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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/34753-0.txt b/34753-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dad4c26 --- /dev/null +++ b/34753-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6216 @@ +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. I) + +Author: John Augustus O'Shea + +Release Date: December 25, 2010 [EBook #34753] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** 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. + +BY +JOHN AUGUSTUS O'SHEA, + +AUTHOR OF + +"LEAVES FROM THE LIFE or A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT," +"AN IRON-BOUND CITY," ETC. + +"Oh, lovely Spain! renowned, romantic land!" + +CHILDE HAROLD. + +IN TWO VOLUMES. +VOL. I. + +LONDON: +WARD AND DOWNEY, +12, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C. +1887. +[_All Rights Reserved._] + + +TO +WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT, ESQ., +IN TOKEN OF ESTEEM FOR +HIS BOLD AND TRUTHFUL CHARACTER, +AND OF +GLADNESS THAT WE HAVE SO MANY KINDRED SYMPATHIES, + +This Book is Enscribed + +BY THE WRITER. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +This simple recital of personal haps and mishaps in perturbed Spain from +the abdication of Amadeus to the entry of Don Carlos, puts forward no +claim to the didactic or dogmatic. Its chief aim is to amuse. Of course, +if I succeed in conveying knowledge and dispelling illusions--in Tasso's +words, if I administer a pill under a coating of jam--I shall be +cock-a-hoop with delight. But I warn the reader I am not an unprejudiced +witness. I am passionately fond of Spain and her people. Although years +have elapsed since the events dealt with occurred, I fancy the narrative +will not be hackneyed, for in Spain public life repeats itself with a +fidelity which is never monotonous. I do not pretend to cast the +horoscope of the poor little monarch who is in the nurse's arms, but +Heaven guard him! 'Twere better for him that he had been born in a +Highland shieling. + +Should there be much individualism in these pages, it is intentional, +and to be ascribed to the instance of friends. They said, "Bother +history; give us plenty of your own experiences." It is to be hoped they +have not led me astray by their well-meant advice. + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOL. I. + + +CHAPTER I. + +PAGE + +Which, being non-essential, treats partly of Spain, +but principally of the Writer 1-23 + +CHAPTER II. + +The Old-Fashioned Invocation--"Them 'ere Spanish +Kings!"--Candidates for a Throne--_En Voyage_--Bordeaux +and the Back-ache--An Unmannerly +Alsatian--The Patriot gets a Roland for his Oliver--Small +Change for a Hot Bath--Plan for Universal +Coinage--Daughters of Israel--The Jews Diagnosed--Across +the Border--The Writer is Saluted "Caballero"--Bugaboo +Santa Cruz--Over a Brasero 24-42 + +CHAPTER III. + +A Make-Believe Spain--The Mountain Convoy--A +Tough Road to Travel--Spanish Superiority in +Blasphemy--Short Essay on Oaths--The Basque +Peasants--Carlism under a Cloak--How Guerilla-Fighting +is Conducted--A Hyperborean Landscape--A +Mysterious Grandee--An Adventurous Frenchman--The +Shebeen on the Summit--Armed Alsasua--Base +Coin 43-60 + +CHAPTER IV. + +Madrid--The Fonda and its Porter--The Puerta del +Sol--Postal Irregularities--Tribute to the Madrileños--The +Barber's Pronunciamiento--Anecdotes of King +Amadeus--Checkmating the Grand Dames--Queen +Isabella--The Embarrassed Mr. Layard of Nineveh--The +Great Powers Hesitate--America Goes Ahead--General +Sickles--Mahomet and the Mountain--Republicanism +among the Troops--A Peculiar Pennsylvanian +Dentist--Castelar under Torture--The +Writer meets one of his Sept--Politicians by Trade--Honour +among Insurgents--Alonso the Reckless 61-91 + +CHAPTER V. + +A Late Capital--The Gambling Mania--A French +Rendezvous--The Duke de Fitzpepper--The Morality +of Passing Bad Money--Spanish Compliments--Men +in Pickle--A Licentious Ballet--Federal Manners--Prim's +Artifice--Nouvilas Goes North--A Carlist +Proclamation--Don Alfonso--Midnight Oil--Castelar's +Circular 92-112 + +CHAPTER VI. + +Warning to Ladies--The Hotel Parliament--An Anglo-Spanish +Mentor--The Evil Genii of the Monarchy--The +Curses of Spain--Government and Religion +Affairs of Climate--The Carlists, Norwegians, and +English, all Republicans!--Notions on Heredity--The +Five Spanish Parties--The Army the Lever of +Power--The Student-Cæsar--Order _versus_ Republic--The +Chained Colours--Dorregaray's Appeal to the +Soldiers--Influence of the Church--Wanted: a +Benevolent Despot 113-131 + +CHAPTER VII. + +The Carnival--About Kissing Feet--Mummers and +Masquers--The Paseo de Recoletos--The Writer is +taken for Cluseret--Incongruity in Costume--Shrove +Tuesday--Panic on the Prado--A Fancy Ball--The +"Entierro de la Sardina"--Lenten Amusements--A +Spanish Mystery--"Pasion y Muerte de Jesus"--Of +the Stage Stagey--Critical Remarks 132-160 + +CHAPTER VIII. + +Another Chat with Mentor--A Startling Solution of +the Spanish Question--The Penalties of Popularity--The +Republic another Saturn--The New Civil +Governor--The Government Bill--Outside the Palace +of the Congress--Providential Rain--Wild Rumours--Federal +Threats--The Five Civil Guards--Inside +the Chamber--The Great Debate--The Two Reports--Compromise--Minor +Speechmakers--A Pickwickian +Contention--The Division--Victory for the +Ministry--The Five Civil Guards Trot to Stables 161-182 + +CHAPTER IX. + +The Inventions of Don Fulano de Tal--Stopping a +Train--"A Ver Fine Blaggar"--The Legend of Santa +Cruz--Dodging a Warrant--Outlawed--Chased by +Gendarmes--A Jack Sheppard Escape--The Cura +becomes Cabecilla--Sleeping with an Eye Open--Exploits +and Atrocities--Dilettante Carlists in +London--The Combat of Monreal--Ibarreta's Relics--A +Tale for the Marines--The Carlists Looking-up 183-200 + +CHAPTER X. + +Barbarism of Tauromachy--A Surreptitious Ticket--The +Novillos--Islington _not_ Madrid--Apology for +Cock-Fighting--Maudlin Humanity--The Espada a +Popular Idol--In the Bull-Ring--A Precious "Ster-oh"--The +Trumpets Speak--The Procession--Play of +the Quadrille--The Defiance--"Bravo, Cucharra!"--"Bravo, +Toro!"--The Blemish of the Sport--An +Indignant English Lassie 201-224 + +CHAPTER XI. + +The Shamrock of Erin and Olive of Spain--Hispano-Hibernian +Regiments--The Spanish Soldier--An +Unpopular Hidalgo--Flaw in the Harness--The +Organization of the Army--The Guardia Civil--The +Cavalry, Engineers, and Infantry--General Cordova--The +Disorganization of the Army--Mutiny in +Pampeluna--Officers Out of Work--Turbulent Barcelona--Irresolute +Contreras--Pistolet Discharges +Himself--The Madrid Garrison 225-248 + +CHAPTER XII. + +Luring the Reader into a Stony Desert--A Duel on the +Carpet--Disappointment of the Special Correspondents--The +People Amuses Itself--How the Ballot +Works--A Historic Sitting of the Congress--Castelar's +Great Oration--The Glory of Spain--About +Negro Manumission--Distrust of "Uncle Sam"--Return +of Figueras--The Permanent Committee--A +Love-Feast of Politicians--The Writer Orders +Wings 249-265 + +CHAPTER XIII. + +The Writer Turns Churlish and Quits Madrid--Sleep +under Difficulties--A Bad Dream--Santa Cruz again--Off +St. Helena!--Dissertation on Stomach Matters--A +Hint to British Railway Directors--"Odds, Hilts +and Blades"--A Delicate Little Gentleman is Curious--The +"Tierra Deleitosa"--That Butcher again 266-281 + +CHAPTER XIV. + +Delectable Seville--Don Juan Scapegrace--The Women +in Black--In the Triana Suburb--The City of the +Seven Sleepers--Guide-Book Boredom--Romance +and Reality--The Prosaic Manchester Man--King +Ferdinand Puzzling the Judges--Mortification by +Proxy--Some Notable Treasures--Papers and Politics--The +Porcelain Factory--"The Lazy Andalusiennes"--About +Cigars--The Gipsy Dance 282-311 + + + + +ROMANTIC SPAIN. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + Which, being non-essential, treats partly of Spain, but principally + of the Writer. + + +The sun was shining with a Spanish lustre--a lustre as of glowing +sarcasm--seeing that on that very day a Fire-Worshipper, Dadabhai +Naoroji, was over-shadowed in his attempt to become a Member of +Parliament for Holborn. The sun, I repeat, was shining with a Spanish +lustre while the inquisition was being held. The tribunal was in the +open air, under the mid plane-tree in Camberwell Green, the trimmest +public garden in London. Conscience was the inquisitor, and the charge I +had brought against myself was that of harbouring a vagrom spirit. I +should have been born in a gipsy caravan or under a Bedaween's tent. +Nature intended me to have become a traveller, a showman, or a +knight-errant; and had Nature been properly seconded, I should have been +doing something Burnabyish, Barnumesque, or Quixotic this afternoon, +instead of sitting down on a bench between a tremulous old man in +almshouse livery and a small boy fanning himself with a cap. Yes; I fear +I must plead guilty. I am possessed by a demon of unrest; my soul chafes +at inaction, calls aloud for excitement. Had I the ordering of my own +fortune I should spread the white wings of a yacht to woo the faint wind +(but it may be blowing freshly off the Foreland), or should vault on the +back of a neighing barb with bushy mane and tail. But I am Ixion-lashed +to the wheel of duty, leg-hampered by the log of necessity. + +What is a gentle-born vagabond to do? + +The law will not permit him to pink with his sword-stick the first smug +fellow he meets on the side-path, self-respect debars him from +highway-robbery which can be perpetrated without fear of the law, and it +is idle to expect a revolution in this humdrum country within any +reasonable period. A General Election which is going on, with its paltry +show of coloured strips of calico, its printed appeals to the gullible, +its occasional bits of ribbon and bursts of cheering, its egotisms, its +stupidities, its self-seekings, its shabby intrigues and simulated fire, +its dull, dreary, drivelling floods of witless substance in +ungrammatical form--that, surely, is no satisfying substitute for the +tumult of real political strife. + +Motion is the sovereign remedy for the vagabond's disease, and lo! +through the leafy barrier of the pollarded limes bordering the Green, +jingle the bells of the tram-car with its trotting team of three +abreast. Three mules, which bring my thoughts to Spain, and to a letter +I have had from my publishers, satirically asking how soon they might +expect the last pages of a promised book on the land of the Dons, the +first line of which is not yet committed to paper. I must think over +that book as I jog along the grooves of the street rails, and survey the +prospect from the roof. How do those mules on the flanks manage to avoid +knocking their hoofs against the metal-ruts, and tripping themselves +up? What a stand-and-deliver air the conductor has as he presents his +snip-snap apparatus, like the brutal key of the primitive dentist, and +viciously punches an orifice in your ticket! For these conductors, as +for letter-carriers, I have a profound sympathy; they are over-worked +and under-paid; and yet they enjoy motion in abundance. But there is a +poetry of motion, as when charging squadrons skim the plain, or a +graceful girl with dainty ankles trips across the beeswaxed floor; and +there is a prose of motion, as of a policeman plodding over his beat, or +the Sisyphus-toil of the treadmill. I ask myself, Will a tram-conductor +ever write a poem? Hardly, I think; and yet, why not? Was not Edward +Capern, who achieved some smooth verses, a letter-carrier? + +New Cross, our terminus so far. Over the way is another tram, which will +take us to Greenwich for the outlay of another twopence. Shortly it will +be one continuous avenue of pretentious masonry, from the Thames at +Blackfriars to the Thames by the naval palace, instead of the former +pleasant drive through Surrey fields. With what a fever they are +building, terrace upon terrace, street upon street, interminable rows of +villas in line or semi-detached! The patches of verdure, so refreshing +to the jaded city eye, are diminishing in size and lessening in number. +I like Greenwich; but they should never have removed the veterans of the +ocean from it. Dear to the soul of youth, hankering for the strange and +the stirring, were their three-cornered hats, their wooden stumps, their +withered monkey-jaws puffed with quids, and their hoarse, squall-tearing +voices. What a consuming thirst they had, and with what heroic industry +they did tell lies! Peter of Russia was right: the sovereigns of +England, the sea-rulers, should hold court in Greenwich. The Park with +its fallow-deer is regal; the Painted Hall is eloquent with historic +memories; the initial meridian is an imposing address; and then the +Thames--but here, we are at it. A steamer awaits, and will carry us to +the heart of London for a groat. + +How dingy, dirty, despicable most of those steamers are! with their +low-roofed, grimy cabins; their irritating hawkers of hat-strings and +small beer; their stale stock of mawkish refections; their job-lot +orchestras of wheeze and pipe and scrape and tootle; their smell of +bilge and oil, sweat and cheap cigars, overtopped at holiday-times by +the sulphurous oath or the rank obscenity of some reeling passenger. And +yet how skilfully they thread their way through the crowded Pool; how +readily they answer the wheel; with what ease they slow or quicken their +run, and dart hither and thither; and with what nicety they are brought +alongside the floating wharf! I wonder do the skippers of these boats +move their hands in their dreams. Is the finger-sign for "Back her," +that they use at home when they wish to replenish their pipes? +Collisions there may be, explosions there have been; but the career of +the mariner who plies between Chelsea Pier and the port of Woolwich must +be singularly free from such vicissitudes as shipwreck or failure of +provisions; he is seldom caught in a tornado, or banged into by a +privateer; he rarely knocks up against an iceberg, or gets a glimpse of +the Flying Dutchman; sharks he may not study, except, perhaps, in the +Westminster Aquarium, and when he dies he is trenched in commonplace +clay. I cannot picture such a mariner to myself as having the spirit to +ejaculate, "Shiver my timbers!" + +The sight of a vessel from Seville laden with fruit and wine recalls me +to that letter from the publishers and the book anent Spain. Not a word +of it written yet. _They_ will be shivering _my_ timbers if I have it +not ready in season. But I am not of those, like Anthony Trollope, who +can sit down to their desks and turn out so many pages of copy at a +stretch mechanically, much as a tinglary with its rotating handle grinds +out a series of tunes. I cannot write unless I am in the mood, and that, +I find, depends on the state of health and the absence of mental worry. +The brain with some people refuses to become a piece of machinery. Of +motion is often born inspiration--Hermes, god of oratory, is represented +with _petasus_ and _talaria_--and I am enjoying motion. + +"Ease her--stop her!" Blackfriars Bridge, and here I quit the steamer's +deck for the tram that will take me back to the place whence I came, +and so enable me to have made a diversified circular tour by land and +water for the expenditure of tenpence. Who would waste his substance on +coach-men and high-steppers; who would envy Sir Thomas Brassey his +lordly pleasure-craft, when this round of travel, with its buoyant sense +of independence at the end, can be accomplished for tenpence? And now I +shall hie me to a bar I wot of, and with the two pence that remain of my +splendid shilling, I shall cheer the inner man with a clear, cool, +mantling glass of foam-crowned bitter beer. + +The beer ought to be good in Camberwell, for here Mrs. Thrale lived of +yore, and the ponderous lexicographer took his walks, and mused on the +vanity of human wishes. We have breweries still, and we have groves, +even groves of Academus, where one may laugh; for are they not sacred to +the shades of the two Hoods and Jeff Prowse, the "Nicholas" of _Fun_, as +to Nick Woods, the Napier-recorder of Inkermann, and to associations +with William Black, Henry Bessemer, and John Ruskin, master of art, +which is something more, and more significant, than that _Magister +Artium_ which persons doubtful of their gifts or station ostentatiously +affix to their names? And in our groves we have such variety of +arborescent prizes as no other district of London can boast, extending +to the arbutus or strawberry-tree, and the liriodendron or tulip-tree. +The liriodendron has been planted in Palace Yard, in the hope that the +breath of wholesomeness, genial to its native America, shall permeate +the badly-ventilated atmosphere of the adjacent House of Commons. I love +trees as if I were suckled by a hamadryad. May he who cuts them down to +build whereon they stood taste the bitterness of Acheron! + +And Camberwell Green, which I dearly affect, is it not replete with +every modern convenience, as those ambitious amateurs who write the +auction-bills are wont to phrase it? There is a bank where you may cash +a cheque; two public-houses where you may spend great part of it +fuddling yourself; a police-station where you may sleep the fuddle off; +a pillar-box where a letter may be posted summoning a bail to your aid; +a drinking-fountain where you may slake your thirst when you come out +penitent from the police-office; a Turkish-bath, with a +crescent-and-star daubed piece of bunting over it, where you may knead +your frame into sobriety; a hairdresser's where you may make yourself +presentable; a stationer's where my friend Morris will lavishly dose you +with the tonic of moral apothegm; and, right opposite, a horse-trough +where you may give yourself the ducking you deserve. + +Inside the tavern, where I sought the beer, I met a financier, a shrewd +fellow of a gross habit of body and a dry wit. He is accountant to a +firm of book-makers, and can hold his own with the tongue; he married +into the family of a late eminent prizefighter, and, with the +connection, seems to have acquired the talent of holding his own with +the fist. I like Wat much, and have obtained various scraps of desultory +information from him which are useful. + +Imprimis, that a penny ticket on a river-steamer on a Sunday constitutes +a man as _bonâ fide_ a traveller as Henry M. Stanley, and endows him +with the privilege of getting liquid comfort within prohibited hours. + +Item, that the cigars on the outside of a bundle, and therefore indented +with the tape, are generally the best. + +Item, that if there is hide or pelt on a carcase before a butcher's +stall, you may take for granted it is a British carcase. Foreign meat +has to be skinned to avoid the risk of importation of cattle-disease. + +And, ultimately, that if you are about to drown yourself in the Thames, +and are anxious to avert identification, the best spot to throw yourself +off is in the neighbourhood of a ship at moorings, as then you are +likely to be drawn under her and kept in the chains for months. + +Some readers who are unaware that there were no gentlemen with +coat-armour in the College of Apostles, may object that in presenting +them to Wat I am introducing them to low society; but I can assure them +that I have seen a very respectable Duke hail-fellow-well-met with a +jockey, and my friend Wat has a far fuller education than the primest +of jockeys. He is apt and accurate in quotations from English +literature; and if you venture to make Greeks "meet" Greeks in his +presence, or talk of fresh "fields" and pastures new, or attribute the +tempering of the wind to the shorn lamb to Holy Writ, he will lay you +ten to one in sovereigns you are wrong, and win your money. He is also a +champion orthographist, and will back himself to spell English words +against any man in the British Empire for £500, bar words technical. + +"Ah," he said, "my noble! is it true you are going on a lecturing-tour +next winter?" + +"If God but spare me health and lung-power I am," was my reply. + +"And wherefore, may I ask? Can you not do better at the desk?" + +"The desk is monotonous; besides, I yearn for change, and I may be able +to freshen up my ideas, and set down some notes in my tables. 'Twill +improve intellectual and physical health." + +"It will, of course," agreed Wat. "For instance, it will be perfectly +delightful journeying to Inverness, say, in the depth of December." + +"As it so happens, I am booked for Inverness on a date in that month." + +Wat stared at me. "Do you know," he said, "'tis a far cry to Loch Awe, +and Inverness is at the other side of Loch Awe? Thither and back from +where we stand is eleven hundred and ninety miles." + +I was surprised; I had not entered into these details; but I held my +peace. + +"Have you got many engagements?" + +"Yes; the first was from Dollar, which I accept as a good omen; and, +curiously enough, 'tis not in the United States." + +"No," said Wat; "'tis between Edinburgh and Stirling. What fee do they +tender you there?" + +I told him. + +"Ahem!" he continued, fondling his chin as he spoke. "If you don't +cumber yourself with luggage--a courier-bag will do--and if you bus it +to King's Cross, and stop at a temperance hotel in 'Auld Reekie,' and +give servants no tips, and condescend to all invitations, with a wise +economy, I take it, you won't drop more than five-and-twenty shillings +on that transaction." + +"How! What do you mean? You surely are not serious?" + +"Why, the railway return fare to Edinburgh alone is +five-pun-nine-and-six; and that will burn a hole in your fee." + +"Perhaps," I ventured, not to look foolish, "I may have means of getting +to Edinburgh for nothing." + +"Ah!" said Wat, with a sigh and a sorrowful sententiousness, "if you +think you can try on that, well and good; but I'm getting so precious +fat that I can no longer hide myself under a seat!" + +The barman, who had overheard the dialogue, here burst into an ill-bred +fit of laughter. That attendant had some appreciation of humour; but Wat +did the correct thing, nevertheless, in rebuking him for his untimely +hilarity. The barman should have waited until he had retired to his own +room. + +This lecturing, as I explained to the financier, is rather a hazardous +experiment after a man has passed his fortieth year. It is like learning +to act--even more arduous than that, for you have no prompter, and must +be qualified to think upon your legs. Interruptions must not check the +flow of your eloquence; indifference must not chill your enthusiasm. You +must be suave, alert, sonorous, and roll forth a discourse got off by +rote as if it were the offspring of the moment's inspiration. The +combustion of thought must appear to be a spontaneous combustion. Once +your tale is set a-going, there must be no pause, no hesitancy; the +electric current must be maintained to strong and constant power, or +your audience sinks into a freezing dulness of courteous attention, +which wishes, but fears, to yawn. + +"Yes," said Wat, "the steam must be kept up. But if a Derby dog strays +on the course--I mean if a bullock blunders on the track, what then?" + +"That is the difficulty. It is vexatious if a man dozes off and +endeavours to balance himself on the tip of his nose on the floor, when +you are in the high ecstasy of a rhetorical period." + +"I know," said Wat. "When you are what you call piling up the agony." + +"Or when a deaf dowager is seized with a fancy to sternutate as you are +waxing pathetic." + +"Sternutate. That's a good word," remarked Wat admiringly. "I swear I +could spell that. By-the-bye, how are you getting on with that book on +Spain?" + +_Ecce iterum Crispinus._ + +"Good-afternoon I am just on my way home to write it." + + * * * * * + +The title I shall leave to the finish. Something catching is sure to +suggest itself. The dedication I pencilled off months ago. Let that +stand. + +The subject, I think, is good. Spain is comparatively unknown. John Bull +on his travels will not open to it. The British tourist in the Peninsula +too often carries with him his native sense of superiority and his +constitutional tendency to spleen. He turns up his nose at what he +cannot, or will not, understand. If the beef is tough, he does not +consider that it ought to be, most of the animals from whose ribs it +came having done honest work as beasts of burden before they were +driven to the slaughter-house. If the Val de Peñas is rasping to his +palate, he ignores that the taste for wine, as for olives and Dublin +stout and Glenlivat, is acquired. If the tobacco is coarse and weedy, he +forgets that it is cheap, and that he can roll his cigarette and smoke +it between the courses. But why does he not console himself for the +absent by what is present--the ripe golden sun, the luscious fruits, the +picturesque costumes, the high-bred dignity of the humblest beggar, the +weird Æolian melody of sudden trills of song, the flashing eyes, +mantilla-shaded, which speak romances in three volumes in every glance? +The truth is, your Briton abroad, I mean the average one--not men like +Mr. Gladstone in Sicily, or Captain Burton everywhere, Queen's +Messengers and Special Correspondents, travelling Fellows of Oxford and +pilgrims of art--your Briton of the tourist type is less inclined to +adapt himself to another sphere than to try and assimilate that other to +his own. + +This tourist goes to Spain; he hurries from end to end of the Peninsula, +his guide-book in his hand and his opera-glass across his shoulder; he +pays a flying visit to the Escurial, and pronounces it a gloomy crib; +drops in on Seville, sees it, and does not marvel; mayhap he wanders as +far as Granada, and finds it a dreary "sell;" and then he returns +homeward, hot and tired and disappointed, and is eloquent on the +rapacity of innkeepers, the profusion of counterfeit coin, the +discomforts and unpunctuality of locomotion, the shocking +uncleanliness--but, however, "you know, we got on better than the +Joneses; we saw more sights and covered more country in fewer days." And +this peripatetic postures for the rest of his life as an authority on +Spain! The only point, perhaps, on which his judgment is to be accepted +is one which he might have learned in London, namely, that Price's +circus is not quite so good as Sanger's in Westminster or Hengler's off +Oxford Street. Out upon the poor fool! _He_ know Spain! Why, that is +more than I could dare to say, and I have had experience of it under +Monarchy and Republic, in peace and in war; have mixed with Carlists in +the field, and Intransigentes in the fortress; have traversed it from +Irun to Gibraltar, from Santander to Malaga. He who has not been +admitted into the intimacy of domestic life in Spain, who has not +listened to habaneras by the camp-fire, joined in the jota on the +village sward, shared in thorough sympathy in the sports of the arena +and in the rites of religion, dipped into the peasant's olla podrida, +nay, even watched the flushed gamblers over their cards, with the +eager-eyed baratero standing by--he does not know Spain. All this have I +done, and more; and yet I am but on the threshold of acquaintance with +that great and beautiful home of paradox, that land of valour and +courtesy, of fidelity and magnanimity, of piety and patriotism; and, in +a lesser degree, of the vices which are opposed to these good qualities. +No country of Europe so near to us is so little known. Yet in none is +the soil fertilized by so much British blood. But this was in the +bygone; and the yearly increasing swell of journeying-against-time +tourists has not swept in tidal wave over the Peninsula. Even Spanish +plays--and Spain can boast of one of the richest springs of dramatic +literature in Europe--are comparatively sacred from the desecrating +touch of the ruck of contemporary English stage adulterators. + +Spain is not known; and yet it is not for the lack of word-painters to +make it familiar in pen-and-ink pictures. There is Ford, most learned +and graphic of guides, as full of irresistible prejudice as he is of +impulsive affection. There is Borrow, that robust, quaint, and +captivating, if sometimes over-fanciful, cicerone, albeit his errand to +Spain was as indiscreet in purpose as it was bootless in result. There +is Sala, of memory richly stored--whom I freely salute as past-master in +his craft--most charming, observant, and illustrative of roving +journalists. Ford, Borrow, Sala, all know Spain and "things Spanish" by +personal experience; but it is plain that too many of the latter-day +critics of Spain and the Spaniards are of the class who are ready to +write social novels on Chinese life with no more knowledge of the +Flowery Land than is to be obtained under the dome of the Reading-room +of the British Museum. The pity of it is that this second-hand evidence +is too often taken on trust, while the truthful records of eye-witnesses +are shoved into a dusty corner of the cupboard. It is so nice to be +patted on the head and rubbed down with the grain, to be reminded that +we are what we always thought ourselves to be--the perfect, the +registered A 1 people of the universe, the people who set the pattern, +the people who are righteous, moral, honest, tolerant, charitable, and +modest; who wage no unjust wars; who have no Divorce Court scandals; who +know not bank frauds; who never persecuted Highlanders, or Jews, or +Irishmen; who permit no misappropriations of money left to the poor; who +make no brag over small victories against badly-armed savages. But stay, +this is taking me to Africa, not Spain; and Africa does not begin at the +other side of the Pyrenees, the epigram of Dumas to the contrary +notwithstanding. My great object is to coax the English reader to be +reasonable, and not to take the dimensions of the round world by the +parochial yard-measure, nor to gauge the Coliseum by the standard of +Clapham. + +However, I shall not complete this work unless I make a start. _Dimidium +facti_--but these odds and ends of Latin, which give to style an +eighteen-penny polish of erudition and prove nothing, you can pick at +will from "Swain's Collection of Easy Sentences." If I wait till I am in +the mood, my suspense may be as long as that of the rustic on the bank +of the stream. Perhaps Samuel Johnson, LL.D., was near the mark when he +said that the author that thinks himself weather-bound will find, with a +little help from hellebore, that he is only idle or exhausted. + +And now a paragraph to elucidate why I have dedicated this book to a +gentleman with whom I never exchanged a word. Apart from the bright and +solid facts that he wards the weak, and has the pluck to change his +opinions when he feels himself in the wrong, there are in his case two +reasons all-sufficient to secure his counterfeit presentment a niche in +my album, and himself a nook in my heart--he hath killed a bull in the +arena, and he is husband of Byron's grand-daughter; and Byron was a +poet--yea, a poet, I re-affirm, the hysterics to the contrary of sixteen +screaming _laudatores Veneris_ in non-lucid intervals counting for +naught. + + * * * * * + +I have lost faith in Wat. In a moment of misplaced confidence I laid a +wager on him at a spelling competition. He put one _n_ in innuendo, and +the _i_ after the _ll_s in paillasse. If he had only gone to the root of +the matter! I offered such long odds, too--a frayed copy of the "Iliad" +to a gilt and morocco-bound set of the "Newgate Calendar." + + + + +CHAPTER II + + The Old-Fashioned Invocation--"Them 'ere Spanish + Kings!"--Candidates for a Throne--_En Voyage_--Bordeaux and the + Back-ache--An Unmannerly Alsatian--The Patriot gets a Roland for + his Oliver--Small Change for a Hot Bath--Plan for Universal + Coinage--Daughters of Israel--The Jews Diagnosed--Across the + Border--The Writer is Saluted "Caballero"--Bugaboo Santa Cruz--Over + a Brasero. + + +O mules, liquorice, onions, oranges, garlic, and eke figs, cork and +olives, and all you other products of Spain, come to my aid now that I +enter upon my theme! Why should not a prose-chronicler of this era +proffer his appeal as did the poets of era undetermined, of the eras of +Augustus or the Second Charles? Perchance the _Θεα_, _Musa_, or +Muse, to whom he makes his plea, may prove less kind than those to whom +Homer, Virgil, or Milton prayed; but he has his remedy. In most +instances, he can eat them. + +Having complied with what used to be a hallowed custom, I shall now, +following the example of that shrewd man, the late Abraham Lincoln, +proceed to tell a story. The deadly sin in any book is dulness, and an +occasional anecdote--if it point a moral so much the better--is sovran +balsam for spleen. + +I had a literary friend in London, and as he once returned to his +residence by Regent's Park after a long walk, and asked had anyone +called during his absence, the housekeeper replied "No;" but, correcting +herself, added, "leastways, nobody, sir, except one of them 'ere Spanish +kings!" + +The Spanish king who was of no consequence was one of the race of +Pretenders, and had the proud blood of countless generations of +thick-lipped Bourbons meandering through his veins. + +In the February of 1873, from which my personal knowledge of Spain +dates, there were quite a number of these Spanish kings on the carpet. +Amadeus, the Italian, had vacated the throne on the 11th, in a message +which substantially affirmed that the peaceful government of Spain was +hopeless--his Majesty gave it up as a bad job--and the two Chambers, +combining as the sovereign Cortes, proclaimed the Republic by a majority +of four to one. Of the aspirants to the crown there were notably Don +Carlos Maria de los Dolores, the legitimate heir--if there be any virtue +in legitimacy--and Don Alfonso, only son of the deposed Isabella, a boy +of fifteen, at school at Vienna, a legitimate claimant if the abolition +of the Salic law in 1830 be acknowledged. There was one who might have +been a king, but sensibly declined the proffered honour, in the person +of the ancient Espartero, Duke of Victory, Prince of Vergara; and there +was a Prussian princeling, a Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, who had been +nominated king in the midsummer of 1870, and whose nomination afforded +the coveted pretext for the war between France and Germany. Besides, +every Captain-General in the country--and the allowance is five--was a +king _in prospectu_, not to mention the multifarious leaders of the many +parties in the Congress, all of whom were qualified to be kings in their +own conceit. Spain being thus suffering from a plethora of kings--as one +result of which the Republic existed--it struck those who had +commissioned me to chronicle the humours of besieged Paris that I might +find some material for instructive and entertaining writing at the other +side of the Pyrenees. + +There are several ways of getting to Madrid. I had no difficulty in +selecting mine--in fact, I had no choice. It was my duty to go there by +the quickest route, no matter what the expense, the danger, or the +inconvenience. These were the terms implied in my bond. The first stage +was to Bordeaux. Over that I shall not dwell beyond a passing note on +the excitement of the mad drive from terminus to terminus through Paris +streets, in the early morn, at the rate of four statute miles an hour, +in order, as Brother Jonathan has it, to "establish connection," and the +misery of the long railway pilgrimage south. The scenery, I believe, was +lovely; but fatigue, and the worry of a constrained position, and the +frequent jerky stops as one was dozing to sleep, and the impatient +summons "_en voiture_" as the hungry man was settling to a square meal, +indisposed one for the proper appreciation of the picturesque. I got so +eye-dazed from the whirl and dust and flitting sentinels of +telegraph-posts on the long music-lines of telegraph-wires, that I could +not distinguish a life-buoy from a funeral wreath. There were no +sleeping-cars between Paris and Bordeaux then; back-ache, with an +occasional variety in the shape of migraine, is my principal memory of +that journey. Back-ache, the reader will allow, would take the poetry +out of a honeymoon trip. And here I interpose a short parenthesis to +register my acknowledgment to the philanthropist who invented +sleeping-cars with their complementary accommodations. He is a +benefactor to travelling humanity. Statues have been erected to dozens +who have done less good to their kind--soldiers, lawyers, politicians, +and patent pill-makers. Sleeping-cars avert exhaustion, ill-humour, bad +dreams, and kidney-disease, not to exclude the back-ache and migraine +afore-mentioned. Whenever a bronze memorial is to be raised on the +Thames Embankment to their inventor, I am ready with my contribution. + +At Bordeaux, where I shuffled into the nearest hotel, I uncoiled myself, +and took the kinks out of my bones; but of the wine capital I shall say +no more than that "I came, I slept, I left." At leaving, a little +adventure variegated the itinerary. As I entered the railway-carriage, a +gentleman on the opposite seat, its only occupant, was sucking an +orange. I pulled out my cigar-case, and politely asked him if he had any +objection to my smoking. + +"Are you a German?" he demanded stiffly. + +"Pardon me," I said, "I inquired if you had any objection to my +smoking." + +"Are you a German?" he repeated almost fiercely, his eyes flashing. + +"I fail to see what business it is of yours what my nationality may be." + +"It is my business, and I insist on your answering my question," he +shouted, dropping the orange in his anger. + +"And I decline to answer it," I said quietly. + +Now he fairly raged. There is nothing which so provokes a man of hasty +temper, with whom you may be in a controversy, as to preserve a +tranquil, self-possessed demeanour. Ladies who nag their husbands are +aware of this interesting feature in household ethics. + +"Ah, you _are_ a German!" he yelled. "You are a Prussian. I will not sit +in the same compartment with you'!" and he stood up, and danced, and +went through a round of epileptic gesticulation. + +"Your absence will not leave me inconsolable," said I, in soft, sweet +accents, ceremoniously lifting my hat. + +He bounced out of the carriage like a maniac, stamped along the +platform, muttering with incoherent vehemence as he went, and presently +reappeared with a gendarme, whom he informed that he suspected I was a +Prussian spy. Interrogated, he could advance no proof beyond his own +suspicions, my arrogant coolness of manner, and my hesitation in +returning a straightforward reply. + +"I am sure he is," he concluded, "for he all but admitted it." + +The gendarme was perplexed, and asked me very civilly, was I a German? + +"Distinctly not," I answered. + +Had Monsieur any papers? I produced my British passport, which he +looked at, pretended to understand, folded up, returned to me with +excuses for having given me so much trouble, and fixed a look of grave +reproach on his countryman. The latter was embarrassed, and had not the +grace to make a frank apology, but mumbled something to the effect that +I might have saved all this annoyance if I had stated what countryman I +was at first. + +"If you had put your question in the French fashion, that is to say +courteously, I might have done so," I said. + +He blushed, and stammered forth the apology at last; he hoped I would +forgive his quickness, but he could not control himself when he met a +German; he hated the race--the Germans were a pack of cold-blooded +robbers, who had brought ruin on his country. He had vowed vengeance +against them, and he had reason for it, for he was an Alsatian. + +I saw my chance. + +"_Mon Dieu!_" I exclaimed, throwing up my hands in affected horror. "It +is you who are the German, then, and not I. Do you not know, sir, that +Alsace has been a province of Germany for the past two years?" + +If the face be an index to the mind, that Alsatian must have passed +through a mental cyclone. Luckily for the angel who records bad +language, his rage was so terrible that he lost the power of speech, the +while I gently moved my head to and fro, and gazed at him with +compassionate remonstrance, as much as to say how could he, a +sausage-eating creature, have had the heart to pass himself off on me as +a Frenchman? It was cruel, but it was merited. That Alsatian I despised +as the meanest thing in patriotism I had ever met--and my experience of +the article is not limited--for even were I a German, so long as I +behaved myself with propriety he had no right to insult me by his surly +cross-examination. But I suppose the poor devil thought he was playing +the rôle of redresser of the wrongs of his country, and exacting an +instalment of that _revanche_ of which we hear occasional frothing +babble. If I were a German I should be proud of it, and I hope I should +have had the firmness to tell my Alsatian interlocutor so to his teeth. + +From Bordeaux to Bayonne, down through the Landes, is a most interesting +ride, as I dimly recollect; but I have no notes of it, and I infer that +nothing particular occurred as I sped through the fat, nice, pleasant +country. I had a short stay at Bayonne--long enough, however, to enable +me to mark by ethnological signs and tinge of complexion that Spain was +near. There were architectural signs, too, for there were colonnades in +some of the streets to shelter promenaders from the powerful sun. Plenty +of soldiers in Bayonne, and plenty of Hebrews. All of the latter seem to +be engaged in the money-changing business. The whole art of +money-changing consists in undervaluing the coin you are buying, and +setting an exaggerated value on that you are giving for it. I must have +lost a small fortune in the course of my money-changing transactions, +therefore am I a most determined adherent of a uniform system of coinage +for all civilized nations; and that coinage, I maintain, should be +decimal. Fancy a foreigner getting small money for a sovereign after he +has incurred a debt of one and sixpence for a hot salt-water bath on the +South Coast! The fair attendant offers him a crown-piece, two +half-crowns, two florins, two shillings, two six-pences, two groats, two +threepenny bits, a postage stamp, a wheedling simper and a charity-bob. +He is puzzled, and to my thinking he is justified in being puzzled; and +if the attendant be not exceedingly attractive he is cheated. Coinage +should be simple--should be so plain in identity that a child could +distinguish it in the dark, and its worth should descend in regulated +gradation. This reform will come eventually. One of the objections to a +universal mintage may be that there would be a struggle as to whose +profile should be sunk into the stamps--a point on which many rulers are +solicitous, for they foresee that it is the only species of immortality +they will ever attain. His Majesty of Araucania might legitimately +protest against having his individuality merged in the lineaments of the +artistic concretion of the Republic of San Marino, and the Queen of +Madagascar (what is her name, by-the-bye?) might not easily be weaned +from a natural longing for the luxury of having her own face in the +perpetual youthfulness of Hebe imprinted on the discs which circulate +at Tananarivo. That objection might be met in two ways; one side of the +coin might be common to all the world, and the other reserved for the +vanities, or the vanities might toss up, and acquire the renown of the +numismatist's glass-case in turn. + +That the reform will come I am convinced, but not while the Hebrews can +hinder it. It is their interest to have this diversity of coinage; and +they are very conservative of what is their interest. I have for a long +time been trying to make up my mind about the Hebrews. My sympathies fly +out to them because they have been persecuted, foully persecuted, on +account of their religious belief, while, on the other hand, my +antipathies are stirred because they make to themselves an idol of gold. +Beautiful are the daughters of Israel with a striking Old Testament +beauty, marvellously imperious considering the lengthened apprenticeship +of helotry through which they have served; but _naïveté_ is not the +quality one would look for in their countenances. As well seek a dimple, +or a blush, or a coy reserve. Oh! beautiful indeed, and to an imposing +degree, with long straight nose, full orbs, pursing lips, +clean-chiselled regular contour; but the earliest lesson they learn is +how many grains Troy go to a silver shekel. They may have in them still +the fire of Jael, who drove the tent-peg into the skull of the tyrant, +or the fierce genius of the poetic Deborah, who was one of the first to +strike the lyre of triumph; but, alas! that it must be said, the gentle +Ruth, gleaning in the fields of barley, is a lost tradition of the race. +I can almost imagine the tender-eyed Leah and the well-favoured Rachel +figuring in an idyl of another Wakefield family; but, then, where are we +to seek for them? Not in Bayonne. There are no artless Jewesses there; +the pupils under their black lashes glitter with the glow of cupidity, +and I prefer the light of love. There is something in it more womanly +and mellow. I have seen the eyes of a Jewess almost bulge out of their +sockets like those of the telescope fish, as she gazed on the treasures +of Notre Dame at Paris--to me a degrading dilatation--and I set it down +to the instincts engendered by centuries of servitude, when the Jews +discovered that the surest mode of checkmating their masters was by +amassing money, and lending it out to them at usurious rates. Certes, +they are a pushing and clannish tribe, and skilled in the mimetic arts; +but they are not so high-souled and all-influential as their friend +Disraeli would fain make them in a chapter of elaborate gush in that +fine novel, "Coningsby." In the main I admire them; but I could wish +that they stripped to manual toil oftener; that they were less +obsequious in indigence, and less despotic and dictatorial when they are +in authority--niggers and Hindoos can be that; that they were less prone +to exhibit their entire stock-in-trade in the shop-window; that they +were less ostentatious in their hospitality, when they are hospitable, +and that they had a quieter taste in raiment. Now, I think I have had +ample retribution out of that greasy matron at Bayonne, who exploited me +when converting my honest notes of the Bank of England into Spanish +duros. + +From Bayonne the train rattled along not far from the fringe of the Bay +of Biscay, by Biarritz and St. Jean de Luz, and across the bridge +spanning the Bidassoa to Irun, the border town of Spain, close by +Fontarabia's wooded height. Here we had a pause for customs and passport +examination and change of carriages. No railway official could give me +any information as to how far the line went; it might go to Madrid, it +might not go more than a few miles; the country was unsettled. These +officials impressed me as sulky or stupid or timorous, or all three +combined, and made glaring contrast with the smart servants on the +London, Chatham and Dover line, who know everything that regards their +calling, and are always quick and decisive in answer without taint of +rudeness. But I was recalled from my comparisons by one word, which +wrought a magic effect upon me. + +That word was "_caballero_!" + +How elated I felt! I realized that I was in Spain, and seemed to grow in +inches and self-esteem. I lent myself to an unconscious swagger, tipped +my hat jauntily on one side of my head, and was swayed by an almost +irresistible inclination to retire to some unobserved corner and wax the +ends of my moustache. + +The speaker was a Guardia Civil, the Spanish equivalent for a French +gendarme. A solemn man in a cocked-hat, protected by a glazed cover, his +complexion was of sickly walnut-juice sallow, like the flesh-tint on a +portrait in oils by an old master. The complexion was characteristically +Spanish. He was the State personified, and had much dignity. He told me +I might count upon getting to Beasain, a village in a valley at this +side of one of the mountains of the Pyrenean range, but that progress +beyond that by rail was problematical, as the Cura Santa Cruz had torn +up the track. + +This was the first I had heard of the Cura Santa Cruz, one of the most +ferocious and redoubtable of the partisans of Don Carlos. Truculent were +the stories which were told of him. He was Raw-head-and-bloody-bones in +cassock; priest and picaroon, with a well-developed tendency towards +wholesale murder; Bogie with a breviary--that is, according to some. +According to others, he was a brave, disinterested and reverend patriot; +a sort of Hofer-cum-Tell individual, etherealized by the sanctity of his +vocation. Anyhow, be he maleficent or benign, it was clear that he was +Somebody, and had filled the whole country-side with awe. He led a corps +of guerrilleros, who rejoiced in the nickname of the Black Band; and +such was the terror inspired by their exploits, that the whisper that +Santa Cruz was hovering near stunned opposition, and brought in any +ransom demanded. He must have been in one of his benign moods on this +occasion, for he permitted our train free passage through his territory; +and in the evening we drew up in a snow-bound basin, where shuddered the +straggling hamlet of Beasain. I took up my lodging for the night in a +two-storied cabin, and sent a news-letter to London, recounting what I +had seen and heard so far. I was urged to this by an intimation which +had reached me, that a rival had preceded me on the road to Madrid by +twenty-four hours. The first blow is half the battle, and I calculated +that if I could get the ear of the public in advance of him, there would +be a point gained. Communication with England was open from Beasain. +Heaven knows how it would be to-morrow or next day. + +There was fearful tangible evidence of the presence of Santa Cruz in +this remote valley. At one extremity where the cavernous opening of the +railway tunnel made a dark gap in the hillside, the track had been +wrenched from its fastenings, and the sleepers smeared with oil and set +on fire. Heaps of charred timber marked the spot, and alongside, down in +a ravine, lay the wreck of shattered carriages and locomotive, just as +they had been tumbled in a topsy-turvy blending of complete collapse. It +made me tremble to reflect what this meant, and I came to the conclusion +that Santa Cruz was thoroughgoing in his warfare and restrained by few +scruples of compassion. + +Over the fumes of the brasero, the brass-pan with its stifling embers of +charcoal, placed on a stand in the middle of my room, my landlord and I +with outstretched palms held long confab before I turned into bed. His +mother had been French, and we gossiped in that tongue. His views were +tolerably impartial, but it was plain that the Carlists had his good +wishes. The factions were partially dispersed, but were not defeated, he +said; they would give more trouble; and then he horrified me with a +well-authenticated tale of a recent fight at Aspeitia, where an old +villager had taken refuge in a house which was subsequently occupied by +the troops. He fell dead after a volley fired by the Carlists. His son +was one of those who had joined in the volley, and the awful muffled +rumour was spreading among the peasantry that it was by the son's bullet +the father had been slain. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + A Make-Believe Spain--The Mountain Convoy--A Tough Road to + Travel--Spanish Superiority in Blasphemy--Short Essay on Oaths--The + Basque Peasants--Carlism under a Cloak--How Guerilla-Fighting is + Conducted--A Hyperborean Landscape--A Mysterious Grandee--An + Adventurous Frenchman--The Shebeen on the Summit--Armed + Alsasua--Base Coin. + + +And this is sunny Spain, the land of the olive and the vine. Spain it +certainly is in the absolute sense of the word in political geography, +but in no other. It is no more Spain than the Highlands are England. The +language, the race, the habits, the growths, are different. The +language, the Euscara, is known to only one man not born within the +borders, the polyglot Prince Lucien Buonaparte. A hackneyed legend runs +that the devil tried to learn it, and dislocated his jaw. The race is +the aboriginal Iberian, and has none of the languor of the south in +it--a stubborn, not a supple race. The habits of the people are +industrious. The growths are rather of the apple and the pine than the +olive and the vine. + +There before us rises the wall of Nature's handiwork which shuts us out +from the true Spain. + +In my boyhood I often gazed with admiration on a print of Napoleon +crossing the Alps. He was astride of a prancing white charger. I have +since learned to detest Napoleon, and to know more of mountain travel. +That masterful general, but cruel, dishonourable, bad man--demon-man +with genius undoubted and will unbendable, but with the most +unscrupulous of insatiate and insensate ambitions, and a leaven of +littleness--did not face the heights of St. Bernard on a mettlesome +steed, but on a patient mule, and the luxury of his apparel was +restricted to furs. Wrapped up in the thickest clothing I could find, I +watched the convoy forming outside the station at Beasain in the sunlit +cold. + +The train from San Sebastian got in at nine in the morning, and before +ten a procession of six waggons, built after the massive, clumsy fashion +of the French diligence, was drawn up in line. Horses and mules, +generally in teams of five--three leaders and two wheelers--were yoked +to the ramshackle vehicles. The passengers, muffled in cloaks, rugs, +scarfs, shawls and comforters--for there was ice in the breath of the +keen air of the mountain--literally packed themselves in the narrow +"insides" of the old-fashioned coaches. There were five in the low, +narrow hutch upon wheels with myself, all males; we were as close as +sardines in a box. There were some ladies of the party. I trust they had +more space at their disposal. The luggage was piled on the roofs and +covered with tarpaulins, the drivers mounted the seats in front, whips +were cracked, and off we bounded at a pace that would rouse the +applause, or peradventure the envy, of the gentlemen who tool the +Brighton coach. Gaily our skinny steeds breasted the rise, sending a +curl of mist from their hides, and shaking merry music out of the +collars of bells round their necks as they clattered over the hard road. +For three miles we dashed along at express speed. How spirit-stirring is +rapid motion! I actually was warming into a wild joy, and praying that +we might encounter the Carlists, under the influence of this gallop in +the bracing morning atmosphere. + +Suddenly there is a stop. The Carlists? No. But here the ascent begins, +and a body of mountaineers await us with a string of bullocks. The three +leaders are unharnessed and attached behind; and eight bullocks, two by +two, are yoked in front of the pair of mules who act as wheelers. The +same is done with the other waggons. I watch this process of yoking the +bullocks with much curiosity. A strong piece of board is run across the +heads of the pair who are coupled, and firmly tied in front of the +horns; a sheepskin is thrown over that, for what purpose I cannot tell; +and the ropes by which the bullocks drag us are fastened to the piece of +board afore-mentioned. They pull, not against the shoulder, but against +the horn. Their owners, muscular peasants, lightly clad, though it is +cold, walk beside them with long pointed sticks, and occasionally goad +them in the flanks. When that does not suffice, they push them, or rain +blows on their hides, or twist their tails, and when all other means +fail they swear at them. But the grave oxen move no quicker; they cling +to their own gait as if deeply convinced of the truth of the adage, +"Fair and easy goes far in the day." The peasants call one "demonio" and +another a cow; but the sleepy pair keep never minding, as they waddle +along with drooping heads, held closely together as if whispering +conspiracy. + +At this early point in my experiences, the painful knowledge is forced +upon me that the Spaniards are highly accomplished in the art of +imprecation. If our army swore terribly in Flanders, I have my theory to +account for it. They must have picked up the habit there, and the +Spaniards under Alva had left their traces behind them in the speech of +the region they had occupied. As a rule, swearing betrays a poverty of +invention; it is the resource of the vulgar and ignorant to emphasize +their assertions; but in Spain the swearing developed an originality +that almost reconciled one to it. There was an awful insolence, a ribald +riotousness in some of the oaths which redeemed them from the scorn +which every well-balanced mind should feel for displays of petulance. I +respect a good round oath--an oath that blanches my cheeks and makes me +imagine that it would not be extraordinary if the ground were to open +and swallow the varlet who uttered it. That sort of oath is to be +tolerated for its audacity. The malediction is a higher form of oath, +and some maledictions are magnificent. To the amateur I can recommend +King Lear's upon Cordelia, Francesco Cenci's upon Beatrice--which is +more Shakspearian than Shakspeare--and even puny Moore's upon the +traitorous Gheber. The joint-stock oath which Sterne puts into the +mouths of the Abbess of Andoüillets and the novice, Margarita, who had +the whitlow on her middle finger, is passable for its fantastic +ingenuity; and the strong locutions pat in the lips of a certain +Duke--unless notoriety belies him--are to be licensed because of his +rank, and because he is a soldier. But he should have the courage to +blurt them out on all occasions. He who dares to outrage society should +not shrink from offending an individual. + +"You---- naughty boy, why did you sound the wrong call?" said H.R.H. to +a bugler, but as soon as he got out of earshot of a certain Personage, +he muttered in an angry undertone, "You canonized little beggar, you +know what I meant." + +The Spaniards are liberal and earnest and dogged in their railings, +anathemas, and execrations, but still the sleepy oxen do not hurry +themselves. They care no more for a volley of select comminations than +the jackdaw of Rheims did for the archbishop's curse. Of a verity this +bullock's pace is a snail's pace, and we have ample leisure to inspect +the peasants as we crawl along. Brawny, hardy, and firmly-knit as +Highlandmen, their faces are weather-beaten and frank; their manner, +when one speaks to them, independent but polite; in dress like unto +their Celtic kinsmen of Brittany, short-jacketed, loose, and slovenly, +but in stature more like to the tall mountaineers of Tipperary. They +must be poor, very poor; but they have the appearance of content, and +with it of honesty, sobriety, and civility. + +And now a little secret must be imparted. Every man-jack of these +ox-drivers is a Carlist, and that is the reason we are not attacked +to-day! In a week those innocent clowns may be blazing away at the +regular army of Spain from the brushwood on a hillside, for after such +fashion are Carlist wars conducted. A band assembles at the call of some +chief--that is to say, the peasants leave their cabins and meet at some +rock, some conspicuous tree, or some cross-roads. They have with them a +flag, perhaps; perhaps a priest or two; they are badly armed with such +arms as insurgents carry--blunderbusses, flint-muskets, fowling-pieces, +horse-pistols; they have no distinctive uniform, except a few of the +older bands--the permanent army of Carlism--which are clad in the seedy +clothes that the French Garde Mobile wore during the late war. The +campaign opens; a descent is made upon some village, the mayor is asked +to supply so many hundred rations, and the young men are summoned to +join the flag. Sometimes the mayor refuses, and there is a fight between +"the volunteers of liberty," that is to say, the local national guard, +and the Carlists. On the average, so the reports go, one man is killed +in each of these combats, and three wounded. That is a battle at this +stage of the Carlist war. With the regular troops sent against them the +Carlists act otherwise. They take up ground in some inaccessible eyrie, +pop at the passing detachments from their ambuscade, draw them on in the +hope of catching them in a trap; but the troops are cautious, they +pepper away at the Carlists from a distance until the Carlists run, and +the affair ends, as usual, with the loss of one man killed and three +wounded. The peasants return to their cabins to tell the tale of their +gallantry, and if the troops perchance should come their way, why they +are but inoffensive, ingenuous tillers of the soil, the most peaceful +beings on the face of nature. The firearm is hid in the thatch or in the +neighbouring hedge. But the officers who lead the troops do not allow +their enemies the monopoly of gasconade. In the _Gaceta de Madrid_ the +bulletin of the engagement duly appears, and the names of the doughty +warriors are chronicled for the admiration of the señoritas. One Carlist +chief--at least, so pretend the wags--had been killed outright thrice, +wounded mortally five times, and has had his band completely dispersed +and broken up seven times in the _Gaceta_, and yet he is still alive +and troublesome. A most outlandish war, but how disastrous in its +effects on the trade and prosperity of the country! It could not be +carried on if the soil were not rich to plenteousness. There is an +adventurous vigour in the breed, too, and the terrain lends itself to +guerilla fighting. So far, I know nothing of the merits of Carlism; but +this I can divine, that it is the old rivalry betwixt town and country, +and the "pagans" or villagers are all Carlists--question of transmitted +feud or local traditions, or both. The rustics have the advantage over +the town-bred men; they are familiar with the by-paths; every sheiling +is a refuge for them, every dweller therein a self-constituted scout. +When they choose to seek them, they must have secure hiding-places. +Artillery is an arm of derision in the hills; cavalry can rarely act +effectually, and in the way of reconnoitring is next to useless, as its +movements can be espied from rock-cover on every eminence; but in the +open these insurgents can do nothing against disciplined troops. Pity +that they should be such fools as to abandon their pleasant and +comfortable, if humble, homesteads, to help on the aspirations of any +right-divine make-believe claimant to the heaven-sent mission--by +accident of birth--of impressing other human beings that he is wiser +than they, and should have revenues and reverence for condescending to +govern them. + +What would our ox-drivers do, I wonder, if they could overhear and +understand the conversation in which thoughts like these are exchanged +in the lumbering Noah's ark they are helping through their domain? We +are getting nigh and nigher to the clouds, and the quilt of snow on the +mountain grows thicker. The pathway is traceable only by the marks of +the hoofs of beasts of burden and the ruts of wheels, and the fleecy +banks at each side rise gradually higher. It is palpably colder, and yet +we are far from the culminating point of the Pyrenean pass; straight +saplings are not infrequent around, and here and there a lowly hut in a +nook under some sheltering rock, both hut and rock hoary with snow, +startles us with the reminder that human beings actually live here. The +Basques, said Voltaire, are a people who sing and dance on the summit +of the Pyrenees. Our ox-drivers do not sing, neither do our muleteers. +This interminable glare is becoming very fatiguing to the eyes, and the +higher we ascend the rarer are the refreshing little streaks of darker +hue. Stumps of dwarf trees replace the straight saplings to be seen +lower down; and hardly are we on the crest of one snow-capped hill than +another, hidden under the same smooth sheet of everlasting lime-white, +mocks us. Slowly and painfully the oxen toil along, and the peasants by +their side sink knee-deep at every step. Will this ever end? It was +picturesque at first to watch the long caravan coiling over the spiral +track which turns right and left like a corkscrew. Now it is tedious, +for we are chilled and worn-out, hungry and cramped. The sublimity of +nature is grandiose, but there may be too much of it. One tires of +rolling perpetual cigarettes; one even tires of studying the forcible +Spanish adjurations that begin with the third letter of the alphabet. My +companions, four French commercial travellers, relapse into silence and +doze off into fitful starts of the sleepiness begot of extreme cold; +the fifth--a grandee of Castile I take him to be at the very least by +his appearance, broad swarthy countenance, shaven upper lip and chin, +and short spade whiskers of a night-black--the fifth, this Spaniard, did +not relapse into silence, for he had never uttered a word since we +started. + +What weariness to the flesh is this tedious climb to regions +hyperborean! I catch myself yawning. What if our waggon were to break +down! At last one of the Frenchmen bursts out, "_Dieu de Dieu, j'en ai +assez_." He would stand or rather sit it no longer, opened the door, and +alighted. We all followed his example, even to the taciturn Spaniard, +and took to the road. A walk in advance might send the blood +circulating, and on we plodded in the middle of the path, regardless of +the snow which soaked into our boots and saturated our trousers to the +knees. Not a living being was visible but two crows who bore us company, +and hopped on our flanks like a covering-party. The road was tantalizing +in its tortuousness; after walking a furlong we found ourselves a couple +of yards directly above the point we had quitted a quarter of an hour +before. One of the Frenchmen, seeing this, had an inspiration; he +determined to go up the mountain perpendicularly, and before we could +dissuade him he had sunk to his armpits in a treacherous crevasse. We +dragged him out by making a cable of our pocket-handkerchiefs and +throwing it to him. He took his wetting in good part. + +"Ah!" he cried, "shan't I have something to tell them when I get back to +the Boulevard des Italiens." And then, as if reflecting, he added, "But +no, 'twill never do; they'd call me _farceur_." + +A red-brick building with an arrangement of iron on the roof, as if it +had been employed as a signal-post, faced us--high up on the pinnacle of +a ridge at one moment; was at our side the next; behind us anon; and +directly before us now. By turns it was small and large. We were asking +ourselves (all except the Spaniard; he never spoke) was this a +phantasmagoria, when a jingle of bells was heard on the still air. Where +did it come from? We could see nothing. Suddenly, as a theatrical ghost +springs from a trap-door, at an abrupt turn a wild figure appears +bearing right down upon us. A Carlist chieftain? Not so fast. A muleteer +simply, sitting sideways on his prad, and leading a half-dozen mules +laden with panniers in Indian file behind him. He told us we had reached +the summit, and that there was a fonda a short distance off. Signs of +life multiplied; we met mountaineers, with oxen drawing small cars with +solid wheels similar to those of toy carriages--wheels that kept up +perpetual creak and croak--and finally we encountered the caravan from +Alsasua to Beasain. But we encountered no Carlists, that is, no armed +Carlists, for every man there is Carlist in soul. The smoky fonda was as +miserable as the most miserable of Irish shebeens; yet they gave us good +white bread and eggs to eat, and, with the aid of the sauce of hunger +and sundry glasses of acid Val de Peñas to wash it down, we made a +hearty meal. The caravan overtook us in half an hour; the rest of the +journey was downhill, the snow was deeper than on the other side, and +the jolting terrific, but we did not care. Our goal was near, and we +had eaten and drunk. We laughed at the dangers we had passed, and even +the Spaniard unbent and exhibited unexpected powers of conversation. +Alas! for my judgment; he was no grandee of Castile, but a butcher from +Saragossa, a mere _carnifex_ with blood of the common red tint. + +At Alsasua we came upon a village bleaker than Beasain, with soldiers +billeted under every roof. They loitered in twos and threes about the +wide street, which was drab with patches of dirty snow. Here were placed +a few mountain guns under custody of a shivering sentry, there a bugler +in slovenly greatcoat blew some call with pinched lips on a battered +instrument. At the station--a rude shanty with wooden partitions and a +plank erection run up as refreshment-stall--some attempt had been made +at fortification. There were mud-works thrown up in its vicinity, and +the walls were roughly loop-holed. A party of Linesmen were in +possession. On a siding close by was the locomotive which had been +riddled with shot by the insurgents on the now disused line to +Pampeluna. Our own locomotive was awaiting us, with steam up, and I +hurried to procure my ticket. I pushed a piece of honest red gold +through the wicket, and an extremely nice, slim female clerk gave me the +pasteboard with my change and thanks. Something struck me in the silver +shoved towards me; the leaden hue of the pesetas was suspicious. I took +up one and rung it; the dull sound convinced me it was bad. I rung +another--same result. I was desolate; but I had to call the attention of +the extremely nice girl to the error she had fallen into; and she +coolly, without adumbration of a blush, or faintest pretence at apology, +took back the base coins, and gave me their equivalent in coins that +were sterling. And then, for the first time, it broke upon me, that it +was not considered a scoundrelly act to pass bad money upon an innocent +foreigner, or upon an innocent native, for the matter of that. I further +learned that if I had removed that bad money from the counter, I should +have had to bear with the loss. That extremely nice girl would have +assured me with all politeness that I must be labouring under an +illusion. + +The Spaniard has personal dignity to a prodigious degree. But his +personal dignity does not hinder the ordinary Spaniard from endeavouring +to foist counterfeit stamps upon his neighbour whenever he has the +chance. + +The tarantara of a bugle stirred a company of soldiers to take their +places in the train. They were our escort to Miranda, on the borders of +Old Castile, where we might consider ourselves out of danger. It is my +opinion we were never in any danger. + +We reached Miranda safely, and from that swept down in the darkness to +Madrid without molest, the most of us snoring as regularly as the funnel +of the engine snorted. I had a fearsome vision of a sweet Spanish maiden +who had knowingly placed a worthless peseta in the tirelire at Mass, and +had been sentenced by Santa Cruz to grill on the gridiron of hell for +the term of her natural life. A carpet-bag utilized as a pillow was the +origin of my vision. Had that carpet-bag been more carelessly packed, +the penalty on the poor girl might have been prolonged to eternity. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + Madrid--The Fonda and its Porter--The Puerta del Sol--Postal + Irregularities--Tribute to the Madrileños--The Barber's + Pronunciamiento--Anecdotes of King Amadeus--Checkmating the Grand + Dames--Queen Isabella--The Embarrassed Mr. Layard of Nineveh--The + Great Powers Hesitate--America Goes Ahead--General Sickles--Mahomet + and the Mountain--Republicanism among the troops--A Peculiar + Pennsylvanian Dentist--Castelar under Torture--The Writer meets one + of his Sept--Politicians by Trade--Honour among Insurgents--Alonso + the Reckless. + + +First impressions of Madrid, "the only court," do not fill the visitor +with awe. It is an aggregate of masonry, fragmentary on the edges, +compact in the middle, on a sandy plateau in a waste of arid landscape. +There is lack of natural shade and water, albeit there are tree-planted +walks and gardens, with cedars and Himalayan pines, and fountains with +fulness of clear flow are abundant. It wants a river; the Manzanares, I +am told, is but a ditch. I do not know if that is so; I never could see +the Manzanares. A rugged, sun-blistered city, Madrid struck me as no +more characteristically Spanish--or what I had taught myself to accept +as such--than Turin is Italian; both are half-Frenchified. In the +northern distance are the summits of the Guadarrama hills, and the +unseen breeze which sweeps down from its snowy eyries amongst them cuts +like an icicle. The Madrileño fears it, for it has a trick of permeating +the streets with a subtile, chilling, killing breath; and when the +Madrileño steps from the sunny to the shady side of the street he is +careful to lift a corner of his cloak as screen to his mouth. + +The central point of Madrid is the Puerta del Sol--a bare, broad, +irregular area off which nine thoroughfares diverge. Round it the +day-god, greatest friend of Spain, pivots in glory. Now he floods one +side with radiance, now he drops his cloth of gold over another. The +Puerta del Sol is the focus of interest for the population. Thither the +gossips repair, and there the affairs of the nation are discussed very +often by those who have acted, act, or hope to act as leaders of the +nation. Naturally I made for the Puerta del Sol, for it was of vital +importance to me to be in the movement, in the very vortex of the pool. +I was fortunate. I got rooms in the Fonda de Paris, an hotel at the +corner of the Calle de Alcalá, the principal avenue leading from the +Plaza. As proof of the unsettled condition of affairs and its effect +upon trade, it need only be said that at the _table d'hôte_ of this, the +first hotel in the capital, where one hundred and thirty persons usually +sit down to dinner, there were sometimes not more than fifteen or +twenty, and a proportion of these were fly-about Special Correspondents. +Yet in this exiguous circle of prudent people who were detained in +Madrid, or foolhardy people who had travelled there, turned up the +irrepressible British tourist. Of the latter class we had charming +specimens at dinner one evening in two English girls, with fresh peachy +complexions, and hair like wavy masses of ripe maize. They had no guide +but their faithful "Murray." What became of them subsequently I never +ascertained; but it is to be trusted they were as lucky as the +enterprising young lady who relied on Erin's honour and Erin's pride in +the reign of King Brian, and made the tour of the Emerald Isle with a +gold ring on the tip of a wand. That would hardly pay the hotel-bills +nowadays. + +A great feature in the fonda was Constantine, the hall-porter, a tall +swarthy man, who was as fluent a linguist as an Alexandria dragoman. He +was Greek by birth, but had a strain of English blood on the mother's +side. His sire may have been a South Sea cannibal or a South African +lion-slayer for aught I remember; but that there was something +phenomenally bold in him I am certain. Constantine's instincts were +predatory, and his manners morose. There was a tradition that he had +been a bandit in the neighbourhood of Smyrna, or an innkeeper by the +Marseilles docks--much about the same thing, and that he was prepared to +do little jobs of human carving for a consideration. However, these may +have been fables got up by travellers in search of excitement to invest +Constantine with an interesting air of romance. He was very civil to me +and did not cheat me more than I chose. I never had occasion to ask him +to kill anybody. + +From my windows I could command the mid-basin in the Plaza, more for use +than ornament, and as great a rendezvous of the quidnuncs as a +village-pump. The panorama of life lounged or moved or bustled +beneath--shifting groups of cloaked disputants, veiled women tripping +gracefully along, stately Civil Guards in three-cornered hats, sombre +priests with Don Basilio head-gear, the various moulds of human nature +from the grandee to the mendicant, and above all that brood with which I +soon grew familiar, and for which I conceived an invincible disgust--the +sallow, peering, prating, importunate brood of hungry place-hunters, +impatient to dip their fingers into the Government pie. Cabriolets +passed to and fro, tram-cars with such sleek well-conditioned mule-teams +jolted on the rails; here a horse-soldier trotted by with clattering +accoutrements, there a water-carrier sturdily trudged; and in a +sheltered angle a long-locked vendor of a magic hair-restorer vaunted +his wondrous balm in sonorous patter, and occasionally curtained his +face with his thick mane brought over from his back as tangible +testimony to the fertilizing properties of the balm. In short, from +those windows I could take in the cardiac pulsing of Madrid. Below me, +as I sat and smoked my cigarette, the beginning of change or crux, +accident or riot, the initial whims or humours of the populace, the +formation of a procession or the overture of a pronunciamiento, were +within my ken. And at one corner of the Puerta were the General Post +Office and Telegraphic Bureau, a matter of great convenience to me, if +only they were properly managed. However, it was far easier to collect +news than to send it to the desired destination. The post was as unsafe +as in those days in another land when Mr. Richard Turpin, highwayman, +and his comrogues intercepted his Majesty's mails. As for messages by +wire, I was not long in learning that no important information was +allowed to be sent; true, the money for its transmission was taken, +but--delayed, or forwarded, or suppressed even--the strict rule in that +establishment was "no money returned." Vain were complaints. The Special +Correspondent had no resource but that of the negro suffering from +toothache; 'twas his to grin and bear it. The idea of ever again seeing +the colour of the coin which has passed into the palm of a Spanish +functionary is laughable in its pastoral innocence. As well expect to +handle last year's snow. The system of ignorant espionage still obtained +in the Peninsula, as I was forced reluctantly to observe: the word +"Cuba" or "Carlos" on the telegraphic form at once aroused the scruples +and suspicions of the official, and led to the confiscation of the +message. In the end, I discovered how to facilitate the despatch of +news; but as that is my secret I keep it to myself. Suffice it that in +my bill of expenses the item "sundries" was elastic. + +There are some valuable guide-books to Spain, and to them I refer the +reader if he desire to be crammed with curious knowledge about churches +and picture-galleries, museums of arms, and the beautiful upholstery of +the Duke of Sixty-Blazons' palace. My behest was with living not dead +Spain, as investigated during the throes of a political convulsion. I +made my notes on the Madrileños without bias, and without bias I give +them. I spent five weeks in constant and free intercourse with all +classes of the inhabitants. During that time I did not detect one +Belleville face; I did not catch the glitter of a knife except at a +dinner-table, nor remark a single drunkard staggering along the streets. +Yet I was in every quarter of the town, to the lowest, at all hours. +There are parts of London where the foreign visitor could not penetrate +and come back with the same story. The Madrileños are indolent--granted; +but they are frugal, temperate, and well-conducted. Occasionally a +poniard is slipped into the ribs of an enemy, but mistakes will occur in +the best-regulated families. If this be a vindictive and blood-sucking +people, the vampirism is adroitly concealed; the dirty linen must be +washed in the dark corner where the charcoal is stored, so that Paul Pry +may not be gratified with the sight. There is no working population at +Madrid; there are no large manufactories, no thriving centres of +employment. That is one reason why Madrid is orderly compared to other +and livelier cities. Prosperous Barcelona swarms with mechanics and +artisans, and that is one reason why Barcelona is disorderly. The +rights-of-man agitators generally find favour there. The International +has its ramifications in the Catalonian capital. In Madrid, the +International is a pigmy failure. Its emissaries came once and laboured +zealously to stir up the son of toil to a proper consciousness of his +dignity. After months of propagandism they succeeded in persuading +Figaro to shake a rebellious pole and fiercely flourish his +lathering-brush. + +"Know, ye smooth-lipped minions of the despot Capital," quoth the +barbers in an indignant round-robin, "we shall no longer submit to the +gross tyranny of shaving you before eight of the morning!" + +But Figaro was defeated; Madrid let its beard grow. + +The sudden departure of the Italian-bred monarch had apparently plunged +the politicians into a pit of bewilderment. They did not know how they +stood. Amadeus after his reign of five-and-twenty months had perchance +left few partisans behind him, but assuredly no enemies. His principal +fault, but that was fatal, consisted in his being a foreigner. It was +universally vouchsafed that he was very brave, a true hidalgo in that +respect, and if he had been removed in the orthodox method by revolution +or the assassin, his name would have been garlanded with rosemary for +remembrance. But Spanish pride was nettled to the quick at the cavalier +way he had tossed back, with a shrug of the shoulders, the gift of a +crown when he had tired of it. He had looked upon the throne of Castile +as a gewgaw to be surrendered with indifference, and steamed contentedly +to Italy to enjoy his comparatively obscure Dukedom and rank of General +in preference. He had chosen the wiser and happier part, but to those he +had abandoned it was mortifying in the extreme. Still, he was an +unquailing chevalier, almost fit to be a Spaniard, this son of Victor +Emmanuel. He had disarmed hostility, and compelled the praise of the +envious, the very day he entered Madrid, forty-eight hours after the +funeral of Prim, when he spurred ahead of his escort and offered his +breast undismayed to the aim of any or all assassins. + +That entry of Amadeus could not have inspired him with much of the +buoyancy of a bright expectation. There was in it more of sanguinary +suggestiveness than sanguine hope. The ghostly presence at the King's +first dinner in the palace could not be denied--that of the slaughtered +"Paladino," no longer fiery and strenuous, but a figure, inert, waxen, +blood-bolstered, a bullet-riddled flesh-target It was most unpropitious +of entries. There was an odour of cerecloth in the tapestry, the yellow +hue of immortelles in the épergnes, a sediment of bitterness in the +wine-cup, a strain of melancholy in the music. And yet there was some +semblance of gaiety, for with all his austere stateliness your Spaniard +is very like unto the Irishman: + + "With one auspicious, and one dropping eye, + With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage, + In equal scale weighing delight and dole." + +There were sundry plots to take the life of Amadeus, but Providence +protected him, and he made it a point, after each attempt or threat, to +show himself in public with the ostentation of a reckless courage. He +rode or walked about with a single aide-de-camp, which was a crime with +those monarchists who set store by the pageantry of state. On one +occasion, as he was returning to the palace, the horse in a +hackney-coach with a fat bourgeois inside took fright, and started off +at break-neck speed, overtaking the King's carriage. The King's coachman +whipped up his team, but the wheels of the two vehicles had locked in +each other, and the horses galloped frantically side by side. The +aide-de-camp, fearing a new and daring experiment in regicide, snatched +his rapier from the sheath and began furiously prodding through the +window of the hackney-coach. The fat bourgeois shrunk and flattened +himself into a corner, drew in his breath, and dodged the lunges of the +searching steel. When the palace-gates were reached, and the animals +were stopped, the unfortunate citizen was extricated from his hazardous +position more dead than alive. He was glistening with the wetness of +fright, trembled like an aspen, and blubbered as he begged for mercy. +The panelling was pierced, and the cushion ripped into rags; but by some +extraordinary luck the poor man, who was a harmless dealer in +provisions, had escaped without a scratch. But he owned that he never +before had five minutes of such violent exercise complicated with vile +terror. During the scene Amadeus kept his seat tranquilly, and relaxed +into a smile as he discovered the mistake of his too-zealous companion. + +The conspiracies of the saloons were more successful, as efforts to +annoy without contravening law always are. They are not so readily met. +And the malicious ingenuity of woman, when she lays herself out to be +offensive, is remarkably inventive and diabolically persistent. Some of +the grand dames of Madrid had the impish inspiration to put the Royal +couple into Coventry. There is a fashionable carriage-drive in the +capital corresponding much to ours between Hyde Park Corner and Queen's +Gate. Whenever Amadeus and his spouse went there for an airing, the +blue-blooded of the opposition significantly trotted off. Once an +immense procession of the aristocratic families made its appearance, and +slowly and perseveringly "took the dust." Such a turn-out of gala +equipages had not been witnessed for years. All the ladies were arrayed +in the ancient Spanish costume; the fan and veil with high comb and +carnation in the hair in every case replaced the Parisian bonnet and +parasol. It was a protest against the foreign dynasty, and was clearly +meant as a demonstration of insult. One of the Royal household was equal +to the provocation; whether Spaniard or Italian I am not sure, but the +latter I think, so subtle was his revenge. He went round to all the +houses of ill-fame in the capital that night, and entered into +conversation, burnished with duros, with their female occupants. The +next evening Madrid was afforded the spectacle in its most fashionable +drive of a parade of courtesans, in ancient Spanish costumes, fanning +themselves, and smirking at their acquaintances from the vantage of +luxurious chariots. It was a scandal, but Madrid grinned, and the +patricians of the antediluvian stem confessed themselves beaten. + +There was still a lingering fondness for the deposed Isabella among the +lower orders. They looked upon her as a good sort, one of the old stock, +prayerful, and affable. She was accustomed to enter wayside cabins, and +get into homely chat with the peasants. The Italian woman never did +that. Alphonse Daudet's description of Isabella as a stout queen, who by +her massive jaws and high complexion resembled a coarse-rinded +blood-orange, would not be endorsed by these humble yearners after the +bygone. Indeed, they regarded her as one who had been a type of beauty +in her time, and was still a type of good-nature, and were forgiving to +her peccadilloes, she was so devout. Of course I must not be understood +as speaking here of Spanish partisans of the Republican idea. They had +no more pity for the creatures tainted with Royalty than the Polynesian +for his leprous kinsman--but they were comparatively few. + +Great Britain, at that period, was represented by Mr. Austin Layard, and +the United States by General Daniel Sickles. The British Envoy was in a +dilemma; he did not know how far he would be justified in recognising +the newly-proclaimed Republic; if he received visits of ceremonial it +would be an unpardonable breach of courtesy not to return them; in +short, to use a very graphic locution of the masses, he was waiting to +see how the cat jumped, and cheerfully submitted to a diplomatic +catarrh which confined him to his room. I went to visit him, when we had +an interesting dialogue on some recently exhumed relics of antiquity and +exquisite bits of crockery-ware. Mr. Layard impressed me as more taken +up with concerns of Nineveh and Wardour Street than of _la haute +politique_. But, as he frankly acknowledged, he was not free to act +until he had received his instructions from Downing Street. Though there +is no written pact to the effect, the rule is that Russia, Germany, +Austria--the Great Powers in short--shall only act in conjunction, and +after having exchanged confidential notes, when eventualities arise +affecting all their interests, such as this in Madrid; and--another +consideration besides--was there really any Government yet? It was only +provisional. It could hardly be supposed that any of the Great Powers +would refuse to bow to the will of the Spanish people; but what was its +will? That was a question that could not be admitted to be definitely +settled. + +The United States had struck the key-note--had recognised the infant +Republic, while the Prime Minister, Señor Figueras, was waiting for the +chorus of acclamation from the "robust voices" of those Great Powers +which deliberate before they act. The United States are a fast-trotting +buggy; but these Great Powers in this miserable, played-out old +Continent are slow coaches. Not that there were not deliberations in the +White House before General Sickles was authorized to use his +discretionary power in signing the baptismal certificate of this +Republic of accident. General Sickles was undoubtedly clever; he had +experience in his time as a journalist, an advocate, and a soldier. It +was his opinion that Spain had found in the Republic the means of +establishing her power and prosperity on a solid basis. During the +crisis, he kept his Government informed of what was passing, and to his +demand transmitted by cable in the dawn of Wednesday, the 14th of +February, an answer was returned within twenty hours, permitting him to +exercise his judgment as he thought proper. He imagined that a Federal +Republic, on the pattern of that of the United States, with provincial +legislatures in Catalonia, Aragon, Andalusia, and so on, and a National +Congress in Madrid, was the panacea for the ills of Spain, and that that +would be sufficient to dissolve all antagonisms of race, custom, and +feeling, and amalgamate them into one accordant patriotic sentiment. The +General was over-hopeful in the estimation of others, who knew Spain as +well as he; but he acted rightly according to his views, and ably +according to his gifts--only it was to be hoped the General would use +his influence to dissuade his Government from offending its friends and +brothers of Spain by proposing anew a transaction that would lead to the +abandonment of Cuba--an awkward mission with which he was once charged. +Surely if a diplomatic representative could quietly talk the influential +personages of the nation to which he was accredited into a zeal for the +abolition of slavery in Porto Rico, he could quietly talk the +influential personages of his own nation into letting Spanish territory +alone. A pompous man this American Minister, active, talkative, and on +cordial terms with himself. He hobbled about on his cork leg, leaning on +the arm of his handsome Spanish wife, the second. There was a legend in +Madrid that the General had lost his limb in a duel about a lady; there +had been a question of petticoats in his career once, but it never +entered into the minds of those simple Madrileños that a soldier without +a breastful of decorations might have been wounded, as he had been, on +the battle-field. + +The United States were friendly; but France, Republican France, what was +she doing? Why did she delay to move? She, at least, ought to have had +some fellow-feeling for another Republic without Republicans. The truth +was, M. Thiers could not come to any decision without consulting his +Council of Ministers. His action was not quite so unfettered as that of +President Grant. This was the more to be regretted that Señor Olózaga +recognised the Republic of mob acclamation--that of the 4th September, +1870, in Paris--without hesitation. The same compliment was felt by +Spaniards to be due to the Republic of accident. + +On the 20th of February, Señor Castelar took a course that might give a +galvanic shock to the world of diplomats, but which was worthy of a +bold Republican prophet. Since the mountain would not come to Mahomet, +Mahomet went to the mountain. In plainer words--but has not one an +excuse for being figurative when speaking of Señor Castelar?--the +Minister for Foreign Affairs determined to take the bull by the horns +(pardon this figure for the sake of its aptness in Spain). The +representatives of the Great Powers did not call on him; he called on +them. His coy advances were met with frigid politeness. A Madrid paper +asserted that "an important and friendly conference" had been held +between the Minister and Mr. Layard, which, to say the least, was a +_suggestio falsi_. Mr. Layard, as an English gentleman, could not but +have received his visitor in a friendly manner; but he kept within the +strict line of his very delicate duties with a studious discretion. +Señor Castelar saw plainly that events had not prepared the way and made +straight the path of the new Republic towards recognition. The Great +Powers could not be found fault with, if they were slow to admit to the +brotherhood of nations a Republic which had already exhibited within +its fortnight's existence what may be literally called two dictatures +(those of Señores Rivero and Martos), the abdication of power by a +majority, two provisional and two "permanent" Governments, a cabinet of +conciliation, and a cabinet of homogeneity, not to mention a round of +permutations in the civil governorships of Madrid, and the +captain-generalcy of New Castile, and in the commands of the armies of +the North and Catalonia. + +From the country poured in felicitations to the Republic from hamlet and +city, tumid with a rampant joy. These documents emphatically protested +that the majority of the population was Republican. Yet talk +confidentially to any Spaniard, not actually a Republican propagandist, +and not one of the ignorant lower classes of the towns--an average, +intelligent, middle-class Spaniard--and he would tell you there were no +Republicans in Spain. The thorough frankness with which Spaniards speak +of their own country, its divisions and its national faults, is +phenomenal. "We are very foolish," they own with a charming candour, +but the foreigner had better not chime in with them. They will fire up +in an instant. If they are foolish, it is no business of his; Spanish +quarrels are conducted precisely on the principles of those between man +and wife. The outsider who interposes in them must be prepared to wipe a +bloody nose. + +But the doctrines of Republicanism were producing their effects in the +army nevertheless, and the first of these was a tendency to +demoralization. The troops at Barcelona fraternized with the working +men, and raised cries for the Republic and for their own liberation from +service. They desired individual as well as national independence. In +that they were but logical. The Republicans out of power inveighed +against standing armies as a monstrosity, a relic of effete Monarchical +tyranny. The argument was now used against the Republic; the bird of +freedom was menaced by a shaft plumed from her own wing. If discipline +were once generally relaxed in the army, which is the salt of Spain, +then farewell security and come chaos. That was the chief peril in the +way. A man, in the highest meaning of the word, one born to command, +was wanted to save the country. He was looked for in vain. Prim had left +no successor. + +In forming my opinions on Spain and the Spaniards, I was aided not a +little by the good offices of a shrewd but eccentric American dentist, +named Maceehan, who had left Pennsylvania at so remote a date that +nobody could recollect it. Long as he had been absent from his native +country, he retained its accent, its peculiarities, and evergreen +patriotism, and on each recurring 4th of July gave a lavish banquet in +honour of American Independence in a restaurant decked with +star-spangled banners, and had the privilege of making all the magnates +of the capital, soldiers, ministers, courtiers, nobles, poets, and +painters, clink their glasses as he sang "Yankee Doodle." Long as he had +been in Madrid, he could not speak Spanish correctly, and his mistakes +fed the clubs with side-splitting anecdotes. He was the soul of +hospitality, and garrulous as a jay. He was in the secrets of the +wire-workers, and had a novel process of extracting information as he +extracted teeth. As his patient sat in the chair of torture he plied him +slyly with interrogatories, and learned what he wanted, but he never +betrayed confidences. In his way he was as proud as the proudest +Spaniard of them all. Emilio Castelar came to him once with an agonizing +toothache. Maceehan laid hold of the offending fang with his forceps. +Castelar shrieked and clutched at his hand. + +"You have got the wrong tooth!" + +"Caramba!" said the Pennsylvanian, lowering his instrument. "So you have +come here to teach me my business. I will thank you to leave the room, +señor." + +"I beg a thousand pardons, but consider the pain. Do with me as you +like, dear doctor." + +"The dear doctor in that case will adjourn the operation till to-morrow. +By that time the señor may have discovered that though the dear doctor +may not be an adept at literature or administration, he has some skill +at pulling teeth." + +And Castelar, in spite of his apologies and entreaties and plaints, had +to accept the penance of four-and-twenty hours. He could not think of +going anywhere else, for Maceehan was master of his profession. There +was not a set of artificial grinders in Madrid with which the American +was not familiar. He had looked into the mouths of every Infante and +Infanta, had lanced the gums of awful Captains-General, and inserted +gold wires in the ivory treasures of most of the reigning beauties. He +had been dentist by appointment to Isabella, and had care of the +_mâchoire_ of the lovely Eugenia de Montijo in her maidenhood. The very +thought of sipping a cup of tea in the intimacy of a man who had +fingered the palate of a Cardinal, plugged the hollow in a Queen's +molar, and arrested the manifestation of caries in the central incisor +of an Empress, was too much. It was oppressive. + +I was amply provided with letters of introduction at starting, but I was +in no hurry to present them. It was fortunate for me. Those who were in +power to-day were in disgrace to-morrow, and _vice versâ_, and most of +those to whom I had credentials were leaders of parties. One +non-politician, a scion of my own sept, but no relative, I did call +upon, as funds were to be forwarded to me through his agency. A +pleasant old man, he had a brogue as Irish as the _canavaun_ of the Bog +of Allen, although he had quitted Ireland in early childhood--a mellow, +musical, unctuous brogue. What a sovereign contempt he had for fomenters +of revolution, intriguers, and the drones who buzzed while others +worked, and wanted to be rewarded for buzzing! + +"Namesake," he said, "if you knew the mean secret motives of half these +wretched politicians by trade, you would spit upon them. There was but +one man fit to govern this nation." + +I forget whom he mentioned, but it was a Marshal (Narváez, I fancy), +who, when asked on his death-bed by his father-confessor, Did he forgive +his enemies? answered that he had none--he had shot them all. + +"There may be nothing serious here for the present," he continued, "and +yet one can't tell; but I think they will go on shilly-shallying and +tinkering up constitutions for months to come." + +"Then I should have a better field for my labours in the Carlist +country." + +"Undoubtedly; but if you think of going there, you must cut off that +yellowish-red beard or they will call you Judas Iscariot. Do you speak +Basque?" + +"No; but as to the beard, I am equal to the sacrifice of shaving it and +dying my moustache." + +"Ah, yes; you may do that sure enough, but it is not so easy to learn +Basque!" + +If I could not learn Basque I could learn of the Basques, and what I did +learn was so much to their credit that it is only fair to write it down. +They were not Thugs, they were neither sanguinary nor thievish. The +peasantry of the Basque provinces are the finest in Spain--intelligent, +hospitable, brave, gentle, but fiercely fanatical where religion is +concerned. Instances were narrated to me of travellers who had been +arrested by them, being liberated without damage to person or detriment +to purse. In one case a Frenchman was robbed by a small party, but his +money and papers were restored to him a few days after by one of the +chiefs, with an apology. The correspondent of the _Temps_, who +accompanied the army in a previous Carlist campaign, informed me that +after a skirmish in which forty Carlists were captured, he was anxious +to send an account of the affair to Paris, but he did not know how. + +"Hold!" said a colonel, "I'll find you the means." + +He called over a prisoner, and asked him if he were let off on parole, +would he take a letter through the disturbed district, and post it on +the other side for a French gentleman? The man pleaded fatigue. + +"You'll be well paid." + +At last he consented; my informant gave him the letter and a five-franc +piece. While monsieur was searching his pockets for more money to give +him, the prisoner said: + +"I have no change, caballero; how shall we manage?" + +The prisoner duly set off; the letter was duly posted and duly arrived, +and the prisoner faithfully returned and delivered himself up. Honour is +not yet extinct in the Basque provinces, nor is magnanimity in the +Spanish army. The commandant dismissed the peasant with a look of +admiration and a push on the back. But some fireside philosopher will +argue: + +"Why, these honourable fellows cut telegraph wires and fire on railway +trains." + +The Carlists explain: "The telegraph and the railway are our greatest +enemies; the one sends for reinforcements, the other brings them." + +The unfortunate station-masters are to be pitied. Lizárraga sends one +word that he will incur the penalty of death if he makes up a train for +troops. The troops arrive, their commander demands to be furnished with +a train to take him to a certain point; if the station-master refuses he +is not merely threatened with the death-penalty, but incurs it on the +spot. But the fireside philosophers, assuming the cocked-hat of the +general, will continue: + +"Why not protect the telegraphs and the railways?" The query may be met, +_more Hibernico_, by another: + +Do the philosophers know how enormous and difficult an extent of country +has to be protected? + +It would take more men than there are in the Spanish army altogether, +including the regiment of dismissed generals in Madrid, to act as +military milesmen in the perturbed territory. The Army of the North did +what it could--that is to say, it fortified the railway stations, +converting them into veritable block-houses, and supplied escorts to the +trains; but the Carlists had an unpurchasable ally in the darkness. They +could come down in the night and play old Harry with metals and wires. +The insurgents were ill-armed and undisciplined, but they were on their +own ground, every square inch of which they knew; they were leal to each +other, and they had acquired the secret of guerrilla campaigning--that +is, they harassed the regulars by fighting and running away, so that +they might live to fight another day. They avoided concentration in +mass, knowing how dangerous it is to pack all one's eggs in a single +basket. + +So daring had these Carlists become that bands had made demonstrations +in perilous nearness to the capital, or rather they had been organized +in the capital itself and had taken to the field in the neighbourhood. +From a rising ground hard by the palace could be distinguished with the +naked eye a thicket on the desolate plain in the distance, where the +remnants of one band were known to be hiding. The fates were against +the insurgents, as they were met at Buendia and badly beaten two days +after they had unfurled the banner of revolt. Eleven of them were slain, +including a priest, twenty wounded and one hundred and seventeen taken +prisoners, including their two chiefs. The elder of these, Alonso, a man +of three-score and ten, died in the military hospital of Madrid on the +19th of March. He was a venerable fanatic of asinine stupidity to have +risked a fight with regular troops in the open. Fortune, in my +experience, favours not so much the brave as the wary. Had this +particular Alonso the brave, really an Alonso the reckless, availed +himself of a few picks and spades--the first farmhouse will seldom fail +to supply entrenching tools--he might have lived to die in his own bed +of a natural disease. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + A Late Capital--The Gambling Mania--A French Rendezvous--The Duke + de Fitzpepper--The Morality of Passing Bad Money--Spanish + Compliments--Men in Pickle--A Licentious Ballet--Federal + Manners--Prim's Artifice--Nouvilas Goes North--A Carlist + Proclamation--Don Alfonso--Midnight Oil--Castelar's Circular. + + +Madrid is not an early capital--natural effect of the climate. In the +middle of the day the blinds are let down, the shops are shut, the +streets are empty--everybody who can at all manage it is taking the +siesta. The business of sunlight is at a standstill. The few hours thus +stolen from the day are religiously made restitution of to the night, +which is undoubtedly the most agreeable period for a stroll. Pleasure is +in full swing, the promenades are alive, flirtation is methodically +practised in the Spanish way--that is, through an intervening +lattice--theatres and ball-rooms contribute to the programme of +diversion, the coffee-houses (where chocolate is mostly consumed) are +packed to the door-posts, and the business of gaslight is prosecuted +with a desperate concentration of energy and a brooding perseverance. + +The business of gaslight, unfortunately, is high play. That is one of +the social curses of Spain. Everybody gambles, to the sentries in the +guard-house, the patients in the hospitals, the felons in the gaols. +Such is the overwhelming dominion of this national passion that I should +not be surprised at reading of a condemned man on his way to the garrote +craving a hand of cards with the executioner to distract him from his +sorrows. Strained the situation was at this crisis, and in all the clubs +the cards were thrown on the tables with a fever as of men seeking some +relaxation from the fierce game of politics; but, as I had opportunity +to assure myself afterwards, this was nothing exceptional. The fever for +play as high as the pocket can allow, often higher, is normal. The +foreigner--and all foreigners provided with the slightest credentials +are most graciously made free of the clubs--soon takes note of that. + +The Fornos, the Suizo, and other coffee-houses were transformed into +debating-forums, and sometimes I frequented them to catch what was going +on; but my haunt of predilection was a restaurant patronized by French +refugees. They had brought with them the Gaulish gaiety, and it was +instructive to see Communists, fugitive aristocrats, bagmen with the +asphalte of the boulevards still clinging to the soles of their boots, +and steady old settlers in Madrid foregathering in friendly +forgetfulness of differing shades of political coats. One of the three +Marquesses de Fonvielle and de Coutuly, of the _Temps_, amongst other +journalists, used to drop in regularly. De Coutuly has since strayed +into diplomacy. Touching journalists who wander into that luxurious +labyrinth, the representative of the _New York Herald_, at Madrid, a +painstaking gentleman with a certain cleverness, Russell Young, +subsequently became United States' Minister to China. Prizes of this +class, which rain upon Continental and American publicists, seldom fall +to the lot of their brethren of the British press, unless they get into +Parliament or boldly single themselves out from the anonymous herd. +Then they are sometimes promoted to a Consulship in an insalubrious +region, where they have every facility for studying the manners of the +buck-nigger, and the customs of the lively sand-fly. Far and away the +most interesting customer of this restaurant was the Duke de Fitzpepper, +a tall, dark, strong man with curly black hair, a boisterous voice, and +a bold laugh. He had to quit France on account of an affair of honour. +He had been in the Imperial Navy, had a squabble with his captain, and +resigned his commission that he might send him a challenge. They met +with the customary duelling swords, but de Fitzpepper made a mistake. He +ran his antagonist through. I know naught of the merits of the quarrel, +but to my insularly uneducated mind it appeared that the gallant +nobleman experienced inadequate remorse at having the blood of a +fellow-creature on his soul. Perhaps I am hyper-sensitive, but when de +Fitzpepper used to boast "_Je me connais dans le flingot_," it sent a +thread of cold water creeping down my spine, not from fear but from +aversion. Yet it was impossible to keep aloof from him for long, he was +such a joyous, dashing, carry-your-outworks pattern of a musketeer. + +Evil associations corrupt good manners, I suppose, which must be the +excuse for a Frenchman with whom I entered into conversation in this +mirthful caravanserai. I happened to show him a coin which had been +passed upon me, an escudo, which would be worth a sovereign if it were +not counterfeit. + +"What a shame!" he exclaimed as he fingered it. "What are you going to +do with it?" + +"Nothing," I said. "It's useless to me." + +"Lend it to me, pray." + +I gave it to him, and the following night he asked me what commission I +would allow him. He had passed the bad escudo in his turn. I was +indignant, and accused him of having been guilty of a dishonest act. I +would touch none of the proceeds of his crookedness. + +"Nonsense!" he said, astonished. "I got rid of it in a hell. They're all +rogues there when they have a chance." + +I submit to the casuists that this was a very nice case of conscience. +Winning money at cards is not earning it. He who seeks to win it is +demoralized, and it is to his advantage and the advantage of society +that he should be discouraged in his pernicious foolishness. Therefore, +q.e.d., it was commendable to palm that base coin upon him. I was +unequal to deciding the question off-hand, so I elected to take not a +real of the Frenchman's equivocal profit. But if the Frenchman was to +blame, was I not responsible in the first instance, as having afforded +him the means of cheating his neighbour? When the casuists shall have +elucidated this riddle to their satisfaction, perhaps they will oblige +by telling me how many thousand angels could alight on the point of a +needle. + +Morality is at a low ebb in Madrid, or rather the moral code is +regulated by notions peculiar to the latitude. So with habits. A man +must be "native and to the manner born," before he can affect competency +to interpret them. For example, when a Madrileño asseverates that his +house is yours, or that his equipage which you so much admire is at your +disposal, he does not intend that you should take up your residence +with him there and then, or hold his coachman at your beck. It is simply +a form of etiquette, a mode of speech, as of the Englishman of past +generations who challenged you to mortal combat and subscribed himself +"your obedient humble servant." You will be guilty of a grave solecism +if you imitate that American to whom the grandee remarked with effusion +that the stud which captivated his taste was his own, his very own. + +"Thanks," said Brother Jonathan; "I'll take the roan and the chestnut +to-day and call for the others to-morrow!" + +Although a man may tender you fraudulent coinage with a brazen front, he +may be keen in honour, and resent an insult to his sister with a +knife-stab; although he may intrigue for a Government place with a slimy +self-abasement, under circumstances the same being may go forth +unflinchingly and sacrifice himself on the altar of his country. Spain +is the home of paradox. The beggar is addressed as "your worship," +mutiny is a venial offence, bribery of officials is a recognised +prescription. At the very epoch of which I write, the murderers of Prim +were stalking about the capital; it was a town-crier's secret who they +were and who was the personage who was their employer, yet none had the +temerity to denounce them. And in the saladero, or the "salting-tub," as +the prison was called, it was notorious that there were malefactors who +gave lessons in forgery, and who positively utilized their cells as +convenient head-quarters from which to prey on the unwary public. Their +plan was to write to somebody of position, whose name they had lighted +on in a directory, and inform him that they had often heard speak of him +as a citizen of integrity, and felt that they might trust him; they were +singularly situated, immured for a debt of a few duros, and yet in the +vicinity of his residence they were cognizant of an immense buried +treasure; if he would only send them the trifle needful to pay off that +debt and cover their fare to his town, they would take him with them to +the site of the secret hoard, and repay him with interest for his +kindness. This transparent ruse actually told with hundreds of dupes. +How the _auri sacra fames_ will deprive sane men of sense! He would be +a spendthrift of sympathy who would waste his sympathy upon them. + +I had been under the impression that Spain was a deeply religious +country. The impression was illusive. It may be fanatically religious in +parts, but too often the educated classes rail at religion. As comes to +pass when inordinate demand has been made on credulity, a reaction +arises, and those whose faith was implicit yesterday become the scoffing +heretics of to-day. The tide has turned, and it is no unfrequent +occurrence to hear a Spaniard declare he is not a Christian, whose +fathers would have perhaps burned at a stake the wretch who would have +dared to utter such a profanity. This is very bad. One extreme is as +wicked as another. If the Scylla of stupid superstition was dangerous, +the Charybdis of arrogant scepticism is destructive. This is essentially +a Roman Catholic country, yet never have I seen anywhere, in the lands +where Roman Catholicism is disliked and contemned even, the ceremonies +and institutions of the Church treated with more undisguised ribaldry. I +went to the Novedades, a popular theatre in a humble quarter of the +town in the vicinity of the Calle de Toledo, to see what the piece on +the occasion, "El Triunfo de la República," was like. I got in as a +"Carlist ballet" was being danced; two men were dressed to represent two +famous cabecillas, Saballs and a colleague, two others to represent the +Carlist priest, Santa Cruz, and a monk of the party. Santa Cruz was +bulky as Friar Tuck, leered from under his scoop hat, drank wine, +reeled, toddled, fell, and kicked up his heels as the wild Mabille +quadrille music was played; and high was the content and noisily +expressed the delight of the audience. The four women who took part in +the Terpsichorean orgie wore the robes of nuns, and must have belonged +to the order of Sisters of Shame, if to any. They had blue hoods, white +bands across their foreheads and bosoms, red crosses wrought on their +habits, and trailing skirts of white. Their dancing was not voluptuous; +it would be a misnomer to let it down with so mild an epithet; it was +grossly indecent. They exposed their limbs, and the audience was +ecstatic at the sight. Not a murmur of censure was to be heard. And +this bacchanalian riot, too obscene for any self-respecting house of +ill-fame, was supposed to be held in a church. The scenery showed a +mockery of ecclesiastical architecture and pious pictures. As a dramatic +effort, "El Triunfo de la República" was very poor. Zorilla was +caricatured as a fox (a play upon his name), and Sagasta as a +devil-fish, and the apotheosis revealed the Genius of Spain waving a +flag lettered with the words, "Viva la República Federal!" The flag was +welcomed with vehement cheers, in affirmation that those who looked on +and admired the burlesque of ministers of the national faith were all +stout Federal Republicans, corresponding somewhat to the Communists of +the Paris of two years before. + +These Federals, I own, I do not like. A deputation of them from the +provinces arrived one of these evenings, and put up at the Fonda de +Paris. They were scrubby louts, smoked between the courses although +ladies were at table, which, however, could be condoned, as it was +Spanish. But they also wore their hats. That irritated one guest, and he +called to a waiter to bring him a hat which he would find on a peg +outside. Having been handed his head-gear, he clapped it on, and said +that was all he wanted. The hint was not lost. The boors dined in a room +by themselves during the rest of their stay. And yet these Federal +Republicans profess to respect public opinion; but by the phrase must be +understood the opinion of those who agree with them. The Intransigentes, +on whose support they depend, have arms in their hands, and will try to +keep them. Only one man was ever able to disarm them, and he was +assassinated. If Prim did not know the Spanish mind intuitively, and as +no other man ever knew it, even he would not have succeeded. After the +promiscuous distribution of arms to the multitude had been made from the +windows of the storehouses in Madrid at the close of 1868, he tried +every means to get them back, but to no purpose. Promises of rewards to +those who would give up the guns were useless; threats and coaxings were +in vain. At last Prim hit on a notable scheme. At a review he publicly +insulted the corps he was so long trying to disembody; he either rode +past them without noticing them, or made remarks on their appearance +the reverse of complimentary. The officers threw up their commissions in +dudgeon; they had served the cause of the people faithfully, and were +not to be treated with contempt; they would no longer carry arms for +such ungrateful friends. It was just what Prim wanted. + +While Madrid was thus seething and bubbling as if it were on the verge +of boiling over, and the great question of elections for the new Cortes +to determine the future "permanent" style of administration was being +mooted, the Carlists were plucking up heart and maturing their designs. +They fancied they would soon have the nation before them the _nudum et +cœcum corpus_ of Sylla's description--defenceless and blind. +Nouvilas, one of the numberless generals of Spain, was ordered to the +north. At a Republican meeting before his departure, he promised that he +would take his five sons with him to fight against the Carlists. At the +same meeting he declared himself the uncompromising enemy of all +dictatorships, and warned those who expected that he would use his power +in that sense not to make a mistake. He was a soldier, not a politician, +and the day that the Republic would be consolidated, and peace secured, +he would retire into private life. It did not seem as if peace were +shortly to be secured. There was a proposition to raise fifty battalions +of free corps to crush the insurgents. The only difficulty in the way +was the loan for their armaments. The battalions were to be organized by +provinces, and each was to be composed of 900 men (making a total of +44,100), and to be officered from the reserve. The proposition of itself +was sufficient to wake the fools out of their paradise. These Carlists +were not to be underrated. If they could do nothing else, they could +issue proclamations. They were great at these. They promised to give the +army the "licencia absoluta" which some soldiers demanded from the +Republic at Barcelona. One Ramon V. Valcarces, commandant-general of the +province of Lugo, was exceedingly anxious that the Galicians should come +out to conquer or die. He told them that the national banner of their +legitimate King waved triumphantly in the provinces of Catalonia, +Castile, Leon, the Asturias, and the Vasco-Navarre, which was a piece of +bounce--legitimate, may it be called?