a breastwork at
+either end. In this sort of work, accuracy of aim is not called for, as
+in that warfare up in the mountains. If it were, not much reliance could
+be placed on the Republican artillery. General Hidalgo had well-nigh
+nullified that arm of the service. A Carlist leader, in whose
+information and whose word confidence could be reposed, assured me that
+not a single Carlist had yet been killed or wounded by the Republican<a name="page_206" id="page_206"></a>
+gunners. The estimated lists of the enemy's casualties given by both
+parties during the struggle, I may remark <i>en passant</i>, were grossly
+exaggerated. The butcher's bill was very small in proportion to the
+expenditure of gunpowder. Returning to the question of the defence of
+San Sebastian&mdash;even on the supposition that the main works and town were
+to fall into the hands of the Carlists, the citadel still remained,
+where a determined leader could hold out till relief came, as long as
+his provisions lasted. This lofty citadel is almost impregnable. It was
+hither the French retired in 1813, and it took General Graham all that
+he knew to dislodge them. If I were asked what were the prospects of the
+Carlists getting into the place, I should say there was but one&mdash;by
+crossing over a golden bridge. But that implied the possession of money,
+and money was precisely what the Carlists declared they needed most.</p>
+
+<p>There was always the remote hazard of a Carlist rising in San Sebastian,
+for there were in the city the children of settlers from the rural
+districts<a name="page_207" id="page_207"></a> who bit their thumbs at the sight of the muzzled <i>San
+Margarita</i>, and prayed that Charles VII. might have "his ain again." But
+they were in the minority. The Miqueletes, a soldierly body of men in
+scarlet Basque scones very like to the Carlist head-gear, and a blue
+capote with cape attached, garrisoned the citadel. They were brave and
+loyal to the Republic, and the object of deep grudge to the Chicos, for
+they were Basques of the towns. Many of these provincial militiamen had
+come in from the small pueblos in the neighbourhood, where they ran the
+risk of being eaten up by "the bhoys;" and this was the only accession
+to the population which redeemed the dismal, tradeless port from the
+appearance of having been stricken by plague and abandoned, and lent it
+at intervals an artificial bustle.</p>
+
+<p>I sickened of San Sebastian, with its angular propriety; its high,
+haughty houses, holding up their heads in architectural primness; its
+wide geometrical streets, where there is no shade in the sun, no shelter
+in the wind. I began to hate it for its rectilinearity, and dub it a
+priggish, stuck-<a name="page_208" id="page_208"></a>up, arrogant upstart among cities. What business had it
+to be so straight and clean and airy? Fain would I shake the dust off my
+feet in testimony against it; but here was the trouble. How to get
+away&mdash;that was a knotty problem. The railway had been torn up for
+months, and the armour-vested locomotives were rusting on the sidings at
+Hendaye. The dirty hot little tug, the <i>Alcorta</i>, that plies between the
+quay and Socoa, had left; and I grieved not, for the thought of a
+passage by her was nausea. Three more torturing hours never dragged
+their slow length along for me than those I spent on board her coming
+over. Try and call up to yourself three hours in a low-class cook-shop,
+coated an inch thick with filth, and fitted over the boiler of a penny
+steamer dancing a marine break-down on the Thames, opposite the outlet
+of the main-drainage pipes. That, intensified by strange oaths and
+slop-basins, was the passage by the <i>Alcorta</i>. But dreary, lonely San
+Sebastian was not to be endured. Those poor fellows above, accustomed to
+the wild freshness and freedom of the sea, how they must mourn and
+repine! By<a name="page_209" id="page_209"></a> some means or other I must get back to the world that is not
+petrified. No diligences dare to affront the dangers of the short
+journey to the Irun railway-station, since three were stopped some days
+before, the traces cut, the horses stolen, the windows shattered, the
+woodwork burned, and the charred wreck left on the roadside, a terror to
+those who neglect to obey the commands of the Royalist leaders.</p>
+
+<p>"Royalist prigants, serr!" shouted a corpulent German doctor, connected
+with mines in the neighbourhood, who retained fierce recollections of
+having been robbed of a "boney, capitalest of boneys for crossing a
+mountain."</p>
+
+<p>I told the doctor I was about to trust to luck, and set out on foot if I
+could persuade nobody to provide me with a vehicle.</p>
+
+<p>"Serr, you air mad, foolish mad," said the doctor. "Those horrid
+beebles, I tell you, are worse than prigants; if you hayff money, they
+will dake it; if you hayff not money, they will stroke your pack fifty
+times, pecause you hayff it not. They will<a name="page_210" id="page_210"></a> cut your ears off; they will
+cut your nose off; they are plack tevils!"</p>
+
+<p>I determined to trust to luck all the same. The black devils might not
+be all out so black as they were painted.<a name="page_211" id="page_211"></a></p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h3>
+
+<p class="head">Belcha's Brigands&mdash;Pale-Red Republicans&mdash;The Hyena&mdash;More about the
+<i>San Margarita</i>&mdash;Arrival of a Republican Column&mdash;The Jaunt to Los
+Pasages&mdash;A Sweet Surprise&mdash;"The Prettiest Girl in Spain"&mdash;A Madrid
+Acquaintance&mdash;A Costly Pull&mdash;The Diligence at Last&mdash;Renteria and
+its Defences&mdash;A Furious Ride&mdash;In France Again&mdash;Unearthing Santa
+Cruz&mdash;The Outlaw in his Lair&mdash;Interviewed at Last&mdash;The Truth about
+the Endarlasa Massacre&mdash;A Death-Warrant&mdash;The Buried Gun&mdash;Fanaticism
+of the Partisan-Priest.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">T<span class="smcap">here</span> is fine scope for exaggeration in civil war; but he who wants the
+truth about the Montagues does not consult the Capulets. There must be
+bad characters amongst the Carlists, I reflected; and when they are on
+outpost duty at a distance from officers, and have taken a drop of
+aguardiente too much, they may sometimes fail to appreciate the nice
+distinction between <i>meum</i> and <i>tuum</i>. The band of one Belcha, which was
+hovering in the<a name="page_212" id="page_212"></a> neighbourhood of San Sebastian, had a shady reputation.
+It would be unjust to tempt these simple-minded guerrilleros with the
+sight of a Derringer, a hunting-watch, a tobacco-pouch, or a
+reconnoitring-glass. All these articles are useful on the hills. But
+even Belcha's looters had some conscience; they drew the line at money
+and wedding-rings. Besides, in cases of robbery restitution was
+invariably made when the chiefs of the revolt were appealed to in proper
+form, so that on the whole the Carlists did not deserve the name the
+German doctor had given them. Regular soldiers do not always carry the
+Decalogue in their kit; there was marauding in the Peninsula,
+notwithstanding the iron discipline of the Iron Duke; the Summer Palace
+at Pekin was despoiled of its treasures by gentlemen in epaulettes, and
+the Franco-German War was not entirely unconnected with stories about
+vanishing clocks. So I would not be diverted from my purpose.</p>
+
+<p>Before leaving San Sebastian I tried to obtain permission for a second
+visit to the citadel-prison in order to see the crew of the <i>San
+Margarita</i>, but<a name="page_213" id="page_213"></a> without avail. Yet the officers in charge (all of the
+regular army), and indeed the privates of the local militia, were
+anything but truculent gaolers; they seemed willing to strain a point to
+oblige. The Republicanism of the officers was of a very pale red; but
+there was one hirsute Volunteer of Liberty who acted as chief warder,
+and took a delight in the occupation. He rattled his bunch of keys as if
+their metallic dissonance were music, grumbled at the urbanity of his
+superiors, and bore himself altogether as if their politics were
+suspicious; and he, a pure of the pure, were there as warder over that
+too. I nicknamed him the hyena in my own mind; but I could not conceive
+him laughing anywhere save in front of a garrote with a Royalist neck in
+the rundel, and then his laugh at best would be but the inward chuckle
+of a Modoc.</p>
+
+<p>Stuart took the hyena coolly, regarding him as an amusing phenomenon;
+Travers surveyed him as he would the portrait of the Nabob on London
+hoardings, and pronounced him a whimsical illustration of Republican
+sauce. Stuart, I<a name="page_214" id="page_214"></a> should have stated, was anxious that it should be
+known that he had caused the name of the whilom <i>Deerhound</i> to be erased
+from the list of yachts, when he chartered her as a merchant-steamer,
+renamed her, and went into the contraband-of-war line. It was contrary
+to his wish to compromise any club. The confiscated cargo was the last
+he had intended delivering, but he told me with a smile that ten
+thousand stand of rifles had already found their way to Vera. There was
+no legitimate explanation of the capture of the hare by the tortoise,
+although Travers was prepared to swear he was in French waters&mdash;he
+thought he was, no doubt&mdash;but he was just on the wrong side of the
+limit. There was one comfort. On the way to Bayonne a boat-load of men
+had been landed at Socoa on leave, amongst them the Basque pilot, who
+might otherwise have been helped to a short shrift, and the dog's death
+from a yard-arm.</p>
+
+<p>Carlist sympathizers endeavoured to procure me a conveyance to Irun, but
+nobody cared to affront the loss of horses, for Belcha's band
+requisitioned the cattle even of those identical in political
+feel<a name="page_215" id="page_215"></a>ing&mdash;the good of the cause was their plea&mdash;so at last I was forced
+to say I should be glad of a trap to Los Pasages, a few miles off,
+whence I might be able to go forward on foot.</p>
+
+<p>While I was waiting for the arrival of the vehicle, and reading <i>El
+Diario</i>, the local daily paper&mdash;a sheet the size of the palm of one's
+hand&mdash;until I had the contents by rote, an incident occurred to beguile
+suspense. The vanguard of the corps of Sanchez Bregua, the commander of
+the Republican Army of the North, rode into the city. They had come from
+Zarauz, a seaside village four leagues away&mdash;a section of mounted
+Chasseurs in a uniform like to that of the old British Light Dragoons.
+The troopers were in campaign order, with rifled carbines slung over
+their backs, pugarees hanging from their shakoes over their necks, and
+were dust-covered and sunburnt, but soldierly. They were horsed
+unevenly, and for light cavalry carried too great a burden. But that is
+not a fault peculiar to Spanish light cavalry. The average weight of the
+British Hussar equipped is eighteen stone. A quarter of an hour later
+the main body came in<a name="page_216" id="page_216"></a> sight, a long column of infantry marching by
+fours. It was headed by a party of Civil Guards, acting as guides. As
+the column reached the open space by the quay, it deployed into line of
+companies, a movement capitally executed. The men were bigger and
+tougher than those of the French Line. Their uniform was similar, except
+that they had wings to their capotes instead of worsted epaulettes. All
+wore mountain-shoes, but were not hampered with tenting equipage on
+their knapsacks. Each battalion was led by a staff-officer, who was
+splendidly, or wretchedly, mounted, as his luck had served him. The
+company officers carried alpenstocks, and their orderlies had officers'
+cast foraging-caps on top of their glazed shakoes. I noticed a battalion
+of Cazadores, distinguished by the emblematic brass horn of chase
+wrought on their collars, and two companies of Engineers in uniforms
+entirely blue, with towers on their collars. These latter were robust,
+sinewy young fellows. After the infantry came a company of the 2nd
+Regiment of Mountain Artillery with four small pieces, each drawn by a
+single mule, and behind them a<a name="page_217" id="page_217"></a> squadron of Mounted Chasseurs, and a
+long cavalcade of pack-horses and mules.</p>
+
+<p>After a deal of exploration a driver was dug up, and after a deal of
+negotiation he consented to take me to Los Pasages. Thanks to Republican
+vigilance, but principally it may have been to the nature of the ground,
+the road thither was clear. We started at six o'clock in the evening,
+and after a lively spin through sylvan scenery drew up in less than an
+hour at the outskirts of a village on the edge of a quiet pool, which we
+had bordered for nigh a mile. No papers had been asked for, on leaving,
+at the bridge over the Urumea, where a post of volunteers kept guard by
+an antique and stumpy bronze howitzer, mounted on a siege-carriage, and
+furnished with the dolphin-handles to be seen on some of the
+last-century guns in the Tower Arsenal. No papers were asked for either
+at the Customs' station, some hundred yards farther on; but the
+Carabineros looked upon me as a lunatic, and significantly sibilated.
+None were asked for at the approach to the village. Scarcely had I
+alighted when a fishwife ran out of a cabin and<a name="page_218" id="page_218"></a> addressed me in Basque.
+I could not understand her, and motioned her away, when a winsome lassie
+of some eighteen summers, tripping up the road, came to my aid, and
+began speaking in French as if she were anticipating my arrival.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur wants a shallop to go to France?"</p>
+
+<p>I was taken aback, but answered, "Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur will follow me."</p>
+
+<p>And she gave me a meaning sign&mdash;half a wink, half a monition. I
+followed, and examined my volunteer guide more attentively. What a prize
+of a girl! Hair black as night, but with a glossy blackness, was parted
+on her smooth forehead, and retained behind, after the fashion of the
+country, by a coloured snood, but two thick Gretchen plaits escaped, and
+hung down to her waist, making one wish that she had let her whole
+wealth of tresses wander free. Eyes blue-black, full by turns of soft
+love and sparkling mischief; Creole complexion, with blood rich as
+marriage-wine coursing in the dimpled cheeks; teeth white as the fox's;
+lips of clove-pink. And what a shape had she&mdash;ripe, firm,<a name="page_219" id="page_219"></a> and piquant!
+Do you wonder that I followed her with joy? Do you wonder that I began
+weaving a romance? If you do, I pity you. Did I want a shallop? Of
+course I did; but alas! might I not have echoed Burger's lament:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"The shallop of my peace is wrecked</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">On Beauty's shore."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>She was a Carlist, I was sure of that. All the comely maidens were
+Carlists. In the service of the King the most successful crimps were
+"dashing white sergeants" in garter and girdle. And she took me for an
+interesting Carlist fugitive, and she was determined to aid in my
+escape. How ravishing! She was a Flora Macdonald, and I&mdash;would be a
+Pretender. I had fully wound myself up to that as we entered Los
+Pasages.</p>
+
+<p>Los Pasages consists of rows of houses built on either side of a basin
+of the sea, entered by a narrow chasm in the high rocky coast. Sailing
+by it, one would never imagine that that cleft in the shore-line was a
+gate to a natural harbour, locked against every wind, and large enough
+to accommo<a name="page_220" id="page_220"></a>date fleets, and whose waters are generally placid as a lake.
+This secure haven, <i>statio benefida carinis</i>, is hidden away in the lap
+of the timbered hills, and is approached by a passage (from which its
+name is borrowed) which can be traversed in fifteen minutes. The change
+from the boisterous Bay of Biscay, with its "white horses capering
+without, to this Venetian expanse of water in a Swiss valley, dotted
+with chalets and cottages, must have the effect of a magic
+transformation on the emotional tar who has never been here before, and
+whose chance it was to lie below when his ship entered. The refuge is
+not unknown to English seamen, for there is a stirring trade in minerals
+with Cardiff, in more tranquil times. But now Los Pasages is deserted
+from the bar down to the uttermost point of its long river-like stretch
+inland, except by the smacks and small boats of the native fishers, a
+tiny tug, and a large steamer from Seville which is lying by the wharf.
+There is no noise of traffic; the one narrow street echoes to our
+tramping feet as I follow my charming cicerone, who has started up for
+me like some good spirit of a fairy-<a name="page_221" id="page_221"></a>tale. She leads me to an inn, bids
+me enter, and flies in search of the owner of the shallop. The landlord
+comes to greet me, and I recognise in him an acquaintance&mdash;Maurice, a
+former waiter in the Fonda de Paris, in Madrid. I questioned Maurice as
+to my chances of getting across to Irun by land that night; but he
+assured me it was too late, and really dangerous; that the road was
+infested by gangs of desperadoes; and that it would be safer for me to
+travel, even in the day-time, without money or valuables. The owner of
+the shallop came, but as he had the audacity to ask eighty francs for
+transporting me round to Fontarabia, and as I had found Maurice, I
+resolved to stop in Los Pasages for the night.</p>
+
+<p>"You have only to cross the water to-morrow morning," said Maurice, "and
+you are in Kenteria, where you will be sure to get a vehicle."</p>
+
+<p>The backs of the houses all overlook the port, and all are balconied and
+furnished with flowered terraces, from which one can fish, look at his
+reflection, or take a header into the water at pleasure. A glorious nook
+for a reading-party's holiday, Los<a name="page_222" id="page_222"></a> Pasages. Not if fair mysteries like
+my friend crop up there; but where is she, by-the-way? She does not
+re-appear; but Maurice will help me to discover who and what she is.</p>
+
+<p>"Maurice, are there any pretty girls here?"</p>
+
+<p>Maurice looks at me reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Señor, you have been conducted to my house by one who is acknowledged
+to be the prettiest in all Spain."</p>
+
+<p>That night I dreamt of Eugenia, the baker's daughter, the pride of Los
+Pasages, who was waiting for a husband, but would have none but one who
+helps Charles VII. to the throne. I recorded that dream for the
+bachelors of Britain, and conjured them to make haste to propose for
+her&mdash;not that the Carlist war was hurrying to a close; but I have
+remarked that girls inclined to be plump at eighteen sometimes develop
+excessive embonpoint about eight-and-twenty. On inquiry, I found a key
+to the enigma which had filled me with sweet excitement. Eugenia, who
+had been to the citadel-prison to carry provisions to a friend in
+trouble, had seen me speaking to Colonel Stuart, and was<a name="page_223" id="page_223"></a> anxious to
+serve me because of my supposed Carlist tincture. My supposed Carlist
+tincture did not prevent a lusty Basque boatman from charging five
+francs next morning for the five minutes' pull across the water to the
+road to Renteria, where I caught a huge yellow diligence, which had
+ventured to leave San Sebastian at last with the detained mails of a
+week. The machine was horsed in the usual manner&mdash;that is, with three
+mules and two nags&mdash;but how different from usual was the way-bill! With
+the exception of the driver and his aide, a youngster who jumped down
+from the box every hundred yards, and belaboured the beasts with a
+wattle, there was not one passenger fit to carry arms. We had a load of
+women and babies, a decrepit patriarch, and two boys under the fighting
+age. We halted at Renteria, harnessed a fresh team to our conveniency,
+and sent on a messenger to ascertain if the Carlists had been seen on
+the road. Everybody in Renteria carried a musket. All the approaches
+were defended by loopholed works, roofed with turf, and a perfect
+fortress was constructed in the centre of the town by a series<a name="page_224" id="page_224"></a> of
+communications which had been established between the church and a block
+of houses in front by <i>caponnières</i>. The church windows were built up
+and loopholed, and a semicircular <i>tambour</i>, banked with earth to
+protect it from artillery, was thrown up against the houses in the
+middle of the street, so as to enfilade it at either side in case of
+attack. There were troops of the line in Renteria, but no artillerymen,
+nor was there artillery to be served. Without artillery, however, the
+place, if properly provisioned, could not be taken, if the defending
+force was worth its salt.</p>
+
+<p>The messenger having returned with word that all was right, we went
+ahead at a fearful pace on a very good road, lined with poplars, and
+running through a neat park-like country. Over to the right we could see
+the church-spire of Oyarzun, and the smoke curling from the chimneys; a
+little farther on we passed the debris of a diligence on the wayside;
+the telegraph wires along the route were broken down, and the poles
+taken away for firewood; we dived under a railway bridge, but never a
+Carlist saw we during the continuous brief<a name="page_225" id="page_225"></a> mad progress over the eight
+miles from Renteria to the rise into Irun.</p>
+
+<p>We clattered up to the rail way-station at a hand-gallop, the people
+rushing to the doors of the houses, and beaming welcome from smiling
+countenances. There was a faint attempt to cheer us. At the station a
+number of officials, a couple of Carabineros, and a knot of idlers were
+gathered. The driver descended with the gait of a conquering hero, and
+turned his glances in the direction of a cottage close by. An old man on
+crutches, a blooming matron with rosary beads at her waist, and a
+nut-brown maid with laughing eyes stood under the porch, embowered in
+tamarisk and laurel-rose. The driver strode over to them, crying out
+triumphantly:</p>
+
+<p>"El primero! Lo! I am the first."</p>
+
+<p>"How valiant you are, Pedro!" said the nut-brown maid, advancing to meet
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"How lucky you are!" said the matron, with a grave shake of the head.</p>
+
+<p>"How rash you are!" mumbled the grandfather; "you were always so."<a name="page_226" id="page_226"></a></p>
+
+<p>I envied that driver, for the nut-brown maid kissed him, as she had the
+right to do, for she was his affianced, and had not seen him for five
+days.</p>
+
+<p>From the Irun station to Hendaye was free from danger. I walked down
+through a field of maize to the Bidassoa, crossed by a ferry-boat to the
+other side, where a post of the 49th of the French Line were peacefully
+playing cards for buttons in the shade of a chestnut, and a few minutes
+afterwards was seated in front of a bottle of Dublin stout with the
+countryman who forwarded my letters and telegrams from over the border.</p>
+
+<p>Naturally I had a desire to ascertain the whereabouts of Santa Cruz. The
+man had almost grown mythical with me. I had heard at San Sebastian that
+ten thousand crowns had been offered for his scalp at Tolosa, and the
+fondest yearning&mdash;the one satisfying aspiration of the hyena&mdash;was to
+tear him into shreds, chop him into sausage-meat, gouge out his eyes, or
+roast him before a slow fire. Which form of torment he would prefer, he
+had not quite settled. A sort of intuitive faculty, which has<a name="page_227" id="page_227"></a> seldom
+led me astray, said to me that Santa Cruz was somewhere near. I revolved
+the matter in my mind, and fixed upon the man under whose roof he was
+most likely to be concealed. I went to that man and requested him
+bluntly to take me to the outlawed priest&mdash;I wished very much to speak
+to him.</p>
+
+<p>He smiled and answered, "He is not here."</p>
+
+<p>"The bird is flown," I said, "but the nest is warm. He is not far away."</p>
+
+<p>"True," he said, "come with me."</p>
+
+<p>We drove some miles&mdash;I will not say how many&mdash;and drew up at an enclosed
+villa, which may have been in France, but was not of it. To be plain, it
+was neutral territory, and my host, who knew me thoroughly, disappeared
+for a few moments, and said Santa Cruz was sleeping, but that he had
+roused him, and that he would be with us presently.</p>
+
+<p>I was sitting on a garden-seat in front of the house where he was
+stopping, when he presented himself on the threshold, bareheaded, and in
+his shirt-sleeves. The outlaw priest was no slave to<a name="page_228" id="page_228"></a> the
+conventionalities of society. He did not adjust his necktie before
+receiving visitors. I am not sure that he wore a necktie at all. Let me
+try and draw his portrait as he stood there in the doorway, in
+questioning attitude. A thick, burly man under thirty years of age, some
+five feet five in height, with broad sallow face, brawny bull-neck, and
+wide square-set shoulders&mdash;a squat Hercules; dark-brown hair, cut short,
+lies close to his head; he is bearded, and has a dark-brown pointed
+moustache; shaggy brows overhang his small steel-gray eyes; his nose is
+coarse and devoid of character; but his jaws are massive, his lips firm,
+and his chin determined. He is dressed like the better class of peasant,
+wears sandals, canvas trousers, a light brownish-gray waistcoat, and has
+a large leathern belt, like a horse's girth, round his waist. His
+expression is severe, as of one immersed in thought; with an occasional
+frown, as if the thought were disagreeable. His brows knit, and a shadow
+passes over his features when anything is mentioned that displeases him;
+but I was told when he smiled, the smile was of the sweetest and most
+amiable. I<a name="page_229" id="page_229"></a> cannot say I saw him in smiling mood, but I saw him frown,
+and never did anyone so truly translate to me the figure of speech of
+"looking black." He advanced with self-possession, returned my salute
+without coldness or <i>empressement</i>, as if it were a mere matter of form,
+and sat down beside me. We had a long chat. Santa Cruz did not take much
+active part in it, but listened as his host spoke, punctuating what was
+said with nods of assent, and now and again dropping a guttural
+sentence. His maxim was that deeds were of more value than words, and he
+adhered to it. His host, I may interpose, was the most devoted of
+Carlists, and had given largely of his means to aid the cause. He had
+great faith in Santa Cruz, and told me in his presence (but in French,
+which the Cura understood but slightly) that while Santa Cruz was in the
+northern provinces, the King had half-a-man in his service, and that if
+he would now call on Cabrera he would have a man and a half, for that
+Santa Cruz would act with Cabrera.</p>
+
+<p>"If Don Carlos does not consent to that," said my host, "you will see
+that he will have to return<a name="page_230" id="page_230"></a> into France, and live in ignominy for the
+rest of his days!"</p>
+
+<p>This Cura, represented in the Madrid play-house as half-drunk and
+dancing lewdly, was the most abstemious and chastest of men, and neither
+smoked nor drank wine. His fame went on increasing, as did the number of
+his followers. He effected prodigies with the means at his command. His
+friends in France supplied him with two cannon, which were smuggled
+across the border. He turned the foundry at Vera into a munition
+factory; employed women to make uniforms for his men; and insisted that
+the intervals between his expeditions should be given up to drill. He
+was dreaded, respected, admired by his band; he was strong and hardy;
+faced perils and privations in common with the lowest, but used no
+weapon but his walking-stick The priest, the anointed of God, may not
+shed blood. The affair of Endarlasa was the coping-stone of his career.
+Various accounts were related of that event; it is only fair to let
+Santa Cruz himself speak. This is what he told me:</p>
+
+<p>At three one morning he opened fire on the<a name="page_231" id="page_231"></a> guard-house occupied by the
+Carabineros, at the bridge over the Bidassoa, between Vera and Irun. A
+white flag was hoisted on the guard-house. He ordered the fire to cease,
+and advanced to negotiate the conditions of surrender. The enemy, who
+had invited him to approach, by the white flag, fired and wounded one of
+his men. He issued directions to take the place, and spare nobody. The
+place was taken, and nobody was spared. Twenty-seven dead bodies
+littered the Vera road that morning.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it true that you pardoned two?" I asked the priest.</p>
+
+<p>"No, ninguno! Porqué?" he answered with astonishment. "Not one. Why
+should I?"</p>
+
+<p>The reason I had asked was that I had been told that a couple of the
+Carabineros had plunged into the Bidassoa and tried to swim to the other
+side; but the Cura, on his own avowal, with Rhadamanthine justice had
+commanded them to be shot as they breasted the current, and they were
+shot. He was no believer in half-measures.</p>
+
+<p>A lady partisan of his, who had dined with him<a name="page_232" id="page_232"></a> the day before, told me
+he never breathed a syllable of the attack he meditated, to her or any
+of his band. An English gentleman, who visited the ground while the
+corpses were still upon it, assured me that the sight was horrifying,
+and, such was the panic in Irun, that he verily believed Santa Cruz
+might have taken the town the same afternoon, had he appeared before it
+with four men.</p>
+
+<p>To pursue the story of the redoubtable Cura. The bruit of his exploits
+had gone abroad, and among certain Carlists it seemed to be the opinion,
+as one of them remarked to me, that "<i>Il a fait de grandes choses, mais
+de grandes bêtises aussi.</i>" He was making war altogether too seriously
+for their tastes. Antonio Lizarraga was appointed Commandant-General of
+Guipúzcoa about that period, and ordered Santa Cruz to report to him.
+Santa Cruz, who was in the field before him, and had five times as many
+men under his control, paid no heed to his orders. Lizarraga then sent
+him a death-warrant, which is so curious a document that I make no
+apology for appending it in full:<a name="page_233" id="page_233"></a></p>
+
+<div class="blockquote"><p class="c smcap">Translation.</p>
+
+<p>(A seal on which is inscribed "Royal Army of the North, General
+Command of Guipúzcoa.")</p>
+
+<p>"The sixteenth day of the present month, I gave orders to all the
+forces under my command, that they should proceed to capture you,
+and that immediately after you had received the benefit of clergy
+they should execute you.</p>
+
+<p>"This sentence I pronounced on account of your insubordination
+towards me, you having disobeyed me several times, and having taken
+no notice of the repeated commands I sent you to present yourself
+before me to declare what you had to say in your own defence in the
+inquiry instituted against you by my directions.</p>
+
+<p>"For the last time I ask of you to present yourself to me, the
+instant this communication is received; in default of which I
+notify to you that every means will be used to effect your arrest;
+that your disobedience and the unqualifiable acts laid to your
+charge will be published in all the newspapers; and that the
+condign punishment they deserve will be duly exacted.</p>
+
+<p>"God grant you many years.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"The Brigadier-General Commanding.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 50%;">(Signed)<span style="margin-left: 2em;"> &nbsp; &nbsp; </span>"<span class="smcap">Antonio Lizarraga.</span></span></p>
+
+<p>"Campo Del Honor, 28th of March, 1873.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Señor Don Manuel Santa Cruz."</span></p>
+
+<p>"Note.&mdash;Have the goodness to acknowledge this, my
+communication."</p></div>
+
+<p>This missive was received by Santa Cruz, but he never acknowledged it.
+His host permitted me to read and copy the original.<a name="page_234" id="page_234"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Is not that arbitrary?" he said to me in English; "very much like what
+you call Jedburgh justice; hanging a man first and trying him
+afterwards. Lizarraga says, 'This sentence I pronounced'&mdash;all is
+finished apparently there; and yet he cites the man whom he has ordered
+to be immediately executed to appear before him to declare what he has
+to say!"</p>
+
+<p>Another phrase in this death-warrant, which escaped the host, impressed
+me with its naïveté:</p>
+
+<p>"<i>God grant you many years.</i>"</p>
+
+<p>But Lizarraga, in this politeness of custom, meant no more, it is to be
+presumed, than did the Irish hangman who expostulated with his client in
+the condemned cell:</p>
+
+<p>"Long life to ye, Mr. Hinery! and make haste, the people are getting
+onpatient."</p>
+
+<p>Santa Cruz bit his way out of the toils, however, but not so his band.
+They were surrounded at Vera, caught, with a few exceptions, disarmed,
+assembled and addressed in Spanish by the Marquis de Valdespina, whose
+remarks were translated to them into Basque by the Cura of Ollo. They
+cried<a name="page_235" id="page_235"></a> "Viva el Rey!" Their arms were subsequently restored to them, and
+the men were distributed among other battalions. But they still regret
+their old leader, and Santa Cruz is popular by the firesides of the
+mountaineers of Guipúzcoa. One of his mountain guns fell into the hands
+of Lizarraga, but the other was buried in some spot only known to
+himself and a few trusted companions.</p>
+
+<p>During my interview I made it my business to study the priest
+attentively, and this is what I honestly thought of him. He was a
+fanatic, a sullen self-willed man with but one idea&mdash;the success of the
+cause; and but one ambition&mdash;that it should be said of him that it was
+he, Santa Cruz, who put Don Carlos on the throne of his ancestors. The
+globe for him was bounded by the Pyrenees and the sea; he had but one
+antipathy after the heretics (all who did not worship God as he did) and
+the Liberals, and that was Lizarraga. I considered it a mistake that
+Lizarraga was not the Cura of Hernialde, and Santa Cruz the
+Commandant-General of Guipúzcoa. The priest had a natural military
+instinct&mdash;I would almost go so far<a name="page_236" id="page_236"></a> as to say a spice of military
+genius; and had he had a knowledge of the profession of arms would
+probably have developed into a great general of the Cossack type. His
+hatred to Lizarraga led him into littleness and injustice. He chuckled
+at the idea of Lizarraga not being able to find the buried gun, as if
+that were any great triumph over him; and he sneered at the idea of
+Lizarraga, who was not able to take Oyarzun, meditating an attempt on
+Tolosa. I could thoroughly understand that the Carlist priest bore
+malice to the officer who supplanted him and condemned him to death. But
+what Lizarraga did was done in compliance with the King's will. At the
+same time there could be no doubt that Santa Cruz was treated with scant
+courtesy after all he had accomplished, and had a right to feel himself
+ill-used, and the victim of jealous rivalry. He said that he was
+prepared, any day the King permitted him, to traverse the four
+provinces, and hold his enemies <i>in terrorem</i> with five hundred men. And
+he was the very worthy to do it. He complained bitterly that three of
+his<a name="page_237" id="page_237"></a> followers had been shot by Lizarraga. One story relates that they
+stole into Guipúzcoa to levy blackmail, another that they merely went to
+dig up some money that was interred when the legion was disbanded. In
+any case they appeared in arms in a forbidden district, and incurred the
+capital penalty. Santa Cruz went to Bordeaux to beg for their lives at
+the feet of Doña Margarita. She received him most graciously, and
+promised to send a special courier to her husband to intercede in their
+behalf. Before the King's reprieve could possibly have arrived the three
+were executed.</p>
+
+<p>As we were about to leave, a colleague who was with me asked the Cura if
+he would permit him to visit his camp, if it came to pass that he took
+up arms again in Spain.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall see," said Santa Cruz; "wait till I am there."</p>
+
+<p>My own conviction is that the priest held correspondents in abhorrence,
+and that his first impulse would have been to tie a zealous one up to a
+tree, and have thirty-nine blows given him with a stick.<a name="page_238" id="page_238"></a> Perhaps I did
+him wrong, but if ever he did take up arms again, it was my firm
+intention to be south when he was north, for he was about the last
+person in creation to whose tender mercies I should care to entrust
+myself.<a name="page_239" id="page_239"></a></p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h3>
+
+<p class="head">An Audible Battle&mdash;"Great Cry and Little Wool"&mdash;A Carlist Court
+Newsman&mdash;A Religious War&mdash;The Siege of Oyarzun&mdash;Madrid Rebels&mdash;"The
+Money of Judas"&mdash;A Manifesto from Don Carlos&mdash;An Ideal
+Monarch&mdash;Necessity of Social and Political Reconstruction
+Proclaimed&mdash;A Free Church&mdash;A Broad Policy&mdash;The King for the
+People&mdash;The Theological Question&mdash;Austerity in Alava&mdash;Clerical and
+Non-Clerical Carlists&mdash;Disavowal of Bigotry&mdash;A Republican Editor on
+the Carlist Creed&mdash;Character of the Basques&mdash;Drill and
+Discipline&mdash;Guerilleros <i>versus</i> Regulars.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">W<span class="smcap">hen</span> a man's office is to chronicle war and he is within hearing of the
+echoes of battle, but cannot reach a spot from which the scene of action
+might be commanded, it is annoying in the extreme. Such was my strait on
+the 21st of August, a few days after my arrival from San Sebastian. I
+was at Hendaye, the border-town of France. From the Spanish frontier the
+report of heavy firing was audible for hours, apparently coming from a
+point<a name="page_240" id="page_240"></a> between Oyarzun and Renteria. First one could distinguish the
+faint spatter of musketry, and afterwards the undeniable muffled roar of
+artillery. Then came a succession of sustained rolls as of
+volley-firing. About noon the action must have been at its height. The
+distant din was subsequently to be caught only at long intervals, as if
+changes of position were in course of being effected; but at three
+o'clock it regained force, and raged with fury until five, when it
+suddenly died away.</p>
+
+<p>I was burning with impatience, and made several unavailing attempts to
+cross the Bidassoa. The ferryman, acting under instructions from the
+gendarmes, refused to take passengers. By the evening train a delegate
+from the Paris Society for the Succour of the Wounded arrived from
+Bayonne with a box of medicine and surgical appliances. He, too, was
+unable to pass into Spain. Meantime, rumour ran riot. Stories were
+current that there had been fearful losses.</p>
+
+<p>"At eleven o'clock men were falling like flies," said one eye-witness,
+who succeeded in running away from the field before he fell.<a name="page_241" id="page_241"></a></p>
+
+<p>Not a single medical man would leave France in response to the call of
+the Paris delegate for volunteers to accompany him. Were they all
+Republicans? Did they fear that Belcha might take a fancy to their
+probes and forcipes? Or did they look upon the big battles and
+tremendous lists of casualties in this most uncivil of civil wars as
+illustrations of a great cry and little wool? If the latter was their
+notion, they were right. Three days after this serious engagement, I
+learned the particulars of what had taken place. General Loma, a
+brigadier under Sanchez Bregua, with a column of 1,500 men, came out
+from San Sebastian to cover a working-party while they were endeavouring
+to throw up a redoubt for his guns on an eminence between Irun and
+Oyarzun, so as to put an end to the tussle over the possession of the
+latter hamlet, which was a perpetual bone of contention. The Carlists
+fired upon him from behind the rocks in a gorge to which he had
+committed himself, but were outnumbered. Word was sent to the cabecilla,
+Martinez, at Lesaca, and he arrived with reinforcements at the double,
+and encompassed<a name="page_242" id="page_242"></a> Loma with such a cloud of sulphurous smoke that the
+Republicans had to fall back upon San Sebastian. The casualties in this
+Homeric combat were not appalling; there was more gunpowder than blood
+expended. The losses on the Republican side were one killed and fifteen
+wounded. On the Carlist side they were less, for the Carlists kept under
+cover of the fern and furze. But then it must be considered that the
+firing only lasted nine hours!</p>
+
+<p>Don Carlos was not slow in calling the printing-press to his aid. One of
+his first acts after his entry into his dominions was to start an
+official gazette, <i>El Cuartel Real</i>, the first number of which is before
+me as I write. I have seen queer papers in my travels, from the
+<i>Bugler</i>, a regimental record brought out by the 68th Light Infantry in
+Burmah, to the <i>Fiji Times</i>, and the <i>Epitaph</i>, the leading organ of
+Tombstone City, in the territory of Arizona; but this assuredly was the
+queerest. It was published by Cristóbal Perez, on the summit of Peña de
+la Plata, a Pyrenean peak. There might be less acceptable reading than a
+<i>résumé</i> of its contents.<a name="page_243" id="page_243"></a></p>
+
+<p><i>El Cuartel Real</i> does not impose by its magnitude. It is about
+one-eighth the size of a London daily journal; but if it is not great by
+quantity it is by quality. Over the three columns of the opening page
+figure the three watchwords of the Royal cause, "God, Country, King."
+The paragraph which has the post of honour is headed "Oficial," and has
+in it a flavour of the <i>Court Newsman</i>. Here it is as it appears in the
+original, boldly imprinted in black type:</p>
+
+<p>"S. M. el Rey (q.D.g.) continúa sin novedad al frente de su leal y
+valiente ejército.</p>
+
+<p>"S. M. la Reina y sus augustos hijos continúan tambien sin novedad en su
+importante salud."</p>
+
+<p>As it is not vouchsafed to everyone to understand Castilian, I may as
+well give a rough translation, which read herewith:</p>
+
+<p>"His Majesty the King (whom God guard) continues without change at the
+front of his loyal and valiant army.</p>
+
+<p>"Her Majesty the Queen and her august children also continue without
+alteration in their precious health."<a name="page_244" id="page_244"></a></p>
+
+<p>Then <i>El Cuartel Real</i> appends what takes the place of its leading
+article&mdash;a reproduction of a letter from Don Carlos to his "august
+brother," Don Alfonso, setting forth the principles on which he appeals
+for Spanish support. This document is so important that I must return to
+it anon. Then comes a circular from the "Real Junta Gubernativa del
+Reino de Navarra," in session at Vera. The purport of this, epitomized
+in a sentence, is to raise money. Next, we arrive at the "Seccion
+Oficial," the most important paragraph of which announces that the
+Chief, Merendon, has inaugurated a Carlist movement in Toledo, with a
+well-armed force, exceeding 280 men&mdash;to wit, 150 horsemen and 130
+infantry&mdash;and that he hopes shortly to gather numerous recruits. The
+"Seccion de Noticias" makes up the body of the paper, and is richer in
+information. We are told that the most excellent and illustrious Bishop
+of Urgel, accompanied by several sacerdotal and other dignitaries,
+arrived in the town of Urdaniz, at half-past seven on the previous
+Wednesday evening. His Lordship rested a night in the house of the
+Vicar, and left<a name="page_245" id="page_245"></a> the following morning, escorted by his friend and host,
+the said Vicar, Brigadier Gamundi, and Colonel D. Fermin Irribarren,
+veterans of the Carlist army, for Elisondo. From that the prelate was
+reported to have started to headquarters, "to salute the King of Spain,
+august representative of the Christian monarchy, which is the only plank
+of safety in the shipwreck of the country."</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Cuartel Real</i> warmly congratulates the Bishop on the fact of his
+having come to the conviction that "the present war is a religious war,
+and on that account eminently social"&mdash;(social in Spanish must have some
+peculiar shade of meaning unknown to strangers, for otherwise there is
+no sequence here)&mdash;and proceeds to speak with an eloquence that recalls
+that wretched Republican, Castelar, of the standard of faith in which
+resides Spanish honour and&mdash;here come two words that puzzle me, <i>la
+hidalguia y la caballerosidad</i>; but I suppose they mean nobility and
+chivalry, and everything of that kind. The next notice in the royal
+gazette is purely military, and makes known that the siege of the
+important town of Oyarzun<a name="page_246" id="page_246"></a> has begun. "On the 20th the batteries opened
+fire, and, according to report, the enemy had one hundred men <i>hors de
+combat</i>." The batteries! There is a touch of genius in that phrase.
+Reading it, one would imagine that the Royalists had a royal regiment of
+artillery, and that eight pieces of cannon, at the very least, played
+upon the unfortunate Oyarzun. A jennet with a 4-pounder at its heels
+would be a more correct representation of the strength of the Carlist
+ordnance.</p>
+
+<p>To resume the story of the siege of Oyarzun. "On the 21st," adds <i>El
+Cuartel Real</i>, "there was talk of a capitulation, and it is possible
+that the place has surrendered at this hour." The paragraph that
+succeeds it is a gem: "Of the 1,010 armed rebels in Eibar (Guipúzcoa),
+210 betook themselves to San Sebastian, when they suspected the approach
+of the Royal forces, and the 800 remaining gave up to General Lizarraga
+their rifles, all of the Remington system." There is no quibble about
+the latter statement. The Carlists had easier ways of procuring arms
+than by running cargoes from England. But is there not something<a name="page_247" id="page_247"></a>
+inimitable in the epithet "rebels"? There can be no question but that
+everyone is a rebel in romantic Spain&mdash;in the opinion of somebody else.
+The only question is, Who are the constituted authorities? Until that is
+settled the editor of <i>El Cuartel Real</i> is perfectly justified in
+treating the volunteers of liberty, in those districts where Charles
+VII. virtually reigns, as armed rebels. Although this town of Eibar had
+frequently risen up against the legitimate authorities named by his
+Majesty, it is pleasant to learn that General Lizarraga did not impose
+the slightest chastisement on the population, thus giving a lesson of
+forbearance to the "factious generals." Next we are informed that on the
+day the Royal forces entered Vergara, the ignominious monument erected
+by the Liberals in record of the greatest of treasons (the treaty
+between the treacherous Maroto and Espartero in 1839) was destroyed
+amidst enthusiasm, and the parchment in the municipal archives
+commemorating its erection was taken out and burned in the public
+square. I may add (but this I had from private sources) that the coin
+dug up from under<a name="page_248" id="page_248"></a> the monument was cast to the wind as the money of
+Judas. Navarre, continues <i>El Cuartel Real</i>, is dominated by our valiant
+soldiers under the skilful direction of his Majesty; Lizarraga has
+occupied in a few days Mondragon, Eibar, Plasencia, Azpeitia, Vergara,
+and other important places in Guipúzcoa, and obtained "considerable
+booty of war;" the standard of legitimacy is waving triumphantly in
+Biscay, and Bilbao is blockaded. There the tale of victory ends; but we
+arrive at matters not less gratifying in another sense. The
+distinguished engineer, Don Mariano Lana y Sarto, has been appointed to
+look after the repair of the bridges destroyed by Nouvilas. Don Matias
+Schaso Gomez, a member of the press militant, has been promoted to be a
+commandant for his valour at Astigarraga, and is nominated for the
+laurelled cross of San Fernando; and the illustrious doctor, Señor Don
+Alejandro Rodriguez Hidalgo, has been named chief of the sanitary staff,
+and entrusted with the establishment of military hospitals.</p>
+
+<p>The last paragraph in this curious little gazette, printed up amid the
+clouds on the summit of the<a name="page_249" id="page_249"></a> Silver Hill, states that the Royal quarters
+were at Abarzuzu on the 17th instant, and that Estella, close by, was
+stubbornly resisting, but would soon be in the power of the Royalists. A
+column which had attempted to relieve the garrison was energetically
+driven back towards Lerin by two battalions commanded by his Majesty in
+person. But by the time <i>El Cuartel Real</i> came under my notice Estella
+had fallen, and the Carlists had put to their credit a genuine success.</p>
+
+<p>As the question of Carlism is still one of prominent interest&mdash;is,
+indeed, what the French term an "actuality," and may crop up again any
+day, the letter of the claimant to the throne to Don Alfonso (alluded to
+some sentences above) is worth translating. It is the authoritative
+exposition of the aims of the would-be monarch, and of the line of
+policy he intended to pursue should he ever take up his residence in
+that coveted palace at Madrid. Its date is August 23rd, 1873, and the
+contents are these:</p>
+
+<p class="top5">"<span class="smcap">My dear Brother</span>,</p>
+
+<p class="spain">"Spain has already had opportunities enough to ascertain my ideas
+and sentiments as man and<a name="page_250" id="page_250"></a> King in various periodicals and
+newspapers. Yielding, nevertheless, to a general and anxiously
+expressed desire which has reached me from all parts of the
+Peninsula, I write this letter, in which I address myself, not
+merely to the brother of my heart, but without exception to all
+Spaniards, for they are my brothers as well.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot, my dear Alfonso, present myself to Spain as a Pretender
+to the Crown. It is my duty to believe, and I do believe, that the
+Crown of Spain is already placed on my forehead by the consecrated
+hand of the law. With this right I was born, a right which has
+grown, now that the fitting time has come, to a sacred obligation;
+but I desire that the right shall be confirmed to me by the love of
+my people. My business, henceforth, is to devote to the service of
+that people all my thoughts and powers&mdash;to die for it, or save it.</p>
+
+<p>"To say that I aspire to be King of Spain, and not of a party, is
+superfluous, for what man worthy to be a king would be satisfied to
+reign over a party? In such a case he would degrade himself in his
+own person, descending from the high and<a name="page_251" id="page_251"></a> serene region where
+majesty dwells, and which is beyond the reach of mean and pitiful
+triflings.</p>
+
+<p>"I ought not to be, and I do not desire to be, King, except of all
+Spaniards; I exclude nobody, not even those who call themselves my
+enemies, for a king can have no enemies. I appeal affectionately to
+all, in the name of the country, even to those who appear the most
+estranged; and if I do not need the help of all to arrive at the
+throne of my ancestors, I do perhaps need their help to establish
+on solid and immovable bases the government of the State, and to
+give prosperous peace and true liberty to my beloved Spain.</p>
+
+<p>"When I reflect how weighty a task it is to compass those great
+ends, the magnitude of the undertaking almost oppresses me with
+fear. True, I am filled with the most fervent desire to begin, and
+the resolute will to carry out, the enterprise; but I cannot hide
+from myself that the difficulties are immense, and that they can
+only be overcome by the co-operation of the men of notability, the
+most impartial and honest in the kingdom; and, above all, by the
+co-operation of the kingdom itself,<a name="page_252" id="page_252"></a> gathered together in the
+Cortes which would truly represent the living forces and
+Conservative elements of Spain.</p>
+
+<p>"I am prepared with such Cortes to give to Spain, as I said in my
+letter to the Sovereigns of Europe, a fundamental code which would
+prove, I trust, definitive and Spanish.</p>
+
+<p>"Side by side, my brother, we have studied modern history,
+meditating over those great catastrophes which are at once lessons
+to rulers and a warning to the people. Side by side, we have also
+thought over and formed a common judgment that every century ought
+to have, and actually has, its legitimate necessities and natural
+aspirations.</p>
+
+<p>"Old Spain stood in need of great reforms; in modern Spain we have
+had simply immense convulsions of overthrow. Much has been
+destroyed; little has been reformed. Ancient institutions, some of
+which cannot be revivified, have died out. An attempt has been made
+to create others in their place, but scarcely had they seen the
+light when symptoms of death set in. So much has been done, and no
+more. I have before me a stupendous<a name="page_253" id="page_253"></a> labour, an immense social and
+political reconstruction. I have to set myself to building up, in
+this desolated country, on bases whose solidity is guaranteed by
+experience, a grand edifice, where every legitimate interest and
+every reasonable personality can find admittance.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not deceive myself, my brother, when I feel confident that
+Spain is hungry and thirsty for justice; that she feels the urgent
+and imperious necessity of a government, worthy and energetic,
+severe and respected; and that she anxiously wishes that the law to
+which we all, great and small, should be subject, should reign with
+undisputed sway.</p>
+
+<p>"Spain is not willing that outrage or offence should be offered to
+the faith of her fathers, believing that in Catholicity reposes the
+truth she understands, and that to accomplish to the full its
+divine mission, the Church must be free.</p>
+
+<p>"Whilst knowing and not forgetting that the nineteenth century is
+not the sixteenth, Spain is resolved to preserve from every danger
+Catholic unity&mdash;the symbol of our glories, the essence of our<a name="page_254" id="page_254"></a>
+laws, and the holy bond of concord between all Spaniards.</p>
+
+<p>"The Spanish people, taught by a painful experience, desires the
+truth in everything, and that the King should be a king in reality,
+and not the shadow of a king; and that its Cortes should be the
+regularly appointed and peaceful gathering of the independent and
+incorruptible elect of the constituencies, and not tumultuous and
+barren assemblies of office-holders and office-seekers, servile
+majorities and seditious minorities.</p>
+
+<p>"The Spanish people is favourable to decentralisation, and will
+always be so; and you know well, my dear Alfonso, that should my
+desires be carried out, instead of assimilating the Basque
+provinces to the rest of Spain, which the revolutionary spirit
+would fain bring to pass, the rest of Spain would be lifted to an
+equality in internal administration with those fortunate and noble
+provinces.</p>
+
+<p>"It is my wish that the municipality should retain its separate
+existence, and the provinces likewise, proper precautions being
+employed to prevent possible abuses.<a name="page_255" id="page_255"></a></p>
+
+<p>"My cherished thought as constant desire is to give to Spain
+exactly that which she does not possess, in spite of the lying
+clamour of some deluded people&mdash;that liberty which she only knows
+by name; liberty, which is the daughter of the gospel, not
+liberalism, which is the son of disbelief (<i>de la protesta</i>);
+liberty, in fine, which is the supremacy of the laws when the laws
+are just&mdash;that is to say, conformable to the designs of nature and
+of God.</p>
+
+<p>"We, descendants of kings, admit that the people should not exist
+for the King so much as the King for the people; that a king should
+be the most honoured man amongst his people, as he is the first
+caballero; and that a king for the future should glory in the
+special title of 'father of the poor' and 'guardian of the weak.'</p>
+
+<p>"At present, my dear brother, there is a very formidable question
+in our Spain, that of the finances. The Spanish debt is something
+frightful to think of; the productive forces of the country are not
+enough to cover it&mdash;bankruptcy is imminent. I do not know if I can
+save Spain from that calamity;<a name="page_256" id="page_256"></a> but, if it be possible, a
+legitimate sovereign alone can do it. An unshakable will works
+wonders. If the country is poor, let all live frugally, even to the
+ministers; nay, even to the King himself, who should be one in
+feeling with Don Enrique El Doliente. If the King is foremost in
+setting the example, all will be easy. Let ministries be
+suppressed, provincial governments be reduced, offices be
+diminished, and the administration economized at the same time that
+agriculture is encouraged, industry protected, and commerce
+assisted. To put the finances and credit of Spain on a proper
+footing is a Titanic enterprise to which all governments and
+peoples should lend aid."</p>
+
+<p class="top5">Here follow a repudiation of free trade as applied to Spain, and a few
+well-turned periods dealing in the usual Spanish manner with the duties
+of the ruler, laying down, among other axioms, that "virtue and
+knowledge are the chiefest nobility," and that the person of the
+mendicant should be as sacred as that of the patrician.<a name="page_257" id="page_257"></a></p>
+
+<p>At the close there is a very sensible sentence, affirming that one
+Christian monarch in Spain would be better than three hundred petty
+kings disputing in a noisy assembly. "The chiefs of parties," continues
+the letter, "naturally yearn for honours or riches or place; but what in
+the world can a Christian king desire but the good of his people? What
+could he want to be happy but the love of his people?"</p>
+
+<p>The letter winds up by the affirmation that Don Carlos is faithful to
+the good traditions of the old and glorious Spanish monarchy, and that
+he believed he would be found to act also as "a man of the present age."
+The last sentence is a prayer to his brother, "who had the enviable
+privilege of serving in the Papal army," to ask their spiritual king at
+Rome for his apostolic benediction for Spain and the writer.</p>
+
+<p>If this document was written <i>propriâ manu</i>, by Don Carlos, he must be
+endowed with higher intellectual faculties than most Kings or Pretenders
+possess. It is undeniably clever, and is more progressive than one would
+expect from an<a name="page_258" id="page_258"></a> upholder of the doctrine of Divine right. It may be, as
+Tennyson sings, that the thoughts of men (even when they are Bourbons)
+are widened with the process of the suns. But I protest that there is
+such a masterly mistiness in it here and there, such a careful elusion
+of rocks and ruggednesses political, and such a fine wind-beating
+flourish of the banner of glittering generality, that I think there were
+more heads than one engaged in the concoction of the manifesto. I have
+studiously refrained from the introduction of the religious topic as far
+as I could in this work&mdash;it is outside my sphere; but I should be unjust
+to the reader did I not give him some information (not from the
+controversial standpoint) on a subject which will obtrude itself in any
+discussion on the merits of the conflict which has twice distracted
+Spain and may divide the country again. It is unfortunately indisputable
+that religion was poked into the quarrel. The struggle was described in
+<i>El Cuartel Real</i> as a religious war; the theological allegiance of the
+partisans of Don Carlos was appealed to, and their ardent attachment to
+the Papacy was worked upon,<a name="page_259" id="page_259"></a> as in the concluding sentence of the
+proclamation of Don Carlos. In those portions of the north where Carlism
+was all-powerful, the authorities were emphatically showing that those
+who served under them must be practical Roman Catholics <i>nolentes
+volentes</i>. An austere placard, signed by Barona, member of the Carlist
+war committee, was posted in the province of Alava, and ordained among
+other articles: Firstly, that the town councillors of every municipality
+should assist in a body at High Mass; secondly, that the mayors should
+interdict, under the most severe penalties, all games and public
+diversions, and the opening of all public establishments during Divine
+service; and thirdly, that all blasphemers, and all who worked on a
+holiday, who gave scandal, or who danced indecently, should be
+<i>scourged</i>. The first of these articles is lawful enough in a country
+which is almost exclusively Roman Catholic. In England nothing can be
+said against it, seeing that British soldiers of all denominations are
+compelled to attend Church parade, and the prisoners in all gaols have
+to register themselves as belonging to some religion.<a name="page_260" id="page_260"></a> There is just
+this theoretical objection, however&mdash;the article implies that municipal
+honours are to be limited to members of one creed, which is intolerant.
+That which underlay the antipathy of numerous Conservatives outside
+Spain to the Royalist cause, was the belief entertained that the success
+of Don Carlos would lead to the re-assertion of clerical preponderance,
+would destroy liberty of conscience as understood in most European
+nations, and would set up a political priesthood. The manifesto of Don
+Carlos does not deal with those points in the full and categorical
+manner desirable. I was told there were two parties in the Carlist camp,
+the clerical and&mdash;for want of a better name, let it be called&mdash;the
+non-clerical The former, the Basques, and those who gave Carlism its
+great primary impulsion, were as zealously Roman Catholic as ever Manuel
+Santa Cruz was. They looked forward to the re-acquisition of the
+ecclesiastical domains and the re-establishment of the Catholic Church
+in all its ancient supremacy of wealth and power. The non-clericals knew
+that the Basques, even assuming them all to be Carlists, were but
+660,000 in number,<a name="page_261" id="page_261"></a> a small minority of the population, and that the
+existence of a State unduly influenced by a Church&mdash;things temporal
+controlled by personages bound to things spiritual&mdash;was antagonistic to
+the feelings of the majority of Spaniards.</p>
+
+<p>Having met a nobleman distinguished for his services to Carlism, I put
+it to him bluntly, "Would Don Carlos on the throne mean a relapse into
+religious bigotry?"</p>
+
+<p>He answered me with candour, "I am a Roman Catholic, and if I thought so
+I should be the last man to lend a penny to his cause."</p>
+
+<p>"But," I urged, "that is the general impression in England, where he is
+trying to negotiate a loan, and if it is left uncorrected it does him
+injury. Why does he not repel the impeachment?"</p>
+
+<p>"The truth is," he said, "Don Carlos has made too many public
+explanations."</p>
+
+<p>I returned to the charge, challenging my acquaintance to deny that many
+of the supporters of Don Carlos would fall away if they had not the
+thorough belief that his cause was as much identified with the triumph
+of Roman Catholicism as<a name="page_262" id="page_262"></a> with that of legitimacy. His reply was not a
+denial, but an admission of the fact, with the addition that in war one
+must not be too particular as to the means of enlisting aid, and
+stimulating the enthusiasm of supporters, which is an argument as true
+as it is old. Don Carlos, in his manifesto, goes on the assumption that
+the Republicans are all atheists, or something very like it. It is only
+fair to let the Republicans speak for themselves, and explain what is
+the Republican estimate of the Carlist religion. The San Sebastian
+newspaper, <i>El Diario</i>, may be assumed to be a fair exponent of the
+sentiments of the anti-Carlists, and thus emphatically, and not without
+a spice of antithesis, it delivers itself:</p>
+
+<p>"The religion which has the commandment, 'Thou shalt not kill,' forbids
+murder.</p>
+
+<p>"The religion which has the commandment, 'Thou shalt not steal,' forbids
+robbery.</p>
+
+<p>"The religion which is peace, obedience, and love, is no friend of war,
+rebellion, and massacre.</p>
+
+<p>"Resigned and joyous in other days, its martyrs went to death in the
+amphitheatre of Rome, and on the plains of Saragossa, pardon in their
+souls<a name="page_263" id="page_263"></a> and prayer on their lips; to-day pardon is exchanged for wrath,
+and prayer for reproach. Instead of the martyr's palm, we have the
+Berdan breech-loader and the flash of petroleum.</p>
+
+<p>"Anointed of the Lord, ministers of Him who died invoking blessings on
+His enemies, kindle the fires of fratricidal strife, which they call a
+sacred war, and lead on and inflame their dupes by the pretence that the
+gates of Paradise are to be forced open by gunshot.</p>
+
+<p>"Meanwhile the bishops are silent, Rome is dumb, the moral law sleeps,
+the canon law is forgotten; and these pastors, transforming their flocks
+into packs of wolves, scour the plains, blessing murder and sanctifying
+conflagration.</p>
+
+<p>"'King by Divine right,' they cry, like the legists of the Lower Empire;
+'Die or believe,' like the sons of the Prophet. Apostles without knowing
+it, they seek to achieve the triumph of a Pagan principle by a Saracenic
+process.</p>
+
+<p>"They say that religion is lost, because it is shorn of the honour and
+power their kings gave it; that the portals of heaven are barred,
+because they have<a name="page_264" id="page_264"></a> forfeited their tithes and first-fruits, their rents
+and fat benefices; and they try to convince us by discharges of musketry
+that our whole future life depends, on the one hand, on a question of
+vanity, and on the other, on a question of stomach.</p>
+
+<p>"Holy Apostles, disciples of Him who had not a stone whereon to lay His
+head, you who conquered the earth with no arms but those of word and
+example, oh! would you not say if you returned here below, 'Those who
+preach by the voice of platoons; those who evangelize from the mouth of
+cannon; those are not, cannot be, our disciples and successors, for they
+are not fishers of souls, but fishers of snug posts under government'?</p>
+
+<p>"And you, glorious martyrs of the Roman circus and Saragossan fields,
+oh! would you not say, 'No, this Christianity, which goes about sowing
+battle; desolation, tears, and blood wherever it passes, is not
+ours&mdash;no, this Christianity at the bottom of the slaughter of Endarlasa,
+of the hecatomb of Cirauqui, of the sack of Igualada, and of a hundred
+other cruelties, is not ours. Our religion says "Kill not," and this
+murders; says "Steal not," and<a name="page_265" id="page_265"></a> this robs. No, this is not the
+Christian, but the Carlist religion'?"</p>
+
+<p>That is a good specimen of the rhetorical school of writing popular in
+Spanish newspapers; but all that is written is not gospel. From personal
+observation it was evident to me that these Republicans of the Spanish
+towns of the north were not so scrupulous in the outward observances of
+religion as the tone of this indignant Christian leading article would
+convey; neither were the Carlists the "packs of wolves" they were
+represented to be.</p>
+
+<p>Let us see how this inflamed sense of so-called religion affected the
+rank and file among the adherents of Don Carlos.</p>
+
+<p>Indubitably the Royalists, with a very few exceptions, were more than
+moral&mdash;they were sincerely pious, and esteemed it a grateful incense to
+the Most High to kill as many of their Republican countrymen as they
+could without over-exertion. They bowed their heads and repeated prayers
+with the chaplains who accompanied them; as the echoes of the Angelus
+bell were heard they were marched<a name="page_266" id="page_266"></a> to Divine worship every evening, when
+they were in the neighbourhood of a church; they were palpably impressed
+with deep devotional convictions, and yet they were not sour-faced like
+the grim Covenanters of Argyle, nor puritanically uncharitable like the
+stern propounders of the Blue Laws of Connecticut. Their beads returned
+to the pocket or the prayers finished, they laughed and jested, were
+frolicsome as schoolboys in their playhour, and the slightest tinkle of
+music set them dancing. Hospitable and fanatic, faithful and ignorant,
+temperate and dirty&mdash;such are some prominent traits in the character of
+the brave Basque people of the rural districts who wished to govern
+Spain, but who were Spaniards neither by race, nor language, nor
+temperament, nor feeling.</p>
+
+<p>Taken all in all, they are a right manly breed, and, with education to
+correct inevitable prejudices, would be capable of great things. But
+before they could become efficient soldiers, they needed a severe course
+of training. In the flat country, south of the Ebro, it would be cruel
+and foolish to oppose them to regular troops. As guerrilleros,<a name="page_267" id="page_267"></a> they
+were without parallel, being content with short commons, and ever ready
+to play ball after the longest march; but they were ignorant of
+soldiering as technically understood. In the copses and crags of their
+own provinces they were invincible, and could carry on the struggle
+while there was a cartridge or an onion left in the land. But where the
+tactics of the "contrabandista" no longer availed, where surprises were
+impossible and mysterious disappearances not easy, and where the bulk of
+the people were not willing spies, the aspect of affairs was different.
+They were mediocre marksmen with long-range arms of precision, and had
+no proper conception of allowances for wind or sun. Target-practice was
+not encouraged, and yet it was not through thrift of ammunition, for the
+waste of powder in every skirmish was extravagant, and one could not
+rest a night in a village held by the Carlists without being disturbed
+by frequent careless discharges.</p>
+
+<p>With the bayonet, as far as I could learn, they were impetuous in the
+onset, and stubborn, especially the Navarrese. But bayonet-charges
+cannot<a name="page_268" id="page_268"></a> carry stone walls or mud-banks; and in the face of the almost
+incessant peppering of breech-loaders, rushes of the kind have become
+slightly old-fashioned. To the Carlists, in any case, was due the credit
+of readiness to have recourse to the steel whenever there was a rift for
+hand-to-hand fighting. Their military education unfortunately confined
+itself to the rudiments of the drill-book. They fell in, dressed up,
+formed fours by the right, extended into sections on column of march and
+went through the like movements very well&mdash;so well that it was a pity
+they had not an opportunity of adding to their stock of knowledge. They
+had an instinctive aptitude for skirmishing, and were expert at forming
+square, the utility of which, by the way, is as questionable nowadays as
+that of charging.</p>
+
+<p>More attention was paid to discipline than to drill. Pickets patrolled
+the towns into which they entered, and repressed all disorder after
+nightfall; outpost duty was strictly enforced; "larking" was not
+tolerated, and punishments were always inflicted for known and grave
+breaches of order.<a name="page_269" id="page_269"></a></p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h3>
+
+<p class="head">Barbarossa&mdash;Royalist-Republicans&mdash;Squaring a Girl&mdash;At Iron&mdash;"Your
+Papers?"&mdash;The Barber's Shop&mdash;A Carlist Spy&mdash;An Old Chum&mdash;The
+Alarm&mdash;A Breach of Neutrality&mdash;Under Fire&mdash;Caught in the Toils&mdash;The
+Heroic Tomas&mdash;We Slope&mdash;A Colleague Advises Me&mdash;"A Horse! a
+Horse!"&mdash;State of Bilbao&mdash;Don Carlos at Estella&mdash;Sanchez Bregua
+Recalled&mdash;Tolosa Invites&mdash;Republican Ineptitude&mdash;Do not Spur a Free
+Horse&mdash;Very Ancient Boys&mdash;Meditations in Bed&mdash;A Biscay Storm.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">B<span class="smcap">arbarossa</span>, who had never been over the border, suggested to me that I
+should take a trip to Irun, which was held by the anti-Carlists. It
+would be incorrect to write them down as Republicans; they were sprung
+from the Cristinos of the previous generation, and as such were opposed
+to any scion of the house against which their fathers had fought for
+years. All of them were <i>de facto</i> Republicans, and had more knowledge
+and enjoyment of Republican freedom than those who prattled and raved<a name="page_270" id="page_270"></a>
+of Republicanism in Madrid and the south; but they did not take kindly
+to the name. As my friend the late J. A. MacGahan wittily said of
+them&mdash;"They were the Royalist-Republicans of Spain." They were as fond
+of their fueros as any Carlist in the crowd, but they stood up for
+Madrid less that they cared for the policy or personages of the central
+government, than that they had a deep-seated hereditary hatred of their
+neighbours of the rural districts. At heart they were in favour of a
+restoration of the throne, and on that throne they would fain seat the
+young Prince of the Asturias. In those latitudes the lines of John Byrom
+a century before would well apply:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"God bless the King, I mean the faith's defender;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">God bless&mdash;no harm in blessing&mdash;the Pretender;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">But who Pretender is, or who is King,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">God bless us all&mdash;that's quite another thing!"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>"If you go to Irun," said Barbarossa, stroking his moustache, "I am game
+to go with you."</p>
+
+<p>"I am satisfied," said I; "but recollect, you undertake the job at your
+own risk. You are known as an associate of Carlists, and suspected to<a name="page_271" id="page_271"></a>
+be a Carlist agent. I am a stranger and comparatively safe."</p>
+
+<p>He had weighed all that, and was ready to face possible perils. But he
+was not fit to undergo probable fatigues. He could sit at a green table
+in an ill-ventilated atmosphere the night long, but he could not walk
+three miles at a stretch. Neither could he (on account of his illness)
+venture on horseback. To effect a crossing by the railway bridge from
+Hendaye to Irun was out of the question; it was barrier impenetrable.
+The Frenchman would not allow you to pass in your own interest; the
+Spaniard declined to admit you in his so-considered interest. To take
+the mountain-route was tedious, and in the case of Barbarossa not to be
+thought of; the bridge of Endarlasa was broken&mdash;a most contorted
+specimen of artistic dilapidation. To be sure, one could manage to creep
+to the other side by the submerged coping of the parapet, if endowed
+with the balancing powers of a rope-walker and the lustihood of the
+navvy. But Barbarossa was not a Blondin, and had not a physical
+constitution proof against a wetting. I<a name="page_272" id="page_272"></a> had got across that bridge
+once, holding on by my teeth and nails, and retained recollection of it
+in a fit of the cold shivers; but I did not care to repeat the
+operation. In our dilemma, Barbarossa, who was a plucky knave, hit upon
+the plan which ought to have commended itself to us at first.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us stray up the river-bank a few hundred yards," he said, "seize a
+boat, and row ourselves across."</p>
+
+<p>No sooner was the proposition made than it was adopted; but we were
+saved from the ephemeral disgrace of posing as petty amphibious pirates,
+degenerate Schinderhannes of the Bidassoa. We saw a boat; a girl was
+near. The boat was her father's; she engaged to take us over for a
+consideration&mdash;I am certain she had set her heart on a string of
+straw-coloured ribbons and a sky-blue feather in a shop-window in
+Hendaye&mdash;and to await our return at nightfall. We arranged the signal,
+and stealthily stole across, drifting diagonally most of the way; and I
+entrusted the speculative French damsel with my revolver and my Carlist<a name="page_273" id="page_273"></a>
+pass, and paid her a farewell compliment on her face and figure as I
+stepped ashore. Giving her the revolver and pass enlisted her
+confidence. We strolled along with apparent carelessness, entered a
+posada on the road by the waterside and had refreshments. I said I
+should feel much obliged if they could let us have a trap to Irun and
+back, as we had business there, and my friend was tired and not much of
+a pedestrian. An open carriage was provided, and off we drove by the
+skirt of the hill of St. Marcial, where the Spaniards gave Soult such a
+dressing in 1813, passed a series of outer defences with their covering
+and working parties, and entered one of the gates of the town, and never
+a question was asked. Ditches had been dug round the place and
+earthworks thrown up; but the principal reliance of the garrison seemed
+to be in loophooled breastworks made of sand-bags superimposed. Here and
+there were walls of loose stones&mdash;more of a danger than a
+protection&mdash;rude shelter-trenches, and mud-built, wattle-knitted
+refuges, round-topped, and disguised with branches. They had made the
+position strong; but they should<a name="page_274" id="page_274"></a> have gone in for more spade and less
+stones, more mole and less beaver.</p>
+
+<p>We trotted over the narrow paved street, with its flagged sidepaths, and
+drew up on the Plaza, overlooked by the solid square-stone mansion of
+the Ayuntamiento. The windows were screened with planks, and armed
+groups lounged in front; there were barrels of water and heaps of gravel
+at intervals upon the ground; memories of Paris rose to my mind&mdash;Irun
+was preparing for bombardment. If the Carlists had no serious artillery
+in fact, they had a powerful ordnance in the apprehensions of their
+adversaries. Perhaps this was the explanation of the rhodomontade about
+the batteries in <i>El Cuartel Real</i>. We were congratulating ourselves on
+the ease with which we had run the blockade, when an officer of the
+Miqueletes approached our carriage and demanded our papers. I showed my
+Foreign Office passport, with the visa of the Spanish Consulate at
+London upon it. He gave a cursory look at it, bowed, and returned it to
+me. Then came the turn of Barbarossa, and there was a flash of shrewd
+spitefulness in his eyes.<a name="page_275" id="page_275"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Your papers, señor?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have none. I didn't think any were required."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! doubtless you thought Irun was in Carlist occupation. You are
+wrong."</p>
+
+<p>"No; I knew it was not in Carlist occupation. What has that to do with
+me? I am an Englishman," producing a packet of letters.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to see them. I know you. What do you want here?"</p>
+
+<p>"To see a friend."</p>
+
+<p>"Who is your friend?"</p>
+
+<p>Barbarossa was not in the least nonplussed. He said he had heard a
+fellow-countryman, a comrade of his, was in the town.</p>
+
+<p>"You will have to turn back the way you came, and thank your stars you
+are permitted."</p>
+
+<p>"But I am hungry."</p>
+
+<p>"And the horse wants a feed," interposed the driver, who no doubt had
+his own object to serve.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you may stay here for refreshment, but you must get outside our
+gates before dark."</p>
+
+<p>We drove to the principal inn, where we alighted<a name="page_276" id="page_276"></a> and ordered dinner.
+Barbarossa sat down, and I went out to look at the place and search for
+a barber's shop, for I sorely needed a shave. Irun is a well-constructed
+town on the shelving slope of a smaller rise between Mounts Jaizquivel
+and Aya, not far from the coast. It has a population of some 5,000, and
+in ordinary years does a good trade in tiles and bricks, tanned leather,
+and smith's work, besides sending wood to Los Pasages for the purposes
+of the boat-builders. The Bidassoa at its base branches, and thus forms
+the islet of Faisanes, off which the prosperous fisherman can fill his
+basket with trout, salmon, and mullet, aye, and lumpish eels, if his
+predilections so tend.</p>
+
+<p>But I have no intention to describe Irun. Théophile Gautier has done
+that before me, and I am not sacrilegious. There was another customer in
+the barber's shop. As I left after the shave he followed, and accosted
+me on the flagway confidentially.</p>
+
+<p>"How are you, captain?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are in error," I answered. "I am no captain."<a name="page_277" id="page_277"></a></p>
+
+<p>"What! Did I not see you take a boat for the <i>San Margarita</i> at Socoa?"</p>
+
+<p>"That may be; but I only boarded her through curiosity."</p>
+
+<p>"Do not be afraid," he whispered. "How is Don Guillermo?"</p>
+
+<p>"What Don Guillermo?"</p>
+
+<p>"Señor Leader. I was with him when he was wounded; I am a Carlist. I am
+here on the same mission as yourself; to spy what the vermin are doing."</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! good; ramble on, and don't notice me. It is dangerous."</p>
+
+<p>He sauntered along the causeway, hands in pockets and whistling, and
+presently popped into a tavern, and I re-entered the fonda. Hardly had I
+set foot over the threshold when I was stupefied by a welcome in a
+familiar voice, none other than that of Mr. William O'Donovan, who had
+been my comrade and amanuensis throughout the irksome beleaguerment of
+Paris.<a name="FNanchor_F_6" id="FNanchor_F_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_F_6" class="fnanchor">[F]</a> We did not throw our<a name="page_278" id="page_278"></a> arms round our respective necks, hug and
+kiss each other&mdash;I reserve my kisses for pretty girls, newly-washed
+babes, and dead male friends, and then kiss only the brow&mdash;but we did
+join hands cordially and long. In answer to my query as to what had
+brought him to this queer corner at the back of God-speed, he explained
+that he was acting as correspondent of a Dublin paper; for, it appeared,
+the people of Ireland were consumed with anxiety as to the progress of
+the Carlist rising&mdash;details of which, of course, they could not obtain
+in the mere London papers&mdash;and were particularly desirous to have record
+of the doings of the Foreign Legion, a great majority of whom were sons
+of the Emerald Isle. His younger brother, a medical student, was likely
+to come out to join that Legion, and as for Kaspar (a name by which we
+knew his brother Edmond, afterwards triumvir at Merv), he was sure to
+turn up. Mother Carey's chicken hovers near when the elements are at
+strife. He was immensely<a name="page_279" id="page_279"></a> satisfied with his diggings, he said, liked
+the natives, and considered this a splendid chance for improving his
+Spanish. He was reading "Don Quixote" in the vernacular. In a sense, I
+looked upon his presence as a perfect godsend to us, as he came in most
+appropriately as a <i>Deus ex machinâ</i> to create the character of
+Barbarossa's invented friend. O'Donovan was in good standing with the
+Republicans of the town, as he was a staunch Republican himself, and
+could spin yarns of the Republics of antiquity, and of the greatness of
+Paris, and the glories of the United States. He was getting on famously
+with Castilian, and was charmed with the redundancy of its vocabulary of
+vituperation, which was only to be equalled by the Irish, of which his
+father had been such a master. I made Barbarossa and my old chum known
+to one another, and we dined together, pledging the past in a cup of
+wine tempered with the living waters which bubbled up in the sacristy of
+the parish church, and were distributed in bronze conduits through Irun.
+After the meal and the meditative smoke of custom, O'Donovan sat down to
+write a letter, which I<a name="page_280" id="page_280"></a> guaranteed to post for him in France, and
+Barbarossa and I sallied forth for a walk.</p>
+
+<p>We were lounging about the Calle Mayor gazing at the escutcheons over
+every hall-door&mdash;your bellows-mender and cobbler in this democratic town
+were invariably of the seed of Noah in right line&mdash;when the alarm was
+raised that fifty horses had been carried off by the Carlists almost at
+the gates, and that two shots had been heard. The bugler sounded the
+call "To arms," and forthwith a little company consisting of thirty-two
+men, the bugler aforesaid, and a captain, set out at a quick step for a
+high ground beside a signal-tower at one end of the town. We hurried
+forward with them, and passed out through one of the four gates, on the
+side next the mountains. The soldiers took a position on the slope of a
+hill a couple of hundred yards from the gate, and Barbarossa and I
+sheltered ourselves behind an orchard-wall, from which there was an
+uninterrupted view of the billowy tract of meadow and pasture land
+beneath, cut into patches by thick hedges. Quick on our heels emerged
+from the<a name="page_281" id="page_281"></a> town some half-dozen intrepid "volunteers of liberty," and the
+inevitable small boy, a red cap stuck jauntily on three hairs of his
+head and a large cigarette in his mouth. One of the volunteers&mdash;he who
+had demanded our papers on the Plaza&mdash;looked viciously at Barbarossa,
+who assumed a most artistic pretence of stolidity.</p>
+
+<p>"Come here, señor, and you will have a better vision of your friends,"
+he said with mock suavity.</p>
+
+<p>Barbarossa smiled, thanked him, and walked quietly to the place
+indicated, an exposed opening beside the wall.</p>
+
+<p>"I can see nothing," he said.</p>
+
+<p>I adjusted my long-distance glass, and ranged over the wide stretch of
+landscape, but could see nothing either. As I shut it up and returned it
+to the case, a sergeant advanced from the party of soldiers on the slope
+and marched directly towards me. I was puzzled and, I own, a trifle
+unnerved.</p>
+
+<p>"Señor," he said to me, "I carry the compliments of my captain, and his
+request that you would lend him your glass, as he has forgotten his
+own."<a name="page_282" id="page_282"></a></p>
+
+<p>"With pleasure," I answered readily, much relieved. "I will take it to
+him myself, as it is London-made, and he may not understand how it is
+sighted."</p>
+
+<p>This may have been a breach of neutrality, but what was I to do? If I
+refused, the glass would have been taken from me, and I should have been
+compromised. I handed it to the officer with my best bow, explained its
+mechanism to him; he bowed to me, and from that moment I felt that I was
+under his wing. I may be wrong, but I have a notion that in a skirmish
+it is much better to be near regulars than volunteers, and I stood in a
+line with the military a few paces away.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly there was a spark and a report away down in a field of maize,
+some six hundred yards below us, and the whizz of a bullet was heard.</p>
+
+<p>"Steady, men!" said the captain; "don't discharge your rifles."</p>
+
+<p>The sight was very pretty as they stood in a group on the green hillside
+in attitude of suspense, their weapons held at the ready, and all eyes
+fixed on the front, from which the smoke was rising. It<a name="page_283" id="page_283"></a> was very like
+to the celebrated picture by Protais, familiar in every cabaret in
+France, "<i>Avant le Combat;</i>" but even more picturesque than that, for
+these soldiers were dressed most irregularly&mdash;some in tattered capote,
+others in shirt-sleeves, some in shako, others in <i>bonnet de police</i>. A
+few civilians had crept out of the town by this time, and the chief of
+the Miqueletes roared peremptorily to have that gate shut. This was not
+an agreeable position for Barbarossa and myself. Our retreat was cut
+off. We were unarmed. If one of those amateur warriors were killed, we
+ran the imminent hazard of being massacred by his comrades. On the other
+hand, there was the liability of being ourselves shot by the Carlists.
+How were they to distinguish a neutral or a sympathizer from their foes?
+I confess I could not help smiling as the thought occurred to me what a
+piece of irony in action it would be if Barbarossa were to be helped to
+a morsel of lead by his friends, the enemy. With a cheerful equanimity I
+contemplated the prospect of his receiving a very slight contusion from
+a spent bullet on a soft part of his frame.<a name="page_284" id="page_284"></a></p>
+
+<p>Ping, ping, came a few reports, but evidently out of range. Each
+smoke-wreath was in a different direction.</p>
+
+<p>"This may get hot," I said to myself; "the Carlists may not be
+sharpshooters, but this clump of uniforms in relief on the grass must
+present a blur that will be an enticing target for them. I dare not go
+back to the wall, but it might be discreet to lie down. There is no
+disgrace in offering them a small elevation of corpus." I stretched
+myself on the sward, acted nonchalance, and lit a cigar.</p>
+
+<p>The volunteers could no longer be held in control. They opened action on
+their own account, one fellow distinguishing himself by the rapidity of
+his fire, and the intensity with which he aimed at something&mdash;or
+nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, that's Tomas!" said a portly civilian connoisseur, with his hands
+in his pockets. "We know him, he is making music; he wants to get
+himself remarked."</p>
+
+<p>The soldiers did not deliver a shot, but the volunteers kept cracking
+away, and the invisible Carlists replied. Nobody was hit, though
+bullets<a name="page_285" id="page_285"></a> could be heard whizzing overhead for twenty minutes, and one
+did actually knock a chip off a wall. That was the sole damage done to
+the Republican position; the damage to the Carlist must have been less.
+Two of the Miqueletes ventured stealthily down a road leading towards
+the point from which the nearest jets of smoke curled, following the
+ditch by the side, stooping and peering through the bushes. There was a
+volley from afar. They hesitated and stood, as if undecided whether to
+advance.</p>
+
+<p>"Sound the retire for those men," said the captain; and as the call rang
+out they returned.</p>
+
+<p>That volley was the last sign the Carlists gave; and after waiting ten
+minutes, the captain shut up my glass, returned it to me, and remarked
+that the attack was a feint, and had no object beyond worrying his men.
+He gave the order "March," the gate was opened, Barbarossa rejoined me,
+and we returned to Irun, taking care to keep as near the regulars as we
+could. "Nada&mdash;nothing," cried the captain to an inquiring lady on a
+balcony, and the town-gates were closed after the volunteers had<a name="page_286" id="page_286"></a>
+returned and tramped to the Plaza with the proud bearing of citizens who
+had done their duty.</p>
+
+<p>How that heroic Tomas did strut! A fighter he of the choicest brand, one
+not to stop at trifles; there was martial ire in his flaming glance;
+defiance breathed from his nostrils; triumph sat on his lips; he swung
+his arms like destructive flails; and as he entered a tavern one could
+only fancy him calling in a voice of Stentor for a jug of rum and blood
+plentifully besprinkled with gunpowder and cayenne pepper to assuage the
+thirst of combat.</p>
+
+<p>O'Donovan gave me his letter. Barbarossa hinted that it was our best
+course to slope, and slope we did, as soon as the horse was harnessed.
+As we passed down the street a grinning face saluted me from a doorway.
+It was that of my acquaintance from the barber's shop. He gave me a
+meaning wink. The artful Carlists had evidently succeeded in their
+object, whatever it might have been. On the river-bank our fair and
+faithful ferry-maid awaited us. We were conveyed over in safety, and at
+the hotel of Hendaye soon forgot the perils we had encountered.<a name="page_287" id="page_287"></a></p>
+
+<p>Barbarossa was dead-beat, and threw himself on a sofa, where he sank
+back heavy-eyed and exhausted; and I, almost feared that he would drop
+into a coma, as the penalty of overstraining nature, until the sight of
+a pack of cards restored him as if by a spell to his normal wakefulness.</p>
+
+<p>Even in a disturbed region it is needful to have a change of linen, so
+we got back next morning to St. Jean de Luz, where I had left my
+baggage. There I met M. Thieblin, a colleague, whom I had seen last at
+Metz, previous to the siege of that fortress in the Franco-German war.
+He was now representing the <i>New York Herald</i>, and had just returned
+from Estella, at the taking of which place, the most important the
+Carlists had yet seized, he had the luck to be present. He assured me
+that it was utter fatuity to dream of following the Carlists, except I
+had at least one horse&mdash;but that it would be sensible to take two if I
+could manage to procure them. It was more than an ordinary man was
+qualified to cope with, to make his observations, write his letters, and
+look after their transmission, without having to attend to his nag, and<a name="page_288" id="page_288"></a>
+do an odd turn of cooking at a pinch. The riddle was how to get the
+horse&mdash;a sound hardy animal that would not call for elaborate grooming,
+or refuse a feed of barley. Horse-flesh was at a premium, but he thought
+I might be able to have what I wanted at Bayonne, on payment of an
+extravagant price. A requisition for forage and corn could be had
+through the Junta; and I should have no trouble in getting an orderly on
+applying with my credentials to the chief of staff of any of the Carlist
+columns to which I might attach myself. We had a long conversation, and
+Thieblin frankly informed me that in his opinion the Carlists had not
+the ghost of a chance outside their own territory. There they were cocks
+of the walk. What the end might be he could not pretend to vaticinate,
+but "El Pretendiente" would never reign in Madrid. The conflict might
+last for months&mdash;might last for years; but the Carlists owed the
+vitality they had as much to the divisions and inefficiency of their
+adversaries as to their own strength. There would be no important
+engagements&mdash;to dignify them by the epithet&mdash;until the organization of
+the insurrec<a name="page_289" id="page_289"></a>tionary forces was regularized, and they had a stronger
+artillery and an adequate cavalry. M. Thieblin did not stray far from
+the bull's-eye in his prophecy.</p>
+
+<p>I went to bed in the mood of Crookback on Bosworth Field, and felt that
+my dream-talk would shape itself into the cry, "A horse! a horse!"</p>
+
+<p>Until that coveted steed had been lassoed, stolen, or bought, I must
+only endeavour to justify my existence&mdash;that is to say, render value for
+the money expended on me by picking up "copy" anywhere and everywhere.</p>
+
+<p>I was advised to go to Bilbao by sea, but the advice came too late. The
+last steamer from Bayonne had ventured there four-and-twenty hours
+before I sought my passage, and even on that last steamer the few
+voyagers were unable to insure their lives with the Accidental Company,
+although they consented to promise that they would descend into the hold
+the instant they heard a shot. It was almost as full of jeopardy to
+travel to Bilbao by sea as to sail down the Mississippi with a racing
+captain and a lading of rye-whisky on board.<a name="page_290" id="page_290"></a> One Monsieur Gueno, master
+of the barque <i>Numa</i>, of Vannes, made moan that he was seriously knocked
+about while he lay in the Nervion, off the Luchana bridge, during a
+skirmish between the Carlists and the troops. They both fought
+vigorously, but they gave him most of the blows. One of his crew, in a
+punt behind, was killed, and twenty-five bullets were embedded in a
+single mast. He had the tricolour flying all the time. A
+fellow-countryman of his, Monsieur Jarmet, of the ship <i>Pierre-Alcide</i>,
+of Nantes, sent in a claim for an indemnity of £160 for damages
+sustained by his vessel much in the like manner. A Spanish war-craft,
+moored behind him, began pelting the Carlists with shot; the Carlists
+replied, and the <i>Pierre-Alcide</i> came in for the bulk of the favours
+distributed. Three bullets penetrated the captain's cabin, and four rent
+holes in the French flag. Neither pilots nor tugs were for hire at
+Bilbao, and captains of sailing vessels had only to whistle for a
+favouring wind and rely on their own good fortune and skill. Bilbao had
+to be dismissed on the merits.</p>
+
+<p>Taking it for granted that I had that evasive<a name="page_291" id="page_291"></a> horse, I reasoned, as I
+tossed on my bed, to the restless whimper of the Bay of Biscay, over
+which a storm was brewing, that "el Cuartel Real," the headquarters of
+the King, was the natural goal. There first information was to be had,
+and it was felt that it was about the safest place to be; but the King
+seldom stopped under the same roof two nights successively, and no one
+could tell where he would be two days beforehand. If he was at Estella
+when one started, he might be at Vera or Durango, or goodness knows
+where, when one got to Estella. So far his progress had been a success;
+he was present at the taking of Estella, and exercised his Royal
+clemency by releasing the captured prisoners. It would have been more
+politic to have demanded an exchange, for there were partisans of his
+own in Republican dungeons (Englishmen amongst them); but then prisoners
+have to be fed and guarded, so on the whole it was as well they were set
+free. It was very much the case of the man who won the elephant at a
+raffle. If the stories, spread assiduously by the Republicans, of the
+massacre and maltreatment of captives by the<a name="page_292" id="page_292"></a> Carlists were correct,
+here was the opportunity for the exercise of wholesale cruelty; but
+there was not a particle of truth in such charges, which, by the way,
+one hears in every civil war. Where Don Carlos might advance next, or
+where severe fighting&mdash;not such brushes as that I witnessed at
+Irun&mdash;might take place, was a mystery. The movements of the Republican
+leaders were inexplicable, and conducted in contravention of all known
+principles of the art of war. They harassed their men by long and
+objectless marches. They ordered towns to be put in a state of defence
+at first, and then withdrew the garrisons. They engaged whole columns in
+defiles, where a company of invisible guerrilleros could tease them.
+They acted, in most instances, as if they had no information or wrong
+information. The latter, I believe, was nearer the truth. Their system
+of espionage was inefficient, as the information they got was
+untrustworthy, and always would be, in the northern provinces, for the
+feeling of the masses of the people was against them. Instead of making
+headway they were losing ground every day, and would so<a name="page_293" id="page_293"></a> continue until
+they received reinforcements with fibre, and were commanded by officers
+who really meant to win, and had the knowledge or the instinct to
+conceive a proper plan of campaign. The generals could hardly be
+censured, for their hands were tied; they were forbidden to be severe;
+they dared not squelch insubordination. Capital punishment, even in the
+army, and at such a crisis as this, was abolished. There had been, I
+heard, something suspiciously resembling a mutiny in the column of
+Sanchez Bregua. A certain Colonel Castañon was put under arrest on a
+charge of Alfonsist proclivities; but the Cazadores and Engineers
+threatened to rebel unless he was liberated; and Sanchez Bregua, instead
+of decimating the Cazadores and Engineers, as Lord Strathnairn would
+have done, liberated the Colonel.</p>
+
+<p>But to that question of my route. Peradventure the presence to my dozing
+vision of the General commanding the Republican troops of the north that
+had been might help me towards a solution.</p>
+
+<p>"That had been" is written advisedly, for Sanchez Bregua had been
+recalled to Madrid, not a<a name="page_294" id="page_294"></a> day too soon. He was one of those generals
+whose spine had been curved by lengthened bending over a desk. Loma, who
+was active and dashing, and had the rare gift of confidence in himself,
+had taken his stand at Tolosa, and was awaiting the advent of Lizarraga.
+All his men, and every able-bodied male in the town, were diligently
+excavating ditches and making entrenchments. Until Tolosa was captured
+by the Carlists, no serious attack on Pampeluna was probable; and that
+attack was likely to assume the form of an investment. Estella was to
+the south of Pampeluna, and all the country round, from which provisions
+could be drawn, was in the occupation of the Carlists. Tolosa was the
+objective point of the moment, and to Tolosa I determined to go. An
+attempt on San Sebastian could not enter into the calculations of the
+Carlist leaders at this stage of their revolt. The stronghold was almost
+inaccessible on the land side, and men, munitions, and provisions could
+be easily thrown into it by water. Irun, Fontarabia, and even Renteria
+(were artillery available) could be seized whenever the comparatively
+small sacrifice of<a name="page_295" id="page_295"></a> lives involved would be advisable. But the game was
+not worth the candle yet. Were Irun or Fontarabia in the hands of the
+Carlists, there was the always-present danger of shells being pitched
+into them from a gunboat in the Bidassoa; and Renteria, outside of which
+the Republican troops only stirred on sufferance, was to all intents as
+serviceable to the Carlists as if it were tenanted by a Carlist
+garrison, which would thereby be condemned to idleness.</p>
+
+<p>That whirlwind ride from Renteria to Irun would come before me as the
+storm battalions mustered outside, and the waves began lashing
+themselves into violence of temper. What if I had to go to Madrid while
+such weather as this was brooding? To get to the capital one is obliged
+to embark at Bayonne for Santander, and proceed thence by rail&mdash;so long
+as no Carlist partidas meddle with the track. Romantic Spain!</p>
+
+<p>But are not those Republicans who affect that they know how to govern a
+country primarily and principally to blame? Only consider the continued
+interruption of that short piece of road between<a name="page_296" id="page_296"></a> San Sebastian and
+Irun. Is it not disgraceful to them? One of our old Indian officers, I
+dare venture to believe, with eighteen horsemen and a couple of
+companies of foot, could hold it open in spite of the Carlists. But such
+a simple idea as the establishment of cavalry patrols of three, keeping
+vigil backwards and forwards along the line of eighteen miles, with
+stout infantry posts always on the alert in blockhouses at intervals,
+seems never to have entered into the obtuse heads of those officers
+lately promoted from the ranks. Seeing that the intercourse of different
+towns with each other and with the coast and abroad has been so long
+broken up, I cannot fathom the secret of how the population lives. The
+troops arrive in a village one day and levy contributions, the
+guerrilleros arrive the next and do the same; the fields must be
+neglected, trade must droop, yet nobody apparently wants food. True, the
+land is wonderfully fat; but some day the cry of famine will be heard.
+No land could bear this perpetual drain on its resources. And then I
+thought of Carlists whom I met in France, who had given of their goods
+to support the cause.<a name="page_297" id="page_297"></a> With them I talked on this very subject. They
+were respectable and respected men; they prayed for success to Don
+Carlos with sincere heart; but they had left Spain, and they complained
+that this condition of disturbance was lasting too long.</p>
+
+<p>"You ask me why I did not remain," said one to me; "wait, and you shall
+see."</p>
+
+<p>He opened a door and pointed to three lovely little girls at play, and
+continued, "These are my reasons; I have made more sacrifices than I was
+able for the Royal cause, and they asked me at last for another
+contribution, which would have ruined me. I love my King; but for no
+King, señor, could I afford to make those darlings paupers."</p>
+
+<p>Had these Carlists any glimmer of the sunshine of a victorious issue to
+their uprising? (egad, that was a strong blast, and the waves do swish
+as if they were enraged at last!). Thieblin thinks not. And yet they are
+active, and, like the storm outside, they are gaining strength. Those of
+them under arms are four times as numerous as the Republicans in the
+northern provinces. Leader swears to me that everyone who can shoulder a
+musket is a<a name="page_298" id="page_298"></a> Carlist. There are no more Chicos to be had, unless the
+volunteers of liberty come over, rifles, accoutrements and all, to
+Prince Charlie&mdash;a liberty they are volunteering to take somewhat freely.</p>
+
+<p>I was rash in saying there were no more Chicos. Did not a company of
+"bhoys" trudge over to Lesaca to offer their services recently? But they
+were very ancient boys. The youngest of them was sixty-five. They were
+veterans of the Seven Years' War, and mostly colonels. Their fidelity
+was thankfully acknowledged, but their services were not gratefully
+accepted. The aged and ferocious fire-eaters were sent back to their
+arrowroot and easy-chairs. At all events, they had more of the timber of
+heroism in them than those diplomatic Carlists of the <i>gandin</i> order,
+who are Carlists because it makes them interesting in the sight of the
+ladies, but whose campaigning is confined to an occasional three days'
+incursion on Spanish territory, with a cook and a valet, saddle-bags
+full of potted lobster and <i>pâté de foie gras</i>, and a dressing-case
+newly packed with <i>au Botot</i> and essence of Jockey Club. There are
+personages of this class<a name="page_299" id="page_299"></a> not unknown to society at Biarritz and
+Bayonne, who have been going to the front for the last three months, and
+have not got there yet. One would think their game of chivalry ought to
+be pretty well "played out;" but to the folly of the vain man, as to the
+appetite of the lean pig, there is no limit.</p>
+
+<p>By Jove! There is a clatter; the casement is blown open, and the light
+is blown out, and through the gap whistles the cool, briny breath of the
+Atlantic, and I can almost feel the wash of the white spray in my hair.
+Better a stable cell in the Castle of the Mota to-night than a tumbling
+berth in the <i>San Margarita</i>. This was the close of my interview with
+myself, and I turned over on my pillow and fell precipitately into a
+profound dreamless sleep.<a name="page_300" id="page_300"></a></p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h3>
+
+<p class="head">Nearing the End&mdash;Firing on the Red Cross&mdash;Perpetuity of
+War&mdash;Artistic Hypocrites&mdash;The Jubilee Year&mdash;The Conflicts of a
+Peaceful Reign&mdash;Major Russell&mdash;Quick Promotion&mdash;The Foreign
+Legion&mdash;An Aspiring Adventurer&mdash;Leader's Career&mdash;A Piratical
+Proposal&mdash;The "Ojaladeros" of Biarritz&mdash;A Friend in Need&mdash;Buying a
+Horse&mdash;Gilpin Outdone&mdash;"Fred Burnaby."</p>
+
+<p class="nind">A<span class="smcap">nd</span> now I take up the last chapter of this book, and I have not half
+finished with the subject I had set before myself at starting. By the
+figures at the head of the last page I perceive that I have almost
+reached the orthodox length of a volume, and perforce must stop. For
+some weeks past I have been looking and longing for the end, for I have
+been ill, weary and worried, and my labour has become a task. Slowly
+toiling day by day, I knew I must be nearing the goal; yet, like the
+strenuous Webb on his swim from Dover to Calais, the horizon seemed to
+come no closer. The land in sight<a name="page_301" id="page_301"></a> grew no plainer, although each
+breast-stroke&mdash;the pleasure of a while agone, but oh! such a tax
+now&mdash;must have lessened the distance. Even to that excursion there came
+an hour of accomplishment and repose; but to this, of pen over paper, I
+cannot flatter myself that the hour is yet. I have to abandon the work
+incomplete. As it has happened to me before, the theme has expanded
+under my hands, and I shall have to rise from my desk before I penetrate
+to the Carlist headquarters, of which I had to say much, or have
+experiences of that strangest of Communes in Murcia, with its sea and
+land skirmishes and its motley rabble of mutineers, convicts, and
+nondescripts, of which I had to say much likewise.</p>
+
+<p>Whether I shall have the privilege of recounting my adventures at the
+court and camp of Don Carlos, and by the side of the General directing
+the siege of Cartagena, who admitted me as a sort of supernumerary on
+his staff, will depend on the reception of this, the first instalment of
+my experiences in Spain.</p>
+
+<p>An act of unjustifiable barbarism or stupidity, or<a name="page_302" id="page_302"></a> both&mdash;for barbarism
+is but another form of stupidity&mdash;was perpetrated by some Carlists
+outside Irun while I was negotiating for that indispensable horse. An
+ambulance-waggon, displaying the Red Cross of Geneva, had sallied from
+the town, and was fired upon. The Paris delegate I had met at Hendaye
+was in charge of it, and averred that it was wantonly and wilfully
+attacked. I thought it, singular that nobody was hurt, and reasoned that
+the man was excitable, and got into range unconsciously. The duty of the
+Geneva Society properly begins after, and not during a combat; and when
+gentlemen are busy at the game of professional manslaughter, no
+philanthropic outsider has any right to distract them from their
+occupation by indiscreet obstruction. The Parisian did not view it in
+that light, and downfaced me that these rustics, to whose aid he was
+actually going, tried to murder him of malice prepense. It was useless
+to represent to him that these rustics may have never heard of the
+modern benevolent institution for the softening of strife, and may have
+regarded the huge Red Cross as a defiant symbol of Red Republicanism,<a name="page_303" id="page_303"></a>
+and perhaps a parody of what is sacred. So in the estimation of that
+citizen of the most enlightened capital in the universe, these Basques
+were ruthless boobies with an insatiable passion for lapping blood. But
+mistakes and exaggerations will occur in every war. The only way to
+obviate them is to put an end to war altogether&mdash;<i>which will never be
+done</i>! When Christ came into the world, peace was proclaimed; when He
+left it, peace was bequeathed. War has been the usual condition of
+mankind since, as it had been before; and Christians cut each other's
+throats with as much alacrity and expertness as Pagans, often in the
+name of the religion of peace.</p>
+
+<p>I heard two eminent war-correspondents lecture recently, and I noticed
+that those passages where fights were described were applauded to the
+echo. The more ferocious the combat the more vigorous the cheers. The
+faces of small boys flushed, and their hands clinched at the vivid
+recital. The nature of the savage, which has not been extirpated by
+School Boards, was betraying itself in them. Yet these two
+war-correspondents thought it an<a name="page_304" id="page_304"></a> acquittal of conscience after their
+kindling periods to dwell on the immorality of war. The one spoke of the
+beauty of Bible precepts, the other disburdened himself on the cruelty
+and wickedness of a battle. What artistic hypocrisy! It was as if one
+were to strike up the "Faerie Voices" waltz, and tell a girl to keep her
+feet still; as if one were to lend "Robinson Crusoe" to a boy, and warn
+him not to think of running away to sea. Still, I must even add my voice
+to the orthodox chorus, and affirm that warfare is bad, brutal,
+fraudful, a thing of meretricious gauds, a clay idol, fetish of humbug
+and havoc, whose feet are soaking in muddy gore and salt tears; yet in
+the privacy of my own study I might sadly admit that the Millennium is
+remote, that the Parliament of Nations exists but in the dreams of the
+poet, and that Longfellow's forecast of the days down through the dark
+future when the holy melodies of love shall oust the clangours of
+conflict is a pretty conceit&mdash;and no more.</p>
+
+<p>War is inexcusable, and is foolish and ugly; but, like the poor and the
+ailing, we shall have it always with us. It is criminal, except as
+protest against<a name="page_305" id="page_305"></a> intolerable persecution, or in maintenance of national
+honour or defence of national territory; and even in these cases it
+should be undertaken only when all devices of conciliation have been
+tried in vain. Next to the vanquished, it does most harm to the victor.
+Yet about it, as about high play, there is a fascination, and I have to
+plead guilty to the weak feeling that I would not look with overwhelming
+aversion on an order, should it come to me to-morrow, to prepare to
+chronicle a new campaign and face the chronicler's risks; and they are
+real. But I should not go into it with a light heart, like M. Emile
+Ollivier. I might be, in a quiet way, happy as Queen Victoria was
+(according to Count Vitzthum) for she danced much the night before the
+declaration of hostilities against Russia, but spoke of what was coming
+with amiable candour and great regret.</p>
+
+<p>We are on the eve of a Jubilee Year, when the halcyon shall plume his
+wing, and we shall hear much oratorical trash and hebetude about the
+peacefulness of this happy reign.</p>
+
+<p>Does the reader reflect how many wars we have<a name="page_306" id="page_306"></a> had in the pacific
+half-century which is lapsing? The tale will astonish him, and should
+silence the thoughtless word-spinners of the platforms. The door of the
+temple of Janus has been seldom closed for long. Our campaigns, great
+and small, and military enterprises of the lesser sort, could not be
+counted on the fingers of both hands. We have had fighting with Afghans
+and Burmese (twice); Scinde, Gwalior, and Sikh wars; hostilities with
+Kaffirs, Russians, Persians, Chinese, and Maoris (twice), Abyssinians,
+Ashantis, Zulus, Boers, and Soudanese, not to mention the repression of
+the most stupendous of mutinies, a martial promenade in Egypt, and
+expeditions against Jowakis, Bhootanese, Looshais, Red River rebels, and
+such pitiful minor fry.</p>
+
+<p>In St. Jean de Luz, the nearest point to the disputed ground and the
+best place from which to transmit information, there was a small and
+select British colony, mostly consisting of retired naval and military
+officers. A dear friend of mine amongst them was Major Russell, who had
+spent a lengthened span of years in the East&mdash;an admirable<a name="page_307" id="page_307"></a> type of the
+calm, firm, courteous Anglo-Indian&mdash;who had never soured his temper and
+spoiled his liver with excessive "pegs," who understood and respected
+the natives, who had shown administrative ability, and who, like many
+another honest, dutiful officer, had not shaken much fruit off the
+pagoda-tree, or even secured the C.B. which is so often given to
+tarry-at-home nonentities. Russell used to pay me a regular visit to the
+Fonda de la Playa. One morning as we were chatting, Leader strode into
+the coffee-room, a vision of splendour. He had got on his uniform as
+Commandant of the Foreign Legion&mdash;a uniform which did much credit to his
+fancy, for he had designed it himself. He wore a white boina with gold
+tassel, a blue tunic with black braid, red trousers, and brown gaiters.
+He had donned the gala-costume with the object of getting himself
+photographed. Commandant is the equivalent of Major in the British
+service, so we agreed to dub the young Irishman henceforth and for ever,
+until he became colonel or captain-general, Major Leader.</p>
+
+<p>"Promotion is quick in this army," murmured<a name="page_308" id="page_308"></a> Russell. "I served all my
+active life under the suns of India, and here I am only a major at the
+close. Leader joined the Carlists less than three months ago, and he is
+already my equal in rank."</p>
+
+<p>"The fortune of war, Russell," said I; "don't be jealous. I was offered
+command of a brigade under the Commune, but I declined the tribute to my
+merit, or I would not be here to-day. I met a man in Bayonne yesterday,
+and he was ready to assume control of the entire insurrectionary
+forces."</p>
+
+<p>"Who? Cabrera?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," I answered; "catch Cabrera coming here. He is too much afraid of a
+ruler who is no pretender. The renowned Commander-in-Chief of Aragon and
+Valencia, Don Ramon the Rough and Ready, is Conde Something-or-other
+now, a willing slave to petticoat government. He is to be seen any day
+pottering about Windsor."</p>
+
+<p>"And who is this speculator in bloodshed?"</p>
+
+<p>"A foreign adventurer," I explained, "who does not know a word of
+Spanish, much less Basque, is unacquainted with the topography of the
+country, and has not the faintest inkling of the idiosyn<a name="page_309" id="page_309"></a>crasies of the
+lieutenants who would serve under him, or of the mode of humouring the
+prejudices of the people of the different provinces in revolt."</p>
+
+<p>"What answer did they give to his application for employment?"</p>
+
+<p>"A polite negative. They told him they could not appoint him a leader
+without offending the susceptibilities of adherents with claims upon
+them men of local influence, and so forth. Behind his back, they laughed
+at his entertaining temerity."</p>
+
+<p>That Foreign Legion never came to maturity. Leader showed me a
+commission authorizing him to organize it. Lesaca was to be the depôt,
+French the language of command, and Smith Sheehan the adjutant. It might
+have developed into a very fine Foreign Legion, but no volunteers
+presented themselves to join it but two young Englishmen, one of whom
+was sick when he was not drunk, and the other of whom felt it to be a
+grievance on a campaign that a cup of tea could not be got at regular
+hours. How Sheehan did chaff this amiable amateur!</p>
+
+<p>"You will have nothing to do but draw your<a name="page_310" id="page_310"></a> pay, my lad," he said. "The
+cookery is hardly A 1, but 'twill pass. Think of the beds, pillows of
+hops under your head; and every regiment has its own set of
+billiard-markers and a select string-band, every performer an artist."</p>
+
+<p>After an arduous service of one day and a half that gentleman returned
+to the maternal apron-strings, laden to the ground with the most
+harrowing legends of the horrors of war. Leader was not a warrior of
+this stamp&mdash;far from it; he had vindicated his manliness at Ladon
+outside Orleans, where Ogilvie, of the British Royal Artillery, had met
+his fate by his side, and there was something soldierly in the way he
+bore himself in his vanity of dress. Not that I think the dandies are
+the best soldiers&mdash;that is merest popular paradox. To me it is as
+ridiculous for a man to array himself in fine clothes when he is going
+to kill or be killed, as it would be for him to put on gewgaws when he
+was going to be hanged. As Leader disappears from my account of Carlist
+doings after this&mdash;we were associated with different columns&mdash;it may be
+of interest to tell of his subsequent career. He served in a cavalry<a name="page_311" id="page_311"></a>
+squadron on the staff of the King, and when the cause collapsed came to
+London. His uncle tried to induce him to settle down to some steady
+employment in the City. Leader expressed himself satisfied to make an
+experiment at desk-work.</p>
+
+<p>"It was useless," said Leader with a hearty crow as he related the story
+to me. "The friend who had promised to create a vacancy for me in his
+office ordered his chief clerk to lock the safe and send for the police
+when he heard of my antecedents. He invited me to dinner, but candidly
+told me that a rifle was more in my line than a quill."</p>
+
+<p>And yet it was in the service of the quill the young soldier ended his
+days. He got an appointment as an auxiliary correspondent to a great
+London daily paper during the Russo-Turkish war. He was elate; the road
+to fame and fortune now lay open before him. The next I heard of him was
+that he had succumbed to typhoid fever at Philippopolis.</p>
+
+<p>A Scotch <i>spadassin</i> arrived in our midst about this period. He was most
+anxious to draw a blade for Don Carlos, but he had a decided objection
+to serve in any capacity but that of command. He<a name="page_312" id="page_312"></a> did not appreciate the
+fun of losing the number of his mess as an obscure hero of the rank and
+file, though he would not mind sacrificing an arm, I do think, at the
+head of a charging column, provided that he had a showy uniform on, and
+that the fact of his valour was properly advertised in the despatches.