--on his part; and added +scathingly that the Government at Madrid was in the hands of a group of +adventurers, who called themselves Spaniards and Liberals. Those +impostors would raise the taxes until it would be impossible to pay +them, would sell the Antilles and persecute religion. + +Tidings were wafted to us mysteriously that the brother of the +legitimate King, H.R.H. Don Alfonso, of Bourbon and Lorraine, had held a +review of the forces of Saballs at Vidra, in Catalonia. His Royal +Highness was accompanied by his wife, the Doña Maria. His Royal Highness +wore flesh-coloured riding breeches with black stripes, jack-boots, a +zamarra or sheep-skin upper garment, and a flat white cap of the make of +those used by Scotch shepherds. Doña Maria wore a cap of the same kind, +with a gold tassel coquettishly falling over her left shoulder. The +august pair were mounted, and the lady, who chivalrously accompanied her +husband, witched the Carlists with noble horsemanship. Don Alfonso was +surrounded by a brilliant staff, conspicuous amongst whom was a son of +that Don Enrique of Bourbon who was shot in a duel by the Duke of +Montpensier. + +The "only court" did not lack a moidering liveliness. Of nights I +usually leant by my balcony overlooking the Puerta del Sol, and watched +the frail sodality of the Moon prowling about in charge of the +superfluous duenna, the while the brawl of palaver, the cries of "água +fresca," or of the last edition of the _Correspondencia_, the "theeah" +in such wise cadenced, or the boom of the watchman's voice came floating +upwards, before I sat me down to a hard spell of work, sifting grain +from chaff, and committing my thoughts to paper, a moistened towel round +my temples, and a pot of black coffee at my elbow. The sun was usually +ogling the fountain in the Plaza before I had finished. + +The burden of work imposed upon the correspondent who desired to be +loyal to duty was weighty on occasion. For example, late on the 26th of +February the official journal came out with a lengthy circular from Don +Emilio Castelar, to the representatives of Spain abroad. The object was +to obtain the recognition of the Republic by Powers other than the +United States and Switzerland. I saw the importance of sending a +translation of this pregnant State paper at once, and shut myself up in +my room with a supply of pens, ink, and paper, and the indispensable +coffee-pot. I was not an accomplished Spanish scholar, but with the aid +of a youthful groundwork in Latin, a fair knowledge of Italian, a +familiarity with French, and a dictionary, I succeeded in turning out a +full, accurate--nay, I will say a vivid--rendering of this historic +composition before I unlocked my door, and transmitted it to London +within twelve hours. Spanish is not difficult. If Italian is the +daughter of Latin, Spanish is the son. And with energy and mother-wit, +one can do much. + +Castelar's was a brilliant and sustained effort; but it read more like +an essay by Macaulay than a diplomatic holograph. It was splendid, but +it was not official. It lacked crispness, and dealt in excessive +rhetoric from the phrase in an opening paragraph where it spoke of Spain +assuming a place in the Amphictyonic council of Europe, to the closing +sentence. The fall of the Monarchy was traced to the hour when the +institution solemnly ceded its own country to the foreigner (alluding to +the pitiful abdication of Charles IV. in favour of his "friend and ally" +Napoleon, at Bayonne in 1808). True, attempts had been thrice made since +to revive the old system with a new spirit, but they had failed; in +1812, the Democratic Monarchy; in 1837, the Parliamentary Monarchy; in +1869, the Elective Monarchy. The former order of things disappeared +through inherent domestic causes; the Republic appeared of its own +virtue, by the law of necessity. In 1869 the Constituent Cortes had +proclaimed a Monarchy for three fundamental reasons: firstly, because it +corresponded with the traditions of the Spanish people; secondly, +because they believed it would secure liberal principles; and thirdly, +because it would harmonize their form of government with that existing +in nearly every part of Europe. The trouble was where to find the +monarch. They had no dynasty typifying religious and national principles +united to modern spirit like that of England, no princes like those who +had built up the unity of Italy and of Germany on battlefields; their +sovereign houses presented no stability. They had to look outside for a +king, at the double risk of disturbing the peace of Europe and wounding +the national sentiment. They found him in the scion of an illustrious +line, united to France by the war of 1859, to Prussia by the war of +1866, to Great Britain by the establishment of parliamentary rule in +Italy. But the national sentiment of Spain was against him. It left him +in a solitude that was asphyxia. At last he renounced a crown of which +he only felt the weight on his brow and not the dignity in his soul. +When he left, this Government came not by violent revolution, but by +logical evolution. The Republic was not provisional, but definitive. (As +if there were any finality in politics!) The Cortes which had proclaimed +it were the most permanent estate in the nation, inasmuch as when others +melted away they remained. It was the same Cortes which undertook the +national defence in the epic years from 1808 to 1814, which abrogated +the rights of Don Carlos to the ancient crown, and which sanctioned the +dethronement of the Bourbons. Spain owed the change she had effected to +no cosmopolitan influences or agitations. She sought autonomy, not +Utopianism; she coveted no conquest, but she wished to show that she was +living, not dead; that she was still great, but not with the greatness +of ruin, like the empires buried under the valleys of Asia. + +There was an excellent thickset gentleman in Madrid, a literary +pluralist, who combined the offices of "own correspondent" to several +London journals. He was a diligent "snapper-up of unconsidered trifles," +who would never set even the Manzanares on fire. He met me after I had +despatched my version of Castelar's circular, and was cooling my aching +brain on the shady side of the Puerta del Sol. + +"Did you read that thing of 'Musica's'?" he said. ("Musica" was the +nickname of the silver-tongued professor-politician.) + +"Yes; lovely and long and flimsy as a rainbow," I remarked. + +"I think you ought to send an epitome of it to London." + +"I shall not." + +"Well, I may tell you Chose is sending the whole of it on," he +continued. + +Chose was a most formidable rival. + +"Who translated it for him?" I asked. + +"As it is very important I am getting my sons to do it. Indeed, he asked +me." + +"And you never told me." + +"Ah! you see, he has a reputation to sustain." + +"And I have a reputation to make." + +"I'll let you have a _précis_ to-morrow." + +"No, thanks," I answered, turning on my heel. + +The thickset gentleman looked mighty blank when he gazed on the paper a +few days after with my translation covering nearly two columns of small +type, nor did his astonishment lessen when I confided to him that it had +been made for me by the Man in the Moon. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + Warning to Ladies--The Hotel Parliament--An Anglo-Spanish + Mentor--The Evil Genii of the Monarchy--The Curses of + Spain--Government and Religion Affairs of Climate--The Carlists, + Norwegians, and English, all Republicans!--Notions on Heredity--The + Five Spanish Parties--The Army the Lever of Power--The + Student-Cæsar--Order _versus_ Republic--The Chained + Colours--Dorregaray's Appeal to the Soldiers--Influence of the + Church--Wanted: a Benevolent Despot. + + +In the first line, it may be generous to warn ladies (if any of the +gentler sex there be among my readers) to skip this chapter. There will +be no indelicate disclosures--not that indelicate disclosures would bar +the inquisitiveness of some females, judging by the ingenuity with which +they intrigue for seats at the trials in the Divorce Court, and the +avidity with which they devour "spicy," that is scandalous, details; but +matter of a political, speculative, and quasi-philosophical nature is to +be discussed, and I fear me much it will be dry and prosy. + +A shady little room in one of the upper stories of the Fonda de Paris +was used as reading-room. It was thickly carpeted, the walls were +covered with oil paintings in massive ornamented frames, and on the +tables were placed curious jars, antique candlesticks, bronze +statuettes, damascened daggers, and what is known as the merchandise of +_bijouterie_ and _vertu_. There were few papers there, and but one book, +a Spanish Army List in gorgeous green velvet cover with gilt clasps. In +fact, it was more of an auctioneer's private show-room than _cabinet de +lecture_, for the Brothers Fallola were dealers in _bric-à-brac_, and +could not forego the chance of poking their wares under the notice of +their customers. The Italian is first cousin to the Hebrew. + +We held a grave Parliament of our own in this little room, and there I +made the acquaintance of an English settler in Spain--an elderly +gentleman who had been engaged in mining. He was well educated, had +travelled widely, was pronounced in his views, and as he expressed them +with candour and was possessed of a high order of intelligence, I +listened to him with attention. Indeed, we all accepted him as Mentor. +He indoctrinated me into the knotty catechism of Spanish politics. + +Broadly speaking, he maintained that the monarchy was its own greatest +enemy. It had fallen because of its indifference to public opinion. +Among its evil genii were the pastrycook Marforio, Father Claret, and +Sister Patrocinio. The birth of a daughter to Ferdinand VII., fault of +nature, was the primal fatality. As Count O'Neil remarked when he heard +the natal salute stop at the nineteenth cannon-shot, unhappy Spain was +doomed, because of the gender of the newly-born, to be over-shadowed +with the pall of grief and mourning. But the primal error was the +unnatural marriage of Isabella to her cousin, Don Francisco. Never was +there a more ill-assorted union. A woman of ardent temperament and +strong fibre was allied to a feeble nonentity without sap or spirit. Had +she become the spouse of a man like Victor Emmanuel, things might have +gone better. + +Spain was a grand country, he held, one of the richest in creation in +minerals, forests, vineyards, orchards, silk and flocks. The people were +a people that improved upon intercourse, and had some grand qualities. +But the curses of Spain were the ignorance of the masses, the greed of +the professional politicians, and the varying ascendancy of some one +man's power in the army. + +"Was the country ripe for its existing form of government?" I asked. + +"Government," said he, "like religion, is very much a matter of birth +and training, or, to put it more briefly, of climate. The circumcision +of Judaism, the ablutions of Mahometanism, are the simple useful +dictates of some wise man skilled in sanitary science. People of warm +southern natures crave light and colour and music in worship; in colder +lands, with dispositions hardier and less imaginative, they are +satisfied with severe forms----" + +"I know all those theories about religion," I interrupted, "but I am +anxious to have your judgment on government." + +"Identically the same--affair of climate. Those who have to brave +privations and work hard for a living are Republicans; the Swiss, for +example, the Norwegians, and the Carlists." + +"The Carlists! I thought they were Royalists." + +The Mentor laughed as he said, "Royalists! why, they are the only +Republicans in this land. Have you not heard of their fueros? They +reject the tax of blood--they will have no unwilling soldiers taken from +their midst. So Republican are they that they will not tolerate a Bishop +in their ecclesiastical organization, strict Catholics though they +profess themselves. He of Seo de Urgel is the nearest Bishop to their +territory, and his diocese is properly in Andorra." + +"But the Norwegians are Monarchists," I ventured. + +"In name only, as the English are. There is no more democratic +administration in the world than that of king-ruled Norway; and in +England you are likewise a Republic--that is, you enjoy Republican +freedom, only you choose to call the President a Queen. The Queen is but +a figure-head, the vivified Union Jack. The Prime Minister, that is to +say the elect of the people, not the Queen, sways the genuine wand of +power." + +"And the House of Lords, the most Conservative hereditary legislature in +Europe, how do you account for its existence in this British Republic?" +I hazarded as a clincher. + +"An accident, my dear sir," he replied, as he pulled at his cigarette. +"Like that puff of smoke, it has no power; it is but vapour, and like +vapour it will disappear some day, to be succeeded by a Senate on the +French or American model. Life-peerages can be justified; the hereditary +principle has been tried and found wanting. The male offspring of a +jockey are not necessarily skilful horsemen; the son of a fencing-master +may be an awkward butter-fingers; the daughter of a _prima ballerina_ +may be a cripple." + +I passed that figure of speech about the vapour, though disciplined +vapour drives a locomotive. But I urged, "Do you not believe in blood? +Would you place the descendant of a line of brave and cultured men, with +traditions to look back upon, on the same level with Bill Sykes or a +Bosjesman? Is a game-cock a dunghill? Is a thoroughbred a +plough-horse?" + +"R-o-t, rot, my dear sir," said Mentor, with an irritating coolness. "Of +game-cocks I know nothing; but as far as your horse argument goes, I am +prepared to meet you. Care is taken that the mare shall be mated with +the proper sire, so that the qualities long worked up to, by judicious +crossing, shall not be lost or deteriorated; but there is no such +selection in the case of a lord; he follows his own figary, and his +figary is usually money, to regild a faded shield. Blood, sir, has less +to do with those things than education and the associations of +childhood. Send an earl's son to St. Giles', and he will grow up a saucy +gutter-boy; send a burglar's son to Eton, and he may develop into what +is conventionally recognised as a gentleman." + +There was no arguing down our Mentor on this point, so the subject was +changed, and he tried to disintegrate the ingredients in the very mixed +dish of Spanish parties--a complete olla podrida. There were five +factions in the distracted State, two schools of Monarchists and three +of Republicans. These were--1st, the Alfonsists, or those who wished +that the son of the deposed Queen should be raised to the throne; 2nd, +the Legitimists or Carlists (embracing a large body of the clergy); 3rd, +the Republicans of long standing, who were actually in power; 4th, the +ex-Monarchists--the neo-Republicans or Radicals, who sometimes called +themselves Progresistas, and favoured the United Republic; and 5th, the +Intransigentes, or the Irreconcilables, the extreme of the extreme, who +clamoured for a Federal Republic. + +"As example of that ignorance of the masses of which I spoke," said +Mentor, "the mob of Madrid is fiercely Federal, which proves that it +does not know what Federalism is; for one of the first results of +Federalism would be to reduce this capital to the plane of a third-rate +provincial town. Federalism is Spanish dismemberment. If such a system +were adopted, you would have a Royalist North, a Red Republican +Catalonia, and a pauperized Castile, politically piebald. Catalonia is +Federal, in which Catalonia writes itself down ass, for that province is +manufacturing, and with the downfall of protection its prosperity must +depart." + +"Is there any chance of Amadeus being coaxed back?" + +He laughed a laugh that embarrassed me. + +"A kick is not soon forgotten, for it is always an insult even when +administered with an embroidered slipper." + +"What do you think of the situation at the moment?" (This was in the +first week of March.) + +"Madrid," he answered, "is a hot-bed of political intrigue, and a +complicated intrigue is in act of being developed at present. This, I +take it, is a fair estimate of the situation. The men in office are +controlled by fears of the violent Republicans outside, whom they are +powerless to keep under; and the Radicals are anxious to get into office +to restrain these same violent Republicans, but hesitate because of the +apprehension that they have not sufficient material force behind them. +They would fain climb, but that they fear to fall. Thus, as you +perceive, the disorganization of the army is at the bottom of all the +difficulties, for that it is which leaves the mastery with the dreaded +Intransigents. Those, the 'partisans of action' as they are aptly +called sometimes, have more energy than either the Ministry or the +Radicals, and if this dilly-dallying goes on much longer they may make a +bold attempt to get the reins into their own hands. The Radicals are +opposed to a dissolution of the Assembly because they fear the Reds +would command the polls at the new elections, and go in for sweeping +changes on the model of their predecessors in Paris. The present +Ministers have not the vigour to check the manœuvring that would +bring about such an occurrence, and the Radicals believe that they only +could oppose and beat down the fanatics of Communistic proclivities. +There are cynics, however, who sneer at patriotic affirmations, and +whisper that loaves and fishes have more to do with them than love of +country." + +I reflected that patriotism of that order was not an exclusively Iberian +production, but that possibly the cynics were disappointed politicians +themselves. + +"The state of the army," resumed Mentor, "is the question after all. A +great portion of the rank and file are violently Republican, and one +cause of insubordination is that the privates do not believe in the +Republicanism of their officers. Of course, the object of the Ministry +in raising the proposed battalions of volunteers, is less to put down +Carlism than to have a force to fall back upon in case of the army +giving itself furlough. I have reason to know that one Minister at least +is very uneasy on account of the want of discipline of the troops, and +urges upon his colleagues that their first labour should be devoted to +repressing all signs of disorder. But the fight for place at Madrid has +more interest for them, and the army is melting away. When Ministers +make up their minds to a rigorous supervision of the soldiery, there may +be no soldiers to supervise." + +It dawned upon me that Spaniards, although enjoying the reputation of +being quick with lethal weapons under the spur of sudden passion, were +very slow in taking ordinary resolutions. "Mañana" is the watchword of +the nation: a favourite proverb is twisted into "Never do to-day what +you can possibly put off till to-morrow." As a French writer wittily +observed, the chariot of State in Spain is fashioned of tortoise-shell +and drawn by snails. + +"What do you think of Castelar?" + +"Castelar!" echoed the Mentor, with a shoulder-movement of compassionate +irony, "honest, but weak. He is too good, too single-minded, too +amiable, too much of a student to play the Cæsar. Picture to yourself a +doctrinaire who can quote Aristotle in the Chamber, while his country is +travelling the road to ruin. Poor Señor Castelar is not the coming man." + +"And where may we look for him?" I asked. + +"Quien sabe? At this moment he may be waxing his moustache in the +Balearic Islands, or sipping chocolate in the coffee-house on the +ground-floor." + +That coffee-house was always full at the juncture. Indeed, to one who +had not been made stoical by familiarity with excitements, the tokens of +the atmosphere were portentous. Congress often sat under the protection +of an armed guard. The crowds in the streets were always large. The talk +was of bloodshed; but I had grown so sceptical that I would hardly +believe in bloodshed in Madrid until what looked a liquid red had been +chemically analyzed and proved to be blood. We had false alarms every +other night, and shops were shut for an hour or two; but we got no +nearer to revolution than the discussions of sundry excited parliaments +over the marble-topped tables. There Spaniards flushed purple, and +gesticulated violently over their temperate glasses of sweetened water. +What a blessing this is not a whisky-drinking country! + +"No," continued the Mentor; "Castelar is the least of all fitted to +govern Spain. This people requires to be ruled by stern will and strong +grip. The result of handing it over to a weak administration is +palpable. Of all nations of the world, Spain is least prepared for +Republicanism, and the theoretical Republicans who essayed to control +her, in an evil moment for themselves, must before this have discovered +the gross blunder they have made. The Republic is a splendid word; but +Order is a word more wholesome. The present so-called rulers are +incapable of preserving order. They sowed the wind when they taught the +soldiers to be malcontent under the Monarchy, because an army was an +artificial need in a free nation. Now that the soldiers are taking them +at their word, they are reaping the whirlwind. They promised Spain +liberty, and Spain, from every indication, is about to enjoy a spell of +license. Heaven knows how it will all end; but those who have acutely +watched changes like this in other countries are not slow to tell us +that we shall have anarchy first to the full." + +"And then?" I inquired, "for anarchy is no remedy. It is never final. +What shall we have after that?" + +"Perhaps a Conservative Republic, but more likely an iron despotism, the +dominance of some successful General who has the knack of answering his +opponents by ordering their heads to be sliced off." + +"Is not that General as likely as not to come from the Carlist camp?" I +demanded. + +Mentor shook his head in a decisive negative. "No," he said; "outside +the northern and a portion of the eastern provinces, Carlism has no +solidity." + +"But may not the name of Dorregaray, who has crossed the frontier again, +turn out to be a spell-word? They tell me he distinguished himself in +the war with Morocco." + +"Yes," assented Mentor, "he commanded a regiment of galley-slaves +there." + +"And," I continued, "in Cuba at the outbreak of hostilities he was to +the fore." + +"True, true; but I would not give that," and he snapped his fingers, +"for the fidelity of such as Dorregaray. He served under Don Carlos in +the civil war from 1836 to 1840, and that did not hinder him from +donning a uniform under Isabella. Cosas de España! Have you never heard +of Piquero? His action is a pretty fair criterion of the political +morality of your ordinary ambitious Spanish soldier." + +No, the man's name was new to me. + +"Well, he commanded the regiment of Malaga when Ferdinand VII. returned +from France and was made absolute monarch. General Piquero, as soon as +he got wind of the decree of absolutism, thought he would be first to +curry favour at Court, and sent an address to the palace, praying that +his regiment might have the honour of wearing chains emblazoned on the +colours in testimony of attachment to the King. The prayer was +magnanimously acceded to, and the chains were absolutely borne on the +colours for years. Yet not very long afterward this Piquero, this mean, +fawning cur, changed front and became a yelping hungry mastiff of +democracy. I don't anticipate Dorregaray would play that part." + +"Anyhow," I persisted, "the Carlist General has sent forth a manifesto +in his self-assumed capacity of commander-in-chief of the Vascongadas +and Navarre to the soldiers of the Spanish army. He calls upon them to +lay down their arms, promising them free discharges if they desire it, +but promotion, decorations, and rewards if they join his standard. What +do you think of that?" + +"I do not blame him," said Mentor. "In thus tempting the army, he is +only doing as every military chief who has ever lifted himself to power +by a pronunciamiento has done. The sergeants and corporals are +invariably lured with the bait that they shall be made captains and +lieutenants, the common soldiers that their pay and rations shall be +increased. Such men as go over to Dorregaray only act as too many of +their predecessors have acted. In this instance they have an excuse; +they can say, 'We were Royalist soldiers a few weeks ago; we are +transformed into Republican soldiers now. Our will was never consulted. +We are Royalist still, therefore we rally to Don Carlos, who represents +the principle of Monarchy.' They could say this, but I am far from +thinking they will. Spaniards of the rank and file do not chop logic; it +is the non-commissioned officers who initiate mutinies for purposes of +personal advancement; the private is a machine, not a thinking bayonet." + +In response to my inquiry as to the influence which remained to the +Church, my Mentor shook his head, and said outside the hilly regions +where Carlism prevailed, and the remote rural districts, it was next to +null, save among the more comfortable class of women. The common +Spaniard took his faith as he would his heritage; he was a Christian +because his fathers were so before him--it was an affair of family--and +his calling himself a Christian, which signifies Christian exclusively +of the Roman Catholic persuasion, is a survival of the thoughts +bequeathed by the Saracenic occupation. He who was not a Christian was a +"Moro," and to this day the Jew or the Protestant is a Moor, tarred with +the same brush as the turbaned Islamite. + +"The Church," concluded Mentor, "is not to blame if it bums incense and +assaults Heaven with prayers for such a change of Government as will +bring money to its coffers. If the Republic last, the Church will be +separated from the State, and every congregation will have to pay its +own minister. That would be frank, at all events; but so long as there +is a State religion, the ministers of which are supposed to be paid, it +is a scandal not to pay them, and their reverences are perfectly right +to turn Carlist or Alfonsist." + +After these discussions in the reading-room I sometimes felt as if I had +been endeavouring to unravel the Schleswig-Holstein tangle. Was I not +right in warning off the ladies? Truly, Spanish politics are confusing. +My usual reflections upon them resolved themselves into the uneasy +conviction that they were a Lincoln morass overlaid by a London fog, +and that it would be a joy to have some thousands of Will-o'-the-Wisp +guides prisoned to the chins in the quagmire, and replaced by one +benevolent despot bearing the light with strong, sure grasp. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + The Carnival--About Kissing Feet--Mummers and Masquers--The Paseo + de Recoletos--The Writer is taken for Cluseret--Incongruity in + Costume--Shrove Tuesday--Panic on the Prado--A Fancy Ball--The + "Entierro de la Sardina"--Lenten Amusements--A Spanish + Mystery--"Pasion y Muerte de Jesus"--Of the Stage Stagey--Critical + Remarks. + + +Simultaneously with the Ministerial crisis we were tortured by the +throes of the Carnival, which was a trial too great for a Republic so +young. But the weather came to the aid of the powers that were, and +prevented the festival from rising to a height of merriment when it +might become tumultuous. The opening day was one of leaden skies and +moist pavements in the forenoon, of little patches of ultramarine above +and little eruptions of noise below in the afternoon. There is one +consolation on a wet day--you can conveniently make inspection of the +extremities of dear womankind. I no longer elevate my eyebrows at the +Spanish formula of compliment to the mistress of one's affections--"I +kiss your feet." Anyone could kiss them with pleasure; they are so tiny, +shapely, and sylph-like. There surely are the "little mice" of +Suckling's ballad! Atalanta must have had ankles like those revealed +under the lifted skirts of the doncella yonder, Cinderella such another +pair of arched insteps. But one cannot contemplate them for ever, bitten +by the statuary's mania for the symmetric though he be. + +On the second morning, there was a light grey fog, like the smoke after +gunpowder, on the square called "The Gate of the Sun." I have tasted the +joys of Carnival elsewhere--at Rome in Papal times and at Paris in +Imperial times--but never did the tomfoolery like me less. Muggy +weather, miserable Carnival. No showers of _confetti_, no procession of +the _bœuf gras_ even. Here and there the orchestras of the theatres, +clad in the cast-off finery of the supernumeraries thereof, parade the +streets, and make dissonance with their instruments. Very German-bandish +this dissonance sounds, with a variety of horror thrown in liberally in +the shape of tambourines and triangles. One corps of mumming musicians +is dressed as Zouaves; another might be directors of a Funeral Company, +so sad their garments; a third is got up in a costume semi-nightshirt, +semi-dressing-gown; all send out agents to tout for _backsheesh_. That +is their great point of resemblance. The masquers are few in the +streets, and, such as they are, wear their motley as if for pay, not for +pastime. They are of the usual order, Pierrots, Polichinelles, and +cavaliers, with no wigs, with powdered wigs, and with curly wigs, and +with vizors hideous or ghastly, or simply droll and grotesque. Among the +latter are some which might have been designed by Dykwnkyn for a Drury +Lane pantomime; but the individual who carried off the palm of burlesque +was an equestrian I met in the Plaza Mayor, looking like one of the men +in armour of a Lord Mayor's show with bonneted head-gear, astride of a +pot-bellied Clydesdale. Perhaps he may have been caricaturing "the +ingenious gentleman" of La Mancha. My most grateful anticipation of +Spain was, that it was behind the age, and was in no hurry to overtake +it. But this did not hold good in Madrid, and dear womankind with the +tiny feet was the culprit. She disfigured herself at that epoch with an +enormous bustle on which a Barbary ape might conveniently rehearse a +bolero. Well, we have had our Grecian bends, our crinolines and +crinolettes, our pull-backs and Piccadilly limps. Fashion spells despot +everywhere, and dear womankind will cheerfully obey its dictates, even +though she have to blur her cheeks with patches, distort her spine, or +tightlace herself into consumption. + +In the afternoon a long procession of carriages (mostly hired) traverses +the Calle de Alcalá and the promenade to the left of the fountain where +Cybele is sculptured driving a pair of meekest ox-like lions; the folk +in the carriages are not wildly joyous in their dissipation, nor are the +horses that draw them restive with excitement. Everything is dull, +consequently respectable; orderly, consequently dreary. The Foresters' +_fête_ at the Crystal Palace is more hilarious. No shafts of delicate +raillery are shot by cherry lips; no peal of silvery laughter rings +out. The Carnival is "stale, flat, and unprofitable," except to those +mumming musicians who have paid sixteen shillings for the license to beg +during the three mock-mirthful days. I survey the scene from a window in +the Paseo de Recoletos, and get all my enjoyment out of the cynical +remarks of a monstrously fine Burgundian lady, who criticises the +dresses of her Spanish sisters as they glide by. The dresses are very +tasteless, but the Frenchwoman's remarks are very ill-natured, and +ill-nature is gratifying when your neighbour is its object. A friend +enters and claps me on the back. + +"Do you know, old fellow, that that stormy petrel of the Revolution, +Cluseret of the Commune, is said to be in Madrid?" + +"Never! What brings him here?" + +"_Said_ to be, was my expression," he added. "As a fact, I don't believe +he is here, but they take you for him. That is how the tale of his +arrival has got into the papers." + +The Burgundian lady turns. "Cluseret!" she ejaculates; "absurd! I have +seen Cluseret; he is much taller and much handsomer than this +gentleman!" + +I bowed to hide my face, which was what Mr. Whistler might have called a +symphony in black and red, frown and blush. I have since thought what a +caustic retort I might have made if I had said politely, "And, it is to +be hoped, much more well-bred." But I said nothing, for the same reason +that Dr. Johnson gave once to Boswell--"I had nothing ready, sir." + +The panorama underneath is duller now; occasionally a foolish horseman +canters by, covered as to his person and his charger's quarters with a +flowing roquelaure of sheeny green satin; or a black-haired damsel trips +it by, with features concealed by sky-blue mask, and proportions by an +outer vesture of a painfully bright gamboge colour. I wonder is her hair +her own, and are her eyes black. Most likely they are--night eyes are +the rule here--the fair (that is the dark) sex are all going to +purgatory if the French couplet be authority:-- + + "Les yeux noirs + Vont au purgatoire." + +Again fanciful reflection is broken in upon by the thrumming of guitars, +the shrill squeak of fifes, and the eternal whirr and jingle of the +tambourines and triangles, and I descend and make my way through the +fast-thickening crowds to my hotel. There, where the company, like the +waiters, is polyglot; where a noble, white-bearded English gentleman is +sandwiched between a little German professor and a Diputado to the +Congress, where French journalists sit by young American exquisites, who +are picking up notions in Europe, and mere tourists who have come to +"do" Spain in thirteen days are listening to the experiences of a mining +engineer from the West Riding of Yorkshire, who has been in the country +for thirteen years; the gossip, unlike the fun without, is fast and +furious. But as it is all of politics, and I gave the reader a dose of +that in the last chapter and may have to repeat it anon, I turn to the +windows and scan the ever-animated, always-varying picture on the Puerta +del Sol. Ladies in veils white and black, as of Genoa and Milan +respectively, pass and re-pass, gilt missals in their hands. They will +be at the masked balls to-night, for this, as I have said already, is +the home of paradox, where the announcement of the church in which the +Quarant'ore, or Forty-hours' Exposition of the Sacrament, is being held, +is printed in the same column with the theatrical advertisements. Over +the way stand a group in the national "capa." Why do they not wear +slouched and plumed beavers? To me a chimney-pot hat surmounting a cloak +is as dire an outrage on poetic association as a Venetian bravo with a +quizzing-glass. It offends the sense of fitness. What if the Madrileños +were to take to the Ulster-coat? It would make a capital Carnival +disguise at all events. But the cloak, is it not mysterious, +brigandish--tragic, if you will? Mark that loosely-built, tawny man of +dare-devil aspect on the edge, bending intently towards the excited +speaker in the middle. Something has discomposed him, for his cheeks +purple. There is an agitated flutter under the cloak, and its folds are +flung back. You expect to be startled by the blade of a stiletto, and +out comes a soiled pocket-handkerchief! It is as if Jupiter Tonans were +to threaten a thunderbolt and compromise with a sneeze. + +The third day of the Carnival, Shrove Tuesday, was all that could be +desired, sunny, sprightly, bustling. The streets palpitated with +merrymakers walking, riding, or driving, most of them handsomely +dressed; the music--good, bad, and indifferent--was unceasing; the +legions of roysterers attired themselves in every conceivable vagary of +costume, even to the cheap resource of a chintz dressing-gown. They were +cheerful, but in a business-like matter-of-fact way, and as they +promenaded twirled corncrakes, jingled tin cans, and tootled horns. Few +women disgraced themselves by appearing in men's clothes. Madrid is more +continent than Paris; and, to its credit be it recorded, there was +neither drunkenness nor horse-play. In the afternoon the scene in the +Prado was kaleidoscopic in variety and beauty and motion; it had in it +the gay element of the true Carnival, and those who had held aloof +before or had been deterred from sharing in the _fête_ by the +inauspicious natural weather or by nervousness owing to the unsettled +condition of the political weather, came out fresh, frolicsome, and bent +on making up for lost time. Some of the dresses were luxurious, and +triumphantly bore the test of sunshine, which is inexorable for what is +worn or seedy or imitation. And yet there seldom was a time to which the +stereotyped figure of speech about dancing on a volcano more strikingly +applied. Electricity was in the air; the troops were under arms; the +Deputies were consulting under the protection or the threat (as the +balance of feeling might incline) of canister-stuffed cannon, and it was +quite within the range of the possible that before nightfall the cavalry +might be fetlock deep in blood, and the carnage of the Dos de Mayo be +repeated--a worse carnage, for the Spaniards who fell then were patriots +slain gloriously fighting against the foreigner, and now they would be +Spaniards killed by brothers. + +The stream of pleasure was in its full force and flow when a strange +murmur followed by a succession of slight screams arrested the attention +of the merrymakers. Faces were turned inquiringly towards the point +whence the sounds came; the faces grew serious as a carriage was noticed +breaking from the ranks and driving smartly down a side-street, they +were overspread with alarm as other carriages filed off, and then, quick +as a cloud overcasts the sun, a curtain of gloom fell upon the moving +multitude. There was a halt as if by general consent, a dead silence, a +thrill of trepidation, and a rapid rush and scurry hither and thither to +shelter. Trailing skirts were caught up, vizors were thrown aside, +grey-bearded patriarchs tore off their wigs and spectacles, the fiddling +and singing came to an abrupt ending, and were replaced by curses and +shrieks; all order and courtesy were cast to the four winds of heaven. +It was a perfect tragi-comedy; a mixture of the terrible, the risible, +the ominous, the rococo. I never saw transformation so sharp. It was as +if there was no room for any less ignoble feeling in the lately jocose, +bantering throngs than self-preservation. Drivers lashed their horses +and mules and galloped off furiously; equestrians careered towards all +points of the compass; those on foot bolted into every hall-way that +stood ajar, or disappeared down the nearest openings; shrubs and flowers +were trampled upon, and in a span shorter than it takes to recount it, +the avenue of the Prado was a desert. It was fierce wholesale scamper +and stampede. The roadway and parks were strewn with fans, masks, +pocket-handkerchiefs, gloves and slippers; the entire company of +masquerading Arabs, Prussian officers, Morris dancers, Inquisitors, and +troubadours had taken incontinent flight, most of them breathless and +white; the ladies in their varied characters of gipsies, grisettes, +Galician nurses, and Court coquettes had all scudded off in such a +dismayed flutter that they had forgotten to swoon, and forfeited the +finest of opportunities of breaking into hysterics. They were really +frightened. I sought refuge (from what I knew not, whether earthquake, +hurricane or revolution) in a thick clump of bushes at the side of the +Paseo, where I stumbled over a panting make-believe toreador, and a +curious wire-woven article of ladies' dress, which latter I appropriated +as trophy. By-and-by, as no fresh cry of alarm was raised, the +bull-fighter crawled out, and I took heart of grace to return to the +centre of the town, where I learned that the scare was groundless. It +had its origin in the glitter of the bayonets of some soldiers returning +from their duties at the Palace of the Congress. Madrid was timid as a +sick girl. It struck me that if there had been genuine cause for the +panic, and that a charge had been made or a volley with lead fired, +there would have been unequalled scope for a picture of the type of +Gérôme's "Duel after the Bal Masqué," but on a more liberal +scale--Polichinelle pierced by a bayonet-thrust, the floured face of +Pierrot streaked with blood, and poor Jack Pudding sprawling in the +death-agonies in the gutter. + +The festivities were prolonged to the small hours of the night, or +rather of the morning, none the less vigorously for the passing +fear-spasm in the Prado; the masked balls at the theatres were packed +with guests who enjoyed themselves, or fancied they did, which is as +much as one can reasonably expect in this mundane sphere sometimes. + +The "Marseillaise" from a vibrating brass band might be heard, nay +almost felt, crashing through the glass-doors and bursting in a cataract +of sound through the drapery at the entrances of the café on the +ground-floor of the Fonda de Paris at the hour when honest burgesses +should be _tête-à-tête_ with the pillow. + +On Ash Wednesday, which rose rainily, there was an augmentation in the +average of headaches, and a rise in the rates for apothecary's stuff. +The pious revellers went (with an interval for washing and change of +clothes) from the ball-room to the churches to receive the ashes. +"Remember, man, thou art but dust, and unto dust thou shalt return," +says the priest, and smears their foreheads with the cinders of last +year's palm-branches. Another custom, peculiar to the date, the +"entierro de la sardina," was duly observed by those wicked rogues, the +non-pious revellers. The sardina is not the fish, but a portion of the +intestines of a pig, which is laid to earth with pseudo-lamentation in +token of _carne vale_, farewell to flesh-meat for forty days. With a +lugubrious affectation of grief the funeral pageant passed. It was very +profane--an undissembled mockery of a religious procession. A banner +striped pink and yellow and inscribed "á los Cubanos" was carried in +front by a fellow in West Indian negro dress with blackened face. Next +came a troop of blackened acolytes, two by two, and then a canopy such +as is borne over the Host, which canopy was held in travesty of homage +over a beer-keg. A sacrilegious choir, chanting a parody of a Gregorian +hymn, paced behind, and a gigantic blackguard, the _serpent du village_, +supplied a droning accompaniment from a bassoon. A blackened +high-priest, with a conical black hat and a cope bee-barred black and +yellow, closed the burlesque train and made believe to read a mass-book +through his pantomimic goggles. There was an attendant who rang a +funeral bell, another who tapped a muffled drum, and a third who swung +right under the nostrils of the onlookers a censer containing ground +resin made vile to the smell by some fetid compound. Occasionally the +profane rascals halted for a pull at a goat-skin of wine. + +There are some queer customs, the undeniable relics of paganism, in +Spain. On Christmas-eve the streets are paraded by men rattling pots, +just as the Romans used to celebrate the row that was made in Olympus to +hide the birth of Jupiter from Saturn. In the Basque provinces they +honour the Virgin Mary under the name of Astarte, a clear loan from the +worship of Venus. As I am treating of queer customs, it is worth +chronicling that the Republicans entered the churches as soon as their +favourite Government was proclaimed and frantically rang the bells. A +Bishop took care to exorcise the Republican demon next day by carefully +sprinkling the bells with holy-water. + +For all the Lent, the treacherous and trying weather, the wars and +rumours of wars, Madrid enjoyed herself, ate, drank and made merry, +flirted and gambled. The Opera, a cosy well-frequented resort of the +fashionable set, was open, and gave the _Creation_ and _L'Africaine_, +and the usual repertory of musical masterpieces of which I plead +profound technical ignorance redeemed by passionate fondness. The +soprano was that plump goddess with the dimpled double chin, fair-haired +Marie Sass. The orchestra was one of the finest I had ever heard, and +the chorus in personal appearance one of the ugliest I had ever seen, +and that, I can assure the reader, is saying much. The Zarzuela, a +play-house devoted to opera-bouffe--the sacred lamp of burlesque was not +trimmed--presented "Golden Dreams," a beautiful piece with plot and fun +not cumbered with that scenic sumptuousness which is trying to edge +acting ability off the boards elsewhere. + +The respectable theatres in Madrid shut their doors on the Fridays in +Lent, and respectable theatre-goers remain at home. It is not the +correct thing to be seen pleasure-hunting on a day of mortification and +white meats. But actors must live, as well as in London. Those who are +connected with high-priced houses and are decently paid can afford to +lose one night in the week. But there are poorer followers of the +Thespian art who are in very bad case indeed, owing to this tribute to +religious scruple. If we are to be virtuous, well and good: but let us +be virtuous in earnest. We have bull-fights on the Sundays in Lent. Why +may we not enjoy the singing of Marie Sass in _Norma_ on a Lenten +Friday? This thin distinction between what is right and what is not--so +thin that men of the cold north cannot make it out--comes under the +category of those indigenous peculiarities which surpass all +understanding. Anyhow, it presses rather heavily on the humble votaries +of the sock and buskin who are attached to the middle-class houses, and +who are docked of one night's salary in every week of the seven in the +penitential season, in order that the proprieties of a public which is +not particular to a shade as to how it observes the Sabbath may be +respected. The low theatres--the Romea, where the Republic is glorified; +the Alhambra, where heels are kicked up and lewd songs are rolled forth; +the Capellanes, where monks and nuns are caricatured, have reason on +their side, at all events. They dare to be logical in their contempt for +the Church, and keep open all the year round, on Friday as on Sunday, in +the time of fasting as of feasting. + +The Teatro Martin is not a low theatre nor yet is it a high-priced one. +The actors there are not rich, but the audience has some pretensions to +delicacy of taste. What is the lessee of the Martin to do during the +Lent? To rob his treasury of one night's receipts and cheat his patrons +of one night's enjoyment? That would be the last crime any spirited and +enterprising lessee would dream of committing--if he could avoid it. +From this dilemma the gentleman of the Teatro Martin has discovered an +escape. He opens his house on Fridays, but he converts it into a temple; +he reconciles amusement with religion; he produces a Passion Play! I +went to see it for the special reason that it was my privilege once to +describe the Passion Play in the Bavarian Highlands, and I was anxious +to compare one representation with the other, and, if possible, to renew +my emotions of the past. + +The house was tolerably full, except the boxes, which were unoccupied, +save one by a sedate family party. Devout folk of the Latin race are +famous for the interest they take in the spectacular. They admire the +pomps of religion; and this Passion Play, which was almost a function, +had evidently brought many to the theatre who are seldom seen there on +ordinary occasions. I thought I could detect a pious bearing in the +pittites. The well-to-do persons--male and female--who sat patiently on +the mouldy benches looked serious, as if they had come to assist at a +sacrifice. There were old ladies there, I could almost take my word, who +are more often to be encountered, with morocco-bound prayer-books in +their shrivelled hands, creeping to early service. The gallery was +packed, and the gods, for gods, were gentlemanlike. There was nothing in +the aspect of the house meriting description--it was roomy, ill-lit, +full of draughts and dust--one of those houses we know so well. The +scene-painter, if the act-drop was a fair sample of his powers, was a +victim to colour-blindness; the orchestra showed a Republican freedom in +its scorn for the trammels of time and tune; but the prompter in his +hooded box, full in the middle of the range of footlights, was the +feature of the show. He had a very distinct voice--so distinct was it +that every sentence he directed to the actors rebounded from the flats, +came back in sibilant echo, and ascended to the gods. I have no +intention of giving an analysis of the piece; to speak the sad truth, it +did not come up to my expectations. Ober-Ammergau spoiled me for +exhibitions of the kind. I could not screw up my enthusiasm, tried I +ever so hard. That which charmed in Bavaria had no charm in Spain. The +stately panorama which was put before the awe-struck spectator in that +valley of the Ammer was not visible here. The blue sky overhead and the +eternal hills in sight above the walls of the simple wooden structure; +the music so tender and solemn; the clear-browed peasants losing their +identity in the fervid rendering of their parts; the enraptured +attention of the auditory, whose lips moved in prayer sometimes, and +whose eyes sometimes brimmed with tears, as if the scenes they watched +were real--those were things to be remembered. They were the points that +helped to make an impression in Bavaria, that dispelled prejudice and +replaced it with a pleased satisfaction which insensibly swelled to +admiration; but they were wanting in this stuffy play-house. No illusion +was possible. One never lost the consciousness that he was looking on at +a stage-play acted for money by indifferent stage-players. There was a +smell of paint and tobacco-smoke about. Then there was the voice of that +irrepressible prompter, the shaven faces of the hungry supernumeraries +who played the Roman soldiers, the gas-rakes, the shaky wings, the mark +of the trap-doors from which devils with a family likeness to the imps +of pantomime spring up to-night, and the statue of the Commander may +emerge to-morrow night, the scenes that would not run smoothly in the +grooves, and the stiff stereotyped exits and entrances. Everything was +of the stage, stagey. One could not get rid of the notion that Caiaphas +had dined on puchero with its flavour heightened by garlic. It was very +palpable that the Apostle Peter wore a wig and a beard of tow. Mary +Magdalen had an air of operatic resignation, and was troubled with the +arrangement of her drapery. There was a layer of pearl-powder on the +Virgin's cheeks. + +I shall not bore the reader with an essay on mysteries and +miracle-plays; neither, as I have said, shall I attempt to analyse this +sacred drama, in seven acts, of "The Passion and Death of Jesus;" but I +shall take the liberty of giving an epitome of some notes, pencilled on +the spot, in the intervals of interruption by that loud prompter. The +_Pasion y Muerte de Jesus_ (that is the Spanish title) is written by Don +Enrique Zumel, who appears to have fathered as many pieces as Lope de +Vega, but whose pieces are not quite so well known. It was brought out +for the first time in this self-same Teatro Martin on the 3rd of March, +1871. It is in verse, and has some literary merit. In the main incidents +it resembles the Bavarian play, which does not deviate noticeably from +the Bible narrative. It is unnecessary, therefore, to go over the +incidents of its various acts. The Greek chorus to be remarked at +Ober-Ammergau is absent. The tableaux from the Old Testament prefiguring +events in the New are absent also. The first Act opens with a dialogue +between Magdalen and some women of Jerusalem. The Saviour, with the +Apostles, enters on the scene almost immediately after. Magdalen's +garments are rich with spangles; her mantle is scarlet; she has flowers +in her luxuriant tresses, and looks a vain creature. The Saviour is +personified by an actor with a singular likeness to Joseph Mayer, the +Bavarian Christus. Pale, clean-chiselled face, long black locks +smoothed over, downcast eyes, a meek demeanour generally--the +characteristics are identical. The voice of this man, who essayed so +awful a _rôle_, was low and sweet; and, to give him his due, he moved as +if he was filled with respect for his dangerous part. The Virgin comes +on the scene in the same Act. She is clad in blue nun-like raiment. The +people who filled up the background wore sandals, and had white towels, +swathed in folds like those of the turban, round their raven-black hair. +The entry into Jerusalem was shown, the Saviour being mounted on a white +ass. The orchestra here woke up, and played a joyous strain to a chorus +commencing-- + + "Con palmas y oliva + Y alegre cantar + Y pintados florea + De lindos colores + Hijas de Judá + Llegad! Llegad!" + +and terminating with a hosannah to the Redeemer. The only anachronisms +in dress that impressed me in this first Act were a silk net with which +one young person of Jerusalem confined her rebellious hair, and a strip +of black velvet which another had fastened round her throat, bringing +out the whiteness of her skin by contrast. In the second Act Caiaphas +speaks of Jesus as the fomenter of a "thousand conflicts between Church +and State." The Last Supper is pictured after Leonardo da Vinci, and +Judas comes into relief, a sullen scowler, who overdoes his part thus +early. In the garden scene in the third Act the figure of Jesus in +prayer is shown with a ray of _luz Dumont_, the lime-light of our London +stage, playing upon it! I left my seat after this, and loitered outside +till the Crucifixion scene was on. At Ammergau it was appallingly +impressive; here it was sensational purely. The drama wound up with the +bursting open of the sepulchre. I came away free from any desire to +witness Don Enrique Zumel's production again. Without absolutely +shocking one's feelings on a subject which should be sacred and +approached reverently, if at all, his Passion Play offended fine taste +throughout because of the obtrusive staginess of its action, get-up, and +surroundings. Still the actors were occasionally applauded, and the +audience left in a contented mood. + +But the provisional rulers took care that those under their guardianship +should have stronger pabulum than spoon-meat. + +Napoleon I., unless the tale be a legend, used to order a new coat of +gilding to be laid on the dome of the Invalides when the people of Paris +chafed under his tyranny. That gave them something to talk +about--supplied a sensation of twenty-four hours. The Spanish Republican +governors are working on the same principle. _Panes et circenses_ was +the charter of the Roman plebs, "pan y toros" is that of the plebs of +Madrid. I do not know how it is with the bread, but the rulers let the +lieges have bulls galore to occupy their minds. There are grand corridas +for professionals and amateurs. Nor is bull-fighting the only pastime +provided for the populace; cock-fighting, with game-birds from the +Canary Islands, is also carried on every Sunday morning in a pit +constructed for the purpose, mains are scientifically fought, and money +is prodigally squandered. All countries have their peculiarities. In +some, people go racing on the Lord's Day; in others they are content +with getting drunk in the bosoms of their families. + + * * * * * + +NOTE BY MY VERY LEARNED AND AMIABLE ACCOMPLICE, DR. DANN.--That great +writer on Spanish folk-lore, Mesonero Romanos, better known as "El +curioso parlante," who flourished some fifty years since, seems utterly +ignorant of the record of the "entierro." His account only goes to show +that Spain is the most conservative country of Europe. A huge "sardina" +placed on the top of a bier is carried by a number of fellows in +carnival costume, each of them having on his head a cone of immense +height, somewhat resembling the dunce's cap that was formerly such a +usual thing in English village-schools. In front, and at the back of the +procession, appears a crowd of young men and of girls from the slums of +Southern Madrid, in three groups, called "coros," or choirs. There is +the "coro de mancebos," or young men's choir; the "coro de doncellas," +or girls' choir; and the "coro de inocentes," or innocents' choir. The +_locus in quo_ is that part of the south of the Spanish capital which +extends from the Vistillas de San Francisco to the Church of San +Lorenzo; for, in contradistinction to Paris, the South of Madrid is +almost exclusively inhabited by what M. Gambetta used to call the new +social strata, while Mr. Bright spoke of them many years ago as the +_residuum_. In connection with the sardina, and rising on the same +coffin, a figure of "Uncle Marcos" is carried, somewhat similar in form +to the stuffed Guy Fawkeses which are carried about in the streets of +London on the 5th of November. When the procession has reached the +Puente Toledana, the figure of Uncle Marcos is burnt on a funeral pile, +and the sardina is buried in a ditch prepared on purpose. While all this +is going on, songs intended to be parodies of the Catholic Church hymns +and canticles are chanted by the accompanying choirs, and altogether the +performance is, for all practical purposes, a parody of the Church +processions so frequent in Spain and all Southern countries. When it is +all over, a good many of the actors indulge in libations. Not +unfrequently the burial of the sardina is followed by a free fight, and +half a dozen dead or wounded are the outcome of the battle. Disgusting +as the whole performance may appear, more especially the blasphemous +simulacre of religious worship, it must be admitted in palliation that +the very idea of mocking the rites of the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman +Church never so much as enters the minds of the performers, who would +repudiate with the utmost indignation the notion of intentionally +placing themselves outside the pale of the Church, and violating the +"buenas costumbres" by what they are doing. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + Another Chat with Mentor--A Startling Solution of the Spanish + Question--The Penalties of Popularity--The Republic another + Saturn--The New Civil Governor--The Government Bill--Outside the + Palace of the Congress--Providential Rain--Wild Rumours--Federal + Threats--The Five Civil Guards--Inside the Chamber--The Great + Debate--The Two Reports--Compromise--Minor Speechmakers--A + Pickwickian Contention--The Division--Victory for the Ministry--The + Five Civil Guards Trot to Stables. + + +On the morning of March 8th, I met my Anglo-Spanish Mentor in the +reading-room of the hotel. To my usual inquiry as to the condition of +health of the Republic, he replied that he thought we were nearing the +critical point. + +"There is a cataclysm impending," he said. "We have got beyond the stage +of changing the names of streets and substituting the Hymn of Riego for +the Royal March. Everybody agrees that a _coup d'état_ is necessary, and +may be imminent; we want an intelligent despotism--but the despot must +always be a man of our own party. There is the hitch. Castelar probably +may have some amiable hobby, like Lamartine, of 'employment for adults +and education for the young.' Whatever be the sequel of the trial of +strength, I hope we may have a strong administration, not one like the +present, where the Minister of Grace and Justice is all grace and no +justice. + +"Do you know," he added, after a pause, "I have an idea as to the +solution of this Spanish question?" + +"What is it, pray?" + +"SELL SPAIN TO ENGLAND!" + +I roared with derisive laughter. + +"I am serious," he continued. "This is the age of arbitration. Why not +of colossal international barter? We could rule the country as we rule +India, set Sikh against Hindoo, and play off Ghoorka against both." + +"You do not reckon with Spanish pride," I said. + +"Bah! The pride that lowered itself to the acceptance of foreign royalty +might condescend to pocket foreign gold." + +"When Pedro brought me my chocolate this morning he told me there had +been demonstrations in some of the lower quarters." + +"Yes; but they are easily accounted for. The populace do not see the +impracticable promises of the Republicans realized, and are impatient +for the millennium of liberty, equality, and fraternity, with no work +and lots to eat superadded. But the demonstration was very trivial, it +limited itself to the sticking of a red flag in front of a hall-door. +There are wicked slanderers who say that Figueras had something to do +with it, and passed the word that the 'people' should bring an outward +pressure to bear upon his brethren of the Assembly, so that he might get +rid of some of his ungrateful colleagues by the argument, 'See, you are +impossible, the people won't have you; better for the sake of order +leave, that you may avoid the humility of being sent away.'" + +"Surely," I expostulated, "Señor Figueras would not descend to such a +base trick of democracy!" + +"My innocent friend," said Mentor, "once a man binds himself to what is +falsely called the 'people' he has to put up with much inconvenience, +swallow his pride, and humour his exacting pet. Figueras knows this +already; he has been stopped by groups in the streets at various times, +and obliged to amuse them by small harangues, the same as if he were a +Punch-and-Judy showman, making his 'pitch' for ha'pence." + +"Unpleasant situation," I remarked. "He must weary of that soon." + +"Most likely his admirers will weary of him--and then," said Mentor, +with a chuckle--"then for a spell of chaos. The Republic, like Saturn, +has an ugly propensity for devouring its offspring. The mob fondles +Republicanism as its exclusive property, spreads palm-branches under the +feet of its prophets one week and stones them the next. Castelar, +Figueras, Pi y Margall, are the prophets to-day; they will be victimised +in the end. To them will succeed men more violent, who will make larger +promises, and then, finally, will spring up a strong reaction and a +return to something old-fashioned and stable." + +Mentor was a thorough-paced Conservative and a pessimist into the +bargain. In order to draw him out I pleaded that the Government was +doing its best to conciliate all parties. For instance, it had appointed +Estévanez, Civil Governor of Madrid. + +"Aye," said Mentor, "another evidence of the truth of what I advance. +That was done to please the Intransigentes. Estévanez is beloved of the +Reds, and took to the hills a few months ago in assertion of Federal +Republican principles. He held the rocky mountain pass of Despeñar +Perros in Andalusia, at the head of a handful of men, but he boasts that +he neither destroyed railways nor cut telegraphic wires, and holds +certificates to that effect from the railway companies and the +Government. He is an old soldier, a man of energy, and his influence +with his party in this province is paramount. If the Constituent Cortes +proclaim a moderate or a united Republic he may make himself +obstructive. But I must bid you good-day; I am off for my constitutional +in the Botanical Gardens." + +The reference to the Constituent Cortes reminded me that this was the +date appointed for the consideration of the Government Bill for their +election, introduced into Congress on the night of the 4th of March. +This Bill consisted of eight articles, the most important of which were +that the elections should take place on the 10th of April and three +following days, and the meeting on the 1st of May; that all Spaniards +above the age of twenty should have votes; and that on the suspension of +the session of the existing Cortes a permanent committee from their +members, with consultative functions, should be appointed for the +interregnum. It was felt that this was throwing down the glove, and the +lines were now marshalling for the tug of war. The Radicals are +disquieted. They know that if they go to the country not one-third of +them will be returned, for the reason that whoever holds the Ministry of +the Gobernacion, or Interior, in this paradise of universal suffrage can +return the nominees of his party, and determine their majorities with +mathematical certainty. Ministers act illegally in the article which +provides that men of twenty may vote. The young men are the main +strength of Republicanism everywhere, and this article at a single +arbitrary scratch of the pen adds half a million electors to the rolls. +Hitherto the right of voting was restricted to males who had attained +twenty-five years. The Radicals object to this sweeping alteration in +the law, made with the distinct object of defeating their chances; and +the hatred of those half-million of young men thus sought to be +enfranchised by the new Republic will be acquired to the Radicals from +the very fact of their opposition. + +When the hour for opening the Congress came, the building looked more +like a barrack than a House of Parliament. A grim Guardia Civil, in a +three-cornered hat, stood sentry, with fixed bayonet, at the side-door +in the Calle de Turco, by which the Deputies enter. At every window men +in uniform were to be seen; officers with jangling scabbards moved about +the lobbies and ante-rooms, instead of the usual moody, sallow, shabby +crowd of taciturn waiters on Providence, muffled in mantles and hidden +in smoke, who hang about for hours, and occasionally pass mysterious +slips of paper by the liveried and silver-laced ushers to Señor Don This +or That within. + +What can their business be? I often puzzle myself by asking. Have they +claims on Government for ancestral property gone down in the Armada? Are +they pretenders to the succession in a licence to sell tobacco and salt +in Minorca? Or are they simply intriguing for a ticket to the House? The +problem waits for solution. + +They are not here to-day. In their places are the soldiers who watch +over the safety of the representatives of the people. Luckily it is wet, +and the crowds outside cower and huddle under a camp of umbrellas. Your +persistent drizzle is a terrible enemy to revolution. There is nothing +like it for putting a damper on noisy out-of-door agitation. But the +occasion is a great one, and though the clouds seem to have been +transformed into tanks with bottoms pepper-castored with leaks, and +never tire of the weary drip-drip, the citizens of Madrid bravely +affront the weather and collect on the sloppy approaches to the Palace +of the Congress to discuss the affairs of the commonwealth. They look +resolute enough to go under a shower-bath in the interest of their +country. Patiently they stand, with knit brows, their soaked mantles +clinging to their persons, while the Deputies drive or walk up, and +enter to take part in the important discussion at hand--the discussion +which is to decide whether there are to be barricades in Madrid and in +all the great cities, and some widows the more in Spain within +four-and-twenty hours. + +Denser grow the throngs and livelier the excitement, for all the rain. +Reports the most eccentric and alarming are bandied about. The people +have burned down the churches in Malaga; but Malagueño, "as everybody +knows," remarks a French journalist, "is the synonym for _méchant_." In +another knot a rumour circulates that a meeting of Radicals had been +held the evening previous, at which the German, Austrian, and Italian +ambassadors were present, and that they spoke of the necessity of a +joint intervention to assist in the restoration of peace. This senseless +rumour was believed by some fools, and the Radicals who were supposed to +be ready to open the door to the foreigner were cursed and hissed, or +howled at, as they stepped into the Palace. Word passes that the +Intransigentes are in arms in the lower quarters of the town, and have +taken up "strategic points" in view of any emergency that may arise. If +the Government is beaten they mean to raise the red flag, to occupy the +theatres as they did once before, to turn the Plaza Santa Ana and the +Plazuela de Anton Martin into head-quarters, and, if necessary, to march +on the Parliament-house and make an example of those traitorous Radicals +who would betray the people and bring back the Monarchy. Law-fearing +Madrid is in a state of wan terror, and thanks Providence for that +thrice-blessed rain. The men who compose the noisy groups belong to the +lower classes; they are not very numerous, but they are very determined. +The active demonstration is confined to a nucleus of some one hundred +and fifty persons. Delegates occasionally arrive from distant parts of +the town, whisper to comrades in the mob, and depart. It is known that +the troops are confined to barracks, that a hundred picked men of the +Guardia Civil have reinforced the garrison of the Palace of Congress, +and that Señor Martos has not quitted it since the previous night. + +Try and realise to yourself a crowd from Clerkenwell Green surging and +yelling angrily in the open space before Westminster Hall, a battalion +of the Coldstreams keeping watch and ward on the faithful Commons, and +Mr. Speaker, for reasons of personal security, compelled to have a +shakedown in the House! + +At half-past three o'clock the flag is run up to the head of the staff +on the roof, but it droops limp and woebegone in the wet. The Assembly +is in session. The waiting crowds increase; the windows commanding a +view of the Palace are filled, and the pavements of the streets +contiguous are black with anxious loiterers, in spite of the detestable +weather. News of what is going on inside the Chamber escapes by +driblets; as soon as a Deputy or a reporter comes out he is button-holed +and interviewed. + +"The Radicals hold firm," says one, and there is a howl of rage, and the +chattering _flâneurs_, who linger on the pavement at a safe distance, +stir their heels with a rare unity of sentiment. "Devil take the +hindmost!" is the motto of these dignified burgesses of Madrid when a +cry of danger is raised; bang go the shutters against the shop-windows +in a jiffy. + +At one period the attitude of the crowd immediately opposite the +entrance of the Palace boded ill; cries of "Viva la República Federal!" +and "Death to the Radicals!" were raised, and Señor Estévanez, the Civil +Governor of Madrid, was obliged to come out and speak to his pet lambs, +and pacify them with the assurance that the Federal Republic was safe. +Five mounted Civil Guards took up their stations at the mouth of the +Calle de Turco after this, and stood there silent, statue-like, with +drawn swords in their gauntleted grip, until day had melted into +twilight, and twilight into night. These five cavaliers, in their heavy +cloaks, blacker than the darkness around, had really something +supernatural in their grisly quietude as they rested stock-still in +their saddles. Their mission was ominous of evil; they were there an +ugly index of what was feared. Had they found it necessary to clap spur +to their horses and plunge upon the mob, I would not have given much for +their lives. Those five "lost sentinels" were sure to have been picked +off before their comrades on foot could have sallied from the adjacent +building to their rescue. Sinister-looking fellows, in jackets and fur +caps, with rifles slung across their shoulders, were not ensconced in +the street-corners in easy range without a purpose. + +The scene inside the Chamber gave equal token that a question of vital +interest was being debated. The gallery assigned to the public was +crammed as closely as the pit of Drury Lane on Boxing Night; the press +gallery ran over with reporters; every seat available was full but those +reserved for the ambassadors. Their seats were empty; not even the +war-worn figure of General Sickles was to be distinguished. Cristinos +Martos, looking anxious but firm, was in the presidential chair; and the +halberdiers in purple and gold, with their heavy silver maces and +nodding white plumes, occupied their accustomed places to the right and +left. + +The President rings his bell for business. The first operation is to +read the minutes of the previous sitting, which are approved. Then one +of those obstructive members to be encountered in every legislative +assembly--be it Reichsrath, Rigsdag, Skupstina, or Storthing--rises to +take his little innings on some petty topic that concerns none beyond +his own small circle. He is quickly bowled out, and the order of the day +is arrived at--that for which we are all waiting, that which makes this +one of the most serious and important sittings since the abdication of +the King. The reading of the reports of the committee was first +proceeded with, that of the majority taking precedence. This document +was rather long, but may be summarised into a lament that the Government +intended to make the permanent committee a purely consultative body; a +declaration that the time was unsuitable for an election, civil war +being actually carried on in Spain; and a protest that the clause +establishing twenty as the age from which the privilege of voting dated +was "an abuse and an irregularity." It concluded with a project of law, +in a single article, binding the Assembly to convoke the Cortes whenever +it considered the condition of the country such as to guarantee freedom +of suffrage and the interests of the Republic. + +Primo de Rivero's report was then read. He based it on the conviction +that the transitory period should be closed in the interest of domestic +order, and that the Constituent Cortes would be the true representation +of the national will. To effect conciliation, he would submit a bill +fixing May 10th as the period of election, June 1st as that of the +meeting of the Cortes, and twenty-one as the age at which Spaniards +should have power to exercise electoral rights. + +The consideration of the report of the minority, which was looked on as +an amendment, came first. + +The Chief of the Executive Power, Figueras, himself opened the +discussion. The Government had presented a bill so framed that they +hoped it would satisfy the divers aspirations of the Assembly. They +thought they could go no further, but since Primo de Rivero had seen fit +to draw up his conciliatory report they had resolved to modify their +primitive proposition in certain particulars, such as the definition of +the faculties of the permanent committee and the date of the elections. +But that was the extreme limit of compromise. They would stand or fall +by the vote about to be given. If the Chamber gave them its support they +would proceed with the rude task of administration, and they were +resolved firmly to sustain order, military discipline, and the majesty +of the law. Here Señor Figueras branched off into a schoolboy digression +as to what the law was, and how it should be administered. Coming to the +real point, he said if Primo de Rivero's bill were rejected, the Cabinet +would hand in its resignation, and would ask the representatives to name +its successors on the spot, for in those critical moments a solution of +continuity in power would be attended with grave risks. + +Señor Guardia then rose to deny that the existing Chamber had fulfilled +its mission, and that the opportune time had arrived for the election of +another. The very Government itself had made avowal to that effect. +Certain bills remained to be discussed and voted. Besides, had they not +other duties of greater necessity? What was the state of the country? An +armed absolutism prevailed in some provinces; Catalonia recognised no +chiefs but those of the locality (here there were interruptions). In +the cities of the South, the public forces had abandoned their arms to +persons more or less authorised in some of them, and in others the +partition of sacred property had been announced. In the heart of Castile +and Andalusia the ayuntamientos had to resign in the presence of +superior force. Under those circumstances no elections could be carried +on with liberty. And, as if this were not sufficient, there was an +article which added 400,000 electors to the register. This was an +aggravation of difficulties when mistrust was supreme everywhere. The +majority of the reporting committee (of which he formed part) believed +that the initiative of a convocation of the Cortes should come, not from +the Government, but from the Chamber. The destruction of the elements +which were not represented in the Government was what was sought by this +call for a new Chamber. + +Primo de Rivero then explained his position, which was curious. He, a +member of the Radical party, disagreed with his colleagues; but his +motive was the salvation of the Republic. If his bill were not +accepted, the disasters that would fall upon the country would be +tremendous and immediate. This plump declaration created what is called +"sensation." The General next reviewed the different solutions which +offered themselves. A new Cabinet of Republicans of long standing was +not to be thought of, and a mixed Cabinet would be a calamity. One other +solution remained, the formation of a Cabinet from the Radical majority. +With all respect he would ask, Did that majority possess the moral +authority to raise the standard of Republicanism? Did they recollect +that their former chief, Ruiz Zorilla, called them cowards because they +were about to proclaim the Republic? He repudiated the accusation. + +Here there was a row, which recalled to mind that famous one between Mr. +Pickwick and Mr. Blotton, of Aldgate. Señor Juan Ramon Zorilla rose to +defend his absent relative. After a call to order, and a palaver, during +which Primo de Rivero explained that he was speaking merely of Señor +Zorilla the politician, but that Señor Zorilla personally was all that +was honourable and patriotic, the discussion flowed back into its proper +channel. + +The General frankly admitted that the Radicals lacked moral authority. +"Now," he said, "we are Republicans, but a month ago we were +Monarchists." He then related with an ingenuousness that was remarkable +in a professed friend, all the faults his party had committed, and +prophesied that if a Radical Cabinet were formed it would not last three +days. Who knows what might occur? Interruptions punctuated the soldier's +discourse, but he turned round and told those who did not like what he +said, that prudence was better than valour when valour was stupid and +made reckless exposure of lives. He wound up by asking the +representatives to seek inspiration in their patriotism and love of +liberty, and support his bill, which he confessed was his in spirit +only, and had not been drawn up by him but by members of the Government. + +These opening orations of the champions of the two parties in the +committee, the majority of six, and the minority of one, give the pith +of the arguments _pro_ and _con_. Then followed talkee-talkee by +obscurities--speechlets of the maundering school, habitual of nights in +St. Stephen's, when wise men betake themselves to the terrace, and the +stenographers yawn and chew their pencils. A Republican editor declared +that the Republican press was all that was lovely, and a Deputy from +Barcelona affirmed that the city by the Mediterranean was a model of +tranquillity (why was there a loud "haw-haw" here?). One of the Zorilla +family rose to defend his absent namesake a second time, and Señor +Lopez, chairman of the reporting committee, asseverated that the +Radicals had no yearning for office, that the Government should be +satisfied with an Assembly so liberal and so much inclined to help it, +and that if anarchy were to be the issue, the waters of the Jordan would +not wash the men who ruled of the responsibility. Then Cristinos Martos +descended from his tribune, and said he would accept any arrangement +which would secure peace. The crisis had come. The question by which the +Ministry had elected to stand or fall was put to the test, and exactly +nineteen Radicals, less than a score out of over two hundred, voted in +the opposition. + +So the Republicans retain their seats and bloodshed is averted. The +mercy is due, not to the goodness of the cause, nor to the persuasive +pleadings of its advocates, but to the intimidation of the mob. The +Radical majority were the judges, and the judges were cowed by the +rabble of the streets and their spokesmen in the Chamber. The Radical +majority had it in their power to put the Republicans off the coveted +blue benches of the Treasury; but the Radical majority, feeling that +there were no strong arms outside to back them, "caved in." That is the +plain way of putting it. Five members out of every six in the house were +Radicals, six out of seven of the sections of the house were Radical. +Those sections, or standing committees, are drawn by lot on the first of +every month, and all members must belong to one or other of them. Every +bill that is presented must be referred to a committee composed of seven +members, one selected by each section. Six of the members of the +committee to report on the bill of dissolution presented by Señor +Figueras were Radicals; one solitary member, General Primo de Rivero, +recalled from fighting the Carlists in Guipúzcoa, favoured the +Government. The Opposition stood to the Ministry as six to one. And the +Opposition being thus strong, the Ministry had beaten it! The wonder +ceases when it is recollected that the hands of the majority were tied; +every plan was tried to influence them into not ousting the +Ministry--coaxing and cajolery, appeals to their love of peace and +country, and ultimately threats. As result, when it came to the "who +shall?" they did not sustain the convictions they had openly expressed +on all previous occasions. Peradventure this was patriotism, +peradventure it was prudence. + +The debate was over. It was ten o'clock. The crowd raised exultant +shouts and dispersed to their homes, to the clubs, or to the +coffee-houses, where there was soon a file-fire of hand-claps to summon +the waiters and a Babel of voluble jabber. The five ghostly cavaliers +outside the Palace of the Congress started to life, sheathed their +sabres, caught up their bridles, and returned to their stables. + +The Republic had been reprieved. What a sigh of relief San Isidro +Labrador, patron of Madrid, must have heaved. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + The Inventions of Don Fulano de Tal--Stopping a Train--"A Ver Fine + Blaggar"--The Legend of Santa Cruz--Dodging a + Warrant--Outlawed--Chased by Gendarmes--A Jack Sheppard Escape--The + Cura becomes Cabecilla--Sleeping with an Eye Open--Exploits and + Atrocities--Dilettante Carlists in London--The Combat of + Monreal--Ibarreta's Relics--A Tale for the Marines--The Carlists + Looking-up. + + +Every other day--every other hour, I might almost say--a new rumour was +born in Madrid. These rumours were usually figments, always +exaggerations. If one were to inquire into their origin Don Fulano de +Tal, the Man in the Street, was certain to have assisted as +_accoucheur_. Alas! truth in Spain is coyest of sparrows, and to be +caught must have not a grain but a whole bushel of salt shaken over its +tail. Don Carlos was always turning up somewhere like a bad shilling. +Were he to be where he was said to be, he must have been a supernatural +Don Carlos--must have inherited the seven-leagued boots of fairy tale, +as his brother had the invisible cloak, for he was here, there, +everywhere, and nowhere, at one and the same time. But wherever hovered +the Pretender, or the "heir presumptuous," as a Spanish acquaintance, +not well up in English as "she is spoke," persisted in calling him, or +whatever he may have been doing, there could be no doubt that some of +his followers were in the field and alarmingly active. On the 13th of +March, the capital was furious at the official news that communication +with France and the rest of Europe by the north had been cut. Vitoria +was the limit of Spain now; beyond it was the troublous No Man's Land, +where the legends of Manuel Santa Cruz and his desperadoes abounded. He +it was who had ripped up the rails near Tolosa, and waited for the +accident which was sure to occur when the first train travelling towards +the frontier would arrive. Four inoffensive passengers were hurled into +eternity. The excuse for the conduct of this minister of peace was that +these trains carried troops. If the railway company would pay him a +tribute and engage to carry no troops, Santa Cruz, who is accommodating, +would let them pass freely. The company was willing, for these +interruptions were killing the dividends, but the Government objected. +In common justice to the more intelligent members of the party this +soldier-priest disgraced, it should be admitted that they cursed him +loudly and deeply. His conduct was bringing his order into disrepute. +For instance, in Vitoria, near his own hunting-ground, when the Republic +was proclaimed, the Civil Governor dropped a hint that it would be +necessary to "exterminate the highwaymen of the black soutane." The +priests of the town got so frightened that they did not dare to show +themselves in the streets. But they were in no danger, though the +merciless Manuel was doing what he could to make the priests' garb +unpopular. A Carlist paper in Madrid, with some conscience left, had the +honesty to say Manuel was not a credit to his cloth, and that Don Carlos +did not approve of the many savage acts he had committed. Manuel sent +the editor a letter, with his compliments, promising to teach him better +manners than to speak ill of the absent when he came to Madrid! The +general anticipation, based on a fond hope, was that if Manuel ever did +come to Madrid, it would be strapped on a hurdle. But he had his +admirers, nevertheless. My friend, the Duke de Fitzpepper, swore in his +execrable execrating English that he was a "cottam ver fine blaggar--oh, +ye-es! _tous qu'il y avait de plus crâne, mon cher!_" From one of these +admirers who knew his family, I obtained an interesting epitome of his +career. + +Santa Cruz was born at Elduayen in Guipúzcoa in 1842. An aged uncle gave +him some lessons in Latin, and placed him in an ecclesiastical seminary, +where he seems to have principally devoted himself to the practice of +athletic exercises. He came out in 1866 a clerk and a gymnasiarch rolled +in one, and was appointed to the pastoral charge of Hernialde, a cluster +of houses near Tolosa. He attended zealously to the duties of his +ministry, leading a simple, frugal life with his sister; but when +stories of the struggles of Zumalacárregui and Gonzales Moreno in the +previous Carlist war were recounted by the wide hearth, it was noticed +that the priest's eyes blazed like the faggots sputtering in +flame-spikes towards the chimney-top. He was a Monarchist of the Basque +stamp by race, by education, by conviction. He should have been a +warrior, not a preacher of the Gospel; but if the circumstances which +produce the man had not arisen, he might have vegetated and died in +obscurity in his mountain village. The circumstances arose in August, +1870. A revolt of the four provinces of Alava, Guipúzcoa, and Biscay +(the Basques or Vascongadas), and Navarre, was to take place in that +month. At the outset it was rendered abortive by the treachery of a +Colonel Escoda. It broke out on the 27th of August, and was suppressed +on the following day. Santa Cruz, whose opinions were well known to the +party, had been asked to watch over a depot of arms which had been +collected for the insurgents at Hernialde. His share in the plot was +betrayed, and one morning, as he was celebrating Divine Service, his +church was entered by a party of soldiers who waited at the foot of the +altar until he had finished the ceremony. + +"In the name of the law, follow me," said the officer in command; "I +have a warrant for your arrest from Madrid." + +"Very well," said the Cura; "but surely you will allow me to breakfast +first, unless they ordered you to take me captive on an empty stomach." + +This was murmured in a tone so dulcet and injured that the officer +hastened to assure the clergyman that he might breakfast, and +accompanied him to the presbytery. + +"Sin ceremonia," said the Cura, "will you condescend to share my meal?" + +"Thanks, very much." + +The priest entered the house; the soldiers waited outside, and argued +that it was an infernal shame and a piece of tyranny on the part of Prim +and the rest to have ordered such a harmless, nice man to be clapped +into gaol. Presently a peasant with a basket of fruit on his head came +out of the house. The soldiers waited long. They waited in vain. The +peasant and the priest were one and the same. + +For two years Santa Cruz wandered in the mountains and in France, was +"on his keeping," as they say in Munster, but was finally arrested and +interned at Nantes, by the French authorities. A characteristic story +was related of his arrest. He was stopped on the bridge between St. Jean +de Luz and Cibour by two gendarmes. + +"Your papers?" demanded one. + +"My papers! Wait till I look for them," answered Santa Cruz, not in the +least disconcerted. + +He fumbled in his pockets, turned them inside out, tapped the lining of +his clothes, searched high and low, pretending to be very much +astonished that he could not discover the document; and, suddenly, while +the gendarmes, thrown off their guard, were speaking to one another, +made a spring sideways, and was off like a bolt from a bow, the agents +of authority pounding after him in their clumsy jack-boots. The chase +lasted an hour, to the intense amusement of all the idlers of the town; +but a peasant, not grasping the true state of affairs, clutched the +panting Santa Cruz and held him until the arrival of the gendarmes. + +In 1872, when Don Carlos again made appeal to arms, Santa Cruz succeeded +in evading notice, and crossing the frontier, attached himself as +chaplain to the band of Recondo. The Pretendiente himself entered by the +pass of Vera, but was surprised at Oroquieta, in Navarre, by General +Moriones, who defeated him on the 4th of May, and withered his hopes for +that time. The convention of Amorovieta followed, arms were given up by +thousands, and the factions, or partidas, dispersed to their homes. +Santa Cruz returned to France. After a week's interval he re-entered +Spain, and joined a body of the insurgents who still ranged the hills in +Guipúzcoa. One day he missed his companions in a forced march, and fell +into an ambuscade. + +"I am Santa Cruz," he said to the soldiers, unquailingly, "do what you +will with me." + +He was pinioned and led to the nearest village. + +The commandant of the detachment, one Urdanpilleta, went up to his +prisoner and said to him, with an inexcusable pettiness of sarcasm: + +"My good lad, you are out of luck. In a few hours you are safe to be +shot." + +"All right. We shall see about that," stoically answered Santa Cruz. + +The priest was led into a large two-storied house, and thrust into a +room near the garret, there to enter on his preparation for death. There +was a bed in the room, and from the sheets on that bed Santa Cruz made +the rosary on which to tell his litany, which was not one for the dying. +He tore them up, twisted them, tied them together, and letting himself +out of the window as far as his improvised rope would go, dropped into +the arms of a couple of friends beneath. Before the alarm could be given +he was up to his neck in a marsh, where his head was concealed by a rank +growth of rushes. After an enforced bath of twelve hours he sought +refuge with a wood-cutter, who helped him to pass over by night into +France. The tale of his escape added to his fame. He was no longer a +cura, he was a cabecilla--a born leader in partisan warfare. The +Carlists still kept the field in Catalonia, but in the north-west all +was apparently over. Order reigned as in Warsaw. Nevertheless, it was +felt that a spark would rekindle a conflagration. Santa Cruz was the +spark. + +"If I had only thirty men at my back, I'd lift the flag again," Santa +Cruz was overheard to boast. + +The thirty men presented themselves; and, on the 1st of December, 1872, +the irrepressible priest, now surnamed the Peter the Hermit of Carlism, +recrossed the frontier. Six days afterwards he stopped the mail train a +few miles outside San Sebastian, and Madrid learned with stupor that the +Carlist insurrection had flared up anew. + +"That was virtually the knell of the Savoy dynasty," said my informant, +"and Santa Cruz it was who tolled the knell." + +This notable individuality must have the rare magnetic power of +compelling men to follow and believe in him, and of winning over their +fidelity. His band of thirty has now swelled to five hundred, as devoted +as ever were the Highlanders of Preston and Falkirk. He believes in his +star; and he does not believe in carrying on hostilities with kid-gloves +on his hands. Vitriol is more in his line than rose-water. I should very +much like to meet Santa Cruz. He is said to be as agile as Mina, a +wonderful walker, and to share all the fatigues and privations of his +followers. He accomplished an almost incredible journey across the +craggy hills and ravines, from Tafalla in Navarre to the confines of +Biscay, in sixteen hours. At sunset, when the halt is called, and the +provisions are distributed, the guerrilleros assemble round their chief, +who resumes for a time the character of the Cura of Hernialde. Evening +devotions are repeated, and prayers are offered for his Majesty King +Charles VII., the Much-Desired; for Spain and her rescue from the +monster of anarchy; for the dead, and for those who are next to die on +the "campo de honor." The devotions ended, the priest again becomes the +partisan-chief, and praises or blames his soldiers; and then the guards +are set, and the guerrilleros, wrapped in their blankets, take a final +pull at the wine-skin, and sink to rest upon the heather. Long after the +band has been shrouded in mist lethargic, the figure of Santa Cruz may +be seen looming against a rock, upright but for the head, which is +supported by a huge gnarled staff. In his hand he grasps a key. When the +benumbed or listless fingers part and release that key four times, +Santa Cruz gives the rousing signal, the guerrilleros start to their +feet, and the line of march is again taken up. + +Is it not all delightfully romantic? If the late Miss Jane Porter, who +wrote that prized book of truant youth, "The Scottish Chiefs," were only +to have encountered this pretty man, she would have swooned with the joy +of authorship. Had Harrison Ainsworth but dreamed of such unconventional +possibilities, he would never have debased his intellect to the +glorification of a vulgar prison-breaker like Jack Sheppard. But the +only craftsman of the pen who could have risen to the height of the +theme was he who wove the gold-shot tale of "Paul Clifford." + +The latest news we hear of the Carlist priest is that a woman was shot +by his orders at Escoriaza.[A] On second thought I am not so sure that I +should very much like to meet Santa Cruz. And at this very period, +while the shrieks of a fusilladed female were ringing in the air, a +fussy committee of dilettante Carlists, sitting in London, protested +that the sacred cause of legitimacy was advancing by lawful, chivalric, +and immaculate means only! From the snug security of their back-parlour +they wrote letters to the papers denying the "wanton" destruction of +railway-stations by the Carlists. The flames were still undulating over +the station of Santa Olla, between Burgos and Pancorbo, while the ink +was wet on that inspired refutation! There are factories of falsehood +elsewhere than in Spain. + +A cabecilla had warned the station-masters in Guipúzcoa that all +railway-servants who durst perform their work would be shot, and that +all trains which had the hardihood to move would be given over to the +flames; and Lizárraga, an ex-field-officer of the regular army, had +calmly notified to the alcaldes of the province that he would fine them +what would be the equivalent of a hundred pounds sterling with us the +first time they failed to advise him of the movements of troops, and +that he would stick them up against a wall and put a bullet through +their heads for the second offence. Passports through the Carlist lines, +formally drawn up, sealed, and signed, were for sale for ten duros +(about two pounds sterling) in bureaux transparently dissembled, and met +with ready purchasers. The article was cheap, if only as a curiosity. +Here is the textual copy of an announcement in _La Esperanza_, a +recognised and tolerated Carlist organ of Madrid: + +"The direction of the Northern Railway Company having failed to observe +the neutrality ordered respecting the conveyance of troops and stores of +war, the Carlists, we are assured, cut the line yesterday at four points +in the province of Guipúzcoa." + +The Republic that permitted a newspaper published under its nose thus to +talk of rebels against its authority "ordering" the railway companies +not to convey troops was not arbitrary, to my thinking. But Spain is an +enigma. An English Government would hardly permit a journal to speak of +the operations of a Fenian band in the same terms. + +There could be no concealment of the fact that the adherents of Charles +VII., king _in nubibus_, were making headway. + +On the 9th of March a combat was fought at Monreal, a village on the +slope of a hill to the south-east of Pampeluna, between the factions of +Dorregaray, Ollo, Perula, and others, and the regulars under Nouvilas, +the General who had set out from the capital with such a grandiloquent +farewell speech. Pampeluna is distant sixteen hours by rail. The account +of the combat, the most important since Oroquieta, was published in the +official journal four days afterwards. + +In the interval the Carlist papers at Madrid had been singing hosannas +over an alleged victory of their friends, and boasting that the +Republican General had lost his artillery. The Republican Government did +not suppress those papers. As a matter of course, Nouvilas claimed the +victory for himself. Victories are always claimed by both sides in this +civil struggle. To get near truth one must read the narratives for and +against, compare and balance them, and by jealous analysis of evidence +it is possible one may light, in a haphazard way, on something vaguely +resembling what actually happened. + +The report of Nouvilas is before me as I write. He estimated the enemy +at 2,500 infantry and 200 cavalry. His own force, consisting of a +battalion of the Chasseurs of Porto Rico, two companies of the +Guadalajara infantry, a section of mountain artillery (two guns, I take +it), a couple of sections of the Hussars of Pavia, and one of the +Lancers of Numancia, made up a total of about 600 foot and 80 horse. The +combat lasted through two hours of darkness, and Nouvilas, although +bragging that he dislodged the Carlists, has to admit that he was unable +to follow up his success. Reason: his troops had marched eight leagues +without food or rest! A league is 4,565 English yards; multiply that by +eight, and I think it will be suspected that the tale of Nouvilas was +intended for the amphibious branch of the service. He confesses to a +loss of one superior officer (Colonel Don Manuel Ibarreta, of the Staff +Corps), and five rank and file killed, three officers and fifty-three +wounded, six _contused_, and four missing. + +An anecdote casts a lurid light of disclosure on the discipline of this +victorious column. The Staff Corps have a museum at Madrid, and were +anxious to procure some relics of their comrade who had "died gloriously +while holding a hazardous position with singular courage." All they +could get was his cap and sash. His boots were pulled off, his pockets +rifled, and every little article he possessed, to his English lever +watch, was appropriated--doubtless by soldiers who were desirous of +souvenirs of so gallant a gentleman. + +Certain inferences were to be drawn from the report of Nouvilas. The +Carlist position was admirably chosen, the leaders took proper +precautions against surprise, and the men fought with dogged pluck. They +must have been badly equipped, since they left behind them firearms of +every description. They are armed anyhow; some carry fowling-pieces, +some blunderbusses, and some fight with sticks and stones, as the return +of those six soldiers contused establishes. The General had +breechloaders and mountain howitzers; hussars and cuirassiers supported +his infantry; and yet these rebels of the hills held their own for two +hours! + +Even on his own showing the victory of the Republican commander was +poor, and dearly purchased. At one time he admits he was encircled by +the enemy, and had to unsheath in self-defence. He reports four men +missing--that means captured; and, though having routed his foes, he can +only point to thirteen prisoners and two dead horses! The Carlists fled +"precipitately," but they appear to have had leisure to carry off their +wounded with the exception of sixteen. Reference to Carlists supposed to +be wounded, coupled with the silence about those supposed to be dead, is +remarkable. Were there none killed? General Nouvilas, instead of going +forward next day, returned to Pampeluna to indite a despatch in which he +directly commends his own four sons, and indirectly praises himself. He +has been laid up with sore throat since, and has been unable to resume +his prosecution of the dislodged and dispersed enemy. I begin to think +these Carlists, as my landlord at Beasain predicted, "will give more +trouble." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + Barbarism of Tauromachy--A Surreptitious Ticket--The + Novillos--Islington _not_ Madrid--Apology for + Cock-Fighting--Maudlin Humanity--The Espada a Popular Idol--In the + Bull-Ring--A Precious "Ster-oh"--The Trumpets Speak--The + Procession--Play of the Quadrille--The Defiance--"Bravo, + Cucharra!"--"Bravo, Toro!" The Blemish of the Sport--An Indignant + English Lassie. + + +Constantine, the porter at the Fonda de Paris, asked me one forenoon +would I like to take a ticket for a bull-fight. He had an excellent one +(excellent batch, he meant) to dispose of "in the shade." I stared at +him indignantly, nodded my head in the same vein, but winked as I passed +through the hall and sprang up the stairs. An English clergyman and his +daughter, who had expressed an abhorrence for tauromachy in my presence, +had overheard Constantino's temptation, and hence my behaviour. + +"Tauromachy!" the dear old minister argued. "What can you expect, sir, +from a people who have to buckle two languages in double harness to find +a name for their brutal practice? 'Tis illegitimate, sir, like the +derivative. _Taurus_ is Latin, μἁχη is Greek; the compound is +barbaric." + +I bowed, for Emmeline was seemly, with a delicate elegance, and she +looked up with a pleased and almost triumphant look, as much as to say, +Papa is not one of your common persons, but a mighty learned dignitary +indeed. + +That was why Constantine waited his opportunity to slip the ticket into +my hands in a corridor, explaining that a seat in the shade was a +privilege not to be despised, as the sun at the other side flung a glare +on the spectator that dazzled his view; besides, it was broiling and +headachy to sit for hours in its rays. + +"I knew you would go the first chance you had," said Constantine; "I +read it in your eyes as you gloated over the pictures of the sport in +the hall. They make a magnificent fan, or you could hang them up on the +wall in your house in England; I can let you have a lot a bargain. I +was sure of it when you stopped opposite the placard of the corrida +outside, and shook yourself with joy." + +Constantine was a good judge of human nature. I would as soon think of +visiting Madrid and not seeing a bull-fight, as of visiting +Constantinople and not hunting after the dancing dervishes; Kandy, and +not gazing on the Perra Harra procession; London in the season, and not +going to the Military Tournament. + +But, as I afterwards learned, the weather was still too cold for the +genuine game; this might be regarded as a rehearsal, but was patronized +by the connoisseurs, as there were openings for criticism on the style +of novices, and estimates as to who had in them the stuff of coming men. +The bull wants the ardent heats of midsummer to fire him for the combat. +The true season begins with a late Easter-tide, when the kings of the +herd, fresh from the meadows, have arrogant blood careering in their +veins, and are supple in the limbs. To stimulate them now, the dogs or +the banderillas de fuego, both alien to true tauromachy, would have to +be called in. This is but the heyday of the novillos, the unripe +beasts, with india-rubber or wooden balls blunting their half-developed +horns, who are sent into the arena to be at the mercy of youths +ambitious to become chulos. The novillos prance and frisk and toss their +adversaries; it is a frolic and no more. Months afterwards I saw a band +of blind mendicants armed with long sticks descend into the ring at +Murcia, and succeed, some of them, in keeping off the novillos. As well +as giving youngsters the favour of familiarizing themselves with the +capa, used to irritate the bull, this practice puts the animal himself +into good wind, and teaches him what he has to expect when he is +admitted into the pit of the amphitheatre for the final tussle. Your +common bull is not apt for these duels; he must be a bull of race, +haughty and high-spirited, before he is welcomed as a gladiator +_moriturus_. There are stock-breeders in Castile and Andalusia renowned +for the superb stamp of their cattle; and of these, not the least +renowned is a noble count who bears the name and is a descendant of +Christopher Columbus. But the immature tomfoolery has no more +resemblance to the stern, actual diversion than a donkey-race has to the +Derby. The description in "Childe Harold" is spirited, but has been +pared down to accommodate itself to the exigencies of rhyme. Byron when +he wrote it must have had a spasm of squeamishness. But that must have +been a gorgeous function at the marriage of Isabella, when a public +square was converted into an amphitheatre, Toro was monarch for days +consecutive, and the bonniest cavaliers of Spain, clad in jackets +glimmering with gems, entered the lists against him. + +In England, where patronizing leading-articles are indited about those +semi-civilized Spaniards, whenever a toreador is injured in the exercise +of his profession, nothing would seem to be really known about the +sport, and yet there is a self-sufficient assumption among persons +called "well-informed" that they know all about it. Speaking once with a +colleague of the press at Madrid, the representative of a very great +English paper, I was told almost the only instructions he had received +on leaving London were not to write anything of bull-fighting, or +"hackneyed rubbish of that sort." Yet no nearer approach to +bull-fighting has ever been witnessed in England than a silly simulacrum +at the Agricultural Hall. The first calf that was enlarged from the +make-believe toril on that occasion quietly proceeded to nibble a scrap +of paper on the tan. The toreadores were real toreadores, but the bulls +were not of the fiery breed of Andalusia. If they had been, the agents +of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals would have +thought twice before venturing into the same enclosure with them to bar +the entertainment on the score of cruelty. Still, the enterprising +public caterer who had brought over the quadrille of bull-fighters was +wise in his generation. Had the legitimate article been given, there was +enough foretokening of patronage on the opening night to prove it would +have been a great success. + +I call bull-fighting a glorious pastime. In my mental vision I can mark +the rising gorge of some splenetic Briton of the philanthropic school as +he reads this phrase, "glorious pastime," wipes his glasses and reads it +again. How am I wrong? It is savage, bloodthirsty, and debasing, he +will say. Therein I join issue with him, though I may bring a censorious +pile of cant crumbling and clattering about my ears. Cock-fighting was +once popular in these islands, and that not so long ago. I have often +played truant from school, and challenged a thrashing, to drain the high +pleasures of a well-contested main. The late Admiral Rous and the late +Lord Derby were admirers of the sport, and if I am not mistaken the +rules governing a London pit sometimes patronized by royalty had a place +in the earlier editions of Hoyle. The best apology for cock-fighting I +ever heard was made by an eccentric uncle of mine, who asked his censor, +"Why did God put the fighting drop into the game-cock's veins but that +he might fight when he got the chance?" + +There is cruelty, peradventure, in attaching long steel spurs, keen as +bradawls, to the cocks' legs, as there is in supplying men-at-arms with +swords and rifles instead of letting them wage war against one another +with teeth and feet and fists--the weapons of nature. Chanticleer of the +martial breed should be put into the ring with his natural spurs. + +Well, in Spain he is, for the sport flourishes there still; and one of +my recollections of my last day in Madrid is having sacrificed a meal to +be present at the Circo de Gallos, the recognised building where combats +of the kind are carried on in a well-filled amphitheatre, with roped +platform in the centre, and seats in tiers around. The roadway in front +was lined with equipages, and the curled darlings of the Madrilene +aristocracy stepped in to witness the tournament and bet on the result; +but I own the gentler sex I never met there. There are rules to regulate +the conduct of the matches posted conspicuously on the walls; there are +scales to weigh the combatants, lemons to clean their spurs, a regular +staff of heelers, time-keepers, and umpires; the fixtures are given in +the newspapers in the same column as the theatrical programme, and the +guardians of public order are always in attendance. On the same +principle bull-fighting is conducted, and the same argument holds good +in favour of its retention. + +This babble of cruelty is veriest wind-bag humanity, and, logically, has +not a leg to stand upon. To confront the king of the herd in the arena +is bolder and braver than to course the hare at Altcar, or shoot pigeons +at Hurlingham, or make a battue of pheasants in a Norfolk +preserve--sports to which our patricians are disposed, sports which are +chronicled in the fashionable organs with apparent approval. There is +more risk to those who share in a bull-fight than in knocking ponies +about on the polo-ground at Preston, sawing their mouths and breaking +their shins, or in worrying the fox over the pastures of Leicestershire. +As for that cold-blooded, cowardly, treacherous recreation of the +contemplative man, flinging bait to a harmless defenceless fish, and +luring him to a painful end, it is a piece of deliberate barbarism not +to be mentioned in the same breath with bull-fighting. And yet Mr. John +Bright, who has the reputation of being a gentleman of chivalrous temper +and pacific instincts, is said to be passionately fond of this +recreation. Observe to what the reasoning of those who frantically +protest against the national pastime of Spain reduces itself. So far, I +wish it to be understood that I am arguing with the intent of +establishing a _reductio ad absurdum_. If coursing, hunting, shooting, +and fishing are justifiable--and I hold that they are--then on the like +grounds are cock-fighting and bull-fighting justifiable. The beasts on +the earth, the birds of the air, and the fishes in the sea, are all +created for man's use and benefit. To kill them is no crime, if the +killing be not attended with the infliction of wanton pain. The destiny +of the minor order of creation is to minister to the appetites or +necessities of the lord of creation; and pleasurable excitement is a +necessity. The objections to the position here taken up are untenable, +except by maudlin and maundering humanitarians, who think more of the +life of a pet poodle than of the life of their fellow-man, and by that +lost section of mild lunatics, the vegetarians. + +Having said so much in defence of bull-fighting, I may be permitted, in +entering into details of the diversion, to anticipate experiences and +knowledge which did not come to me until later on. The further my +acquaintance with the ring extended, the more convinced I became that +tauromachy will last as long as Spain lasts. It has blemishes, like +other recreations. To my thinking, the chief is that Toro goes into the +sanded arena foredoomed to die. No matter how pluckily he fights, no +matter what play he shows, the cachetero awaits him. Then there is +torture, but an unavoidable torture, in the mode in which horses are +killed. I well remember what an acclimatized aficionado, M. de Coutuly, +of the Paris _Temps_, said to me in a discussion on the point: + +"These horses are under capital sentence when they are helped to the +grace of a historic death in the amphitheatre; they are rescued _en +route_ to the knacker's-yard; but, bah! it is useless to try to convince +men with English prejudices. With you, the horse is more valuable than +the man." + +Thorough garrons these horses are in old Spain; but in the South +American countries, colonized from Spain, I am told they bring spirited +barbs into the ring, who can bite and kick, and take their own part +generally, and who sometimes clear the bull at a bound, as he advances +to the attack. + +If tauromachy will last in Spain as long as Spain lasts, so likewise +will those who practise the art he held in honour. No names are guarded +in fonder reverence there to-day than those of Montes, Pepete, and +Pepe-Hillo; and when Frascuelo was wounded, his residence was besieged +by sympathizing inquirers. The bulletins of his health were read as +anxiously as if they were issued from a royal palace. Bouquets, pastry, +and billets-doux were laid in tribute on the mat of his bedchamber, and +the sweetest and proudest dames of the sweet and proud patrician houses +of Castile--houses with sangre azul unsuspicious in their veins, and +thirteen grandees in their pedigree--sent to inquire after the condition +of the famous espada. Tom Sayers was never more idolized in England than +Frascuelo is in Spain. And so, in like manner, are his compeers, +Lagartijo, and the rest. This liking for them is pushed to excess, much +as the cult for heroes of the prize-ring was with us in a past +generation. Once I was roused from a nap by Liberato, a faithful +body-man, shuffling his feet to the sprightly movements of a bolero. His +eyes twinkled like laughing fire, his gitano-tinted cheeks had a +tawny-purple grape-flush. He was under a high-pressure of exhilaration, +and instinctively sought to relieve himself by dancing. + +"Liberato?" + +"Caballero." + +"What devil possesses thee? Hast got a tress of thy ama's hair, or +fallen upon a treasure-box of Boabdil?" + +"Señor, I am proud as a hidalgo this day. You know Frascuelo?" + +"Si, si." + +"I have seen him; I have heard him speak." + +"Dios mio! If it be not a poor jest on thy part, thou'rt a happy man." + +"No jest, señor; and hearken!" approaching and lowering his voice: "he +sat at the same table with me, and," this impressively and +confidentially, "he shook hands with me as we parted!" + +"Caramba! Let me shake that hand." + +Laugh at this anecdote, but did not a New York hack-driver make a small +fortune by letting out for osculatory purposes the hand that helped +Jenny Lind from her carriage? Have not strawberries touched by the lips +of Lydia Thompson fetched a guinea each at a dramatic _fête_, and +photographs of Sara Bernhardt, signed with her sign-manual, run up to an +alarming figure at the Albert Hall? Have I not myself been privy to the +offer by a British matron of sums incredible for the straw through which +the Prince of Wales had sucked a sherry-cobbler at the Paris Exhibition +of 1867? + +"Ster-oh!" ejaculated the negro waiter with open mouth. "Why, bress you, +dat's no use, we trowed it away; but, as yer a nice ole lady, heah's a +dozen for nuffin!" + +The spectacle in the Plaza de Toros, the spacious unroofed area +surrounded by stone benches rising one above another, away to the +sheltered balconies up high at the back, is one of the most enlivening +that imagination can conceive on the afternoon of a corrida, when male +and female humanity, all jubilant bustle and expectancy, make a +prismatic girdle around. Fans move with an incessant tremulous flutter; +there is a continuous susurrus of voices, broken by occasional hoarse +bursts of laughter at some mishap, or hoarse roars of welcome as some +favourite enters; the regal sun discharges his fierce messages of light +from his throne of blue, and the costumes of every colour, wavering with +the pulsations of the throng, are an active kaleidoscope, most vivid and +variegated. We are in our places. We have stepped up the Alcalá at the +heels of the picquet of armed militia charged with the maintenance of +order. We have threaded our way through the rough maze of passages to +our palco, peeping at the stable where the sorry horses are kept, at the +room where the toreadores dress themselves, and at the little oratory +where the matador prays before he stalks into the palestra. We are in +our places, and everybody is in his place; the Governor of the city in +his box of state yonder. While the music races over the assemblage in +glad alternation of rush and ripple, let us look below. There is a +strong wooden barrier some six feet high around the arena, and at +knee-height, on the inner side of this barrier, there is a berme to help +the pursued chulo to a footing as he vaults over into the surrounding +lane formed by this interior and an exterior barrier. This lane is +guarded by policemen, and is so narrow that a bull has not room to turn +in it; for bulls sometimes bound over the inner barrier. When that +occurs, and I have seen it occur not seldom, they are driven round until +they reach one of the gates opening into the ring. The trumpets and +tymbals speak warning; a profound silence falls upon the crowd for an +instant, and then from a side passage enters the cavalcade we have +awaited--enters to a stately martial march. First, the mounted alguazil +in his ancient garb, plumed, cloaked, funereal; then the chulos, lithe, +young, graceful; then the picadores on their garrons, Mexican-looking in +their saddles, with tall pummel and crupper and shovel-shaped stirrups, +wide-leafed sombreros, their short jackets tagged all over, their yellow +breeches and their high boots lead-lined; then the banderilleros, and +then the matador, the chieftain of the troop. The alguazil beseeches the +key of the toril from the Governor, receives it, turns it in the lock; +and as the bull with dazed vision enters into the sunshine at one gate, +he disappears at an amble through another. + +The bull! What a noble specimen of his race!