+He had an idea that would commend itself to Belcha's bushwhackers, but
+it was not entertained. It was to take passage with a few trusty men on
+the tug for San Sebastian when she was reported to be conveying specie
+for the payment of the Spanish Republican troops, to drive the voyagers
+down the hold, throttle the skipper, intimidate the crew, take the wheel
+and turn her head to the coast, seize and land the money under Carlist
+protection, and then scuttle her. The least recompense, he calculated,
+which could be awarded to him for that exploit by his Majesty Charles
+VII. was the Order of the Golden Fleece; and a very appropriate order
+too.</p>
+
+<p>There was a set of Carlist sympathizers known to the fighting-men as
+"ojaladeros," or warriors with much decoration in the shape of polished
+buttons.<a name="page_313" id="page_313"></a> Their depôt was at Biarritz, an aristocratic watering-place
+born under the second French Empire, and not ignorant of some of the
+vices of the Byzantine Empire. There are healthful breezes there, but
+they do not quite sweep away the scent of frangipani. Warlike, with a
+proviso, the Scot might have been designated, but he was not to be
+compared with these ojaladeros; he would fight if he had a lime-lit
+stage to posture upon; they would not fight at all, but they moved about
+mysteriously, as if their bosoms were big with the fate of dynasties,
+held hugger-mugger caucus, and were the oracles of boudoirs.</p>
+
+<p>At Bayonne there was a better class of Carlist sympathizers; such of
+them as were of the fighting age were there in the intervals of duty. To
+a job-master's in the city by the Adour I was recommended as the most
+likely place to procure a steed. At the Hôtel St. Etienne, where I
+stopped, I was gratified by an unexpected encounter with the genial
+captain<a name="FNanchor_G_7" id="FNanchor_G_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_G_7" class="fnanchor">[G]</a> (Ronald Campbell), who had<a name="page_314" id="page_314"></a> brought a juicy leg of mutton at
+his saddle-skirts to the relief of my household after the siege of
+Paris. He went with me to the job-master's&mdash;it is as well to have a
+friend with you when you do a horse-deal. I had no choice but Hobson's.
+The job-master was desolated, but he had sold three animals the day
+before to an English milord, a very big gentleman, and his party. He had
+just one horse, but it was a beauty. The horse was trotted out. It was
+well groomed&mdash;they always are, and arsenic does impart a nice gloss to
+the hide&mdash;and looked imposing, a tall three-quarter-bred bay gelding.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll have to take it," said the captain, "though I fear it will not
+be a great catch for mountain-work. Seems to me that it stumbles&mdash;that
+lie-back of the ears is vicious&mdash;ha! rears too&mdash;and by Jove! it has been
+fired. No matter. Where needs must, you know, there's no alternative.
+Buy it by all means."</p>
+
+<p>I closed with the bargain, got a loan of a saddle, bought a pair of
+jack-boots, and ordered my purchase to be brought round to the door of
+the<a name="page_315" id="page_315"></a> hotel within half-an-hour. I am no rough-rider, and I had not
+counted on the high mettle of this, which was literally a "fiery,
+untamed steed." It had been fed for the market, and had had no exercise
+for two days previous. I meant to try its paces to St. Jean de Luz, and
+show off before the damsels of Biarritz; but, lack-a-day! what a
+declension was in store for me. It had best be given in the words of a
+letter to my kindly compatriot, written while defeat was fresh in my
+mind. Thus the epistle runs:</p>
+
+<p class="top5">"<span class="smcap">Dear Campbell</span>,</p>
+
+<p class="spain">"My first essay on my eight hundred francs' worth of horse-power
+was a sight to see.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Imprimis</i>, the stirrup-leathers were long enough for you.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>En suite</i>, I gave the dear gelding his head because he took it,
+and he incontinently faced a post of the French army at the Porte
+d'Espagne. The sentry came to the charge and cried, <i>On ne passe
+pas ici.</i> The blood-horse went at him, the sentry funked, and then,
+as if satisfied with his<a name="page_316" id="page_316"></a> demonstration, the blood-horse&mdash;the bit
+always in his mouth&mdash;made a <i>demi-tour</i>, and faced a post of
+douaniers. This also was sacred ground, it appears, but the
+douaniers let the blood-horse pass, not even making the feint to
+prod his inside for contraband. The scene now changes to the Place
+de la Comédie (there's something in a name), where by virtue of
+vigorous tugging at curb and snaffle I just succeeded in keeping my
+gallant gelding off the cobble-stones. He went a burster over the
+bridge by a short turn down a street and to the door of his stable,
+and there he positively stopped, and I swear I felt his sides
+shaking with laughter. I called the groom; said I thought it would
+rain; besides, I did not know the road. On the whole, I had
+reconsidered the matter, and would go to St. Jean de Luz by train.
+The groom was awfully polite, pretended to believe me, and provided
+a man to take forward my eight&mdash;oh, hang it! we shan't think of the
+price.</p>
+
+<p>"Humiliation! you will say. Yes, sir, and I feel it; but that horse
+will feel it too. When I get him somewhere that none can see, and
+where sentries,<a name="page_317" id="page_317"></a> douaniers, and stables of refuge don't abound, I
+shall ask him to try how long he can keep up a gallop; but, by the
+body of the Claimant, I shall have sixteen stone on his back.</p>
+
+<p>"Yours with knees unwearied and soul unsubdued."</p>
+
+<p class="top5">At St. Jean de Luz I learned at the principal hotel that the English
+milord was Captain Frederick Burnaby of "the Queen of England's Blue
+Guards." He was supposed to have some secret official mission to Don
+Carlos, to whose headquarters he had directed his steps, and I at once
+took measures to follow in his tracks.</p>
+
+<p class="c top15">THE END.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="c top15 sml">BILLING &amp; SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD.</p>
+
+<p class="c top15"><i>BY THE AUTHOR OF "ROMANTIC SPAIN."</i></p>
+
+<p class="c">AN IRON-BOUND CITY; or, Five Months of Peril and Privation. 2 vols. 21s.</p>
+
+<p class="poem sml">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"A story of peril, adventure, privation,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Is told, in two vols., to your great delectation,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">With shrewd common sense and uncommon sensation!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Here's the painful account of Parisians defeated:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And Paris besieged is most 'specially' treated:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Like a trusty Tapleyan, bright, hopeful, and witty,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">O'Shea tells the tale of '<span class="smcap">An Iron-bound City.</span>'"&mdash;<i>Punch.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="sml">"We can listen with unjaded interest to the oft-told tale of the fall of
+Paris when it is told by so genial and sunny-minded an
+historian."&mdash;<i>Saturday Review.</i></p>
+
+<p class="c">LEAVES PROM THE LIFE OF A SPECIAL<br />
+CORRESPONDENT. 2 vols. 21s.</p>
+
+<p class="sml">The great charm of his pages is the entire absence of dulness, and the
+evidence they afford of a delicate sense of humour, considerable powers
+of observation, a store of apposite and racy anecdote, and a keen
+enjoyment of life."&mdash;<i>Standard.</i></p>
+
+<p class="sml">"Redolent of stories throughout, told with such a cheery spirit, in so
+genial a manner, that even those they sometimes hit hard cannot, when
+they read, refrain from laughing, for Mr. O'Shea is a modern Democritus;
+and yet there runs a vein of sadness, as if, like Figaro, he made haste
+to laugh lest he should have to weep."&mdash;<i>Society.</i></p>
+
+<p class="sml">"Delightful reading.... A most enjoyable book.... It is kinder to
+readers to leave them to find out the good things for themselves. They
+will find material for amusement and instruction on every page; and if
+the lesson is sometimes in its way as melancholy as the moral of Firmin
+Maillard's 'Les Derniers Bohemes,' it is conveyed after a fashion that
+recalls the light-hearted gaiety of Paul de Kock's 'Damoiselle du
+Cinquième' and the varied pathos and humour of Henri
+Murger."&mdash;<i>Whitehall Review.</i></p>
+
+<p class="c">WARD AND DOWNEY, PUBLISHERS, LONDON.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3 class="top5"><a name="FOOTNOTES" id="FOOTNOTES"></a>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> Gibraltar is no longer a penal settlement.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> That has all been changed since. There are serviceable
+rifled guns at Tangier now, and the Sultan has some approach to a
+regular army, organized by an ex-English soldier.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> Stuart married Lady Alice Hay, grand-daughter of William
+IV., in London, in 1874, and is now dead. He left no heir, so that the
+House of Hanover may rest easy. The story that the Cardinal of York
+("Henry IX."), who died in 1807, was the last of the Stuart line, is all
+bosh. Charles-Edward had a son by the daughter of Prince Sobieski.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_4" id="Footnote_D_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_D_4"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> Review of the social and political state of the Basque
+Provinces, at the end of a book on "Portugal and Galicia," published in
+1848 by John Murray.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_E_5" id="Footnote_E_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_E_5"><span class="label">[E]</span></a> It should be noted that in July, 1876, directly after the
+war was over, the fueros were entirely done away with by a special law.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_F_6" id="Footnote_F_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_F_6"><span class="label">[F]</span></a> See my last book, "An Iron-Bound City." Poor Willie died in
+New York of a complication of diseases on last Easter Sunday&mdash;an
+anniversary of hopefulness. His path of existence here was thorny.
+Unsurfeiting happiness be his portion in the meads of asphodel!</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_G_7" id="Footnote_G_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_G_7"><span class="label">[G]</span></a> Now Colonel the Baron Craignish, Equerry to his Royal
+Highness the Grand Duke of Saxe-Coburg Gotha.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="c"><a name="NOTES" id="NOTES"></a>Notes of the transcriber of this etext.</p>
+
+<p class="c">The following typographical errors in the book have been
+corrected in making this etext:<br />
+Abd-es-Salem was changed to Abd-es-Salam<br />
+Dorregarray was changed to Dorregaray<br />
+Ojoladeros was changed to Ojaladeros<br />
+Enderlasa was changed to Endarlasa<br />
+Enderlaza changed to Endarlasa<br />
+I deserve no creditor changed to I deserve no credit for</p>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Romantic Spain, by John Augustus O'Shea
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Romantic Spain, by John Augustus O'Shea
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Romantic Spain
+       A Record of Personal Experiences (Vol. II)
+
+Author: John Augustus O'Shea
+
+Release Date: March 7, 2010 [EBook #31532]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROMANTIC SPAIN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by the
+Digital & Multimedia Center, Michigan State University
+Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ROMANTIC SPAIN:
+
+_A RECORD OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCES._
+
+
+
+
+ROMANTIC SPAIN:
+
+A Record of Personal Experiences.
+
+BY
+
+JOHN AUGUSTUS O'SHEA,
+
+AUTHOR OF
+
+"LEAVES FROM THE LIFE OF A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,"
+"AN IRON-BOUND CITY," ETC.
+
+"Oh, lovely Spain! renowned, romantic land!"
+CHILDE HAROLD.
+
+IN TWO VOLUMES.
+
+VOL. II.
+
+LONDON:
+WARD AND DOWNEY,
+12, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C.
+1887.
+[_All Rights Reserved._]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS OF VOL. II.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+                                                         Page
+
+A Tidy City--A Sacred Corpse--Remarkable Features
+of Puerto--A Calesa--Lady Blanche's Castle--A
+Typical English Engineer--British Enterprise--"Success
+to the Cadiz Waterworks!"--Visit to a
+Bodega--Wine and Women--The Coming Man--A
+Strike                                                   1-18
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+The Charms of Cadiz--Seville-by-the-Sea--Cervantes--Daughters
+of Eve--The Ladies who Prayed and
+the Women who Didn't--Fasting Monks--Notice to
+Quit on the Nuns--The Rival Processions--Gutting
+a Church--A Disorganized Garrison--Taking it Easy--The
+Mysterious "Mr. Crabapple"--The Steamer
+_Murillo_--An Unsentimental Navvy--Bandaged
+Justice--Tricky Ship-Owning--Painting Black
+White                                                   19-41
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Expansion of Carlism--A Pseudo-Democracy--Historic
+Land and Water Marks--An Impudent Stowaway--Spanish
+Respect for Providence--A Fatal
+Signal--Playing with Fire--Across the Bay--Farewell
+to Andalusia--British Spain                             42-50
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Gabriel Tar--A Hard Nut to Crack--In the Cemetery--An
+Old Tipperary Soldier--Marks of the Broad
+Arrow--The "Scorpions"--The Jaunting-Cars--Amusements
+on the Rock--Mrs. Damages' Complaint--The
+Bay, the Alameda, and Tarifa--How
+to Learn Spanish--Types of the British Officer--The
+Wily Ben Solomon--A Word for the Subaltern--Sunset
+Gun--The Sameness of Sutlersville                       51-75
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+From Pillar to Pillar--Historic Souvenirs--Off to
+Africa--The Sweetly Pretty Albert--Gibraltar by
+Moonlight--The Chain-Gang--Across the Strait--A
+Difficult Landing--Albert is Hurt--"Fat Mahomet"--The
+Calendar of the Centuries Put Back--Tangier:
+the People, the Streets, the Bazaar--Our Hotel--A
+Coloured Gentleman--Seeing the Sights--Local
+Memoranda--Jewish Disabilities--Peep at a Photographic
+Album--The Writer's Notions on Harem
+Life                                                    76-102
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+A Pattern Despotism--Some Moorish Peculiarities--A
+Hell upon Earth--Fighting for Bread--An Air-Bath--Surprises
+of Tangier--On Slavery--The
+Writer's Idea of a Moorish Squire--The Ladder of
+Knowledge--Gulping Forbidden Liquor--Division
+of Time--Singular Customs--The Shereef of Wazan--The
+Christian who Captivated the Moor--The
+Interview--Moslem Patronage of Spain--A Slap for
+England--A Vision of Beauty--An English Desdemona:
+Her Plaint--One for the Newspaper Men--The
+Ladies' Battle--Farewell--The English Lady's
+Maid--Albert is Indisposed--The Writer Sums up
+on Morocco                                             103-135
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Back to Gibraltar--The Parting with Albert--The
+Tongue of Scandal--Voyage to Malaga--"No Police,
+no Anything"--Federalism Triumphant--Madrid _in
+Statu Quo_--Orense--Progress of the Royalists--On
+the Road Home--In the Insurgent Country--Stopped
+by the Carlists--An Angry Passenger is
+Silenced                                               136-151
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+On the Wing--Ordered to the Carlist Headquarters--Another
+_Petit Paris_--Carlists from Cork--How
+Leader was Wounded--Beating-up for an Anglo-Irish
+Legion--Pontifical Zouaves--A Bad Lot--Oddities
+of Carlism--Santa Cruz Again--Running
+a Cargo--On Board a Carlist Privateer--A Descendant
+of Kings--"Oh, for an Armstrong Twenty-Four
+Pounder!"--Crossing the Border--A Remarkable
+Guide--Mountain Scenery--In Navarre--Challenged
+at Vera--Our Billet with the Parish Priest--The Sad
+Story of an Irish Volunteer--Dialogue with Don
+Carlos--The Happy Valley--Bugle-Blasts--The
+Writer in a Quandary--The Fifth Battalion of
+Navarre--The Distribution of Arms--The Bleeding
+Heart--Enthusiasm of the Chicos                        152-187
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+The Cura of Vera--Fueros of the Basques--Carlist Discipline--Fate
+of the _San Margarita_--The Squadron
+of Vigilance--How a Capture was Effected--The
+Sea-Rovers in the Dungeon--Visit to the Prisoners--San
+Sebastian--A Dead Season--The Defences of a
+Threatened City--Souvenirs of War--The Miqueletes--In
+a Fix--A German Doctor's Warning                       188-210
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+Belcha's Brigands--Pale-Red Republicans--The Hyena--More
+about the _San Margarita_--Arrival of a Republican
+Column--The Jaunt to Los Pasages--A
+Sweet Surprise--"The Prettiest Girl in Spain"--A
+Madrid Acquaintance--A Costly Pull--The Diligence
+at Last--Renteria and its Defences--A Furious Ride--In
+France Again--Unearthing Santa Cruz--The
+Outlaw in his Lair--Interviewed at Last--The Truth
+about the Endarlasa Massacre--A Death-Warrant--The
+Buried Gun--Fanaticism of the Partisan-Priest          211-238
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+An Audible Battle--"Great Cry and Little Wool"--A
+Carlist Court Newsman--The Religious War--The
+Siege of Oyarzun--Madrid Rebels--"The Money of
+Judas"--A Manifesto from Don Carlos--An Ideal
+Monarch--Necessity of Social and Political Reconstruction
+Proclaimed--A Free Church--A Broad
+Policy--The King for the People--The Theological
+Question--Austerity in Alava--Clerical and Non-Clerical
+Carlists--Disavowal of Bigotry--A Republican
+Editor on the Carlist Creed--Character of
+the Basques--Drill and Discipline--Guerilleros _versus_
+Regulars                                               239-268
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+Barbarossa--Royalist-Republicans--Squaring a Girl--At
+Irun--"Your Papers?"--The Barber's Shop--A
+Carlist Spy--An Old Chum--The Alarm--A Breach
+of Neutrality--Under Fire--Caught in the Toils--The
+Heroic Thomas--We Slope--A Colleague Advises
+Me--"A Horse! a Horse!"--State of Bilbao--Don
+Carlos at Estella--Sanchez Bregua Recalled--Tolosa
+Invites--Republican Ineptitude--Do not Spur a Free
+Horse--Very Ancient Boys--Meditations in Bed--A
+Biscay Storm                                           269-299
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Nearing the End--Firing on the Red Cross--Perpetuity
+of War--Artistic Hypocrites--The Jubilee Year--The
+Conflicts of a Peaceful Reign--Major Russell--Quick
+Promotion--The Foreign Legion--The Aspiring
+Adventurer--A Leader's Career--A Piratical
+Proposal--The "Ojaladeros" of Biarritz--A Friend
+in Need--Buying a Horse--Gilpin Outdone--"Fred
+Burnaby"                                               300-317
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+NOTES OF THE TRANSCRIBER
+
+
+
+
+ROMANTIC SPAIN.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     A Tidy City--A Sacred Corpse--Remarkable Features of Puerto--A
+     Calesa--Lady Blanche's Castle--A Typical English Engineer--British
+     Enterprise--"Success to the Cadiz Waterworks!"--Visit to a
+     Bodega--Wine and Women--The Coming Man--A Strike.
+
+
+PUERTO de Santa Maria has the name of being the neatest and tidiest city
+in Spain, and neatness and tidiness are such dear homely virtues, I
+thought I could not do better than hie me thither to see if the tale
+were true. With a wrench I tore myself from the soft capital of
+Andalusia, delightful but demoralizing. I was growing lazier every day I
+spent there; I felt energy oozing out of every pore of my body; and in
+the end I began to get afraid that if I stopped much longer I should
+only be fit to sing the song of the sluggard:--"You have waked me too
+soon, let me slumber again." Seville is a dangerous place; it is worse
+than Capua; it would enervate Cromwell's Ironsides. Happily for me the
+mosquitoes found out my bedroom, and pricked me into activity, or I
+might not have summoned the courage to leave it for weeks, the more
+especially as I had a sort of excuse for staying. The Cardinal
+Archbishop had promised a friend of mine to let him inspect the body of
+St. Fernando, and my friend had promised to take me with him. Now, this
+was a great favour. St. Fernando is one of the patrons of Seville; he
+has been dead a long time, but his corpse refuses to putrefy, like those
+of ordinary mortals; it is a sacred corpse, and in a beatific state of
+preservation. Three times a year the remains of the holy man are
+uncovered, and the faithful are admitted to gaze on his incorruptible
+features. This was not one of the regular occasions; the Cardinal
+Archbishop had made an exception in compliment to my friend, who is a
+rising young diplomat, so that the favour was really a favour. I
+declined it with thanks--very much obliged, indeed--pressure of
+business called me elsewhere--the cut-and-dry form of excuse; but I
+never mentioned a word about the mosquitoes. I told my friend to thank
+the prelate for his graciousness; the prelate expressed his sorrow that
+my engagements did not permit me to wait, and begged that I would oblige
+him by letting the British public know the shameful way he and his
+priests were treated by the Government They had not drawn a penny of
+salary for three years. This was a fact; and very discreditable it was
+to the Government, and a good explanation of the disloyalty of their
+reverences. If a contract is made it should be kept; the State
+contracted to support the Church, but since Queen Isabella decamped the
+State had forgotten its engagement.
+
+Puerto de Santa Maria deserves the name it has got. It is a clean and
+shapely collection of houses, regularly built. People in England are apt
+to associate the idea of filth with Spain; this, at least in Andalusia,
+is a mistake. The cleanliness is Flemish. Soap and the scrubbing-brush
+are not spared; linen is plentiful and spotless, and water is used for
+other purposes than correcting the strength of wine. Walking down the
+long main street with its paved causeways and pebbly roadway, with its
+straight lines of symmetric houses, coquettish in their marble balconies
+and brightly-painted shutters and railings, one might fancy himself in
+Brock or Delft but that the roofs are flat, that the gables are not
+turned to the street, and that the sky is a cloudless blue. I am
+speaking now of fine days; but there are days when the sky is cloudy and
+the wind blows, and the waters in the Bay of Cadiz below surge up sullen
+and yeasty, and there are days when the rain comes down quick, thick,
+and heavy as from a waterspout, and the streets are turned for the
+moment into rivulets. But the effects of the rain do not last long;
+Spain is what washerwomen would call a good drying country. Beyond its
+neatness and tidiness, Puerto has other features to recommend it to the
+traveller. It has a bookseller's shop, where the works of Eugene Sue and
+Paul de Kock can be had in choice Spanish, side by side with the Carlist
+Almanack, "by eminent monarchical writers," and the calendar of the
+Saragossan prophet (the Spanish Old Moore); but it is not to that I
+refer--half a hundred Andalusian towns can boast the same. It has its
+demolished convent, but since the revolution of '68 that is no more a
+novelty than the Alameda, or sand-strewn, poplar-planted promenade,
+which one meets in every Spanish hamlet. It has the Atlantic waves
+rolling in at its feet, and a pretty sight it is to mark the feluccas,
+with single mast crossed by single yard, like an unstrung bow, moored by
+the wharf or with outspread sail bellying before the breeze on their way
+to Cadiz beyond, where she sits throned on the other side of the bay,
+"like a silver cup" glistening in the sunshine, when sunshine there is.
+The silver cup to which the Gaditanos are fond of comparing their city
+looked more like dirty pewter as I approached it by water from Puerto;
+but I was in a tub of a steamer, there was a heavy sea on and a heavy
+mist out, and perhaps I was qualmish. Not for its booksellers' shops,
+for its demolished convent, or for its vulgar Atlantic did this Puerto,
+which the guide-books pass curtly by as "uninteresting," impress me as
+interesting, but for two features that no seasoned traveller could,
+would, or should overlook; its female population is the most attractive
+in Andalusia, and it is the seat of an agreeable English colony. I
+happened on the latter in a manner that is curious, so curious as to
+merit relation.
+
+I had intended to proceed to Cadiz from Seville after I had taken a peep
+at Puerto, but that little American gentleman whom I met at Cordoba was
+with me, and persuaded me to stop by the story of a wonderful castle
+prison, a sort of _Tour de Nesle_, which was to be seen in the vicinity,
+where the _bonne amie_ of a King of Spain had been built up in the good
+old times when monarchs raised favourites from the gutter one day, and
+sometimes ordered their weazands to be slit the next. This show-place is
+about a league from Puerto, in the valley of Sidonia, and is called El
+Castillo de Dona Blanca. We took a calesa to go there. My companion
+objected to travelling on horseback; he could not stomach the peculiar
+Moorish saddle with its high-peaked cantle and crupper, and its
+catch-and-carry stirrups. We took a calesa, as I have said. To my dying
+day I shall not forget that vehicle of torture. But it may be necessary
+to tell what is a calesa. Procure a broken-down hansom, knock off the
+driver's seat, paint the body and wheels the colour of a roulette-table
+at a racecourse, stud the hood with brass nails of the pattern of those
+employed to beautify genteel coffins, remove the cushions, and replace
+them with a wisp of straw, smash the springs, and put swing-leathers
+underneath instead, cover the whole article with a coating of liquid
+mud, leave it to dry in a mouldy place where the rats shall have free
+access to the leather for gnawing practice, return in seven years, and
+you will find a tolerably correct imitation of that decayed machine, the
+Andalusian calesa. It is more picturesque than the Neapolitan
+_corricolo_; it is all ribs and bones, and is much given to inward
+groaning as it jerks and jolts along. Such a trap we took; the driver
+lazily clambered on the shafts, and away hobbled our lean steed.
+
+The road to Lady Blanche's Castle is like that to Jordan in the nigger
+songs; it is "a hard road to travel"--a road full of holes and quagmires
+and jutting rocks; and yet the driver told me it had once been a good
+road, but that was in the reign of Queen Isabella. Everything seems to
+have been allowed to go to dilapidation since. On the outskirts of
+Puerto we passed an English cemetery; I am glad to say it is almost
+uninhabited. If there is an English dead settlement there ought to be a
+live one, I reasoned, unless those who are buried here date from
+Peninsular battles. The first part of the road to Blanche's Castle is
+level, and bordered with thick growths of prickly pear; there is a view
+of the sea, and of the Guadalate, spanned by a metal bridge--a Menai on
+a small scale. Farther on, as we get to a district called La Piedad, the
+country is diversified by swampy flats at one side and sandy hills at
+the other. Blanche's Castle was a commonplace ruin, a complete "sell,"
+and we turned our horse's head rather savagely. As we were coming back,
+the little American shortening the way by Sandford and Merton
+observations of this nature--"Prickly pear makes a capital hedge; no
+cattle will face it; the spikes of the plant are as tenacious as
+fish-hooks. The fibres of the aloe are unusually strong; they make
+better cordage than hemp, but will not bear the wet so well"--a sight
+caught my eyes which caused me to stare. A tall young fellow, with his
+trousers tucked up, was wading knee-deep in the bottoms beside the road.
+He wore a suit of Oxford mixture.
+
+"Who or what is that gentleman?" I asked the driver.
+
+"An English engineer," was the answer.
+
+I stopped the calesa, hailed him, and inquired was he fond of rheumatic
+fever. He laughed, and pronounced the single word, "Duty." A little
+word, but one that means much. A Spanish engineer would never have done
+this; they are great in offices and at draughting on paper, but they
+seldom tuck up their sleeves, much less their trousers, to labour out of
+doors as the young Englishman was doing. I made his acquaintance, and he
+willingly consented to show me over the works in which he was engaged,
+which were intended to supply Cadiz with water. In England water is to
+be had too easily to be estimated at its proper value. At Cadiz it is a
+marketable commodity. Even the parrots there squeak "agua." Every drop
+of rain that falls is carefully gathered in cisterns, and the
+conveyance of water in boatloads from Puerto across the Bay is a regular
+trade. An English company had been formed to supply the parched seaport
+and the ships that call there with fresh water, and its reservoirs were
+situated at La Piedad. In the bowels of the flats below, where the
+snipe-shooting ought to be good, our countryman told me the water was to
+be sought. Galleries had been sunk in every direction in land which the
+company had purchased, and pumps and engines are soon to be erected that
+will raise the liquid collected there up to the reservoirs which have
+been hewn out of the hills above. These reservoirs, approached by
+passages excavated out of the rough sandstone, are stout and solid
+specimens of the mason's craft directed by the engineer's skill. Here we
+met a second gentleman superintending the labours of the men, but he was
+surely a Spaniard; he spoke the language with the readiness of one born
+on the soil; still, he had a matter-of-fact, resolute quickness about
+him that was hardly Spanish. Doubts as to his nationality were soon
+dispelled; the engineer we had surprised in the swamp presented us to
+his colleague Forrest, engineer to Messrs. Barnett and Gale, of
+Westminster, the contractors, as thoroughbred an Englishman as ever came
+out of the busy town of Blackburn.
+
+Mr. Forrest at once stood to cross-examination by the American, who had
+all the inquisitiveness of his race.
+
+"We employ a couple of hundred men, on an average, here," he said, "all
+of whom, with but two exceptions, are Spaniards, and very fair
+hard-working fellows they are; in the town below we have a small colony
+of English, and if you don't take it amiss I shall be happy to present
+you to our society."
+
+I know little of the technicalities of engineering, but I saw enough of
+this work to be certain that it was well and truly done, and I heard
+enough of the scarcity of water in Cadiz to be convinced it will be a
+great boon when finished. The reservoirs are constructed in colonnades,
+supported by ashlar pillars and roofed with rubble; for the water must
+be shaded from the sun in this hot climate; the pillars are buttered
+over with cement, and there is over a foot of cement concrete on the
+flooring, to guard against filtration. As we paced about the sombre
+aisles, echo multiplied every syllable we uttered; the repetition of
+sound is as distinct as in the whispering gallery of St. Paul's, and I
+could not help remarking, "What a splendid robber's cave this would
+make!"
+
+"Too tell-tale," said the practical American; "make a better cave of
+harmony."
+
+"The only pipes that are ever likely to blow here are water-pipes,"
+smilingly put in the engineer; "we intend to lay them from this to
+Cadiz, some twenty-eight miles distant. Roughly speaking, we are about
+ninety feet above the level of the place, so that the highest building
+there can be supplied with ease."
+
+The Romans were benefactors to many portions of this dry land of Spain;
+they built up aqueducts which are still in use, but they neglected
+Cadiz. The town has been dependent on these springs of La Piedad for its
+water supply, except such as dropped from heaven, for three hundred
+years, and attempts to obtain water from wells or borings in the
+neighbourhood have invariably failed. The water which is found in this
+basin, held by capillary attraction in the permeable strata through
+which it soaks till the hard impermeable stratum is met--retained, in
+short, in a natural reservoir--is excellent in quality, limpid and
+sparkling. Puerto has been supplied from the place for time out of mind,
+and Puerto has been so well supplied that it could afford to sell
+panting Cadiz its surplus. With English capital and enterprise putting
+new life into those old hills, and cajoling the precious beverage out of
+their bosom, which unskilled engineers let go to waste, Cadiz should
+shortly have reason to bless the foreign company that relieves its
+thirst. Clear virgin water, such as will course down the tunnels to
+bubble up in the Gaditanian fountains, is the greatest luxury of life
+here; "Agua fresca, cool as snow," is the most welcome of cries in the
+summer, and temperate Spain is as devoted to the colourless liquid that
+the temperance lecturer Gough and his compeers call Adam's ale, as ever
+London drayman was to Barclay's Entire. Success, then, to the Cadiz
+Waterworks Company: we drank the toast on the hill-side of "Piety" they
+were making fruitful of good, drank it in tipple of their and nature's
+brewing, but had latent hopes that Forrest or his colleague would help
+us to a bumper of the generous grape-juice for which the district is
+famed, when we got down to the pleasant companionship of the English
+colony below.
+
+Nor were our hopes disappointed. There are innumerable bodegas, or
+wine-vaults, in the town, in which bottles and barrels of wine are
+neatly caged in labelled array, according to age, quality, and kind.
+Very clean and roomy these stores of vinous treasure are, with an
+indescribable semi-medicinal odour languidly pervading them. We visited
+a bodega belonging to an Englishman, who ranks as a grandee of the
+first-class, the Duke of Ciudad Rodrigo and eke of Vitoria, but who is
+better known as the Duke of Wellington. The natural wine of this
+district is too thin for insular palates. They crave something fiery,
+and, by my word, they get it. Like that Irish car-driver who rejected my
+choicest, oily, mellow "John Jameson," but thanked me after gulping a
+hell-glass of new spirit, violent assault liquefied, they want a drink
+that will catch them by the throat and assert its prerogative going
+down. What a beamy old imposition is that rich brown sherry of city
+banquets, over which the idiot of a connoisseur cunningly smacks his
+lips and rolls his moist eyes. If he were only told how much of it was
+real and how much artificial, would he not gasp and crimson! It would be
+unmerciful to inform him that his pet cordial is charged with sulphuric
+acid gas, that it is sweetened with cane-sugar, that it is flavoured
+with "garnacha dulce," that it is coloured with plastered _must_ and
+fortified with brandy, before it is shipped. Let us leave him in
+blissful ignorance. We tasted many samples before we left, but I own I
+have no liking for sherries, simple or doctored. Among Spanish wines I
+far prefer the full-bodied astringent sub-acidity of the common Val de
+Penas, beloved of Cervantes. But the Queen of wines is sound Bordeaux.
+To that Queen, however, a delicate etherous Amontillado might be
+admitted as Spanish maid-of-honour, preceding the royal footsteps, while
+the syrupy Malaga from the Doradillo grape might follow as attendant in
+her train.
+
+From wine to women is an easy transition. Both are benedictions from on
+high, and I have no patience with the foul churl who cannot enjoy the
+one with proper continence, and rise the better and more chivalrous from
+the society of the other. Wine well used is a good familiar
+creature--kindles, soothes, and inspirits: the cup of wine warmed by the
+smile of woman gives courage to the soldier and genius to the minstrel.
+With Burns--and he was no ordinary seer--I hold that the sweetest hours
+that e'er we spend are spent among the lasses. I will go farther and say
+the most profitable hours. And some sweet and profitable hours 'twas
+mine to spend among the fawn-orbed lasses of Puerto, with their
+childlike gaiety, their desire to please, and their fetching freedom
+from affectation. Would that the wines exported from the district were
+half as unsophisticated! These lasses were not learned in the "ologies"
+or the "isms," but they were sincere; and their locks flowed long and
+free, and when they laughed the coral sluices flying open gave scope to
+a full silvery music cascading between pales of gleaming pearl. An
+admixture of this strain with the fair-skinned men of the North should
+produce a magnificent race; and, indeed, if we paid half the attention
+to the improvement of the human animal which we do to that of the equine
+or the porcine, the experiment would not have been left untried so long.
+In-and-in breeding is a mistake, and can only commend itself, and that
+for selfish reasons, to the Aztec in physique and the imbecile in mind.
+The families which take most pride in their purity are the most
+degenerate; the stock which is the most robust and handsome is that
+which has in it a liberal infusion of foreign bloods. In my opinion, the
+coming man, the highest form of well-balanced qualities--moral,
+intellectual, and masculine--the nearest approach to perfection, must
+ultimately be developed in the United States.
+
+Puerto has a wide-spread reputation as the nursery-ground for
+bull-fighters. To the arena it is what Newmarket is to the British turf.
+Everybody there walks about armed, but murder is not more rife in
+proportion than in London. As it happened, a fellow was shot while I was
+there, but that would not justify one in coming to the conclusion that
+homicide was a flourishing indigenous product. Still, the natives did
+not escape the contagion of unrest of their countrymen. For example, the
+last news I heard before leaving my English friends was that the men in
+the vineyards had struck work. These lazy scoundrels had the impudence
+to demand that they should have half an hour after arrival on the
+ground, and before beginning work, to smoke cigarettes, the same grace
+after the breakfast hour, two hours for a siesta in the middle of the
+day, another interval for a bout of smoking in the afternoon, and
+finally that each should be entitled to an arroba (more than three and a
+half gallons English) of wine per acre at the end of the season. They go
+on the same basis as some trades' unions we are acquainted
+with--reduction of hours of labour and increase of wages. "Will you give
+in to them?" I asked of an English settler, in the wine trade. "Give
+in------" but it is unnecessary to repeat the expletive; "I'll quietly
+shut up my bodega."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     The Charms of Cadiz--Seville-by-the-Sea--Cervantes-Daughters of
+     Eve--The Ladies who Prayed and the Women who Didn't--Fasting
+     Monks--Notice to Quit on the Nuns--The Rival Processions--Gutting a
+     Church--A Disorganized Garrison--Taking it Easy--The Mysterious
+     "Mr. Crabapple"--The Steamer _Murillo_--An Unsentimental
+     Navvy--Bandaged Justice--Tricky Ship-Owning--Painting Black White.
+
+
+THE man who pitched on Cadiz as the site of a city knew what he was
+about. Without exception it is the most charmingly-located place I ever
+set foot in. Its white terraces, crowded with white pinnacles,
+belvederes, and turrets, glistening ninety-nine days out of the hundred
+in clear sunlight, rise gently out of a green sea necked with foam; the
+harbour is busy with commerce, crowded with steamers and sailing ships
+coming and going from the Mediterranean shores, from France, from
+England, or from the distant countries beyond the Atlantic; the waters
+around (for Cadiz is built on a peninsula, and peeps of water make the
+horizon of almost every street) are dotted with fishing craft or
+scudding curlews; the public squares are everlastingly verdant with the
+tall fern-palm, the feathery mimosa, the myrtle, and the silvery ash,
+which only recalls the summer the better for its suggestive appearance
+of having been recently blown over with dust; the gaze inland is repaid
+with the sight of hills brown by distance, of sheets of pasture, and
+pyramidal salt-mounds of creamy grey; and the gaze upwards--to lend a
+glow to the ravishing picture--is delighted by such a cope of dreamy
+blue, deep and pure, and unstained by a single cloudlet, as one seldom
+has the happiness of looking upon in England outside the doors of an
+exhibition of paintings. The climate is dry and genial, and not so hot
+as Seville. The Sevillanos know that, and come to Cadiz when the heats
+make residence in their own city insupportable. Winter is unknown;
+skating has never been witnessed by Gaditanos, except when exhibited by
+foreign professors, clad in furs, who glide on rollers over polished
+floors; and small British boys who are fond of snowballing when they
+come out here are obliged to pelt each other with oranges to keep their
+hands in. One enthusiastic traveller compares it to a pearl set in
+sapphires and emeralds, but adds--lest we should all be running to hug
+the jewel--there is little art here and less society.
+
+"Letters of exchange are the only belles-lettres." Indeed. Now this is
+one of those wiseacres who are _in_ a community, but not _of_ it, who
+materially are present, but can never mentally, so to speak, get
+themselves inside the skins of the inhabitants. That city cannot be said
+to be without letters which has its poetic brotherhood, limited though
+it be, and which reveres the memory of Cervantes, as the memory of
+Shakespeare is revered in no English seaport. Wiseacre should hie him to
+Cadiz on the 23rd of April, when the birth of Cervantes is celebrated,
+for in spite of intestine broils, Spaniards are true to the worship of
+the author of "Don Quixote," and his no less immortal attendant, whom
+Gandalin, friend to Amadis of Gaul, affectionately apostrophizes thus:
+
+      "Salve! Sancho with the paunch,
+       Thou most famous squire,
+    Fortune smiled as Escudero she did dub thee
+    Tho' Fate insisted 'gainst the world to rub thee.
+       Fortune gave wit and common-sense,
+         Philosophy, ambition to aspire;
+       While Chivalry thy wallet stored,
+         And led thee harmless through the fire."
+
+With the respect he deserves for this wandering critic and no more, I
+will take the liberty of saying that there is art, and a great deal of
+art, in the site of the clean town; and that there is society, and good
+society, in that forest of spars in the roadstead, and in the fishing
+and shooting in the neighbourhood. When the Tauchnitz editions have been
+exhausted, and when the stranger has mastered Cervantes and Lope de
+Vega, Espronceda, Larra, and Rivas, there is always that book which Dr.
+Johnson loved, the street, or that lighter literature which Moore sings,
+"woman's looks," to fall back upon. I am afraid some prudes may be
+misjudging my character on account of the frequency of my allusions to
+the sex lately; but I beg them to recollect that this is Andalusia, and
+that woman is a very important element in the population of Cadiz. She
+rules the roost, and the courtly Spaniard of the south forgets that
+there was ever such an undutiful person as Eve. Woman played a
+remarkable part in the events of the couple of months after the Royal
+crown was punched out of the middle of the national flag. She is
+political here, and is not shy of declaring her opinions. Ladies of the
+better classes of Cadiz are attentive to the duties of their religion;
+kneeling figures gracefully draped in black may be seen at all hours of
+the day in the churches during this Lenten season, telling their beads
+or turning over their missals. Those ladies are Carlist to a man, as
+Paddy would say; they naturally exert an influence over their husbands,
+though the influence falls short of making their husbands accompany them
+to church except on great festivals such as Easter Sunday, or on what
+may be called occasions of social rendezvous, such as a Requiem service
+for a deceased friend. The men seem to be of one mind with the French
+freethinker, who abjured religion himself, or put off thoughts of it
+till his dying day, but pronounced it necessary for peasants and
+wholesome for women and children. But _les femmes du peuple_, the
+fishwives, the labourers' daughters, the bouncing young fruit-sellers,
+and the like, are not religious in Cadiz. They have been bitten with the
+revolutionary mania; they are staunch Red Republicans, and have the bump
+of veneration as flat as the furies that went in procession to
+Versailles at the period of the Great Revolution, or their great
+granddaughters who fought on the barricades of the Commune. The nymphs
+of the pavement sympathize strongly with the Republic likewise; but
+their ideal of a Republic is not that of Senores Castelar and Figueras.
+They want bull-fights and distribution of property, and object to all
+religious confraternities unless based on the principles of "the Monks
+of the Screw," whose charter-song, written by that wit in wig and gown,
+Philpot Curran, was of the least ascetic:
+
+    "My children, be chaste--till you're tempted;
+       While sober, be wise and discreet,
+     And humble your bodies with--fasting,
+       Whene'er you have nothing to eat."
+
+So long ago as 1834 a sequestration of convents was ordered in Spain,
+but the Gaditanos never had the courage to enforce the decree till
+after the revolution that sent Queen Isabella into exile. A few years
+ago the convent of Barefooted Carmelites on the Plaza de los Descalzados
+was pulled down; the decree that legalized the act provided an
+indemnity, but the unfortunate monks who were turned bag and baggage out
+of their house never got a penny. They have had to humble their bodies
+with fasting since. For those amongst them who were old or infirm that
+was a grievance; but for the lusty young fellows who could handle a
+spade there need not be much pity, for Spain had more of their sort than
+was good for her. Even at that date the revolutionists of Cadiz had some
+respect left for the nunneries. But they progressed; the example of
+Paris was not lost upon them. The ayuntamiento which came into power
+with the Republic was Federal. Barcelona and Malaga were stirring; the
+ayuntamiento made up its mind that Cadiz should be as good as its
+neighbours and show vigour too. The cheapest way to show vigour was to
+make war on the weak and defenceless, and that was what this
+enlightened and courageous municipality did. The nuns in the convent of
+the Candelaria were told that their house and the church adjoining were
+in a bad state, that they must clear out, and that both should be razed
+in the interests of public safety. It was not that the presence of
+ladies devoted to God after their own wishes and the traditions of their
+creed was offensive to the Republic; no, not by any means. The nuns
+protested that if their convent and church were in a dangerous condition
+the proper measure to take was to prop them up, not pull them down. But
+the blustering heroes of the municipality would not listen to this
+reasoning; they were too careful of the lives of the citizens, the nuns
+included; down the edifices must come. The Commune of Paris over again.
+The ladies of Cadiz, those who pass to and fro, prayer-book in hand, in
+the streets, and startle the flashing sunshine with their solemn
+mantillas, were wroth with the municipality. They saw through its
+designs, and they resolved to defeat them. To the number of some five
+hundred they formed a procession, and marched four deep to the
+Town-house to beg of their worships, the civic tyrants, to revoke their
+order. If the convent and church were in ruins, the ladies were prepared
+to pay out of their own pockets the expense of all repairs. That
+procession was a sight to see; there was the beauty, the rank, the
+fashion, and the worth of the city, in "linked sweetness long drawn
+out," coiling through the thoroughfares on pious errand. The fair
+petitioners were dressed as for a _fete_; diamonds sparkled in their
+hair, and the potent fan, never deserted by the Andalusians, was
+agitated by five hundred of the smallest of hands in the softest of
+gloves. But the civic tyrants were more severe than Coriolanus. They
+were not to be mollified by woman's entreaties, but rightly fearing her
+charms they fled. When the procession arrived at the Town-house, there
+was but a solitary intrepid bailie to receive it. They told him their
+tale. He paid them the usual compliments, kissed their feet in the grand
+Oriental way individually and collectively, said he would lay their
+wishes before his colleagues, but that he could give no promise to
+recall the mandate of the municipality--it was more than he dare
+undertake to do, and so forth. The long and short of it was, he politely
+sent them about their business. They came away, working the fans more
+pettishly than ever, and liquid voices were heard to hiss scornfully
+that the Republic, which proclaimed respect for all religions and
+rights, was a lie, for its first thought was to trample on the national
+religion, and to dispossess an inoffensive corporation of cloistered
+ladies of their right to then property. Here the first act of the drama
+ended.
+
+The second was, if anything, more sensational, though infinitely less
+attractive. The Federals bit their thumbs, and cried:
+
+"Ah, this is the work of the priests!"
+
+So it was; not a doubt of that. The Federals meditated, and this was the
+fruit of their meditations:
+
+"Let us organize a counter-procession!"
+
+That counter-procession was a sight to see, too; the feature of elegance
+was conspicuous by its absence, but there was more colour in it.
+Harridans of seventy crawled after hussies of seventeen; bare arms and
+bandannas were more noticeable than black veils and fans; the _improbae
+Gaditanae_, known of old to certain lively satirists, Martial and Juvenal
+by name, turned out in force. Mayhap it is prejudice, but Republican
+females, methinks, are rather muscular than good-looking. Still they
+have influence sometimes, and when they said their say at the Town-house
+the ladies plainly betrayed how much they dreaded that influence. They
+wrote to Madrid praying that the municipality should be arrested in its
+course. Senor Castelar did send a remonstrance; some say he ordered the
+local authorities not to touch the church or convent, but they laughed
+at his letter, and contented themselves by reflecting that he was not in
+possession of the facts--that is, if they reflected at all, which is
+doubtful.
+
+Act the third was in representation during my stay. I passed the
+Candelaria one morning. Scaffolding poles were erected in the street
+alongside in preparation for the demolition of the building, and a party
+of workmen in the pay of the municipality were engaged gutting the
+church of its contents, and carting them off to a place of deposit,
+where they were to be sold by public auction. These workmen looked
+cheerful over their sacrilege. A waggon was outside the door laden with
+ornaments ripped from the walls, gilt picture-frames, fragments of
+altar-rails, and the head of a cherub. Half a dozen rough fellows in
+guernseys had their shoulders under a block of painted wood-carving. As
+far as I could make out, it was the effigy of one of the Evangelists. I
+was refused admittance to the building, but I was told the sacramental
+plate had been removed with the same indifference. The nuns escaped
+without insult, thanks to the good offices of some friends outside, who
+brought up carriages at midnight to the doors of the convent and
+conveyed them to secret places of safety put at their disposal by the
+bishop.
+
+The people who committed this mean piece of desecration were all Federal
+Republicans. They disobeyed orders from Madrid, and would disobey them
+again. They were as deaf to the commands of Senor Castelar as to the
+prayers and entreaties of the wives and daughters of respectable
+fellow-citizens. And all this time that the central authority were
+defied, artillerymen and linesmen were loitering about the streets of
+Cadiz. Eventually it was plain they would be disarmed, as they were
+disarmed at Malaga; and they would not offer serious opposition to the
+process. Their officers were barely tolerated by them. The Guardia Civil
+were true to duty, but when the crisis came, what could they do any more
+than their comrades at Malaga? They were but as a drop of water in a
+well. Disarmament is not liked by the old soldiers who have money to
+their credit, but there is a large proportion of mere conscripts in the
+ranks, and they are glad to jump at the chance of returning home.
+
+Troubles worse than any may yet be in store; meanwhile the sun shines,
+and Cadiz, like Seville, takes it easy. But there is a bad spirit
+abroad, and it is growing. A pack of ruffians forcibly entered a mansion
+at San Lucar, and annexed what was in it in the name of Republican
+freedom; the "volunteers of liberty" have taken the liberty of breaking
+into the houses of the consuls at Malaga in search for arms; an excited
+mob attacked the printing-office of _El Oriente_ at Seville after I
+left, smashed the type, and threatened to strangle the editor if he
+brought out the paper again; and the precious municipality of Cadiz has
+nothing better to do than order that no mourners shall be allowed in
+future to use religious exercises or emblems, to sing litanies or carry
+crosses, at the open graves of relatives in the cemeteries.
+
+In the merchants' club (of which I was made free) they were saddened at
+the disrupted state of society, but took it as kismet, and seemed to
+think that all would come right in the end, by the interposition of some
+_Deus ex machina_. But who that God was they could not tell: he was
+hidden in the womb of Fate. As Cadiz accepted its destiny with
+equanimity, I accommodated myself to the situation, and did as the
+natives did. I helped to fly kites from the flat housetops--a favourite
+pastime of mature manhood here; I opened mild flirtations with the
+damsels in cigar-shops, and discovered that they were not slow to meet
+advances; I expended hours every day cheapening a treatise on the
+mystery of bull-fighting, with accompanying engravings, in vain--its
+price was above rubies. But my great distraction was a strange character
+I met at dinner at the house of the British Consul. I did not catch his
+name at our introduction, so I mentally named him Mr. Crabapple. He was
+short and stout, had a round wizened face freckled to the fuscous tint
+of a russedon apple, and was endowed with a voice which had all the
+husky sonority of a greengrocer's. He was beardless and sandy-haired,
+and one of those persons whose age is a puzzle to define; he might have
+been anything between fifteen and five-and-thirty. As he talked of
+Harrow as if he had left it but yesterday, I was disposed to set him
+down as a queer public-school boy on vacation, until I was astounded by
+some self-possessed remark on Jamaica dyewoods. We stopped in the same
+hotel. One morning he descended the stairs, a sort of dressing-case in
+hand, and yelled to an urchin at the door:
+
+"Here, you son of a sea-calf, take this down to the waterside for me!"
+
+"Will he understand you?" I said.
+
+"Bound to," Mr. Crabapple replied; "never talk to them any other way,
+anyhow. 'Tis their business to understand. Ta, ta--deuce of a hurry."
+
+"Where are you going, may I ask?"
+
+"Read the Church Service--rather a bore--Sunday, you know."
+
+The nondescript, then, was a chaplain.
+
+The same evening he returned to the hotel, and on the following morning
+I saw him again descending the stairs, the same dressing-case in hand.
+He nodded salute, slung his luggage to the same urchin with the cry,
+"Hook it, you lubber!" and, turning to me, said, "Ta, ta, sheering off
+again."
+
+"Where to now?"
+
+"Mediterranean."
+
+"There's no boat to-day."
+
+"There is, though--there's mine;" and he was off.
+
+The supposed chaplain was a stray-away from a novel by Marryat,
+commanded her Majesty's gunboat _Catapult_, and was at Cadiz on the duty
+of protecting British interests. At the moment his mission was to carry
+important despatches to Gibraltar.
+
+My mission to Cadiz was, partly, to ascertain the progress of the
+inquiry into the case of the _Murillo_ steamer, more than suspected of
+having run down the _Northfleet_, a vessel laden with railway-iron and
+navvies, off Dungeness, on the night of the 22nd of January previous.
+Three hundred lives had been lost on the occasion. I knew something of
+that wreck, for I had seen and spoken with the survivors in the Sailors'
+Home at Dover on the following evening. A dazed, stupid lot they were,
+of an exceedingly low standard of intelligence. The sense of their own
+rescue had overcome the poignancy of grief. I envied them their
+stolidity, which I explained to my own mind by the rush of the engulfing
+waters still swirling and singing knell of sudden doom in their ears.
+
+"Guv'nor," said one clown to me, "I seed my ole 'ooman go down afore my
+eyes, and I felt that grieved a'most as if I was agoin' down myself, and
+I chewed a bit o' baccer."
+
+I saw the _Murillo_ lying quietly a little distance off the land--a
+handsome, shapely craft, fine in the lines, with a sharp stem fashioned
+like that of a ram. She was painted black, with the exception of a band
+of pink above the water-line, where she was coated with Peacock's
+mixture. The British Consul informed me that he understood the inquiry
+into the guilt of the master was to be carried on _secretly_. He would
+not be allowed to attend it. Copies of the depositions of the accused,
+and permission to see them, had also been denied to the agents of the
+British Government, who applied for them for the purposes of the Board
+of Trade inquiry. Though Spaniards, in private conversation, own that
+the _Murillo_ is the criminal ship, they seem, for some unaccountable
+reason, to be anxious that she should escape the penalty of her
+wickedness, as if the national honour were concerned, and the national
+honour would be served by cloaking an offence cruel and mean in itself,
+and awful in its consequences.
+
+There is a sentence in the Comminations which would keep running in my
+mind every time I thought of that emigrant ship sent to the bottom off
+Dungeness--"Cursed is he who smiteth his enemy secretly." But if he who
+smites his enemy secretly is accursed, what is he who smites his
+neighbour and then flees away like a coward in the dark? Is he not twice
+and thrice wicked, and to be branded with malediction deeper still? Such
+a thing the _Murillo_ steamer did--there could be no manner of doubt
+about it; every seafaring man and every Spaniard admits her
+blood-guiltiness; yet there she lies off Puntales, near the Trocadero,
+calmly expecting soon to be under weigh again with her criminal master
+and crew on board, with no punishment registered against her or them.
+The Consul-General of Spain in London wrote to the papers after the loss
+of the _Northfleet_, saying if this man was the wrongdoer he would be
+punished, and sent to Ceuta or Tetuan. But he is the wrongdoer, and he
+will never be sent to Ceuta or Tetuan. The master of the _Murillo_ and
+the sailors of the watch on the fatal night are in prison, but they will
+never be brought to serious account. The figure of Justice in these
+latitudes is true to the sculptor's ideal in one sense: the eyes are
+bandaged, not that Justice shall be impartial, but that she may not
+see.
+
+This instance of the _Murillo_ is but one of many, and as it illustrates
+an artifice of tricky ship-owning, it will be well to state why the
+_Murillo_ will go scot-free, and may audaciously turn up again in
+British waters disguised by a few coats of paint, exhibiting a fresh
+figure-head, and bearing a new name in gilt lettering on her stern.
+
+In the first place, the _Murillo_ belonged not to Spanish so much as
+English owners. The line of steamers of which she was one was the
+property of a company of shareholders. The company was anxious that
+their vessels should fly the Spanish flag, so they made one Don Miguel
+Styles the nominal head of the firm. This individual was a mere clerk in
+their office, a man of straw, and at the date of the catastrophe Don
+Miguel Styles had no more substantial existence than our old friend John
+Styles: he was dead, and in his grave.
+
+Nextly, Mr. Daniel Macpherson, one of the most eminent merchants in the
+port of Cadiz and Lloyd's agent, had been served with an instrument
+claiming damages to the amount of 50,000 pesetas (L2,000), because that
+he had calumniated the good ship _Murillo_, and caused her prejudice and
+injury by detaining her a couple of months in the waters of Cadiz. The
+persons who instituted this action forget that the Spanish courts have
+no jurisdiction in the matter of libels published in England. And as for
+the prejudice caused to the vessel, it is incredible that the British
+Government should be so weak as to wait for letters from Lloyd's agent
+before opening an inquiry into the deaths of some three hundred of its
+subjects and the identity of the dastardly scoundrel who was the cause
+of their deaths, who disabled the ship that held them, and then slunk
+off, leaving them to the mercy of the midnight sea. That the _Murillo_
+was that vessel, even those who maintain that she cannot be proved
+legally guilty do not attempt to deny. It is true, as they say, that
+moral certainty is one thing, legal certainty another. But there was
+seldom a clearer chain of circumstantial evidence pointing to the
+perpetrator of any crime than that which convicted the _Murillo_ of
+being the misdemeanant. She was off Dungeness at the hour of the
+disaster, and she was in contact with a ship; this the imprisoned master
+admitted in his log. But he alleged that the ship could not have been
+the _Northfleet_. He said he came into collision with a vessel; that he
+stood by her for half an hour; that one of her boats put off with some
+persons on board carrying a lantern; that they went round her examining
+whether there was anything wrong; and that no call having been made to
+him for assistance he steamed away. But there was a discrepancy between
+the entry in his log and that in the log of the engineer. The latter, an
+Englishman, stated that the engines of the _Murillo_ were backed before
+the collision, that she went astern afterwards, and then went on ahead.
+The delay altogether was only for a few minutes. No mention of the
+half-hour. The engineer had no object in telling a lie. The master of
+the _Murillo_ had. No other ship was in collision off Dungeness that
+night. Besides, what meant the order to the _Murillo_ to come on at once
+to Cadiz if she had been in collision, and not stop at Lisbon, whither
+she was bound as port of call, if not to get her into limits where
+justice is notoriously blind and halt? Argument is unnecessary and
+childish; it was the _Murillo_ which cut down the _Northfleet_. But
+Spain will never exact retribution for the destruction of the property
+and the sacrifice of the lives of aliens. Cosas de Espana.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     Expansion of Carlism--A Pseudo-Democracy--Historic Land and Water
+     Marks--An Impudent Stowaway--Spanish Respect for Providence--A
+     Fatal Signal--Playing with Fire--Across the Bay--Farewell to
+     Andalusia--British Spain.
+
+
+TOWARDS the close of February, a grave official report was published in
+the _Gaceta_ of Madrid, announcing that an engagement had been fought
+with the Carlists and a victory scored, _one_ of the enemy having been
+killed. We were now in April, some six weeks later, and Carlism still
+showed lively signs of existence, notwithstanding the death of that
+solitary combatant. The statement of the troops employed against it will
+be the best measure of its importance. These consisted of a battalion
+and two companies of Engineers, four companies of Foot Artillery, a
+battery of Horse and five batteries of Mountain Artillery; eight
+squadrons of Cuirassiers, seven of Lancers, four of Hussars, a section
+of Mounted Chasseurs (Tiradores), and eighteen battalions of Infantry of
+the line, with five of Cazadores, or light infantry. Behind this force
+of regulars were the Francos or Free-shooters of Navarre (who were about
+as good as their prototypes, the _francs-tireurs_ of France--no better),
+some mobilized Volunteers, and the Carabineros, or revenue police. There
+were some who imagined that the hosts of Don Carlos might crown the
+hills of Vallecas, and present themselves before the gate of Atocha to
+the consternation of Madrid, as did those of his predecessor in the
+September of 1837. But the Federals of the south did not mind. What did
+not touch them, they cared not a jot for. They were of the
+pseudo-democracy which wants to live without working, consume without
+producing, obtain posts without being trained for them, and arrive at
+honours without desert--the selfish and purblind pseudo-democracy of
+incapacity and cheek.
+
+As I had no pecuniary interest in salt, wine, phosphate of soda, hides,
+or cork--the chief exports of Cadiz--I left the much-bombarded port on
+the _Vinuesa_, one of the boats of the Alcoy line plying to Malaga. My
+immediate destination was the Hock, but we went no nearer than
+Algeciras, the town on the opposite side of the bay, off which Saumarez
+gave such a stern account of the Spanish and French combined on the 12th
+of July, 1801. The sea was without a ripple. The bright coasts of two
+Continents were in view. On such a day as this the first adventurers
+must have crossed from Africa to Europe. Hero might almost have swum
+across. Even Mr. Brownsmith of Eastchepe might rig a craft out of an
+empty sugar hogshead, set up his walking-stick for mast, tie his
+pocket-handkerchief to it for sail, and trust to the waves in
+safety--that is, if Mr. Brownsmith of Eastchepe had in him the heart of
+Raleigh, not of Bumble. Some men are born to be drivers of tram-cars,
+some to be captains of corsairs. The pioneer of navigation must have
+been cut out by nature to be a High-Admiral of bold buccaneers.
+
+We were only five passengers on the steamer, and we amused ourselves
+comparing notes. One told of a voyage from Barcelona to Alicante which
+he had once undertaken. The first night out they lost a sailor; he was
+seized with a fit and died; and then came the poser. When they would
+arrive at Alicante and muster the crew for the inspection of the health
+officers one would be wanting; suspicions would be aroused that he had
+fallen a victim to contagious disease, and they ran the hazard of being
+stuck into quarantine unless they could succeed in buying themselves off
+with an exorbitant bribe. While they were in a quandary, a white head
+popped above a gangway forward and a voice sang out:
+
+"I'll get you out of the hole for a consideration."
+
+"Who the deuce are you? Where did you spring from?" cried the skipper.
+
+"A stowaway,--a flour-barrel. I'll parade as the dead man's substitute
+for ten dollars and a square meal."
+
+In the end they were glad to accept the impudent proposal; the corpse
+was flung overboard, and the stowaway entered the port of Alicante an
+honest British tar, looking the whole world in the face like
+Longfellow's village blacksmith, and jingling ten dollars in his
+pocket.
+
+We passed by Barrosa, where Graham gave the French such a thrashing in
+1811, and the 87th Irish Fusiliers earned their glorious surname of the
+"Eagle-takers;" and over the waves of Trafalgar where Nelson did his
+duty, and was smitten with a bullet in the spine; and passing into the
+Straits and rounding the point by Tarifa, stood in for the Bay of
+Gibraltar. A spacious swelling spread of live water it is, and safe,
+except, as one of my fellow-passengers informed me, for a rock off the
+Punta del Carnero, or Mutton Point. The rock is covered when the tide is
+high (for there is a tide here), but rears its tortoise-like back over
+the surface for some hours at the ebb. The Channel squadron was coming
+out of Gib some years before when an ironclad grounded on this rock, but
+was got off without more damage than a scraping. As the danger to the
+navigation was outside the limits of the fortress, the British
+authorities applied to the Spanish for permission to clear away the
+obstruction. It was easily to be accomplished. A party of sappers could
+set a caisson round it, bore a gallery, insert a charge, and blast the
+rock into smithereens with safety and despatch. But the Spaniards would
+not consent to such an interference with the designs of Providence; the
+poor fishermen on the coast were often dependent for their livelihood on
+what they could pick up from wrecks, and if this rock were removed
+Nature would be sacrilegiously altered, and the interesting wreckers
+deprived of many an honest coin. I tell the tale as it was told to me. I
+wonder should it be dedicated to the amphibious corps.
+
+Another story bearing on the successful revolution inaugurated by Prim
+is worth relating, as it deals with an episode of Spanish politics which
+is repeated almost every other year with slender variations. The play is
+the same; the scene and the _dramatis personae_ are merely shifted. One
+of the stereotyped military risings was to be initiated at Algeciras on
+the arrival of Prim from England. The intimation that he was at hand was
+to be made by the firing of two rockets from the ship which carried him.
+On a certain night at the close of August, 1868, two rockets blazed in
+the sky, and were noticed by the impatient conspirators at Algeciras,
+who flew to arms to cries of "Down with the Queen," and "Live Prim and
+Liberty." But no Prim landed. The alarm was premature, the rising a
+flash in the pan. What they had taken for the bright herald of the
+advent of "El Paladino" was the signal of a Peninsular and Oriental
+steamer which had arrived on her passage to Port Said. For the sake of
+appearances, a number of unfortunate fools were set up against a wall
+and had their brains blown out in tribute to law and order. But the
+fruit was ripening. Within little more than a fortnight came the
+insurrection of the fleet at Cadiz, upon the appearance in that port of
+the popular hero, and before the end of the month Queen Isabella had
+fled over the French frontier, never to return to Spain as a sovereign.
+Prim's plot was attended with a fortune in excess of his most sanguine
+hopes; he entered Madrid in triumph in October, and was created a
+Marshal in November. All was joy and enthusiasm, but the hapless tools
+of ambition who had helped to prepare the way for him below in Algeciras
+were not of the jubilee.
+
+At first sight the rock looms up large like a frowning inhospitable
+islet, the stretch of the Neutral Ground being so low that one cannot
+detect it above the sea-level until almost right upon it. We left the
+_Vinuesa_ and entered a boat with a couple of sturdy rowers, who offered
+to pull us across the Bay for five dollars. As I dipped a hand in the
+brine one of them raised a cry of "Take care!" there were "mala pesca"
+there. Mr. Shark, who is an ugly customer, had been cruising in the
+neighbourhood, and had taken a morsel out of an American swimmer a
+little time before. There were three masts protruding over the water at
+one spot, the relics of some gallant ship, and index to one of those
+godsends which the Spanish Government is solicitous to guarantee to the
+distressed and deserving local fishermen. What a pity it was not the
+_Murillo_! That would have been poetic retribution.
+
+No matter: with all thy faults I like thee, Spain, and especially that
+brown dusty province of Andalusia, with its oranges and pomegranates;
+its dancing fountains splashed with sunshine; its winsome damozels with
+such lisping languors of voice; its philosophic waiters upon the morrow,
+happy in a cigarette, a melon and a guitar; its muleteers crooning
+snatches of lazy song; its peasants with hair tied in beribboned
+pigtail; its tawny boys in Manola colours; aye, and its artistic
+beggars.
+
+"Ah! now you see the Neutral Ground; that village to the left is Lineas,
+where you can get a glass of Manzanilla cheap," exclaimed a companion.
+
+I do not set exceeding store by your pale thin Manzanilla, nor do I care
+to load my mouth with the flavour of a drug store.
+
+"There are the sheds we put up the time Prim was expected; they are on
+the Neutral Ground, ha, ha! where the soil is supposed to be inviolate;
+but we have forgotten to take them down since. We were too many for
+them."
+
+And now we are by the landing-stairs, and the Customs' officer demands
+our passport in English. We answer him cheerily that we need none, and
+to his smiling welcome we step on the soil of British Spain; but it
+would be unpardonable to begin describing it at the tail of a chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+     Gabriel Tar--A Hard Nut to Crack--In the Cemetery--An Old Tipperary
+     Soldier--Marks of the Broad Arrow--The "Scorpions"--The
+     Jaunting-Cars--Amusements on the Bock--Mrs. Damages' Complaint--The
+     Bay, the Alameda, and Tarifa--How to Learn Spanish--Types of the
+     British Officer--The Wily Ben Solomon--A Word for the
+     Subaltern--Sunset Gun--The Sameness of Sutlersville.
+
+
+WHERE I went to school, we had a droll lad, whose humour developed
+itself in mispronunciation. In my nonage I considered that unique. Now I
+know it is a rather common order of quaintness. Hugh used to call Sierra
+Leone, "Sarah Alone;" Cambodia, "Gamboge;" Stromboli, "Storm-boiler;"
+and Gibraltar, "Gabriel Tar." How we used to wrinkle with laughter at
+his sallies, launched with an artistically unconscious air, until the
+swooping cane came swishing down on our backs! And here I was in Gabriel
+Tar. I vow the first inclination I felt was to write to Hugh with the
+date engraved on the note-paper, and indeed so I should have done, but
+that I had not seen him for nigh twenty years, and when last I heard of
+him he was married, and had learned to be serious and to speak with
+precision. The fun had been driven out of him by responsibility.
+Propriety had come with prosperity.
+
+Call it by what name you will, Gabriel Tar, or Gibraltar, that
+infinitesimal scrap of territory over which the Union Jack floats, is
+supremely unpalatable and insolently insulting to the Spaniard. It is a
+bitter pill to swallow, an adamantine nut to crack. I suppose he is
+welcome to take it--when he can; but he knows better than to try. It is
+the gate of the Mediterranean. Logically, it is an injustice that a
+stranger should sit in the porter's lodge and swing the key at his
+girdle; but it is as well that the porter is one who is too surly to
+barter his trust for gold. So Gabriel Tar will remain intact, until the
+porter grows feeble or falls asleep.
+
+British Spain, or "the Rock," or Gib, as it is indifferently termed, or
+Sutlersville, as I prefer to name it, can be converted into an island at
+the will of its defenders. The sandy spit of Neutral Ground at one side
+of which Tommy Atkins, fresh-faced, does his sentry-go in brick-red
+tunic and white pith-helmet, and at the other side of which swarthy
+Sancho Panza y Toro, in projecting cap and long blue coat, fondles a
+rifle in the bend of his arm, can readily be flooded; and the bare,
+sheer, lofty north front, with scores of cannon of the deadliest modern
+pattern lying in wait behind the irregular embrasures that grimly pit
+its surface, hardly invites attack. It frowns a calm but determined
+defiance; and even the Cid himself might be excused if he turned on his
+heel and puffed a meditative cigarette after he had surveyed it.
+
+British Spain is small, being but one and seven-eighth square miles
+English in area; but it is mighty strong. The population, comprising the
+garrison, is less than fifteen thousand; but behind that slender cipher
+of souls are the millions of the broadest and biggest of empires. I do
+not know what the population of the cemetery is, but it receives rapid
+and numerous accessions at each periodical outbreak of cholera. I paid a
+visit to it--I have a fondness for sauntering in God's acre--and arrived
+in time to witness a funeral. When the coffin was laid in the grave, a
+young man, probably the husband of the deceased, threw himself prone on
+the turf beside the open burial-trench, and burst into such a passionate
+tempest of heart-rending sobs and moans and wailings, that I had to move
+away. These Southerners are more demonstrative in their grief than the
+men of the North. I question if their sorrows spring from deeper depths,
+or are so lasting. The caretaker of the cemetery, an elderly Tipperary
+soldier, with a short _dudheen_ in his mouth, was seated smoking on a
+head-stone by a goat-willow. We got into conversation.
+
+"There were worse places than Gib--singing-birds were raysonable here,
+and some of them had rayl beautiful plumage."
+
+My countryman, like the Duke of Argyll, had a weakness for ornithology.
+
+"That spread of land beyant was where the races were held, and small-arm
+parties from the fleet sometimes kem ashore and practised there. They
+used to play cricket there, too. The symmetry wasn't a gay place, but
+there were worse. There were some beautiful tombs--now _there_ was a
+parable ov wan; 'twas put up by their frinds to some officers who were
+dhrownded while they were crossing a flooded sthrame on their way back
+from a shooting excursion. The car-drivers, who were dhrownded wid them,
+had no monument. 'Twas a quare world; a poor man had the chance of dying
+wid a rich man, but was not to be berrid in his company. Well, he
+supposed it was for the best," and here he hammered the heel-tap out of
+his pipe on the side of his shoe; "when the last bugle sounded a
+field-officer would feel uncomfortable like if he had to be looking for
+his bones in the same plot wid a lance-corporal."
+
+Truly, a queer world. Death with impartial summons knocks at the cabin
+of the poor and the palace of the wealthy; but in the undertaker's
+interest the equality of the grave must not be conceded. The plebeian
+who commits _felo de se_ is served properly if he is hidden at the
+cross-roads by night and a stake driven through his body. The lunatic
+King who drowns himself, and drags his doctor to the same fate--who is a
+suicide duplicated with the suspicion of murder--is embalmed and laid to
+rest in consecrated ground amid incense and music, lights and flowers,
+the tolling of bells, and the chanting of dirges.
+
+The funeral was over; they were just finishing the _De Profundis_. My
+countryman had to quit me. "_Oyeh!_ that fellow who was making such a
+lamentation might be married agin in a twelvemonth. The army plan was
+the best; after the 'Dead March' in _Saul_ came 'Tow-row-row.'--another
+so'jer was to be had for a shilling. He did not drink; he thanked me all
+the same--had taken the pledge from Father Mathew whin he was a boy, and
+meant to stick by it; but he would accept the price of a singing-bird he
+had set his mind upon, since it was pressed upon him."
+
+Gibraltar is but a huge garrison. In the moat by the gate, as I
+re-entered, a big drummer and a tiny mannikin-soldier with cymbals were
+practising how to lead off a marching-past tune. The "Fortune of War"
+tavern elbows "Horse-Barrack Lane;" a print of "The Siege of Kars" is
+side by side in a shop-window with Dr. Bennett's "Songs for Soldiers."
+The Plazas and Calles of the mainland of Spain have been parted with.
+The names of streets, hostelries, and stores are English. Instead of
+tiendas and almacenes and fondas, you have fancy repositories,
+regimental shoe-shops, and porter-houses. There, for example, is the
+celebrated "Cock and Bottle," and farther on "The Calfs Head Hotel." If
+you traverse Cathedral Square, no larger than an ordinary-sized
+skittle-alley, you arrive by Sunnyside Steps to the Europa Pass. Notices
+are posted by the roadside cautioning against plucking flowers or
+treading on the beds under pain of prosecution. But the bazaar bewilders
+you with its alien figures, its confusion of tongues, and its eccentric
+contrasts of dress. In five minutes you meet Spanish officers; nuns in
+broad-leaved white bonnets; a bearded sergeant nursing a baby;
+bare-legged, sun-burnished Moors; pink-and-white cheeked ladies'-maids
+from Kent; local mashers in such outrageously garish tweeds; stiff
+brass-buttoned turnkeys; Jews in skull-cap and Moslems in fez; and while
+you are lost in admiration of a burly negro, turbaned and in grass-green
+robe, with face black and shiny as a newly-polished stove, you are
+hustled by a sailor on cordial terms with himself who is vigorously
+attempting to whistle "Garry Owen."
+
+But above and before all, the sights and sounds are military. Sappers
+and linesmen and artillerists pullulate at every corner; fatigue-parties
+are confronted at every turn; the bayonet of the sentinel flashes in
+every angle of the fortress from the minute the sun, bursting into
+instantaneous radiance from behind the great barrier of craggy hill,
+lights up the town and bastions and moles, until the boom of the
+sunset-gun gives signal for the gates to be closed. Every tavern looks
+like a canteen; the gossip is of things martial; the music is that of
+the reveille or tattoo--the blare of brass, the rub-a-dub of parchment,
+or the shrill sound-revel of Highland pipes (for there is usually a
+Scotch regiment here). The ladies one meets all have husbands, or
+fathers, or uncles in the Service; even the children--those of English
+parents well understood--keep step as they walk, and the boys amongst
+them compliment any well-dressed stranger with a home face by rendering
+him the regulation salute. This is highly gratifying to the civilian
+sojourning in the place; for he insensibly succumbs to the _genius
+loci_, squares his shoulders, expands his chest, and feels that if he is
+not an officer he ought to be one.
+
+Except the enterprising gentry who devote themselves to cheating the
+Spanish excise by smuggling cigars and English goods across the border,
+the Scorpions live by and on the garrison, and therefore do I name their
+habitat Sutlersville. "Scorpion," I should add, for the benefit of the
+uninitiated, is the _sobriquet_ conferred by Tommy Atkins on the natives
+of the Rock, as that of "Smiches" is merrily applied by him to the
+Maltese, and of "Yamplants" to the denizens of St. Helena. There is a
+tolerable infusion of English blood among the Scorpions, but it is
+hardly of the healthiest or most respectable.
+
+Gib is familiar to thousands of Englishmen, but it must be unfamiliar to
+many thousands more. This is my excuse for exhuming some notes of my
+stay there. Don't be afraid, I am not going to pester you with
+guide-book erudition. Let others take you to the galleries and caves,
+lead you up the ascent to the Moorish tower, inform you that the one
+spot in Europe where there is an indigenous colony of monkeys (the
+patriarch of which is styled the "town major") is here, and enlighten
+you as to the interesting fact that this is the only locality out of
+Ireland where the Irish jaunting-car is to be objurgated. Mine be a
+humbler task.
+
+Society in Gib is select, but limited. It is uniform, like the clothes
+of the influential portion of the inhabitants. Gib is the wrong place to
+bring out a young lady, though Major Dalrymple's daughters, immortalized
+in Lever's novel, could not well have found a better hunting-ground. But
+then Major Dalrymple's daughters were regular garrison hacks--so the
+irreverent subs of the Rovers used to call them--and never stood a
+chance beside the daughters of the county families. There are racing and
+chasing at the station, and theatricals and balls. I arrived at the
+wrong season. The three days' local racing, for horses of every breed
+but English, was over, and most of the men were going to Cadiz by
+special boat next day, _en route_ for the Jerez races, which are the
+best--indeed, I might almost say the solitary--meeting in Spain.
+
+"There are only two things in this land worth talking about," said an
+English merchant to me at Cadiz; "the steamers of Lopez and the races of
+Jerez."
+
+The hunting (thanks to brave old Admiral Fleming for having started that
+diversion) was over too. The meets have to come off, naturally, outside
+the frontier of British Spain. The sport is pretty good--one cannot
+quite expect the Melton country, of course--the riding hard, and the
+horses invariably Spanish; no English horses would do, for no English
+horse would be equal to climbing up a perpendicular bank with sixteen
+stone on his back, and that is a feat the native steeds, bestridden by
+British warriors in pink who follow the Calpe pack, have sometimes to
+accomplish. There is a Spanish lyrical and theatrical troop in the town;
+but it is Holy Week, and lyricals and theatricals are under taboo.
+Occasionally charity concerts are given by amateurs, and plays are even
+performed in Lent Champagne, of the Fizzers, has won a reputation by his
+success on the boards when he dons the habiliments of lovely woman
+beyond a certain age. But, as I told you before, I arrived at the wrong
+season. There are no balls at the Convent, which is the Governor's
+residence; and, touching these balls, I have a grievance to ventilate,
+at the request of Mrs. Quartermaster Damages. She specially imported
+frilled petticoats from England to display in the mazy dance, and she
+assured me they were turning sere and yellow in her boxes. She never
+gets a chance of bringing them out except once in the twelvemonth, when
+she is asked to the "Quartermasters' Ball." But there is a reason for
+everything, and Mrs. Quartermaster Damages is fat and forty, and not
+fair, and--tell it not out of mess--they say she has a tongue.
+
+At this particular time, you perceive, this fortified fragment of the
+empire was dull; but usually it is gay, and the officer quartered there
+has always an excellent opportunity of learning his trade and acquiring
+skill in the gentlemanly game of billiards. He can make maps and surveys
+of the neutral ground, and watch the guard mounting on the Alameda, or
+read the account of the siege in Drinkwater's days; and when he tires of
+the green cloth and its distractions, and of his own noble profession,
+he can throw a sail to the breeze in the unequalled Bay, or take a
+flying trip to Tarifa to sketch the beautiful from the living model, or
+go to Ceuta to see the Spanish galley-slaves and disciplinary regiments,
+forgetful of our own chain-gangs; or steam across to Tangier to riot in
+Nature and a day's pig-sticking.
+
+The Bay, the Alameda, and Tarifa--these are the three delights of
+Gibraltar.
+
+You have heard of the Bay of Naples, and the Bay of Dublin, which equals
+it in Paddy Murphy's estimation. I know both; and Gibraltar, the
+little-spoken-of, leaves them nowhere. The sky, and the undulating
+mirror below that reflects it, are such a blue; the rocks are such an
+ashen-grey; the Spanish sierras such a leonine brown, with summits
+wrapped in clouds like rolling smoke; and the sun goes down to his bath
+in the west 'mid such a vaporous glow of yellowing purple and rosy gold!
+
+The Alameda is a bower of Venus cinctured by Mars. Here is a gravelled
+expanse bounded by hill and sea, with cosy benches under the shade of
+palmitos--the civilization of the West in alliance with the rich
+vegetation of the East. Sometimes, in the morning, five hundred men or
+more--garrison artillery, engineers, and infantry--muster there,
+previous to marching to their posts; there is a banging of drums, a
+blowing of bugles, a bobbing vision of cocked-hats, and a roar of hoarse
+words of command--all the pomp and pride and circumstance of glorious
+war before the fighting begins. Sometimes, in the evening, a band plays,
+and the Alameda is the resort of fashion and of nursery-maids.
+
+Tarifa, shining in the sunset across the water, is a tempting morsel for
+the landscape-painter, and the dwellers in Tarifa are the best teachers
+of Spanish. A British subaltern bent on improving his mind could
+encounter an infinitely better preceptor there than "Jingling Johnny,"
+the self-appointed professor to the garrison, who hires himself on
+Monday, makes you a present of a guitar-tutor on Tuesday, and asks you
+to favour him with six months' payment in advance on Wednesday. To be
+sure, the Spanish those Tarifans speak is slightly Arabified; but their
+tones of voice are persuasive, and their methods of teaching agreeable.
+The professor taken by the British subaltern is invariably a female, and
+the females of Tarifa are not the ugliest in the world. They still
+retain many customs peculiar to their Moorish ancestors. They wear a
+manta, not a mantilla--a sort of large-hooded mantle, with which they
+hide the light of their countenance, except an eye--but that is a
+piercer, ye gods I and they keep it open for business. When a stranger
+passes, especially if he looks like a sucking lieutenant from the
+fortress beyond, the manta falls, disclosing the soft loveliness
+beneath, and the wearer affects a pretty confusion, and hastens with
+judicious slowness to re-adjust its folds. The British subaltern reels
+to his quarters seriously wounded, and may be seen the following
+morning, with his hair blown back, spouting poetry to the zephyrs on
+Europa Point. Oh no!--that only occurs in romances; but he may be seen
+drinking brandy-and-soda moderately in the Club-House.
+
+Poor British subaltern! How Sutlersville does exploit him! He is a
+sheep, and bears his fleecing without a kick. Watch those lazy,
+lounging, able-bodied, smoking, and salivating loons who prop up every
+street-corner, and monopolize the narrow pathways--these all live by
+him; they eat up his substance, and fatten thereupon. These are the
+touting and speculating sons of the Rock, the veritable Scorpions, who
+are ever ready to find the "cap'n" a dog or a horse or a boat, or
+something not so harmless, to help him on the road to ruin, and whisper
+in his ear what a fine fellow he is--"As ver fine a fellow--real
+gemman--as Lord Tomnoddy, who give me such a many dollars when he go
+away." The first word these loons pronounce after coming into the world
+must be _baksheesh_. They are born with beggary in their mouths, and the
+British subaltern acts as if he were born to be their victim. There he
+is below, of every type, lolling outside the hotel-door that looks on
+that Commercial Square which is so thorough a barrack-square, with its
+romping children, its dogs, its dust, its guard-house with chatting
+soldiers on a form in front, and the important sentinel pacing to and
+fro, regular and rigid as a pendulum, keeping vigilant watch and ward
+over nothing in particular. We have a rare company to-day; besides the
+engineers and bombardiers, and the linesmen of the 24th, 31st, 71st, and
+81st, the four infantry regiments on the station, we have men on leave
+from Malta. They came up to the races, and are waiting for the P. and O.
+steamer to take them back. That fat little customer is your sporting
+sub. I only wonder he is not in cords, tops, and spurs. What a hearty
+voice he talks in! He asks for the _Field_ as if he were giving a
+view-halloo. Then there is the moist-eyed, mottle-cheeked, puffy,
+convivial sub, who is knowing on the condition of ale, and is too
+friendly with Saccone's sherry. The convivial sub, I am happy to say, is
+dying out. Then there is the prig, who is "going in" for his profession.
+I call him a prig, because when people are going in for anything they
+should have the good sense not to blow about it. To hear Mr. Shells and
+his prattle about Hamley and Brialmont and Jomini, _kriegspiel_ and the
+new drill, you would imagine he was bound to put the extinguisher on
+Marlborough, Wellington, Wolseley, and the rest of them; and yet the
+chances are, if you meet him twenty years hence, he will be a captain on
+the recruiting service, with no forces to marshal but six growing
+children. Then there is the sentimental sub, the perfect ladies' man,
+who plays croquet and the flute, pleads guilty to having cultivated the
+Nine, and affects a simpering pooh-pooh when he is impeached with having
+inspired that wicked but so witty bit of scandal in the local paper. By
+singularity of pairing, his fast friend is the muscular sub, who walks
+against time, and can write his initials with a hundredweight hanging
+from his index-finger.
+
+Happy dogs in the heyday of life, all of them; how I envy them their
+buoyant spirits, their rollicking enjoyment of to-day, and their
+contempt for the morrow! But the morrow will come nevertheless, and
+with it Black Care will come often. Gib is a haunt of the Hebrews; they
+or their myrmidons beset the subaltern at genial hours, after luncheon
+or after mess, pester him with vamped-up knick-knacks for sale, appeal
+to him to patronize a poor man by buying articles he does not and never
+by any means can want--"pay me when you likes, Cap'n, one yearsh, two
+yearsh." The "cap'n," who may have left Sandhurst but six months, may be
+weakly good-natured, and ignore the fact that his income is not elastic;
+some day that he thinks of taking a run to England Ben Solomon, who
+seems to be able to read the books in the Adjutant-General's Office
+through the walls, pounces upon him with his little bill, and he is
+arrested if he cannot satisfy his Jewish benefactor. Loans are advanced
+at a high rate "per shent" by the harpies, and enable him to stave off
+the temporary embarrassment; the "cap'n" is happy for the moment, but
+the reckoning is only deferred that it may grow. The arrival of Black
+Care is adjourned, not averted. The plain truth of it is, Gibraltar is a
+den of thieves, and has been the burial-pit of many a promising young
+fellow's hopes. There are two tariffs for everything--one for natives,
+the other for the British subaltern and the British tourist; and the
+British subaltern and the British tourist are foolish enough to submit
+to the extortion in most cases. With some half-dozen honourable
+exceptions, the traders are what is popularly known as "Jews" in their
+mode of dealing. They cozen on principle, sell articles that will not
+last, and charge preposterous prices for them; they impose upon the
+young officer's softness or delicate gentlemanly feeling, and consider
+themselves smart for so doing. In this manner Gibraltar, with all its
+discomforts, is dearer than the most expensive and luxurious quarter in
+the British Isles.
+
+But we have other specimens of the genus officer in the lounging
+slaughterers by profession, who are so busy killing time. The lean
+bronzed aristocratic major, whose temper long years in India have not
+soured; the squat pursy paymaster (why are paymasters so fearfully
+inclined to fat?); the raw-boned young surgeon with the Aberdeen accent;
+"the ranker," erect and grizzled, and looking ever so little not quite
+at his ease, you know, for the languid lad with fawn-coloured moustache
+straddling on the chair beside him is an Honourable; the jovial portly
+Yorkshireman, who is in the Highland Light Infantry, naturally; and the
+lively loud-voiced Irishman, laughing consumedly at his own jokes--all
+are here, conversing, smoking, mildly chaffing each other, and
+exchanging "tips" as to the next Derby. They make a book in a quiet way,
+and occasionally invest in a dozen tickets in a Spanish lottery. What
+will you? One cannot perpetually play shop, and the British officer has
+a rooted objection to it, although he does his duty like a man when the
+tug of war arises. Better that he should join in a regimental
+sweepstakes, or lose what he can afford to lose to a comrade, than give
+way to the blues. He does not gamble or curse, like his Spanish
+_confrere_; his potations are not deep, nor is he quick to quarrel. Then
+let him race on the Neutral Ground; let him hunt with the Calpe pack;
+and let him back his fancy for the big event at Epsom. Those are his
+chief excitements at Gib, and help to give a fillip to life in that
+circumscribed microcosm, pending the anxiously expected morn when the
+route will come, or, mayhap, the call to active service, in one of those
+petty wars which are constantly breaking the monotony of this so-called
+pacific reign.
+
+"Guard, turn out!" cries the Highland Light Infantry sentinel under my
+window, and the smart soldier laddies fall in for the inspection of the
+officer of the day. What a thoroughly military town it is! By-and-by the
+evening gun booms from the heights above, where Sergeant Munro, taking
+time from his sun-dial and the town major, notifies the official sunset.
+Bang go the gates. We are imprisoned. Anon the streets are traversed by
+patrols in Indian file to warn loiterers to return to barracks, the
+pipers of the 71st skirl a few wild tunes on Commercial Square, the
+buglers sound the last post, the second gun-fire is heard, and a hush
+falls over the town, broken only by the challenges of sentries or their
+regular echoing footfalls on their weary beats. The thunder of artillery
+wakes you in the morning anew, and if you venture out for a walk before
+breakfast you thread your way through waggons of the army train or
+fatigue-parties in white jackets. You stumble across cannon and
+symmetric pyramids of shot where you least expect them; the line of
+sea-wall is intersected by figures in brick-red tunic, moving back and
+forward on ledges of masonry; the morning air is alive with drum-beats
+and bugle and trumpet-calls; everything is of the barrack most
+barrack-like; the broad arrow is indented in large deep character on the
+Rock. It is impossible to shake off the Ordnance atmosphere. The Irish
+jaunting-cars are all driven by the sons of soldiers' wives; the
+clergy-men are all military chaplains; those goats are going up to be
+milked for the major's delicate daughter; that lady practising horse
+exercise in a ring in her garden is wife to Pillicoddy of the Control
+Department, and is merely correcting the neglected education of her
+youth; the very monkeys--diminishing sadly, it grieves me to say--recall
+associations of the mess-room, for you never fail to hear of that
+terrible sportsman, "one of Cardwell's gents," who thought it excellent
+fun to shoot one some time ago. Luckily, the rules of the service did
+not permit him to be tried by court-martial, or the wretched boy might
+have been ordered out for instant execution, so great was the
+indignation. But if he was not shot he was roasted as fearfully as ever
+St. Laurence was; he was reminded a thousand times if once that
+fratricide is a fearful crime, and if ever Nemesis visits his pillow it
+will be in the shape of a monkey without a tail.
+
+One wearies of the same scenes of beauty, and would fain barter the Cork
+Woods for the chestnuts in Bushy Park; the bright Bay and the watchet
+sky pall on the senses, and a dull river and drab clouds would be
+welcomed for change. The day rises when the conversation of the same
+set, the stories repeated as often as that famous one of grouse in the
+gun-room, and the stale jokes anent the Sheeref of Wazan and the rival
+innkeepers of Tangier, black Martin and "Lord James," cloy like treacle;
+the fiction palmed upon the latest novice that he must go and have a few
+shots at the monkeys, if he wishes to curry favour at headquarters,
+misses fire; the calls of the P. and O. steamers, and the thought that
+their passengers within a week either have seen, or will see, the
+little village works its effect; even bull-fighting is adjudged a bore,
+and one sighs for Regent Street and the "Rag and Famish," flaxen
+ringlets, and roast beeL A twelvemonth might pass pleasantly on the
+Rock; but after that the "damnable iteration" of existence must jar on
+the nerves like the note of a cuckoo. Still, as my philosopher of the
+cemetery remarked, there are worse places--far worse, Assouan and Aden,
+for example; so let not the gallant gentleman repine whom Fate has
+assigned to a round of duty in Sutlersville. For Tommy Atkins of the
+rank and file, it is wearisome when he is young; he should not be asked
+to stay there longer than a twelvemonth while he is at the age which
+yearns for novelty, and during that twelvemonth he should be drilled as
+at the depot. For the old soldier it is a good station, and should be
+made a haven of rest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+     From Pillar to Pillar--Historic Souvenirs--Off to Africa--The
+     Sweetly Pretty Albert--Gibraltar by Moonlight--The
+     Chain-Gang--Across the Strait--A Difficult Landing--Albert is
+     Hurt--"Fat Mahomet"--The Calendar of the Centuries Put
+     Back--Tangier: the People, the Streets, the Bazaar--Our Hotel--A
+     Coloured Gentleman--Seeing the Sights--Local Memoranda--Jewish
+     Disabilities--Peep at a Photographic Album--The Writer's Notions on
+     Harem Life.
+
+
+I WAS gradually getting into the mood of Pistol, and cried a foutra for
+the world of business and worldlings base. My soul was longing for
+"Africa and golden joys." Here I was at the elbow, so to speak, of the
+mysterious Continent, where the geographers set down elephants for want
+of towns. Why should I not visit it? I might never have such a chance
+again. I stood in the shadow of one Pillar of Hercules. Why not make
+pilgrimage to the other? Having notched Calpe on my staff, I resolved to
+add Abyla to the record.
+
+I was the more inclined to this, as I had recollection that Tangier had
+been part of the British dominions for one-and-twenty years. In 1662
+Catharine of Braganza, the "olivader-complexioned queen of low stature,
+but prettily shaped," whose teeth wronged her mouth by sticking a little
+too far out, brought it as portion of her dowry to Charles II. The 2nd,
+or Queen's Own Regiment, was raised to garrison the post, and sported
+its sea-green facings, the favourite colour of her Majesty, for long in
+the teeth of the threatening Moors. The 1st Dragoons still bear the
+nickname of "the Tangier Horse," and were originally formed from some
+troops of cuirassiers who assisted in the defence of the African
+stronghold for seventeen years; and the 1st Foot Regiment owes its title
+of "Royal" to the distinction it gained by capturing a flag from the
+Moors in 1680. That was the year when old John Evelyn noted in his diary
+that Lord Ossorie was deeply touched at having been appointed Governor
+and General of the Forces, "to regaine the losses we had lately
+sustain'd from the Moors, when Inchqueene was Governor." His lordship
+relished the commission so little--indeed, it was a forlorn errand--that
+he took a malignant fever after a supper at Fishmongers' Hall, went
+home, and died. In 1683 the Merry Monarch caused the works of Tangier to
+be blown up, and abandoned the place, declaring it was not worth the
+cost of keeping. The Merry Monarch was not prescient. A century
+afterwards Gibraltar was indebted for a large proportion of its
+supplies, during the great siege, to the dismantled and deserted
+British-African fortress. For many reasons Tangier was not to be missed.
+
+By a happy coincidence a party of three in the Club-House Hotel--a
+retired army captain, his wife, and a lady companion--were anxious to
+take a trip to Africa. We agreed to go together, and had scarcely made
+up our minds, when another retired captain, who habitually resided in
+Tangier, gratified us by the information that he was returning there,
+and would be happy to give us every assistance in his power. Retired
+Captain No. 1 was a jolly fellow, fond of good living and not
+overburdened with aestheticism--a capital specimen of a hearty
+Yorkshireman. He looked after the provand. His wife, portly and short of
+temper, was as good-natured as he. She insisted on discharging the
+bills. The lady-companion was thin, accomplished, and melancholy. She
+kept us in sentiment. Retired Captain No. 2 was a fellow-countryman of
+mine, bright-brained and waggish. He was the walking guide-book, with
+philosophy and friendship combined. I was nigh forgetting one, and not
+by any means the least important, member of the party--Albert. Mrs.
+Captain introduced him to me as a sweetly pretty creature. At her
+request I looked after him. Tastes vary as to what constitutes beauty,
+but I candidly think a broad thick head, crop ears, a flattish nose, and
+heavy jowls could not be called sweetly pretty without straining a
+point; and all these Albert possessed. He was a bull-dog (I believe his
+real name was Bill, and that he had been brought up in Whitechapel). As
+a bull-dog he had excellent points, and might be esteemed a model of
+symmetry and breeding by the fancy, or even pronounced a beauty and
+exquisitely proportioned by connoisseurs; but sweetly pretty--never! I
+could not stomach that, especially when Albert growled and laid bare his
+ruthless set of sound white teeth.
+
+Before leaving Gibraltar I had two novel sensations, nocturnal and
+matutinal. The first was a view of the Bay by moonlight, the white
+crescent shining clearly down on a portion of the inner waters brinded
+by shipping, and on the outer spread of sleepy, cadenced wavelets
+rippling phosphorescently under the pallid rays. By the Mole were
+visible the outlines of barques, steamers, coal-brigs, and xebecs; away
+to the left were the _Catapult_ and a few of her mosquito companions;
+and far out rode at anchor a stately frigate of the United States'
+fleet. The twinkling lamps of the city afloat sending out reddish lines,
+and the fuller, clearer, luminous pencillings of the gas-lamps of the
+city ashore, made a not ungrateful contrast to the quivering chart of
+poetic moonbeams. Bending over their edge were the deep shadows of the
+massive Rock; and bounding them, at the other side, the barren
+foot-hills of Algeciras mellowed into a phantom softness by distance and
+the night.
+
+Next morning, as I strolled by the sea-wall towards the Ragged Staff
+Battery, I saw a sight that took away my appetite for breakfast. Pacing
+slowly to their work to the music of clanking chains was a column of
+wretched convicts.[A] What haggard faces, with low foreheads, sunken
+eyes, and dogged moody expression or utter blankness of expression!
+Purely animal the most of that legion of despair and desperation looked,
+and sallow and sickly of complexion. They were a blot on the fresh
+sunshine. How hideous their coarse garb of pied jackets branded with the
+broad arrow, their knickerbockers and clumsy shoes! Wistfully they moved
+along, hardly daring to glance at me, through fear of the turnkeys with
+loaded rifles marching at their sides. I almost felt that, if I had the
+power, I would demand their release, as did the Knight of La Mancha that
+of the criminals on their way to the galleys, although they might have
+been as ungrateful as Gines de Passamonte; but those hang-dog
+countenances banished impulses of chivalry.
+
+The little steamer, the _Spahi_, which conveyed us across the Strait,
+was seaworthy for all her cranky appearance, and made the passage of
+thirty-two miles quickly and comfortably for all her roughness of
+accommodation. She was a cargo-boat, but her skipper was English, and
+did his best to make the ladies feel at home. Besides, Captain No. 1 had
+brought a select basket of provisions and a case of dry, undoctored
+champagne. One of our first experiences as we cleared Algeciras, with
+turrets like our martello-towers sentinelling the hills, and the
+three-masted wreck--"Been twenty-one days there," said the skipper, "and
+not an effort has been made to raise it yet, and not even a warning
+light is hung over it at night"--was to sight a bottle-nosed whale
+puffing and spewing its predatory course.
+
+"What are those ruins upon the Spanish shore for?" asked the
+accomplished lady.
+
+When she was informed that they were the beacons raised in the days of
+old, when the Moorish corsairs haunted that coast, and that the moment
+the pirate sail was descried in the offing (I hope this is correctly
+nautical) the warning fire blazed by night, or the warning plume of
+smoke went up by day, to summon Spain's chivalry to the rescue, she was
+enchanted, and recited a passage from Macaulay's "Armada."
+
+We made the transit in a little over three hours, and, rounding the
+Punta de Malabata, cut into the Bay of Tangier, and eased off steam at
+some distance from the Atlantic-washed shore. There is no pier, but a
+swell and discoloration, projecting in straight line seawards, marks
+where a mole had once stood. That was a piece of British handiwork; but
+the Moor, who is no more tormented by the demon of progress than the
+Turk, had literally let it slide, until it sank under the waters.
+
+The Sultana of Moorish cities Tangier is sometimes called, and truly she
+does wear a regal, sultana-like air as seen from afar, cushioned in
+state on the hillside, her white flat roofs rising one above another
+like the steps of a marble staircase, the tall minarets of the mosques
+piercing the air, and the multitudinous many-coloured flags of all
+nations fluttering above the various consulates. But in this, as in so
+many other instances, it is distance which lends enchantment to the
+view.
+
+We went as near to the shore as we could in small boats, and when we
+grounded, a fellowship of clamouring, unkempt, half-naked Barbary Jews,
+skull-capped, with their shirts tied at their waists and short cotton
+drawers, rushed forward to meet us, and carry us pickaback to dry land.
+The ladies were borne in chairs, slung over the shoulders of two of
+these amphibious porters, or on an improvised seat made by their linked
+hands, but to preserve their equilibrium the dear creatures had to clasp
+their arms tightly round the necks of the natives. This would not look
+well in a picture, above all if the lady were a professional beauty. But
+there was nothing wrong in it, any more than in Amaryllis clinging to
+the embrace of Strephon in the whirling of a waltz. Custom reconciles to
+everything. On stepping into the small boat I had my first difficulty
+with Albert. I trod on his tail. The dog looked reproachfully, but did
+not moan. His mistress scowled, and warned me to take care what I was
+about for an awkward fool. Her husband, with a pained look on his face,
+mutely apologized for her, and I humbly excused myself and vowed
+amendment. I am not revengeful, but I did enjoy it when one of the
+porters, tottering under the weight of the fat lady, made a false step
+and nearly gave her a sousing. I clambered on my particular Berber's
+back, dear Albert in my arms, and we splashed merrily along; but Captain
+No. 1, who turned the scales at seventeen stone two pounds, had not so
+uneventful a landing. Twice his bearer halted, and the warrior,
+abandoning himself to his fate, swore he would make the Berber's nose
+probe the sand if he stumbled.
+
+As I was discharged on the beach, I was confronted by a majestic Moor.
+His grave brown face was fringed with a closely-trimmed jet-black beard,
+and his upper lip was shaded with a jet-black moustache. He wore a white
+turban and a wide-sleeved ample garment of snowy white, flowing in
+graceful folds below his knees; and on his feet were loose yellow
+slippers, peaked and turned up at the toes. This was Mahomet Lamarty,
+better known as "Fat Mahomet," who had acted as interpreter to the
+British troops in the Crimea, and who, at this period, was making an
+income by supplying subalterns from Gib with masquerade suits to take
+home and horses to ride. Mahomet in his sphere was a great man. He was
+none of your loquacious _valets de place_, no courier of the
+Transcendental school. He had made the pilgrimage to Mecca and was a
+Hadji; he was a chieftain of a tribe in the vicinity, and had fought in
+the war against the Spanish infidels; he could borrow his purest and
+finest Arab from the Kadi; he was free to the sacred garden of the
+Shereef, or Pope-Sultan, one of the descendants of the Prophet, Allah be
+praised!
+
+Mahomet, who was known to both the Captains, passed our small
+impedimenta through the custom-house--there is an orthodox custom-house,
+though there is no proper accommodation for shipping--and we trailed at
+his heels up the close, crowded, rough alleys which did duty as streets.
+It would be hard to imagine a more thorough-going change than our scurry
+across the waves had effected. We were in another world completely. We
+had been transported as on the carpet of the magician. It was as if the
+calendar had been put back for centuries, and the half-forgotten
+personages of the "Thousand-and-One Nights" were revivified and had
+their being around us.
+
+Tangier is a walled and fortified town; but Vauban had no hand in the
+fortifications, and it is my private opinion the walls would go down
+before a peremptory horn-blast quicker than those of Jericho. It swarms
+with a motley population much addicted to differences in shades of
+complexion. The Tangerines exhaust the primitive colours and most of the
+others in their features. There are lime-white Tangerines, copper and
+canary-countenanced Tangerines, olive and beetroot-hued Tangerines,
+Tangerines of the tint of the bottom of pots, Tangerines of every--no, I
+beg to recall that, there are no well-defined blue or green Tangerines;
+at least, none that came under my ken. The town is as old as the hills
+and courageously uncivilized. There is no gasholder, no railway-station,
+no theatre, no cab-stand, no daily paper, and no drainage board to go
+into controversy over. It is unconsciously backward, near as it is to
+Europe--a rifle-shot off the track of ships plying from the West to the
+ports of the Mediterranean. It preserves its Eastern aroma with a fine
+Moslem conservatism. Its ramparts of crumbling masonry are ornamented
+with ancient cannon useless for offence, useless for defence. There is
+said to be a saluting-battery; but the legend runs that the gunners
+require a week's clear notice before firing a salute.[B] There is no
+locomotion save in boxes and on the backs of quadrupeds; and quadrupeds
+of the inferior order are usually, when overtaken by death, thrown in
+the streets to decompose. But if the irregularity of the town would
+galvanize the late Monsieur Haussmann in his grave, its situation would
+satisfy the most exacting Yankee engineer. It is huddled in a sheltered
+nest on the fringe of a land of milk and honey; it has the advantage of
+a spread of level beach, and rejoices in the balmiest of climes.
+
+The streets are so narrow that you could light a cigar from your
+neighbour's window on the opposite side; but there is no window, neither
+at this side nor the other. A hole with a grating is the only window
+that is visible. Moors are jealous, and to be able to appreciate their
+household comforts you must first succeed in turning their houses inside
+out. Those who have dived into the recesses say the fruit is as savoury
+as the husk is repulsive. The windowless houses with their backs
+grudgingly turned to the thoroughfares are low for the most part, and
+the thoroughfares are--oh! so crooked--zigzag, up and down, staggering
+in a drunken way over hard cobble-stones and leading nowhere. There are
+mosques and stores entered by horse-shoe arches, a bazaar dotted over
+with squatting women, cowled with dirty blankets, selling warm
+griddle-cakes; moving here and there are the same spectral figures,
+similar dirty blankets veiling them from head to foot; over the way are
+cylinders of mat, with nets caging the apertures at each end, to hold
+the cocks and hens, rabbits and pigeons, brought for sale by Riffians,
+descendants of the corsairs of that ilk, stalwart, brown, and
+bare-legged, with heads shaven but for the twisted scalp-lock left for
+the convenience of Asrael when he is dragging them up to Paradise.
+Hebrews have their standings around, and deal in strips of cotton, brass
+dishes, and slippers, or change money, or are ready for anything in the
+shape of barter. Seated in the shade of that small niche in the wall, as
+on a tailor's shop-board, is an adool, or public notary, selling advice
+to a client; in the alcove next him is a worker in beads and filigree;
+from a dusty forge beyond comes the clang of anvils, where half-naked
+smiths are hammering out bits or fashioning horse-shoes. Mules with
+Bedouins perched, chin on shin, amid the bales of merchandise on their
+backs, cross the bazaar at every moment; or files of donkeys, stooping
+under bundles of faggots, pick their careful way. By-and-by--but this is
+not a frequent sight--a Moslem swell ambles past on a barb, gorgeous in
+caparisons, the enormous peaked saddle held in its place by girths round
+the beast's breast and quarters, and covered with scarlet hammer-cloth.
+If we move about and examine the stalls, we see lumps of candied
+sweetmeats here; charms, snuff-boxes made of young cocoanuts and beads
+there; and jars of milk or baskets of dates elsewhere. At the fountain
+yonder, contrived in the wall, mud approached by rugged, sloppy steps,
+water-carriers, wide-mouthed negro slaves, male and female, with brass
+curtain-rings in their ears, and skins blacker than the moonless
+midnight, come and go the whole day long, and gossip or wrangle with
+loafers in coarse mantles and burnous of stuff striped like
+leopard-skin. Beside the silent, gliding, ghost-like Mahometan women and
+the Hottentot Venus, you have Rebecca in gaudy kerchief and Dona Dolores
+in silken skirt and lace mantilla from neighbouring Spain. In the
+mingling crowd all is novelty, all is noise, all is queer and shifting
+and diversified.
+
+The hotel where we put up was owned by Bruzeaud, formerly a messman of a
+British regiment. It was approached by a filthy lane, and commanded a
+prospect of a square not much larger than a billiard-table. In the
+middle of this square was the limp body of a deceased mongoose. At the
+opposite side of it was a Mahometan school, where the children were
+instructed in the Koran, and their treble voices as they recited the
+inspired verses in unison kept up drone for hours. The build and
+surroundings of the hostelry left much opening for improvement, but we
+had no valid ground for complaint. The beds were clean, Bruzeaud was a
+good cook, the waiter was attentive and smiled perpetually, which made
+up for his stupidity; we had a single agreeable fellow-guest in a
+Frenchman, who spoke Arabic, and had lived in the city of Morocco as a
+pretended follower of the Prophet; and, besides, there was that dry
+undoctored champagne, which it is permissible to drink at all meals in
+Africa.
+
+There was another hotel in Tangier, a more pretentious establishment,
+owned by one Martin--surname unknown. Martin was a character. He was an
+unmitigated coloured gentleman, blubber-lipped and black as the ace of
+spades, with saffron-red streaks at the corners of his optics. He was a
+native of one of the West India Islands, I believe, but I will not be
+positive. Mahomet Lamarty pressed me to tell him in what English county
+Englishmen were born black, and when I said in none, he gravely
+ejaculated that in that case Martin was a liar, and habitually ate dirt.