--broad-browed, +clean-horned, and clean-limbed; high courage in his bloodshot orbs, his +dilated nostril, and his lashing tail! On the right and left the +quadrille arrange themselves, the picadores, each with a spike at the +end of his long shaft, and a kerchief bandaging one eye of his horse; +the chulos, pretty fellows in turban, loose embroidered jackets, ruffled +shirts, kneebreeches of coquettish hue and texture, silken hose and +buckled shoes, standing, with their cloaks, nearer to the centre of the +ring. All these toreadores are men of symmetry and power, all wear +chignons in nets, and are close-shaven, except as to side-whiskers of +the brief "mutton-chop" order, and all bear themselves as if they were +proud of their vocation. The bull waits. The chulos give challenge. They +rush upon him, shaking their gaudy little cloaks, and as he charges they +scamper to the sides, while one takes up the running from another. In +short, they tease him as much for the sake of tiring him out as of +testing his disposition. But by-and-by one chulo ingeniously leads the +charging bull towards a horse. Toro rushes head-foremost. The picador +is unequal to keep him off with his spike; the horse is gored in the +belly and overthrown, the rider falling under. The chulos cluster to the +rescue, with their fluttering cloaks, and draw the bull away confused. +The picador is extricated; the horse is taken out, and in a few moments +after re-enters, his entrails packed inside and stomach sewn up, and is +once more offered to the maddened brute, always on his blind side. We +shall hurry over this episode of the tournament; I do not like it, nor +do you. But here is something really fine. The banderilleros enter, with +barbed shafts decked with ribbons, poised in each hand, and make a +feinting advance on the bull, and as he runs to meet them they deftly +hurl their shafts and elude him by a demi-volte. The act of doing this +well is to plant one banderilla on each side of the bull's neck, close +by the streaming favours that mark the herd from which he is +furnished--the colours of his stable, so to speak--to plant them evenly +and at equal distances from his crest, and when this is skilfully +accomplished there are frantic yells of praise, and caps and cigars are +showered into the arena. When the banderillero is awkward, they rain on +him with potatoes. These banderilleros incur hazard. I have seen one so +keenly chased by the bull that he was pinned against the barriers by the +bull's horns as he was in the act of vaulting over. Pinned, but not in +the flesh; the branching horns stuck in the wood at either side, just +above the calf of one leg, and imprisoned him until he had to be sawed +out. + +This is but the prologue; now for the play. Toro by this time is in a +white rage; there is foam at his chaps, his steaming sides are laced +with blood. Cucharra of Puerto Santa Maria is the matador. Majestically +he strides towards the Governor's box, stoops in obeisance, and in a +loud voice makes proclamation: "Brindo por Puerto Santa Maria, por toda +su compañia, por el vulgo de Madrid; voy á matar ese bicho ó el bicho me +mata á mi;" an address which may thus be freely rendered: "I pledge +myself to Puerto Santa Maria and all its society, and to the people of +Madrid; and now I am ready to kill this animal, if the animal cannot +kill me." He removes his turban, and, with a graceful jerk with his +right hand from behind his back over his left shoulder, flings it into +the Governor's box, as a gage of his boasted prowess. He takes his +straight keen-tempered sword and his cloak of offensive scarlet, and +advances towards the bull. Now is the supreme trial, now is the time +when men let their lighted cigarettes drop from their mouths and clench +their teeth; now is the time when women close their fans and draw long +breaths. Cucharra faces Toro at a yard's distance. They regard each +other. Cucharra hides his sword under his cloak, and presents it to the +bull. Toro lowers his head, shuts his eyes, and charges, but the +toreador gracefully slips aside and saves his life by a turn of the +heel. Three times he repeats the feat of this risksome pirouette; but +woe to him if he is an instant too late in his movements, or if the soil +is treacherous. The fourth time, as the bull lowers his head, Cucharra +lifts himself on his toes, and with one sure swift blow plunges the +blade, almost to the hilt, into the spine of his antagonist. The bull +stands; there is a shout of "Bravo!" the bull still stands, ten seconds, +twenty, thirty; there is a howl of disappointment; but Cucharra gazes +contemptuously around; he knows he has done his work well, and, my +faith, he has. Toro quivers and drops, and Cucharra plants a foot on the +neck of his prostrate enemy. The bull has died of internal hæmorrhage; +not a drop of blood has distilled from his mouth. Bravo, Cucharra! + +This death at the first thrust--death without drip of the crimson fluid +from the mouth--is the artistic death. When the sword pierces at the +wrong spot, is displaced by the shaking of the bull, and sent flying, +gore-wet, through the air, it is awkward workmanship. + +But Toro showed "mucho fuego" before he was so neatly pierced in the +medulla. Bravo, Toro! And now the cachetero stoops over him, and, with +one dig of his sharp knife in the neck, makes assurance doubly sure. The +team of mules trot in, and trot out again with the dead champion at +their heels; and the urchins outside are dancing on his carcase as the +drums and tymbals give prelude to the entrance of a second champion +into the enthusiastic circle. + +The slimy pools in the arena are promptly strewn with sand, and the +fresh bull is ushered into the lists, either against the same quadrille, +or against another espada with his special troop of assistants. Some of +the brutes are self-possessed, as that "proud and stately steer" Harpado +of Xarama, who was matched with Ganzul the Moor. + + "Dark is his hide on either side, but the blood within doth boil, + And the dun hide glows, as if on fire, as he paws to the turmoil, + His eyes are jet, and they are set in crystal rings of snow; + But now they stare with one red glare of brass upon the foe." + +All in vain, Toro. Thy fate is sealed. Useless to prance round with +defiance, to bellow with unsatisfied wrath, to churn the sand with +furious hoof and flash hither and thither the flaming arrows of thy +glance. Thou art foredoomed, and wilt fall as surely after brave +struggle as thy mate, less eager for the strife, who has to be pricked +up to anger, and drops at last bewildered amid the derision of the +crowd. That is where I find fault with the sport. Toro who shows good +fight should get his respite, like the Roman gladiator who pleased the +multitude. + +Still, is his fate to be deplored? Confess, is it not rather to be +envied? He gives up his vital principle in the rapture of battle; he +feels no wound but the grievous one to the combatant that he can beat +down no more foes; he yields breath with a bold front; there is threat +in his agony as he sinks, still with challenge in his port, amid the +applause of admiring thousands. There is something of martyr-heroism in +this ending. It is grander, nobler, happier than to fall by the +butcher's plebeian mallet in the slaughter-house, or to succumb to the +slow miseries of rinderpest. Whoso denies it will downface me next that +it is fitter for the warrior to die of podagra in a four-post bed than +to perish on the field with harness on his back--that dropsy at St. +Helena was more to be coveted than a bullet at Waterloo! + +Tauromachy, I repeat, will last as long as Spain lasts. It will have its +school and its dialect, its canons of skill expatiated upon in +elaborate treatises; its honoured exponents; its impassioned amateurs +and its munificent patrons; its historiographers and poets. In my +devotedness to it I have sacrificed the favour of a comely English +maiden, for Emmeline, who has seen through my hypocrisy in the hall, +averts the light of her countenance as we sit down to dinner. I am sorry +for it, for I had inclinings towards that lady, she was so attentive to +her father, and she had confided to me with such a pretty frankness that +she sighed for the days when Mohammad-al-Hamar was throned in Granada. + + * * * * * + +NOTE BY THE WRITER'S DAUGHTER.--The conceit of you. Emmeline, I think, +was quite right to cut you, after your brutishness. No doubt you think +the glorification of bull-butchery a piece of fine writing, and so +original, you know. I'm up to the games of you authors; but if I were +the printers I would not print one single line of it. I should just like +to put a pen in the bull's hand and read _his_ description of the +fight. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + The Shamrock of Erin and Olive of Spain--Hispano-Hibernian + Regiments--The Spanish Soldier--An Unpopular Hidalgo--Flaw in the + Harness--The Organization of the Army--The Guardia Civil--The + Cavalry, Engineers, and Infantry--General Cordova--The + Disorganization of the Army--Mutiny in Pampeluna--Officers Out of + Work--Turbulent Barcelona--Irresolute Contreras--Pistolet + Discharges Himself--The Madrid Garrison. + + +In Moore's "Melodies" crops up a martial lyric, in which there is a +jingling reference at the end of every verse to the shamrock of Erin and +olive of Spain. Here is about the pith of its sentiment: + + "May his tomb want a tear and a name, + Who would ask for a nobler, a holier death, + Than to turn his last sigh into victory's breath, + For the Shamrock of Erin and Olive of Spain!" + +The Blakes and O'Donnells are apostrophized; but as well as I can make +out what the bard is driving at, he had Wellington and his companions +in his mind's eye. + +There had been closer and earlier and longer ties than those of the +campaigns against the French between Spain and Ireland. According to the +annals of the Four Masters (translated by the father of the late Edmond +O'Donovan), the Clanna-Milidh set sail from Galicia and invaded the +Emerald Isle in the year 1698 before the Christian era. They established +the Milesian dynasty, which lasted two thousand eight hundred and +seventy years--rather a better record than we meet in Bulgaria, modern +Greece, and sometimes even in Spain itself. Galway, _teste_ Kohl, +carries the imagination to Granada and Valencia. At the beginning of the +eighteenth century there were six Irish regiments at least in the +Spanish service, namely, those of Hibernia, Irlanda, Limerick, Ultonia, +and Waterford (all infantry), and the Dragoons of Dublin. There was also +an infantry regiment called Conacia, or Wauchop, after its commander, +one of a fighting family well known in the Lothians. There were officers +of my name in the Limerick and Ultonia corps, as there are in the +Spanish army still.[B] Most of these Irish organizations were disbanded +at the close of the last century, and all had lost their purely Irish +character, although the titles, Hibernia, Ultonia, and Irlanda, were +retained on the list till 1833. + +Naturally, and because of profession and certain associations, I took an +interest in soldiers, and, at the risk of offending the lady-reader who +is waiting for the romantic part of this book, I intend to devote a +chapter to the Spanish army. Such judgment as I have to offer is formed +not alone upon what I saw at Madrid, but afterwards, when I had +opportunity of watching the troops at work. Before going any further, I +may unreservedly confess that I hold a high opinion of the Spanish +soldier. He is sober, enduring, brave, and an indefatigable marcher. +Better raw material for warfare, I am sure, could not readily be come +at, and I am equally sure that if more attention were paid to drill, and +if the curse of morbid aspirations for promotion amongst the lower +grades were more rigidly repressed, the Spanish army would regain its +ancient renown. This restless and diseased ambition is not to be traced +to the rank and file, but to those immediately above them, the men with +a puffed-up idea of themselves, and a smattering of education, and is +often developed by the connivance of their immediate superiors. Let us +take an example. In 1866 there was an uprising in favour of Prim, headed +by the sergeants of artillery at the San Gil barracks, in Madrid. +Captain Hidalgo was privy to the plot, which eventuated in a fiasco, but +not before sundry officers of the regiment had lost their lives. A large +number of the sergeants were summarily shot a few days afterwards. +Hidalgo escaped. In the November of 1872, Hidalgo, then a General, was +appointed Master-General of the Ordnance by Amadeus. Amongst the +artillery there is a strong _esprit de corps_, and the officers in a +body declared they would resign unless the appointment were cancelled. +They did not object to Hidalgo on account of his implication in mutiny, +which is a recognised institution in the Spanish army, but because they +believed he had previous knowledge that some of his brother-officers +would be sacrificed, and never gave them a word of warning or raised a +plea in their behalf. The want of comradeship was his crime, and the +resignations of those who protested against it were accepted in a bulk. + +At the time I was in Madrid the artillery was in a state of +demoralisation. The captains of the scientific force were all promoted +sergeants, and the old officers were idly parading the streets in plain +clothes. Amadeus had certainly committed a foolish act, although he may +have justified himself to himself by the reflection that in approving an +appointment made by his Ministers he was behaving loyally, and that by a +wholesale rejection of the demand of the discontented officers he would +set up an iron precedent against insubordination. He never paused to +think that he was stripping Spain of a vital portion of its harness. A +sergeant may be an excellent practical gunner, and be able to lay a +piece accurately; but that does not qualify him to command a battery. +Scientific acquirements and training are necessary, a mastery of +technique and tactics, quickness of resource, and the habit of +authority. The promoted sergeants were wanting in these essentials, and +the Carlists soon found out the weak spot in the armour. + +The strength of the permanent army is fixed annually by the Cortes, and +every Spaniard above the age of twenty is liable to be drawn, and has to +serve four years under the flag. The nation is divided for military +purposes into five captain-generalcies, the commandant of each of which +holds a rank corresponding to a British field-marshal. The nominal +strength of the infantry in round numbers is about 60,000; artillery, +9,500; engineers, 2,300; and cavalry, 11,500. Then there are the +provincial militia, some 44,000 strong; the carabineros, or revenue +police, 12,000; and the Guardia Civil, 10,000. These Civil Guards are +picked men, robust, strapping, seasoned fellows, and are distributed +over the country like the French gendarmery, to whose duties theirs are +similar. They form a _corps d'élite_, and are the very mainstay of +order. In fact, without them life and property during times of political +commotion would very often be at the mercy of any horde of ragamuffins +with weapons in their hands and the courage to use them. They are +handsomely uniformed, wearing cocked-hats of the pattern of those to be +seen in the prints of the First Napoleon, fine cloth tunics of dark +blue, with epaulettes of white cord, and yellow side and cross-belts, +and present a manful, soldierly appearance. From their valour and +topographical knowledge they have been very serviceable in carrying on +the guerrilla warfare with the Carlists, and are the terror of brigands +and evil-doers. If all the troops were as orderly and well disciplined +as these, Government would be easy, and those at its head might afford +to be firm, regardless of mob clamour. In short, these magnificent Civil +Guards are the best military force the country possesses. Some of them +are mounted (and capitally mounted too), and all have an elevated notion +of duty. A mutiny is never inaugurated by the Civil Guards. They stick +to each other like wax, and are faithful to the powers that be, +regardless of their political colour, so long as those powers are +accepted by the nation. Dynasties may change and depart, as Ministries +do; but the Guardia Civil is an organization immutable and goes on for +ever. The one charge made against them has its warrant in necessity. +When a prisoner is sent to gaol in some remote town under escort of the +Civil Guards, he often makes an attempt to run away, and is invariably +shot between the shoulders. No strict inquiry into the circumstances is +made--it is an understood practice--a rascal is got rid of, to the +relief of the community, by a quick and economic method, which is a +desirable improvement on the laggard processes of law. + +The cavalry is controlled by a director-general, who has a respectable +staff of subordinates at his disposal. There are only two regiments of +cuirassiers--the 1st, or King's; and the 2nd, or Queen's. There are two +regiments of carabineers known as Calatrava and Bailen. There are eight +regiments of lancers, viz., Farnesio, Villaviciosa, España, Sagunto, +Santiago, Montesa, Numancia, and Lusitania. The hussar regiments are but +two, Pavia and the Princess's. Prim's son, a boy of fifteen, was captain +in the former, and the veteran Espartero honorary colonel of the latter. +The name of a former colonel, Don Pedro Elio, "who died gloriously on +the field of honour," like Latour d'Auvergne, first grenadier of France, +is also borne on the rolls of the Princess's. There are six regiments of +mounted chasseurs--namely, Almansa, Alcántara, Talavera, Albuera, +Tetuan, and Castillejos, and two squadrons of Galicia and Mallorca +respectively. These men, as far as I have seen, are well horsed, +Andalusia furnishing some capital chargers, well-made and well-paced, +and up to decent weights. There is nothing peculiar in the cavalry +uniform, which is formed upon the French model. In fact, it would be +difficult to distinguish the dragoons from the French dragoons, but that +they have a seat and know how to keep it, and that their helmets are of +a round Roman style, with a rising sun in a circuit of rays right in +front. + +The remount depôts are at Granada and Córdoba, and there are four +establishments where sires for cavalry purposes are maintained at the +expense of the State--namely, Córdoba, Baeza, Llerena, and Alcalá de +Henares (the latter exclusively for the use of the mounted artillery). +There is also a military school for the cavalry, maintained on the same +system as that of the French at Saumur. + +The Engineers are quite as tall but not so sturdy as our Grenadiers, and +look up to their work. This was the favourite force of Prim, and it is +only second to the Guardia Civil in its obedience to constituted +authorities. From what I hear the men are carefully trained in sapping +and mining, though of them, as of Spanish soldiers universally, one is +compelled to say that they have too much leisure, and when soldiers have +too much leisure the Devil invariably finds them occupation. The value +of the artillery, which had been one of the best organizations of its +class in Europe, as I have already said, at that precise epoch ranked at +_nil_. Reports were circulated every day that the difficulties in this +branch of the service had been arranged, but the wheels want such a +dose of oil in Spain that one can never be certain that the machine is +in order till it moves. The artillery is denuded of officers, and the +infantry and cavalry have officers too often that are valueless; and in +that lies the secret of the deterioration of an army which was once, and +still might be made, capable of great things. + +There are forty regiments of infantry, numbered as ours were, but known +also by distinctive names, generally those of the locality in which each +was originally raised. Thus the 1st Regiment is Rey, or the King's; the +2nd, Reina, or the Queen's; the 3rd, the Prince's; the 4th, the +Princess's; the 5th, the Infante's; the 6th, the Regiment of Saboya; the +7th, of Africa; and then come those with territorial titles--the +Regiments of Zamora, Soria, Córdoba, San Fernando, and so on, until we +reach the 40th, which is called the Regiment of Málaga. The 14th, 29th, +and 30th are respectively known as the Regiments of America, of the +Constitucion, and of Iberia. + +Each regiment consists of three battalions, except the 20th (the +Guadalajara) and the 34th (the Granada), which have but two; and in +each battalion there are six companies. Nominally, each company numbers +about 80 rank and file, but he would be a wise man who could say how +many answer to the roll-call in the existing state of disorganization. +There are twenty-four battalions of handy light troops, who are equal to +almost anything human in the way of marching. Agile and untiring, sound +in wind and limb, they can get over an extraordinary length of ground +with a speed that would not discredit professional walkers in England. +The French foot-chasseur, who can put on an astonishing spurt now and +again, is no rival to the Spanish cazador. + +The infantry uniform is almost exactly that of the French--long grey +capote, blue tunic with the number of the regiment on the collar, and +red trousers. Instead of a shako the head is protected by a projecting +cap of cloth and glaze, something like a stiffened Glengarry without +ribbons. Those absurd white gaiters which gather dirt so quickly when it +is wet under foot, and give the French soldier incessant bother to look +after their pipe-claying, are replaced in the Spanish service by +calfskin buskins and black cloth spatterdashes. Few more sensible +uniforms are to be met with in Europe. Properly officered, there is +nothing to prevent the Spanish infantry from regaining the prestige it +once held. The men have the right stuff in them, are temperate and +frugal, cheerful under privation, and hardy as wild ducks. They do not +want pluck either; they have the reputation of showing a good deal of +dash in their pursuit of the Carlists; but that is no fair criterion of +what they could do when pitted against the troops of some great Power in +ordered line of battle. Good lungs are indispensable in Carlist warfare, +as an officer who was hunting them for six weeks in Catalonia, and never +caught one, begged me to recollect. "You want men who can breast hills," +he said. But good lungs are valuable in a campaign anywhere, and looking +at these lively, well-set Spaniards as they trot along under their +packs, I must say they favourably compare with those weakly men of the +French line I saw staggering to the Eastern Railway Terminus at Paris, +on their way to Metz, in 1870, or with some of the lank striplings I +saw defiling before Victor Emmanuel at Somma in the autumn of 1872. + +The Minister of War (Cordova) and the Minister of Marine (Béranger) are +good. The general and the admiral had really no politics; but they knew +their respective departments better than any men in Spain. Cordova comes +of a fighting family, and "ran the army," to use an expressive +Americanism, under Isabella, under the Serrano-Prim Administration, +under Amadeus, and would, I dare say, under Don Carlos, if he came +to-morrow. In fact, the general is a military Vicar of Bray, but for the +less egotistical motive that he loves his profession, and does not care +to see it and Spain go to the bad, which Spain would if the army did. +But he is not a Republican, neither is Béranger; and the sovereign +people will only be governed by Republicans. They will not permit men of +another party even to do them a service. Therefore the general and the +admiral, and their colleagues of the Finance, Public Works, and the +Colonies, have patriotically made up their minds to retire. Thus, for +the moment, stands Spain, ruled by an Assembly divided against itself +and an Executive in a state of dissolution. + +Meanwhile the army is hurrying to the devil at the double-quick. The +troops which fell back on Pampeluna, after the affair at Monreal, broke +into open mutiny a few days afterwards. Some of them raised cries in +favour of Don Carlos, others in favour of Don Alfonso; and the majority +threw up their caps and shouted enthusiastically for the Republic, +meaning always that Federal Republic which they did not understand, and +which had not yet been created. The latter demonstration was quite as +much a breach of discipline in its way as the others. It was stated that +agents of the Carlist party, which was strong in Pampeluna, provoked +these disturbances in the first instance, plying the men with liquor, +and supplying them with money. At all events, that is how the Government +accounts for the outbreak. In their turn the Republicans got excited, +and instigated the soldiers to demand that the thirteen Carlist +prisoners they had taken should be shot without trial or benefit of +clergy, in defiance of the laws of honourable warfare. These +Republicans are not scrupulous. They talked of massacring all the +Carlist sympathizers in Pampeluna--in short, of commencing a sort of +Sicilian Vespers on a smaller scale; and so threatening did their +attitude become at one period, that the priests in the town had to +disguise themselves as peasants and fly to the mountains, and the laymen +who were suspected of a love for Royalty had to block up their doors and +windows. This was what one of the few trustworthy journals of Madrid, +_El Imparcial_, related, and may account for the inactivity of the +gallant General Nouvilas quite as much as that sore throat which +confined him to his room. + +In Catalonia the disorganization was worse. The battalion of Chasseurs +of Manila separated into several parties, which were wandering over the +province, spreading terror wherever they went. The patriotism of the +volunteers of the Republic had been invoked to try and bring them back +to discipline. Such an attempt might lead to combats that would have the +result of embittering still more the spirit of the freebooters, which +those soldiers were in the fullest sense of the word. Persuasion by +gunpowder, when employed by irregulars, seldom pacifies regulars. Either +of two events was possible--those soldiers would get the better of the +volunteers, or might turn over to the side of Don Carlos. Meantime the +Carlist bands in the province are increasing, and have the field pretty +much to themselves. Four hundred officers of the army came to Madrid the +other day, and are now walking about the capital _en pékin_. Like the +frozen-out gardeners who parade London suburbs in the depth of a hard +winter, they've "got no work to do," but, unlike those impostors, they +are really anxious for a job. I have chatted with some of those +officers, and I know several of them would not be averse to flashing a +sword for the son of their former Queen. They had to leave their +regiments because they could no longer command them. The bonds of +discipline were completely smashed. The men were unmanageable. In some +barracks Phrygian caps were as common as the regulation head-gear. The +sergeants of the line, jealous of the promotion of the sergeants of the +artillery, thought they should have their turn; and the privates did not +see the justice of volunteers being offered two pesetas, or about 1s. +7d. a day, while they, who did more and better work, encountered more +risks, and suffered more hardships, received but a miserable pittance of +a few pence. The general in command was recalled, and Contreras sent +down in his place. He has a reputation as an unimpeachable Republican, +one of old standing, and not "for this occasion only;" and much faith +was reposed in the influence of his name. But Contreras failed to charm; +and, indeed, he appears to have gone the wrong way about his business. +An officer whom he put under reprimand went to two barracks and tried to +rouse the men to mutiny. He failed; but the men were so little careful +of discipline that they let him depart in peace. At last two adjutants +on the personal staff of Contreras arrested him and brought him before +the General. What course did the General, whose authority had been thus +grossly set at defiance, adopt? Order the offender to be shot? No. That +would be the mode in a serious army. But Contreras is not Suwarrow. He +dismissed the mutineer in epaulettes with a fatherly +admonition--appealed to his better feelings. In all likelihood, General +Contreras felt that he could not afford to be justly severe. The army +was too restive. + +Private letters from Barcelona do not mince the matter. The few columns +which went out against the Carlists refused to march unless they were +headed by detachments of Republican volunteers. The officers ran serious +personal risks in their quarters. One of them was condemned to death by +a mock court-martial of his own men, and was actually put on his knees +preliminary to being shot, when a sergeant interposed, and harangued his +comrades into moderation. But all the sergeants have not the good sense +and courage of that worthy fellow. Some privates in Barcelona have been +trying to have their own profit out of the Republic, by discharging +themselves from further service without as much as asking leave; they +have sold their uniforms to the dealers in old clo', and are going about +the streets in peasant dress, making no secret of their intention to +give up the trade of fighting. The great anxiety of the Republican +man-at-arms in Spain is to turn his sword-bayonet into a sickle, and his +rifle into a mattock. That is what he pretends; I hope he has not a sly +hope of vegetating for the rest of his days in lazy vagabondage, with +occasional spasms of brigandage just to keep his hand in at shooting. A +training in the Spanish army is not exactly the thing to fit for the +peaceful and toilsome monotony of industrial occupations. + +The battalions of cazadores of Mérida and Barcelona, in garrison at +Valencia, exhibited symptoms of discontent; but the officers were on the +alert, and checked them on the spot. That is the only plan--nip the evil +in the bud. It is the custom in Spain to confine troops to barracks +during times of popular commotion. The artillery quartered at Valladolid +caught the contagion of mutiny, and would have broken their bounds but +for the prompt arrival of the captain-general and military governor, who +succeeded with some trouble in pacifying them. These unpleasant tokens +are not confined to the land forces; they are said to have spread to +the sailors and marines. A steamer was under orders to leave the port of +Barcelona the other night, but the crew emphatically refused to go; they +argued that they were entitled to be paid off, and enjoy liberty on +shore, under the benign regulations of the Republic. To be brutally +candid, the army has taken the bit between its teeth and bolted. I fear +I am repeating a twice-told tale, but it is well that it should be +impressed on the reader, that he may know what the cuckoo-cry of "No +army" signifies. One of the leading points of the programme of the +Spanish Republicans out of office was that a soldier was a machine, and +that no soldier should exist in a free nation. Now that the Republicans +are in office the soldiers take them at their word, and claim their +discharges. The machinery is out of gear. The Republicans never +contemplated that they would require soldiers to put down a civil war. +Señor Figueras, in spite of all his eloquence and honesty, can hardly be +more successful in pacifying turbulent Barcelona than General Contreras. +Catalonia is as great a stickler for its usages as the Basque provinces +are for their fueros. One of the fueros of the Basque provinces is +exemption from the quinta, or conscription; their only soldiers are the +Miqueletes, a body of men somewhat like the Irish constabulary, who are +not bound to act beyond their own provinces. Thus the army which is +serving against the Carlists in Biscay, Alava, and Guipúzcoa, is in the +provinces, but not of them. Catalonia cries out against the +conscription, too, and Barcelona--hot-blooded, troublesome Barcelona, +which never loses a chance of standing up for independent +opinions--encouraged her garrison in the demand for its discharge. + +The regular troops were to be replaced by the highly-paid volunteers. +That was the proposition. But how is the increased call on the Financial +Ministry to be met? Where is the money to pay these volunteers to come +from? And without regular troops, what was to become of Cuba? The gold +that is brought back from the Pearl of the Antilles is dearly bought +with Spanish blood. People in England little dream what a drain that +everlasting little-thought-of Cuban insurrection was upon the Spanish +army. Thousands of men perished in the island every year, not from the +bullets of the insurgents, but from privations, fatigue, the torrid +clime, and the deadly swamp fever. + +In sum, the army has been petted; the army is spoiled; the army, like a +wanton child, is naughty. Ministers have shown indecision in shifting +generals, generals have set the example of indiscipline in tolerating +mutinous officers, officers have thrown off their uniforms in dudgeon +and despair, sergeants have waylaid the War Office, so to speak, with +the cry of "Promotion or your life!" Can poor Pistolet of the rank and +file be blamed if he sighs for freedom, his sweetheart, and his native +village? The Republic promised him all these, and now he is wicked +enough to ask for them. There is one way of bringing naughty children to +their senses, but Pistolet is too big a boy to submit to the rod from a +weakly master. + +In the capital we were comparatively safe. Unless the garrison divided +against itself or the ordinary troops and the Guardia Civil fell out, +there was no danger of bloodshed in any quantity. The population is not +singularly ferocious. The privates move quietly in the streets in pairs, +and are particular to salute their officers, though there is one +officer, on an average, to every fifteen men, and most of these officers +lack the thoroughbred air of gentlemen, and apparently have risen from a +low social level. The sergeants are self-controlled, and brighten the +promenades with their green worsted gloves and the great laced V's on +their sleeves. I never miss a chance of admiring the garrison at parade. +Physically the men are up to a high standard--superior to those of most +European armies; morally they have the name of being patient and +well-conducted; in formation they are steady, in dressing precise, and +in movement they have a step as quick, but more _dégagé_ than the +Prussians. Were I a Spaniard, I would, every time I bent in prayer, +offer up a supplication for the conversion--or perhaps the something +else--of the bedizened culprits who are sending the soldiers to rack and +ruin. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + Luring the Reader into a Stony Desert--A Duel on the + Carpet--Disappointment of the Special Correspondents--The People + Amuses Itself--How the Ballot Works--A Historic Sitting of the + Congress--Castelar's Great Oration--The Glory of Spain--About Negro + Manumission--Distrust of "Uncle Sam"--Return of Figueras--The + Permanent Committee--A Love-Feast of Politicians--The Writer Orders + Wings. + + +It may be urged with some show of truth that under the mirage of the +adventurous, I have lured the reader, anxious for the sensational, into +exhausting deviations in the stony desert of politics. I am guilty, and +I am sorry that I shall have to sin again--politics are so ultimately +interwoven with life in Spain. But it must not be imagined that these +accounts of what happened more than a decade ago are no more useful or +interesting than the stale report of the death of Queen Anne. In Spain +history has the trick of literally repeating itself. The country is +split into the same camps still, and occurrences similar to those of +which I treat are certain to be presented to the world anew. The drama +will be the same; the company only will be strange. And the information, +such as it is, which I give now, may furnish the key to much that would +otherwise be hard to unlock when the curtain rings up again. + +Before one more error of political errantry, I must tell of a duel which +did not come off, for the sake of its moral. This was how the affair +arose. There was a discussion in the Assembly in reference to an alleged +insurrection in Porto Rico. Señor Padial asked, was it true that the +insurgents had raised cries of "Death to Spain," and demanded the +independence of Porto Rico, and the massacre of the local volunteers? +Several members got up to speak, and one of them, for what reason I +cannot fathom, characterized the question as "a farce unworthy of the +Conservative party." After a little while Señor Ardanay proceeded to +read some documents proving the reality of the disturbances. He was +interrupted by a torrent of voices, and Señor Padial shouted that the +Civil Guards and volunteers of the island had got up the whole row, and +that General Sanz was the author of the farce. General Sanz politely +retorted, "Your worship is wanting in truth." Several honourable +gentlemen sprang to their feet, and asked that Señor Padial's words +should be taken down in writing. And then the Assembly became a +bear-garden. Señor Olavarrieta claimed "la palabra," but the President +would not give him the privilege of speaking. He spoke all the same, and +said, "We shall not allow ourselves to be insulted by those señores," +pointing to the Porto Rico deputies. The confusion became worse +confounded. The President rang his bell, called "Order," and threatened +to suspend the sitting. General Sanz then rose, looking wicked, and +asked that the words offensive to the Civil Guards and the volunteers +should be taken down in writing. As for what had been said offensive to +himself, he asked nothing; he knew what course to take. In England this +might have meant that the soldier would treat Señor Padial with silent +contempt; in Spain, with my preconceived notions of the pride of blue +blood and the fire of Castile, and all the rest, I took it that it could +only mean "pistols for two and coffee for one." The confession is sad; +but the truth at any price, the truth is so rare under this sky. Sundry +Special Correspondents who had come out to describe the revolution that +would not come off, were cudgelling their brains to discover how they +could assist at this passage of arms, in order that they might render a +full, true, and particular account to the public. The encounter would +have been more diverting than a bull-fight. Opinions were divided as to +whether it was better to go disguised as a hackney coachman or an +apothecary's assistant. I hurried, after dinner, to the Café Fornos, the +great rendezvous of Madrid politicians, to hear the latest details of +the pending affair of honour. It was to come off--no doubt of it; but +when and where, I could not hear. Next morning I read that the +difficulty had been arranged. It may be a satisfaction that the +barbarous "code of honour" has fallen out of fashion in Spain; but it +would be a still greater satisfaction if the practice of gentlemen +giving each other the lie in public were to fall out of fashion also. +The scene was disgraceful, and I am glad to be able to add that most of +the deputies were thoroughly ashamed of it; and in places of public +resort some went so far as to say that they would take their seats no +more in the Assembly. But they were in their places all the same on the +following afternoon. The Congress of Spain is no more mannerly on +occasions than legislatures elsewhere; but the occasions are rare. + +My visit to the Café Fornos was not for nothing, after all. There was a +scene there too. A group of low fellows, overheated with wine, entered +about eight o'clock, while the immense hall on the ground-floor was +crowded with Radical deputies, officers, and quiet Madrileños who +frequent it nightly, and commenced bellowing for the Republic after +their hearts--that is to say, the Republic, Federal, Social, and +Uncompromising. The shout was taken up by another group outside, which +blocked up the entrance in the Calle de Alcalá. It was evidently a +premeditated manifestation. A Republican deputy who was present tried to +calm the disorderly crew, but to no purpose. They had come to shout, +and they would have their shout out. Señor Estévanez, the civil +governor, was dining in a room upstairs, but Señor Estévanez did not +leave his repast. When the thirsty and uncompromising federal social +citizens were hoarse they retired. They had effectually succeeded in +annoying the coffee-drinking tyrants who had the impudence to wear +broadcloth, and they withdrew to drain bumpers to their tremendous +exploit elsewhere. + +These individuals were all in favour of the "social liquidation." This +cry of the drones had partisans in every citizen with an empty pocket +and a patch on his garments, for it means that the provident shall be +robbed to satisfy the improvident. But nathless these agitators, Spain, +I was told, was likely to be quiet for five or six weeks--that is, quiet +in the Spanish sense, with an insurrection in one stage of heat or +another, smouldering or flaming, in half a dozen provinces. The +elections would be tranquil, with "scrimmages" here and there; they +would not be elections without. The voting is by ballot. Theoretically +the system is faultless, but in practice jugglery is possible, and does +habitually occur. The alcalde has some influence in the matter, so has +the parish priest, so has the nearest large landed proprietor, so has +the local police functionary, and so has the mob. Ballot-boxes have been +broken open or have disappeared mysteriously. And thus it happens that a +Spanish constituency sends in a buff man as its representative by a +crushing majority at one election, and a blue man or a red man by a +crushing majority at the next. The constituency has not changed in the +interval, but the Minister in the Gobernacion, or, as we should call it, +the Home Office, has. There lies the secret. + +I pass over small squabbles, which were of daily occurrence at the +Palace of the Congress, to come to the sitting of the 21st March, 1873, +which deserves to be handed down to history. On that day the Bill for +the Abolition of Slavery in Porto Rico was introduced by Castelar, in a +speech over which all Madrid went into raptures. The "inimitable +tribune," as his admirers call him, surpassed himself. He led off in the +usual oratorical style by pretending that he was not going to be +oratorical--"the bench on which he sat was one for actions, not +words"--and then, in the usual oratorical style, he contrived to say so +many words that the official paper next morning was full of them. + +His first speech, made when he was but twenty-one, in the year 1854, was +on the very same subject, as he reminded his hearers. The Christian +religion, he said in the course of his remarks, was the religion of the +slave, and the Apocalypse the poem of the slave. Christ was the +descendant of enslaved kings, a bondsman of Roman conquerors. But I must +give up the attempt to follow the "inimitable tribune;" his lengthened +and dazzling chain of eloquence was too elaborate to be picked up link +by link. He was historical, passionate, and poetical by turns, but +always intensely rhetorical, keeping a close watchfulness for effect, +for Señor Castelar does not argue so much as declaim. He had the good +taste to defend the Radical Ministry from the charge of having acted in +favour of emancipation because the influence of the United States was +brought to bear upon it. Such a course, he asserted, would be unworthy +of the dignity and independence of the country. + +I must tell you that the way to make Spain recoil from doing an act she +admits to be good and needful is to counsel her to do it--she will not +be advised by others. It would not be Spanish. If a Spaniard has a +notion of getting himself re-vaccinated, take care, if you are a friend +of his, how you talk to him on the subject. If you recommend him to have +the operation performed, he will change his mind at once. He will not be +bidden, he will risk small-pox in preference. It may happen that he will +die, but at all events he will have the satisfaction of having had his +own way. + +Señor Castelar flattered the self-love of his countrymen by assuring +them that they were magnanimous of their own free will, and not because +foreigners had advised them to be magnanimous. He next delivered himself +of some tuneful periods about humanity, and then wandered off into a +spoken essay on the behaviour of the great European Powers on this +question of serfdom. He alluded to England as "the least democratic, but +most liberal of nations," and praised Russia for having set Spain the +example of unriveting the shackles of the slave. He apostrophized the +opponents of abolition, telling them that on their heads would fall the +responsibility if the law were not passed, but that he and his +colleagues would be answerable for the consequences if the law were +passed. Then the speaker waxed patriotic, and spoke the stereotyped +sentences on the glory and grandeur of Spain. Why should there be +rivalries between Creoles and Peninsulars--those who were born in the +colonies and those who were born in the mother-country? It was +deplorable. Were they not all of the same race? Was not the blood of the +Cid and of Pelayo careering in all their noble veins, and the spirit of +Spain living in all their generous souls? His peroration was +grandiloquent; he appealed to them to cease their bickerings, to close +up their ranks, and to labour unitedly for the maintenance of order, +authority, and the integrity of the territory, and they would earn the +benediction of history and of conscience, which was much more, for it +was the benediction of God. + +At the close of his discourse, which was incontrovertibly a masterpiece, +Señor Castelar was surrounded by numerous colleagues, and warmly +congratulated. His speech established among other welcome things that +the orator-minister was no atheist. His remarks breathed the truest +Christianity. Next it was manifest that Spain, Republican as +Monarchical, would not, without a bitter struggle, cede one inch of +territory over which the national flag floated. Those who were +interested in the retention of slavery in the colonies were the holders +of slave property, and the deputies who had lived there and shaken the +pagoda-tree to some purpose, and who, now that they were back in Spain, +had a grateful recollection of what they owed to slavery. Those +gentlemen predicted that the immediate emancipation of the negro would +be the ruin of the colonies, and would inevitably lead to their loss by +the mother-country. The Ministry of King Amadeus originally brought in +the measure for the abolition of slavery in Porto Rico, preliminary to +the introduction of another to get rid of the system in Cuba. The chief +argument against the measure was that it was due to intriguing on the +part of American politicians, whose object was to smooth the way to the +ultimate incorporation of the Antilles with the United States. The +sincerity of American friendship is suspected by Spaniards. They know +that Uncle Sam has a longing eye on the islands in the Caribbean Sea; +and has already tried to negotiate Spain out of her American +possessions. Spain, recollecting this keenly, mistrusts him. And Señor +Castelar, whilst acquitting his predecessors in office of having acted +at the suggestion of the United States, let it be very plainly +understood that this Republic would fight that other and greater and +aggrandizing Republic to her last man and last dollar, before she would +consent to the abandonment of one square foot of soil. The vested rights +of slave-owners would not suffer completely, for the bill embraced a +proposition to pay them an indemnity equivalent to eighty per cent. of +the value of their live chattels. Forty per cent. of this was to be +guaranteed by the mother-country, and forty by the enfranchised colony, +so that twenty per cent. was the comparatively small pecuniary +sacrifice the inheritors of an odious system would have to make to +conscience. + +Whether the manumission of the bondsman in Cuba, which was bound to +come, would hasten the independence of that island--or, what was more +likely, its annexation to the United States--I am not competent to +pronounce. Ultimately, it is the conviction of the wise and experienced +that the Queen of the Antilles must achieve her independence; but it +will be less on account of abolition than for reasons geographical, +climatic, and military. The ocean rolls between Spain and the sunny +cluster of isles, the climate is deadly to the Spanish soldier, and the +Spanish army cannot afford a perpetual depletion. + +Nobody in Spain dares to defend slavery as moral, or protest against its +abolition on grounds higher than those of political expediency. The +adversaries of the bill affirmed that gradual abolition would be safer +than immediate abolition, and that the matter could well afford to wait. +The newly-proclaimed Republic had interests of far greater present +importance to attend to, they said; but the philo-negrists retorted that +it was a shame not to free the negro under the Republic, which was based +on the broad principle of freedom to all, without distinction of colour, +and that a beneficent and noble act could not be done too soon. If the +Monarchy had lasted, there could be no denying it, this project of +abolition would have been enacted without fail. + +Late in the night, after Castelar had delivered his oration, Señor +Figueras returned from his trip to the provinces. He was met at the +railway-station by groups of friends, personal and political, and +escorted to his residence, where he was serenaded by the band of a +regiment of foot artillery. The night was dark and rainy, which was an +ingratitude to the patriotism of the musicians. If it did not savour of +ill-nature one might be permitted to remark that speeches, however +splendid as specimens of composition from a bench, which the speaker +admits should be one for acts, not words, and midnight clangours of a +brass band under the dripping window-sills of a tired Minister, were +hardly what was needed most and first in the country. But Spain is not +like any place else. + +On the 22nd the Assembly sat until seven, when there was a break-up of +two hours for refreshments; after which was held a night sitting (a most +unusual thing), prolonged until half-past one the next morning. This was +the last of that Assembly. The powers of the Cortes, save and excepting +such as were purely legislative, were delegated to a Permanent Committee +of twenty, which was to aid Ministers in their task, until the meeting +of the Constituent Cortes. In the interval between the two sittings this +committee was chosen by the nominating sections of the Radical and +Republican parties respectively, all shades of opinion being represented +upon it. The President of the Assembly, the four Vice-Presidents, and +the four Secretaries, held _ex-officio_ seats on the board. An analysis +of the names of the twenty-nine shows that there were fourteen Radicals, +eight Federals, four Conciliadores (who may be counted with the +Federals), two Conservatives, and an Alfonsist. + +This moribund sitting was unique in its unanimity and enthusiasm. The +Bill for the Abolition of Slavery in Porto Rico was passed without a +dissentient voice. There was kissing and clasping of hands, and friendly +hugging all round. Señor Padial and General Sanz, who were anxious to +fight a duel to the death a few days before, met in the Salon de +Conferencias and made up their quarrel. They cemented their +reconciliation with an embrace, and one sentimental Deputy who was +looking on, cried, "May this be an auspicious omen of the union between +Spain and the Antilles!" Señor Figueras promised that the Executive +Power would faithfully see to the maintenance of order during the +elections. Another señor proposed that the act they had accomplished on +the date of the 23rd should be recorded on a marble tablet, to be +erected in the chamber. The proposition was received with cheers; and +truly the act which knocked the chains off the limbs of 35,000 slaves +merited record. The Marquis of Sardoal, who occupied the presidential +throne, prayed God to enlighten the minds of the Government and the +Permanent Committee, and then declared the Assembly dissolved. There +were loud shouts for the "Federal Republic," and just one weak voice for +the "Spanish Republic." + +The clouds had blown over. Now was the hour for congratulations. Many +persons who were preparing to send away their families resolved to let +them remain. I had no further occupation in Madrid. A Deputy who had +thirty years' experience of life in the capital told me that this was +the last place in Spain where there was likely to be a disturbance for +the present; but he added, "If you think of going elsewhere, be sure to +give me an address where I can telegraph to you, for something may +always turn up." I had waited nigh five weeks in the expectation of that +something turning up, and at length I began to think I had better seek +fresh fields and take a look at real Spain. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + The Writer Turns Churlish and Quits Madrid--Sleep under + Difficulties--A Bad Dream--Santa Cruz again--Off St. + Helena!