+To avert possible complications into which I might have been drawn, I
+had to hasten to explain that Martin might possibly have been born in a
+part of England known as the Black Country. He had served in the
+steward's department on the ship of war where the Duke of Edinburgh,
+then Prince Alfred and a middy, was picking up seamanship. Hence his
+Jove-like hauteur. He had rubbed-skirts with Royalty, and to his
+fetter-shadowed soul some of the divinity which hedges kings and their
+relatives had adhered to him. I never met a darkey who could put on such
+fearful and wonderful airs. Where he did not order he condescended. He
+showed me an Irish constabulary revolver which he had received from "his
+old friend, Lord Francis Conyngham--'pon honour, he was delighted to
+meet him. It was good for sore eyes--who'd a-thought of his turning up
+there!" Splendidly inflated Martin was when he spoke of "his servants."
+This thing was entertaining until he grew presumptuous. If you are
+polite to some people they are familiar, and want to take an ell for
+every inch you have conceded. And then you have to tell them to keep
+their place. But Martin, with the instincts of his race, saw in time
+when it was coming to that. What a misery it must be for a coloured
+gentleman of ambition that the tell-tale _odor stirpis_ cannot be
+eliminated! Martin spent extraordinary amounts of money on the purchase
+of essences, but to no effect; he could not escape from himself; the
+scent of the nigger, _che puzzo!_ would hang round him still. He was a
+great coward with all his magniloquence, and when cholera attacked
+Tangier, left it in craven terror, and sequestered himself in a country
+house a few miles off.
+
+The two captains and I "did" Tangier conscientiously, with the zest of
+Bismarck over a yellow-covered novel, and the thoroughness of a Cook's
+tourist on his first invasion of Paris. We crawled into a stifling crib
+of a dark coffee-house, and sucked thick brown sediment out of
+liliputian cups; we smoked hemp from small-bowled pipes until we fell
+off into a state of visionary stupor known as "kiff;" we paid our
+respects to the Kadi, exchanged our boots for slippers, and settled down
+cross-legged on mats as if we were the three tailors of Tooley Street;
+we almost consented to have ourselves bled by a Moorish barber--Mahomet
+Lamarty's particular, who lanced him in the nape of the neck every
+spring--for the Moorish barber still practises the art of Sangrado, and
+also extracts teeth. But in my note-taking I was sorely handicapped by
+my ignorance of the language. Arabic is spoken in the stretch extending
+from Tetuan to Mogador by the coast, and for some distance in the
+interior; Chleuh is the dialect of the inhabitants of the Atlas range,
+and Guinea of the negroes. Spanish is slightly understood in Tangier and
+its vicinity, and is well understood by the Jews. The houses are
+generally built of chalk and flint (_tabia_) on the ground-floor, and of
+bricks on the upper story. Moorish bricks are good, but rough and
+crooked in make. The houses inhabited by Jews are obliged to be coated
+with a yellow wash, those of natives are white, those of Christians may
+be of any colour. The Jews are made to feel that they are a despised
+stock, and yet with Jewish subtlety and perseverance they have managed
+to get and keep the trade of the place in their hands. That fact may be
+plainly gathered from the absence of business movement in the bazaars
+and public resorts of Tangier on the Jewish Sabbath. Your Hebrew does
+not poignantly feel or bitterly resent being reviled and spat upon,
+provided he hears the broad gold pieces rattling in the courier-bag
+slung over his shoulder. He nurses his vengeance, but he has the common
+sense to perceive that the readiest and fullest manner of exacting it is
+by cozening his neighbour. At this semi-European edge of Africa he
+enjoys comparative license, although he is forced to appear in skull-cap
+and a long narrow robe of a dark colour something like a priest's
+soutane. But the son of Israel when he has a taste for finery (and which
+of them has not?) compensates for the gloom of his outer garment by
+wearing an embroidered vest, a girdle of some bright hue, and white
+drawers.
+
+The daughters of Israel--but my conscience charges me with want of
+gallantry towards them in a previous chapter, and now I can honestly
+relieve it and win back their favour. They are the only beautiful women
+who mollify the horizon of Tangier: the Mahometan ladies are not
+visible, those of Spanish descent are coarse, and of English are
+washed-out; while their lips are against the negresses. I have a batch
+of photographs of females in an album--aye, of believers in the Prophet
+amongst them, for it is a folly to imagine you cannot obtain that which
+is forbidden. Hercules, I fancy, must have overcome with a golden sword
+the dragon that watched the gardens of the Hesperides--which, by the
+way, were in the neighbourhood of Tangier, if Apollodorus is to be
+credited. On looking over that album, the majority of the faces are
+distinctly those of Aaronites, and most favourable specimens of the
+family, too There are melting black orbs curtained with pensive lashes,
+luxuriant black hair, regular features, and straight, delicately
+chiselled noses. These Jewesses generally wear handkerchiefs disposed
+in curving folds over their heads, and are as fond of loudly-tinted
+raiment and the gauds of trinketry as their sisters who parade the sands
+at Ramsgate during the season. There is a photograph before me, as I
+write, of a Jewish matron, fat, dull, double-chinned, and sleepy-eyed,
+who must have been a belle before she fell into flesh. She wears massy
+filigree ear-rings, two strings of precious stones as necklaces,
+ponderous bracelets, edgings of pearls on her bodice, and rings on all
+her fingers. Her shoulders are covered with costly lace, and the front
+of her skirt is like an altar-cloth heavy with embroidery. I dare say,
+if one might peep under it, she has gold bangles on her ankles. It would
+surprise me if she had an idea in her head beyond the decoration of her
+person. As we turn the leaf, there is a full-blooded negress with a
+striped napkin twisted gracefully turban-wise round her hair, and coils
+of beads, large and small, sinuously dangling on her breast, like the
+chains over the Debtor's Door at Newgate. A very fine animal indeed,
+this negress, with power in her strong shiny features; a nose of
+courage, thin in the nostrils, and cheek-bones high, but not so high as
+those of a Red Indian. If she were white, she might pass for a
+Caucasian, but for that gibbous under-lip. She lacks the wide mouth and
+the hinted intelligent archness of the Two-Headed Nightingale, and has
+not the moody expression and semi-sensuous, semi-ferocious development
+of the muscular widows of Cetewayo; but for a negress she is handsome
+and well-built, and would fetch a very good price in the market. The
+slave-trade still flourishes in Morocco. On the next page we meet two
+types of young Moorish females: one a peasant, taken surreptitiously as
+she stood in a horse-shoe archway; the other a lady of the harem,
+taken--no matter by what artifice. The peasant, swathed from tip to heel
+in white like a ghost in a penny booth, and shading her face with a
+cart-wheel of a palm-leaf hat looped from brim to crown, and with one
+extremity of its great margins curled, is a prematurely worn,
+weather-stained, common-looking wench, with a small nose and screwed-up
+mouth. She is a free woman, but I would not exchange the dusky
+bondswoman for five of her class. Centuries of bad food, much
+baby-nursing, and field-labour sink their imprint into a race. The harem
+lady, whose likeness was filched as she leaned an elbow against a low
+table, is in a state of repose. She squats tailor-fashion, her fingers
+are twined one in another in her lap, her eyes are closed, and her
+expression is one of drowsy, listless voluptuousness. She is fair, and
+her dress (for she is not arrayed for the reception of visitors) is
+simple--a peignoir, and a sash, and a fold of silk binding her long rich
+tresses. A soft die-away face, with no sentiment more strongly defined
+than the abandonment to pleasure and its consequent weariness. By no
+means an attractive piece of flesh and blood, and yet a good sample of
+the class that go to upholster a seraglio.
+
+I have never had the slightest anxiety to penetrate the secrets of the
+Moslem household, and I consider the man who would wish to poke his nose
+into its seclusion no better than Peeping Tom of Coventry--an insolent,
+lecherous cad. I would not traverse the street to-morrow to inspect the
+champion wives of the Sultan of Turkey and Shah of Persia amalgamated;
+and I deserve no credit for it, for I know that they are puppets, and
+that more engaging women are to be seen any afternoon shopping in Regent
+Street or pirouetting in the ballets of half-a-dozen theatres.
+
+Your lady of the harem is an insipid, pasty-complexioned doll, nine
+times out of ten, and would be vastly improved in looks and temperament
+if she were subjected to a course of shower-baths, and compelled to take
+horse-exercise regularly and earn her bread before she ate it.
+
+How do I know this? it may be asked. Who dares to deny it? is my answer.
+
+But here is a digression from our theme of the condition of the Jews at
+Tangier, and all on account of a few poor photographs! In one sentence,
+that condition is shameful. It is a reproach to the so-called civilized
+Powers that they do not interfere to influence the Emir-al-Mumenin to
+behave with more of the spirit of justice towards his Jewish subjects.
+In Fez and other cities they have to dwell in a quarter to
+themselves--"El Melah" (the dirty spot) it is called in Morocco city;
+and when they leave the Melah they have to go bare-footed. They are not
+permitted to ride on mules, nor yet to walk on the same side of the
+street as Arabs.
+
+The late Sir Moses Montefiore, a very exemplary old man in some
+respects, visited Morocco in his eightieth year to intercede on behalf
+of his co-religionists, and promises of better treatment were made; but
+promises are not always kept.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+     A Pattern Despotism--Some Moorish Peculiarities--A Hell upon
+     Earth--Fighting for Bread--An Air-Bath--Surprises of Tangier--On
+     Slavery--The Writer's Idea of a Moorish Squire--The Ladder of
+     Knowledge--Gulping Forbidden Liquor--Division of Time--Singular
+     Customs--The Shereef of Wazan--The Christian who Captivated the
+     Moor--The Interview--Moslem Patronage of Spain--A Slap for
+     England--A Vision of Beauty--An English Desdemona: Her Plaint--One
+     for the Newspaper Men--The Ladies' Battle--Farewell--The English
+     Lady's Maid--Albert is Indisposed--The Writer Sums up on Morocco.
+
+
+THE Government in Morocco would satisfy the most ardent admirer of
+force. It is an unbridled despotism. The Sultan is head of the Church as
+of the State, and master of the lives and property of his subjects. He
+dispenses with ministers, and deliberates only with favourites. When
+favourites displease him, he can order their heads to be taken off.
+Favourites are careful not to displease him. The land is a _terra
+incognita_ to Europeans, and is rich in beans, maize, and wool, which
+are exported, and in wheat and barley, which are not always permitted to
+be exported. Altogether the form of administration is very primitive and
+simple. It is a rare privilege for a European to be admitted into the
+Imperial presence, and indeed the only occasions, one might say, when
+Europeans have the privilege are those furnished by the visits of
+foreign Missions to submit credentials and presents. It is advisable for
+a private traveller not to go to the chief city unless attached to one
+of these official caravans; but by those who have money a journey to Fez
+may be compassed with an escort. This escort consists of the Sultan's
+very irregular soldiers, who are armed with very long and very rusty
+matchlocks, of a pattern common nowadays in museums and curiosity shops.
+Ostensibly the escort is intended to protect the traveller from the
+regularly organized bands of robbers which infest the interior; but the
+experience of the traveller is that when the robbers swoop down he has
+to protect the escort. Christians are looked upon as dogs by all the
+self-satisfied natives, and treated so by some of them when they can be
+saucy with impunity. It was my lot to be called a dog by a small
+fanatic, who hissed at me with the asperity and industry of a disturbed
+gander, and pelted me with stones. But two can play at that game, and
+that boy will think twice before he lapidates a full-grown Christian
+again. But he will hate him for evermore, and when he has reached man's
+estate will teach his son to repeat the doggerel: "The Christian to the
+hook, the Jew to the spit, and the Moslem to see the sight."
+
+The Sultan collects his revenue (estimated at half a million pounds
+sterling a year, great part of which is derived from the Government
+monopoly of the sale of opium) by the aid of his army; but as he never
+nears the greater portion of his dominions, there must be some nice
+pickings off that revenue by minor satraps before it reaches his sacred
+hands. There is quite a phalanx of under-strappers of State in this
+despotism. For instance, at Tangier there is a Bacha or Governor, a
+Caliph or Vice-Governor, a Nadheer or Administrator of the Mosques, a
+Mohtasseb or Administrator of the Markets, and a Moul-el-Dhoor or Chief
+of the Night Police. There is a leaven of the guild system, too, as in
+more advanced countries. Each trade has its Amin, each quarter its
+Mokaderrin. There is a Kadi, or Minister of Worship and Justice, to whom
+we paid our respects. Justice is quick in its action, and stern in the
+penalties it inflicts. The legs and hands are cut off pilferers, heads
+are cut off sometimes and preserved in salt and camphor, and the
+bastinado is an ordinary punishment for lesser crimes. But the Moors
+must be thick in the soles, nor is it astonishing, as the practice is to
+chastise children by beating them on the feet. Mahomet Lamarty
+volunteered to procure a criminal who would submit to the bastinado for
+a peseta. In the market-place I compassionated an unfortunate thief
+minus his right hand and left leg. We took a walk to the prison, which
+is on the summit of the hill, Captain No. 1 thoughtfully providing
+himself with a basket of bread. What a hell upon earth was that sordid,
+stifling, noisome, gloomy keep, with its crowds of starving
+sore-covered inmates. In filth it was a pig-sty, in smell a
+monkey-house, in ventilation another Black-hole of Calcutta. Turn to the
+next page, reader mine, if you are squeamish. Heaven be my witness, I
+have no desire to minister to morbid tastes; but I have an object in
+describing this dreadful _oubliette_, for it still exists--exists within
+thirty-two miles of British territory, and it is a scandal that some
+effort is not made to mitigate its horrors. Through the bars of a
+padlocked door, from which spurt blasts of mephitic heat, we can descry
+amid the steam of foul exhalations, as soon as our eyes become
+accustomed to the dimness, a mob of seething, sweating, sweltering
+captives, like in aspect as a whole to so many gaunt wild beasts. Some
+are gibbering like fiends, others jabbering like idiots. They are there
+young and old; a few--the maniacs those--are chained; all are crawled
+over by vermin, most are crusted with excretions. The sight made me feel
+faint at the time, the very recollection of it to this day makes my
+flesh creep. We were fascinated by this peep at the Inferno. The moment
+these caged wretches caught a glimpse of us they rushed to the door,
+and on bended knees, or with hands uplifted, or with pinched cheeks
+pressed against the bars, raised a clamour of entreaty. We drew back as
+the rancid plague-current smote our faces, and questioned Mahomet by our
+looks as to what all this meant.
+
+"They want food," he explained.
+
+These prisoners are allowed two loaves a day out of the revenues of the
+Mosques; but two loaves, even if scrupulously given, which I doubt, are
+but irritating pittance. They may make cushions or baskets, but their
+remuneration is uncertain and slender. Those who are lucky get
+sustenance from relatives in the town, but the majority are
+half-starving, and are dependent for a full meal on the bounty of chance
+visitors. We poked a loaf through the bars. It was ravenously snapped
+at, torn into little bits, and devoured amid the howls of those who were
+disappointed. Then a loaf was cast over the door. What a savage
+scramble! The bread was caught, tossed in the air, jumped at, and
+finally the emaciated rivals fell upon one another as in a football
+scrimmage, and there was a moving huddle of limbs and a diabolical
+chorus of shrieks and yells. That could not be done again; it was too
+painful in result Mahomet undertook to distribute the remainder of our
+stock through an inlet in the wall, and we drew away sick in head and
+heart from that den of repulsive degradation, greed, brutality, cruelty,
+selfishness, and all infuriate and debased passion--that damnable
+magazine of disease physical and moral. It is undeniable that there were
+many there whose faces were passport to the Court of Lucifer--murderers,
+and dire malefactors; but better to have decapitated them than to have
+committed them to the slow torture of this citadel of woe. There were
+inmates who had been immured for years--inmates for debt whose hair had
+whitened in the fetid imprisonment, whose laugh had in it a harsh
+hollow-sounding jangle, and whose brows had fixed themselves into the
+puckers of a sullen, hopeless, apathetic submission to fate. Their lack
+of intelligence was a blessing. Had they been more sensitive they would
+have been goaded into raging lunacy.
+
+Let us to the outer freshness and make bold endeavour to fling off this
+weight of nightmare which oppresses us. Passing by the ruinous gate
+yonder with its wild-looking sentry, we reach the open space where
+crouching hill-men are reposing on the stunted grass, and ungainly
+camels, kneeling in a circle, are chewing the cud in patience, or
+venting that uncanny half-whine, half-bellow, which is their only
+attempt at conversation. Let us take a long look at the country beyond
+with its gardens teeming with fruit and musical with bird-voices; walk
+up to the crown of that slant and survey the valleys, the plateaux, the
+brushwood, the flower-patches, spreading away to the hills that swell
+afar until the peaks of the Atlas, cool with everlasting snow, close the
+view. One is tempted to linger there lovingly, though darkness is
+falling. There is a gift of blandness and briskness in the very
+breathing of the air. When you have had your fill of the beauties on the
+land side, turn to the sea, meet the evening breeze that comes floating
+up with a flavour of iodine upon it, range round the sweeping vista,
+from giant Calpe away over the Strait flecked with sails on to
+Trafalgar, smiling peacefully as if it had never been a bay of blood,
+and finish by the vision of the great globe of fire descending into the
+Atlantic billows.
+
+Our stay in Tangier was most gratifying because of its variety and
+unending surprises. Existence there was out of the beaten track, and
+kept curiosity on the constant alert. It was a treat to pretend to be
+Legree, and to negotiate for a strong likely growing nigger-boy. I
+discovered I could have bought one for ten pounds sterling, a perfect
+bargain, warranted free from vice or blemish; but as I was not prepared
+to stop in Africa just then, I did not close with the offer. It may be a
+shocking admission to make, but if I were to settle down in Morocco, I
+confess, I should most certainly keep slaves. There is a deal of
+sentimental drivel spouted about the condition of slaves. Those I have
+seen seemed very happy. In Morocco they are well treated; and if
+desirous to change masters the law empowers them to make a demand to
+that effect. It is true that a slave's oath is not deemed valid, but
+Cuffy bears the slight with praiseworthy equanimity. I am sure if Cuffy
+were in my service he would never ask to leave it, and I would teach him
+to appraise his word as much as any other man's oath (except his
+master's), by my patented plan for negro-training, based on Mr. Rarey's
+theories. As the land about Tangier was rated at prairie value--an acre
+could be had for a dollar--I might have been induced to invest in a
+holding of a couple of hundred thousands of acres, but that my ship had
+not yet come within hail of the port. What a healthy, free, aristocratic
+life, combining feudal dignity with educated zest, a wise man could lead
+there--if he had an establishment of, say, three hundred slaves, a
+private band, a bevy of dancing girls, Bruzeaud for _chef_, an extensive
+library, sixteen saddle-horses, and relays of jolly fellows from
+Gibraltar to help him chase the wild boar and tame bores, eat
+couscoussu, and drink green-tea well sweetened. He should Moorify
+himself, but he need not change his religion, and if he went about it
+rightly, I am sure, like the village pastor, he could make himself to
+all the country dear. Take the educational question, for example. If he
+were diplomatic he would pay the school-fees of the urchins of Tangier.
+These are not extravagant--a few heads of barley daily, equivalent to
+the sod of turf formerly carried by the pupils to the hedge academies in
+dear Ireland, and a halfpenny on Friday. He should affect an interest in
+the Koran, and make it a point of applauding the Koran-learned boy when
+he is promenaded on horseback and named a bachelor. He might--indeed he
+should--follow the career of his _protege_ at the Mhersa, where he
+studies the principles of arithmetic, the rudiments of history, the
+elements of geometry, and the theology of Sidi-Khalil, until he emerges
+in a few years a Thaleb, or lettered man. Perhaps the Thaleb may go
+farther, and become an Adoul or notary, a Fekky or doctor, nay--who
+knows?--an Alem or sage. Ah! how pleasant that Moorish squire might be
+by his own ruddy fire of rushes, palm branches, and sun-dried leaves;
+and what a profit he might make by judicious speculation in
+jackal-skins, oil, pottery, carpets, and leather stained with the
+pomegranate bark! He would have his mills turned by water or by horses;
+he would eat his bread with its liberal admixture of bran; he would rear
+his storks and rams. The professors who charm snakes and munch
+live-coals would all be hangers-on of his house; and he would have
+periodical concerts by those five musicians who played such desert
+lullabies for us--conspicuously one patriarch whose double-bass was made
+from an orange-tree--and would not forget to supplement their honorarium
+of five dollars with jorums of white wine. Sly special pleaders! They
+argue with the German play-wright: "_Mahomet verbot den Wein, doch vom
+Champagner sprach er nicht._"
+
+From the Frenchman at the hotel, whose knowledge of Morocco was
+"extensive and peculiar," I acquired much of my information on the
+manners and customs of the people. Watches are only worn and looked at
+for amusement. Instead of by hours, time is thus noted: El Adhen, an
+hour before sunrise; Fetour (repast) el Hassoua, or sunrise; Dah el Aly,
+ten in the morning; El Only, a quarter past twelve; El Dhoor, half-past
+one; El Asser, from a quarter past three to a quarter to four; El
+Moghreb, sunset; El Acha, half-an-hour after sunset; and El Hameir,
+gun-shot. Meals are taken at Dah el Aly, El Asser, and El Moghreb. The
+houses are built with elevated lateral chambers, but there is a narrow
+staircase leading to the Doeria, a reception-room, where visitors can be
+welcomed without passing the ground-floor. The walls are plastered, and
+covered with arabesques or verses of the Koran incrusted in colours. The
+wells inside the houses are only used for cleansing linen; water for
+drinking purposes is sought outside.
+
+Among many singular customs--singular to us--I noted that a popular
+remedy for illness is to play music and to recite prayers to scare away
+the devil. An enlightened Moor might think the practices of the Peculiar
+People quite as strange, and question the infallibility of cure-all
+pills at thirteen-pence-halfpenny the box. The dead in Morocco are
+hurried to their graves at a hand-gallop. That, I submit, is no more
+unreasonable than many English funeral usages, such as incurring debt
+for the pomp of mourning. At Moorish weddings the bride is carried in
+procession in a palanquin to her husband's house amid a _fantasia_ of
+gunpowder--the reckless rejoicing discharges of ancient muskets in the
+streets. Well, white favours, gala coaches, and _feux de joie_ at
+marriages of the great are not entirely unknown among us. Nobody sees
+the Moorish wife for a year, not even her mother-in-law, which I
+consider a not wholly unkind dispensation. The Moorish wife paints her
+toe-nails, which, after all, is a harmless vanity, and less obtrusive
+than that of the ladies who impart artificial redness to their lips.
+And, lastly, the Moorish wife waits on her husband. Personally, I fail
+to discover anything blamable in that act, though I must concede that it
+is eccentric, very eccentric. These allusions to the Moorish wife in
+general lead up naturally to one in particular in whom I took a
+professional interest, for she was as remarkable in her way as Lady
+Ellenborough or Lady Hester Stanhope, or that strong-minded Irishwoman
+who married the Moslem, Prince Izid Aly, and whose son reigned after his
+father's death.
+
+The Shereef has been mentioned. He is the great man of the district,
+with an authority only second to that of the Sultan himself. Claiming
+to be a lineal descendant of Mahomet, he is entitled to wear the green
+turban. His name at full length is long, but not so long as that of most
+Spanish Infantes--Abd-es-Selam ben Hach el Arbi. He is a saint and a
+miracle-worker. He has been seen simultaneously at Morocco, Wazan, and
+Tangier, according to the belief of his co-religionists, wherein he
+beats the record of Sir Boyle Roche's bird, which was only in two places
+at once. Like Jacob, he has wrestled with angels. He is head of the
+Muley-Taib society, a powerful secret organization, which has its
+ramifications throughout the Islamitic world. He draws fees from the
+mosques, and has gifts bestowed upon him in profusion by his admirers,
+who feel honoured when he accepts them. Exalted and wide-spreading is
+his repute where the Moslem holds sway, and unassailable is his
+orthodoxy, yet he has had the temerity to take to himself a Christian
+wife. This lady had been a governess in an American family at Tangier.
+There the Shereef made her acquaintance, wooed and won her. They were
+married at the residence of the British Minister Plenipotentiary; the
+officers of a British man-of-war were present at the ceremony, and
+slippers and a shower of rice, as at home, followed the bride on leaving
+the building. The Shereef and, if possible, the Shereefa were personages
+to be seen, and Mahomet Lamarty was the very man to help us to the
+favour. His Highness lived four miles away, and we formed a cavalcade
+one afternoon and set off for his garden, the ladies accompanying us. We
+passed through cultivated fields of barley and _dra_ (a kind of millet),
+crossed the river Wadliahoodi, and ascended a road which faced abruptly
+towards the hills. An agreeable road it was, and not lonesome; we had
+the carol of birds and the piping of bull-frogs to lighten the way, and
+leafy branches made reverence overhead. There were abundance of fruit
+and such beautiful shrubs that I rail at myself for not being botanist
+enough to be able to enlarge upon them. There were orange-groves, yellow
+broom, dog-rose, and apples, pears, peaches, apricots, plums,
+pomegranates, figs, and vines. It was such an oasis as a very young
+Etonian in the warmth of a midsummer vacation might have likened to
+Heaven. The range of hills of El Jebel rose left and right, and at parts
+presented a steep cliff to the ocean. This ridge is about twelve miles
+in width, and its fertile slopes amply merit to be lauded as the best
+fruit-producers in the empire, "as bounteous as Paradise itself."
+
+Mahomet Lamarty, who was our guide, entered the Shereef's grounds to
+prepare for our introduction; and now the ladies, who had insisted on
+coming with us, rebelled, and said point-blank they would not salute the
+Shereefa as "Your Highness." They were impatient to see her, but they
+declined to give countenance to a Christian who had demeaned herself by
+wedding a heathen.
+
+"The visit was of your own seeking, ladies," I said; "if you are not
+willing to treat Her Highness with deference, better stay outside."
+
+They were not equal to that sacrifice after riding four miles.
+
+"Who'll start the conversation?" said Captain No. 1. "You start it" (to
+me) "like a good fellow, and I'll take up the running."
+
+Captain No. 2 said he would hang about for us outside.
+
+Mahomet beckoned to us and we ventured into the garden. Coming down a
+pathway we saw an austere, swarthy, obese man of the middle height. He
+was white-gloved, and wore a red fez, a sort of Zouave upper garment of
+blue, with burnous, baggy trousers, white stockings, and Turkish
+slippers. It was the Shereef. I had agreed to open the interview, but
+when it came to the trial my Arabic (I had been only studying it for two
+hours) abandoned me. Mahomet did the needful. I thanked His Highness for
+his kindness in admitting us to his demesne, and he smiled a modest,
+solemn smile, and looked greeting from his small eyes. When he
+discovered that I had been travelling in Spain, he asked me--always
+through Mahomet--what they were doing there. On having my reply--that
+they were tasting the miseries of civil war--translated to him, he shook
+his head, shrugged his shoulders, and slowly ejaculated:
+
+"Unhappy Spain! Silly, unfortunate people! That is the way with them
+always. They are at perpetual strife one with another."
+
+And then Mahomet interposed with a parenthesis of his own depreciatory
+of the Spaniards, whom he loathed and despised. He had fought against
+them in the war of 1839-1860, and the Shereef had also headed his
+countrymen, and had shown great courage and coolness in action. His
+presence had infused a high spirit of enthusiasm into the undisciplined
+troops.
+
+"Bismillah!" grunted Mahomet. "The Spaniard is beneath contempt. He was
+almost licked in one battle. He was four months here, and how far did he
+get into the interior?"
+
+Mahomet conveniently forgot the defeat of Guad-el-ras, the occupation of
+Tetuan, and the indemnity of four hundred millions of reals which was
+exacted as the price of peace; but he was literally correct, the
+victorious O'Donnell did not flaunt his flag beyond a very exiguous
+strip of the territory of Sidi-Muley-Mahomet.
+
+We were walking as we talked, and by this time had reached the brow of a
+wooded rise which commanded an uninterrupted prospect of the ocean. The
+flowery cistus flourished on the eminence, and cork-trees, chestnuts,
+and willows shielded us from the fierceness of the sun. Behind and
+around were a succession of richly-planted gardens. We halted, and the
+Shereef, scanning the horizon in the direction of the Rock, suddenly put
+a question to me which almost took my breath away:
+
+"Do they buy commissions over the way still?"
+
+"No; that system has been abolished."
+
+"It is well," he remarked, with a scarcely suppressed sneer. "It was
+incredible that a great nation and a fighting nation should make a
+traffic of the command of men, as if a clump of spears were a kintal of
+maize," and as he relapsed into silence a soldierly fire gleamed in his
+irides, his frame seemed to straighten and swell, and the nature of the
+prophet retired before that of the warrior.
+
+From where we stood we could ferret out a house with a veranda in front,
+built on a terrace and begirt with trees. That was the residence of His
+Highness; but we turned our eyes in another direction, lest we should be
+suspected of rude curiosity by this courteous African. I was trying to
+divine the tally of years our host had numbered. No Arab knows his own
+age, and here it may be useful to tell the reader wherein the
+distinction lies between the Moor and the Arab. Virtually they are the
+same; but the name of Moor is given to those who dwell in cities, of
+Arab to those who roam the plains. Mahomet came to my aid. His Highness
+had whiskers when Tangier was bombarded by Prince de Joinville. That was
+in August, 1844, a good nine-and-twenty years before, so that
+Abd-es-Salam must have long doubled the cape of forty, which would leave
+him considerably the senior of his Frankish wife.
+
+We turned at a noise--the creak of a rustic wooden gate on its hinges; a
+figure approached. And then it was given to me to gaze upon Her Highness
+the Shereefa of Wazan. She was not called Zuleika, but Emily--her maiden
+name had been Keene, and she came not from the rose-bordered bowers of
+Bendemeer's stream, nightingale-haunted, but from the prosaic levels of
+South London, where her father was governor of a gaol. Truly she was a
+vision of gratefulness in that paynim tract--a rich brunette, with
+large black eyes, long black ringletted tresses, and a well-filled shape
+with goodly bust. Her attire was neat and graceful and not Oriental. She
+was clad in a riding-habit of ruby brocaded velvet, with jacket to
+match, had a cloud of lace round her throat, and an Alpine hat with
+cock's feather poised on her well-set head. She might serve as the model
+for a Spanish Ann Chute. Bracelets on her plump wrists and rings on her
+taper fingers caught the sunshine as she occasionally twirled her
+cutting-whip. Her voice was bell-like and melodious, with the faintest
+accent of decision, and her manner, after an opening flush of
+embarrassment, was cordial and debonair. The embarrassment was because
+of her inability to extend to us the hospitality she desired. She
+explained that she had to receive us in the garden as the house was
+undergoing repairs. After the customary commonplaces, she freely entered
+into conversation, and took opportunity at once to deny that she was a
+renegade; she wore European costume, as we saw, and attended the rites
+of the English Church, for it was one of the stipulations of the
+marriage contract that she should have perfect liberty to follow her own
+faith.
+
+"I wish every English girl were as happily married as I," she said, "and
+had as loving a husband."
+
+It was gratifying, therefore, to note that she found herself as women
+wish to be who love their lords. She had been married on the 27th of
+January, and as the Shereef had entered into his present residence but
+recently, they were still at sixes and sevens. It was his habit to spend
+the winter in the country and the summer in town. She had been but two
+years in Morocco, and had not yet mastered Arabic.
+
+"His Highness understands English?" She shook her head, and quickly
+interpreting a lifting of my eyelids, she smilingly added, "Spanish was
+the medium of our courtship." And then, as we promenaded the garden
+path, she became communicative, and dwelt with pardonable expansion on
+the virtues of her lord and master, who followed behind side by side
+with the portly Yorkshireman. His charity, she said, was unbounded.
+Slaves were frequently sent to him as presents, but he kept none. He was
+modest on his own merits, and yet he was the most enlightened of Moors.
+He had visited Marseilles, a war-ship having been put at his disposal by
+the French Government, and was most anxious to take a tour to Paris and
+Vienna, and above all to England. It was his desire that railways should
+be constructed in Morocco, and he was glad when he was told that there
+was some likelihood of a telegraph cable being laid to Tangier.
+
+"Then," interrupted I, "with your Highness's influence on the tribes
+around, exercised through your husband, there should be a fair prospect
+of pushing civilization here."
+
+"Ah, yes!" she exclaimed, with a glow on her cheeks, "that is one of my
+dearest hopes, that is my great ambition. I believe that my marriage,
+which has been cruelly commented upon in England, may effect good both
+for these poor misunderstood Moors and my own country people."
+
+"Is the Shereef on friendly terms with the Sultan?"
+
+"No, I am sorry to say there is a feud between them at the moment. The
+Sultan objects to my husband for using an English saddle."
+
+"Hum!" (to myself mentally) "if the august Muley cannot brook an English
+saddle, what must he think of an English wife? Or do these Moslems, like
+some Christians I know, strain at a gnat and swallow a camel? Mayhap it
+is even so. The pigeon-prompted camel-driver, who built up his creed
+with plentiful blood-cement, saw fit to add a new chapter to the Koran,
+when he fell in love with the Coptic maiden, Mary."
+
+The Shereefa told me that her father and mother had come out to see her.
+They were averse to the alliance at first, but were satisfied that she
+had done the right thing when she told them how content she was, and
+with what high-bred consideration for her wishes in the matter of
+religion her husband had behaved. Their intention was to stop for four
+days, but they extended their visit to fourteen. "And now," she
+continued, "I can use to my lord the words of Ruth to Naomi, 'Whither
+thou goest I will go; and where thou lodgest I will lodge; thy people
+shall be my people'"--a pause--"yes, and 'thy God my God,' for there is
+but one"--archly--"the matter of the Prophet we shall leave aside."
+
+I admired the lady's pluck, and if I were that Moorish squire I have
+tried to sketch, I should esteem it an honour to have her on my visiting
+list. But I am a theological oddity, and my wallet of prejudices, it is
+to be feared, is sadly unfurnished. I never could rise to that
+sublimated self-sufficiency of intellect that I could consign any
+fellow-creature to everlasting pains for the audacity of differing in
+dogma with myself. I have met good and bad of every creed, Mahometans I
+could respect--whose word was their bond--and so-called Christians and
+Christian ministers with a most uncharitable spiritual pride, whom I
+could not respect. The liver of the persecutor was denied me. Were the
+fires of Smithfield to be rekindled, my prayers would be sent up for the
+floods of Heaven to quench them, and for the lightnings of Heaven to
+annihilate the fiends who had piled the faggots.
+
+"By-the-bye," said the Shereefa, "do you know any of those people who
+write for the papers in London?"
+
+I admitted that I had that misfortune.
+
+"Some of them are fools as well as cowards," she went on. "They have
+written articles about me full of ignorance and malice. Have they no
+consideration for the feelings of others?"
+
+"I am afraid, your Highness, some of them are more brilliant than
+conscientious; they would rather point an epigram than sacrifice style
+to truth or good-nature."
+
+"One of them in particular," she said, and there was an irritated ring
+in her voice, "has singled me out for attack, and given me in derision a
+name which he believes to be Mahometan, but which is really Jewish."
+
+And with her cutting-whip she viciously snapped off the heads of some
+poppies. The episode of Tarquin's answer to the emissary of Sextus
+occurred to me, and I felt that if my colleague, Horace St. J----, were
+there, he would have passed a very bad quarter of an hour.
+
+The females of our party joined us, and I formally presented them,
+taking a malicious pleasure in emphasizing the "your Highness." The
+Shereefa received them right graciously, but it was easy to notice that
+a chill came over the conversation. They were careful never to use the
+title to their English sister. In fact, it was a tacit ladies' battle.
+
+It was time to leave, and the Shereefa presented her visitors with two
+nosegays, gathered by her own hands. The act had in it something very
+royal, with the smallest trace of sly condescension. The Shereef
+accompanied us to the outer gate. On the way I motioned to Captain No. 1
+to offer him a cigar. He did; his Highness accepted it, bowed, and
+gravely put it in his pocket. As we stood on the road at parting, a
+peasant was passing with a load of twigs on his shoulders. He cast them
+off, threw himself on his knees, kissed the hem of the holy man's
+garments, and the back of his proffered hand.
+
+We were descending the hill when a rustle in the bushes attracted me,
+and a white face peeped out and a voice besought me in English to stop.
+It was the Shereefa's London lady's-maid. She could not resist the
+temptation of enjoying a few sentences with one of her own race. From
+her I learned that there were twenty-seven Moorish women in her master's
+household; that there was a tank at Wazan large enough to float a ship;
+that her master had been married before, and had two sons and a lovely
+Mahometan child, a daughter, to whom the Shereefa was teaching English
+and the piano; "but remember, please," and here she grew important, and
+had all the dignity of a retainer, with a great sense of what was due to
+her caste and the proprieties, "that my mistress's children, if she have
+any, will be Europeans!"
+
+As we got back to our hotel the muezzins were summoning the faithful to
+their vesper orisons, and Albert was moaning ruefully under the
+sideboard. Mrs. Captain had out her sweetly pretty pet at once, and
+covered him with caresses and endearments.
+
+"Somebody has given him something that has disagreed with him. Was it
+you?" she said to me, and there was that in her tone which made me quake
+in my shoes.
+
+Meekly and truthfully I protested that I had not; I had fed him in the
+morning in her own presence; the darling was in his usual health and
+spirits when we left, but--intercede for me, Puck, and you aerial imps
+of mischief, for no other spirit will--I could not help murmuring in
+audible soliloquy, "The carcase of that mongoose, which was on the
+square outside this morning, is no longer there."
+
+The scene that followed, to borrow the hackneyed phrase, beggars
+description. The house was turned upside down; to my mental vision arose
+sal volatile and burnt feathers, swoons and hysterics. Mahomet's dove
+alone can tell how all might have ended had not the Frenchman suggested
+a bolus. Captain No. 1 and I were commissioned to inquire into the
+mystery of the disappearance of that baleful mongoose. When we got out
+of earshot of the hotel there was the popping of a cork, and we emptied
+effervescing beakers to the speedy recovery of Albert the Beloved.
+Certes, that bull-dog had a very bad fit of dyspepsia; but the bolus did
+him a world of good, and before we retired to rest we had the felicity
+to hear him crunching a bone. Peace spread its wings over our pillows.
+
+The next day we took a trip to the lighthouse on Cape Spartel, the women
+labouring in the field making curious inspection of the cavalcade as it
+wended by, but quickly turning away their faces as we males tried to
+snatch a look at them. The road was no better than a rugged track on a
+stony plateau. There was a spacious view from the Phare, which was an
+iron and stone building put up at the cost of three or four of the
+European Powers (I forget which now), the keepers being chosen from each
+of the contributory nations. The Sultan had given the site, but refused
+to hand over a blankeel towards the expenses, arguing that as he had no
+fleet, he had no personal object in making provision against wrecks. We
+were well mounted, but these Barbary cattle have a nasty trick of
+lashing out, so that it is prudent to give a wide range to their
+hind-hoofs. Mahomet, riding with very short stirrups, led the party. My
+saddle was an ancient, rude, and rotten contrivance, and as I loitered
+on the road home, giving myself up to idle fantasy, my friends got on
+far ahead. Waking from my day-dream I gave the nag the heel, and as it
+sprang forward at a canter the girth turned completely round, and I was
+pitched over in unpleasant nearness to a hedge of cactus. The ground was
+soft, and I was not much bruised; but when I rose the nag had
+disappeared round a corner, and I was left alone in the African
+twilight. Presently a sinewy fiery-eyed Moor came with panther-step in
+sight leading me back the nag. He had a basket of oranges on his back,
+and gave me one with a respectful salaam as I vaulted on my Arab steed
+and galloped Tangier-ward bareback.
+
+Judging from the scanty rags upon him, this man was of the poorest, yet
+he asked for nothing; there were sympathy, innate politeness and
+independence withal in his bearing. To him I abandoned the saddle; it
+was the least he might have for his friendly act. Talking over this
+incident with the Frenchman at Bruzeaud's, who knew the country, he told
+me that the Moor was intelligent, honest, faithful to his engagements,
+and had a go in him that, under advantageous circumstances, would
+enable him to spring again to his former height of power and riches. But
+he struck me as happy, although some of his social customs recalled the
+feudal age, and he lived under the always-present contingency of
+decapitation. May it be long before speculation rears the horrid front
+of a joint-stock hotel in Tangier, or the prospectors go divining for
+copper, coal, iron, silver and gold. I could wish the Moorish women,
+however, would wash their children's heads occasionally, and not take
+them up by the ankles when they spank them. After a sojourn in every way
+pleasurable--pshaw! Albert's illness was a trifle, and we soon resigned
+ourselves to the miseries of the prisoners on the hill--we ate our last
+morsel of the Jewish pasch-bread of flour and juice of orange, cracked
+our last bottle of champagne, and took our leave of the Dark Continent
+with lightsome heart. The impression this little by-journey left upon me
+was so agreeable that I could not avoid the enticement to communicate it
+to the reader. If I have wandered from romantic Spain, it was only to
+take him to a land more romantic still.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+     Back to Gibraltar--The Parting with Albert--The Tongue of
+     Scandal--Voyage to Malaga--"No Police, no Anything"--Federalism
+     Triumphant--Madrid _in Statu Quo_--Orense--Progress of the
+     Royalists--On the Road Home--In the Insurgent Country--Stopped by
+     the Carlists--An Angry Passenger is Silenced.
+
+
+"How like a boulder tossed by Titans at play!" said the sentimental
+lady, as we approached Gibraltar on our return.
+
+"More like a big-sized molar tooth," broke in Mrs. Captain.
+
+And, indeed, this latter simile, if less poetic, gave a better idea of
+the conformation of the fortified hill, with the gum-coloured outline of
+all that was left of a Moorish wall skirting its side. The tooth is
+hollow, but the hollow is plugged with the best Woolwich stuffing, and
+potentially it can bite and grind and macerate, for all the peaceful
+gardens and frescades of the Alameda that circle its base like a belt
+of faded embroidery. At Gibraltar our party separated, the Yorkshire
+Captain and his friends taking the P. and O. boat to Southampton, my
+countryman going back to Tangier after having made some purchases, and I
+electing to voyage to Malaga by one of Hall's packets, which was lying
+at the mercantile Mole discharging the two hundred tons of Government
+material which it is obliged to carry by contract on each fortnightly
+voyage. When Albert and I parted no tears were shed; we resigned
+ourselves to the decree of destiny with equanimity. But I humbly submit
+that Mrs. Captain, when thanking me for my good intentions towards him,
+might have spared me the ironical advice not to volunteer for duties in
+future which I was not qualified to fulfil. "Volunteer," ye gods! when
+she had absolutely entreated me to take him in charge.
+
+Before leaving the Club-House, I was pressed to relate our adventures in
+Africa. I had no pig-sticking exploits to make boast over; but I turned
+the deaf side of my head to certain whispers about holy men who
+imported wine in casks labelled "Petroleum," who affected to be
+delivering the incoherent messages of inspiration when they were merely
+trying to pronounce "The scenery is truly rural" in choice Arabic, and
+who accounted for the black eye contracted by collision with the kerb by
+a highly-coloured narrative of an engagement in mid-air with an emissary
+of Sheitan. Neither did I accord any pleased attention to anecdotes of a
+"lella," or Arab lady, who tempted the Scorpions to charge ten times its
+value for everything she bought by telling them to send them to a
+personage whose title was exalted. Gib is a very small place, and, like
+most diminutive communities, is a veritable school for scandal. I took
+my last walk over the Rock, past the "Esmeralda Confectionery," which
+still had up the notice that hot-cross buns were to be had from seven to
+ten a.m. on Good Friday, and paced to the light-house on the nose of the
+promontory, where the meteor flag, ringed by a bracelet of cannon, flies
+in the breeze. And then I meandered back, and began to ask myself, had
+Marryat aught to do with the sponsorship of this outpost of the British
+Empire? Shingle Point, Blackstrap Bay, the Devil's Tower, O'Hara's
+Folly, Bayside Barrier, and Jumper's Bastion--the names were all
+redolent of the Portsmouth Hard; and I almost anticipated a familiar
+hail at every moment from the open door of "The Nut," and an inquiry as
+to what cheer from the fog-Babylon.
+
+The trip to Malaga on one of the Hall steamers which trade regularly
+between London and that port, calling at Cadiz and Gibraltar, was very
+agreeable, and the change to such dietary as liver and bacon was a
+treat. We were but three passengers--a steeple-chasing sub of the 71st,
+Senor Heredia, of Malaga, and myself. And now I have to make an open
+confession. I am unable to decipher the log of that passage. I have a
+distinct recollection of the liver and bacon, but more important events
+have worn away from my mind. There are the traces of pencil-marks before
+me; I dare say they were full of meaning when I scrawled them down, but
+now I have lost the key. "Jolly captain--left his wife--forty
+years--electric light deceives on a low beach--fourteen children--El
+Cano--break in the head of wine-casks": there is a literal copy of the
+contents of a page, which may mean nothing or anything, frivolity or a
+thesaurus of serious information. Memory, what a treacherous jade thou
+art! It may be said, why did I not take copious notes in short-hand? I
+would have done so were I a stenographer; but I am not. I tried to
+acquire the accomplishment once, and ignobly failed. I could write
+short-hand slightly quicker than long-hand, but when written, I could
+not transcribe my jottings.
+
+Flanking a beautiful coast, mostly hill-fringed--with hills, too, of
+such metallic richness that lead and iron were positively to be quarried
+out of their bosoms--we steamed into the harbour of Malaga, and landed
+at the Custom-House quay. But there were no Customs' officers to trouble
+us with inquiry. A red-bearded, flat-capped, dirty fellow in bare feet,
+holding a bayoneted rifle with a jaunty clumsiness, accosted Senor
+Heredia with a laughing voice. He was a sentinel of the provisional
+government established in Malaga. The nature of that government may be
+judged from his frank avowal: "We've no police--no anything." There were
+French and German war-vessels at anchor, which was some guarantee of
+protection for strangers. A novel tricolour of red, white, and a
+washed-out purple had replaced the national flag. The Federal Republic
+existed there, and yet the city was quiet; and official bulletins were
+extant, recommending the citizens to preserve order. But this quietude
+was not to be relied on over-much. One of the magnificoes under the new
+_regime_ was a dancing-house keeper, and his principal claim to
+administrative ability lay in the ownership of a Phrygian cap. Another,
+who styled himself President of the Republic of Alhaurin de la Torre, a
+territory more limited than the kingdom of Kippen, had stabbed a lady at
+a masked ball a few months previously, for a consideration of sixty-five
+duros. Still, it would be unfair to infer from that example that every
+Malagueno was a mercenary ruffian, Senor Heredia related to me an
+anecdote of a poor man who had found a purse with value in it to the
+amount of thirty thousand reals, and had given it up without mention of
+recompense. But a city where the wine-shops had nine doors, and
+potato-gin was dispensed at a peseta the bottle, and there were "no
+police--no anything," was not a desirable residence; and, as I had no
+call there, and weeks might elapse before another revolution might be
+sprung, I gladly took train to the capital.
+
+Madrid was tranquil, but with no more confidence in the duration of
+tranquillity than when I left it. The army was still in a state akin to
+disruption, with this difference--the rascals who had rifled the pockets
+of the dead Ibarreta a few weeks before, would sell the bodies of their
+slain officers now, if there was any resurrectionist near to make a bid.
+Worse; I was given to understand that there were suspicions that the
+gallant staff-colonel had been shot by his own men. The dismissed
+gunners were still wearily beating the pavements, and a subscription
+organized on their behalf among the officers of the other branches of
+the service by the _Correo Militar_ was open. What were these gentlemen
+to do? There was a rumour that they had been invited to enter the
+French service, to which they would have been an undoubted acquisition,
+bringing with them skill, scientific knowledge, and experience. But they
+were Spaniards, not soldiers of fortune, and would decline to transfer
+their allegiance, even if France were disposed to bid for it. Still, what
+were they to do? In Spain as in Austria--
+
+    "Le militaire n'est pas riche,
+     Chacun salt ca."
+
+But the _militaire_ must live. Othello's occupation being gone, the
+artillery officers had no alternative but to do what Othello would have
+done had he been a Spaniard--conspire.
+
+The usual manoeuvring and manipulations were going on as preparation
+for the election of the Constituent Cortes, and the extreme Republicans
+were full of faith in their approaching triumph all along the line. They
+were awaiting Senor Orense, but if he did not hasten it was thought
+events so important would eclipse his arrival that, when he did come,
+the Madrilenos would pay as small heed to him as the Parisians did to
+Hugo when he surveyed the boulevards anew after years of exile. They
+would honour him with a procession, and no more. The venerable
+Republican, by the way, is a nobleman, Marquis of Albaida. But he is not
+equal to the democratic pride of Mirabeau, marquis, who took a shop and
+painted on the signboard, "_Mirabeau, marchand de draps._"
+
+"If you are a true Republican, why don't you renounce your title?"
+somebody asked once of Orense.
+
+"If it were only myself was concerned I would willingly," responded the
+Spaniard; "but I have a son!" Rousseau was a freethinker, but Rousseau
+had his daughters baptized all the same.
+
+Meanwhile the Carlists were making headway. The Vascongadas, Navarre,
+and Logrono, with the exception of the larger towns and isolated
+fortified posts, were now in their power. Antonio Dorregaray, who was in
+supreme command, was reported to have 3,200 men regularly organized,
+well clad, and equipped with Remingtons. The Remington had been selected
+so that the Royalists might be able to use the ammunition they reckoned
+upon helping themselves with from the pouches of the Nationalists. In
+addition to this force of 3,200, which might be regarded as the regular
+army of Carlism, there were formidable guerrilla bands scattered over
+the provinces. Our old acquaintance, Santa Cruz, had 900 followers in
+Guipuzcoa. The other cabecillas in that region were Francisco, Macazaga,
+Garmendia, Iturbe, and Culetrina, all men with local popularity and
+intimate knowledge of the mountains. In Biscay, the commander was
+Valesco, and his lieutenants were Belaustegui, del Campo, and the
+Marquis de Valdespina, son of the chieftain who raised the standard of
+revolution at Vitoria in 1833. Their factions were estimated at 2,500.
+After Dorregaray, the most dangerous opponent to the Government troops
+was Ollo, an old ex-army officer, who was licking the volunteers into
+shape; and after Santa Cruz, the most noted and dreaded chief of
+irregulars was Rada, who was also operating in "the kingdom," as their
+province is proudly called by the daring Navarrese. The elements in
+which the Royalists were wanting were cavalry and artillery; but they
+had some money, foreign friends were active, the French frontier was not
+too strictly watched nor the Cantabrian coast inaccessible, and Don
+Carlos--Pretender or King, as the reader chooses to call him--was biding
+his time in a villa not a hundred miles from Bayonne. When the hour was
+considered favourable, he was ready to cross the border and take the
+field, or rather the hills; and his presence, it was calculated, would
+be worth a _corps d'armee_ in the fillip it would give to the enthusiasm
+of his adherents.
+
+And yet the "only court" held its tertulias, and the donas talked
+millinery, and bald politicians sighed for a snug post in the
+Philippines, and the gambling-tables and the bull-ring retained their
+spell upon the community. It was the old story: Rome was on the verge of
+ruin, and the senate of Tiberius discussed a new sauce for turbot.
+
+As I saw no immediate prospect of the outburst of those important
+events, which were cloud-gathering over Madrid, and nearly all my
+colleagues had departed, I resolved to pursue my journey to London. I
+had _carte blanche_ to return when I deemed there was no further scope
+for my pen; but there was an obstacle in the way. Miranda was the
+terminus of the rail to the north; the track thence to the Bidassoa had
+been closed by order of the lieutenants of his Majesty _in nubibus_,
+King Charles VII. In other words, 179 kilometres of the main iron line,
+the great artery of communication with France, were held by the
+insurgents. Obstacles are made to be met, and, if steadily met, to be
+overcome. Surely, I reasoned, there must be some intercourse carried on
+in these districts. I passed through territory occupied by Carlists
+before. Why not again? Besides, I had nothing to fear from the Carlists,
+the tramp carols in the presence of the footpad (which, I submit, is a
+neat paraphrase of a classic saw); and if I did chance to meet them,
+there would be that dear touch of romance for which the lady-reader has
+been looking out so long in vain.
+
+I started. The journey to Miranda I pass by. One is not qualified to
+write an essay on a country from inspection through the windows of a
+railway-carriage in motion, more particularly at night. As well attempt
+to describe a veiled panorama, unrolling itself at a hand-gallop. At
+Miranda, which was crowded with soldiers, there was a diligence that
+plied to San Sebastian by tacit arrangement with the knights of the
+road--that is, the adherents of Don Carlos. As the fares were very
+expensive, I suspect the speculator who ran the coach was heavily taxed
+for the privilege, and recouped himself by shifting the imposition to
+the shoulders of passengers. The day was fine, the roads were good, the
+vehicle was well-horsed, and we got away from the boundary of republican
+civilization at a rattling pace. My fellow-voyagers were mostly French,
+some of them of the gentle sex, and chattered like pies until they fell
+asleep. I believe it is admitted by those who know me best that I can do
+my own share of sleep. On the slightest provocation--yea, on what might
+be condemned as no reasonable provocation--I can drop my head upon my
+breast and go off into oblivion. Nor am I particular where I sit or if I
+sit at all. Any ordinary person can fall asleep on a sofa or at a
+sermon, but it requires a practitioner with an inborn faculty for the
+art to achieve the triumphs of somnolence which stand to my credit. I
+have taken a nap on horseback; I have marched for miles, a musket on my
+shoulder, in complete slumberous unconsciousness; I have nodded while
+Phelps was acting, snoozed while Mario was singing, and played the
+marmot while Remenyi was fiddling; awful confession, I have dozed
+through an important debate in the House of Commons! I am yawning at
+present. It is to be hoped the reader is not. And so I burned daylight
+the while we drove through a country reputed to be pregnant with
+surprises of scenery until, at long last, the diligence drew up in the
+straggling street of Tolosa. We halted here for dinner, and resumed our
+journey with a fresh team at an enlivening speed, until about two miles
+outside the town we came to an abrupt stop.
+
+"An accident, driver?"
+
+"No, senor, but the Carlists."
+
+Some of my fellow-passengers turned pale, the ladies did not know
+whether to scream or consult their smelling-bottles; and before they
+could decide, a tall, slight, gentlemanly-looking man of some
+four-and-twenty years, with a sword by his side, a revolver in his belt,
+an opera-glass slung across his shoulder, and a silver tassel depending
+from a scarlet boina, the cap of the country, appeared at the hinder
+door of the diligence, bowed, and asked for our papers. He glanced at
+them much as a railway-guard would at a set of tickets, inquired if we
+were carrying any arms or contraband despatches, and being answered in
+the negative, gave us a polite "Go you with God," and motioned to the
+driver that he might pass on. As we galloped off, all eyes were turned
+in the direction of the stranger; he leisurely walked over a field
+towards a hill, two peasants equipped with rifles and side-arms
+following at his heels. They were young and strong, and wore no nearer
+approach to uniform than their officer.
+
+"This is abominable," cried a French commercial traveller (so I took him
+to be), as soon as we had got out of hearing of the trio. "The notion of
+these three miscreants stopping a whole coachful of travellers in broad
+daylight is atrocious!"
+
+"They did not detain us long," said I.
+
+"They did us no harm," said another.
+
+"And that officer, I am sure, was very polite, and looked quite a
+D'Artagnan--so chivalrous and handsome," added one of the ladies.
+
+"They are no better than bandits," said the commercial traveller.
+"Driver, why did you not resist?"
+
+For reply, the driver pointed with his whip to a wall, under the lee of
+which a party of at least fifty armed men, portion of the main body from
+which the outpost of three had been detached, were smoking, chatting, or
+sleeping. The commercial traveller relapsed into silence. We met with no
+further adventure in our ride to the frontier, but experienced much
+fatigue.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+     On the Wing--Ordered to the Carlist Headquarters--Another _Petit
+     Paris_--Carlists from Cork--How Leader was Wounded--Beating-up for
+     an Anglo-Irish Legion--Pontifical Zouaves--A Bad Lot--Oddities of
+     Carlism--Santa Cruz Again--Running a Cargo--On Board a Carlist
+     Privateer--A Descendant of Kings--"Oh, for an Armstrong Twenty-Four
+     Pounder!"--Crossing the Border--A Remarkable Guide--Mountain
+     Scenery--In Navarre--Challenged at Vera--Our Billet with the Parish
+     Priest--The Sad Story of an Irish Volunteer--Dialogue with Don
+     Carlos--The Happy Valley--Bugle-Blasts--The Writer in a
+     Quandary--The Fifth Battalion of Navarre--The Distribution of
+     Arms--The Bleeding Heart--Enthusiasm of the Chicos.
+
+
+AFTER a short stay in London I was despatched to Stockholm, to attend
+the coronation of Oscar II of Sweden and his spouse, which took place in
+the Storkyrkan, on the 12th of May. At the Hotel Rydberg I met my Madrid
+acquaintance, Mr. Russell Young, who was a bird of passage like myself,
+and had just arrived from Vienna, where he had been detailing the
+ceremonial at the opening of the International Exhibition in the Prater.
+While enjoying myself at a ball at the Norwegian Minister's, I received
+a telegraphic message, ordering me at once to the Austrian capital. I
+was very sorry to leave, for I was delighted with peaceful airy
+Stockholm and the free-hearted Swedes--it was such a change after Spain;
+but I had neither license nor leisure to grumble, and flitted to Vienna
+as fast as steam could carry me. The Weltausstellung did not prove to be
+a lodestone, although in justice it must be admitted it was one of the
+finest shows ever planned, and was fixed in one of the most agreeable of
+sites. It was too far away, however, to attract the British public, and
+there were rumours of cholera lurking in the Kaiserstadt; so I was
+recalled, but to be sent to Spain once more. My mission was to
+penetrate, if possible, to the headquarters of the Carlists, with the
+view of giving a fair and full report of the strength, peculiarities,
+and prospects of their movement.
+
+At the London office of the sympathizers with the cause I was furnished
+with the address of certain Carlists in confidential positions in
+France, and letters were sent on in advance, so as to secure me a
+favourable reception. Armed with a sheet of flimsy stamped in blue with
+the escutcheon of Charles VII., and the legend "Secretaria Militar de
+Londres," and with, what was more potent, a big credit on a
+banking-house, I started afresh on the now familiar route.
+
+Before undertaking the journey into the territory in revolt I halted at
+Bayonne to procure the necessary passes. These were obtained with ease
+from the Junta sitting in the Rue des Ecoles, the members of which
+professed that they desired nothing so much as the presence of the
+representatives of impartial foreign journals, so that the truth about
+the struggle should be made known to the rest of Europe. From Bayonne I
+proceeded to Biarritz, where I had a conference with the Duke de La
+Union de Cuba, a warm Carlist partisan, to whom I had an introduction,
+and thence I went to St. Jean de Luz, a drowsy, quaint, world-forgotten
+nook. A _petit Paris_ it was called in a vaunting quatrain by some
+minstrel of yore. But Brussels may be comforted. It is nothing of the
+kind, but something infinitely better. The breezes from the main and the
+mountains, from the Bay of Biscay and the Pyrenees, conspire to supply
+it with ozone. There is music in the boom of the surf as it pulsates
+regularly on the velvet sands of a semicircular inlet, where dogs frisk
+and youngsters gambol in the sunshine.
+
+In a hotel on the edge of that inlet, the Fonda de la Playa, where I put
+up, a young Irish gentleman named Leader was recuperating from a severe
+wound in the leg. He had received it in the service of Don Carlos, in a
+skirmish near Azpeitia, where he was the only man hit. He was out with a
+party of the guerrilleros, and came across a company of the Madrid
+troops. To encourage his own people, or rather the people with whom he
+had cast in his fortunes, he went well to the front, and mounting on a
+bank of earth, hurled defiance at the enemy. He was picked down by a
+stray shot, and if he had been taken prisoner it is probable that he
+would have paid for his temerity with his life. The Spaniards were not
+clement towards foreigners who interposed in their domestic quarrel.
+Leader was carried off by his companions and secreted in a peasant's
+hut. The troops, swearing vengeance, searched the hut next to it, but,
+by some accident, failed to continue the quest to the refuge of the
+wounded man. He bled profusely, but the haemorrhage was finally arrested
+by some rude bandaging, and at night he was helped astride a donkey, and
+conveyed across the frontier into France. He told me he had suffered
+excruciating torments at every jolt of the jog-trotting animal on that
+mountain journey. Had the bullet struck him an inch higher he would have
+had to suffer amputation; but his luck stood to him, and at the time we
+met he was getting on fairly towards recovery, thanks to youth, a good
+constitution, and the healthy air of St. Jean de Luz. I could not
+understand the ardour of Leader's partisanship for the Carlists. He
+spoke the merest smattering of Spanish, and had no profound intimacy
+with the vexed question of Spanish politics or the rights of the rival
+Spanish houses. The ill-natured whispered that he was crying "Viva la
+Republica" when he was knocked over. It is possible, for he had fought
+for the French Republic with Bourbaki's army, and may, in his
+excitement, have forgotten under what flag he was serving. I take it he
+was a soldier by instinct, and ranged himself on the side of Don Carlos
+more from the love of adventure than from any other motive. He was a
+fine athletic young fellow, with a handsome determined cast of features.
+He had been an ensign in the 30th Foot, and had resigned his commission
+to enjoy a spell of active service when the Franco-German war was
+proclaimed. That he had behaved bravely in the campaign which led to
+internment in Switzerland was evidenced by the ribbon of the Legion of
+Honour which he wore. Leader was very anxious that an Anglo-Irish legion
+in aid of Don Carlos should be organized. I felt it my duty to warn
+those to whom he appealed to think twice before they embarked on such a
+crusade. He was very wroth with me for having thrown cold water on the
+project, but that did not affect me. I had more experience of such
+follies than he, and my conscience approved me. A man may be justified
+in playing with his own life, but he should be slow in playing with the
+lives of others. He prepares a vexing responsibility for himself if he
+is sensitive.
+
+In the next room to Leader was a fellow-enthusiast, Mr. Smith Sheehan,
+an ex-officer of Pontifical Zouaves, and son of a popular and eccentric
+town-councillor of Cork. He was an agile stripling, skilled in all
+gymnastic exercises. He had also done some fighting with the Carlists,
+and was in France on furlough, which the soldiers in the Royalist force
+appeared to have no insuperable difficulty in getting. He told me there
+was a large infusion of his old regiment amongst the guerrilleros, and
+that they helped to bind the partisan levies in the withes of
+discipline. Most of them had smelt gunpowder at Mentana and Patay. The
+famous cabecilla, Saballs, had been a captain at Rome, and Captain
+Wills, a Dutchman, who had been killed in a brush at Igualada, had been
+sergeant-major in Sheehan's company.
+
+There was another ex-British officer of short service, who had a
+remarkably imposing and well-cultivated growth of moustache. He was a
+violent doctrinaire Carlist, but suffered from a chronic malady which
+prevented him from taking the field; still there was none who could plot
+with a more tremendous air of mystery. He was a Carlist because it was
+"the correct thing" to be one in the fashionable ring at St. Jean de
+Luz, where he had settled, and because he inherited a name associated
+with chivalric insurrection. For the sake of his family I shall call him
+Barbarossa. He was no honour to his house, for he was an inveterate
+gambler, and was not careful in discharging the obligations he wantonly
+contracted. He is dead. His death was no loss to society. In fact, if
+the whole host of gamblers, lock, stock and barrel, were swept by a
+fairy-blast to the regions of thick-ribbed ice, the world would be the
+gainer.
+
+When I left Spain, Carlism was to be put down in a fortnight--in Madrid.
+Now it threatened to last as long as a Chinese play. The Royalists--I
+suppose they had earned the title to be so named by their
+perseverance--had achieved numerous small successes which had raised
+their _morale_, and they were being supplied with arms of precision from
+abroad, and trained to their use. They had even taken some mountain-guns
+from their enemy. Leader made me laugh with his accounts of Lizarraga
+shouting "Artilleria al frente!" and a couple of mules, with one
+wretched little piece, moving forward; and of the intimidating clatter
+made by three shrunk cavaliers in cuirasses a world too wide for them,
+and alpargatas, trotting up a village street. The alpargata is the
+mountain-shoe of canvas, with a hempen sole, worn by the Basque
+peasants. The association of surcoats of mail and rope slippers is
+incongruous; but what does that reck? Those cuirasses were _spolia
+opima_.
+
+And Santa Cruz?
+
+The honest gentleman had retired into private life. His excesses had
+raised such a storm of opprobrium against the Carlists that they had to
+request him to desist. Lizarraga summoned him to render himself up a
+prisoner. "Come and take me," replied Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz had near
+two thousand followers; Lizarraga a few hundred. Lizarraga declined the
+invitation. But the priest caused seven-and-twenty Carabineros, taken
+prisoners at the bridge of Endarlasa, near Irun, to be shot, and this
+filled the cup to overflowing. The Carlists averred they would slay him;
+the Republicans vowed they would garrote him for a Madrid holiday; the
+French Government declared its intention of putting him under lock and
+key if it caught him within its jurisdiction. His band was disarmed "by
+order of the King," and dispersed, and the Cura himself nebulously
+vanished--whither we may see anon.
+
+There was a large accretion to the population of St. Jean de Luz in
+Iberian refugees, and as they sat and conversed under the foliage of the
+public promenade, frequent sighs might be overheard, and remarks that if
+this sort of thing were to go on, "Spain would soon be in as bad a
+condition as France." At all hours there came to the beach poor exiles
+of Spain, who turned their eyes sadly to the line where sky met ocean.
+Of what were their thoughts--of home and friends, of the flutters of
+the casino or the ecstasies of the bull-ring? If they were looking for
+the Spanish fleet they did not see it, for a reason as old as the
+"Critic." It was not in sight. They came down in numbers in front of my
+hotel at nine o'clock on the morning of Monday, July 28th, a few days
+after my arrival, when a strange yellow funnel turned the point, and a
+long low Red-Roverish three-masted schooner-yacht steamed into Socoa,
+the roadstead of St. Jean de Luz. If the exiles were correctly informed,
+that was the Spanish fleet in a sense--the notorious Carlist privateer,
+the _San Margarita_, which had recently landed arms and ammunition for
+the Royalists at Lequeieto and elsewhere. She had been doing a stroke of
+business in the same line that morning. In the grey dawn she had dropped
+into the embouchure of the Bidassoa, at a few hundred yards from the
+town of Fontarabia. The work was well and quickly done. Boats
+requisitioned by friends on land put off to her, and returned laden with
+bales of merchandise. These artless bales were packages of
+breechloaders, with bayonets to match, wrapped in sail-cloth. As soon
+as they were received on shore they were distributed amongst some
+thousands of Carlists in waiting, who at once proceeded to fix bayonets,
+fall into ranks, and with shouts of exultation march off in good order.
+
+Meanwhile, the "volunteers of liberty," as the Basque Republicans called
+themselves, ensconced their persons out of range in a sort of castle
+beside the church of Fontarabia's "wooded height," and amused themselves
+taking pot-shots at the rising sun. But they did not venture from their
+shelter; they knew a large body of armed Royalists were watching their
+movements from the summit of Cape Higuer, and only awaited the provoke
+to pounce down upon and swallow them. A detachment of Frenchmen from the
+frontier hamlet of Hendaye quietly took up ground on the strand to see
+that there was no breach of neutrality, and had an uninterrupted view of
+the whole operation. As soon as the daring little privateer had done her
+work she innocently steamed to Socoa; the Carlists on the hills waved
+adieu and disappeared; the French soldiers returned to their quarters;
+and the Fontarabian "volunteers of liberty "--well, most probably they
+swore terribly, and effected a masterly retrograde movement on the
+nearest posada.
+
+I had a call to board the _San Margarita_. Not a boat could be had in
+St. Jean de Luz for love or money; the passage from the sea into the
+harbour is narrow, and the fishermen, though hardy navigators, are shy
+of facing the current when the sea is rough. Leader and myself walked by
+the goat-path on the crags leading to the southern side of the harbour
+so as to avoid the bar, and succeeded in chartering a skiff at Socoa. A
+quarter of an hour's pull brought us alongside the yacht, and on sending
+up our cards we were at once invited on board by the owner. To my
+surprise I discovered that the entire crew was British, as reckless a
+set of dare-devils as ever cut out a craft from under an enemy's guns.
+The skipper, Mr. Travers, was a Cork man, an ex-officer of the Indian
+Navy, who had lost a finger during the Mutiny; but the life and soul of
+the enterprise was an ex-officer of the Austrian and Mexican armies,
+Charles-Edward Stuart, Count d'Albanie, great-grandson of "the Young
+Pretender." His uncle, John Sobieski Stuart, had resigned his claim to
+the throne of England on his behalf,[C] so that I actually shook the
+hand of the man who under other circumstances might be wielding the
+sceptre of that empire on which the sun never sets. Instead of a crown
+he wore the genuine old Highland bonnet--not that modern innovation, the
+military feather-bonnet. In face this descendant of royalty was an
+unmistakable Stuart, with the characteristic aquiline nose, and a proud
+dignity of expression. He might have sat for the portrait of Charles the
+Martyr-King, by Vandyck, in Windsor. He was a convinced and earnest
+supporter of the claims of Carlos Septimo, whom he regarded as a cousin,
+and a sort of modern counterpart of the young Chevalier, the "darling
+Charlie" of Jacobite minstrelsy. He received us with the hospitality of
+his nation, and we had a long chat as we paced the deck briskly, the
+Count discussing the prospects of the rising, and then verging off into
+gay anecdotes of his military career in Austria, and inquiries after
+mutual acquaintances in London. By-and-by Captain Travers made his
+appearance, a tall weather-beaten navigator in orthodox naval dress,
+with a glass in his eye. He bowed severely to the Stuart, who as coldly
+returned his salute. It was easy to perceive that there was a restraint
+in the demeanour of the men on both sides; but there was a tacit
+armistice for the occasion. I heard afterwards that they did not talk to
+each other, except on strict matters of duty, and when taking their
+short walks on deck, one confined himself religiously to the larboard,
+the other to the starboard. Travers took me in tow, while the alert
+Count with his quick manner strode to and fro with Leader, and kept up a
+jerky fire of conversation nearly all to himself, occasionally twirling
+his peaked beard. Travers and I lolled over the bulwarks, and laughed
+and sampled the contents of an aqua-vitae bottle, "Special Jury" whisky
+from Ireland, and I learned that this ill-assorted pair had been
+sharing some close hazards on their audacious cruiser.
+
+A few days previously they had been chased by _El Aspirante_, a Spanish
+gun-boat, which gave them eight shots. One caught them on the port
+quarter, and shivered some timbers, but effected no more serious damage.
+
+"I wish we had only an Armstrong twenty-four pounder close handy," said
+the mate, "and we'd have saved them 'ere dons the price of a coffin, I'd
+take my davy!"
+
+From what I saw of the seamen, I think this was no empty boast. Some of
+them had served with one Captain Semmes on a certain craft called the
+_Alabama_, and had been picked up after the fight with the _Keasarge_,
+off Cherbourg, by Mr. John Lancaster's yacht, the _Deerhound_. There is
+no need for concealment now, so that I may freely admit that the
+_Deerhound_ and the _San Margarita_ were one and the same. Travers, who
+was in love with the yacht, told me if he had another blade to the screw
+he could give leg-bail to the fastest ship in the Spanish navy. At
+leaving, I was asked to take a trip with them; they were about to visit
+their floating arsenal in the Bay of Biscay, load, and try to run
+another cargo. I respectfully declined--fortunately for myself; my
+orders were to get to the Carlist headquarters, not to go playing Paul
+Jones.
+
+Leader and Smith Sheehan were about to cross the border, and readily
+acceded to my request to form one of the party. We rose at daybreak next
+morning and looked out of window for the _San Margarita_. The roadstead
+of Socoa was a blank. She had steamed away during the night. After the
+customary chocolate we started blithely, in a light basket-carriage with
+a pair of fast-trotting ponies, that whisked us in less than two hours
+to the foot of the Pyrenees. Here we had to alight, the road up the
+mountain being impracticable for vehicles. A boy guide was in waiting to
+show us over the border by the smuggler's path--a wild short-cut through
+a labyrinth of brushwood. The guide was a remarkable youth in his way;
+he understood not a syllable of French or Spanish, and spoke only Basque
+which none of us comprehended, so that our parley with him was somewhat
+uninteresting. Yet I was anxious to elicit the opinions of that guide. A
+lad who could strike the path up the mountain with such truth might, by
+some instinct, have seen his way through Spanish politics. Our walk was
+a trial of endurance. I had traversed the Pyrenees in snow, and that was
+fatiguing enough in all conscience; but now the sun was beating cruelly
+on the parched herbage, and plodding up the ascent was like treading
+burning marl. I had to cry halt half-a-dozen times before we reached the
+summit; and yet that marvellous guide, with the baggage of all three on
+his head, kept on with a springy step and serene smile, like the youth
+in "Excelsior." It was an alternation of wheezing and stumbling with me,
+with a continuous ooze of perspiration, till I arrived heaving and
+panting on the crown of the ridge, and flung myself on the turf beside a
+pile of planking fresh from the woodcutter's axe. There was no further
+need to be wary, for this was Spain. We were over the border, and now my
+companions could breathe freely in every sense. Before they had passed
+the imaginary line they were liable to be arrested by the gendarmes,
+conducted back and interned, for they had that about their persons which
+betrayed that they were no innocent travellers. At every noise ahead, a
+scud was made to the cover of the tall ferns and brambles by the
+wayside, and an advance party of one was thrown out to reconnoitre. The
+precautions were superfluous, if we knew but all. From the 15th of July,
+the French patrols had got the hint to be blind. So lax was the cordon
+on the day we crossed, that a brigade of Carlists, each man with a
+repeating rifle on his shoulder and two revolvers in his belt, might
+have gone into Spain and never have had their sight offended by a
+solitary French uniform.
+
+The view from the comb of the hills, as grasped on a sunny day, repays
+all the toil and trouble of the ascent; and looking round, one begins to
+realize the fascination of mountain-climbing. On one side extend the
+plains of France, washed by the greenish-blue waves of the Bay of
+Biscay, and studded as with pearls by the coast-towns of Fontarabia,
+St. Jean de Luz, Biarritz, Bayonne, and so on northwards till the vision
+fails. On the other side rise in convoluting swells the mountains of
+Navarre and Guipuzcoa, their slopes dyed in every shade of green from
+grass and lichen, shrub and tree, except where the naked rocks, bursting
+with ore, expose themselves. Iron, lead, silver, are all to be found in
+the bosom of the earth in this richest and most beautiful of lands.
+Nature has been lavish beyond measure, and man, instead of using her
+gifts, has ungratefully diverted them for generations to the purposes of
+guerrilla warfare and cheating the Custom-House officers. But this high
+moral tone hardly sits well on a man who was aiding and abetting the
+entry of a couple of foreign free-lances, on homicidal thoughts intent,
+and perhaps doing a stroke of contraband on his own account. We suffered
+no molestation; but others might not have escaped unpleasantness. The
+agent of a Hatton Garden jeweller might have had to pay toll, if the
+story were true that a few of the dispersed "Black Legion" had got off
+with their rifles and started a joint-stock company in the
+bush-whacking line, and were doing a pretty fair business.
+
+The descent on the Spanish side was almost precipitous, and had to be
+effected with exceeding care. At times we ran down the track, rugged
+with sharp crags, almost head foremost, and only saved ourselves from
+falling by clinging to the nearest sapling. But there is an end to
+everything, and at last we came on the road that dips into the village
+of Echalar, in the district of Pampeluna, province of Navarre. Here we
+dismissed our guide, and here I encountered, for the first time, a
+regularly organized Carlist company, detached from the fifth battalion
+of Navarre, which was in garrison at Vera, some eight miles distant; but
+as I shall have opportunity to speak of the entire battalion soon, I
+defer comment on its appearance.
+
+My companions were desirous of pushing forward, and the provisional
+alcalde of the village gave us a trap to take us on. There is an
+excellent road by the mountain-side, until a tunnel to the right is
+reached, when we entered a most picturesque, well-wooded defile, through
+which the Bidassoa pours its waters. We dashed along gaily until we
+came in sight of the steeple of the church of Vera at twilight.
+
+A cry of "Who goes there?" from the gloom arrested us at the entrance of
+the town.
+
+Leader sung out, "Espana."
+
+Again came the sentinel's cry, "What people?" and cheerily ran the
+answer, "Voluntarios de Carlos Septimo!"
+
+"Pass," was the reply; and we took the street at a trot, and pulled up
+at the door of the parish priest's dwelling, where the Irish soldiers of
+fortune promised me a billet for the night. The kindly pastor was equal
+to expectations; we had a cordial welcome, a good dinner, and beds with
+clean sheets.
+
+Sad tidings met my companions--those of the death of a young friend, Mr.
+John Scannel Taylor, a native of Cork, in the service of Don Carlos. A
+few months previously he had been a promising law student in the Queen's
+University of Ireland, with every prospect of a bright career before
+him. He arrived from England in the middle of June, and attached
+Himself to the partida of General Lizarraga in order to be near his
+fellow-countryman, Smith Sheehan. Previous to Mr. Sheehan's returning to
+Bayonne with despatches, he tossed up a coin to decide whether he or
+Taylor should have the choice of the duty. Poor Taylor won, and elected
+to remain with Lizarraga, as there was likelihood of fighting at hand.
+The very next day Yvero, where the Republicans held a
+strongly-intrenched position, was attacked, and the young Irish
+volunteer made himself conspicuous in the onset. While advancing in the
+open, setting a pattern of bravery to all by the steady way he delivered
+his fire, the gallant fellow was struck by a bullet in the leg. He kept
+on limping until he was touched a second time in the arm, but still he
+persevered with a dogged courage, when a third bullet struck him in the
+forehead, and he dropped with outspread arms, raising a little cloud of
+dust. He must have been stone-dead before he reached the ground. His
+conduct was "muy valiente," so said his Spanish comrades. He was picked
+up after the affair, and decently interred side by side with two
+officers who met their deaths in his company. This was the first time he
+was under fire, as it was the last; but there is a fatality in those
+things.
+
+This young Irishman, Taylor, was luckier than some of his fellows in one
+respect. Short as he had been in the service, he had attracted the
+notice of Don Carlos. His comrade Sheehan and he were pointed out to
+"the King" by Lizarraga as two modest deserving young soldiers who had
+offered to fight in the ranks--a trait of unselfishness that must have
+astonished the Carlist leaders, as most of the volunteers they had from
+France came out with the full intention of commanding brigades, when
+divisions were not to be had.
+
+"I wish I had a thousand like them," said Lizarraga, who was a genuine
+soldier, and one of the few Spaniards not unjust to foreigners.
+
+Don Carlos shook hands with Mr. Taylor and thanked him. His Majesty
+spoke some few minutes in French with Mr. Sheehan, and, as the
+conversation gives some insight into Carlism, I may venture to repeat
+it.
+
+Don Carlos.--"You have served before?"
+
+Irish Soldier.--"Yes, sire, in the Pontifical Zouaves."
+
+Don Carlos.--"Ha! good. In the same company with my brother, perhaps?"
+
+Irish Soldier.--"No; but I had the privilege of knowing Don Alfonso."
+
+Don Carlos.--"He is in Catalonia now, and has many of your old
+companions in arms with him. You are serving the same cause here as in
+Rome--the cause of religion and of order and of legitimate right."
+
+Irish Soldier (bowing).--"I should not be here if I did not feel that,
+your Majesty."
+
+Don Carlos (smiling).--"I thank you sincerely. General Lizarraga tells
+me you are Irish."
+
+Irish Soldier.--"I come from the south of Ireland, sire."
+
+Don Carlos.--"A country I feel much sympathy for. She has been very
+unhappy, has she not? Are things better now?"
+
+Irish Soldier.--"For some years Ireland has been, improving, sire."
+
+Don Carlos.--"That is well. She deserves better fortune, for she has a
+noble, faithful people."
+
+Don Carlos drew back a pace and made a stiff military nod; the Irishman
+brought his rifle to the "present arms," turned on his heel, and marched
+back to the ranks, and thus the interview terminated.
+
+The valley in which the little town of Vera nestles might have been that
+where Rasselas was brought up, so secluded, smiling, and peaceful it
+looks. The Bidassoa, famous in tales of the Peninsular War, flows
+through it, no doubt; but the Bidassoa here is a trout stream winding
+through meadows and fields of maize, and thoughts of bloodshed are the
+last that would occur to anyone contemplating its mild current. The
+mountains walling in the vale are lined with growths of heather, fern,
+and blossoming furze to their very crests, and the verdurous picture
+they hem is one of poetic calm and plenty. Labourers are digging away in
+the fields below, the tinkle of cow-bells is heard from the pastures,
+and anon blends with their Arcadian music the soft chiming of
+church-bells summoning to prayer; there is a mill with its clacking
+wheel, and a foundry with a tuft of smoke curling from its chimney;
+orchards and vineyards lie side by side with patches of corn, and along
+the high-road peasants pass and repass, shortening their way with song
+and laughter, and strings of mules or droves of swine scamper by.
+Another Sweet Auburn of Goldsmith, in another Happy Valley of Johnson,
+this cosy Vera with its river and trees would seem to any English
+tourist ignorant of its history; but how the English tourist would be
+misled! Though the peasants laugh and sing, and the labourers dig, and
+there are outer tokens of peace, there is no peace in the valley or
+town; there are sights and sounds there of war, and that of the worst
+kind--civil war. The mill is grinding corn for the commissariat stores,
+the foundry turns out shot instead of ploughshares, the boxes on the
+mules' backs are packed with ammunition. If you listen, you will hear
+the roll of drums and the shrill blowing of bugles more often than the
+soothing bells; if you watch, you will notice that not one man in ten is
+unprovided with a firearm, for this quiet-looking place is the very
+hotbed of Carlism; the insurrectionary headquarters for the province of
+Navarre; the arsenal and recruiting depot for all the provinces in
+revolt. The disciples of the rod have fled from it, and those of the
+musket have come in their stead.
+
+At half-past four on the morning after our arrival in the mountains, I
+was roused from a profound sleep by the sound of the bugle. A solitary
+performer was blowing spiritedly into his instrument; what piece of
+music he was trying to execute I could not make out, but that his
+primary object was to "murder sleep" was evident, and he succeeded.
+Losing all note of time and place, I thought for a moment I was in
+London, and that this was a visit from the Christmas waits. But there
+was a liveliness in the tones incompatible with the season when the
+clarionet, trombone, and cornet-a-piston form a syndicate of noise, and
+parade the streets for halfpence. The bugle was in a jocular mood. Judge
+of my astonishment when I learned that this merry melody was the
+Carlist's reveille! The insurgents had got so far with their military
+organization that they had actually buglers and bugle-calls. Nay, more,
+they had drummers and a brass band!
+
+Now I think of it, there is an inadvisability in my calling them
+insurgents while in their power; but what phrase am I to employ? In the
+pass in my pocket I am recommended to "the Chiefs of the Royal Army of
+his Catholic Majesty Charles VII.," as an inoffensive "corresponsal
+particular," to whom aid and protection may be safely extended. But then
+there are the Republicans, and if they catch me giving premature
+recognition in pen-and-ink to the Royalist cause, they may rightly
+complain that a British subject is flying in the face of the great
+British policy of non-intervention. I think I have discovered an escape
+from the dilemma. The Carlists speak of themselves as the Chicos, "the
+bhoys," so Chicos let them be for the future, and their opponents the
+troops--not that it is by any means intended to be conveyed that the
+troops so called are much more martial than the Chicos.
+
+Well, the boys have got buglers who bugle with a will. They blow a blast
+to rouse us, another for distribution of rations; they have the
+assembly, the retreat, the "lights out," and all the rest, as regular as
+the Diddlesex Militia. I got up in the Cora's house, looked at the
+Cura's pictures--which were more meritorious as works of piety than as
+works of art--and hastened to the Plaza, where I was told there was
+about to be a muster of the Chicos, and I would have a leisurely
+opportunity of passing them under inspection. The Plaza is a flagged
+space enclosed on two sides by houses, some of which are over a couple
+of centuries old, with armorial bearings sculptured over the doors; on
+the third by the Municipality; and on the fourth by a grey church, lofty
+and large, seated on an eminence and approached by a flight of stone
+steps. The Municipality is a massive building, level with the street,
+with a colonnaded portico, and a front over which some artist in
+distemper had passed his brush. This facade is eloquent with mural
+painting, if one could only understand it all. There are symbolic
+figures of heroic size, coveys of cherubs, hatchments, masonic-looking
+emblems, and inscriptions. A Carlist sentry, dandling a naked bayonet in
+the hollow of his arm, was pacing to and fro in the portico, and the
+remaining warriors of the post were lounging about, cigarette in mouth,
+much as our own fellows do outside the guard-house on Commercial Square,
+at Gibraltar. I was curious to see the Carlist uniform. Assuredly the
+uniform does not make the soldier, but it goes a great way towards it.
+Uniformity was the least striking feature in the dress of the men before
+me. They were clad in the ordinary garb of the mountain-peasants. Short
+coarse jackets and loose trousers, confined at the waist by a faja, or
+girdle of bright-coloured woollen stuff, were worn by some; blouses of
+serge, knee-breeches, and stockings or gaiters, by others; but all,
+without exception, had the boina, or pancake-shaped woollen cap of the
+Basque provinces, and the alpargatas, or flat-soled canvas shoes.
+By-and-by was heard a bugle-blast and the quick, regular tread of
+marching men, and the head of a company came in sight. In perfect time
+the company paced, four deep, into the Plaza, halted, and fell into line
+in two ranks. Thus, in succession, seven other companies arrived,
+forming the fifth, battalion of Navarre, a vigorous, wiry set of men,
+impressing the experienced eye as excellent raw material for soldiers,
+albeit got up in costume very much resembling that of brigands of the
+Comic Opera. Physically, the natives of the hilly northern provinces are
+the pick of Spain. The battalion had its flag, white between two stripes
+of scarlet, on which was inscribed the name of the corps, and the
+legend, "The country for ever, but always in honour." This was, of
+course, written in Basque, of which my rendering is rather free, but it
+gives exactly the sense of the sentiment. It was soon palpable to
+anybody, who knows anything of such matters, that the Chicos were weak
+in officers of the proper stamp, and still more so in under-officers.
+Smoking was common in the ranks, and when the men stood at ease, they
+stood very much at ease indeed. The officers, in some cases, were
+distinguished in dress from the privates solely by gold or silver
+tassels dependent from their boinas, and their boinas were of blue,
+white, brown, or even Republican red, according to the fancy of the
+wearer. All the officers had revolvers and swords. The men were armed
+somewhat indiscriminately, one company with Chassepots, another with
+Remingtons; there were carbines, and percussion rifles, and
+smooth-bores, and even a few flint-locks; but I failed to discern a
+single specimen of the trabuco, the bell-mouthed blunderbuss we are
+accustomed to associate with the Spanish knight of the road. Ammunition
+was carried in a waist-belt, with a surrounding row of leather tubes
+lined with tin, each of which held a cartridge--in fact, the Circassian
+cartouch-case. There were many grizzled weather-stained veterans in the
+ranks who had fought with Zumalacarregui and Mina in the Seven Years'
+War; but as a rule the Chicos were literally boys in age, and here and
+there a child of twelve or fourteen might be seen measuring himself
+beside a patriotic musket. In relief to the peasant dresses were to be
+noticed frequent attempts at more soldierly costume in the shape of worn
+tunics of the French National Guards or Moblots, and some half-dozen
+uniforms of the Spanish Line, with the glazed kepi exchanged for the
+boina. On the top of many of the boinas, fastening the tassel, was a
+huge brass button, with the monogram of the "King," and the inscription,
+"Voluntarios, Dios, Patria, y Rey." Another sign particular of this
+irregular force that impressed me much was a bleeding heart embroidered
+on a small scrap of cloth, and sewn on the left breasts of nearly all on
+the ground. This appeared to be worn as a charm against bullets; and
+with a strong notion that it would protect them in the hour of danger, I
+am convinced nine out of ten of those peasants carried it. It may be as
+well to add that inside that embroidered patch were written, in Spanish,
+the words, "Stop; the heart of Jesus is here; defend me, Jesus." Many
+others of the Carlists carried scapulars, rosary beads, and blessed
+medals as pious reminders. The habit of wearing this representation of
+the heart of the Saviour over the region of the human heart dates so far
+back as the Vendean War, and had been introduced in the present instance
+by M. Cathelineau, grandson of the celebrated French Royalist loader.
+
+The battalion had assembled on the Plaza to give up their old arms, and
+to receive a portion of those which had been landed from the _San
+Margarita_. They deposited those they had with them by sections in the
+Municipality, and emerged with the others, bright, brand-new Berdan
+breechloaders. They seemed proud of their weapons; some went so far as
+to kiss them; and, if looks were any criterion of feelings, their
+glowing faces said, as emphatically as it could be said, "Now that we
+have good tools, we shall show what good work we can do." Boxes of
+metallic ball-cartridges, centre-primed, were piled on the Plaza, and
+were quickly and quietly opened and distributed. Not an accident
+occurred in the process. Many a less wonderful phenomenon has been
+advertised as a miracle. I fully expected to have my coat spattered with
+some warrior's brains every other moment, with such a reckless rashness
+were the rifle-muzzles poked about. One shot did go off, while a high
+private was trying if his cartridge fitted to the chamber; the charge
+singed the hair of a captain, and the bullet lodged in the middle of the
+word "Prudencia" on the facade of the Municipality. The captain would
+have it that he was killed, spun round on his own centre like a
+humming-top, and finally, coming to himself, shook out his clothes in
+search of the lead. There was a roar of laughter, and the careless
+soldier who had endangered the life of his officer was allowed to pass
+without rebuke. That was the worst point in Carlist discipline I had
+seen yet. There was too much familiarity towards superiors; the rank and
+file lacked that fear and respect for the officers which are the
+strongest cement of the military fabric. This was to be explained partly
+because the officers were not above the men in social position, and
+partly because any enterprising gentleman who bought gold braid and
+tassels, sported a sword, and appraised himself an officer, was accepted
+at his own valuation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+     The Cura of Vera--Fueros of the Basques--Carlist Discipline--Fate
+     of the _San Margarita_--The Squadron of Vigilance--How a Capture
+     was Effected--The Sea-Rovers in the Dungeon--Visit to the
+     Prisoners--San Sebastian--A Dead Season--The Defences of a
+     Threatened City--Souvenirs of War--The Miqueletes--In a Fix--A
+     German Doctor's Warning.
+
+
+THESE horrible and bloodthirsty Carlists turned out to be amiable
+individuals on acquaintance. I suppose they could put on a frown for
+their enemies, but for my companions and myself they had nothing but
+open smiles and hearty hand-grips. One great recommendation was our
+being billeted on the parish priest. His reverence had none of the Santa
+Cruz in him; he was a gentle, zealous, studious clergyman, yet was
+filled with the purest enthusiasm for the cause of what he regarded as
+legitimacy. The Don Carlos who raised the standard in 1833, he
+maintained, was the rightful heir to the throne of Spain. The law by
+which the succession had been changed was an _ex post facto_ law, passed
+after his birth, and not promulgated until Ferdinand VII. had a female
+child. In May, 1845, that Don Carlos, really Charles V., resigned in
+favour of his son, Charles VI., and in September, 1868, he, in his turn,
+relinquished his rights to the present claimant to the throne, Charles
+VII., whom might God preserve.
+
+The Cura was unusually civil towards us because we were Irish, and as
+Irish were presumably of clean lineage--that is to say, free from
+kinship with Jews or infidels. As reputed descendants of settlers from
+Bilbao, we were entitled to a full share in all the privileges of the
+province of Biscay. This was as well to know. It was a consolation to us
+to learn that it was an advantage to be Irish somewhere under the sun.
+The King of Spain is but Lord of Biscay, and has to swear under the
+oak-tree of Guernica to respect the fueros or customs of the province.
+Don Carlos had so done; he was in Spain, it was true, but where he was
+at the moment the Cura was unable to say; his court was perambulatory.
+
+The fueros were abolished by the Cortes in 1841 and but partially
+restored in 1844, so that in inscribing them as one of the watchwords on
+their banner, the Basques were fighting for something more solid than
+glory. They cling to their rights as Britons do to Magna Charta, only
+with this difference--they have a clearer conception of what they are. I
+had been trying to arrive at some knowledge of the fueros, and obtained
+much information from a volume by the late Earl of Carnarvon.[D]
+Guipuzcoa, Alava, and Biscay, though an integral part of the Spanish
+monarchy, for ages enjoyed their own laws, and a recapitulation of some
+which were in force in Biscay will be a fair sample of all. Biscay was
+governed by its own national assemblies, arranged its own taxation,
+yielded contributions to the Sovereign as a free gift, had no militia
+laws, was exempt from naval impressment, provided for its own police in
+peace and its own defence in war. No monopoly, public or private, could
+be established there. Only Biscayans by birth could be nominated to
+ecclesiastical appointments; every Biscayan was noble, and his house was
+inviolable; there was perfect equality of civil rights. In short, those
+Basques flourished under the amplest measure of Home Rule, and had all
+the benefits of the Habeas Corpus Act under another name long before
+that Bill was legalized by the Parliament of Charles II. The
+liberty-loving Basques were tolerant as well as independent. The
+Inquisition was never vouchsafed breathing-room in their midst. When
+Protestants escaped from France after the massacre of St. Bartholomew,
+they were treated to asylum amongst them.[E]
+
+We moved about among the guerrilleros. They were mostly light-limbed and
+stalwart men, and were none the worse for the sprinkling of seniors of
+sixty and lads of sixteen. Many had the bow-legs of the mountaineer,
+built like the hinder pair of artillery-horses--the legs that tell of
+muscularity and lasting stamina. Their drill was very loose, and skill
+in musketry left much to be desired. They had no perception of
+distance-judging, and some were so grossly ignorant of the mechanism of
+their weapons that they knocked off the back-sights of their rifles,
+alleging that they hindered them from taking correct aim. The Marquis de
+la Hormazas--a meagre, tall, elderly man--was commandant of the
+battalion, and was stern in the exaction of discipline. During the stay
+of the Navarrese at Vera, a captain was degraded to the ranks for having
+entered the lists of illicit love. The Frenchwoman who was the partner
+of his amour was politely shown over the mountain and warned not to
+return.
+
+The battalion left for the interior of the province. Leader was still
+too weak to enter on a campaign; Sheehan had to look after the
+belongings of his comrade Taylor, and break the news of his death to his
+mother; and I saw plainly that it was out of the question attempting to
+catch up the flitting headquarters of Don Carlos without a horse.
+Besides, I had to complete arrangements for the transmission of letters
+and telegraphic messages when I had any to send, and for the reception
+of money; in sum, to open up communication with a base. So we returned
+to France as we came.
+
+On arriving at St. Jean de Luz, a startling rumour awaited us. The
+steel-built Carlist privateer had been captured at the mouth of the
+Adour; she had been taken a prize to San Sebastian; Stuart and Travers
+were in close custody; and there were alarmists who whispered that they
+would be tried by drum-head as pirates, and hung up in chains in the
+cause of humanity. It was well for me I did not accept the invitation to
+that water-party. I ran over to Bayonne to ascertain what particulars I
+could, saw the Carlist Junta, the British and Spanish Vice-Consuls, and
+from their combined and conflicting narratives was able to sift some
+grains of the authentic. But the sudden first report was undeniable. The
+weasel had been caught asleep.
+
+The _San Margarita_ was a serious loss to the cause. She had cost
+L3,500. She was very fast, being capable of a speed of between ten and
+eleven knots an hour, and should be equal to fourteen knots if her
+lifting screw had another blade. A three-bladed screw had been provided,
+and was to have been fitted to her stern on her return from the
+ill-fated expedition which put an end to her roving career. It was true
+that the descendant of kings was under bolts and bars. The French
+journals described him as a "Monsieur Stuart, a Scotch colonel,
+entrusted by the English Catholics with collections for the Carlist
+cause." They had never heard of his royal lineage, of his connection
+with the Austrian cavalry, or of his exploits by the side of the unhappy
+Maximilian in Mexico. He assumed the responsibility of ownership of the
+vessel. The hue-and-cry description of him was "a man of forty to
+forty-five years of age, over middle height, figure spare, features
+thin, and resolute in expression."
+
+The burly bronzed Corkonian was also in durance, and with the pair of
+officers were a picked crew of thirteen Englishmen, including engineers,
+steward, stokers, and able-bodied seamen, and one Spanish cabin-boy. A
+Basque pilot, an old smuggler, familiar with every nook and crevice of
+the Bay of Biscay, had escaped.
+
+If reports were credible, the _San Margarita_ had already landed two
+millions of cartridges, and an immense quantity of arms. Much vexation
+was caused to the officers of the Spanish navy in those quarters by the
+stories of the daring feats she had achieved, absolutely discharging a
+cargo once on the very wharf of Lequeieto, as if she were a peaceful
+merchantman, and on another occasion sending off rifles and ammunition
+by small boats in the dead of night, a man-of-war lying sleepily
+oblivious of what was going on just outside her. It was felt that her
+continued impunity was a reproach, and three small vessels of the
+Spanish navy were commissioned to cruise between Bilbao and Bayonne on
+the look-out for her. This little squadron of vigilance consisted of _El
+Aspirante_ and _El Capricho_, gun-boats, and the _Buenaventura_, a
+three-gun steam-brig. On Tuesday, August 12th, the _Buenaventura_,
+flying a George's Jack at her peak, was off Fontarabia for a portion of
+the day, close in shore. At nightfall she disappeared--it is now
+supposed into the sheltered and almost invisible inlet of Los Pasages,
+between Fontarabia and San Sebastian. Before daybreak on Wednesday, the
+Carlists under Dorregaray swarmed down from the hills covering Cape
+Higuer. The _San Margarita_ came in sight, and began landing arms in the
+same spot where the undisturbed landing of the 28th July had been
+effected. Not more than three hundred stand had been put on shore, and
+about one hundred thousand cartridges in boxes, labelled in English
+"metallic rolled cartridges, centre-primed," when she had to get away,
+as the daylight began to play the informer. She dropped down towards
+Bayonne, and appears to have reached a point some four miles from the
+French shore (the exact distance is a moot question), where she laid to
+and allowed her furnaces to cool The men were "dead tired out" after
+their night's work, and the captain considered that he was within the
+protection of French waters. But there is a very ancient proverb about a
+pitcher and a veil, and the period of its realization had been reached
+at last Whilst the _San Margarita_ was effecting the landing, a
+coastguard's boat had slipped from under the heights of Fontarabia, and
+given notice of what was going on to the _Buenaventura_ in Los Pasages,
+and the brig steamed out, still with the British colours at her peak
+Whilst the Carlist privateer was motionless in fancied security--there
+was some want of prudence or vigilance there, surely--the gun-brig crept
+down and overhauled her before alarm could be given, and the rakish
+schooner-yacht, the skimmer of the seas, had the humiliation of falling
+a prey to a wretched slow boat that she could laugh at with steam up in
+the open sea. The arrest was made in the usual manner, and the captors
+behaved with the customary naval courtesy. They were over-joyed at their
+good fortune, and gave their prisoners to eat and to drink--champagne to
+the officers and chacoli to the men. They towed their prize into the bay
+of St. Sebastian, and there was triumph. The yellow and scarlet flag of
+Spain was over the wee _San Margarita_ as she entered, and Colonel
+Stuart and Captain Travers and their companions must have felt sore,
+for all the good cheer and generous wine. Still there was quite a
+courtly scene on board--hand-shakings and reciprocal compliments--as
+they were marched off to the dungeon of the Castillo de la Mota on a
+hill in the city, where they were incarcerated. There they did not fall
+on such pleasant lines as afloat. The Republicans lost no time in
+unloading the vessel. They took off her, with a hurry that betrayed
+apprehension, 1,545 carbines and six Berdan breech-loaders, with a
+number of armourer's tools. It was remarked that the rifles supplied to
+the regular troops from Madrid were sighted to eight hundred metres, but
+that the range of those seized from the Carlists did not exceed five
+hundred.
+
+I went over to San Sebastian by tug from Socoa on the 16th of August,
+and sent up my card to M. de Brunet, the British Vice-Consul. He said he
+had called on the prisoners, and that the sailors murmured at their
+treatment. If I went to the citadel, after three--as it was Saturday
+afternoon, and visiting hours commenced then--I could see them without
+difficulty. I did clamber up the hill, and found this was not the case.
+On owning that I had no pass from the military governor, I was denied
+admittance. Happening to meet the commandant, I represented what I
+wanted, and he very civilly granted me leave to visit the prisoners
+"para un momento." As the gates were thrown open Stuart advanced and met
+me, grasping my hand cordially, and slipping a letter up the sleeve of
+my coat. He had caught sight of me labouring up the hill, and had
+immediately hastened to scribble a few lines which he trusted to my
+sympathy with misfortune to smuggle to their destination for him. He was
+not mistaken, and in so doing I had no qualm of conscience. I
+accompanied him to his cell, and he told me the story of the capture of
+the _San Margarita_. It was substantially as I have related; they
+thought they were in a _mare clausum_, at all events they had drifted
+out of it on the tide of fate; but there was a nice question of
+international law. The _ruse_ of hoisting the British flag was
+legitimate if the _Buenaventura_ substituted her own flag before
+proceeding to board them. The _San Margarita_ had the flags of more
+than one nation in her lockers; but the gun-brig had no power to act the
+policeman in neutral waters. There was the point. Travers was in a
+separate lodging; they had been accommodated at first in the one cell,
+but they could not agree--ashore as afloat the old feud existed.
+However, both assented to a truce in order to have a talk with me. They
+were cheerful, had cigars _ad libitum_ (at their own expense, of
+course), and were permitted to get their rations from the Hotel de
+Londres in the city. The cells they occupied were bare, white-washed,
+low-ceiled rooms, some eight paces by six. They were not so clean or
+well-ventilated as Newgate cells, and the beds were spread on the floor.
+The captives had access to newspapers and writing materials, and it is
+but the due of the officers in charge to testify that they were
+extremely affable and disposed to make their prisoners as comfortable as
+possible. Still, in the close, stifling weather, to be locked up within
+the narrow circuit of a dungeon was limbo. The pair wore their own
+clothes, Travers still retaining a navy-jacket with brass buttons
+engraved with the initials of some yacht club, and did not complain of
+having been subjected to indignities. While I was with them the shadow
+of a face darkened the window; it was a Carlist prisoner who had hoisted
+himself up on the shoulders of a comrade from a yard below; he had a
+letter in his mouth. I took it, and slipped him a bundle of cigars for
+distribution among his fellow cage-birds. From this it may be deduced
+that the gaol regulations were not very stringent. The Carlists were
+treated as forfeit of war, not felons, and had no honest chance of
+illuminating their brows with the martyr halo of Baron von Trenck or
+Silvio Pellico.
+
+San Sebastian is the most modern town in the Peninsula, having been
+re-built in 1816, three years after its destruction by the incensed
+allied troops. It is a great summer resort of wealthy Spanish idlers--a
+sort of Madrid-super-Mare. The attractions of the capital are to be had
+there, with the supplementary advantages of pure air, mountain scenery,
+and luxurious sea-bathing on a level sandy beach. There is a public
+casino, and a score of clandestine hells where a fortune can be lost in
+a night at monte--in short, every infernal facility for Satanic
+gambling. Cigarettes are cheap, and so are knives. There is an Alameda,
+where the band plays, and a passable imitation, of the Puerta del Sol,
+less the fountain, in the broad arcaded Plaza de la Constitution. There
+is a small theatre, a spacious bull-ring, and several commodious
+churches, where Pepita can talk the language of fans to her heart's
+content. Every attraction of Madrid which could reasonably be expected
+is to be had, I repeat, and hidalgos and sloe-eyed senoras speckle the
+promenades in the gloaming, and impart a mingled aroma of garlic and
+gentility, pomade and pretentiousness, to the chief town of Guipuzcoa.
+San Sebastian would be for Madrilenos what Paris is for Bostonians, if a
+few of the attractions of the "only court," which could not reasonably
+be expected, were not lacking--say an occasional walk round of the
+Intransigentes, to show their political muscles; a grandiloquent, frothy
+word-tempest in the Congress, and the Sunday cock-fight. I am speaking,
+be it understood, of San Sebastian in ordinary summers. A short
+twelvemonth before my visit, a pair of pouting English lips told me it
+was "awfully jolly."
+
+At the date with which I am concerned, it was anything but "awfully
+jolly." The fifteen thousand rich visitors who were wont to flock into
+the city during the season had gone elsewhere to recruit their health on
+the sands and lose their money at the gaming-tables. They had been
+frightened to the coasts of France by the apparition of Carlism, and San
+Sebastian was plaintive. Her streets and her coffers were empty. The
+campamento of bathing-huts was ranged as usual on the velvet rim of the
+ear-like bay, but no bathers were there. There were more domestics than
+guests in the hotels; and at the _table d'hote_ three sat down in a
+saloon designed for a hundred to breakfast in; and we had no butter. The
+peasants in the country round were afraid to bring in the produce of
+their dairies and barn-yards. The bull-ring was to let; conscientious
+barbers shaved each other or dressed the hair on the wax busts in their
+windows, in order to keep alive the traditions of their craft; the
+fiddlers in the concert-room of the casino scraped lamentations to
+imaginary listeners. A Sahara of dust had settled on the curtain of the
+theatre, and fleet-footed spiders made forages athwart it from one
+cobwebby stronghold to another. The once festive resort had lost its
+spirits completely, and all on account of this civil war. It was summer,
+but the city was in a state of hibernation. No business was done in the
+shops, the cafes were empty, most of the resident population who could
+afford it had emigrated, and the public squares were as vacant as if
+there were a perpetual siesta. There was no sign of animation, as we
+understand it in England. There were but three vessels in the west
+bay--the _Buenaventura_, a merchant steamer, and the _San Margarita_,
+pinioned at last, her yellow funnel cold. Sojourn in the place was
+insupportable. I knew not how to kill the tedious hours. I climbed again
+to the Castle of the Mota, inspected some English tombs on the slope of
+the acclivity, and noticed that if the citadel is still a position of
+strength, nature deserves much of the credit. The defences recently
+thrown up had been devised and executed carefully, and if the defenders
+were only true to themselves, the Carlists, with no better artillery
+than they possessed, might as well think of taking the moon as of
+entering San Sebastian. They would have a formidable fire from
+well-planted cannon to face; stockades, and strong earthworks, and more
+than one blockhouse cunningly pierced with loopholes, to carry. Even if
+San Sebastian was entered, the configuration of the streets was such as
+to give every aid to disciplined men as opposed to mere guerrilleros.