--Dissertation on Stomach Matters--A Hint to British Railway + Directors--"Odds, Hilts and Blades"--A Delicate Little Gentleman is + Curious--The "Tierra Deleitosa"--That Butcher again. + + +"If you want to see real Spain," said the British Minister to me, "don't +stop here longer than you can help. Go south." That fixed me. With a +natural impulsiveness I pronounced "the imperial and crowned, very noble +and very loyal and very heroic town"--all which titles it bears--a fraud +and a failure as far as my calling was concerned. There had been great +cry and little wool. I was as churlish as a hangman cheated of his +client. That terrible thing which was perpetually on the eve of coming +to pass had not come to pass. After all, I reflected, it was for the +better; for if there had been stupendous tidings to wire, the +Government telegraphic system would have broken down under the +operation. A message more than twenty lines long was a shock to the +clerks, and set them discussing so excitedly that they let the fire of +their cigarettes die out. The "only court" grew hateful to my mind. It +had produced no men to charm by, save Frey Lope de Vega Carpio, Don +Pedro Calderon de la Barca, and the Maestro Tirso de Molina--and they +were dead. It was a nest of political hornets, and head-quarters of +hyperbole; flimsy feathers of lying gossip floated thick as midges in +midsummer air; as in Athens, the populace spent its leisure, which was +the best part of its life, in nothing but hearing or telling new +stories. I would shake the dust of the Prado off my feet, in testimony +against the unsatisfying capital. Architecturally, it was a +higgledy-piggledy of houses on a high bare site; climatically, it was a +mixture of furnace and hall of winds; socially, it was slow, and a +disappointment; intellectually, it was below zero. My parting words--I +cannot say my farewell--will be framed on those of Jugurtha to Rome: +"_Urbem venalem et mature perituram, si emtorem invenerit._" + +I paid a good-bye visit, with thoughts of a stirrup-cup, to Maceehan, at +the Fornos, and discovered him listening to Bret Harte's poem of "Table +Mountain," recited by Russell Young, who was lolling on a sofa in an +upstairs cabinet. The dentist did not seem to "take much stock in it." +An appreciation of the horrors of Chinese cheap labour requires a +liberal antecedent education on the Pacific slope. Dr. Maceehan was, for +his own sake, sincerely sorry I was going away; but for my sake he was +glad, as I had been overworking myself, and was badly in want of a kick +in the liver. + +It is an error to speak of any city or people when you are under the +influence of sluggish bile, for you are liable to do them injustice. It +is a sin not to withdraw the unjust words. I am tempted to sin; but on +consideration I follow the example familiar in a certain legislature, +and take back the unparliamentary language into which I have been +betrayed by jecoral derangement. Honour to the manes of Uxem-Ali-Beck, +Ambassador from the Shah of Persia, who came to Madrid in 1601, and fell +in love there. He liked it. I fell in love ten times a day, but nobody +would fall in love with me. + +On a Sunday night at nine o'clock, I quitted the city, and on Tuesday +morning I had my hair trimmed by a barber of Seville. The journey, like +most long railway journeys, is one of infinite weariness to the flesh. +The first-class carriages are roomy and well-padded, so that short +travelling, except for invalids, is comfortable enough. The correo, or +mail train--that which I took--leaves but once in twenty-four hours, +and, in consequence of carrying the mails, has to stop at every station, +so that its progress is slow, albeit the quickest to be had for money. +There were nine sociable young Spaniards in the compartment with me. The +gauge of the road is wide, admitting of five broad seats at each side, +and the motion of the train is easy and nurses to sleep, without that +violent rocking which one sometimes experiences while rattling +northwards from London in the Flying Scotchman. But the backs of the +seats are stiff and straight as a Prussian drill-sergeant, and do not +nurse, but "murder sleep," as I speedily found to my sorrow. However, +they do nurse a crick in the neck. I was woke out of a wayward doze just +as I was about to undergo the punishment of death by the garrote. I had +been dreaming a fearsome dream. In a weak moment I had accepted the +crown of Spain. I had granted my subjects every conceivable privilege, +pandered to all their crazes, gone so far as to give them a bull-fight +every day in the week and two on Sundays and festivals, paying all +expenses out of my own royal pockets. But they were not to be satisfied, +unless I would go into the bull-ring myself. That was the straw that +breaks the camel's back. I flatly refused. They rebelled, kicked me off +the throne, led me in a felon's yellow coat on a wretched donkey to the +place of execution, and planted me in the fatal chair. Most poignant +humiliation yet, all the crowned heads of Europe, led by the Czar of +Russia, were invited to the spectacle and joined in a howling chorus of +"Serve him right." I looked my last around, and woke up with a toss of +my noddle against the back of the seat. We were at Alcázar. A +fellow-traveller kindly offered to let me lay my head between his legs +if I would give him my carpet-bag for a pillow. There is nothing like +reciprocal accommodation on a journey. I agreed, the train started +again, and I lost myself in the land of Nod. This time I was following +the campaign against the Carlists. Suddenly I was roused by a cry-- + +"Santa Cruz!" + +I knuckled my eyes, the carriage was motionless, and I distinctly heard +the name of the dreaded priest Santa Cruz repeated. This was no dream. +Had I mistaken the terminus? Had I been speeding northwards all this +time? I was in a most perplexed tangle of mind, half pleased at the +prospect of meeting the redoubtable Cura in person, half apprehensive +lest I might give lodging to a chance bullet, and miss the opportunity +of describing him. As I was preparing to jump out, the tram moved on +anew. I turned to the railway guide and discovered the explanation of +the mystery. Santa Cruz is a station on the Andalusian line between Val +de Peñas and Almuradiel. A third time I fell asleep, to be roused by +another cry-- + +"St. Helena!" + +Taught by former experience, I was not to be discomposed now. We had +pierced the bowels of the Sierra Morena, and Santa Elena was but the +name of a station on its southern side. The next time I fell off I +enjoyed a genuine sleep. I do not think it would have roused me if "Salt +Lake" or "Skibbereen" had been shouted in my ear through a +speaking-trumpet. + +At Menjibar, where we arrived about ten in the morning, there was a +delay of twenty minutes for breakfast. By way of whet, I presume, my +fellow-travellers all lit cigarettes as we were gliding up by the +platform. This Spanish railway restaurant was a reproach to Mugby +Junction. It was scrupulously clean, the fare was excellent, and the +tariff moderate. The price of every article was legibly painted in +distemper on the walls. Premising that a real is, roundly speaking, +twopence halfpenny of our money, a list of some of the viands and +liquids to be had and their cost will be interesting--only the reader is +requested not to open the book previous to bolting his food at the +hurry-up and grab-all refreshment-room at Amiens, or when he is about to +confront scalding soup and monumental sandwiches at some of our British +buffets. It might ruffle his temper and jeopardize his digestion. A +breakfast consisting of a couple of eggs, two plates of meat or fish, +dessert, bread and wine, can be had for twelve reals. The wine is the +common wine of the country, and pleasant and healthy tipple it is when +you get used to it. You can procure a baby bottle full for one real, and +if you like to be extravagant you can pay twenty-four for a bottle of +Bordeaux, or forty for a bottle of champagne. The Bordeaux is too dear. +As for champagne, nobody drinks that habitually except kings of the +Bonanza dynasty; but myriads of men, especially at race-meetings, drink +a beverage which they take for the bubbling, roseate, kindling nectar +with inspiration in every wavering pearlet. "Fizz," I think they call +it. I hope they enjoy it. "Compound of crime at a sovereign a quart" +(see James Smith's poems somewhere), I call it. He who quaffs champagne +at dinner, save on a foggy day, is unworthy of God's gifts. The proper +hour for the absorption of that delicious exhilarant is at eleven in the +forenoon, and then but two glasses at the most should be taken. These +glasses should not be the absurd shallow lapping-glasses, nor yet the +slender stork-glasses, but the goodly tumbler. If it be summer, there +should be a lump of ice in the crystal goblet; and the connoisseur will +always hold it between him and the sunlight before imbibition, and +ejaculate, "There's a picture!" For these hints I am indebted to that +princely gourmet of palate most exquisite, John Kavanagh, of the Inman +ocean-ferry line, Founder and President of the Cocktail Club, of which I +am the Laureate. Returning from our divagation, the amateur of beer may +have a big bottle at these Spanish railway hotels for four reals, but I +counsel him abstention. It is never advisable to drink beer in a +wine-growing country. The soul of Sir Wilfrid Lawson would be elevated +to the height of successful joke-making at the catalogue of the +teetotal drinks, which range from sugared water to milk and orangeade. +My weakness is egg-flip. For dinner, which is to be partaken of at +fourteen reals, one has a soup, a fry, an _entrée_, a roast, a salad, +two sweets or fruits, bread and wine. The _entrées_ are usually rib of +mutton, veal or a beefsteak, which sometimes makes you think there is +something like leather. A hen, which is a luxury, rates at fourteen +reals, but a tortilla of the hen's eggs is to be preferred. If any +complaints are felt to be necessary as to attendance or provand, the +station-master has a volume wherein to write them down at the disposal +of travellers. + +From Menjibar we steamed along through a beautiful landscape of this +beautiful province of Andalusia. The fields were emerald green and ought +to be fertile, but they seemed to lack cultivation. Very few persons +were to be seen working in them. In proportion as nature had been +prodigal, man appeared to be lazy. Still, viewed as the painter, not the +agriculturist would view it, the landscape was delicious in its quiet +loveliness. Patches of silvery grey--that dreamy neutral silvery grey +which is to be caught in perfection on willows played upon by +moonlight--here and there lightened the mellow masses of verdure. Those +were olive groves. The hills on the horizon, seen through an odd curtain +of rain, for the day was showery, had the vaporous hazy outline of some +of Murillo's pictures. Anon we passed by the bridge of Alcolea, the +scene of the defeat of Queen Isabella's forces under Nouvaliches by +Serrano in 1868. The field is altogether too pretty to have been defiled +by a sanguinary episode of civil war. A gently winding stream courses +'mid rich undulating meadows at the base of a ridge of hills covered +with cottages enbowered in plantations and orchards. As if inflamed by +the warlike associations of the locality, my companions produced +sword-canes, dirks and poniards, and began comparing them with the air +of experts. Not one of these sociable young Spaniards was unprovided +with a lethal weapon. I was devoutly thankful that they had not got to +talking politics on the road, or I might have had to deplore the absence +of a bye-law applying to passengers carrying edged tools from that code +which so carefully shuts out the drunkard, and insists that nobody with +a loaded gun or pistol shall enter a carriage. + +At Córdoba the train stopped, and we changed carriages for the +Andalusian capital. During my short stay I was invited to take my choice +of a varied assortment of daggers, navajas, skeens, and stylets, which a +sturdy hawker, who looked as if he knew how to handle them, had strung +round his waist. + +The fellow was a perfect walking arsenal, or rather a peripatetic bit of +Sheffield, and expatiated affectionately on the temper and cutting +qualities of his wares. I declined to buy. He showed his teeth, and told +me I might go farther and fare worse. I was very happy to take him at +his word, and get into a carriage that was going as far as Seville, +which was occupied by only one person, a delicate little gentleman with +a bright, keen, kindly face. To him came a courier as he leant out of +the carriage-window. + +"Why does one see so many Scotch caps about?" asked the little +gentleman, in English. + +"Because Gibraltar is near, and there are smugglers there," answered the +courier. + +"Why does one see so many dogs about?" asked the little gentleman. + +"Because they find more food here than at home," answered the courier. + +"Why does not one see the train start to time?" asked the little +gentleman. + +"Because this is Spain," answered the courier. + +That was conclusive, and the little gentleman drew in his head and sat +down opposite me. He was a charming companion, a young American of +culture and courtly manners, who was travelling in Spain for his health. +He loved the country and the people, and told me many anecdotes of acts +of kindness of which, being sickly, he had been the object from this +strange, tender, passionate race, as ready with generous help as with +the stiletto-point. Poor little gentleman! I fear he has made a void in +some fond household long since, for he was sore stricken with decline. + +"The Spaniard," he said, "in fine, is the most courteous of men; he +never sits down to eat in your presence without offering you a share of +his meal." And it is true. + +From Córdoba to Seville the way lies through a land of delights--the +"tierra deleitosa" of Andalusia. Again we swept by green fields and +silvery grey olive groves; anon we skirted vivid clusters of +orange-trees laden with the great luscious fruit, which is ever in +season. On we passed by plains bristling with huge spiky clumps of aloes +alternating with growths of Barbary figs, until, towards twilight, we +came in sight of the Guadalquivir with its boats, and on the farther +side, near a copse of cypress, the walls of the Cartuja Convent, now +turned into a porcelain factory by an enterprising Englishman, who makes +imitation Moorish tiles where the hooded friars sang matins and lauds. + +It was seven o'clock when we drove into "proud Seville," too late to +look at any of her marvels, but not too late to enjoy a good dinner in +the Fonda de Paris, a namesake and branch of the hotel where I had been +stopping at Madrid. My _vis-à-vis_ at the dinner-table was the Saragossa +butcher--I began to think now he was a political agent--who had been my +_vis-à-vis_ on my tedious ride over the mountains from Beasain to +Alsasua. Was this varlet on my track? I began to entertain serious +apprehensions on the score. It has been my lot for years to have been +shadowed by _mouchards_, gendarmes, detectives, and policemen. + +My goings-out and my comings-in have been noted; my house has been +watched by hulking louts in uniform whom their foolish superiors pitched +upon as accomplished pryers; nay, even a female with _pince-nez_, +sealskin jacket, long purse, and an Ollendorffian intimacy with most +Continental tongues, has been cunningly slipped at my heels. I have +been, thank the Lord, misunderstood by fools, belied by knaves, avoided +by the timorous, tabooed by the contemptibly "respectable" (odious +word), and slandered by scoundrels whom I had befriended. Heads have +been wagged, and I have been adjudged a deep card and a dangerous +character. Nothing could be got out of _me_. + +The explanation is simple. I had nothing to conceal. You cannot squeeze +aqua tofana out of a stone. I was suspected, I take it now, because, in +the exercise of my vocation, I had been thrown into the society of +Communists, Nihilists, Fenians, and Carbonari. Had I confined myself to +card-sharpers, prize-fighters, copper captains, hypocrites, libertines, +and ladies of the Loosened Cincture, all would have been well. And yet, +'fore Heaven, I can assure the Powers, great and small, I have never +meditated wrong to a State or a potentate, never harboured an unkind +thought for a dog, and never joined a secret society but the Order of +Antediluvian Buffaloes, and they expelled me from the lodge for +unbuffalo-like behaviour. + +If I was sure that Saragossa butcher was a spy, I would not put prussic +acid in his chocolate, but I almost think I would sprinkle cowhage +between his sheets. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + Delectable Seville--Don Juan Scapegrace--The Women in Black--In the + Triana Suburb--The City of the Seven Sleepers--Guide-Book + Boredom--Romance and Reality--The Prosaic Manchester Man--King + Ferdinand Puzzling the Judges--Mortification by Proxy--Some Notable + Treasures--Papers and Politics--The Porcelain Factory--"The Lazy + Andalusiennes"--About Cigars--The Gipsy Dance. + + +There are but three spots in the world of which I had formed mental +pictures from my reading, that rose to the level of anticipation when I +came to visit them. Venice was one of these, Naples another, and +Seville, delectable Seville, the third. There is a Spanish proverb which +declares, "Who hath not seen Seville hath not seen a marvel," and I am +prepared to own that who doth not believe that proverb is an unenviable +sceptic. At first sight the city is a disappointment. Glance at it from +the railway and you will have no wish to stop. But alight and remain +there a few days, and you will find it hard to drag yourself away. The +place grows upon you. Each hour reveals new charms; there is a +fascination in the very atmosphere; and in the end you will catch +yourself exclaiming that the pearl of Andalusia is the fairest gem in +the Spanish crown--would be a priceless ornament to any crown. + +The setting of the jewel is not worthy of it--a great plain covered with +greyish grass; clumps of tall, brown-blossomed agave; a sky metallic in +its lustre, blazing and intense; a dim streak of azure on the horizon +indicating the far sierra, and, creeping lazily through the flat, a +dull, yellow river. But the city itself! Verily, it is a marvel--a +grotto of serene mysteries in a granary of plenty, the true city to +cultivate the gay science and savour the delicate relishes of bliss. + +Don Juan--I mean the Don Juan of the Tenorio family, linked to fame by +Tirso de Molina, Glück, and Mozart, not the hero of Byron's poem--was +born here, lived here, and lies under an ivy-clad sarcophagus in the +gardens attached to the Duke de Monpensier's palace. No sweeter nook of +earth could he have chosen for life's dreary pilgrimage, which he made +as little dreary as he well could, if one-half that is said and sung of +him be true. He was a sad scapegrace, and no pattern to the rising +generation; his back knew no sackcloth, and his shoes no peas; but he +died penitent. His tomb, a chaste thing in marble and brass, ought to be +as attractive for pilgrims of the Wertherian school as the monument to +Abélard in the Père-la-Chaise. + +Threading the puzzling maze of Seville streets, one might fancy that all +the ladies here had been in love with the wanton rascal, and were still +in mourning for him. The dress of womankind of the better class is +invariably black; their tiny feet, coffined in dainty shoes, peep from +under a pall of black skirts; black mantillas float over billows of inky +hair, while black eyes flash with the melancholy fire of funeral torches +over the tremulous tips of black fans. Why they patronize black (which +is a conductor of heat) in this hot climate I cannot for the life of me +make out. Certainly it is not because of sympathies solemn or +lugubrious; for the character of these lissom damsels of Seville is the +reverse of gloomy. There is no taint of Inquisitorial days in their +souls. They are grave only externally, and all that is coquettish, +winning, and womanly within. If they hang out the undertaker's emblems +it can only be through love of the rule of contraries, for they are arch +in every step and glance, and bring sunshine with them into shady +places. They are fond of seeing and being seen; they cannot be looked on +as mutes, for they carry a fan, which in Spain is equivalent to a +semaphore; why then will they persevere in wearing this sepulchral +raiment? I flatter myself I have discovered two reasons, either of which +will answer--first, to typify their remorse for all the hearts they have +broken; and, next, because it is very becoming. + +The women of the lower classes do not confine themselves to the same +severity of taste. They are as amorous of glaring colours as negresses. +Cross the iron bridge over the Guadalquivir, here a slow current of +chocolate and milk, and go into the Triana suburb where Tatterdemalion +holds court. There you will meet gowns of printed cotton of the +liveliest hue--gowns that flaunt violent pinks and gamboges, but never a +violet or a pearl-grey, much less a black. These daughters of the people +generally adorn their braided dark hair, which is thick and silky enough +to drive a Parisian belle into agonies of jealousy, with a few bright +natural flowers, and sport cheap trinkets and ear-rings, and fling gay +kerchiefs over their shoulders. The men are as true to the native +costume as the women. That abomination, the stove-pipe hat, seldom +shocks the æsthetic mind. The head-gear is the wide round hat with low +crown and inward-turned brim. The large blue or brown cloak, with +parti-coloured lining, is almost universally worn as in Madrid, but with +this difference: in Madrid the tail of it is held before the mouth as if +there was an epidemic of toothache; in Seville, it drapes full and free. +The Andalusian jacket--broidered with tags, and short so as to show the +scarlet waist-sash--tight trousers, and shoes of untanned leather, are +likewise common. A tidy active working-suit this Andalusian suit is, but +it must no more be argued that the men who wear it are tidy and active +and addicted to hard work than that the women who wear black are going +to a burial-service. No; Seville is the most deliciously idle place in +creation, and the Sevillanos are the most deliciously idle people. + +The _vis inertiæ_ is cultivated here as a science; the Castle of +Indolence is somewhere in the vicinity; the central offices of the Lazy +Society are situated in the Calle de las Sierpes. The natives take to +lotus-eating naturally. Pure effect of climate. The Seven Sleepers were +born in Seville, and their descendants still have their torpid being in +the city. It was never meant for the bustle of trade or the whirr of +machinery. It is the place of all others to read Theocritus, 'mid bowers +dipping their leaves into plashing fountains, to eat fruit, listen to +distant music, blow languid wreaths of perfumed smoke, and shut one's +eyes to have visions of fair women. It is the veritable opium-eater's +Paradise. + +Of deliberate design, I abstain from writing of the public buildings and +monumental curiosities of Seville. All that can be had by those who +choose in the exhaustive guide-books of Richard Ford and Henry O'Shea. +To my thinking, nothing can be more insufferable than the statistics of +architecture, the bald jargon of styles plateresque and ornaments +charrigueresque, the raptures over chancels and transepts and ogee +windows, the precise accounts of such a bell, which would turn the scale +at so many hundredweight, and such a spire, which is three yards and a +quarter taller than the York Column, with the everlasting scraps of +poetry from the treasury of ready-made quotations interlarded between. +It is worse even than the cant of criticism which Laurence Sterne +castigated with honest pen. Hugo was a genius, and even Hugo was almost +unequal to saving "Notre Dame de Paris" from the dead weight of +architectural detail which cumbered its spirit. + +Let us look at Seville without the guide-book or guide, walk through its +labyrinth of narrow paved streets with mind open to receive, and mark +the features of the East side by side with those of the West. Those +flat-roofed buildings with greeneries on the summit, those jealous +balconies and windows with their iron trellis-work, those cool inner +spaces with tesselated floors and surrounding of marble pillars of which +we catch glimpses through the metal fret-work of the private doors--how +Moorish they are! The sights and sounds, the ragged and bronzed beggar +urchins, the hawkers of lemons and water, the strings of donkeys and +mules in fringed blinkers pattering along under huge net or straw +panniers, crammed with fruit, or charcoal, or tiles, or cork-wood--how +characteristic, how utterly un-Frankish! That lolling clown, with legs +dangling over the tawny sheared sides of a diminutive donkey, is a study +in himself. Then the melodious street-cries, the lively braying and +whinnying, and the perpetual tinkling of the collar-bells worn by all +four-footed beasts that pass, except nobody's dog and the rich man's +horse--what a pleasant concert they make! + +If you wish to change the scene, roam through the plazas, with their +marble water-basins and orange-trees; go to the Duke de Montpensier's +garden, with its wealth of myrtles and fern palms; wander to the +river-side and look at the ships lading or unlading; or ascend the +Giralda, the old mosque steeple from which the muezzin called the +faithful to prayer, and take in the comely mass of colour beneath in one +broad sweep. Then the changing sky that canopies this "fragment of +heaven let fall upon earth!" The riot of clouds when the elements war, +and after the midday heats the genial rain pours down as if the blue +expanse overheard were a lake--how fervent and cordial! At night, when +the city streets are crowded with groups in conversation; when the +fragrant, flower-garlanded patios are visible by mystic lights pendent +from gilt chandeliers, like votive lamps before a shrine; when +caballeros pay court to their lady-loves through gratings as caballeros +are licensed only to pay court in Spain; when plaintive songs, with a +reminiscence of the desert about them, are chanted in monotonous cadence +to the accompaniment of a guitar--how grateful it all is to him who is +not lost to the sense of poetry! Imperceptibly one yields himself to the +associations of the bygone, and imagination takes wing. As the night +ages and silence enwraps the scene--a silence only broken by the deep +boom from a clock-tower or the voice of the sereno, the Spanish +watchman, hobbling along with his lantern swinging from his pike and his +bunch of keys from his girdle, singing out the hours--the effect is +stronger; and I confess, while roaming in such a frame once, I so lost +myself to the present that I should not have been surprised if I had met +the Knight of La Mancha and the three gallants of the _Canard à Trois +Becs_ in mocking whispers at his heels, or Figaro himself on a +serenading excursion; but with the last puff of my cigar died out the +ideal and returned the real. I hastened back to my hotel, which might +once have been a Moorish palace, and there, to make the assurance doubly +sure that this was the nineteenth century, sat in an American +rocking-chair a gentleman in a tweed suit, reading _Galignani's +Messenger_ and drinking pale ale. + +That gentleman was not a poet; he was an English tourist. It was the +period before the Holy Week, with its world-renowned solemnities, +celebrated with a pomp second only to that of Rome in her heyday, and +drawing strangers in swarms from every point of the compass. If I +expected to enjoy an intellectual chat with that gentleman I was +mistaken. + +"Only fancy!" he began; "the landlord has been here, and the beggar says +we'll have to pay double for board and lodging if we don't clear out +before the 5th of April." + +To my explanation that a time of deep interest was at hand, and that +accommodation would be at a premium, Manchester (I felt instinctively he +must be a commercial traveller and in the dry-goods line) continued: +"Yes, I know: bull-fights, Italian opera at the San Fernando, races, fat +women, talking seals, peep-shows, whirligigs--all the fun of the fair. +By Jove! I've half a mind to hang on." + +He had not heard of the grand open-air religious processions from Palm +Sunday to Good Friday, nor of the uniquely pathetic service of the +_Tenebræ_, nor of the gorgeous jubilance of Easter Sunday. Some enemy to +Seville spread the rumour that the Republic had set its face against +such ceremonies as mere gauds and vanities, customs more honoured in +the breach than the observance, and that this year they would not be +held. But Seville would not have it so; she would not relinquish her +chance of enjoying a religious raree-show and fleecing the foreigner for +any Republicans. The civil governor issued a proclamation comforting the +lieges by the pledge that now, as ever, the Holy Week would be grandly +kept, kept in a way worthy of cultured Seville, and cultured Seville +rubbed her hands with glee. Crowds were expected to flock in, and the +master of the hotel intended to act royally by them--that is, exact +tribute from them whilst they were at his mercy. Seville meant to be +awfully devout during Passion Week, and awfully jolly the week after. On +Easter Sunday there was to be a bull-fight, one of the finest in Spain, +between the greatest of living toreadores and some bulls of choicely +savage breed. The annual fair, which was represented to me as a revel of +glowing and changing tints in dress--a treat not to be missed by the +artist on any account--was to be held in the middle of April, and +speculative committees were busy over the details of race-meetings, +balls, fireworks, and merry-making generally. + +I pressed the representative of the mart of cotton not to depart. But he +was obdurate to arguments touching on the æsthetic. For him the sacred +Biblico-traditional drama of "The Seven Dolours of the Virgin Mary" had +no attraction. He preferred fireworks and the learned pig. + +"No," he added, as if musing; "on second thought, I shan't. Bull-fights +I can see at Madrid; and the only race-meeting worth attending, I'm +told, is that at the place where the sherry is manufactured." + +"Surely," I ventured, with artless good-nature, "you will wait to +patronize Mr. Spiller, who is advertised as skater-in-ordinary to the +Duke of Edinburgh. It will be something to boast of, that you saw him +gliding and gyrating before the astonished natives, whose only idea of +ice is in the shape of creams, dyed a delicate amber, and tinctured with +essence of lemon. Then, again, your countryman, old Tom Price, the Batty +of the Peninsula, has pitched his tent on the Alameda of Hercules. He's +not to be missed." + +"Tom Price--bah! You should go to Astley's, in the Westminster Bridge +Road, my boy. That fairly takes the cake. I'm off!" + +He went, and I was not sorry; but the spell was broken. I was guest of +an inn. My elysian train of reverie had been smashed up; the genius of +dry-goods had evicted poetry under circumstances of aggravated +harshness; before the stamp of the elastic-sided boot of Manchester, +Pedro the Cruel and Alonso the Wise, Murillo and Luca Giordano, Maria de +Padilla and Leonora de Guzman, "el Rey Chiquito" Boabdil and the heir of +Columbus--all had melted into thinnest of air. + +Inexorable duty called me elsewhere before the Holy Week solemnities, so +that I have no opportunity of describing them _de proprio visu_, and I +do not care to rehearse twice-told tales. But whilst I was in Seville I +wandered to and fro and made good use of my leisure, hearing and seeing +as much as most visitors. Of those things which remain imprinted on my +memory I may repeat some without incurring--at least so I trust--the +imputation of boring the reader. There was a basin in the gardens of the +Alcázar, where I was wont to sit beneath the shade of the foliage in +the strong heats of noon. There is an anecdote concerning it which +impressed me mightily. King Ferdinand was here one day, and was sore +perplexed by an affair of state. He required a just and astute judge to +decide some vexed question of the first importance. Walking up and down +he unconsciously picked an orange, cut it in twain, and flung one half +into the water, the cut side downwards. Suddenly an idea struck him. The +monarch sent for a judge, and asked what was that floating before him. + +"An orange," was the answer. + +Irritated, he dismissed him, summoned another, put the same question, +and received the same reply. This went on until at length one authority, +before answering, drew the fruit towards him with the branch of a tree, +picked it out of the water, and gave the true reply: + +"Half an orange!" + +There is a sound moral at the core of this orange. + +There are five-and-twenty parish churches in Seville and two thousand +priests; but, as too often happens on the Continent, the women were +vastly more attentive than the men to observances of devotion. I made +the acquaintance of a wealthy burgess, a dealer in curiosities, who +asked me round to his shop to inspect some of the charming peasant +costumes of Murcia, now fast falling into disuse--and a grievous pity it +is. It was Friday when I visited him, and he was gobbling pork-chops. + +"What! you a Christian, you a son of the Church!" I exclaimed. + +"Ah! señor," he apologized; "forgive me! I am very frail, but my wife is +_so_ good a Christian. I reverence that woman. She has gone to Mass +without breaking her fast, and when she returns she will only take one +small cup of chocolate." + +But all the burgesses of Seville are not like to him who practised +mortification by proxy. The gentlefolk are pious, and the commonalty are +not irreligious. Cheerfulness and sobriety are the rule; gambling and an +idleness excused by the enervating influences of the too generous sun +are the predominating vices, as elsewhere in Southern Spain. + +I saw few ebullitions of temper, much hospitality among the poor, no +downright thievishness, but the irresistible tendency to pass bad +money--which is accounted a venial failing in the Peninsula. + +The Cathedral is a superb pile, and occupies the site of an ancient +mosque. The stained-glass windows are so many captive rainbows. +Pretermitting talk about dimensions and the like, I may note some few of +the remarkable features which are most apt to be recalled by the +stranger. Foremost among these are the stone pulpit from which St. +Vincent de Ferrer preached; the slab over the remains of Ferdinand, son +of Christopher Columbus, whereon are inscribed the words (referring to +his illustrious father), "A Castilla y á Leon Mundo Nuevo Dió Colon," +and a Crucifixion by a Mexican negro, who was never known to paint any +other subject. It is a peculiarity of artists of the Spanish school, in +representations of the Sacrifice on Calvary, to use three nails and +place the wound on the right side; Italians use four, and place it on +the left. In the Capilla Real is the figure of the "Vírgen de los +Reyes," the patron of Seville, a gift from St. Louis of France, +surmounted by the identical crown with which the brow of the canonized +monarch was pressed, and enclasped as to the throat by a diamond +necklace valued at ninety thousand duros, presented by Doña Berenguela, +the mother of St. Ferdinand. Among the treasures in the relicario of the +sacristy is a massive gold group made of ore brought by Columbus from +America, consisting of two figures sustaining a globe, the globe alone +weighing fifteen pounds. Passing under a horseshoe arch, in a dusty +corridor beside which is preserved the shrivelled mummy of an ungainly +alligator sent by the Sultan of Egypt to Alonso the Wise when seeking +his daughter's hand, the Chapter Library is reached. The prizes of this +collection are the manuscripts of the discoverer of the New World and +the book, "_Tractatus de Imagine Mundi_," which he took with him on the +caravel when he first crossed the Atlantic. There are marginal notes to +it in his own minute and legible handwriting, in one of which he lays +down this apothegm of sad wisdom: "No one is secure from adversity." +There are no especially beautiful pictures by Murillo--especially, I +say, for all of his are beautiful--in the Cathedral, but the church of +La Caridad contains two masterpieces: the "Miracle of our Lord feeding +the Multitude," and that of "Moses bringing the Living Water from the +Rock of Horeb." The latter is full of diversity of expression underlain +by a thrill of mad eagerness brought out with a terrible truth. Another +famous picture is the "Descent from the Cross" of Campana. This was +painted in 1548, and was so natural that Murillo was never weary of +resting in rapt contemplation before it, and on his death-bed asked to +be buried at its feet in the church of Santa Cruz. He had his wish. But +the dogs of war came panting that way. Soult entered Seville, pulled +down the church, desecrated the master's grave, and stole all of his +canvas he could lay his sacrilegious paws upon to grace the Louvre. The +Spaniards do not love the French, nor is it astonishing. + +Among the delights of Seville one of the chief must not fail to be +enumerated--no shrieking newsboys shove latest editions into the face of +the lounger. This is not a reading people; for a woman to know how to +read was accounted immoral so late as the beginning of this century. +There are some papers at Seville, nevertheless; among others, _El +Oriente_, devoted to Carlism, and _La Legitimidad_, which advocated the +interests of the ex-Queen Isabella's son and heir; but they have little +to say. In the lack of suicides, stabs in the dark, and +pronunciamientos, they are driven to fill up their space with extracts +from the almanac and lists of letters thrown into the Post Office +without prepayment. Some countryman must have caught the local disease, +for in one list given in _La Legitimidad_ it was notified that two +envelopes had been indolently committed to the box without stamps, one +addressed to "Miss Mary, Hyde Park," and the other to "Monsieur" (an +evident misprint for "Mister") "Francis O'Mahony, Shankerhill." + +It may be a surprise to some that Carlism had its adherents, but +wherever the Church is powerful there Carlism exists, and as the Church +is particularly powerful amongst the weaker sex, the Spanish women are +almost universally Carlists. Many a ferocious Intransigente, who spouts +fire and brimstone, and death to kings and priests in the clubs, has to +sing very small when he comes home, for the Señora dotes on Don Carlos +and works slippers for the father confessor. In Seville I should say the +Intransigente element is feeble; it is strongest, perhaps, in the +municipality (which, by the way, issued an edict secularizing the +cemetery of San Fernando), because this party of action is always on the +watch and pushes itself into office; but the immense majority of the +business folk are monarchical, only they wish to have the Prince of the +Asturias, not Don Carlos, for their monarch, and all the gentlefolk, +without exception, are anti-Republican. I had proof of this at the +theatre, where "La Marsellesa," a comedy intended to glorify the advent +of the Republic, was played. The speeches in favour of Federalism very +often fell flat, and occasionally were hissed, while the satirical hits +at "social liquidation" and the like were uncommonly relished. + +I have dwelt on indolent Seville. Surely there must be some industries +pursued in this metropolis of the _dolce far niente_. They are not many. + +There is a cannon-foundry and a copper-foundry, but more in keeping with +the associations of the radiant district is the porcelain factory. An +Englishman, Mr. Charles Pickman, bought one of the convents sequestered +in 1836, and has transformed it into a factory, where he turns out some +capital imitations of the ancient glazed tiles. Seldom has a hive of +industry been reared in nobler building or on more lovely site, nestling +in gardens enamelled with flowers, wealthy in fruit-trees, and on the +banks of a river. Some may consider it profanity that potters' wheels +spin and buzz in an edifice once consecrated to religion; but labour is +prayer, and sanctifies of itself. A number of healthy, handsome girls +are busily engaged colouring and burnishing the ceramic ware which is +fashioned in the old cloisters; and their joyous songs over their work +cannot be very displeasing to the spirits of the pious brethren who +preceded them in the locality, if there be any ground for the belief +that the shades of the dead are permitted to haunt the spots they +tenanted in the flesh. There are in those songs reminiscences of Bizet's +_Carmen_. These Andalusian lasses have to thank the Englishman for +giving them the opportunity of earning their bread and olives honestly, +and they have the happy look of independence. Their full-blooded +complexions would shame our pale Lancashire factory hands. They can +hardly realize how lucky they are to ply such a neat trade in an +atmosphere of freshness and sweet odour, under a dome of sapphire. + +Another institution to go over is the great Government tobacco-factory, +close by the Cathedral, where no less than five thousand women are +employed. The sight is the workwomen. The process of cigar-making is as +uninteresting as that of diamond-polishing, and yet one goes to witness +both with far more anxious anticipation than to inspect what is far more +remarkable--the making of a pin. The building in which the manufactory +is carried on is a world in itself--an imposing oblong block, with a +railed enclosure in front. Being Government property, it is guarded by +soldiers, and the stranger is apt to take it, at first sight, for a +gigantic barrack. The name of the king in whose reign it was erected +(one of the Ferdinands) is still outside. The Republic has not ordered +it to be erased, as a French Republic would have done before this. At +Madrid I noticed the same delicacy, or forgetfulness, if you prefer it; +the monogram and crown of Isabella were untouched on the lamp-posts in +the most revolutionary quarters. The interior of the building consists +of long whitewashed halls, divided into colonnades by rows of pillars, +from which spring vaulted ceilings. The women are seated at low tables +about two feet from the ground, in parties of half-dozens. They were +there of every age, from the tawny hussy of sixteen to the fully +developed matron with her infant tumbling in a cradle beside her, and +the wrinkled hag with her iron-grey locks bound with a gay bandana. +Poor, but merry and impudent withal, they were; and some of the +sprightly hoydens, with sprays of lilac and rosebuds in their +magnificent ebon hair, were a little too ready with a wink. There is a +tradition that they smoke, not dainty cigarettes, but full-flavoured +cigars; in any case, they are carefully searched before leaving to see +that they do not smuggle out any trabucos for personal consumption or as +gifts to their favoured swains. They were dressed invariably in lively +cotton prints, with short shawls of red, or crimson, or saffron, or +other hue outvying the tulip in garishness. To be shockingly frank, not +one of them was conspicuously pretty; they had brilliant eyes and teeth, +but all had an ill-fed, dried-up appearance, even those who were +inclined to flesh. The Spanish woman, after a certain age, has a +tendency to get fat without passing through the buxom stage; +connoisseurs pretend that this is the combined effect of rancid oil and +sweetstuff. But it is not gallant to dive into the secrets of female +nature. Very assiduously these "lazy Andalusiennes" bent to their tasks, +picked and sorted the leaves, rolled the cigars into shape, clipped +them, gummed the ends, and packed them into bundles tied with smart +ribands of silk; for they are paid by the piece, and the bull-fighting +season is near, and they must save the price of a seat at the corrida on +Easter Sunday, come what will. The cigars are assorted in boxes +according to their shape and size, their brand and their strength, the +latter being indicated by the words "claro," "claro colorado," +"colorado" (which is the medium flavour), "colorado maduro" and "maduro" +as they advance in five gradations from mild to strong. Leaving the +cigar-hall, I was shown into the cigarette-hall, where a number of +quieter girls, with shallow boxes of tobacco-dust almost as fine as +snuff before them, were rolling the paper cylinders exactly as it is +done by smokers, but with fingers surer and nimbler. In another hall the +cartuchos, or packages to hold cigarettes and tobacco, were made. They +were ready printed and cut, waiting to be put on a wooden frame, turned +over, and pasted. One child of ten was pointed out to me as the quickest +in the lot. Her small hands flew over her work with a rapidity that +dazzled. She had need to be expeditious, poor wean, for she received +just one farthing for every hundred packages she made! + +There are others besides the tantalizing tile-makers and the saucy +cigarreras who are rebellious to the drowsy influences of clime, and +profanely work--the gipsies and the beggars. There are some of the +former here, though not so many as in the pages of Murray. The +excessively dirty and extremely picturesque race, with parchment skins +and high cheek-bones, is dying out. A few stray members of the tribe +remain in the remotest and raggedest part of the transpontine suburb, +and shear mules, cope horses, and do tinkering jobs generally, filling +in their spare time with petty larceny. Their women shuffle cards and +tell fortunes. A splendid people they are, those gipsies--in Borrow's +book and on canvas. In private life their society is not to be courted. +If you do not want to see them, they are sure to turn up; if you do, as +I did, you must look for them, and not always with success. I came +across but one during my stay in Spain--a yellow girl who was eager to +exhibit her palmistry at my expense in the immense coffee-house under +the Fonda de Paris at Madrid--and she left a strong impression on my +mind of having been own sister to a persuasive prophetess who once +cozened me of half-a-crown on the towing-path at Putney at the 'Varsity +boat-race on the Thames. Your hopes of assisting at a gipsy dance at +Seville will be disappointed. If you give a courier two pounds sterling, +he may be able to improvise you one; a pack of filthy, bony men and +women will execute epileptic saltatory movements before you--not the +Esmeralda dance, but lewd swaying of the body from the hips, and +vehement contortions; and finally one creature will throw her +handkerchief at your feet. A well-bred caballero will fill the +handkerchief with shining dollars, and hand it back to her with a bow. +This dance is work, downright hard work; but it is a dance for money. +Mammon, not Terpsichore, is the genius to whom worship is paid. The +mendicants toil as hard at their trade as those dancing gipsies. I +counted fifty-seven in a short morning walk--some robust and some +well-dressed, with the well-acted meekness of genteel poverty. The +cripples, the deformed, the adults with baby arms and the jumping +Billy-the-Bowls could not be paralleled out of South Italy. From the +assortment could be furnished Burns's "Holy Fair" and the Pattern in +"Peep o' Day" twice over, with something to leave. They are all +past-masters and mistresses in the art of petitioning; they are +professors of physiognomy like Lavater, and can tell at a glance a face +which ought to belong to a charitable mortal; and then, what a command +they have of the gamut of lungs, from the whine, the wheedle, and the +snuffle, to the unctuous, droning prayer or the fierce malediction! + +Still--beggars, gipsies, heat, and laziness to the contrary +notwithstanding--Seville is delectable, and a marvel in its gardens and +groves, its flowers and fruit, its fountains and fish-pools, its soft +climate and soft people, its languorous repose and silvery tinkles to +prayer. Seville is romance. Shall it ever be mine again to lie beneath +the shade of its secular orange-trees, and blink at clustering shafts +of marble tipped with silver sun-rays, and dream dreams? As I write, +methinks to my ear rises the cry of the guardian of the night, the last +I heard as I left, half warning, half supplication: "Ave Maria +Purissima, las diez han dado." + + +END OF VOL. 1. + +BILLING & SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[A] In fair play to Santa Cruz, it is right to state that he believed +this female to be a spy, who, under the pretence of Carlism, was willing +to "betray the volunteers of God and the King, and carried despatches to +the enemy sewn up in her dress." Still, the idea of a minister of +religion ordering a woman to be shot does not recommend itself, although +the woman may have justly deserved her fate. + +[B] The Duke de Sanlucar is an O'Shea. I hope he is a relative of mine; +for kinship with a grandee, however distant, is something to brag about. +We always speak of our exalted connections. One never hears me dropping +a syllable of a cousin of mine who was a bounty-jumper in the United +States, agent-in-advance to a nigger-minstrel troop, and subsequently +drove a butcher's cart in Brooklyn. He was a fearful, but most +fascinating ruffian. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Romantic Spain, by John Augustus O'Shea + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROMANTIC SPAIN *** + +***** This file should be named 34753-0.txt or 34753-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/7/5/34753/ + +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.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/34753-0.zip b/34753-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..85b84d7 --- /dev/null +++ b/34753-0.zip diff --git a/34753-8.txt b/34753-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9d60d99 --- /dev/null +++ b/34753-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6215 @@ +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. I) + +Author: John Augustus O'Shea + +Release Date: December 25, 2010 [EBook #34753] + +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. + +BY +JOHN AUGUSTUS O'SHEA, + +AUTHOR OF + +"LEAVES FROM THE LIFE or A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT," +"AN IRON-BOUND CITY," ETC. + +"Oh, lovely Spain! renowned, romantic land!" + +CHILDE HAROLD. + +IN TWO VOLUMES. +VOL. I. + +LONDON: +WARD AND DOWNEY, +12, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C. +1887. +[_All Rights Reserved._] + + +TO +WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT, ESQ., +IN TOKEN OF ESTEEM FOR +HIS BOLD AND TRUTHFUL CHARACTER, +AND OF +GLADNESS THAT WE HAVE SO MANY KINDRED SYMPATHIES, + +This Book is Enscribed + +BY THE WRITER. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +This simple recital of personal haps and mishaps in perturbed Spain from +the abdication of Amadeus to the entry of Don Carlos, puts forward no +claim to the didactic or dogmatic. Its chief aim is to amuse. Of course, +if I succeed in conveying knowledge and dispelling illusions--in Tasso's +words, if I administer a pill under a coating of jam--I shall be +cock-a-hoop with delight. But I warn the reader I am not an unprejudiced +witness. I am passionately fond of Spain and her people. Although years +have elapsed since the events dealt with occurred, I fancy the narrative +will not be hackneyed, for in Spain public life repeats itself with a +fidelity which is never monotonous. I do not pretend to cast the +horoscope of the poor little monarch who is in the nurse's arms, but +Heaven guard him! 'Twere better for him that he had been born in a +Highland shieling. + +Should there be much individualism in these pages, it is intentional, +and to be ascribed to the instance of friends. They said, "Bother +history; give us plenty of your own experiences." It is to be hoped they +have not led me astray by their well-meant advice. + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOL. I. + + +CHAPTER I. + +PAGE + +Which, being non-essential, treats partly of Spain, +but principally of the Writer 1-23 + +CHAPTER II. + +The Old-Fashioned Invocation--"Them 'ere Spanish +Kings!"--Candidates for a Throne--_En Voyage_--Bordeaux +and the Back-ache--An Unmannerly +Alsatian--The Patriot gets a Roland for his Oliver--Small +Change for a Hot Bath--Plan for Universal +Coinage--Daughters of Israel--The Jews Diagnosed--Across +the Border--The Writer is Saluted "Caballero"--Bugaboo +Santa Cruz--Over a Brasero 24-42 + +CHAPTER III. + +A Make-Believe Spain--The Mountain Convoy--A +Tough Road to Travel--Spanish Superiority in +Blasphemy--Short Essay on Oaths--The Basque +Peasants--Carlism under a Cloak--How Guerilla-Fighting +is Conducted--A Hyperborean Landscape--A +Mysterious Grandee--An Adventurous Frenchman--The +Shebeen on the Summit--Armed Alsasua--Base +Coin 43-60 + +CHAPTER IV. + +Madrid--The Fonda and its Porter--The Puerta del +Sol--Postal Irregularities--Tribute to the Madrileos--The +Barber's Pronunciamiento--Anecdotes of King +Amadeus--Checkmating the Grand Dames--Queen +Isabella--The Embarrassed Mr. Layard of Nineveh--The +Great Powers Hesitate--America Goes Ahead--General +Sickles--Mahomet and the Mountain--Republicanism +among the Troops--A Peculiar Pennsylvanian +Dentist--Castelar under Torture--The +Writer meets one of his Sept--Politicians by Trade--Honour +among Insurgents--Alonso the Reckless 61-91 + +CHAPTER V. + +A Late Capital--The Gambling Mania--A French +Rendezvous--The Duke de Fitzpepper--The Morality +of Passing Bad Money--Spanish Compliments--Men +in Pickle--A Licentious Ballet--Federal Manners--Prim's +Artifice--Nouvilas Goes North--A Carlist +Proclamation--Don Alfonso--Midnight Oil--Castelar's +Circular 92-112 + +CHAPTER VI. + +Warning to Ladies--The Hotel Parliament--An Anglo-Spanish +Mentor--The Evil Genii of the Monarchy--The +Curses of Spain--Government and Religion +Affairs of Climate--The Carlists, Norwegians, and +English, all Republicans!--Notions on Heredity--The +Five Spanish Parties--The Army the Lever of +Power--The Student-Csar--Order _versus_ Republic--The +Chained Colours--Dorregaray's Appeal to the +Soldiers--Influence of the Church--Wanted: a +Benevolent Despot 113-131 + +CHAPTER VII. + +The Carnival--About Kissing Feet--Mummers and +Masquers--The Paseo de Recoletos--The Writer is +taken for Cluseret--Incongruity in Costume--Shrove +Tuesday--Panic on the Prado--A Fancy Ball--The +"Entierro de la Sardina"--Lenten Amusements--A +Spanish Mystery--"Pasion y Muerte de Jesus"--Of +the Stage Stagey--Critical Remarks 132-160 + +CHAPTER VIII. + +Another Chat with Mentor--A Startling Solution of +the Spanish Question--The Penalties of Popularity--The +Republic another Saturn--The New Civil +Governor--The Government Bill--Outside the Palace +of the Congress--Providential Rain--Wild Rumours--Federal +Threats--The Five Civil Guards--Inside +the Chamber--The Great Debate--The Two Reports--Compromise--Minor +Speechmakers--A Pickwickian +Contention--The Division--Victory for the +Ministry--The Five Civil Guards Trot to Stables 161-182 + +CHAPTER IX. + +The Inventions of Don Fulano de Tal--Stopping a +Train--"A Ver Fine Blaggar"--The Legend of Santa +Cruz--Dodging a Warrant--Outlawed--Chased by +Gendarmes--A Jack Sheppard Escape--The Cura +becomes Cabecilla--Sleeping with an Eye Open--Exploits +and Atrocities--Dilettante Carlists in +London--The Combat of Monreal--Ibarreta's Relics--A +Tale for the Marines--The Carlists Looking-up 183-200 + +CHAPTER X. + +Barbarism of Tauromachy--A Surreptitious Ticket--The +Novillos--Islington _not_ Madrid--Apology for +Cock-Fighting--Maudlin Humanity--The Espada a +Popular Idol--In the Bull-Ring--A Precious "Ster-oh"--The +Trumpets Speak--The Procession--Play of +the Quadrille--The Defiance--"Bravo, Cucharra!"--"Bravo, +Toro!"--The Blemish of the Sport--An +Indignant English Lassie 201-224 + +CHAPTER XI. + +The Shamrock of Erin and Olive of Spain--Hispano-Hibernian +Regiments--The Spanish Soldier--An +Unpopular Hidalgo--Flaw in the Harness--The +Organization of the Army--The Guardia Civil--The +Cavalry, Engineers, and Infantry--General Cordova--The +Disorganization of the Army--Mutiny in +Pampeluna--Officers Out of Work--Turbulent Barcelona--Irresolute +Contreras--Pistolet Discharges +Himself--The Madrid Garrison 225-248 + +CHAPTER XII. + +Luring the Reader into a Stony Desert--A Duel on the +Carpet--Disappointment of the Special Correspondents--The +People Amuses Itself--How the Ballot +Works--A Historic Sitting of the Congress--Castelar's +Great Oration--The Glory of Spain--About +Negro Manumission--Distrust of "Uncle Sam"--Return +of Figueras--The Permanent Committee--A +Love-Feast of Politicians--The Writer Orders +Wings 249-265 + +CHAPTER XIII. + +The Writer Turns Churlish and Quits Madrid--Sleep +under Difficulties--A Bad Dream--Santa Cruz again--Off +St. Helena!--Dissertation on Stomach Matters--A +Hint to British Railway Directors--"Odds, Hilts +and Blades"--A Delicate Little Gentleman is Curious--The +"Tierra Deleitosa"--That Butcher again 266-281 + +CHAPTER XIV. + +Delectable Seville--Don Juan Scapegrace--The Women +in Black--In the Triana Suburb--The City of the +Seven Sleepers--Guide-Book Boredom--Romance +and Reality--The Prosaic Manchester Man--King +Ferdinand Puzzling the Judges--Mortification by +Proxy--Some Notable Treasures--Papers and Politics--The +Porcelain Factory--"The Lazy Andalusiennes"--About +Cigars--The Gipsy Dance 282-311 + + + + +ROMANTIC SPAIN. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + Which, being non-essential, treats partly of Spain, but principally + of the Writer. + + +The sun was shining with a Spanish lustre--a lustre as of glowing +sarcasm--seeing that on that very day a Fire-Worshipper, Dadabhai +Naoroji, was over-shadowed in his attempt to become a Member of +Parliament for Holborn. The sun, I repeat, was shining with a Spanish +lustre while the inquisition was being held. The tribunal was in the +open air, under the mid plane-tree in Camberwell Green, the trimmest +public garden in London. Conscience was the inquisitor, and the charge I +had brought against myself was that of harbouring a vagrom spirit. I +should have been born in a gipsy caravan or under a Bedaween's tent. +Nature intended me to have become a traveller, a showman, or a +knight-errant; and had Nature been properly seconded, I should have been +doing something Burnabyish, Barnumesque, or Quixotic this afternoon, +instead of sitting down on a bench between a tremulous old man in +almshouse livery and a small boy fanning himself with a cap. Yes; I fear +I must plead guilty. I am possessed by a demon of unrest; my soul chafes +at inaction, calls aloud for excitement. Had I the ordering of my own +fortune I should spread the white wings of a yacht to woo the faint wind +(but it may be blowing freshly off the Foreland), or should vault on the +back of a neighing barb with bushy mane and tail. But I am Ixion-lashed +to the wheel of duty, leg-hampered by the log of necessity. + +What is a gentle-born vagabond to do? + +The law will not permit him to pink with his sword-stick the first smug +fellow he meets on the side-path, self-respect debars him from +highway-robbery which can be perpetrated without fear of the law, and it +is idle to expect a revolution in this humdrum country within any +reasonable period. A General Election which is going on, with its paltry +show of coloured strips of calico, its printed appeals to the gullible, +its occasional bits of ribbon and bursts of cheering, its egotisms, its +stupidities, its self-seekings, its shabby intrigues and simulated fire, +its dull, dreary, drivelling floods of witless substance in +ungrammatical form--that, surely, is no satisfying substitute for the +tumult of real political strife. + +Motion is the sovereign remedy for the vagabond's disease, and lo! +through the leafy barrier of the pollarded limes bordering the Green, +jingle the bells of the tram-car with its trotting team of three +abreast. Three mules, which bring my thoughts to Spain, and to a letter +I have had from my publishers, satirically asking how soon they might +expect the last pages of a promised book on the land of the Dons, the +first line of which is not yet committed to paper. I must think over +that book as I jog along the grooves of the street rails, and survey the +prospect from the roof. How do those mules on the flanks manage to avoid +knocking their hoofs against the metal-ruts, and tripping themselves +up? What a stand-and-deliver air the conductor has as he presents his +snip-snap apparatus, like the brutal key of the primitive dentist, and +viciously punches an orifice in your ticket! For these conductors, as +for letter-carriers, I have a profound sympathy; they are over-worked +and under-paid; and yet they enjoy motion in abundance. But there is a +poetry of motion, as when charging squadrons skim the plain, or a +graceful girl with dainty ankles trips across the beeswaxed floor; and +there is a prose of motion, as of a policeman plodding over his beat, or +the Sisyphus-toil of the treadmill. I ask myself, Will a tram-conductor +ever write a poem? Hardly, I think; and yet, why not? Was not Edward +Capern, who achieved some smooth verses, a letter-carrier? + +New Cross, our terminus so far. Over the way is another tram, which will +take us to Greenwich for the outlay of another twopence. Shortly it will +be one continuous avenue of pretentious masonry, from the Thames at +Blackfriars to the Thames by the naval palace, instead of the former +pleasant drive through Surrey fields. With what a fever they are +building, terrace upon terrace, street upon street, interminable rows of +villas in line or semi-detached! The patches of verdure, so refreshing +to the jaded city eye, are diminishing in size and lessening in number. +I like Greenwich; but they should never have removed the veterans of the +ocean from it. Dear to the soul of youth, hankering for the strange and +the stirring, were their three-cornered hats, their wooden stumps, their +withered monkey-jaws puffed with quids, and their hoarse, squall-tearing +voices. What a consuming thirst they had, and with what heroic industry +they did tell lies! Peter of Russia was right: the sovereigns of +England, the sea-rulers, should hold court in Greenwich. The Park with +its fallow-deer is regal; the Painted Hall is eloquent with historic +memories; the initial meridian is an imposing address; and then the +Thames--but here, we are at it. A steamer awaits, and will carry us to +the heart of London for a groat. + +How dingy, dirty, despicable most of those steamers are! with their +low-roofed, grimy cabins; their irritating hawkers of hat-strings and +small beer; their stale stock of mawkish refections; their job-lot +orchestras of wheeze and pipe and scrape and tootle; their smell of +bilge and oil, sweat and cheap cigars, overtopped at holiday-times by +the sulphurous oath or the rank obscenity of some reeling passenger. And +yet how skilfully they thread their way through the crowded Pool; how +readily they answer the wheel; with what ease they slow or quicken their +run, and dart hither and thither; and with what nicety they are brought +alongside the floating wharf! I wonder do the skippers of these boats +move their hands in their dreams. Is the finger-sign for "Back her," +that they use at home when they wish to replenish their pipes? +Collisions there may be, explosions there have been; but the career of +the mariner who plies between Chelsea Pier and the port of Woolwich must +be singularly free from such vicissitudes as shipwreck or failure of +provisions; he is seldom caught in a tornado, or banged into by a +privateer; he rarely knocks up against an iceberg, or gets a glimpse of +the Flying Dutchman; sharks he may not study, except, perhaps, in the +Westminster Aquarium, and when he dies he is trenched in commonplace +clay. I cannot picture such a mariner to myself as having the spirit to +ejaculate, "Shiver my timbers!" + +The sight of a vessel from Seville laden with fruit and wine recalls me +to that letter from the publishers and the book anent Spain. Not a word +of it written yet. _They_ will be shivering _my_ timbers if I have it +not ready in season. But I am not of those, like Anthony Trollope, who +can sit down to their desks and turn out so many pages of copy at a +stretch mechanically, much as a tinglary with its rotating handle grinds +out a series of tunes. I cannot write unless I am in the mood, and that, +I find, depends on the state of health and the absence of mental worry. +The brain with some people refuses to become a piece of machinery. Of +motion is often born inspiration--Hermes, god of oratory, is represented +with _petasus_ and _talaria_--and I am enjoying motion. + +"Ease her--stop her!" Blackfriars Bridge, and here I quit the steamer's +deck for the tram that will take me back to the place whence I came, +and so enable me to have made a diversified circular tour by land and +water for the expenditure of tenpence. Who would waste his substance on +coach-men and high-steppers; who would envy Sir Thomas Brassey his +lordly pleasure-craft, when this round of travel, with its buoyant sense +of independence at the end, can be accomplished for tenpence? And now I +shall hie me to a bar I wot of, and with the two pence that remain of my +splendid shilling, I shall cheer the inner man with a clear, cool, +mantling glass of foam-crowned bitter beer. + +The beer ought to be good in Camberwell, for here Mrs. Thrale lived of +yore, and the ponderous lexicographer took his walks, and mused on the +vanity of human wishes. We have breweries still, and we have groves, +even groves of Academus, where one may laugh; for are they not sacred to +the shades of the two Hoods and Jeff Prowse, the "Nicholas" of _Fun_, as +to Nick Woods, the Napier-recorder of Inkermann, and to associations +with William Black, Henry Bessemer, and John Ruskin, master of art, +which is something more, and more significant, than that _Magister +Artium_ which persons doubtful of their gifts or station ostentatiously +affix to their names? And in our groves we have such variety of +arborescent prizes as no other district of London can boast, extending +to the arbutus or strawberry-tree, and the liriodendron or tulip-tree. +The liriodendron has been planted in Palace Yard, in the hope that the +breath of wholesomeness, genial to its native America, shall permeate +the badly-ventilated atmosphere of the adjacent House of Commons. I love +trees as if I were suckled by a hamadryad. May he who cuts them down to +build whereon they stood taste the bitterness of Acheron! + +And Camberwell Green, which I dearly affect, is it not replete with +every modern convenience, as those ambitious amateurs who write the +auction-bills are wont to phrase it? There is a bank where you may cash +a cheque; two public-houses where you may spend great part of it +fuddling yourself; a police-station where you may sleep the fuddle off; +a pillar-box where a letter may be posted summoning a bail to your aid; +a drinking-fountain where you may slake your thirst when you come out +penitent from the police-office; a Turkish-bath, with a +crescent-and-star daubed piece of bunting over it, where you may knead +your frame into sobriety; a hairdresser's where you may make yourself +presentable; a stationer's where my friend Morris will lavishly dose you +with the tonic of moral apothegm; and, right opposite, a horse-trough +where you may give yourself the ducking you deserve. + +Inside the tavern, where I sought the beer, I met a financier, a shrewd +fellow of a gross habit of body and a dry wit. He is accountant to a +firm of book-makers, and can hold his own with the tongue; he married +into the family of a late eminent prizefighter, and, with the +connection, seems to have acquired the talent of holding his own with +the fist. I like Wat much, and have obtained various scraps of desultory +information from him which are useful. + +Imprimis, that a penny ticket on a river-steamer on a Sunday constitutes +a man as _bon fide_ a traveller as Henry M. Stanley, and endows him +with the privilege of getting liquid comfort within prohibited hours. + +Item, that the cigars on the outside of a bundle, and therefore indented +with the tape, are generally the best. + +Item, that if there is hide or pelt on a carcase before a butcher's +stall, you may take for granted it is a British carcase. Foreign meat +has to be skinned to avoid the risk of importation of cattle-disease. + +And, ultimately, that if you are about to drown yourself in the Thames, +and are anxious to avert identification, the best spot to throw yourself +off is in the neighbourhood of a ship at moorings, as then you are +likely to be drawn under her and kept in the chains for months. + +Some readers who are unaware that there were no gentlemen with +coat-armour in the College of Apostles, may object that in presenting +them to Wat I am introducing them to low society; but I can assure them +that I have seen a very respectable Duke hail-fellow-well-met with a +jockey, and my friend Wat has a far fuller education than the primest +of jockeys. He is apt and accurate in quotations from English +literature; and if you venture to make Greeks "meet" Greeks in his +presence, or talk of fresh "fields" and pastures new, or attribute the +tempering of the wind to the shorn lamb to Holy Writ, he will lay you +ten to one in sovereigns you are wrong, and win your money. He is also a +champion orthographist, and will back himself to spell English words +against any man in the British Empire for 500, bar words technical. + +"Ah," he said, "my noble! is it true you are going on a lecturing-tour +next winter?" + +"If God but spare me health and lung-power I am," was my reply. + +"And wherefore, may I ask? Can you not do better at the desk?" + +"The desk is monotonous; besides, I yearn for change, and I may be able +to freshen up my ideas, and set down some notes in my tables. 