+The city is built in blocks, on the American system; the wide
+thoroughfares cross each other at right-angles, and all of them could be
+swept as with a besom by a few guns _en barbette_ behind a breastwork at
+either end. In this sort of work, accuracy of aim is not called for, as
+in that warfare up in the mountains. If it were, not much reliance could
+be placed on the Republican artillery. General Hidalgo had well-nigh
+nullified that arm of the service. A Carlist leader, in whose
+information and whose word confidence could be reposed, assured me that
+not a single Carlist had yet been killed or wounded by the Republican
+gunners. The estimated lists of the enemy's casualties given by both
+parties during the struggle, I may remark _en passant_, were grossly
+exaggerated. The butcher's bill was very small in proportion to the
+expenditure of gunpowder. Returning to the question of the defence of
+San Sebastian--even on the supposition that the main works and town were
+to fall into the hands of the Carlists, the citadel still remained,
+where a determined leader could hold out till relief came, as long as
+his provisions lasted. This lofty citadel is almost impregnable. It was
+hither the French retired in 1813, and it took General Graham all that
+he knew to dislodge them. If I were asked what were the prospects of the
+Carlists getting into the place, I should say there was but one--by
+crossing over a golden bridge. But that implied the possession of money,
+and money was precisely what the Carlists declared they needed most.
+
+There was always the remote hazard of a Carlist rising in San Sebastian,
+for there were in the city the children of settlers from the rural
+districts who bit their thumbs at the sight of the muzzled _San
+Margarita_, and prayed that Charles VII. might have "his ain again." But
+they were in the minority. The Miqueletes, a soldierly body of men in
+scarlet Basque scones very like to the Carlist head-gear, and a blue
+capote with cape attached, garrisoned the citadel. They were brave and
+loyal to the Republic, and the object of deep grudge to the Chicos, for
+they were Basques of the towns. Many of these provincial militiamen had
+come in from the small pueblos in the neighbourhood, where they ran the
+risk of being eaten up by "the bhoys;" and this was the only accession
+to the population which redeemed the dismal, tradeless port from the
+appearance of having been stricken by plague and abandoned, and lent it
+at intervals an artificial bustle.
+
+I sickened of San Sebastian, with its angular propriety; its high,
+haughty houses, holding up their heads in architectural primness; its
+wide geometrical streets, where there is no shade in the sun, no shelter
+in the wind. I began to hate it for its rectilinearity, and dub it a
+priggish, stuck-up, arrogant upstart among cities. What business had it
+to be so straight and clean and airy? Fain would I shake the dust off my
+feet in testimony against it; but here was the trouble. How to get
+away--that was a knotty problem. The railway had been torn up for
+months, and the armour-vested locomotives were rusting on the sidings at
+Hendaye. The dirty hot little tug, the _Alcorta_, that plies between the
+quay and Socoa, had left; and I grieved not, for the thought of a
+passage by her was nausea. Three more torturing hours never dragged
+their slow length along for me than those I spent on board her coming
+over. Try and call up to yourself three hours in a low-class cook-shop,
+coated an inch thick with filth, and fitted over the boiler of a penny
+steamer dancing a marine break-down on the Thames, opposite the outlet
+of the main-drainage pipes. That, intensified by strange oaths and
+slop-basins, was the passage by the _Alcorta_. But dreary, lonely San
+Sebastian was not to be endured. Those poor fellows above, accustomed to
+the wild freshness and freedom of the sea, how they must mourn and
+repine! By some means or other I must get back to the world that is not
+petrified. No diligences dare to affront the dangers of the short
+journey to the Irun railway-station, since three were stopped some days
+before, the traces cut, the horses stolen, the windows shattered, the
+woodwork burned, and the charred wreck left on the roadside, a terror to
+those who neglect to obey the commands of the Royalist leaders.
+
+"Royalist prigants, serr!" shouted a corpulent German doctor, connected
+with mines in the neighbourhood, who retained fierce recollections of
+having been robbed of a "boney, capitalest of boneys for crossing a
+mountain."
+
+I told the doctor I was about to trust to luck, and set out on foot if I
+could persuade nobody to provide me with a vehicle.
+
+"Serr, you air mad, foolish mad," said the doctor. "Those horrid
+beebles, I tell you, are worse than prigants; if you hayff money, they
+will dake it; if you hayff not money, they will stroke your pack fifty
+times, pecause you hayff it not. They will cut your ears off; they will
+cut your nose off; they are plack tevils!"
+
+I determined to trust to luck all the same. The black devils might not
+be all out so black as they were painted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+     Belcha's Brigands--Pale-Red Republicans--The Hyena--More about the
+     _San Margarita_--Arrival of a Republican Column--The Jaunt to Los
+     Pasages--A Sweet Surprise--"The Prettiest Girl in Spain"--A Madrid
+     Acquaintance--A Costly Pull--The Diligence at Last--Renteria and
+     its Defences--A Furious Ride--In France Again--Unearthing Santa
+     Cruz--The Outlaw in his Lair--Interviewed at Last--The Truth about
+     the Endarlasa Massacre--A Death-Warrant--The Buried Gun--Fanaticism
+     of the Partisan-Priest.
+
+
+THERE is fine scope for exaggeration in civil war; but he who wants the
+truth about the Montagues does not consult the Capulets. There must be
+bad characters amongst the Carlists, I reflected; and when they are on
+outpost duty at a distance from officers, and have taken a drop of
+aguardiente too much, they may sometimes fail to appreciate the nice
+distinction between _meum_ and _tuum_. The band of one Belcha, which was
+hovering in the neighbourhood of San Sebastian, had a shady reputation.
+It would be unjust to tempt these simple-minded guerrilleros with the
+sight of a Derringer, a hunting-watch, a tobacco-pouch, or a
+reconnoitring-glass. All these articles are useful on the hills. But
+even Belcha's looters had some conscience; they drew the line at money
+and wedding-rings. Besides, in cases of robbery restitution was
+invariably made when the chiefs of the revolt were appealed to in proper
+form, so that on the whole the Carlists did not deserve the name the
+German doctor had given them. Regular soldiers do not always carry the
+Decalogue in their kit; there was marauding in the Peninsula,
+notwithstanding the iron discipline of the Iron Duke; the Summer Palace
+at Pekin was despoiled of its treasures by gentlemen in epaulettes, and
+the Franco-German War was not entirely unconnected with stories about
+vanishing clocks. So I would not be diverted from my purpose.
+
+Before leaving San Sebastian I tried to obtain permission for a second
+visit to the citadel-prison in order to see the crew of the _San
+Margarita_, but without avail. Yet the officers in charge (all of the
+regular army), and indeed the privates of the local militia, were
+anything but truculent gaolers; they seemed willing to strain a point to
+oblige. The Republicanism of the officers was of a very pale red; but
+there was one hirsute Volunteer of Liberty who acted as chief warder,
+and took a delight in the occupation. He rattled his bunch of keys as if
+their metallic dissonance were music, grumbled at the urbanity of his
+superiors, and bore himself altogether as if their politics were
+suspicious; and he, a pure of the pure, were there as warder over that
+too. I nicknamed him the hyena in my own mind; but I could not conceive
+him laughing anywhere save in front of a garrote with a Royalist neck in
+the rundel, and then his laugh at best would be but the inward chuckle
+of a Modoc.
+
+Stuart took the hyena coolly, regarding him as an amusing phenomenon;
+Travers surveyed him as he would the portrait of the Nabob on London
+hoardings, and pronounced him a whimsical illustration of Republican
+sauce. Stuart, I should have stated, was anxious that it should be
+known that he had caused the name of the whilom _Deerhound_ to be erased
+from the list of yachts, when he chartered her as a merchant-steamer,
+renamed her, and went into the contraband-of-war line. It was contrary
+to his wish to compromise any club. The confiscated cargo was the last
+he had intended delivering, but he told me with a smile that ten
+thousand stand of rifles had already found their way to Vera. There was
+no legitimate explanation of the capture of the hare by the tortoise,
+although Travers was prepared to swear he was in French waters--he
+thought he was, no doubt--but he was just on the wrong side of the
+limit. There was one comfort. On the way to Bayonne a boat-load of men
+had been landed at Socoa on leave, amongst them the Basque pilot, who
+might otherwise have been helped to a short shrift, and the dog's death
+from a yard-arm.
+
+Carlist sympathizers endeavoured to procure me a conveyance to Irun, but
+nobody cared to affront the loss of horses, for Belcha's band
+requisitioned the cattle even of those identical in political
+feeling--the good of the cause was their plea--so at last I was forced
+to say I should be glad of a trap to Los Pasages, a few miles off,
+whence I might be able to go forward on foot.
+
+While I was waiting for the arrival of the vehicle, and reading _El
+Diario_, the local daily paper--a sheet the size of the palm of one's
+hand--until I had the contents by rote, an incident occurred to beguile
+suspense. The vanguard of the corps of Sanchez Bregua, the commander of
+the Republican Army of the North, rode into the city. They had come from
+Zarauz, a seaside village four leagues away--a section of mounted
+Chasseurs in a uniform like to that of the old British Light Dragoons.
+The troopers were in campaign order, with rifled carbines slung over
+their backs, pugarees hanging from their shakoes over their necks, and
+were dust-covered and sunburnt, but soldierly. They were horsed
+unevenly, and for light cavalry carried too great a burden. But that is
+not a fault peculiar to Spanish light cavalry. The average weight of the
+British Hussar equipped is eighteen stone. A quarter of an hour later
+the main body came in sight, a long column of infantry marching by
+fours. It was headed by a party of Civil Guards, acting as guides. As
+the column reached the open space by the quay, it deployed into line of
+companies, a movement capitally executed. The men were bigger and
+tougher than those of the French Line. Their uniform was similar, except
+that they had wings to their capotes instead of worsted epaulettes. All
+wore mountain-shoes, but were not hampered with tenting equipage on
+their knapsacks. Each battalion was led by a staff-officer, who was
+splendidly, or wretchedly, mounted, as his luck had served him. The
+company officers carried alpenstocks, and their orderlies had officers'
+cast foraging-caps on top of their glazed shakoes. I noticed a battalion
+of Cazadores, distinguished by the emblematic brass horn of chase
+wrought on their collars, and two companies of Engineers in uniforms
+entirely blue, with towers on their collars. These latter were robust,
+sinewy young fellows. After the infantry came a company of the 2nd
+Regiment of Mountain Artillery with four small pieces, each drawn by a
+single mule, and behind them a squadron of Mounted Chasseurs, and a
+long cavalcade of pack-horses and mules.
+
+After a deal of exploration a driver was dug up, and after a deal of
+negotiation he consented to take me to Los Pasages. Thanks to Republican
+vigilance, but principally it may have been to the nature of the ground,
+the road thither was clear. We started at six o'clock in the evening,
+and after a lively spin through sylvan scenery drew up in less than an
+hour at the outskirts of a village on the edge of a quiet pool, which we
+had bordered for nigh a mile. No papers had been asked for, on leaving,
+at the bridge over the Urumea, where a post of volunteers kept guard by
+an antique and stumpy bronze howitzer, mounted on a siege-carriage, and
+furnished with the dolphin-handles to be seen on some of the
+last-century guns in the Tower Arsenal. No papers were asked for either
+at the Customs' station, some hundred yards farther on; but the
+Carabineros looked upon me as a lunatic, and significantly sibilated.
+None were asked for at the approach to the village. Scarcely had I
+alighted when a fishwife ran out of a cabin and addressed me in Basque.
+I could not understand her, and motioned her away, when a winsome lassie
+of some eighteen summers, tripping up the road, came to my aid, and
+began speaking in French as if she were anticipating my arrival.
+
+"Monsieur wants a shallop to go to France?"
+
+I was taken aback, but answered, "Yes."
+
+"Monsieur will follow me."
+
+And she gave me a meaning sign--half a wink, half a monition. I
+followed, and examined my volunteer guide more attentively. What a prize
+of a girl! Hair black as night, but with a glossy blackness, was parted
+on her smooth forehead, and retained behind, after the fashion of the
+country, by a coloured snood, but two thick Gretchen plaits escaped, and
+hung down to her waist, making one wish that she had let her whole
+wealth of tresses wander free. Eyes blue-black, full by turns of soft
+love and sparkling mischief; Creole complexion, with blood rich as
+marriage-wine coursing in the dimpled cheeks; teeth white as the fox's;
+lips of clove-pink. And what a shape had she--ripe, firm, and piquant!
+Do you wonder that I followed her with joy? Do you wonder that I began
+weaving a romance? If you do, I pity you. Did I want a shallop? Of
+course I did; but alas! might I not have echoed Burger's lament:
+
+    "The shallop of my peace is wrecked
+     On Beauty's shore."
+
+She was a Carlist, I was sure of that. All the comely maidens were
+Carlists. In the service of the King the most successful crimps were
+"dashing white sergeants" in garter and girdle. And she took me for an
+interesting Carlist fugitive, and she was determined to aid in my
+escape. How ravishing! She was a Flora Macdonald, and I--would be a
+Pretender. I had fully wound myself up to that as we entered Los
+Pasages.
+
+Los Pasages consists of rows of houses built on either side of a basin
+of the sea, entered by a narrow chasm in the high rocky coast. Sailing
+by it, one would never imagine that that cleft in the shore-line was a
+gate to a natural harbour, locked against every wind, and large enough
+to accommodate fleets, and whose waters are generally placid as a lake.
+This secure haven, _statio benefida carinis_, is hidden away in the lap
+of the timbered hills, and is approached by a passage (from which its
+name is borrowed) which can be traversed in fifteen minutes. The change
+from the boisterous Bay of Biscay, with its "white horses capering
+without, to this Venetian expanse of water in a Swiss valley, dotted
+with chalets and cottages, must have the effect of a magic
+transformation on the emotional tar who has never been here before, and
+whose chance it was to lie below when his ship entered. The refuge is
+not unknown to English seamen, for there is a stirring trade in minerals
+with Cardiff, in more tranquil times. But now Los Pasages is deserted
+from the bar down to the uttermost point of its long river-like stretch
+inland, except by the smacks and small boats of the native fishers, a
+tiny tug, and a large steamer from Seville which is lying by the wharf.
+There is no noise of traffic; the one narrow street echoes to our
+tramping feet as I follow my charming cicerone, who has started up for
+me like some good spirit of a fairy-tale. She leads me to an inn, bids
+me enter, and flies in search of the owner of the shallop. The landlord
+comes to greet me, and I recognise in him an acquaintance--Maurice, a
+former waiter in the Fonda de Paris, in Madrid. I questioned Maurice as
+to my chances of getting across to Irun by land that night; but he
+assured me it was too late, and really dangerous; that the road was
+infested by gangs of desperadoes; and that it would be safer for me to
+travel, even in the day-time, without money or valuables. The owner of
+the shallop came, but as he had the audacity to ask eighty francs for
+transporting me round to Fontarabia, and as I had found Maurice, I
+resolved to stop in Los Pasages for the night.
+
+"You have only to cross the water to-morrow morning," said Maurice, "and
+you are in Kenteria, where you will be sure to get a vehicle."
+
+The backs of the houses all overlook the port, and all are balconied and
+furnished with flowered terraces, from which one can fish, look at his
+reflection, or take a header into the water at pleasure. A glorious nook
+for a reading-party's holiday, Los Pasages. Not if fair mysteries like
+my friend crop up there; but where is she, by-the-way? She does not
+re-appear; but Maurice will help me to discover who and what she is.
+
+"Maurice, are there any pretty girls here?"
+
+Maurice looks at me reproachfully.
+
+"Senor, you have been conducted to my house by one who is acknowledged
+to be the prettiest in all Spain."
+
+That night I dreamt of Eugenia, the baker's daughter, the pride of Los
+Pasages, who was waiting for a husband, but would have none but one who
+helps Charles VII. to the throne. I recorded that dream for the
+bachelors of Britain, and conjured them to make haste to propose for
+her--not that the Carlist war was hurrying to a close; but I have
+remarked that girls inclined to be plump at eighteen sometimes develop
+excessive embonpoint about eight-and-twenty. On inquiry, I found a key
+to the enigma which had filled me with sweet excitement. Eugenia, who
+had been to the citadel-prison to carry provisions to a friend in
+trouble, had seen me speaking to Colonel Stuart, and was anxious to
+serve me because of my supposed Carlist tincture. My supposed Carlist
+tincture did not prevent a lusty Basque boatman from charging five
+francs next morning for the five minutes' pull across the water to the
+road to Renteria, where I caught a huge yellow diligence, which had
+ventured to leave San Sebastian at last with the detained mails of a
+week. The machine was horsed in the usual manner--that is, with three
+mules and two nags--but how different from usual was the way-bill! With
+the exception of the driver and his aide, a youngster who jumped down
+from the box every hundred yards, and belaboured the beasts with a
+wattle, there was not one passenger fit to carry arms. We had a load of
+women and babies, a decrepit patriarch, and two boys under the fighting
+age. We halted at Renteria, harnessed a fresh team to our conveniency,
+and sent on a messenger to ascertain if the Carlists had been seen on
+the road. Everybody in Renteria carried a musket. All the approaches
+were defended by loopholed works, roofed with turf, and a perfect
+fortress was constructed in the centre of the town by a series of
+communications which had been established between the church and a block
+of houses in front by _caponnieres_. The church windows were built up
+and loopholed, and a semicircular _tambour_, banked with earth to
+protect it from artillery, was thrown up against the houses in the
+middle of the street, so as to enfilade it at either side in case of
+attack. There were troops of the line in Renteria, but no artillerymen,
+nor was there artillery to be served. Without artillery, however, the
+place, if properly provisioned, could not be taken, if the defending
+force was worth its salt.
+
+The messenger having returned with word that all was right, we went
+ahead at a fearful pace on a very good road, lined with poplars, and
+running through a neat park-like country. Over to the right we could see
+the church-spire of Oyarzun, and the smoke curling from the chimneys; a
+little farther on we passed the debris of a diligence on the wayside;
+the telegraph wires along the route were broken down, and the poles
+taken away for firewood; we dived under a railway bridge, but never a
+Carlist saw we during the continuous brief mad progress over the eight
+miles from Renteria to the rise into Irun.
+
+We clattered up to the rail way-station at a hand-gallop, the people
+rushing to the doors of the houses, and beaming welcome from smiling
+countenances. There was a faint attempt to cheer us. At the station a
+number of officials, a couple of Carabineros, and a knot of idlers were
+gathered. The driver descended with the gait of a conquering hero, and
+turned his glances in the direction of a cottage close by. An old man on
+crutches, a blooming matron with rosary beads at her waist, and a
+nut-brown maid with laughing eyes stood under the porch, embowered in
+tamarisk and laurel-rose. The driver strode over to them, crying out
+triumphantly:
+
+"El primero! Lo! I am the first."
+
+"How valiant you are, Pedro!" said the nut-brown maid, advancing to meet
+him.
+
+"How lucky you are!" said the matron, with a grave shake of the head.
+
+"How rash you are!" mumbled the grandfather; "you were always so."
+
+I envied that driver, for the nut-brown maid kissed him, as she had the
+right to do, for she was his affianced, and had not seen him for five
+days.
+
+From the Irun station to Hendaye was free from danger. I walked down
+through a field of maize to the Bidassoa, crossed by a ferry-boat to the
+other side, where a post of the 49th of the French Line were peacefully
+playing cards for buttons in the shade of a chestnut, and a few minutes
+afterwards was seated in front of a bottle of Dublin stout with the
+countryman who forwarded my letters and telegrams from over the border.
+
+Naturally I had a desire to ascertain the whereabouts of Santa Cruz. The
+man had almost grown mythical with me. I had heard at San Sebastian that
+ten thousand crowns had been offered for his scalp at Tolosa, and the
+fondest yearning--the one satisfying aspiration of the hyena--was to
+tear him into shreds, chop him into sausage-meat, gouge out his eyes, or
+roast him before a slow fire. Which form of torment he would prefer, he
+had not quite settled. A sort of intuitive faculty, which has seldom
+led me astray, said to me that Santa Cruz was somewhere near. I revolved
+the matter in my mind, and fixed upon the man under whose roof he was
+most likely to be concealed. I went to that man and requested him
+bluntly to take me to the outlawed priest--I wished very much to speak
+to him.
+
+He smiled and answered, "He is not here."
+
+"The bird is flown," I said, "but the nest is warm. He is not far away."
+
+"True," he said, "come with me."
+
+We drove some miles--I will not say how many--and drew up at an enclosed
+villa, which may have been in France, but was not of it. To be plain, it
+was neutral territory, and my host, who knew me thoroughly, disappeared
+for a few moments, and said Santa Cruz was sleeping, but that he had
+roused him, and that he would be with us presently.
+
+I was sitting on a garden-seat in front of the house where he was
+stopping, when he presented himself on the threshold, bareheaded, and in
+his shirt-sleeves. The outlaw priest was no slave to the
+conventionalities of society. He did not adjust his necktie before
+receiving visitors. I am not sure that he wore a necktie at all. Let me
+try and draw his portrait as he stood there in the doorway, in
+questioning attitude. A thick, burly man under thirty years of age, some
+five feet five in height, with broad sallow face, brawny bull-neck, and
+wide square-set shoulders--a squat Hercules; dark-brown hair, cut short,
+lies close to his head; he is bearded, and has a dark-brown pointed
+moustache; shaggy brows overhang his small steel-gray eyes; his nose is
+coarse and devoid of character; but his jaws are massive, his lips firm,
+and his chin determined. He is dressed like the better class of peasant,
+wears sandals, canvas trousers, a light brownish-gray waistcoat, and has
+a large leathern belt, like a horse's girth, round his waist. His
+expression is severe, as of one immersed in thought; with an occasional
+frown, as if the thought were disagreeable. His brows knit, and a shadow
+passes over his features when anything is mentioned that displeases him;
+but I was told when he smiled, the smile was of the sweetest and most
+amiable. I cannot say I saw him in smiling mood, but I saw him frown,
+and never did anyone so truly translate to me the figure of speech of
+"looking black." He advanced with self-possession, returned my salute
+without coldness or _empressement_, as if it were a mere matter of form,
+and sat down beside me. We had a long chat. Santa Cruz did not take much
+active part in it, but listened as his host spoke, punctuating what was
+said with nods of assent, and now and again dropping a guttural
+sentence. His maxim was that deeds were of more value than words, and he
+adhered to it. His host, I may interpose, was the most devoted of
+Carlists, and had given largely of his means to aid the cause. He had
+great faith in Santa Cruz, and told me in his presence (but in French,
+which the Cura understood but slightly) that while Santa Cruz was in the
+northern provinces, the King had half-a-man in his service, and that if
+he would now call on Cabrera he would have a man and a half, for that
+Santa Cruz would act with Cabrera.
+
+"If Don Carlos does not consent to that," said my host, "you will see
+that he will have to return into France, and live in ignominy for the
+rest of his days!"
+
+This Cura, represented in the Madrid play-house as half-drunk and
+dancing lewdly, was the most abstemious and chastest of men, and neither
+smoked nor drank wine. His fame went on increasing, as did the number of
+his followers. He effected prodigies with the means at his command. His
+friends in France supplied him with two cannon, which were smuggled
+across the border. He turned the foundry at Vera into a munition
+factory; employed women to make uniforms for his men; and insisted that
+the intervals between his expeditions should be given up to drill. He
+was dreaded, respected, admired by his band; he was strong and hardy;
+faced perils and privations in common with the lowest, but used no
+weapon but his walking-stick The priest, the anointed of God, may not
+shed blood. The affair of Endarlasa was the coping-stone of his career.
+Various accounts were related of that event; it is only fair to let
+Santa Cruz himself speak. This is what he told me:
+
+At three one morning he opened fire on the guard-house occupied by the
+Carabineros, at the bridge over the Bidassoa, between Vera and Irun. A
+white flag was hoisted on the guard-house. He ordered the fire to cease,
+and advanced to negotiate the conditions of surrender. The enemy, who
+had invited him to approach, by the white flag, fired and wounded one of
+his men. He issued directions to take the place, and spare nobody. The
+place was taken, and nobody was spared. Twenty-seven dead bodies
+littered the Vera road that morning.
+
+"Is it true that you pardoned two?" I asked the priest.
+
+"No, ninguno! Porque?" he answered with astonishment. "Not one. Why
+should I?"
+
+The reason I had asked was that I had been told that a couple of the
+Carabineros had plunged into the Bidassoa and tried to swim to the other
+side; but the Cura, on his own avowal, with Rhadamanthine justice had
+commanded them to be shot as they breasted the current, and they were
+shot. He was no believer in half-measures.
+
+A lady partisan of his, who had dined with him the day before, told me
+he never breathed a syllable of the attack he meditated, to her or any
+of his band. An English gentleman, who visited the ground while the
+corpses were still upon it, assured me that the sight was horrifying,
+and, such was the panic in Irun, that he verily believed Santa Cruz
+might have taken the town the same afternoon, had he appeared before it
+with four men.
+
+To pursue the story of the redoubtable Cura. The bruit of his exploits
+had gone abroad, and among certain Carlists it seemed to be the opinion,
+as one of them remarked to me, that "_Il a fait de grandes choses, mais
+de grandes betises aussi._" He was making war altogether too seriously
+for their tastes. Antonio Lizarraga was appointed Commandant-General of
+Guipuzcoa about that period, and ordered Santa Cruz to report to him.
+Santa Cruz, who was in the field before him, and had five times as many
+men under his control, paid no heed to his orders. Lizarraga then sent
+him a death-warrant, which is so curious a document that I make no
+apology for appending it in full:
+
+     TRANSLATION.
+
+     (A seal on which is inscribed "Royal Army of the North, General
+     Command of Guipuzcoa.")
+
+     "The sixteenth day of the present month, I gave orders to all the
+     forces under my command, that they should proceed to capture you,
+     and that immediately after you had received the benefit of clergy
+     they should execute you.
+
+     "This sentence I pronounced on account of your insubordination
+     towards me, you having disobeyed me several times, and having taken
+     no notice of the repeated commands I sent you to present yourself
+     before me to declare what you had to say in your own defence in the
+     inquiry instituted against you by my directions.
+
+     "For the last time I ask of you to present yourself to me, the
+     instant this communication is received; in default of which I
+     notify to you that every means will be used to effect your arrest;
+     that your disobedience and the unqualifiable acts laid to your
+     charge will be published in all the newspapers; and that the
+     condign punishment they deserve will be duly exacted.
+
+    "God grant you many years.
+
+    "The Brigadier-General Commanding.
+
+    (Signed) "ANTONIO LIZARRAGA.
+
+    "Campo Del Honor, 28th of March, 1873.
+
+    "Senor Don Manuel Santa Cruz."
+
+    "Note.--Have the goodness to acknowledge this, my
+    communication."
+
+
+This missive was received by Santa Cruz, but he never acknowledged it.
+His host permitted me to read and copy the original.
+
+"Is not that arbitrary?" he said to me in English; "very much like what
+you call Jedburgh justice; hanging a man first and trying him
+afterwards. Lizarraga says, 'This sentence I pronounced'--all is
+finished apparently there; and yet he cites the man whom he has ordered
+to be immediately executed to appear before him to declare what he has
+to say!"
+
+Another phrase in this death-warrant, which escaped the host, impressed
+me with its naivete:
+
+"_God grant you many years._"
+
+But Lizarraga, in this politeness of custom, meant no more, it is to be
+presumed, than did the Irish hangman who expostulated with his client in
+the condemned cell:
+
+"Long life to ye, Mr. Hinery! and make haste, the people are getting
+onpatient."
+
+Santa Cruz bit his way out of the toils, however, but not so his band.
+They were surrounded at Vera, caught, with a few exceptions, disarmed,
+assembled and addressed in Spanish by the Marquis de Valdespina, whose
+remarks were translated to them into Basque by the Cura of Ollo. They
+cried "Viva el Rey!" Their arms were subsequently restored to them, and
+the men were distributed among other battalions. But they still regret
+their old leader, and Santa Cruz is popular by the firesides of the
+mountaineers of Guipuzcoa. One of his mountain guns fell into the hands
+of Lizarraga, but the other was buried in some spot only known to
+himself and a few trusted companions.
+
+During my interview I made it my business to study the priest
+attentively, and this is what I honestly thought of him. He was a
+fanatic, a sullen self-willed man with but one idea--the success of the
+cause; and but one ambition--that it should be said of him that it was
+he, Santa Cruz, who put Don Carlos on the throne of his ancestors. The
+globe for him was bounded by the Pyrenees and the sea; he had but one
+antipathy after the heretics (all who did not worship God as he did) and
+the Liberals, and that was Lizarraga. I considered it a mistake that
+Lizarraga was not the Cura of Hernialde, and Santa Cruz the
+Commandant-General of Guipuzcoa. The priest had a natural military
+instinct--I would almost go so far as to say a spice of military
+genius; and had he had a knowledge of the profession of arms would
+probably have developed into a great general of the Cossack type. His
+hatred to Lizarraga led him into littleness and injustice. He chuckled
+at the idea of Lizarraga not being able to find the buried gun, as if
+that were any great triumph over him; and he sneered at the idea of
+Lizarraga, who was not able to take Oyarzun, meditating an attempt on
+Tolosa. I could thoroughly understand that the Carlist priest bore
+malice to the officer who supplanted him and condemned him to death. But
+what Lizarraga did was done in compliance with the King's will. At the
+same time there could be no doubt that Santa Cruz was treated with scant
+courtesy after all he had accomplished, and had a right to feel himself
+ill-used, and the victim of jealous rivalry. He said that he was
+prepared, any day the King permitted him, to traverse the four
+provinces, and hold his enemies _in terrorem_ with five hundred men. And
+he was the very worthy to do it. He complained bitterly that three of
+his followers had been shot by Lizarraga. One story relates that they
+stole into Guipuzcoa to levy blackmail, another that they merely went to
+dig up some money that was interred when the legion was disbanded. In
+any case they appeared in arms in a forbidden district, and incurred the
+capital penalty. Santa Cruz went to Bordeaux to beg for their lives at
+the feet of Dona Margarita. She received him most graciously, and
+promised to send a special courier to her husband to intercede in their
+behalf. Before the King's reprieve could possibly have arrived the three
+were executed.
+
+As we were about to leave, a colleague who was with me asked the Cura if
+he would permit him to visit his camp, if it came to pass that he took
+up arms again in Spain.
+
+"We shall see," said Santa Cruz; "wait till I am there."
+
+My own conviction is that the priest held correspondents in abhorrence,
+and that his first impulse would have been to tie a zealous one up to a
+tree, and have thirty-nine blows given him with a stick. Perhaps I did
+him wrong, but if ever he did take up arms again, it was my firm
+intention to be south when he was north, for he was about the last
+person in creation to whose tender mercies I should care to entrust
+myself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+     An Audible Battle--"Great Cry and Little Wool"--A Carlist Court
+     Newsman--A Religious War--The Siege of Oyarzun--Madrid Rebels--"The
+     Money of Judas"--A Manifesto from Don Carlos--An Ideal
+     Monarch--Necessity of Social and Political Reconstruction
+     Proclaimed--A Free Church--A Broad Policy--The King for the
+     People--The Theological Question--Austerity in Alava--Clerical and
+     Non-Clerical Carlists--Disavowal of Bigotry--A Republican Editor on
+     the Carlist Creed--Character of the Basques--Drill and
+     Discipline--Guerilleros _versus_ Regulars.
+
+
+WHEN a man's office is to chronicle war and he is within hearing of the
+echoes of battle, but cannot reach a spot from which the scene of action
+might be commanded, it is annoying in the extreme. Such was my strait on
+the 21st of August, a few days after my arrival from San Sebastian. I
+was at Hendaye, the border-town of France. From the Spanish frontier the
+report of heavy firing was audible for hours, apparently coming from a
+point between Oyarzun and Renteria. First one could distinguish the
+faint spatter of musketry, and afterwards the undeniable muffled roar of
+artillery. Then came a succession of sustained rolls as of
+volley-firing. About noon the action must have been at its height. The
+distant din was subsequently to be caught only at long intervals, as if
+changes of position were in course of being effected; but at three
+o'clock it regained force, and raged with fury until five, when it
+suddenly died away.
+
+I was burning with impatience, and made several unavailing attempts to
+cross the Bidassoa. The ferryman, acting under instructions from the
+gendarmes, refused to take passengers. By the evening train a delegate
+from the Paris Society for the Succour of the Wounded arrived from
+Bayonne with a box of medicine and surgical appliances. He, too, was
+unable to pass into Spain. Meantime, rumour ran riot. Stories were
+current that there had been fearful losses.
+
+"At eleven o'clock men were falling like flies," said one eye-witness,
+who succeeded in running away from the field before he fell.
+
+Not a single medical man would leave France in response to the call of
+the Paris delegate for volunteers to accompany him. Were they all
+Republicans? Did they fear that Belcha might take a fancy to their
+probes and forcipes? Or did they look upon the big battles and
+tremendous lists of casualties in this most uncivil of civil wars as
+illustrations of a great cry and little wool? If the latter was their
+notion, they were right. Three days after this serious engagement, I
+learned the particulars of what had taken place. General Loma, a
+brigadier under Sanchez Bregua, with a column of 1,500 men, came out
+from San Sebastian to cover a working-party while they were endeavouring
+to throw up a redoubt for his guns on an eminence between Irun and
+Oyarzun, so as to put an end to the tussle over the possession of the
+latter hamlet, which was a perpetual bone of contention. The Carlists
+fired upon him from behind the rocks in a gorge to which he had
+committed himself, but were outnumbered. Word was sent to the cabecilla,
+Martinez, at Lesaca, and he arrived with reinforcements at the double,
+and encompassed Loma with such a cloud of sulphurous smoke that the
+Republicans had to fall back upon San Sebastian. The casualties in this
+Homeric combat were not appalling; there was more gunpowder than blood
+expended. The losses on the Republican side were one killed and fifteen
+wounded. On the Carlist side they were less, for the Carlists kept under
+cover of the fern and furze. But then it must be considered that the
+firing only lasted nine hours!
+
+Don Carlos was not slow in calling the printing-press to his aid. One of
+his first acts after his entry into his dominions was to start an
+official gazette, _El Cuartel Real_, the first number of which is before
+me as I write. I have seen queer papers in my travels, from the
+_Bugler_, a regimental record brought out by the 68th Light Infantry in
+Burmah, to the _Fiji Times_, and the _Epitaph_, the leading organ of
+Tombstone City, in the territory of Arizona; but this assuredly was the
+queerest. It was published by Cristobal Perez, on the summit of Pena de
+la Plata, a Pyrenean peak. There might be less acceptable reading than a
+_resume_ of its contents.
+
+_El Cuartel Real_ does not impose by its magnitude. It is about
+one-eighth the size of a London daily journal; but if it is not great by
+quantity it is by quality. Over the three columns of the opening page
+figure the three watchwords of the Royal cause, "God, Country, King."
+The paragraph which has the post of honour is headed "Oficial," and has
+in it a flavour of the _Court Newsman_. Here it is as it appears in the
+original, boldly imprinted in black type:
+
+"S. M. el Rey (q.D.g.) continua sin novedad al frente de su leal y
+valiente ejercito.
+
+"S. M. la Reina y sus augustos hijos continuan tambien sin novedad en su
+importante salud."
+
+As it is not vouchsafed to everyone to understand Castilian, I may as
+well give a rough translation, which read herewith:
+
+"His Majesty the King (whom God guard) continues without change at the
+front of his loyal and valiant army.
+
+"Her Majesty the Queen and her august children also continue without
+alteration in their precious health."
+
+Then _El Cuartel Real_ appends what takes the place of its leading
+article--a reproduction of a letter from Don Carlos to his "august
+brother," Don Alfonso, setting forth the principles on which he appeals
+for Spanish support. This document is so important that I must return to
+it anon. Then comes a circular from the "Real Junta Gubernativa del
+Reino de Navarra," in session at Vera. The purport of this, epitomized
+in a sentence, is to raise money. Next, we arrive at the "Seccion
+Oficial," the most important paragraph of which announces that the
+Chief, Merendon, has inaugurated a Carlist movement in Toledo, with a
+well-armed force, exceeding 280 men--to wit, 150 horsemen and 130
+infantry--and that he hopes shortly to gather numerous recruits. The
+"Seccion de Noticias" makes up the body of the paper, and is richer in
+information. We are told that the most excellent and illustrious Bishop
+of Urgel, accompanied by several sacerdotal and other dignitaries,
+arrived in the town of Urdaniz, at half-past seven on the previous
+Wednesday evening. His Lordship rested a night in the house of the
+Vicar, and left the following morning, escorted by his friend and host,
+the said Vicar, Brigadier Gamundi, and Colonel D. Fermin Irribarren,
+veterans of the Carlist army, for Elisondo. From that the prelate was
+reported to have started to headquarters, "to salute the King of Spain,
+august representative of the Christian monarchy, which is the only plank
+of safety in the shipwreck of the country."
+
+The _Cuartel Real_ warmly congratulates the Bishop on the fact of his
+having come to the conviction that "the present war is a religious war,
+and on that account eminently social"--(social in Spanish must have some
+peculiar shade of meaning unknown to strangers, for otherwise there is
+no sequence here)--and proceeds to speak with an eloquence that recalls
+that wretched Republican, Castelar, of the standard of faith in which
+resides Spanish honour and--here come two words that puzzle me, _la
+hidalguia y la caballerosidad_; but I suppose they mean nobility and
+chivalry, and everything of that kind. The next notice in the royal
+gazette is purely military, and makes known that the siege of the
+important town of Oyarzun has begun. "On the 20th the batteries opened
+fire, and, according to report, the enemy had one hundred men _hors de
+combat_." The batteries! There is a touch of genius in that phrase.
+Reading it, one would imagine that the Royalists had a royal regiment of
+artillery, and that eight pieces of cannon, at the very least, played
+upon the unfortunate Oyarzun. A jennet with a 4-pounder at its heels
+would be a more correct representation of the strength of the Carlist
+ordnance.
+
+To resume the story of the siege of Oyarzun. "On the 21st," adds _El
+Cuartel Real_, "there was talk of a capitulation, and it is possible
+that the place has surrendered at this hour." The paragraph that
+succeeds it is a gem: "Of the 1,010 armed rebels in Eibar (Guipuzcoa),
+210 betook themselves to San Sebastian, when they suspected the approach
+of the Royal forces, and the 800 remaining gave up to General Lizarraga
+their rifles, all of the Remington system." There is no quibble about
+the latter statement. The Carlists had easier ways of procuring arms
+than by running cargoes from England. But is there not something
+inimitable in the epithet "rebels"? There can be no question but that
+everyone is a rebel in romantic Spain--in the opinion of somebody else.
+The only question is, Who are the constituted authorities? Until that is
+settled the editor of _El Cuartel Real_ is perfectly justified in
+treating the volunteers of liberty, in those districts where Charles
+VII. virtually reigns, as armed rebels. Although this town of Eibar had
+frequently risen up against the legitimate authorities named by his
+Majesty, it is pleasant to learn that General Lizarraga did not impose
+the slightest chastisement on the population, thus giving a lesson of
+forbearance to the "factious generals." Next we are informed that on the
+day the Royal forces entered Vergara, the ignominious monument erected
+by the Liberals in record of the greatest of treasons (the treaty
+between the treacherous Maroto and Espartero in 1839) was destroyed
+amidst enthusiasm, and the parchment in the municipal archives
+commemorating its erection was taken out and burned in the public
+square. I may add (but this I had from private sources) that the coin
+dug up from under the monument was cast to the wind as the money of
+Judas. Navarre, continues _El Cuartel Real_, is dominated by our valiant
+soldiers under the skilful direction of his Majesty; Lizarraga has
+occupied in a few days Mondragon, Eibar, Plasencia, Azpeitia, Vergara,
+and other important places in Guipuzcoa, and obtained "considerable
+booty of war;" the standard of legitimacy is waving triumphantly in
+Biscay, and Bilbao is blockaded. There the tale of victory ends; but we
+arrive at matters not less gratifying in another sense. The
+distinguished engineer, Don Mariano Lana y Sarto, has been appointed to
+look after the repair of the bridges destroyed by Nouvilas. Don Matias
+Schaso Gomez, a member of the press militant, has been promoted to be a
+commandant for his valour at Astigarraga, and is nominated for the
+laurelled cross of San Fernando; and the illustrious doctor, Senor Don
+Alejandro Rodriguez Hidalgo, has been named chief of the sanitary staff,
+and entrusted with the establishment of military hospitals.
+
+The last paragraph in this curious little gazette, printed up amid the
+clouds on the summit of the Silver Hill, states that the Royal quarters
+were at Abarzuzu on the 17th instant, and that Estella, close by, was
+stubbornly resisting, but would soon be in the power of the Royalists. A
+column which had attempted to relieve the garrison was energetically
+driven back towards Lerin by two battalions commanded by his Majesty in
+person. But by the time _El Cuartel Real_ came under my notice Estella
+had fallen, and the Carlists had put to their credit a genuine success.
+
+As the question of Carlism is still one of prominent interest--is,
+indeed, what the French term an "actuality," and may crop up again any
+day, the letter of the claimant to the throne to Don Alfonso (alluded to
+some sentences above) is worth translating. It is the authoritative
+exposition of the aims of the would-be monarch, and of the line of
+policy he intended to pursue should he ever take up his residence in
+that coveted palace at Madrid. Its date is August 23rd, 1873, and the
+contents are these:
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"MY DEAR BROTHER,
+
+"Spain has already had opportunities enough to ascertain my ideas
+and sentiments as man and King in various periodicals and
+newspapers. Yielding, nevertheless, to a general and anxiously
+expressed desire which has reached me from all parts of the
+Peninsula, I write this letter, in which I address myself, not
+merely to the brother of my heart, but without exception to all
+Spaniards, for they are my brothers as well.
+
+"I cannot, my dear Alfonso, present myself to Spain as a Pretender
+to the Crown. It is my duty to believe, and I do believe, that the
+Crown of Spain is already placed on my forehead by the consecrated
+hand of the law. With this right I was born, a right which has
+grown, now that the fitting time has come, to a sacred obligation;
+but I desire that the right shall be confirmed to me by the love of
+my people. My business, henceforth, is to devote to the service of
+that people all my thoughts and powers--to die for it, or save it.
+
+"To say that I aspire to be King of Spain, and not of a party, is
+superfluous, for what man worthy to be a king would be satisfied to
+reign over a party? In such a case he would degrade himself in his
+own person, descending from the high and serene region where
+majesty dwells, and which is beyond the reach of mean and pitiful
+triflings.
+
+"I ought not to be, and I do not desire to be, King, except of all
+Spaniards; I exclude nobody, not even those who call themselves my
+enemies, for a king can have no enemies. I appeal affectionately to
+all, in the name of the country, even to those who appear the most
+estranged; and if I do not need the help of all to arrive at the
+throne of my ancestors, I do perhaps need their help to establish
+on solid and immovable bases the government of the State, and to
+give prosperous peace and true liberty to my beloved Spain.
+
+"When I reflect how weighty a task it is to compass those great
+ends, the magnitude of the undertaking almost oppresses me with
+fear. True, I am filled with the most fervent desire to begin, and
+the resolute will to carry out, the enterprise; but I cannot hide
+from myself that the difficulties are immense, and that they can
+only be overcome by the co-operation of the men of notability, the
+most impartial and honest in the kingdom; and, above all, by the
+co-operation of the kingdom itself, gathered together in the
+Cortes which would truly represent the living forces and
+Conservative elements of Spain.
+
+"I am prepared with such Cortes to give to Spain, as I said in my
+letter to the Sovereigns of Europe, a fundamental code which would
+prove, I trust, definitive and Spanish.
+
+"Side by side, my brother, we have studied modern history,
+meditating over those great catastrophes which are at once lessons
+to rulers and a warning to the people. Side by side, we have also
+thought over and formed a common judgment that every century ought
+to have, and actually has, its legitimate necessities and natural
+aspirations.
+
+"Old Spain stood in need of great reforms; in modern Spain we have
+had simply immense convulsions of overthrow. Much has been
+destroyed; little has been reformed. Ancient institutions, some of
+which cannot be revivified, have died out. An attempt has been made
+to create others in their place, but scarcely had they seen the
+light when symptoms of death set in. So much has been done, and no
+more. I have before me a stupendous labour, an immense social and
+political reconstruction. I have to set myself to building up, in
+this desolated country, on bases whose solidity is guaranteed by
+experience, a grand edifice, where every legitimate interest and
+every reasonable personality can find admittance.
+
+"I do not deceive myself, my brother, when I feel confident that
+Spain is hungry and thirsty for justice; that she feels the urgent
+and imperious necessity of a government, worthy and energetic,
+severe and respected; and that she anxiously wishes that the law to
+which we all, great and small, should be subject, should reign with
+undisputed sway.
+
+"Spain is not willing that outrage or offence should be offered to
+the faith of her fathers, believing that in Catholicity reposes the
+truth she understands, and that to accomplish to the full its
+divine mission, the Church must be free.
+
+"Whilst knowing and not forgetting that the nineteenth century is
+not the sixteenth, Spain is resolved to preserve from every danger
+Catholic unity--the symbol of our glories, the essence of our
+laws, and the holy bond of concord between all Spaniards.
+
+"The Spanish people, taught by a painful experience, desires the
+truth in everything, and that the King should be a king in reality,
+and not the shadow of a king; and that its Cortes should be the
+regularly appointed and peaceful gathering of the independent and
+incorruptible elect of the constituencies, and not tumultuous and
+barren assemblies of office-holders and office-seekers, servile
+majorities and seditious minorities.
+
+"The Spanish people is favourable to decentralisation, and will
+always be so; and you know well, my dear Alfonso, that should my
+desires be carried out, instead of assimilating the Basque
+provinces to the rest of Spain, which the revolutionary spirit
+would fain bring to pass, the rest of Spain would be lifted to an
+equality in internal administration with those fortunate and noble
+provinces.
+
+"It is my wish that the municipality should retain its separate
+existence, and the provinces likewise, proper precautions being
+employed to prevent possible abuses.
+
+"My cherished thought as constant desire is to give to Spain
+exactly that which she does not possess, in spite of the lying
+clamour of some deluded people--that liberty which she only knows
+by name; liberty, which is the daughter of the gospel, not
+liberalism, which is the son of disbelief (_de la protesta_);
+liberty, in fine, which is the supremacy of the laws when the laws
+are just--that is to say, conformable to the designs of nature and
+of God.
+
+"We, descendants of kings, admit that the people should not exist
+for the King so much as the King for the people; that a king should
+be the most honoured man amongst his people, as he is the first
+caballero; and that a king for the future should glory in the
+special title of 'father of the poor' and 'guardian of the weak.'
+
+"At present, my dear brother, there is a very formidable question
+in our Spain, that of the finances. The Spanish debt is something
+frightful to think of; the productive forces of the country are not
+enough to cover it--bankruptcy is imminent. I do not know if I can
+save Spain from that calamity; but, if it be possible, a
+legitimate sovereign alone can do it. An unshakable will works
+wonders. If the country is poor, let all live frugally, even to the
+ministers; nay, even to the King himself, who should be one in
+feeling with Don Enrique El Doliente. If the King is foremost in
+setting the example, all will be easy. Let ministries be
+suppressed, provincial governments be reduced, offices be
+diminished, and the administration economized at the same time that
+agriculture is encouraged, industry protected, and commerce
+assisted. To put the finances and credit of Spain on a proper
+footing is a Titanic enterprise to which all governments and
+peoples should lend aid."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Here follow a repudiation of free trade as applied to Spain, and a few
+well-turned periods dealing in the usual Spanish manner with the duties
+of the ruler, laying down, among other axioms, that "virtue and
+knowledge are the chiefest nobility," and that the person of the
+mendicant should be as sacred as that of the patrician.
+
+At the close there is a very sensible sentence, affirming that one
+Christian monarch in Spain would be better than three hundred petty
+kings disputing in a noisy assembly. "The chiefs of parties," continues
+the letter, "naturally yearn for honours or riches or place; but what in
+the world can a Christian king desire but the good of his people? What
+could he want to be happy but the love of his people?"
+
+The letter winds up by the affirmation that Don Carlos is faithful to
+the good traditions of the old and glorious Spanish monarchy, and that
+he believed he would be found to act also as "a man of the present age."
+The last sentence is a prayer to his brother, "who had the enviable
+privilege of serving in the Papal army," to ask their spiritual king at
+Rome for his apostolic benediction for Spain and the writer.
+
+If this document was written _propria manu_, by Don Carlos, he must be
+endowed with higher intellectual faculties than most Kings or Pretenders
+possess. It is undeniably clever, and is more progressive than one would
+expect from an upholder of the doctrine of Divine right. It may be, as
+Tennyson sings, that the thoughts of men (even when they are Bourbons)
+are widened with the process of the suns. But I protest that there is
+such a masterly mistiness in it here and there, such a careful elusion
+of rocks and ruggednesses political, and such a fine wind-beating
+flourish of the banner of glittering generality, that I think there were
+more heads than one engaged in the concoction of the manifesto. I have
+studiously refrained from the introduction of the religious topic as far
+as I could in this work--it is outside my sphere; but I should be unjust
+to the reader did I not give him some information (not from the
+controversial standpoint) on a subject which will obtrude itself in any
+discussion on the merits of the conflict which has twice distracted
+Spain and may divide the country again. It is unfortunately indisputable
+that religion was poked into the quarrel. The struggle was described in
+_El Cuartel Real_ as a religious war; the theological allegiance of the
+partisans of Don Carlos was appealed to, and their ardent attachment to
+the Papacy was worked upon, as in the concluding sentence of the
+proclamation of Don Carlos. In those portions of the north where Carlism
+was all-powerful, the authorities were emphatically showing that those
+who served under them must be practical Roman Catholics _nolentes
+volentes_. An austere placard, signed by Barona, member of the Carlist
+war committee, was posted in the province of Alava, and ordained among
+other articles: Firstly, that the town councillors of every municipality
+should assist in a body at High Mass; secondly, that the mayors should
+interdict, under the most severe penalties, all games and public
+diversions, and the opening of all public establishments during Divine
+service; and thirdly, that all blasphemers, and all who worked on a
+holiday, who gave scandal, or who danced indecently, should be
+_scourged_. The first of these articles is lawful enough in a country
+which is almost exclusively Roman Catholic. In England nothing can be
+said against it, seeing that British soldiers of all denominations are
+compelled to attend Church parade, and the prisoners in all gaols have
+to register themselves as belonging to some religion. There is just
+this theoretical objection, however--the article implies that municipal
+honours are to be limited to members of one creed, which is intolerant.
+That which underlay the antipathy of numerous Conservatives outside
+Spain to the Royalist cause, was the belief entertained that the success
+of Don Carlos would lead to the re-assertion of clerical preponderance,
+would destroy liberty of conscience as understood in most European
+nations, and would set up a political priesthood. The manifesto of Don
+Carlos does not deal with those points in the full and categorical
+manner desirable. I was told there were two parties in the Carlist camp,
+the clerical and--for want of a better name, let it be called--the
+non-clerical The former, the Basques, and those who gave Carlism its
+great primary impulsion, were as zealously Roman Catholic as ever Manuel
+Santa Cruz was. They looked forward to the re-acquisition of the
+ecclesiastical domains and the re-establishment of the Catholic Church
+in all its ancient supremacy of wealth and power. The non-clericals knew
+that the Basques, even assuming them all to be Carlists, were but
+660,000 in number, a small minority of the population, and that the
+existence of a State unduly influenced by a Church--things temporal
+controlled by personages bound to things spiritual--was antagonistic to
+the feelings of the majority of Spaniards.
+
+Having met a nobleman distinguished for his services to Carlism, I put
+it to him bluntly, "Would Don Carlos on the throne mean a relapse into
+religious bigotry?"
+
+He answered me with candour, "I am a Roman Catholic, and if I thought so
+I should be the last man to lend a penny to his cause."
+
+"But," I urged, "that is the general impression in England, where he is
+trying to negotiate a loan, and if it is left uncorrected it does him
+injury. Why does he not repel the impeachment?"
+
+"The truth is," he said, "Don Carlos has made too many public
+explanations."
+
+I returned to the charge, challenging my acquaintance to deny that many
+of the supporters of Don Carlos would fall away if they had not the
+thorough belief that his cause was as much identified with the triumph
+of Roman Catholicism as with that of legitimacy. His reply was not a
+denial, but an admission of the fact, with the addition that in war one
+must not be too particular as to the means of enlisting aid, and
+stimulating the enthusiasm of supporters, which is an argument as true
+as it is old. Don Carlos, in his manifesto, goes on the assumption that
+the Republicans are all atheists, or something very like it. It is only
+fair to let the Republicans speak for themselves, and explain what is
+the Republican estimate of the Carlist religion. The San Sebastian
+newspaper, _El Diario_, may be assumed to be a fair exponent of the
+sentiments of the anti-Carlists, and thus emphatically, and not without
+a spice of antithesis, it delivers itself:
+
+"The religion which has the commandment, 'Thou shalt not kill,' forbids
+murder.
+
+"The religion which has the commandment, 'Thou shalt not steal,' forbids
+robbery.
+
+"The religion which is peace, obedience, and love, is no friend of war,
+rebellion, and massacre.
+
+"Resigned and joyous in other days, its martyrs went to death in the
+amphitheatre of Rome, and on the plains of Saragossa, pardon in their
+souls and prayer on their lips; to-day pardon is exchanged for wrath,
+and prayer for reproach. Instead of the martyr's palm, we have the
+Berdan breech-loader and the flash of petroleum.
+
+"Anointed of the Lord, ministers of Him who died invoking blessings on
+His enemies, kindle the fires of fratricidal strife, which they call a
+sacred war, and lead on and inflame their dupes by the pretence that the
+gates of Paradise are to be forced open by gunshot.
+
+"Meanwhile the bishops are silent, Rome is dumb, the moral law sleeps,
+the canon law is forgotten; and these pastors, transforming their flocks
+into packs of wolves, scour the plains, blessing murder and sanctifying
+conflagration.
+
+"'King by Divine right,' they cry, like the legists of the Lower Empire;
+'Die or believe,' like the sons of the Prophet. Apostles without knowing
+it, they seek to achieve the triumph of a Pagan principle by a Saracenic
+process.
+
+"They say that religion is lost, because it is shorn of the honour and
+power their kings gave it; that the portals of heaven are barred,
+because they have forfeited their tithes and first-fruits, their rents
+and fat benefices; and they try to convince us by discharges of musketry
+that our whole future life depends, on the one hand, on a question of
+vanity, and on the other, on a question of stomach.
+
+"Holy Apostles, disciples of Him who had not a stone whereon to lay His
+head, you who conquered the earth with no arms but those of word and
+example, oh! would you not say if you returned here below, 'Those who
+preach by the voice of platoons; those who evangelize from the mouth of
+cannon; those are not, cannot be, our disciples and successors, for they
+are not fishers of souls, but fishers of snug posts under government'?
+
+"And you, glorious martyrs of the Roman circus and Saragossan fields,
+oh! would you not say, 'No, this Christianity, which goes about sowing
+battle; desolation, tears, and blood wherever it passes, is not
+ours--no, this Christianity at the bottom of the slaughter of Endarlasa,
+of the hecatomb of Cirauqui, of the sack of Igualada, and of a hundred
+other cruelties, is not ours. Our religion says "Kill not," and this
+murders; says "Steal not," and this robs. No, this is not the
+Christian, but the Carlist religion'?"
+
+That is a good specimen of the rhetorical school of writing popular in
+Spanish newspapers; but all that is written is not gospel. From personal
+observation it was evident to me that these Republicans of the Spanish
+towns of the north were not so scrupulous in the outward observances of
+religion as the tone of this indignant Christian leading article would
+convey; neither were the Carlists the "packs of wolves" they were
+represented to be.
+
+Let us see how this inflamed sense of so-called religion affected the
+rank and file among the adherents of Don Carlos.
+
+Indubitably the Royalists, with a very few exceptions, were more than
+moral--they were sincerely pious, and esteemed it a grateful incense to
+the Most High to kill as many of their Republican countrymen as they
+could without over-exertion. They bowed their heads and repeated prayers
+with the chaplains who accompanied them; as the echoes of the Angelus
+bell were heard they were marched to Divine worship every evening, when
+they were in the neighbourhood of a church; they were palpably impressed
+with deep devotional convictions, and yet they were not sour-faced like
+the grim Covenanters of Argyle, nor puritanically uncharitable like the
+stern propounders of the Blue Laws of Connecticut. Their beads returned
+to the pocket or the prayers finished, they laughed and jested, were
+frolicsome as schoolboys in their playhour, and the slightest tinkle of
+music set them dancing. Hospitable and fanatic, faithful and ignorant,
+temperate and dirty--such are some prominent traits in the character of
+the brave Basque people of the rural districts who wished to govern
+Spain, but who were Spaniards neither by race, nor language, nor
+temperament, nor feeling.
+
+Taken all in all, they are a right manly breed, and, with education to
+correct inevitable prejudices, would be capable of great things. But
+before they could become efficient soldiers, they needed a severe course
+of training. In the flat country, south of the Ebro, it would be cruel
+and foolish to oppose them to regular troops. As guerrilleros, they
+were without parallel, being content with short commons, and ever ready
+to play ball after the longest march; but they were ignorant of
+soldiering as technically understood. In the copses and crags of their
+own provinces they were invincible, and could carry on the struggle
+while there was a cartridge or an onion left in the land. But where the
+tactics of the "contrabandista" no longer availed, where surprises were
+impossible and mysterious disappearances not easy, and where the bulk of
+the people were not willing spies, the aspect of affairs was different.
+They were mediocre marksmen with long-range arms of precision, and had
+no proper conception of allowances for wind or sun. Target-practice was
+not encouraged, and yet it was not through thrift of ammunition, for the
+waste of powder in every skirmish was extravagant, and one could not
+rest a night in a village held by the Carlists without being disturbed
+by frequent careless discharges.
+
+With the bayonet, as far as I could learn, they were impetuous in the
+onset, and stubborn, especially the Navarrese. But bayonet-charges
+cannot carry stone walls or mud-banks; and in the face of the almost
+incessant peppering of breech-loaders, rushes of the kind have become
+slightly old-fashioned. To the Carlists, in any case, was due the credit
+of readiness to have recourse to the steel whenever there was a rift for
+hand-to-hand fighting. Their military education unfortunately confined
+itself to the rudiments of the drill-book. They fell in, dressed up,
+formed fours by the right, extended into sections on column of march and
+went through the like movements very well--so well that it was a pity
+they had not an opportunity of adding to their stock of knowledge. They
+had an instinctive aptitude for skirmishing, and were expert at forming
+square, the utility of which, by the way, is as questionable nowadays as
+that of charging.
+
+More attention was paid to discipline than to drill. Pickets patrolled
+the towns into which they entered, and repressed all disorder after
+nightfall; outpost duty was strictly enforced; "larking" was not
+tolerated, and punishments were always inflicted for known and grave
+breaches of order.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+     Barbarossa--Royalist-Republicans--Squaring a Girl--At Iron--"Your
+     Papers?"--The Barber's Shop--A Carlist Spy--An Old Chum--The
+     Alarm--A Breach of Neutrality--Under Fire--Caught in the Toils--The
+     Heroic Tomas--We Slope--A Colleague Advises Me--"A Horse! a
+     Horse!"--State of Bilbao--Don Carlos at Estella--Sanchez Bregua
+     Recalled--Tolosa Invites--Republican Ineptitude--Do not Spur a Free
+     Horse--Very Ancient Boys--Meditations in Bed--A Biscay Storm.
+
+
+BARBAROSSA, who had never been over the border, suggested to me that I
+should take a trip to Irun, which was held by the anti-Carlists. It
+would be incorrect to write them down as Republicans; they were sprung
+from the Cristinos of the previous generation, and as such were opposed
+to any scion of the house against which their fathers had fought for
+years. All of them were _de facto_ Republicans, and had more knowledge
+and enjoyment of Republican freedom than those who prattled and raved
+of Republicanism in Madrid and the south; but they did not take kindly
+to the name. As my friend the late J. A. MacGahan wittily said of
+them--"They were the Royalist-Republicans of Spain." They were as fond
+of their fueros as any Carlist in the crowd, but they stood up for
+Madrid less that they cared for the policy or personages of the central
+government, than that they had a deep-seated hereditary hatred of their
+neighbours of the rural districts. At heart they were in favour of a
+restoration of the throne, and on that throne they would fain seat the
+young Prince of the Asturias. In those latitudes the lines of John Byrom
+a century before would well apply:
+
+    "God bless the King, I mean the faith's defender;
+     God bless--no harm in blessing--the Pretender;
+     But who Pretender is, or who is King,
+     God bless us all--that's quite another thing!"
+
+"If you go to Irun," said Barbarossa, stroking his moustache, "I am game
+to go with you."
+
+"I am satisfied," said I; "but recollect, you undertake the job at your
+own risk. You are known as an associate of Carlists, and suspected to
+be a Carlist agent. I am a stranger and comparatively safe."
+
+He had weighed all that, and was ready to face possible perils. But he
+was not fit to undergo probable fatigues. He could sit at a green table
+in an ill-ventilated atmosphere the night long, but he could not walk
+three miles at a stretch. Neither could he (on account of his illness)
+venture on horseback. To effect a crossing by the railway bridge from
+Hendaye to Irun was out of the question; it was barrier impenetrable.
+The Frenchman would not allow you to pass in your own interest; the
+Spaniard declined to admit you in his so-considered interest. To take
+the mountain-route was tedious, and in the case of Barbarossa not to be
+thought of; the bridge of Endarlasa was broken--a most contorted
+specimen of artistic dilapidation. To be sure, one could manage to creep
+to the other side by the submerged coping of the parapet, if endowed
+with the balancing powers of a rope-walker and the lustihood of the
+navvy. But Barbarossa was not a Blondin, and had not a physical
+constitution proof against a wetting. I had got across that bridge
+once, holding on by my teeth and nails, and retained recollection of it
+in a fit of the cold shivers; but I did not care to repeat the
+operation. In our dilemma, Barbarossa, who was a plucky knave, hit upon
+the plan which ought to have commended itself to us at first.
+
+"Let us stray up the river-bank a few hundred yards," he said, "seize a
+boat, and row ourselves across."
+
+No sooner was the proposition made than it was adopted; but we were
+saved from the ephemeral disgrace of posing as petty amphibious pirates,
+degenerate Schinderhannes of the Bidassoa. We saw a boat; a girl was
+near. The boat was her father's; she engaged to take us over for a
+consideration--I am certain she had set her heart on a string of
+straw-coloured ribbons and a sky-blue feather in a shop-window in
+Hendaye--and to await our return at nightfall. We arranged the signal,
+and stealthily stole across, drifting diagonally most of the way; and I
+entrusted the speculative French damsel with my revolver and my Carlist
+pass, and paid her a farewell compliment on her face and figure as I
+stepped ashore. Giving her the revolver and pass enlisted her
+confidence. We strolled along with apparent carelessness, entered a
+posada on the road by the waterside and had refreshments. I said I
+should feel much obliged if they could let us have a trap to Irun and
+back, as we had business there, and my friend was tired and not much of
+a pedestrian. An open carriage was provided, and off we drove by the
+skirt of the hill of St. Marcial, where the Spaniards gave Soult such a
+dressing in 1813, passed a series of outer defences with their covering
+and working parties, and entered one of the gates of the town, and never
+a question was asked. Ditches had been dug round the place and
+earthworks thrown up; but the principal reliance of the garrison seemed
+to be in loophooled breastworks made of sand-bags superimposed. Here and
+there were walls of loose stones--more of a danger than a
+protection--rude shelter-trenches, and mud-built, wattle-knitted
+refuges, round-topped, and disguised with branches. They had made the
+position strong; but they should have gone in for more spade and less
+stones, more mole and less beaver.
+
+We trotted over the narrow paved street, with its flagged sidepaths, and
+drew up on the Plaza, overlooked by the solid square-stone mansion of
+the Ayuntamiento. The windows were screened with planks, and armed
+groups lounged in front; there were barrels of water and heaps of gravel
+at intervals upon the ground; memories of Paris rose to my mind--Irun
+was preparing for bombardment. If the Carlists had no serious artillery
+in fact, they had a powerful ordnance in the apprehensions of their
+adversaries. Perhaps this was the explanation of the rhodomontade about
+the batteries in _El Cuartel Real_. We were congratulating ourselves on
+the ease with which we had run the blockade, when an officer of the
+Miqueletes approached our carriage and demanded our papers. I showed my
+Foreign Office passport, with the visa of the Spanish Consulate at
+London upon it. He gave a cursory look at it, bowed, and returned it to
+me. Then came the turn of Barbarossa, and there was a flash of shrewd
+spitefulness in his eyes.
+
+"Your papers, senor?"
+
+"I have none. I didn't think any were required."
+
+"Ah! doubtless you thought Irun was in Carlist occupation. You are
+wrong."
+
+"No; I knew it was not in Carlist occupation. What has that to do with
+me? I am an Englishman," producing a packet of letters.
+
+"I don't want to see them. I know you. What do you want here?"
+
+"To see a friend."
+
+"Who is your friend?"
+
+Barbarossa was not in the least nonplussed. He said he had heard a
+fellow-countryman, a comrade of his, was in the town.
+
+"You will have to turn back the way you came, and thank your stars you
+are permitted."
+
+"But I am hungry."
+
+"And the horse wants a feed," interposed the driver, who no doubt had
+his own object to serve.
+
+"Well, you may stay here for refreshment, but you must get outside our
+gates before dark."
+
+We drove to the principal inn, where we alighted and ordered dinner.
+Barbarossa sat down, and I went out to look at the place and search for
+a barber's shop, for I sorely needed a shave. Irun is a well-constructed
+town on the shelving slope of a smaller rise between Mounts Jaizquivel
+and Aya, not far from the coast. It has a population of some 5,000, and
+in ordinary years does a good trade in tiles and bricks, tanned leather,
+and smith's work, besides sending wood to Los Pasages for the purposes
+of the boat-builders. The Bidassoa at its base branches, and thus forms
+the islet of Faisanes, off which the prosperous fisherman can fill his
+basket with trout, salmon, and mullet, aye, and lumpish eels, if his
+predilections so tend.
+
+But I have no intention to describe Irun. Theophile Gautier has done
+that before me, and I am not sacrilegious. There was another customer in
+the barber's shop. As I left after the shave he followed, and accosted
+me on the flagway confidentially.
+
+"How are you, captain?"
+
+"You are in error," I answered. "I am no captain."
+
+"What! Did I not see you take a boat for the _San Margarita_ at Socoa?"
+
+"That may be; but I only boarded her through curiosity."
+
+"Do not be afraid," he whispered. "How is Don Guillermo?"
+
+"What Don Guillermo?"
+
+"Senor Leader. I was with him when he was wounded; I am a Carlist. I am
+here on the same mission as yourself; to spy what the vermin are doing."
+
+"Ha! good; ramble on, and don't notice me. It is dangerous."
+
+He sauntered along the causeway, hands in pockets and whistling, and
+presently popped into a tavern, and I re-entered the fonda. Hardly had I
+set foot over the threshold when I was stupefied by a welcome in a
+familiar voice, none other than that of Mr. William O'Donovan, who had
+been my comrade and amanuensis throughout the irksome beleaguerment of
+Paris.[F] We did not throw our arms round our respective necks, hug and
+kiss each other--I reserve my kisses for pretty girls, newly-washed
+babes, and dead male friends, and then kiss only the brow--but we did
+join hands cordially and long. In answer to my query as to what had
+brought him to this queer corner at the back of God-speed, he explained
+that he was acting as correspondent of a Dublin paper; for, it appeared,
+the people of Ireland were consumed with anxiety as to the progress of
+the Carlist rising--details of which, of course, they could not obtain
+in the mere London papers--and were particularly desirous to have record
+of the doings of the Foreign Legion, a great majority of whom were sons
+of the Emerald Isle. His younger brother, a medical student, was likely
+to come out to join that Legion, and as for Kaspar (a name by which we
+knew his brother Edmond, afterwards triumvir at Merv), he was sure to
+turn up. Mother Carey's chicken hovers near when the elements are at
+strife. He was immensely satisfied with his diggings, he said, liked
+the natives, and considered this a splendid chance for improving his
+Spanish. He was reading "Don Quixote" in the vernacular. In a sense, I
+looked upon his presence as a perfect godsend to us, as he came in most
+appropriately as a _Deus ex machina_ to create the character of
+Barbarossa's invented friend. O'Donovan was in good standing with the
+Republicans of the town, as he was a staunch Republican himself, and
+could spin yarns of the Republics of antiquity, and of the greatness of
+Paris, and the glories of the United States. He was getting on famously
+with Castilian, and was charmed with the redundancy of its vocabulary of
+vituperation, which was only to be equalled by the Irish, of which his
+father had been such a master. I made Barbarossa and my old chum known
+to one another, and we dined together, pledging the past in a cup of
+wine tempered with the living waters which bubbled up in the sacristy of
+the parish church, and were distributed in bronze conduits through Irun.
+After the meal and the meditative smoke of custom, O'Donovan sat down to
+write a letter, which I guaranteed to post for him in France, and
+Barbarossa and I sallied forth for a walk.
+
+We were lounging about the Calle Mayor gazing at the escutcheons over
+every hall-door--your bellows-mender and cobbler in this democratic town
+were invariably of the seed of Noah in right line--when the alarm was
+raised that fifty horses had been carried off by the Carlists almost at
+the gates, and that two shots had been heard. The bugler sounded the
+call "To arms," and forthwith a little company consisting of thirty-two
+men, the bugler aforesaid, and a captain, set out at a quick step for a
+high ground beside a signal-tower at one end of the town. We hurried
+forward with them, and passed out through one of the four gates, on the
+side next the mountains. The soldiers took a position on the slope of a
+hill a couple of hundred yards from the gate, and Barbarossa and I
+sheltered ourselves behind an orchard-wall, from which there was an
+uninterrupted view of the billowy tract of meadow and pasture land
+beneath, cut into patches by thick hedges. Quick on our heels emerged
+from the town some half-dozen intrepid "volunteers of liberty," and the
+inevitable small boy, a red cap stuck jauntily on three hairs of his
+head and a large cigarette in his mouth. One of the volunteers--he who
+had demanded our papers on the Plaza--looked viciously at Barbarossa,
+who assumed a most artistic pretence of stolidity.
+
+"Come here, senor, and you will have a better vision of your friends,"
+he said with mock suavity.
+
+Barbarossa smiled, thanked him, and walked quietly to the place
+indicated, an exposed opening beside the wall.
+
+"I can see nothing," he said.
+
+I adjusted my long-distance glass, and ranged over the wide stretch of
+landscape, but could see nothing either. As I shut it up and returned it
+to the case, a sergeant advanced from the party of soldiers on the slope
+and marched directly towards me. I was puzzled and, I own, a trifle
+unnerved.
+
+"Senor," he said to me, "I carry the compliments of my captain, and his
+request that you would lend him your glass, as he has forgotten his
+own."
+
+"With pleasure," I answered readily, much relieved. "I will take it to
+him myself, as it is London-made, and he may not understand how it is
+sighted."
+
+This may have been a breach of neutrality, but what was I to do? If I
+refused, the glass would have been taken from me, and I should have been
+compromised. I handed it to the officer with my best bow, explained its
+mechanism to him; he bowed to me, and from that moment I felt that I was
+under his wing. I may be wrong, but I have a notion that in a skirmish
+it is much better to be near regulars than volunteers, and I stood in a
+line with the military a few paces away.
+
+Suddenly there was a spark and a report away down in a field of maize,
+some six hundred yards below us, and the whizz of a bullet was heard.
+
+"Steady, men!" said the captain; "don't discharge your rifles."
+
+The sight was very pretty as they stood in a group on the green hillside
+in attitude of suspense, their weapons held at the ready, and all eyes
+fixed on the front, from which the smoke was rising. It was very like
+to the celebrated picture by Protais, familiar in every cabaret in
+France, "_Avant le Combat;_" but even more picturesque than that, for
+these soldiers were dressed most irregularly--some in tattered capote,
+others in shirt-sleeves, some in shako, others in _bonnet de police_. A
+few civilians had crept out of the town by this time, and the chief of
+the Miqueletes roared peremptorily to have that gate shut. This was not
+an agreeable position for Barbarossa and myself. Our retreat was cut
+off. We were unarmed. If one of those amateur warriors were killed, we
+ran the imminent hazard of being massacred by his comrades. On the other
+hand, there was the liability of being ourselves shot by the Carlists.
+How were they to distinguish a neutral or a sympathizer from their foes?
+I confess I could not help smiling as the thought occurred to me what a
+piece of irony in action it would be if Barbarossa were to be helped to
+a morsel of lead by his friends, the enemy. With a cheerful equanimity I
+contemplated the prospect of his receiving a very slight contusion from
+a spent bullet on a soft part of his frame.
+
+Ping, ping, came a few reports, but evidently out of range. Each
+smoke-wreath was in a different direction.
+
+"This may get hot," I said to myself; "the Carlists may not be
+sharpshooters, but this clump of uniforms in relief on the grass must
+present a blur that will be an enticing target for them. I dare not go
+back to the wall, but it might be discreet to lie down. There is no
+disgrace in offering them a small elevation of corpus." I stretched
+myself on the sward, acted nonchalance, and lit a cigar.
+
+The volunteers could no longer be held in control. They opened action on
+their own account, one fellow distinguishing himself by the rapidity of
+his fire, and the intensity with which he aimed at something--or
+nothing.
+
+"Ah, that's Tomas!" said a portly civilian connoisseur, with his hands
+in his pockets. "We know him, he is making music; he wants to get
+himself remarked."
+
+The soldiers did not deliver a shot, but the volunteers kept cracking
+away, and the invisible Carlists replied. Nobody was hit, though
+bullets could be heard whizzing overhead for twenty minutes, and one
+did actually knock a chip off a wall. That was the sole damage done to
+the Republican position; the damage to the Carlist must have been less.
+Two of the Miqueletes ventured stealthily down a road leading towards
+the point from which the nearest jets of smoke curled, following the
+ditch by the side, stooping and peering through the bushes. There was a
+volley from afar. They hesitated and stood, as if undecided whether to
+advance.
+
+"Sound the retire for those men," said the captain; and as the call rang
+out they returned.
+
+That volley was the last sign the Carlists gave; and after waiting ten
+minutes, the captain shut up my glass, returned it to me, and remarked
+that the attack was a feint, and had no object beyond worrying his men.
+He gave the order "March," the gate was opened, Barbarossa rejoined me,
+and we returned to Irun, taking care to keep as near the regulars as we
+could. "Nada--nothing," cried the captain to an inquiring lady on a
+balcony, and the town-gates were closed after the volunteers had
+returned and tramped to the Plaza with the proud bearing of citizens who
+had done their duty.
+
+How that heroic Tomas did strut! A fighter he of the choicest brand, one
+not to stop at trifles; there was martial ire in his flaming glance;
+defiance breathed from his nostrils; triumph sat on his lips; he swung
+his arms like destructive flails; and as he entered a tavern one could
+only fancy him calling in a voice of Stentor for a jug of rum and blood
+plentifully besprinkled with gunpowder and cayenne pepper to assuage the
+thirst of combat.
+
+O'Donovan gave me his letter. Barbarossa hinted that it was our best
+course to slope, and slope we did, as soon as the horse was harnessed.
+As we passed down the street a grinning face saluted me from a doorway.
+It was that of my acquaintance from the barber's shop. He gave me a
+meaning wink. The artful Carlists had evidently succeeded in their
+object, whatever it might have been. On the river-bank our fair and
+faithful ferry-maid awaited us. We were conveyed over in safety, and at
+the hotel of Hendaye soon forgot the perils we had encountered.
+
+Barbarossa was dead-beat, and threw himself on a sofa, where he sank
+back heavy-eyed and exhausted; and I, almost feared that he would drop
+into a coma, as the penalty of overstraining nature, until the sight of
+a pack of cards restored him as if by a spell to his normal wakefulness.
+
+Even in a disturbed region it is needful to have a change of linen, so
+we got back next morning to St. Jean de Luz, where I had left my
+baggage. There I met M. Thieblin, a colleague, whom I had seen last at
+Metz, previous to the siege of that fortress in the Franco-German war.
+He was now representing the _New York Herald_, and had just returned
+from Estella, at the taking of which place, the most important the
+Carlists had yet seized, he had the luck to be present. He assured me
+that it was utter fatuity to dream of following the Carlists, except I
+had at least one horse--but that it would be sensible to take two if I
+could manage to procure them. It was more than an ordinary man was
+qualified to cope with, to make his observations, write his letters, and
+look after their transmission, without having to attend to his nag, and
+do an odd turn of cooking at a pinch. The riddle was how to get the
+horse--a sound hardy animal that would not call for elaborate grooming,
+or refuse a feed of barley. Horse-flesh was at a premium, but he thought
+I might be able to have what I wanted at Bayonne, on payment of an
+extravagant price. A requisition for forage and corn could be had
+through the Junta; and I should have no trouble in getting an orderly on
+applying with my credentials to the chief of staff of any of the Carlist
+columns to which I might attach myself. We had a long conversation, and
+Thieblin frankly informed me that in his opinion the Carlists had not
+the ghost of a chance outside their own territory. There they were cocks
+of the walk. What the end might be he could not pretend to vaticinate,
+but "El Pretendiente" would never reign in Madrid. The conflict might
+last for months--might last for years; but the Carlists owed the
+vitality they had as much to the divisions and inefficiency of their
+adversaries as to their own strength. There would be no important
+engagements--to dignify them by the epithet--until the organization of
+the insurrectionary forces was regularized, and they had a stronger
+artillery and an adequate cavalry. M. Thieblin did not stray far from
+the bull's-eye in his prophecy.
+
+I went to bed in the mood of Crookback on Bosworth Field, and felt that
+my dream-talk would shape itself into the cry, "A horse! a horse!"
+
+Until that coveted steed had been lassoed, stolen, or bought, I must
+only endeavour to justify my existence--that is to say, render value for
+the money expended on me by picking up "copy" anywhere and everywhere.
+
+I was advised to go to Bilbao by sea, but the advice came too late. The
+last steamer from Bayonne had ventured there four-and-twenty hours
+before I sought my passage, and even on that last steamer the few
+voyagers were unable to insure their lives with the Accidental Company,
+although they consented to promise that they would descend into the hold
+the instant they heard a shot. It was almost as full of jeopardy to
+travel to Bilbao by sea as to sail down the Mississippi with a racing
+captain and a lading of rye-whisky on board. One Monsieur Gueno, master
+of the barque _Numa_, of Vannes, made moan that he was seriously knocked
+about while he lay in the Nervion, off the Luchana bridge, during a
+skirmish between the Carlists and the troops. They both fought
+vigorously, but they gave him most of the blows. One of his crew, in a
+punt behind, was killed, and twenty-five bullets were embedded in a
+single mast. He had the tricolour flying all the time. A
+fellow-countryman of his, Monsieur Jarmet, of the ship _Pierre-Alcide_,
+of Nantes, sent in a claim for an indemnity of L160 for damages
+sustained by his vessel much in the like manner. A Spanish war-craft,
+moored behind him, began pelting the Carlists with shot; the Carlists
+replied, and the _Pierre-Alcide_ came in for the bulk of the favours
+distributed. Three bullets penetrated the captain's cabin, and four rent
+holes in the French flag. Neither pilots nor tugs were for hire at
+Bilbao, and captains of sailing vessels had only to whistle for a
+favouring wind and rely on their own good fortune and skill. Bilbao had
+to be dismissed on the merits.
+
+Taking it for granted that I had that evasive horse, I reasoned, as I
+tossed on my bed, to the restless whimper of the Bay of Biscay, over
+which a storm was brewing, that "el Cuartel Real," the headquarters of
+the King, was the natural goal. There first information was to be had,
+and it was felt that it was about the safest place to be; but the King
+seldom stopped under the same roof two nights successively, and no one
+could tell where he would be two days beforehand. If he was at Estella
+when one started, he might be at Vera or Durango, or goodness knows
+where, when one got to Estella. So far his progress had been a success;
+he was present at the taking of Estella, and exercised his Royal
+clemency by releasing the captured prisoners. It would have been more
+politic to have demanded an exchange, for there were partisans of his
+own in Republican dungeons (Englishmen amongst them); but then prisoners
+have to be fed and guarded, so on the whole it was as well they were set
+free. It was very much the case of the man who won the elephant at a
+raffle. If the stories, spread assiduously by the Republicans, of the
+massacre and maltreatment of captives by the Carlists were correct,
+here was the opportunity for the exercise of wholesale cruelty; but
+there was not a particle of truth in such charges, which, by the way,
+one hears in every civil war. Where Don Carlos might advance next, or
+where severe fighting--not such brushes as that I witnessed at
+Irun--might take place, was a mystery. The movements of the Republican
+leaders were inexplicable, and conducted in contravention of all known
+principles of the art of war. They harassed their men by long and
+objectless marches. They ordered towns to be put in a state of defence
+at first, and then withdrew the garrisons. They engaged whole columns in
+defiles, where a company of invisible guerrilleros could tease them.
+They acted, in most instances, as if they had no information or wrong
+information. The latter, I believe, was nearer the truth. Their system
+of espionage was inefficient, as the information they got was
+untrustworthy, and always would be, in the northern provinces, for the
+feeling of the masses of the people was against them. Instead of making
+headway they were losing ground every day, and would so continue until
+they received reinforcements with fibre, and were commanded by officers
+who really meant to win, and had the knowledge or the instinct to
+conceive a proper plan of campaign. The generals could hardly be
+censured, for their hands were tied; they were forbidden to be severe;
+they dared not squelch insubordination. Capital punishment, even in the
+army, and at such a crisis as this, was abolished. There had been, I
+heard, something suspiciously resembling a mutiny in the column of
+Sanchez Bregua. A certain Colonel Castanon was put under arrest on a
+charge of Alfonsist proclivities; but the Cazadores and Engineers
+threatened to rebel unless he was liberated; and Sanchez Bregua, instead
+of decimating the Cazadores and Engineers, as Lord Strathnairn would
+have done, liberated the Colonel.
+
+But to that question of my route. Peradventure the presence to my dozing
+vision of the General commanding the Republican troops of the north that
+had been might help me towards a solution.
+
+"That had been" is written advisedly, for Sanchez Bregua had been
+recalled to Madrid, not a day too soon. He was one of those generals
+whose spine had been curved by lengthened bending over a desk. Loma, who
+was active and dashing, and had the rare gift of confidence in himself,
+had taken his stand at Tolosa, and was awaiting the advent of Lizarraga.
+All his men, and every able-bodied male in the town, were diligently
+excavating ditches and making entrenchments. Until Tolosa was captured
+by the Carlists, no serious attack on Pampeluna was probable; and that
+attack was likely to assume the form of an investment. Estella was to
+the south of Pampeluna, and all the country round, from which provisions
+could be drawn, was in the occupation of the Carlists. Tolosa was the
+objective point of the moment, and to Tolosa I determined to go. An
+attempt on San Sebastian could not enter into the calculations of the
+Carlist leaders at this stage of their revolt. The stronghold was almost
+inaccessible on the land side, and men, munitions, and provisions could
+be easily thrown into it by water. Irun, Fontarabia, and even Renteria
+(were artillery available) could be seized whenever the comparatively
+small sacrifice of lives involved would be advisable. But the game was
+not worth the candle yet. Were Irun or Fontarabia in the hands of the
+Carlists, there was the always-present danger of shells being pitched
+into them from a gunboat in the Bidassoa; and Renteria, outside of which
+the Republican troops only stirred on sufferance, was to all intents as
+serviceable to the Carlists as if it were tenanted by a Carlist
+garrison, which would thereby be condemned to idleness.
+
+That whirlwind ride from Renteria to Irun would come before me as the
+storm battalions mustered outside, and the waves began lashing
+themselves into violence of temper. What if I had to go to Madrid while
+such weather as this was brooding? To get to the capital one is obliged
+to embark at Bayonne for Santander, and proceed thence by rail--so long
+as no Carlist partidas meddle with the track. Romantic Spain!
+
+But are not those Republicans who affect that they know how to govern a
+country primarily and principally to blame? Only consider the continued
+interruption of that short piece of road between San Sebastian and
+Irun. Is it not disgraceful to them? One of our old Indian officers, I
+dare venture to believe, with eighteen horsemen and a couple of
+companies of foot, could hold it open in spite of the Carlists. But such
+a simple idea as the establishment of cavalry patrols of three, keeping
+vigil backwards and forwards along the line of eighteen miles, with
+stout infantry posts always on the alert in blockhouses at intervals,
+seems never to have entered into the obtuse heads of those officers
+lately promoted from the ranks. Seeing that the intercourse of different
+towns with each other and with the coast and abroad has been so long
+broken up, I cannot fathom the secret of how the population lives. The
+troops arrive in a village one day and levy contributions, the
+guerrilleros arrive the next and do the same; the fields must be
+neglected, trade must droop, yet nobody apparently wants food. True, the
+land is wonderfully fat; but some day the cry of famine will be heard.
+No land could bear this perpetual drain on its resources. And then I
+thought of Carlists whom I met in France, who had given of their goods
+to support the cause. With them I talked on this very subject. They
+were respectable and respected men; they prayed for success to Don
+Carlos with sincere heart; but they had left Spain, and they complained
+that this condition of disturbance was lasting too long.
+
+"You ask me why I did not remain," said one to me; "wait, and you shall
+see."
+
+He opened a door and pointed to three lovely little girls at play, and
+continued, "These are my reasons; I have made more sacrifices than I was
+able for the Royal cause, and they asked me at last for another
+contribution, which would have ruined me. I love my King; but for no
+King, senor, could I afford to make those darlings paupers."
+
+Had these Carlists any glimmer of the sunshine of a victorious issue to
+their uprising? (egad, that was a strong blast, and the waves do swish
+as if they were enraged at last!). Thieblin thinks not. And yet they are
+active, and, like the storm outside, they are gaining strength. Those of
+them under arms are four times as numerous as the Republicans in the
+northern provinces. Leader swears to me that everyone who can shoulder a
+musket is a Carlist. There are no more Chicos to be had, unless the
+volunteers of liberty come over, rifles, accoutrements and all, to
+Prince Charlie--a liberty they are volunteering to take somewhat freely.
+
+I was rash in saying there were no more Chicos. Did not a company of
+"bhoys" trudge over to Lesaca to offer their services recently? But they
+were very ancient boys. The youngest of them was sixty-five. They were
+veterans of the Seven Years' War, and mostly colonels. Their fidelity
+was thankfully acknowledged, but their services were not gratefully
+accepted. The aged and ferocious fire-eaters were sent back to their
+arrowroot and easy-chairs. At all events, they had more of the timber of
+heroism in them than those diplomatic Carlists of the _gandin_ order,
+who are Carlists because it makes them interesting in the sight of the
+ladies, but whose campaigning is confined to an occasional three days'
+incursion on Spanish territory, with a cook and a valet, saddle-bags
+full of potted lobster and _pate de foie gras_, and a dressing-case
+newly packed with _au Botot_ and essence of Jockey Club. There are
+personages of this class not unknown to society at Biarritz and
+Bayonne, who have been going to the front for the last three months, and
+have not got there yet. One would think their game of chivalry ought to
+be pretty well "played out;" but to the folly of the vain man, as to the
+appetite of the lean pig, there is no limit.
+
+By Jove! There is a clatter; the casement is blown open, and the light
+is blown out, and through the gap whistles the cool, briny breath of the
+Atlantic, and I can almost feel the wash of the white spray in my hair.
+Better a stable cell in the Castle of the Mota to-night than a tumbling
+berth in the _San Margarita_. This was the close of my interview with
+myself, and I turned over on my pillow and fell precipitately into a
+profound dreamless sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+     Nearing the End--Firing on the Red Cross--Perpetuity of
+     War--Artistic Hypocrites--The Jubilee Year--The Conflicts of a
+     Peaceful Reign--Major Russell--Quick Promotion--The Foreign
+     Legion--An Aspiring Adventurer--Leader's Career--A Piratical
+     Proposal--The "Ojaladeros" of Biarritz--A Friend in Need--Buying a
+     Horse--Gilpin Outdone--"Fred Burnaby."
+
+
+AND now I take up the last chapter of this book, and I have not half
+finished with the subject I had set before myself at starting. By the
+figures at the head of the last page I perceive that I have almost
+reached the orthodox length of a volume, and perforce must stop. For
+some weeks past I have been looking and longing for the end, for I have
+been ill, weary and worried, and my labour has become a task. Slowly
+toiling day by day, I knew I must be nearing the goal; yet, like the
+strenuous Webb on his swim from Dover to Calais, the horizon seemed to
+come no closer. The land in sight grew no plainer, although each
+breast-stroke--the pleasure of a while agone, but oh! such a tax
+now--must have lessened the distance. Even to that excursion there came
+an hour of accomplishment and repose; but to this, of pen over paper, I
+cannot flatter myself that the hour is yet. I have to abandon the work
+incomplete. As it has happened to me before, the theme has expanded
+under my hands, and I shall have to rise from my desk before I penetrate
+to the Carlist headquarters, of which I had to say much, or have
+experiences of that strangest of Communes in Murcia, with its sea and
+land skirmishes and its motley rabble of mutineers, convicts, and
+nondescripts, of which I had to say much likewise.
+
+Whether I shall have the privilege of recounting my adventures at the
+court and camp of Don Carlos, and by the side of the General directing
+the siege of Cartagena, who admitted me as a sort of supernumerary on
+his staff, will depend on the reception of this, the first instalment of
+my experiences in Spain.
+
+An act of unjustifiable barbarism or stupidity, or both--for barbarism
+is but another form of stupidity--was perpetrated by some Carlists
+outside Irun while I was negotiating for that indispensable horse. An
+ambulance-waggon, displaying the Red Cross of Geneva, had sallied from
+the town, and was fired upon. The Paris delegate I had met at Hendaye
+was in charge of it, and averred that it was wantonly and wilfully
+attacked. I thought it, singular that nobody was hurt, and reasoned that
+the man was excitable, and got into range unconsciously. The duty of the
+Geneva Society properly begins after, and not during a combat; and when
+gentlemen are busy at the game of professional manslaughter, no
+philanthropic outsider has any right to distract them from their
+occupation by indiscreet obstruction. The Parisian did not view it in
+that light, and downfaced me that these rustics, to whose aid he was
+actually going, tried to murder him of malice prepense. It was useless
+to represent to him that these rustics may have never heard of the
+modern benevolent institution for the softening of strife, and may have
+regarded the huge Red Cross as a defiant symbol of Red Republicanism,
+and perhaps a parody of what is sacred. So in the estimation of that
+citizen of the most enlightened capital in the universe, these Basques
+were ruthless boobies with an insatiable passion for lapping blood. But
+mistakes and exaggerations will occur in every war. The only way to
+obviate them is to put an end to war altogether--_which will never be
+done_! When Christ came into the world, peace was proclaimed; when He
+left it, peace was bequeathed. War has been the usual condition of
+mankind since, as it had been before; and Christians cut each other's
+throats with as much alacrity and expertness as Pagans, often in the
+name of the religion of peace.
+
+I heard two eminent war-correspondents lecture recently, and I noticed
+that those passages where fights were described were applauded to the
+echo. The more ferocious the combat the more vigorous the cheers. The
+faces of small boys flushed, and their hands clinched at the vivid
+recital. The nature of the savage, which has not been extirpated by
+School Boards, was betraying itself in them. Yet these two
+war-correspondents thought it an acquittal of conscience after their
+kindling periods to dwell on the immorality of war. The one spoke of the
+beauty of Bible precepts, the other disburdened himself on the cruelty
+and wickedness of a battle. What artistic hypocrisy! It was as if one
+were to strike up the "Faerie Voices" waltz, and tell a girl to keep her
+feet still; as if one were to lend "Robinson Crusoe" to a boy, and warn
+him not to think of running away to sea. Still, I must even add my voice
+to the orthodox chorus, and affirm that warfare is bad, brutal,
+fraudful, a thing of meretricious gauds, a clay idol, fetish of humbug
+and havoc, whose feet are soaking in muddy gore and salt tears; yet in
+the privacy of my own study I might sadly admit that the Millennium is
+remote, that the Parliament of Nations exists but in the dreams of the
+poet, and that Longfellow's forecast of the days down through the dark
+future when the holy melodies of love shall oust the clangours of
+conflict is a pretty conceit--and no more.
+
+War is inexcusable, and is foolish and ugly; but, like the poor and the
+ailing, we shall have it always with us. It is criminal, except as
+protest against intolerable persecution, or in maintenance of national
+honour or defence of national territory; and even in these cases it
+should be undertaken only when all devices of conciliation have been
+tried in vain. Next to the vanquished, it does most harm to the victor.
+Yet about it, as about high play, there is a fascination, and I have to
+plead guilty to the weak feeling that I would not look with overwhelming
+aversion on an order, should it come to me to-morrow, to prepare to
+chronicle a new campaign and face the chronicler's risks; and they are
+real. But I should not go into it with a light heart, like M. Emile
+Ollivier. I might be, in a quiet way, happy as Queen Victoria was
+(according to Count Vitzthum) for she danced much the night before the
+declaration of hostilities against Russia, but spoke of what was coming
+with amiable candour and great regret.
+
+We are on the eve of a Jubilee Year, when the halcyon shall plume his
+wing, and we shall hear much oratorical trash and hebetude about the
+peacefulness of this happy reign.
+
+Does the reader reflect how many wars we have had in the pacific
+half-century which is lapsing? The tale will astonish him, and should
+silence the thoughtless word-spinners of the platforms. The door of the
+temple of Janus has been seldom closed for long. Our campaigns, great
+and small, and military enterprises of the lesser sort, could not be
+counted on the fingers of both hands. We have had fighting with Afghans
+and Burmese (twice); Scinde, Gwalior, and Sikh wars; hostilities with
+Kaffirs, Russians, Persians, Chinese, and Maoris (twice), Abyssinians,
+Ashantis, Zulus, Boers, and Soudanese, not to mention the repression of
+the most stupendous of mutinies, a martial promenade in Egypt, and
+expeditions against Jowakis, Bhootanese, Looshais, Red River rebels, and
+such pitiful minor fry.
+
+In St. Jean de Luz, the nearest point to the disputed ground and the
+best place from which to transmit information, there was a small and
+select British colony, mostly consisting of retired naval and military
+officers. A dear friend of mine amongst them was Major Russell, who had
+spent a lengthened span of years in the East--an admirable type of the
+calm, firm, courteous Anglo-Indian--who had never soured his temper and
+spoiled his liver with excessive "pegs," who understood and respected
+the natives, who had shown administrative ability, and who, like many
+another honest, dutiful officer, had not shaken much fruit off the
+pagoda-tree, or even secured the C.B. which is so often given to
+tarry-at-home nonentities. Russell used to pay me a regular visit to the
+Fonda de la Playa. One morning as we were chatting, Leader strode into
+the coffee-room, a vision of splendour. He had got on his uniform as
+Commandant of the Foreign Legion--a uniform which did much credit to his
+fancy, for he had designed it himself. He wore a white boina with gold
+tassel, a blue tunic with black braid, red trousers, and brown gaiters.
+He had donned the gala-costume with the object of getting himself
+photographed. Commandant is the equivalent of Major in the British
+service, so we agreed to dub the young Irishman henceforth and for ever,
+until he became colonel or captain-general, Major Leader.
+
+"Promotion is quick in this army," murmured Russell. "I served all my
+active life under the suns of India, and here I am only a major at the
+close. Leader joined the Carlists less than three months ago, and he is
+already my equal in rank."
+
+"The fortune of war, Russell," said I; "don't be jealous. I was offered
+command of a brigade under the Commune, but I declined the tribute to my
+merit, or I would not be here to-day. I met a man in Bayonne yesterday,
+and he was ready to assume control of the entire insurrectionary
+forces."
+
+"Who? Cabrera?"
+
+"No," I answered; "catch Cabrera coming here. He is too much afraid of a
+ruler who is no pretender. The renowned Commander-in-Chief of Aragon and
+Valencia, Don Ramon the Rough and Ready, is Conde Something-or-other
+now, a willing slave to petticoat government. He is to be seen any day
+pottering about Windsor."
+
+"And who is this speculator in bloodshed?"
+
+"A foreign adventurer," I explained, "who does not know a word of
+Spanish, much less Basque, is unacquainted with the topography of the
+country, and has not the faintest inkling of the idiosyncrasies of the
+lieutenants who would serve under him, or of the mode of humouring the
+prejudices of the people of the different provinces in revolt."
+
+"What answer did they give to his application for employment?"
+
+"A polite negative. They told him they could not appoint him a leader
+without offending the susceptibilities of adherents with claims upon
+them men of local influence, and so forth. Behind his back, they laughed
+at his entertaining temerity."
+
+That Foreign Legion never came to maturity. Leader showed me a
+commission authorizing him to organize it. Lesaca was to be the depot,
+French the language of command, and Smith Sheehan the adjutant. It might
+have developed into a very fine Foreign Legion, but no volunteers
+presented themselves to join it but two young Englishmen, one of whom
+was sick when he was not drunk, and the other of whom felt it to be a
+grievance on a campaign that a cup of tea could not be got at regular
+hours. How Sheehan did chaff this amiable amateur!
+
+"You will have nothing to do but draw your pay, my lad," he said. "The
+cookery is hardly A 1, but 'twill pass. Think of the beds, pillows of
+hops under your head; and every regiment has its own set of
+billiard-markers and a select string-band, every performer an artist."
+
+After an arduous service of one day and a half that gentleman returned
+to the maternal apron-strings, laden to the ground with the most
+harrowing legends of the horrors of war. Leader was not a warrior of
+this stamp--far from it; he had vindicated his manliness at Ladon
+outside Orleans, where Ogilvie, of the British Royal Artillery, had met
+his fate by his side, and there was something soldierly in the way he
+bore himself in his vanity of dress. Not that I think the dandies are
+the best soldiers--that is merest popular paradox. To me it is as
+ridiculous for a man to array himself in fine clothes when he is going
+to kill or be killed, as it would be for him to put on gewgaws when he
+was going to be hanged. As Leader disappears from my account of Carlist
+doings after this--we were associated with different columns--it may be
+of interest to tell of his subsequent career. He served in a cavalry
+squadron on the staff of the King, and when the cause collapsed came to
+London. His uncle tried to induce him to settle down to some steady
+employment in the City. Leader expressed himself satisfied to make an
+experiment at desk-work.
+
+"It was useless," said Leader with a hearty crow as he related the story
+to me. "The friend who had promised to create a vacancy for me in his
+office ordered his chief clerk to lock the safe and send for the police
+when he heard of my antecedents. He invited me to dinner, but candidly
+told me that a rifle was more in my line than a quill."
+
+And yet it was in the service of the quill the young soldier ended his
+days. He got an appointment as an auxiliary correspondent to a great
+London daily paper during the Russo-Turkish war. He was elate; the road
+to fame and fortune now lay open before him. The next I heard of him was
+that he had succumbed to typhoid fever at Philippopolis.
+
+A Scotch _spadassin_ arrived in our midst about this period. He was most
+anxious to draw a blade for Don Carlos, but he had a decided objection
+to serve in any capacity but that of command. He did not appreciate the
+fun of losing the number of his mess as an obscure hero of the rank and
+file, though he would not mind sacrificing an arm, I do think, at the
+head of a charging column, provided that he had a showy uniform on, and
+that the fact of his valour was properly advertised in the despatches.
+He had an idea that would commend itself to Belcha's bushwhackers, but
+it was not entertained. It was to take passage with a few trusty men on
+the tug for San Sebastian when she was reported to be conveying specie
+for the payment of the Spanish Republican troops, to drive the voyagers
+down the hold, throttle the skipper, intimidate the crew, take the wheel
+and turn her head to the coast, seize and land the money under Carlist
+protection, and then scuttle her. The least recompense, he calculated,
+which could be awarded to him for that exploit by his Majesty Charles
+VII. was the Order of the Golden Fleece; and a very appropriate order
+too.
+
+There was a set of Carlist sympathizers known to the fighting-men as
+"ojaladeros," or warriors with much decoration in the shape of polished
+buttons. Their depot was at Biarritz, an aristocratic watering-place
+born under the second French Empire, and not ignorant of some of the
+vices of the Byzantine Empire. There are healthful breezes there, but
+they do not quite sweep away the scent of frangipani. Warlike, with a
+proviso, the Scot might have been designated, but he was not to be
+compared with these ojaladeros; he would fight if he had a lime-lit
+stage to posture upon; they would not fight at all, but they moved about
+mysteriously, as if their bosoms were big with the fate of dynasties,
+held hugger-mugger caucus, and were the oracles of boudoirs.
+
+At Bayonne there was a better class of Carlist sympathizers; such of
+them as were of the fighting age were there in the intervals of duty. To
+a job-master's in the city by the Adour I was recommended as the most
+likely place to procure a steed. At the Hotel St. Etienne, where I
+stopped, I was gratified by an unexpected encounter with the genial
+captain[G] (Ronald Campbell), who had brought a juicy leg of mutton at
+his saddle-skirts to the relief of my household after the siege of
+Paris. He went with me to the job-master's--it is as well to have a
+friend with you when you do a horse-deal. I had no choice but Hobson's.
+The job-master was desolated, but he had sold three animals the day
+before to an English milord, a very big gentleman, and his party. He had
+just one horse, but it was a beauty. The horse was trotted out. It was
+well groomed--they always are, and arsenic does impart a nice gloss to
+the hide--and looked imposing, a tall three-quarter-bred bay gelding.
+
+"You'll have to take it," said the captain, "though I fear it will not
+be a great catch for mountain-work. Seems to me that it stumbles--that
+lie-back of the ears is vicious--ha! rears too--and by Jove! it has been
+fired. No matter. Where needs must, you know, there's no alternative.
+Buy it by all means."
+
+I closed with the bargain, got a loan of a saddle, bought a pair of
+jack-boots, and ordered my purchase to be brought round to the door of
+the hotel within half-an-hour. I am no rough-rider, and I had not
+counted on the high mettle of this, which was literally a "fiery,
+untamed steed." It had been fed for the market, and had had no exercise
+for two days previous. I meant to try its paces to St. Jean de Luz, and
+show off before the damsels of Biarritz; but, lack-a-day! what a
+declension was in store for me. It had best be given in the words of a
+letter to my kindly compatriot, written while defeat was fresh in my
+mind. Thus the epistle runs:
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"DEAR CAMPBELL,
+
+"My first essay on my eight hundred francs' worth of horse-power
+was a sight to see.
+
+"_Imprimis_, the stirrup-leathers were long enough for you.
+
+"_En suite_, I gave the dear gelding his head because he took it,
+and he incontinently faced a post of the French army at the Porte
+d'Espagne. The sentry came to the charge and cried, _On ne passe
+pas ici._ The blood-horse went at him, the sentry funked, and then,
+as if satisfied with his demonstration, the blood-horse--the bit
+always in his mouth--made a _demi-tour_, and faced a post of
+douaniers. This also was sacred ground, it appears, but the
+douaniers let the blood-horse pass, not even making the feint to
+prod his inside for contraband. The scene now changes to the Place
+de la Comedie (there's something in a name), where by virtue of
+vigorous tugging at curb and snaffle I just succeeded in keeping my
+gallant gelding off the cobble-stones. He went a burster over the
+bridge by a short turn down a street and to the door of his stable,
+and there he positively stopped, and I swear I felt his sides
+shaking with laughter. I called the groom; said I thought it would
+rain; besides, I did not know the road. On the whole, I had
+reconsidered the matter, and would go to St. Jean de Luz by train.
+The groom was awfully polite, pretended to believe me, and provided
+a man to take forward my eight--oh, hang it! we shan't think of the
+price.
+
+"Humiliation! you will say. Yes, sir, and I feel it; but that horse
+will feel it too. When I get him somewhere that none can see, and
+where sentries, douaniers, and stables of refuge don't abound, I
+shall ask him to try how long he can keep up a gallop; but, by the
+body of the Claimant, I shall have sixteen stone on his back.
+
+"Yours with knees unwearied and soul unsubdued."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At St. Jean de Luz I learned at the principal hotel that the English
+milord was Captain Frederick Burnaby of "the Queen of England's Blue
+Guards." He was supposed to have some secret official mission to Don
+Carlos, to whose headquarters he had directed his steps, and I at once
+took measures to follow in his tracks.
+
+
+
+
+THE END.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+BILLING & SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD.
+
+
+_BY THE AUTHOR OF "ROMANTIC SPAIN."_
+
+
+AN IRON-BOUND CITY; or, Five Months of Peril and Privation. 2 vols. 21s.
+
+    "A story of peril, adventure, privation,
+     Is told, in two vols., to your great delectation,
+     With shrewd common sense and uncommon sensation!
+     Here's the painful account of Parisians defeated:
+     And Paris besieged is most 'specially' treated:
+     Like a trusty Tapleyan, bright, hopeful, and witty,
+     O'Shea tells the tale of 'AN IRON-BOUND CITY.'"--_Punch._
+
+"We can listen with unjaded interest to the oft-told tale of the fall of
+Paris when it is told by so genial and sunny-minded an
+historian."--_Saturday Review._
+
+
+LEAVES PROM THE LIFE OF A SPECIAL
+
+CORRESPONDENT. 2 vols. 21s.
+
+"The great charm of his pages is the entire absence of dulness, and the
+evidence they afford of a delicate sense of humour, considerable powers
+of observation, a store of apposite and racy anecdote, and a keen
+enjoyment of life."--_Standard._
+
+"Redolent of stories throughout, told with such a cheery spirit, in so
+genial a manner, that even those they sometimes hit hard cannot, when
+they read, refrain from laughing, for Mr. O'Shea is a modern Democritus;
+and yet there runs a vein of sadness, as if, like Figaro, he made haste
+to laugh lest he should have to weep."--_Society._
+
+"Delightful reading.... A most enjoyable book.... It is kinder to
+readers to leave them to find out the good things for themselves. They
+will find material for amusement and instruction on every page; and if
+the lesson is sometimes in its way as melancholy as the moral of Firmin
+Maillard's 'Les Derniers Bohemes,' it is conveyed after a fashion that
+recalls the light-hearted gaiety of Paul de Kock's 'Damoiselle du
+Cinquieme' and the varied pathos and humour of Henri
+Murger."--_Whitehall Review._
+
+
+WARD AND DOWNEY, PUBLISHERS, LONDON.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] Gibraltar is no longer a penal settlement.
+
+[B] That has all been changed since. There are serviceable rifled guns
+at Tangier now, and the Sultan has some approach to a regular army,
+organized by an ex-English soldier.
+
+[C] Stuart married Lady Alice Hay, grand-daughter of William IV., in
+London, in 1874, and is now dead. He left no heir, so that the House of
+Hanover may rest easy. The story that the Cardinal of York ("Henry
+IX."), who died in 1807, was the last of the Stuart line, is all bosh.
+Charles-Edward had a son by the daughter of Prince Sobieski.
+
+[D] Review of the social and political state of the Basque Provinces, at
+the end of a book on "Portugal and Galicia," published in 1848 by John
+Murray.
+
+[E] It should be noted that in July, 1876, directly after the war was
+over, the fueros were entirely done away with by a special law.
+
+[F] See my last book, "An Iron-Bound City." Poor Willie died in New York
+of a complication of diseases on last Easter Sunday--an anniversary of
+hopefulness. His path of existence here was thorny. Unsurfeiting
+happiness be his portion in the meads of asphodel!
+
+[G] Now Colonel the Baron Craignish, Equerry to his Royal Highness the
+Grand Duke of Saxe-Coburg Gotha.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTES OF THE TRANSCRIBER OF THIS ETEXT.
+
+The following typographical errors in the book have been corrected in
+making this etext:
+
+Abd-es-Salem changed to Abd-es-Salam
+
+Dorregarray changed to Dorregaray
+
+Ojoladeros changed to Ojaladeros
+
+Enderlasa changed to Endarlasa
+
+Enderlaza changed to Endarlasa
+
+I deserve no creditor changed to I deserve no credit for
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Romantic Spain, by John Augustus O'Shea
+
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