'Twill +improve intellectual and physical health." + +"It will, of course," agreed Wat. "For instance, it will be perfectly +delightful journeying to Inverness, say, in the depth of December." + +"As it so happens, I am booked for Inverness on a date in that month." + +Wat stared at me. "Do you know," he said, "'tis a far cry to Loch Awe, +and Inverness is at the other side of Loch Awe? Thither and back from +where we stand is eleven hundred and ninety miles." + +I was surprised; I had not entered into these details; but I held my +peace. + +"Have you got many engagements?" + +"Yes; the first was from Dollar, which I accept as a good omen; and, +curiously enough, 'tis not in the United States." + +"No," said Wat; "'tis between Edinburgh and Stirling. What fee do they +tender you there?" + +I told him. + +"Ahem!" he continued, fondling his chin as he spoke. "If you don't +cumber yourself with luggage--a courier-bag will do--and if you bus it +to King's Cross, and stop at a temperance hotel in 'Auld Reekie,' and +give servants no tips, and condescend to all invitations, with a wise +economy, I take it, you won't drop more than five-and-twenty shillings +on that transaction." + +"How! What do you mean? You surely are not serious?" + +"Why, the railway return fare to Edinburgh alone is +five-pun-nine-and-six; and that will burn a hole in your fee." + +"Perhaps," I ventured, not to look foolish, "I may have means of getting +to Edinburgh for nothing." + +"Ah!" said Wat, with a sigh and a sorrowful sententiousness, "if you +think you can try on that, well and good; but I'm getting so precious +fat that I can no longer hide myself under a seat!" + +The barman, who had overheard the dialogue, here burst into an ill-bred +fit of laughter. That attendant had some appreciation of humour; but Wat +did the correct thing, nevertheless, in rebuking him for his untimely +hilarity. The barman should have waited until he had retired to his own +room. + +This lecturing, as I explained to the financier, is rather a hazardous +experiment after a man has passed his fortieth year. It is like learning +to act--even more arduous than that, for you have no prompter, and must +be qualified to think upon your legs. Interruptions must not check the +flow of your eloquence; indifference must not chill your enthusiasm. You +must be suave, alert, sonorous, and roll forth a discourse got off by +rote as if it were the offspring of the moment's inspiration. The +combustion of thought must appear to be a spontaneous combustion. Once +your tale is set a-going, there must be no pause, no hesitancy; the +electric current must be maintained to strong and constant power, or +your audience sinks into a freezing dulness of courteous attention, +which wishes, but fears, to yawn. + +"Yes," said Wat, "the steam must be kept up. But if a Derby dog strays +on the course--I mean if a bullock blunders on the track, what then?" + +"That is the difficulty. It is vexatious if a man dozes off and +endeavours to balance himself on the tip of his nose on the floor, when +you are in the high ecstasy of a rhetorical period." + +"I know," said Wat. "When you are what you call piling up the agony." + +"Or when a deaf dowager is seized with a fancy to sternutate as you are +waxing pathetic." + +"Sternutate. That's a good word," remarked Wat admiringly. "I swear I +could spell that. By-the-bye, how are you getting on with that book on +Spain?" + +_Ecce iterum Crispinus._ + +"Good-afternoon I am just on my way home to write it." + + * * * * * + +The title I shall leave to the finish. Something catching is sure to +suggest itself. The dedication I pencilled off months ago. Let that +stand. + +The subject, I think, is good. Spain is comparatively unknown. John Bull +on his travels will not open to it. The British tourist in the Peninsula +too often carries with him his native sense of superiority and his +constitutional tendency to spleen. He turns up his nose at what he +cannot, or will not, understand. If the beef is tough, he does not +consider that it ought to be, most of the animals from whose ribs it +came having done honest work as beasts of burden before they were +driven to the slaughter-house. If the Val de Peas is rasping to his +palate, he ignores that the taste for wine, as for olives and Dublin +stout and Glenlivat, is acquired. If the tobacco is coarse and weedy, he +forgets that it is cheap, and that he can roll his cigarette and smoke +it between the courses. But why does he not console himself for the +absent by what is present--the ripe golden sun, the luscious fruits, the +picturesque costumes, the high-bred dignity of the humblest beggar, the +weird olian melody of sudden trills of song, the flashing eyes, +mantilla-shaded, which speak romances in three volumes in every glance? +The truth is, your Briton abroad, I mean the average one--not men like +Mr. Gladstone in Sicily, or Captain Burton everywhere, Queen's +Messengers and Special Correspondents, travelling Fellows of Oxford and +pilgrims of art--your Briton of the tourist type is less inclined to +adapt himself to another sphere than to try and assimilate that other to +his own. + +This tourist goes to Spain; he hurries from end to end of the Peninsula, +his guide-book in his hand and his opera-glass across his shoulder; he +pays a flying visit to the Escurial, and pronounces it a gloomy crib; +drops in on Seville, sees it, and does not marvel; mayhap he wanders as +far as Granada, and finds it a dreary "sell;" and then he returns +homeward, hot and tired and disappointed, and is eloquent on the +rapacity of innkeepers, the profusion of counterfeit coin, the +discomforts and unpunctuality of locomotion, the shocking +uncleanliness--but, however, "you know, we got on better than the +Joneses; we saw more sights and covered more country in fewer days." And +this peripatetic postures for the rest of his life as an authority on +Spain! The only point, perhaps, on which his judgment is to be accepted +is one which he might have learned in London, namely, that Price's +circus is not quite so good as Sanger's in Westminster or Hengler's off +Oxford Street. Out upon the poor fool! _He_ know Spain! Why, that is +more than I could dare to say, and I have had experience of it under +Monarchy and Republic, in peace and in war; have mixed with Carlists in +the field, and Intransigentes in the fortress; have traversed it from +Irun to Gibraltar, from Santander to Malaga. He who has not been +admitted into the intimacy of domestic life in Spain, who has not +listened to habaneras by the camp-fire, joined in the jota on the +village sward, shared in thorough sympathy in the sports of the arena +and in the rites of religion, dipped into the peasant's olla podrida, +nay, even watched the flushed gamblers over their cards, with the +eager-eyed baratero standing by--he does not know Spain. All this have I +done, and more; and yet I am but on the threshold of acquaintance with +that great and beautiful home of paradox, that land of valour and +courtesy, of fidelity and magnanimity, of piety and patriotism; and, in +a lesser degree, of the vices which are opposed to these good qualities. +No country of Europe so near to us is so little known. Yet in none is +the soil fertilized by so much British blood. But this was in the +bygone; and the yearly increasing swell of journeying-against-time +tourists has not swept in tidal wave over the Peninsula. Even Spanish +plays--and Spain can boast of one of the richest springs of dramatic +literature in Europe--are comparatively sacred from the desecrating +touch of the ruck of contemporary English stage adulterators. + +Spain is not known; and yet it is not for the lack of word-painters to +make it familiar in pen-and-ink pictures. There is Ford, most learned +and graphic of guides, as full of irresistible prejudice as he is of +impulsive affection. There is Borrow, that robust, quaint, and +captivating, if sometimes over-fanciful, cicerone, albeit his errand to +Spain was as indiscreet in purpose as it was bootless in result. There +is Sala, of memory richly stored--whom I freely salute as past-master in +his craft--most charming, observant, and illustrative of roving +journalists. Ford, Borrow, Sala, all know Spain and "things Spanish" by +personal experience; but it is plain that too many of the latter-day +critics of Spain and the Spaniards are of the class who are ready to +write social novels on Chinese life with no more knowledge of the +Flowery Land than is to be obtained under the dome of the Reading-room +of the British Museum. The pity of it is that this second-hand evidence +is too often taken on trust, while the truthful records of eye-witnesses +are shoved into a dusty corner of the cupboard. It is so nice to be +patted on the head and rubbed down with the grain, to be reminded that +we are what we always thought ourselves to be--the perfect, the +registered A 1 people of the universe, the people who set the pattern, +the people who are righteous, moral, honest, tolerant, charitable, and +modest; who wage no unjust wars; who have no Divorce Court scandals; who +know not bank frauds; who never persecuted Highlanders, or Jews, or +Irishmen; who permit no misappropriations of money left to the poor; who +make no brag over small victories against badly-armed savages. But stay, +this is taking me to Africa, not Spain; and Africa does not begin at the +other side of the Pyrenees, the epigram of Dumas to the contrary +notwithstanding. My great object is to coax the English reader to be +reasonable, and not to take the dimensions of the round world by the +parochial yard-measure, nor to gauge the Coliseum by the standard of +Clapham. + +However, I shall not complete this work unless I make a start. _Dimidium +facti_--but these odds and ends of Latin, which give to style an +eighteen-penny polish of erudition and prove nothing, you can pick at +will from "Swain's Collection of Easy Sentences." If I wait till I am in +the mood, my suspense may be as long as that of the rustic on the bank +of the stream. Perhaps Samuel Johnson, LL.D., was near the mark when he +said that the author that thinks himself weather-bound will find, with a +little help from hellebore, that he is only idle or exhausted. + +And now a paragraph to elucidate why I have dedicated this book to a +gentleman with whom I never exchanged a word. Apart from the bright and +solid facts that he wards the weak, and has the pluck to change his +opinions when he feels himself in the wrong, there are in his case two +reasons all-sufficient to secure his counterfeit presentment a niche in +my album, and himself a nook in my heart--he hath killed a bull in the +arena, and he is husband of Byron's grand-daughter; and Byron was a +poet--yea, a poet, I re-affirm, the hysterics to the contrary of sixteen +screaming _laudatores Veneris_ in non-lucid intervals counting for +naught. + + * * * * * + +I have lost faith in Wat. In a moment of misplaced confidence I laid a +wager on him at a spelling competition. He put one _n_ in innuendo, and +the _i_ after the _ll_s in paillasse. If he had only gone to the root of +the matter! I offered such long odds, too--a frayed copy of the "Iliad" +to a gilt and morocco-bound set of the "Newgate Calendar." + + + + +CHAPTER II + + The Old-Fashioned Invocation--"Them 'ere Spanish + Kings!"--Candidates for a Throne--_En Voyage_--Bordeaux and the + Back-ache--An Unmannerly Alsatian--The Patriot gets a Roland for + his Oliver--Small Change for a Hot Bath--Plan for Universal + Coinage--Daughters of Israel--The Jews Diagnosed--Across the + Border--The Writer is Saluted "Caballero"--Bugaboo Santa Cruz--Over + a Brasero. + + +O mules, liquorice, onions, oranges, garlic, and eke figs, cork and +olives, and all you other products of Spain, come to my aid now that I +enter upon my theme! Why should not a prose-chronicler of this era +proffer his appeal as did the poets of era undetermined, of the eras of +Augustus or the Second Charles? Perchance the [Greek:_Thea_], _Musa_, or +Muse, to whom he makes his plea, may prove less kind than those to whom +Homer, Virgil, or Milton prayed; but he has his remedy. In most +instances, he can eat them. + +Having complied with what used to be a hallowed custom, I shall now, +following the example of that shrewd man, the late Abraham Lincoln, +proceed to tell a story. The deadly sin in any book is dulness, and an +occasional anecdote--if it point a moral so much the better--is sovran +balsam for spleen. + +I had a literary friend in London, and as he once returned to his +residence by Regent's Park after a long walk, and asked had anyone +called during his absence, the housekeeper replied "No;" but, correcting +herself, added, "leastways, nobody, sir, except one of them 'ere Spanish +kings!" + +The Spanish king who was of no consequence was one of the race of +Pretenders, and had the proud blood of countless generations of +thick-lipped Bourbons meandering through his veins. + +In the February of 1873, from which my personal knowledge of Spain +dates, there were quite a number of these Spanish kings on the carpet. +Amadeus, the Italian, had vacated the throne on the 11th, in a message +which substantially affirmed that the peaceful government of Spain was +hopeless--his Majesty gave it up as a bad job--and the two Chambers, +combining as the sovereign Cortes, proclaimed the Republic by a majority +of four to one. Of the aspirants to the crown there were notably Don +Carlos Maria de los Dolores, the legitimate heir--if there be any virtue +in legitimacy--and Don Alfonso, only son of the deposed Isabella, a boy +of fifteen, at school at Vienna, a legitimate claimant if the abolition +of the Salic law in 1830 be acknowledged. There was one who might have +been a king, but sensibly declined the proffered honour, in the person +of the ancient Espartero, Duke of Victory, Prince of Vergara; and there +was a Prussian princeling, a Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, who had been +nominated king in the midsummer of 1870, and whose nomination afforded +the coveted pretext for the war between France and Germany. Besides, +every Captain-General in the country--and the allowance is five--was a +king _in prospectu_, not to mention the multifarious leaders of the many +parties in the Congress, all of whom were qualified to be kings in their +own conceit. Spain being thus suffering from a plethora of kings--as one +result of which the Republic existed--it struck those who had +commissioned me to chronicle the humours of besieged Paris that I might +find some material for instructive and entertaining writing at the other +side of the Pyrenees. + +There are several ways of getting to Madrid. I had no difficulty in +selecting mine--in fact, I had no choice. It was my duty to go there by +the quickest route, no matter what the expense, the danger, or the +inconvenience. These were the terms implied in my bond. The first stage +was to Bordeaux. Over that I shall not dwell beyond a passing note on +the excitement of the mad drive from terminus to terminus through Paris +streets, in the early morn, at the rate of four statute miles an hour, +in order, as Brother Jonathan has it, to "establish connection," and the +misery of the long railway pilgrimage south. The scenery, I believe, was +lovely; but fatigue, and the worry of a constrained position, and the +frequent jerky stops as one was dozing to sleep, and the impatient +summons "_en voiture_" as the hungry man was settling to a square meal, +indisposed one for the proper appreciation of the picturesque. I got so +eye-dazed from the whirl and dust and flitting sentinels of +telegraph-posts on the long music-lines of telegraph-wires, that I could +not distinguish a life-buoy from a funeral wreath. There were no +sleeping-cars between Paris and Bordeaux then; back-ache, with an +occasional variety in the shape of migraine, is my principal memory of +that journey. Back-ache, the reader will allow, would take the poetry +out of a honeymoon trip. And here I interpose a short parenthesis to +register my acknowledgment to the philanthropist who invented +sleeping-cars with their complementary accommodations. He is a +benefactor to travelling humanity. Statues have been erected to dozens +who have done less good to their kind--soldiers, lawyers, politicians, +and patent pill-makers. Sleeping-cars avert exhaustion, ill-humour, bad +dreams, and kidney-disease, not to exclude the back-ache and migraine +afore-mentioned. Whenever a bronze memorial is to be raised on the +Thames Embankment to their inventor, I am ready with my contribution. + +At Bordeaux, where I shuffled into the nearest hotel, I uncoiled myself, +and took the kinks out of my bones; but of the wine capital I shall say +no more than that "I came, I slept, I left." At leaving, a little +adventure variegated the itinerary. As I entered the railway-carriage, a +gentleman on the opposite seat, its only occupant, was sucking an +orange. I pulled out my cigar-case, and politely asked him if he had any +objection to my smoking. + +"Are you a German?" he demanded stiffly. + +"Pardon me," I said, "I inquired if you had any objection to my +smoking." + +"Are you a German?" he repeated almost fiercely, his eyes flashing. + +"I fail to see what business it is of yours what my nationality may be." + +"It is my business, and I insist on your answering my question," he +shouted, dropping the orange in his anger. + +"And I decline to answer it," I said quietly. + +Now he fairly raged. There is nothing which so provokes a man of hasty +temper, with whom you may be in a controversy, as to preserve a +tranquil, self-possessed demeanour. Ladies who nag their husbands are +aware of this interesting feature in household ethics. + +"Ah, you _are_ a German!" he yelled. "You are a Prussian. I will not sit +in the same compartment with you'!" and he stood up, and danced, and +went through a round of epileptic gesticulation. + +"Your absence will not leave me inconsolable," said I, in soft, sweet +accents, ceremoniously lifting my hat. + +He bounced out of the carriage like a maniac, stamped along the +platform, muttering with incoherent vehemence as he went, and presently +reappeared with a gendarme, whom he informed that he suspected I was a +Prussian spy. Interrogated, he could advance no proof beyond his own +suspicions, my arrogant coolness of manner, and my hesitation in +returning a straightforward reply. + +"I am sure he is," he concluded, "for he all but admitted it." + +The gendarme was perplexed, and asked me very civilly, was I a German? + +"Distinctly not," I answered. + +Had Monsieur any papers? I produced my British passport, which he +looked at, pretended to understand, folded up, returned to me with +excuses for having given me so much trouble, and fixed a look of grave +reproach on his countryman. The latter was embarrassed, and had not the +grace to make a frank apology, but mumbled something to the effect that +I might have saved all this annoyance if I had stated what countryman I +was at first. + +"If you had put your question in the French fashion, that is to say +courteously, I might have done so," I said. + +He blushed, and stammered forth the apology at last; he hoped I would +forgive his quickness, but he could not control himself when he met a +German; he hated the race--the Germans were a pack of cold-blooded +robbers, who had brought ruin on his country. He had vowed vengeance +against them, and he had reason for it, for he was an Alsatian. + +I saw my chance. + +"_Mon Dieu!_" I exclaimed, throwing up my hands in affected horror. "It +is you who are the German, then, and not I. Do you not know, sir, that +Alsace has been a province of Germany for the past two years?" + +If the face be an index to the mind, that Alsatian must have passed +through a mental cyclone. Luckily for the angel who records bad +language, his rage was so terrible that he lost the power of speech, the +while I gently moved my head to and fro, and gazed at him with +compassionate remonstrance, as much as to say how could he, a +sausage-eating creature, have had the heart to pass himself off on me as +a Frenchman? It was cruel, but it was merited. That Alsatian I despised +as the meanest thing in patriotism I had ever met--and my experience of +the article is not limited--for even were I a German, so long as I +behaved myself with propriety he had no right to insult me by his surly +cross-examination. But I suppose the poor devil thought he was playing +the rle of redresser of the wrongs of his country, and exacting an +instalment of that _revanche_ of which we hear occasional frothing +babble. If I were a German I should be proud of it, and I hope I should +have had the firmness to tell my Alsatian interlocutor so to his teeth. + +From Bordeaux to Bayonne, down through the Landes, is a most interesting +ride, as I dimly recollect; but I have no notes of it, and I infer that +nothing particular occurred as I sped through the fat, nice, pleasant +country. I had a short stay at Bayonne--long enough, however, to enable +me to mark by ethnological signs and tinge of complexion that Spain was +near. There were architectural signs, too, for there were colonnades in +some of the streets to shelter promenaders from the powerful sun. Plenty +of soldiers in Bayonne, and plenty of Hebrews. All of the latter seem to +be engaged in the money-changing business. The whole art of +money-changing consists in undervaluing the coin you are buying, and +setting an exaggerated value on that you are giving for it. I must have +lost a small fortune in the course of my money-changing transactions, +therefore am I a most determined adherent of a uniform system of coinage +for all civilized nations; and that coinage, I maintain, should be +decimal. Fancy a foreigner getting small money for a sovereign after he +has incurred a debt of one and sixpence for a hot salt-water bath on the +South Coast! The fair attendant offers him a crown-piece, two +half-crowns, two florins, two shillings, two six-pences, two groats, two +threepenny bits, a postage stamp, a wheedling simper and a charity-bob. +He is puzzled, and to my thinking he is justified in being puzzled; and +if the attendant be not exceedingly attractive he is cheated. Coinage +should be simple--should be so plain in identity that a child could +distinguish it in the dark, and its worth should descend in regulated +gradation. This reform will come eventually. One of the objections to a +universal mintage may be that there would be a struggle as to whose +profile should be sunk into the stamps--a point on which many rulers are +solicitous, for they foresee that it is the only species of immortality +they will ever attain. His Majesty of Araucania might legitimately +protest against having his individuality merged in the lineaments of the +artistic concretion of the Republic of San Marino, and the Queen of +Madagascar (what is her name, by-the-bye?) might not easily be weaned +from a natural longing for the luxury of having her own face in the +perpetual youthfulness of Hebe imprinted on the discs which circulate +at Tananarivo. That objection might be met in two ways; one side of the +coin might be common to all the world, and the other reserved for the +vanities, or the vanities might toss up, and acquire the renown of the +numismatist's glass-case in turn. + +That the reform will come I am convinced, but not while the Hebrews can +hinder it. It is their interest to have this diversity of coinage; and +they are very conservative of what is their interest. I have for a long +time been trying to make up my mind about the Hebrews. My sympathies fly +out to them because they have been persecuted, foully persecuted, on +account of their religious belief, while, on the other hand, my +antipathies are stirred because they make to themselves an idol of gold. +Beautiful are the daughters of Israel with a striking Old Testament +beauty, marvellously imperious considering the lengthened apprenticeship +of helotry through which they have served; but _navet_ is not the +quality one would look for in their countenances. As well seek a dimple, +or a blush, or a coy reserve. Oh! beautiful indeed, and to an imposing +degree, with long straight nose, full orbs, pursing lips, +clean-chiselled regular contour; but the earliest lesson they learn is +how many grains Troy go to a silver shekel. They may have in them still +the fire of Jael, who drove the tent-peg into the skull of the tyrant, +or the fierce genius of the poetic Deborah, who was one of the first to +strike the lyre of triumph; but, alas! that it must be said, the gentle +Ruth, gleaning in the fields of barley, is a lost tradition of the race. +I can almost imagine the tender-eyed Leah and the well-favoured Rachel +figuring in an idyl of another Wakefield family; but, then, where are we +to seek for them? Not in Bayonne. There are no artless Jewesses there; +the pupils under their black lashes glitter with the glow of cupidity, +and I prefer the light of love. There is something in it more womanly +and mellow. I have seen the eyes of a Jewess almost bulge out of their +sockets like those of the telescope fish, as she gazed on the treasures +of Notre Dame at Paris--to me a degrading dilatation--and I set it down +to the instincts engendered by centuries of servitude, when the Jews +discovered that the surest mode of checkmating their masters was by +amassing money, and lending it out to them at usurious rates. Certes, +they are a pushing and clannish tribe, and skilled in the mimetic arts; +but they are not so high-souled and all-influential as their friend +Disraeli would fain make them in a chapter of elaborate gush in that +fine novel, "Coningsby." In the main I admire them; but I could wish +that they stripped to manual toil oftener; that they were less +obsequious in indigence, and less despotic and dictatorial when they are +in authority--niggers and Hindoos can be that; that they were less prone +to exhibit their entire stock-in-trade in the shop-window; that they +were less ostentatious in their hospitality, when they are hospitable, +and that they had a quieter taste in raiment. Now, I think I have had +ample retribution out of that greasy matron at Bayonne, who exploited me +when converting my honest notes of the Bank of England into Spanish +duros. + +From Bayonne the train rattled along not far from the fringe of the Bay +of Biscay, by Biarritz and St. Jean de Luz, and across the bridge +spanning the Bidassoa to Irun, the border town of Spain, close by +Fontarabia's wooded height. Here we had a pause for customs and passport +examination and change of carriages. No railway official could give me +any information as to how far the line went; it might go to Madrid, it +might not go more than a few miles; the country was unsettled. These +officials impressed me as sulky or stupid or timorous, or all three +combined, and made glaring contrast with the smart servants on the +London, Chatham and Dover line, who know everything that regards their +calling, and are always quick and decisive in answer without taint of +rudeness. But I was recalled from my comparisons by one word, which +wrought a magic effect upon me. + +That word was "_caballero_!" + +How elated I felt! I realized that I was in Spain, and seemed to grow in +inches and self-esteem. I lent myself to an unconscious swagger, tipped +my hat jauntily on one side of my head, and was swayed by an almost +irresistible inclination to retire to some unobserved corner and wax the +ends of my moustache. + +The speaker was a Guardia Civil, the Spanish equivalent for a French +gendarme. A solemn man in a cocked-hat, protected by a glazed cover, his +complexion was of sickly walnut-juice sallow, like the flesh-tint on a +portrait in oils by an old master. The complexion was characteristically +Spanish. He was the State personified, and had much dignity. He told me +I might count upon getting to Beasain, a village in a valley at this +side of one of the mountains of the Pyrenean range, but that progress +beyond that by rail was problematical, as the Cura Santa Cruz had torn +up the track. + +This was the first I had heard of the Cura Santa Cruz, one of the most +ferocious and redoubtable of the partisans of Don Carlos. Truculent were +the stories which were told of him. He was Raw-head-and-bloody-bones in +cassock; priest and picaroon, with a well-developed tendency towards +wholesale murder; Bogie with a breviary--that is, according to some. +According to others, he was a brave, disinterested and reverend patriot; +a sort of Hofer-cum-Tell individual, etherealized by the sanctity of his +vocation. Anyhow, be he maleficent or benign, it was clear that he was +Somebody, and had filled the whole country-side with awe. He led a corps +of guerrilleros, who rejoiced in the nickname of the Black Band; and +such was the terror inspired by their exploits, that the whisper that +Santa Cruz was hovering near stunned opposition, and brought in any +ransom demanded. He must have been in one of his benign moods on this +occasion, for he permitted our train free passage through his territory; +and in the evening we drew up in a snow-bound basin, where shuddered the +straggling hamlet of Beasain. I took up my lodging for the night in a +two-storied cabin, and sent a news-letter to London, recounting what I +had seen and heard so far. I was urged to this by an intimation which +had reached me, that a rival had preceded me on the road to Madrid by +twenty-four hours. The first blow is half the battle, and I calculated +that if I could get the ear of the public in advance of him, there would +be a point gained. Communication with England was open from Beasain. +Heaven knows how it would be to-morrow or next day. + +There was fearful tangible evidence of the presence of Santa Cruz in +this remote valley. At one extremity where the cavernous opening of the +railway tunnel made a dark gap in the hillside, the track had been +wrenched from its fastenings, and the sleepers smeared with oil and set +on fire. Heaps of charred timber marked the spot, and alongside, down in +a ravine, lay the wreck of shattered carriages and locomotive, just as +they had been tumbled in a topsy-turvy blending of complete collapse. It +made me tremble to reflect what this meant, and I came to the conclusion +that Santa Cruz was thoroughgoing in his warfare and restrained by few +scruples of compassion. + +Over the fumes of the brasero, the brass-pan with its stifling embers of +charcoal, placed on a stand in the middle of my room, my landlord and I +with outstretched palms held long confab before I turned into bed. His +mother had been French, and we gossiped in that tongue. His views were +tolerably impartial, but it was plain that the Carlists had his good +wishes. The factions were partially dispersed, but were not defeated, he +said; they would give more trouble; and then he horrified me with a +well-authenticated tale of a recent fight at Aspeitia, where an old +villager had taken refuge in a house which was subsequently occupied by +the troops. He fell dead after a volley fired by the Carlists. His son +was one of those who had joined in the volley, and the awful muffled +rumour was spreading among the peasantry that it was by the son's bullet +the father had been slain. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + A Make-Believe Spain--The Mountain Convoy--A Tough Road to + Travel--Spanish Superiority in Blasphemy--Short Essay on Oaths--The + Basque Peasants--Carlism under a Cloak--How Guerilla-Fighting is + Conducted--A Hyperborean Landscape--A Mysterious Grandee--An + Adventurous Frenchman--The Shebeen on the Summit--Armed + Alsasua--Base Coin. + + +And this is sunny Spain, the land of the olive and the vine. Spain it +certainly is in the absolute sense of the word in political geography, +but in no other. It is no more Spain than the Highlands are England. The +language, the race, the habits, the growths, are different. The +language, the Euscara, is known to only one man not born within the +borders, the polyglot Prince Lucien Buonaparte. A hackneyed legend runs +that the devil tried to learn it, and dislocated his jaw. The race is +the aboriginal Iberian, and has none of the languor of the south in +it--a stubborn, not a supple race. The habits of the people are +industrious. The growths are rather of the apple and the pine than the +olive and the vine. + +There before us rises the wall of Nature's handiwork which shuts us out +from the true Spain. + +In my boyhood I often gazed with admiration on a print of Napoleon +crossing the Alps. He was astride of a prancing white charger. I have +since learned to detest Napoleon, and to know more of mountain travel. +That masterful general, but cruel, dishonourable, bad man--demon-man +with genius undoubted and will unbendable, but with the most +unscrupulous of insatiate and insensate ambitions, and a leaven of +littleness--did not face the heights of St. Bernard on a mettlesome +steed, but on a patient mule, and the luxury of his apparel was +restricted to furs. Wrapped up in the thickest clothing I could find, I +watched the convoy forming outside the station at Beasain in the sunlit +cold. + +The train from San Sebastian got in at nine in the morning, and before +ten a procession of six waggons, built after the massive, clumsy fashion +of the French diligence, was drawn up in line. Horses and mules, +generally in teams of five--three leaders and two wheelers--were yoked +to the ramshackle vehicles. The passengers, muffled in cloaks, rugs, +scarfs, shawls and comforters--for there was ice in the breath of the +keen air of the mountain--literally packed themselves in the narrow +"insides" of the old-fashioned coaches. There were five in the low, +narrow hutch upon wheels with myself, all males; we were as close as +sardines in a box. There were some ladies of the party. I trust they had +more space at their disposal. The luggage was piled on the roofs and +covered with tarpaulins, the drivers mounted the seats in front, whips +were cracked, and off we bounded at a pace that would rouse the +applause, or peradventure the envy, of the gentlemen who tool the +Brighton coach. Gaily our skinny steeds breasted the rise, sending a +curl of mist from their hides, and shaking merry music out of the +collars of bells round their necks as they clattered over the hard road. +For three miles we dashed along at express speed. How spirit-stirring is +rapid motion! I actually was warming into a wild joy, and praying that +we might encounter the Carlists, under the influence of this gallop in +the bracing morning atmosphere. + +Suddenly there is a stop. The Carlists? No. But here the ascent begins, +and a body of mountaineers await us with a string of bullocks. The three +leaders are unharnessed and attached behind; and eight bullocks, two by +two, are yoked in front of the pair of mules who act as wheelers. The +same is done with the other waggons. I watch this process of yoking the +bullocks with much curiosity. A strong piece of board is run across the +heads of the pair who are coupled, and firmly tied in front of the +horns; a sheepskin is thrown over that, for what purpose I cannot tell; +and the ropes by which the bullocks drag us are fastened to the piece of +board afore-mentioned. They pull, not against the shoulder, but against +the horn. Their owners, muscular peasants, lightly clad, though it is +cold, walk beside them with long pointed sticks, and occasionally goad +them in the flanks. When that does not suffice, they push them, or rain +blows on their hides, or twist their tails, and when all other means +fail they swear at them. But the grave oxen move no quicker; they cling +to their own gait as if deeply convinced of the truth of the adage, +"Fair and easy goes far in the day." The peasants call one "demonio" and +another a cow; but the sleepy pair keep never minding, as they waddle +along with drooping heads, held closely together as if whispering +conspiracy. + +At this early point in my experiences, the painful knowledge is forced +upon me that the Spaniards are highly accomplished in the art of +imprecation. If our army swore terribly in Flanders, I have my theory to +account for it. They must have picked up the habit there, and the +Spaniards under Alva had left their traces behind them in the speech of +the region they had occupied. As a rule, swearing betrays a poverty of +invention; it is the resource of the vulgar and ignorant to emphasize +their assertions; but in Spain the swearing developed an originality +that almost reconciled one to it. There was an awful insolence, a ribald +riotousness in some of the oaths which redeemed them from the scorn +which every well-balanced mind should feel for displays of petulance. I +respect a good round oath--an oath that blanches my cheeks and makes me +imagine that it would not be extraordinary if the ground were to open +and swallow the varlet who uttered it. That sort of oath is to be +tolerated for its audacity. The malediction is a higher form of oath, +and some maledictions are magnificent. To the amateur I can recommend +King Lear's upon Cordelia, Francesco Cenci's upon Beatrice--which is +more Shakspearian than Shakspeare--and even puny Moore's upon the +traitorous Gheber. The joint-stock oath which Sterne puts into the +mouths of the Abbess of Andoillets and the novice, Margarita, who had +the whitlow on her middle finger, is passable for its fantastic +ingenuity; and the strong locutions pat in the lips of a certain +Duke--unless notoriety belies him--are to be licensed because of his +rank, and because he is a soldier. But he should have the courage to +blurt them out on all occasions. He who dares to outrage society should +not shrink from offending an individual. + +"You ---- naughty boy, why did you sound the wrong call?" said H.R.H. to +a bugler, but as soon as he got out of earshot of a certain Personage, +he muttered in an angry undertone, "You canonized little beggar, you +know what I meant." + +The Spaniards are liberal and earnest and dogged in their railings, +anathemas, and execrations, but still the sleepy oxen do not hurry +themselves. They care no more for a volley of select comminations than +the jackdaw of Rheims did for the archbishop's curse. Of a verity this +bullock's pace is a snail's pace, and we have ample leisure to inspect +the peasants as we crawl along. Brawny, hardy, and firmly-knit as +Highlandmen, their faces are weather-beaten and frank; their manner, +when one speaks to them, independent but polite; in dress like unto +their Celtic kinsmen of Brittany, short-jacketed, loose, and slovenly, +but in stature more like to the tall mountaineers of Tipperary. They +must be poor, very poor; but they have the appearance of content, and +with it of honesty, sobriety, and civility. + +And now a little secret must be imparted. Every man-jack of these +ox-drivers is a Carlist, and that is the reason we are not attacked +to-day! In a week those innocent clowns may be blazing away at the +regular army of Spain from the brushwood on a hillside, for after such +fashion are Carlist wars conducted. A band assembles at the call of some +chief--that is to say, the peasants leave their cabins and meet at some +rock, some conspicuous tree, or some cross-roads. They have with them a +flag, perhaps; perhaps a priest or two; they are badly armed with such +arms as insurgents carry--blunderbusses, flint-muskets, fowling-pieces, +horse-pistols; they have no distinctive uniform, except a few of the +older bands--the permanent army of Carlism--which are clad in the seedy +clothes that the French Garde Mobile wore during the late war. The +campaign opens; a descent is made upon some village, the mayor is asked +to supply so many hundred rations, and the young men are summoned to +join the flag. Sometimes the mayor refuses, and there is a fight between +"the volunteers of liberty," that is to say, the local national guard, +and the Carlists. On the average, so the reports go, one man is killed +in each of these combats, and three wounded. That is a battle at this +stage of the Carlist war. With the regular troops sent against them the +Carlists act otherwise. They take up ground in some inaccessible eyrie, +pop at the passing detachments from their ambuscade, draw them on in the +hope of catching them in a trap; but the troops are cautious, they +pepper away at the Carlists from a distance until the Carlists run, and +the affair ends, as usual, with the loss of one man killed and three +wounded. The peasants return to their cabins to tell the tale of their +gallantry, and if the troops perchance should come their way, why they +are but inoffensive, ingenuous tillers of the soil, the most peaceful +beings on the face of nature. The firearm is hid in the thatch or in the +neighbouring hedge. But the officers who lead the troops do not allow +their enemies the monopoly of gasconade. In the _Gaceta de Madrid_ the +bulletin of the engagement duly appears, and the names of the doughty +warriors are chronicled for the admiration of the seoritas. One Carlist +chief--at least, so pretend the wags--had been killed outright thrice, +wounded mortally five times, and has had his band completely dispersed +and broken up seven times in the _Gaceta_, and yet he is still alive +and troublesome. A most outlandish war, but how disastrous in its +effects on the trade and prosperity of the country! It could not be +carried on if the soil were not rich to plenteousness. There is an +adventurous vigour in the breed, too, and the terrain lends itself to +guerilla fighting. So far, I know nothing of the merits of Carlism; but +this I can divine, that it is the old rivalry betwixt town and country, +and the "pagans" or villagers are all Carlists--question of transmitted +feud or local traditions, or both. The rustics have the advantage over +the town-bred men; they are familiar with the by-paths; every sheiling +is a refuge for them, every dweller therein a self-constituted scout. +When they choose to seek them, they must have secure hiding-places. +Artillery is an arm of derision in the hills; cavalry can rarely act +effectually, and in the way of reconnoitring is next to useless, as its +movements can be espied from rock-cover on every eminence; but in the +open these insurgents can do nothing against disciplined troops. Pity +that they should be such fools as to abandon their pleasant and +comfortable, if humble, homesteads, to help on the aspirations of any +right-divine make-believe claimant to the heaven-sent mission--by +accident of birth--of impressing other human beings that he is wiser +than they, and should have revenues and reverence for condescending to +govern them. + +What would our ox-drivers do, I wonder, if they could overhear and +understand the conversation in which thoughts like these are exchanged +in the lumbering Noah's ark they are helping through their domain? We +are getting nigh and nigher to the clouds, and the quilt of snow on the +mountain grows thicker. The pathway is traceable only by the marks of +the hoofs of beasts of burden and the ruts of wheels, and the fleecy +banks at each side rise gradually higher. It is palpably colder, and yet +we are far from the culminating point of the Pyrenean pass; straight +saplings are not infrequent around, and here and there a lowly hut in a +nook under some sheltering rock, both hut and rock hoary with snow, +startles us with the reminder that human beings actually live here. The +Basques, said Voltaire, are a people who sing and dance on the summit +of the Pyrenees. Our ox-drivers do not sing, neither do our muleteers. +This interminable glare is becoming very fatiguing to the eyes, and the +higher we ascend the rarer are the refreshing little streaks of darker +hue. Stumps of dwarf trees replace the straight saplings to be seen +lower down; and hardly are we on the crest of one snow-capped hill than +another, hidden under the same smooth sheet of everlasting lime-white, +mocks us. Slowly and painfully the oxen toil along, and the peasants by +their side sink knee-deep at every step. Will this ever end? It was +picturesque at first to watch the long caravan coiling over the spiral +track which turns right and left like a corkscrew. Now it is tedious, +for we are chilled and worn-out, hungry and cramped. The sublimity of +nature is grandiose, but there may be too much of it. One tires of +rolling perpetual cigarettes; one even tires of studying the forcible +Spanish adjurations that begin with the third letter of the alphabet. My +companions, four French commercial travellers, relapse into silence and +doze off into fitful starts of the sleepiness begot of extreme cold; +the fifth--a grandee of Castile I take him to be at the very least by +his appearance, broad swarthy countenance, shaven upper lip and chin, +and short spade whiskers of a night-black--the fifth, this Spaniard, did +not relapse into silence, for he had never uttered a word since we +started. + +What weariness to the flesh is this tedious climb to regions +hyperborean! I catch myself yawning. What if our waggon were to break +down! At last one of the Frenchmen bursts out, "_Dieu de Dieu, j'en ai +assez_." He would stand or rather sit it no longer, opened the door, and +alighted. We all followed his example, even to the taciturn Spaniard, +and took to the road. A walk in advance might send the blood +circulating, and on we plodded in the middle of the path, regardless of +the snow which soaked into our boots and saturated our trousers to the +knees. Not a living being was visible but two crows who bore us company, +and hopped on our flanks like a covering-party. The road was tantalizing +in its tortuousness; after walking a furlong we found ourselves a couple +of yards directly above the point we had quitted a quarter of an hour +before. One of the Frenchmen, seeing this, had an inspiration; he +determined to go up the mountain perpendicularly, and before we could +dissuade him he had sunk to his armpits in a treacherous crevasse. We +dragged him out by making a cable of our pocket-handkerchiefs and +throwing it to him. He took his wetting in good part. + +"Ah!" he cried, "shan't I have something to tell them when I get back to +the Boulevard des Italiens." And then, as if reflecting, he added, "But +no, 'twill never do; they'd call me _farceur_." + +A red-brick building with an arrangement of iron on the roof, as if it +had been employed as a signal-post, faced us--high up on the pinnacle of +a ridge at one moment; was at our side the next; behind us anon; and +directly before us now. By turns it was small and large. We were asking +ourselves (all except the Spaniard; he never spoke) was this a +phantasmagoria, when a jingle of bells was heard on the still air. Where +did it come from? We could see nothing. Suddenly, as a theatrical ghost +springs from a trap-door, at an abrupt turn a wild figure appears +bearing right down upon us. A Carlist chieftain? Not so fast. A muleteer +simply, sitting sideways on his prad, and leading a half-dozen mules +laden with panniers in Indian file behind him. He told us we had reached +the summit, and that there was a fonda a short distance off. Signs of +life multiplied; we met mountaineers, with oxen drawing small cars with +solid wheels similar to those of toy carriages--wheels that kept up +perpetual creak and croak--and finally we encountered the caravan from +Alsasua to Beasain. But we encountered no Carlists, that is, no armed +Carlists, for every man there is Carlist in soul. The smoky fonda was as +miserable as the most miserable of Irish shebeens; yet they gave us good +white bread and eggs to eat, and, with the aid of the sauce of hunger +and sundry glasses of acid Val de Peas to wash it down, we made a +hearty meal. The caravan overtook us in half an hour; the rest of the +journey was downhill, the snow was deeper than on the other side, and +the jolting terrific, but we did not care. Our goal was near, and we +had eaten and drunk. We laughed at the dangers we had passed, and even +the Spaniard unbent and exhibited unexpected powers of conversation. +Alas! for my judgment; he was no grandee of Castile, but a butcher from +Saragossa, a mere _carnifex_ with blood of the common red tint. + +At Alsasua we came upon a village bleaker than Beasain, with soldiers +billeted under every roof. They loitered in twos and threes about the +wide street, which was drab with patches of dirty snow. Here were placed +a few mountain guns under custody of a shivering sentry, there a bugler +in slovenly greatcoat blew some call with pinched lips on a battered +instrument. At the station--a rude shanty with wooden partitions and a +plank erection run up as refreshment-stall--some attempt had been made +at fortification. There were mud-works thrown up in its vicinity, and +the walls were roughly loop-holed. A party of Linesmen were in +possession. On a siding close by was the locomotive which had been +riddled with shot by the insurgents on the now disused line to +Pampeluna. Our own locomotive was awaiting us, with steam up, and I +hurried to procure my ticket. I pushed a piece of honest red gold +through the wicket, and an extremely nice, slim female clerk gave me the +pasteboard with my change and thanks. Something struck me in the silver +shoved towards me; the leaden hue of the pesetas was suspicious. I took +up one and rung it; the dull sound convinced me it was bad. I rung +another--same result. I was desolate; but I had to call the attention of +the extremely nice girl to the error she had fallen into; and she +coolly, without adumbration of a blush, or faintest pretence at apology, +took back the base coins, and gave me their equivalent in coins that +were sterling. And then, for the first time, it broke upon me, that it +was not considered a scoundrelly act to pass bad money upon an innocent +foreigner, or upon an innocent native, for the matter of that. I further +learned that if I had removed that bad money from the counter, I should +have had to bear with the loss. That extremely nice girl would have +assured me with all politeness that I must be labouring under an +illusion. + +The Spaniard has personal dignity to a prodigious degree. But his +personal dignity does not hinder the ordinary Spaniard from endeavouring +to foist counterfeit stamps upon his neighbour whenever he has the +chance. + +The tarantara of a bugle stirred a company of soldiers to take their +places in the train. They were our escort to Miranda, on the borders of +Old Castile, where we might consider ourselves out of danger. It is my +opinion we were never in any danger. + +We reached Miranda safely, and from that swept down in the darkness to +Madrid without molest, the most of us snoring as regularly as the funnel +of the engine snorted. I had a fearsome vision of a sweet Spanish maiden +who had knowingly placed a worthless peseta in the tirelire at Mass, and +had been sentenced by Santa Cruz to grill on the gridiron of hell for +the term of her natural life. A carpet-bag utilized as a pillow was the +origin of my vision. Had that carpet-bag been more carelessly packed, +the penalty on the poor girl might have been prolonged to eternity. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + Madrid--The Fonda and its Porter--The Puerta del Sol--Postal + Irregularities--Tribute to the Madrileos--The Barber's + Pronunciamiento--Anecdotes of King Amadeus--Checkmating the Grand + Dames--Queen Isabella--The Embarrassed Mr. Layard of Nineveh--The + Great Powers Hesitate--America Goes Ahead--General Sickles--Mahomet + and the Mountain--Republicanism among the troops--A Peculiar + Pennsylvanian Dentist--Castelar under Torture--The Writer meets one + of his Sept--Politicians by Trade--Honour among Insurgents--Alonso + the Reckless. + + +First impressions of Madrid, "the only court," do not fill the visitor +with awe. It is an aggregate of masonry, fragmentary on the edges, +compact in the middle, on a sandy plateau in a waste of arid landscape. +There is lack of natural shade and water, albeit there are tree-planted +walks and gardens, with cedars and Himalayan pines, and fountains with +fulness of clear flow are abundant. It wants a river; the Manzanares, I +am told, is but a ditch. I do not know if that is so; I never could see +the Manzanares. A rugged, sun-blistered city, Madrid struck me as no +more characteristically Spanish--or what I had taught myself to accept +as such--than Turin is Italian; both are half-Frenchified. In the +northern distance are the summits of the Guadarrama hills, and the +unseen breeze which sweeps down from its snowy eyries amongst them cuts +like an icicle. The Madrileo fears it, for it has a trick of permeating +the streets with a subtile, chilling, killing breath; and when the +Madrileo steps from the sunny to the shady side of the street he is +careful to lift a corner of his cloak as screen to his mouth. + +The central point of Madrid is the Puerta del Sol--a bare, broad, +irregular area off which nine thoroughfares diverge. Round it the +day-god, greatest friend of Spain, pivots in glory. Now he floods one +side with radiance, now he drops his cloth of gold over another. The +Puerta del Sol is the focus of interest for the population. Thither the +gossips repair, and there the affairs of the nation are discussed very +often by those who have acted, act, or hope to act as leaders of the +nation. Naturally I made for the Puerta del Sol, for it was of vital +importance to me to be in the movement, in the very vortex of the pool. +I was fortunate. I got rooms in the Fonda de Paris, an hotel at the +corner of the Calle de Alcal, the principal avenue leading from the +Plaza. As proof of the unsettled condition of affairs and its effect +upon trade, it need only be said that at the _table d'hte_ of this, the +first hotel in the capital, where one hundred and thirty persons usually +sit down to dinner, there were sometimes not more than fifteen or +twenty, and a proportion of these were fly-about Special Correspondents. +Yet in this exiguous circle of prudent people who were detained in +Madrid, or foolhardy people who had travelled there, turned up the +irrepressible British tourist. Of the latter class we had charming +specimens at dinner one evening in two English girls, with fresh peachy +complexions, and hair like wavy masses of ripe maize. They had no guide +but their faithful "Murray." What became of them subsequently I never +ascertained; but it is to be trusted they were as lucky as the +enterprising young lady who relied on Erin's honour and Erin's pride in +the reign of King Brian, and made the tour of the Emerald Isle with a +gold ring on the tip of a wand. That would hardly pay the hotel-bills +nowadays. + +A great feature in the fonda was Constantine, the hall-porter, a tall +swarthy man, who was as fluent a linguist as an Alexandria dragoman. He +was Greek by birth, but had a strain of English blood on the mother's +side. His sire may have been a South Sea cannibal or a South African +lion-slayer for aught I remember; but that there was something +phenomenally bold in him I am certain. Constantine's instincts were +predatory, and his manners morose. There was a tradition that he had +been a bandit in the neighbourhood of Smyrna, or an innkeeper by the +Marseilles docks--much about the same thing, and that he was prepared to +do little jobs of human carving for a consideration. However, these may +have been fables got up by travellers in search of excitement to invest +Constantine with an interesting air of romance. He was very civil to me +and did not cheat me more than I chose. I never had occasion to ask him +to kill anybody. + +From my windows I could command the mid-basin in the Plaza, more for use +than ornament, and as great a rendezvous of the quidnuncs as a +village-pump. The panorama of life lounged or moved or bustled +beneath--shifting groups of cloaked disputants, veiled women tripping +gracefully along, stately Civil Guards in three-cornered hats, sombre +priests with Don Basilio head-gear, the various moulds of human nature +from the grandee to the mendicant, and above all that brood with which I +soon grew familiar, and for which I conceived an invincible disgust--the +sallow, peering, prating, importunate brood of hungry place-hunters, +impatient to dip their fingers into the Government pie. Cabriolets +passed to and fro, tram-cars with such sleek well-conditioned mule-teams +jolted on the rails; here a horse-soldier trotted by with clattering +accoutrements, there a water-carrier sturdily trudged; and in a +sheltered angle a long-locked vendor of a magic hair-restorer vaunted +his wondrous balm in sonorous patter, and occasionally curtained his +face with his thick mane brought over from his back as tangible +testimony to the fertilizing properties of the balm. In short, from +those windows I could take in the cardiac pulsing of Madrid. Below me, +as I sat and smoked my cigarette, the beginning of change or crux, +accident or riot, the initial whims or humours of the populace, the +formation of a procession or the overture of a pronunciamiento, were +within my ken. And at one corner of the Puerta were the General Post +Office and Telegraphic Bureau, a matter of great convenience to me, if +only they were properly managed. However, it was far easier to collect +news than to send it to the desired destination. The post was as unsafe +as in those days in another land when Mr. Richard Turpin, highwayman, +and his comrogues intercepted his Majesty's mails. As for messages by +wire, I was not long in learning that no important information was +allowed to be sent; true, the money for its transmission was taken, +but--delayed, or forwarded, or suppressed even--the strict rule in that +establishment was "no money returned." Vain were complaints. The Special +Correspondent had no resource but that of the negro suffering from +toothache; 'twas his to grin and bear it. The idea of ever again seeing +the colour of the coin which has passed into the palm of a Spanish +functionary is laughable in its pastoral innocence. As well expect to +handle last year's snow. The system of ignorant espionage still obtained +in the Peninsula, as I was forced reluctantly to observe: the word +"Cuba" or "Carlos" on the telegraphic form at once aroused the scruples +and suspicions of the official, and led to the confiscation of the +message. In the end, I discovered how to facilitate the despatch of +news; but as that is my secret I keep it to myself. Suffice it that in +my bill of expenses the item "sundries" was elastic. + +There are some valuable guide-books to Spain, and to them I refer the +reader if he desire to be crammed with curious knowledge about churches +and picture-galleries, museums of arms, and the beautiful upholstery of +the Duke of Sixty-Blazons' palace. My behest was with living not dead +Spain, as investigated during the throes of a political convulsion. I +made my notes on the Madrileos without bias, and without bias I give +them. I spent five weeks in constant and free intercourse with all +classes of the inhabitants. During that time I did not detect one +Belleville face; I did not catch the glitter of a knife except at a +dinner-table, nor remark a single drunkard staggering along the streets. +Yet I was in every quarter of the town, to the lowest, at all hours. +There are parts of London where the foreign visitor could not penetrate +and come back with the same story. The Madrileos are indolent--granted; +but they are frugal, temperate, and well-conducted. Occasionally a +poniard is slipped into the ribs of an enemy, but mistakes will occur in +the best-regulated families. If this be a vindictive and blood-sucking +people, the vampirism is adroitly concealed; the dirty linen must be +washed in the dark corner where the charcoal is stored, so that Paul Pry +may not be gratified with the sight. There is no working population at +Madrid; there are no large manufactories, no thriving centres of +employment. That is one reason why Madrid is orderly compared to other +and livelier cities. Prosperous Barcelona swarms with mechanics and +artisans, and that is one reason why Barcelona is disorderly. The +rights-of-man agitators generally find favour there. The International +has its ramifications in the Catalonian capital. In Madrid, the +International is a pigmy failure. Its emissaries came once and laboured +zealously to stir up the son of toil to a proper consciousness of his +dignity. After months of propagandism they succeeded in persuading +Figaro to shake a rebellious pole and fiercely flourish his +lathering-brush. + +"Know, ye smooth-lipped minions of the despot Capital," quoth the +barbers in an indignant round-robin, "we shall no longer submit to the +gross tyranny of shaving you before eight of the morning!" + +But Figaro was defeated; Madrid let its beard grow. + +The sudden departure of the Italian-bred monarch had apparently plunged +the politicians into a pit of bewilderment. They did not know how they +stood. Amadeus after his reign of five-and-twenty months had perchance +left few partisans behind him, but assuredly no enemies. His principal +fault, but that was fatal, consisted in his being a foreigner. It was +universally vouchsafed that he was very brave, a true hidalgo in that +respect, and if he had been removed in the orthodox method by revolution +or the assassin, his name would have been garlanded with rosemary for +remembrance. But Spanish pride was nettled to the quick at the cavalier +way he had tossed back, with a shrug of the shoulders, the gift of a +crown when he had tired of it. He had looked upon the throne of Castile +as a gewgaw to be surrendered with indifference, and steamed contentedly +to Italy to enjoy his comparatively obscure Dukedom and rank of General +in preference. He had chosen the wiser and happier part, but to those he +had abandoned it was mortifying in the extreme. Still, he was an +unquailing chevalier, almost fit to be a Spaniard, this son of Victor +Emmanuel. He had disarmed hostility, and compelled the praise of the +envious, the very day he entered Madrid, forty-eight hours after the +funeral of Prim, when he spurred ahead of his escort and offered his +breast undismayed to the aim of any or all assassins. + +That entry of Amadeus could not have inspired him with much of the +buoyancy of a bright expectation. There was in it more of sanguinary +suggestiveness than sanguine hope. The ghostly presence at the King's +first dinner in the palace could not be denied--that of the slaughtered +"Paladino," no longer fiery and strenuous, but a figure, inert, waxen, +blood-bolstered, a bullet-riddled flesh-target It was most unpropitious +of entries. There was an odour of cerecloth in the tapestry, the yellow +hue of immortelles in the pergnes, a sediment of bitterness in the +wine-cup, a strain of melancholy in the music. And yet there was some +semblance of gaiety, for with all his austere stateliness your Spaniard +is very like unto the Irishman: + + "With one auspicious, and one dropping eye, + With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage, + In equal scale weighing delight and dole." + +There were sundry plots to take the life of Amadeus, but Providence +protected him, and he made it a point, after each attempt or threat, to +show himself in public with the ostentation of a reckless courage. He +rode or walked about with a single aide-de-camp, which was a crime with +those monarchists who set store by the pageantry of state. On one +occasion, as he was returning to the palace, the horse in a +hackney-coach with a fat bourgeois inside took fright, and started off +at break-neck speed, overtaking the King's carriage. The King's coachman +whipped up his team, but the wheels of the two vehicles had locked in +each other, and the horses galloped frantically side by side. The +aide-de-camp, fearing a new and daring experiment in regicide, snatched +his rapier from the sheath and began furiously prodding through the +window of the hackney-coach. The fat bourgeois shrunk and flattened +himself into a corner, drew in his breath, and dodged the lunges of the +searching steel. When the palace-gates were reached, and the animals +were stopped, the unfortunate citizen was extricated from his hazardous +position more dead than alive. He was glistening with the wetness of +fright, trembled like an aspen, and blubbered as he begged for mercy. +The panelling was pierced, and the cushion ripped into rags; but by some +extraordinary luck the poor man, who was a harmless dealer in +provisions, had escaped without a scratch. But he owned that he never +before had five minutes of such violent exercise complicated with vile +terror. During the scene Amadeus kept his seat tranquilly, and relaxed +into a smile as he discovered the mistake of his too-zealous companion. + +The conspiracies of the saloons were more successful, as efforts to +annoy without contravening law always are. They are not so readily met. +And the malicious ingenuity of woman, when she lays herself out to be +offensive, is remarkably inventive and diabolically persistent. Some of +the grand dames of Madrid had the impish inspiration to put the Royal +couple into Coventry. There is a fashionable carriage-drive in the +capital corresponding much to ours between Hyde Park Corner and Queen's +Gate. Whenever Amadeus and his spouse went there for an airing, the +blue-blooded of the opposition significantly trotted off. Once an +immense procession of the aristocratic families made its appearance, and +slowly and perseveringly "took the dust." Such a turn-out of gala +equipages had not been witnessed for years. All the ladies were arrayed +in the ancient Spanish costume; the fan and veil with high comb and +carnation in the hair in every case replaced the Parisian bonnet and +parasol. It was a protest against the foreign dynasty, and was clearly +meant as a demonstration of insult. One of the Royal household was equal +to the provocation; whether Spaniard or Italian I am not sure, but the +latter I think, so subtle was his revenge. He went round to all the +houses of ill-fame in the capital that night, and entered into +conversation, burnished with duros, with their female occupants. The +next evening Madrid was afforded the spectacle in its most fashionable +drive of a parade of courtesans, in ancient Spanish costumes, fanning +themselves, and smirking at their acquaintances from the vantage of +luxurious chariots. It was a scandal, but Madrid grinned, and the +patricians of the antediluvian stem confessed themselves beaten. + +There was still a lingering fondness for the deposed Isabella among the +lower orders. They looked upon her as a good sort, one of the old stock, +prayerful, and affable. She was accustomed to enter wayside cabins, and +get into homely chat with the peasants. The Italian woman never did +that. Alphonse Daudet's description of Isabella as a stout queen, who by +her massive jaws and high complexion resembled a coarse-rinded +blood-orange, would not be endorsed by these humble yearners after the +bygone. Indeed, they regarded her as one who had been a type of beauty +in her time, and was still a type of good-nature, and were forgiving to +her peccadilloes, she was so devout. Of course I must not be understood +as speaking here of Spanish partisans of the Republican idea. They had +no more pity for the creatures tainted with Royalty than the Polynesian +for his leprous kinsman--but they were comparatively few. + +Great Britain, at that period, was represented by Mr. Austin Layard, and +the United States by General Daniel Sickles. The British Envoy was in a +dilemma; he did not know how far he would be justified in recognising +the newly-proclaimed Republic; if he received visits of ceremonial it +would be an unpardonable breach of courtesy not to return them; in +short, to use a very graphic locution of the masses, he was waiting to +see how the cat jumped, and cheerfully submitted to a diplomatic +catarrh which confined him to his room. I went to visit him, when we had +an interesting dialogue on some recently exhumed relics of antiquity and +exquisite bits of crockery-ware. Mr. Layard impressed me as more taken +up with concerns of Nineveh and Wardour Street than of _la haute +politique_. But, as he frankly acknowledged, he was not free to act +until he had received his instructions from Downing Street. Though there +is no written pact to the effect, the rule is that Russia, Germany, +Austria--the Great Powers in short--shall only act in conjunction, and +after having exchanged confidential notes, when eventualities arise +affecting all their interests, such as this in Madrid; and--another +consideration besides--was there really any Government yet? It was only +provisional. It could hardly be supposed that any of the Great Powers +would refuse to bow to the will of the Spanish people; but what was its +will? That was a question that could not be admitted to be definitely +settled. + +The United States had struck the key-note--had recognised the infant +Republic, while the Prime Minister, Seor Figueras, was waiting for the +chorus of acclamation from the "robust voices" of those Great Powers +which deliberate before they act. The United States are a fast-trotting +buggy; but these Great Powers in this miserable, played-out old +Continent are slow coaches. Not that there were not deliberations in the +White House before General Sickles was authorized to use his +discretionary power in signing the baptismal certificate of this +Republic of accident. General Sickles was undoubtedly clever; he had +experience in his time as a journalist, an advocate, and a soldier. It +was his opinion that Spain had found in the Republic the means of +establishing her power and prosperity on a solid basis. During the +crisis, he kept his Government informed of what was passing, and to his +demand transmitted by cable in the dawn of Wednesday, the 14th of +February, an answer was returned within twenty hours, permitting him to +exercise his judgment as he thought proper. He imagined that a Federal +Republic, on the pattern of that of the United States, with provincial +legislatures in Catalonia, Aragon, Andalusia, and so on, and a National +Congress in Madrid, was the panacea for the ills of Spain, and that that +would be sufficient to dissolve all antagonisms of race, custom, and +feeling, and amalgamate them into one accordant patriotic sentiment. The +General was over-hopeful in the estimation of others, who knew Spain as +well as he; but he acted rightly according to his views, and ably +according to his gifts--only it was to be hoped the General would use +his influence to dissuade his Government from offending its friends and +brothers of Spain by proposing anew a transaction that would lead to the +abandonment of Cuba--an awkward mission with which he was once charged. +Surely if a diplomatic representative could quietly talk the influential +personages of the nation to which he was accredited into a zeal for the +abolition of slavery in Porto Rico, he could quietly talk the +influential personages of his own nation into letting Spanish territory +alone. A pompous man this American Minister, active, talkative, and on +cordial terms with himself. He hobbled about on his cork leg, leaning on +the arm of his handsome Spanish wife, the second. There was a legend in +Madrid that the General had lost his limb in a duel about a lady; there +had been a question of petticoats in his career once, but it never +entered into the minds of those simple Madrileos that a soldier without +a breastful of decorations might have been wounded, as he had been, on +the battle-field. + +The United States were friendly; but France, Republican France, what was +she doing? Why did she delay to move? She, at least, ought to have had +some fellow-feeling for another Republic without Republicans. The truth +was, M. Thiers could not come to any decision without consulting his +Council of Ministers. His action was not quite so unfettered as that of +President Grant. This was the more to be regretted that Seor Olzaga +recognised the Republic of mob acclamation--that of the 4th September, +1870, in Paris--without hesitation. The same compliment was felt by +Spaniards to be due to the Republic of accident. + +On the 20th of February, Seor Castelar took a course that might give a +galvanic shock to the world of diplomats, but which was worthy of a +bold Republican prophet. Since the mountain would not come to Mahomet, +Mahomet went to the mountain. In plainer words--but has not one an +excuse for being figurative when speaking of Seor Castelar?--the +Minister for Foreign Affairs determined to take the bull by the horns +(pardon this figure for the sake of its aptness in Spain). The +representatives of the Great Powers did not call on him; he called on +them. His coy advances were met with frigid politeness. A Madrid paper +asserted that "an important and friendly conference" had been held +between the Minister and Mr. Layard, which, to say the least, was a +_suggestio falsi_. Mr. Layard, as an English gentleman, could not but +have received his visitor in a friendly manner; but he kept within the +strict line of his very delicate duties with a studious discretion. +Seor Castelar saw plainly that events had not prepared the way and made +straight the path of the new Republic towards recognition. The Great +Powers could not be found fault with, if they were slow to admit to the +brotherhood of nations a Republic which had already exhibited within +its fortnight's existence what may be literally called two dictatures +(those of Seores Rivero and Martos), the abdication of power by a +majority, two provisional and two "permanent" Governments, a cabinet of +conciliation, and a cabinet of homogeneity, not to mention a round of +permutations in the civil governorships of Madrid, and the +captain-generalcy of New Castile, and in the commands of the armies of +the North and Catalonia. + +From the country poured in felicitations to the Republic from hamlet and +city, tumid with a rampant joy. These documents emphatically protested +that the majority of the population was Republican. Yet talk +confidentially to any Spaniard, not actually a Republican propagandist, +and not one of the ignorant lower classes of the towns--an average, +intelligent, middle-class Spaniard--and he would tell you there were no +Republicans in Spain. The thorough frankness with which Spaniards speak +of their own country, its divisions and its national faults, is +phenomenal. "We are very foolish," they own with a charming candour, +but the foreigner had better not chime in with them. They will fire up +in an instant. If they are foolish, it is no business of his; Spanish +quarrels are conducted precisely on the principles of those between man +and wife. The outsider who interposes in them must be prepared to wipe a +bloody nose. + +But the doctrines of Republicanism were producing their effects in the +army nevertheless, and the first of these was a tendency to +demoralization. The troops at Barcelona fraternized with the working +men, and raised cries for the Republic and for their own liberation from +service. They desired individual as well as national independence. In +that they were but logical. The Republicans out of power inveighed +against standing armies as a monstrosity, a relic of effete Monarchical +tyranny. The argument was now used against the Republic; the bird of +freedom was menaced by a shaft plumed from her own wing. If discipline +were once generally relaxed in the army, which is the salt of Spain, +then farewell security and come chaos. That was the chief peril in the +way. A man, in the highest meaning of the word, one born to command, +was wanted to save the country. He was looked for in vain. Prim had left +no successor. + +In forming my opinions on Spain and the Spaniards, I was aided not a +little by the good offices of a shrewd but eccentric American dentist, +named Maceehan, who had left Pennsylvania at so remote a date that +nobody could recollect it. Long as he had been absent from his native +country, he retained its accent, its peculiarities, and evergreen +patriotism, and on each recurring 4th of July gave a lavish banquet in +honour of American Independence in a restaurant decked with +star-spangled banners, and had the privilege of making all the magnates +of the capital, soldiers, ministers, courtiers, nobles, poets, and +painters, clink their glasses as he sang "Yankee Doodle." Long as he had +been in Madrid, he could not speak Spanish correctly, and his mistakes +fed the clubs with side-splitting anecdotes. He was the soul of +hospitality, and garrulous as a jay. He was in the secrets of the +wire-workers, and had a novel process of extracting information as he +extracted teeth. As his patient sat in the chair of torture he plied him +slyly with interrogatories, and learned what he wanted, but he never +betrayed confidences. In his way he was as proud as the proudest +Spaniard of them all. Emilio Castelar came to him once with an agonizing +toothache. Maceehan laid hold of the offending fang with his forceps. +Castelar shrieked and clutched at his hand. + +"You have got the wrong tooth!" + +"Caramba!" said the Pennsylvanian, lowering his instrument. "So you have +come here to teach me my business. I will thank you to leave the room, +seor." + +"I beg a thousand pardons, but consider the pain. Do with me as you +like, dear doctor." + +"The dear doctor in that case will adjourn the operation till to-morrow. +By that time the seor may have discovered that though the dear doctor +may not be an adept at literature or administration, he has some skill +at pulling teeth." + +And Castelar, in spite of his apologies and entreaties and plaints, had +to accept the penance of four-and-twenty hours. He could not think of +going anywhere else, for Maceehan was master of his profession. There +was not a set of artificial grinders in Madrid with which the American +was not familiar. He had looked into the mouths of every Infante and +Infanta, had lanced the gums of awful Captains-General, and inserted +gold wires in the ivory treasures of most of the reigning beauties. He +had been dentist by appointment to Isabella, and had care of the +_mchoire_ of the lovely Eugenia de Montijo in her maidenhood. The very +thought of sipping a cup of tea in the intimacy of a man who had +fingered the palate of a Cardinal, plugged the hollow in a Queen's +molar, and arrested the manifestation of caries in the central incisor +of an Empress, was too much. It was oppressive. + +I was amply provided with letters of introduction at starting, but I was +in no hurry to present them. It was fortunate for me. Those who were in +power to-day were in disgrace to-morrow, and _vice vers_, and most of +those to whom I had credentials were leaders of parties. One +non-politician, a scion of my own sept, but no relative, I did call +upon, as funds were to be forwarded to me through his agency. A +pleasant old man, he had a brogue as Irish as the _canavaun_ of the Bog +of Allen, although he had quitted Ireland in early childhood--a mellow, +musical, unctuous brogue. What a sovereign contempt he had for fomenters +of revolution, intriguers, and the drones who buzzed while others +worked, and wanted to be rewarded for buzzing! + +"Namesake," he said, "if you knew the mean secret motives of half these +wretched politicians by trade, you would spit upon them. There was but +one man fit to govern this nation." + +I forget whom he mentioned, but it was a Marshal (Narvez, I fancy), +who, when asked on his death-bed by his father-confessor, Did he forgive +his enemies? answered that he had none--he had shot them all. + +"There may be nothing serious here for the present," he continued, "and +yet one can't tell; but I think they will go on shilly-shallying and +tinkering up constitutions for months to come." + +"Then I should have a better field for my labours in the Carlist +country." + +"Undoubtedly; but if you think of going there, you must cut off that +yellowish-red beard or they will call you Judas Iscariot. Do you speak +Basque?" + +"No; but as to the beard, I am equal to the sacrifice of shaving it and +dying my moustache." + +"Ah, yes; you may do that sure enough, but it is not so easy to learn +Basque!" + +If I could not learn Basque I could learn of the Basques, and what I did +learn was so much to their credit that it is only fair to write it down. +They were not Thugs, they were neither sanguinary nor thievish. The +peasantry of the Basque provinces are the finest in Spain--intelligent, +hospitable, brave, gentle, but fiercely fanatical where religion is +concerned. Instances were narrated to me of travellers who had been +arrested by them, being liberated without damage to person or detriment +to purse. In one case a Frenchman was robbed by a small party, but his +money and papers were restored to him a few days after by one of the +chiefs, with an apology. The correspondent of the _Temps_, who +accompanied the army in a previous Carlist campaign, informed me that +after a skirmish in which forty Carlists were captured, he was anxious +to send an account of the affair to Paris, but he did not know how. + +"Hold!" said a colonel, "I'll find you the means." + +He called over a prisoner, and asked him if he were let off on parole, +would he take a letter through the disturbed district, and post it on +the other side for a French gentleman? The man pleaded fatigue. + +"You'll be well paid." + +At last he consented; my informant gave him the letter and a five-franc +piece. While monsieur was searching his pockets for more money to give +him, the prisoner said: + +"I have no change, caballero; how shall we manage?" + +The prisoner duly set off; the letter was duly posted and duly arrived, +and the prisoner faithfully returned and delivered himself up. Honour is +not yet extinct in the Basque provinces, nor is magnanimity in the +Spanish army. The commandant dismissed the peasant with a look of +admiration and a push on the back. But some fireside philosopher will +argue: + +"Why, these honourable fellows cut telegraph wires and fire on railway +trains." + +The Carlists explain: "The telegraph and the railway are our greatest +enemies; the one sends for reinforcements, the other brings them." + +The unfortunate station-masters are to be pitied. Lizrraga sends one +word that he will incur the penalty of death if he makes up a train for +troops. The troops arrive, their commander demands to be furnished with +a train to take him to a certain point; if the station-master refuses he +is not merely threatened with the death-penalty, but incurs it on the +spot. But the fireside philosophers, assuming the cocked-hat of the +general, will continue: + +"Why not protect the telegraphs and the railways?" The query may be met, +_more Hibernico_, by another: + +Do the philosophers know how enormous and difficult an extent of country +has to be protected? + +It would take more men than there are in the Spanish army altogether, +including the regiment of dismissed generals in Madrid, to act as +military milesmen in the perturbed territory. The Army of the North did +what it could--that is to say, it fortified the railway stations, +converting them into veritable block-houses, and supplied escorts to the +trains; but the Carlists had an unpurchasable ally in the darkness. They +could come down in the night and play old Harry with metals and wires. +The insurgents were ill-armed and undisciplined, but they were on their +own ground, every square inch of which they knew; they were leal to each +other, and they had acquired the secret of guerrilla campaigning--that +is, they harassed the regulars by fighting and running away, so that +they might live to fight another day. They avoided concentration in +mass, knowing how dangerous it is to pack all one's eggs in a single +basket. + +So daring had these Carlists become that bands had made demonstrations +in perilous nearness to the capital, or rather they had been organized +in the capital itself and had taken to the field in the neighbourhood. +From a rising ground hard by the palace could be distinguished with the +naked eye a thicket on the desolate plain in the distance, where the +remnants of one band were known to be hiding. The fates were against +the insurgents, as they were met at Buendia and badly beaten two days +after they had unfurled the banner of revolt. Eleven of them were slain, +including a priest, twenty wounded and one hundred and seventeen taken +prisoners, including their two chiefs. The elder of these, Alonso, a man +of three-score and ten, died in the military hospital of Madrid on the +19th of March. He was a venerable fanatic of asinine stupidity to have +risked a fight with regular troops in the open. Fortune, in my +experience, favours not so much the brave as the wary. Had this +particular Alonso the brave, really an Alonso the reckless, availed +himself of a few picks and spades--the first farmhouse will seldom fail +to supply entrenching tools--he might have lived to die in his own bed +of a natural disease. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + A Late Capital--The Gambling Mania--A French Rendezvous--The Duke + de Fitzpepper--The Morality of Passing Bad Money--Spanish + Compliments--Men in Pickle--A Licentious Ballet--Federal + Manners--Prim's Artifice--Nouvilas Goes North--A Carlist + Proclamation--Don Alfonso--Midnight Oil--Castelar's Circular. + + +Madrid is not an early capital--natural effect of the climate. In the +middle of the day the blinds are let down, the shops are shut, the +streets are empty--everybody who can at all manage it is taking the +siesta. The business of sunlight is at a standstill. The few hours thus +stolen from the day are religiously made restitution of to the night, +which is undoubtedly the most agreeable period for a stroll. Pleasure is +in full swing, the promenades are alive, flirtation is methodically +practised in the Spanish way--that is, through an intervening +lattice--theatres and ball-rooms contribute to the programme of +diversion, the coffee-houses (where chocolate is mostly consumed) are +packed to the door-posts, and the business of gaslight is prosecuted +with a desperate concentration of energy and a brooding perseverance. + +The business of gaslight, unfortunately, is high play. That is one of +the social curses of Spain. Everybody gambles, to the sentries in the +guard-house, the patients in the hospitals, the felons in the gaols. +Such is the overwhelming dominion of this national passion that I should +not be surprised at reading of a condemned man on his way to the garrote +craving a hand of cards with the executioner to distract him from his +sorrows. Strained the situation was at this crisis, and in all the clubs +the cards were thrown on the tables with a fever as of men seeking some +relaxation from the fierce game of politics; but, as I had opportunity +to assure myself afterwards, this was nothing exceptional. The fever for +play as high as the pocket can allow, often higher, is normal. The +foreigner--and all foreigners provided with the slightest credentials +are most graciously made free of the clubs--soon takes note of that. + +The Fornos, the Suizo, and other coffee-houses were transformed into +debating-forums, and sometimes I frequented them to catch what was going +on; but my haunt of predilection was a restaurant patronized by French +refugees. They had brought with them the Gaulish gaiety, and it was +instructive to see Communists, fugitive aristocrats, bagmen with the +asphalte of the boulevards still clinging to the soles of their boots, +and steady old settlers in Madrid foregathering in friendly +forgetfulness of differing shades of political coats. One of the three +Marquesses de Fonvielle and de Coutuly, of the _Temps_, amongst other +journalists, used to drop in regularly. De Coutuly has since strayed +into diplomacy. Touching journalists who wander into that luxurious +labyrinth, the representative of the _New York Herald_, at Madrid, a +painstaking gentleman with a certain cleverness, Russell Young, +subsequently became United States' Minister to China. Prizes of this +class, which rain upon Continental and American publicists, seldom fall +to the lot of their brethren of the British press, unless they get into +Parliament or boldly single themselves out from the anonymous herd. +Then they are sometimes promoted to a Consulship in an insalubrious +region, where they have every facility for studying the manners of the +buck-nigger, and the customs of the lively sand-fly. Far and away the +most interesting customer of this restaurant was the Duke de Fitzpepper, +a tall, dark, strong man with curly black hair, a boisterous voice, and +a bold laugh. He had to quit France on account of an affair of honour. +He had been in the Imperial Navy, had a squabble with his captain, and +resigned his commission that he might send him a challenge. They met +with the customary duelling swords, but de Fitzpepper made a mistake. He +ran his antagonist through. I know naught of the merits of the quarrel, +but to my insularly uneducated mind it appeared that the gallant +nobleman experienced inadequate remorse at having the blood of a +fellow-creature on his soul. Perhaps I am hyper-sensitive, but when de +Fitzpepper used to boast "_Je me connais dans le flingot_," it sent a +thread of cold water creeping down my spine, not from fear but from +aversion. Yet it was impossible to keep aloof from him for long, he was +such a joyous, dashing, carry-your-outworks pattern of a musketeer. + +Evil associations corrupt good manners, I suppose, which must be the +excuse for a Frenchman with whom I entered into conversation in this +mirthful caravanserai. I happened to show him a coin which had been +passed upon me, an escudo, which would be worth a sovereign if it were +not counterfeit. + +"What a shame!" he exclaimed as he fingered it. "What are you going to +do with it?" + +"Nothing," I said. "It's useless to me." + +"Lend it to me, pray." + +I gave it to him, and the following night he asked me what commission I +would allow him. He had passed the bad escudo in his turn. I was +indignant, and accused him of having been guilty of a dishonest act. I +would touch none of the proceeds of his crookedness. + +"Nonsense!" he said, astonished. "I got rid of it in a hell. They're all +rogues there when they have a chance." + +I submit to the casuists that this was a very nice case of conscience. +Winning money at cards is not earning it. He who seeks to win it is +demoralized, and it is to his advantage and the advantage of society +that he should be discouraged in his pernicious foolishness. Therefore, +q.e.d., it was commendable to palm that base coin upon him. I was +unequal to deciding the question off-hand, so I elected to take not a +real of the Frenchman's equivocal profit. But if the Frenchman was to +blame, was I not responsible in the first instance, as having afforded +him the means of cheating his neighbour? When the casuists shall have +elucidated this riddle to their satisfaction, perhaps they will oblige +by telling me how many thousand angels could alight on the point of a +needle. + +Morality is at a low ebb in Madrid, or rather the moral code is +regulated by notions peculiar to the latitude. So with habits. A man +must be "native and to the manner born," before he can affect competency +to interpret them. For example, when a Madrileo asseverates that his +house is yours, or that his equipage which you so much admire is at your +disposal, he does not intend that you should take up your residence +with him there and then, or hold his coachman at your beck. It is simply +a form of etiquette, a mode of speech, as of the Englishman of past +generations who challenged you to mortal combat and subscribed himself +"your obedient humble servant." You will be guilty of a grave solecism +if you imitate that American to whom the grandee remarked with effusion +that the stud which captivated his taste was his own, his very own. + +"Thanks," said Brother Jonathan; "I'll take the roan and the chestnut +to-day and call for the others to-morrow!" + +Although a man may tender you fraudulent coinage with a brazen front, he +may be keen in honour, and resent an insult to his sister with a +knife-stab; although he may intrigue for a Government place with a slimy +self-abasement, under circumstances the same being may go forth +unflinchingly and sacrifice himself on the altar of his country. Spain +is the home of paradox. The beggar is addressed as "your worship," +mutiny is a venial offence, bribery of officials is a recognised +prescription. At the very epoch of which I write, the murderers of Prim +were stalking about the capital; it was a town-crier's secret who they +were and who was the personage who was their employer, yet none had the +temerity to denounce them. And in the saladero, or the "salting-tub," as +the prison was called, it was notorious that there were malefactors who +gave lessons in forgery, and who positively utilized their cells as +convenient head-quarters from which to prey on the unwary public. Their +plan was to write to somebody of position, whose name they had lighted +on in a directory, and inform him that they had often heard speak of him +as a citizen of integrity, and felt that they might trust him; they were +singularly situated, immured for a debt of a few duros, and yet in the +vicinity of his residence they were cognizant of an immense buried +treasure; if he would only send them the trifle needful to pay off that +debt and cover their fare to his town, they would take him with them to +the site of the secret hoard, and repay him with interest for his +kindness. This transparent ruse actually told with hundreds of dupes. +How the _auri sacra fames_ will deprive sane men of sense! He would be +a spendthrift of sympathy who would waste his sympathy upon them. + +I had been under the impression that Spain was a deeply religious +country. The impression was illusive. It may be fanatically religious in +parts, but too often the educated classes rail at religion. As comes to +pass when inordinate demand has been made on credulity, a reaction +arises, and those whose faith was implicit yesterday become the scoffing +heretics of to-day. The tide has turned, and it is no unfrequent +occurrence to hear a Spaniard declare he is not a Christian, whose +fathers would have perhaps burned at a stake the wretch who would have +dared to utter such a profanity. This is very bad. One extreme is as +wicked as another. If the Scylla of stupid superstition was dangerous, +the Charybdis of arrogant scepticism is destructive. This is essentially +a Roman Catholic country, yet never have I seen anywhere, in the lands +where Roman Catholicism is disliked and contemned even, the ceremonies +and institutions of the Church treated with more undisguised ribaldry. I +went to the Novedades, a popular theatre in a humble quarter of the +town in the vicinity of the Calle de Toledo, to see what the piece on +the occasion, "El Triunfo de la Repblica," was like. I got in as a +"Carlist ballet" was being danced; two men were dressed to represent two +famous cabecillas, Saballs and a colleague, two others to represent the +Carlist priest, Santa Cruz, and a monk of the party. Santa Cruz was +bulky as Friar Tuck, leered from under his scoop hat, drank wine, +reeled, toddled, fell, and kicked up his heels as the wild Mabille +quadrille music was played; and high was the content and noisily +expressed the delight of the audience. The four women who took part in +the Terpsichorean orgie wore the robes of nuns, and must have belonged +to the order of Sisters of Shame, if to any. They had blue hoods, white +bands across their foreheads and bosoms, red crosses wrought on their +habits, and trailing skirts of white. Their dancing was not voluptuous; +it would be a misnomer to let it down with so mild an epithet; it was +grossly indecent. They exposed their limbs, and the audience was +ecstatic at the sight. Not a murmur of censure was to be heard. And +this bacchanalian riot, too obscene for any self-respecting house of +ill-fame, was supposed to be held in a church. The scenery showed a +mockery of ecclesiastical architecture and pious pictures. As a dramatic +effort, "El Triunfo de la Repblica" was very poor. Zorilla was +caricatured as a fox (a play upon his name), and Sagasta as a +devil-fish, and the apotheosis revealed the Genius of Spain waving a +flag lettered with the words, "Viva la Repblica Federal!" The flag was +welcomed with vehement cheers, in affirmation that those who looked on +and admired the burlesque of ministers of the national faith were all +stout Federal Republicans, corresponding somewhat to the Communists of +the Paris of two years before. + +These Federals, I own, I do not like. A deputation of them from the +provinces arrived one of these evenings, and put up at the Fonda de +Paris. They were scrubby louts, smoked between the courses although +ladies were at table, which, however, could be condoned, as it was +Spanish. But they also wore their hats. That irritated one guest, and he +called to a waiter to bring him a hat which he would find on a peg +outside. Having been handed his head-gear, he clapped it on, and said +that was all he wanted. The hint was not lost. The boors dined in a room +by themselves during the rest of their stay. And yet these Federal +Republicans profess to respect public opinion; but by the phrase must be +understood the opinion of those who agree with them. The Intransigentes, +on whose support they depend, have arms in their hands, and will try to +keep them. Only one man was ever able to disarm them, and he was +assassinated. If Prim did not know the Spanish mind intuitively, and as +no other man ever knew it, even he would not have succeeded. After the +promiscuous distribution of arms to the multitude had been made from the +windows of the storehouses in Madrid at the close of 1868, he tried +every means to get them back, but to no purpose. Promises of rewards to +those who would give up the guns were useless; threats and coaxings were +in vain. At last Prim hit on a notable scheme. At a review he publicly +insulted the corps he was so long trying to disembody; he either rode +past them without noticing them, or made remarks on their appearance +the reverse of complimentary. The officers threw up their commissions in +dudgeon; they had served the cause of the people faithfully, and were +not to be treated with contempt; they would no longer carry arms for +such ungrateful friends. It was just what Prim wanted. + +While Madrid was thus seething and bubbling as if it were on the verge +of boiling over, and the great question of elections for the new Cortes +to determine the future "permanent" style of administration was being +mooted, the Carlists were plucking up heart and maturing their designs. +They fancied they would soon have the nation before them the _nudum et +coecum corpus_ of Sylla's description--defenceless and blind. +Nouvilas, one of the numberless generals of Spain, was ordered to the +north. At a Republican meeting before his departure, he promised that he +would take his five sons with him to fight against the Carlists. At the +same meeting he declared himself the uncompromising enemy of all +dictatorships, and warned those who expected that he would use his power +in that sense not to make a mistake. He was a soldier, not a politician, +and the day that the Republic would be consolidated, and peace secured, +he would retire into private life. It did not seem as if peace were +shortly to be secured. There was a proposition to raise fifty battalions +of free corps to crush the insurgents. The only difficulty in the way +was the loan for their armaments. The battalions were to be organized by +provinces, and each was to be composed of 900 men (making a total of +44,100), and to be officered from the reserve. The proposition of itself +was sufficient to wake the fools out of their paradise. These Carlists +were not to be underrated. If they could do nothing else, they could +issue proclamations. They were great at these. They promised to give the +army the "licencia absoluta" which some soldiers demanded from the +Republic at Barcelona. One Ramon V. Valcarces, commandant-general of the +province of Lugo, was exceedingly anxious that the Galicians should come +out to conquer or die. He told them that the national banner of their +legitimate King waved triumphantly in the provinces of Catalonia, +Castile, Leon, the Asturias, and the Vasco-Navarre, which was a piece of +bounce--legitimate, may it be called?--on his part; and added +scathingly that the Government at Madrid was in the hands of a group of +adventurers, who called themselves Spaniards and Liberals. Those +impostors would raise the taxes until it would be impossible to pay +them, would sell the Antilles and persecute religion. + +Tidings were wafted to us mysteriously that the brother of the +legitimate King, H.R.H. Don Alfonso, of Bourbon and Lorraine, had held a +review of the forces of Saballs at Vidra, in Catalonia. His Royal +Highness was accompanied by his wife, the Doa Maria. His Royal Highness +wore flesh-coloured riding breeches with black stripes, jack-boots, a +zamarra or sheep-skin upper garment, and a flat white cap of the make of +those used by Scotch shepherds. Doa Maria wore a cap of the same kind, +with a gold tassel coquettishly falling over her left shoulder. The +august pair were mounted, and the lady, who chivalrously accompanied her +husband, witched the Carlists with noble horsemanship. Don Alfonso was +surrounded by a brilliant staff, conspicuous amongst whom was a son of +that Don Enrique of Bourbon who was shot in a duel by the Duke of +Montpensier. + +The "only court" did not lack a moidering liveliness. Of nights I +usually leant by my balcony overlooking the Puerta del Sol, and watched +the frail sodality of the Moon prowling about in charge of the +superfluous duenna, the while the brawl of palaver, the cries of "gua +fresca," or of the last edition of the _Correspondencia_, the "theeah" +in such wise cadenced, or the boom of the watchman's voice came floating +upwards, before I sat me down to a hard spell of work, sifting grain +from chaff, and committing my thoughts to paper, a moistened towel round +my temples, and a pot of black coffee at my elbow. The sun was usually +ogling the fountain in the Plaza before I had finished. + +The burden of work imposed upon the correspondent who desired to be +loyal to duty was weighty on occasion. For example, late on the 26th of +February the official journal came out with a lengthy circular from Don +Emilio Castelar, to the representatives of Spain abroad. The object was +to obtain the recognition of the Republic by Powers other than the +United States and Switzerland. I saw the importance of sending a +translation of this pregnant State paper at once, and shut myself up in +my room with a supply of pens, ink, and paper, and the indispensable +coffee-pot. I was not an accomplished Spanish scholar, but with the aid +of a youthful groundwork in Latin, a fair knowledge of Italian, a +familiarity with French, and a dictionary, I succeeded in turning out a +full, accurate--nay, I will say a vivid--rendering of this historic +composition before I unlocked my door, and transmitted it to London +within twelve hours. Spanish is not difficult. If Italian is the +daughter of Latin, Spanish is the son. And with energy and mother-wit, +one can do much. + +Castelar's was a brilliant and sustained effort; but it read more like +an essay by Macaulay than a diplomatic holograph. It was splendid, but +it was not official. It lacked crispness, and dealt in excessive +rhetoric from the phrase in an opening paragraph where it spoke of Spain +assuming a place in the Amphictyonic council of Europe, to the closing +sentence. The fall of the Monarchy was traced to the hour when the +institution solemnly ceded its own country to the foreigner (alluding to +the pitiful abdication of Charles IV. in favour of his "friend and ally" +Napoleon, at Bayonne in 1808). True, attempts had been thrice made since +to revive the old system with a new spirit, but they had failed; in +1812, the Democratic Monarchy; in 1837, the Parliamentary Monarchy; in +1869, the Elective Monarchy. The former order of things disappeared +through inherent domestic causes; the Republic appeared of its own +virtue, by the law of necessity. In 1869 the Constituent Cortes had +proclaimed a Monarchy for three fundamental reasons: firstly, because it +corresponded with the traditions of the Spanish people; secondly, +because they believed it would secure liberal principles; and thirdly, +because it would harmonize their form of government with that existing +in nearly every part of Europe. The trouble was where to find the +monarch. They had no dynasty typifying religious and national principles +united to modern spirit like that of England, no princes like those who +had built up the unity of Italy and of Germany on battlefields; their +sovereign houses presented no stability. They had to look outside for a +king, at the double risk of disturbing the peace of Europe and wounding +the national sentiment. They found him in the scion of an illustrious +line, united to France by the war of 1859, to Prussia by the war of +1866, to Great Britain by the establishment of parliamentary rule in +Italy. But the national sentiment of Spain was against him. It left him +in a solitude that was asphyxia. At last he renounced a crown of which +he only felt the weight on his brow and not the dignity in his soul. +When he left, this Government came not by violent revolution, but by +logical evolution. The Republic was not provisional, but definitive. (As +if there were any finality in politics!) The Cortes which had proclaimed +it were the most permanent estate in the nation, inasmuch as when others +melted away they remained. It was the same Cortes which undertook the +national defence in the epic years from 1808 to 1814, which abrogated +the rights of Don Carlos to the ancient crown, and which sanctioned the +dethronement of the Bourbons. Spain owed the change she had effected to +no cosmopolitan influences or agitations. She sought autonomy, not +Utopianism; she coveted no conquest, but she wished to show that she was +living, not dead; that she was still great, but not with the greatness +of ruin, like the empires buried under the valleys of Asia. + +There was an excellent thickset gentleman in Madrid, a literary +pluralist, who combined the offices of "own correspondent" to several +London journals. He was a diligent "snapper-up of unconsidered trifles," +who would never set even the Manzanares on fire. He met me after I had +despatched my version of Castelar's circular, and was cooling my aching +brain on the shady side of the Puerta del Sol. + +"Did you read that thing of 'Musica's'?" he said. ("Musica" was the +nickname of the silver-tongued professor-politician.) + +"Yes; lovely and long and flimsy as a rainbow," I remarked. + +"I think you ought to send an epitome of it to London." + +"I shall not." + +"Well, I may tell you Chose is sending the whole of it on," he +continued. + +Chose was a most formidable rival. + +"Who translated it for him?" I asked. + +"As it is very important I am getting my sons to do it. Indeed, he asked +me." + +"And you never told me." + +"Ah! you see, he has a reputation to sustain." + +"And I have a reputation to make." + +"I'll let you have a _prcis_ to-morrow." + +"No, thanks," I answered, turning on my heel. + +The thickset gentleman looked mighty blank when he gazed on the paper a +few days after with my translation covering nearly two columns of small +type, nor did his astonishment lessen when I confided to him that it had +been made for me by the Man in the Moon. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + Warning to Ladies--The Hotel Parliament--An Anglo-Spanish + Mentor--The Evil Genii of the Monarchy--The Curses of + Spain--Government and Religion Affairs of Climate--The Carlists, + Norwegians, and English, all Republicans!--Notions on Heredity--The + Five Spanish Parties--The Army the Lever of Power--The + Student-Csar--Order _versus_ Republic--The Chained + Colours--Dorregaray's Appeal to the Soldiers--Influence of the + Church--Wanted: a Benevolent Despot. + + +In the first line, it may be generous to warn ladies (if any of the +gentler sex there be among my readers) to skip this chapter. There will +be no indelicate disclosures--not that indelicate disclosures would bar +the inquisitiveness of some females, judging by the ingenuity with which +they intrigue for seats at the trials in the Divorce Court, and the +avidity with which they devour "spicy," that is scandalous, details; but +matter of a political, speculative, and quasi-philosophical nature is to +be discussed, and I fear me much it will be dry and prosy. + +A shady little room in one of the upper stories of the Fonda de Paris +was used as reading-room. It was thickly carpeted, the walls were +covered with oil paintings in massive ornamented frames, and on the +tables were placed curious jars, antique candlesticks, bronze +statuettes, damascened daggers, and what is known as the merchandise of +_bijouterie_ and _vertu_. There were few papers there, and but one book, +a Spanish Army List in gorgeous green velvet cover with gilt clasps. In +fact, it was more of an auctioneer's private show-room than _cabinet de +lecture_, for the Brothers Fallola were dealers in _bric--brac_, and +could not forego the chance of poking their wares under the notice of +their customers. The Italian is first cousin to the Hebrew. + +We held a grave Parliament of our own in this little room, and there I +made the acquaintance of an English settler in Spain--an elderly +gentleman who had been engaged in mining. He was well educated, had +travelled widely, was pronounced in his views, and as he expressed them +with candour and was possessed of a high order of intelligence, I +listened to him with attention. Indeed, we all accepted him as Mentor. +He indoctrinated me into the knotty catechism of Spanish politics. + +Broadly speaking, he maintained that the monarchy was its own greatest +enemy. It had fallen because of its indifference to public opinion. +Among its evil genii were the pastrycook Marforio, Father Claret, and +Sister Patrocinio. The birth of a daughter to Ferdinand VII., fault of +nature, was the primal fatality. As Count O'Neil remarked when he heard +the natal salute stop at the nineteenth cannon-shot, unhappy Spain was +doomed, because of the gender of the newly-born, to be over-shadowed +with the pall of grief and mourning. But the primal error was the +unnatural marriage of Isabella to her cousin, Don Francisco. Never was +there a more ill-assorted union. A woman of ardent temperament and +strong fibre was allied to a feeble nonentity without sap or spirit. Had +she become the spouse of a man like Victor Emmanuel, things might have +gone better. + +Spain was a grand country, he held, one of the richest in creation in +minerals, forests, vineyards, orchards, silk and flocks. The people were +a people that improved upon intercourse, and had some grand qualities. +But the curses of Spain were the ignorance of the masses, the greed of +the professional politicians, and the varying ascendancy of some one +man's power in the army. + +"Was the country ripe for its existing form of government?" I asked. + +"Government," said he, "like religion, is very much a matter of birth +and training, or, to put it more briefly, of climate. The circumcision +of Judaism, the ablutions of Mahometanism, are the simple useful +dictates of some wise man skilled in sanitary science. People of warm +southern natures crave light and colour and music in worship; in colder +lands, with dispositions hardier and less imaginative, they are +satisfied with severe forms----" + +"I know all those theories about religion," I interrupted, "but I am +anxious to have your judgment on government." + +"Identically the same--affair of climate. Those who have to brave +privations and work hard for a living are Republicans; the Swiss, for +example, the Norwegians, and the Carlists." + +"The Carlists! I thought they were Royalists." + +The Mentor laughed as he said, "Royalists! why, they are the only +Republicans in this land. Have you not heard of their fueros? They +reject the tax of blood--they will have no unwilling soldiers taken from +their midst. So Republican are they that they will not tolerate a Bishop +in their ecclesiastical organization, strict Catholics though they +profess themselves. He of Seo de Urgel is the nearest Bishop to their +territory, and his diocese is properly in Andorra." + +"But the Norwegians are Monarchists," I ventured. + +"In name only, as the English are. There is no more democratic +administration in the world than that of king-ruled Norway; and in +England you are likewise a Republic--that is, you enjoy Republican +freedom, only you choose to call the President a Queen. The Queen is but +a figure-head, the vivified Union Jack. The Prime Minister, that is to +say the elect of the people, not the Queen, sways the genuine wand of +power." + +"And the House of Lords, the most Conservative hereditary legislature in +Europe, how do you account for its existence in this British Republic?" +I hazarded as a clincher. + +"An accident, my dear sir," he replied, as he pulled at his cigarette. +"Like that puff of smoke, it has no power; it is but vapour, and like +vapour it will disappear some day, to be succeeded by a Senate on the +French or American model. Life-peerages can be justified; the hereditary +principle has been tried and found wanting. The male offspring of a +jockey are not necessarily skilful horsemen; the son of a fencing-master +may be an awkward butter-fingers; the daughter of a _prima ballerina_ +may be a cripple." + +I passed that figure of speech about the vapour, though disciplined +vapour drives a locomotive. But I urged, "Do you not believe in blood? +Would you place the descendant of a line of brave and cultured men, with +traditions to look back upon, on the same level with Bill Sykes or a +Bosjesman? Is a game-cock a dunghill? Is a thoroughbred a +plough-horse?" + +"R-o-t, rot, my dear sir," said Mentor, with an irritating coolness. "Of +game-cocks I know nothing; but as far as your horse argument goes, I am +prepared to meet you. Care is taken that the mare shall be mated with +the proper sire, so that the qualities long worked up to, by judicious +crossing, shall not be lost or deteriorated; but there is no such +selection in the case of a lord; he follows his own figary, and his +figary is usually money, to regild a faded shield. Blood, sir, has less +to do with those things than education and the associations of +childhood. Send an earl's son to St. Giles', and he will grow up a saucy +gutter-boy; send a burglar's son to Eton, and he may develop into what +is conventionally recognised as a gentleman." + +There was no arguing down our Mentor on this point, so the subject was +changed, and he tried to disintegrate the ingredients in the very mixed +dish of Spanish parties--a complete olla podrida. There were five +factions in the distracted State, two schools of Monarchists and three +of Republicans. These were--1st, the Alfonsists, or those who wished +that the son of the deposed Queen should be raised to the throne; 2nd, +the Legitimists or Carlists (embracing a large body of the clergy); 3rd, +the Republicans of long standing, who were actually in power; 4th, the +ex-Monarchists--the neo-Republicans or Radicals, who sometimes called +themselves Progresistas, and favoured the United Republic; and 5th, the +Intransigentes, or the Irreconcilables, the extreme of the extreme, who +clamoured for a Federal Republic. + +"As example of that ignorance of the masses of which I spoke," said +Mentor, "the mob of Madrid is fiercely Federal, which proves that it +does not know what Federalism is; for one of the first results of +Federalism would be to reduce this capital to the plane of a third-rate +provincial town. Federalism is Spanish dismemberment. If such a system +were adopted, you would have a Royalist North, a Red Republican +Catalonia, and a pauperized Castile, politically piebald. Catalonia is +Federal, in which Catalonia writes itself down ass, for that province is +manufacturing, and with the downfall of protection its prosperity must +depart." + +"Is there any chance of Amadeus being coaxed back?" + +He laughed a laugh that embarrassed me. + +"A kick is not soon forgotten, for it is always an insult even when +administered with an embroidered slipper." + +"What do you think of the situation at the moment?" (This was in the +first week of March.) + +"Madrid," he answered, "is a hot-bed of political intrigue, and a +complicated intrigue is in act of being developed at present. This, I +take it, is a fair estimate of the situation. The men in office are +controlled by fears of the violent Republicans outside, whom they are +powerless to keep under; and the Radicals are anxious to get into office +to restrain these same violent Republicans, but hesitate because of the +apprehension that they have not sufficient material force behind them. +They would fain climb, but that they fear to fall. Thus, as you +perceive, the disorganization of the army is at the bottom of all the +difficulties, for that it is which leaves the mastery with the dreaded +Intransigents. Those, the 'partisans of action' as they are aptly +called sometimes, have more energy than either the Ministry or the +Radicals, and if this dilly-dallying goes on much longer they may make a +bold attempt to get the reins into their own hands. The Radicals are +opposed to a dissolution of the Assembly because they fear the Reds +would command the polls at the new elections, and go in for sweeping +changes on the model of their predecessors in Paris. The present +Ministers have not the vigour to check the manoeuvring that would +bring about such an occurrence, and the Radicals believe that they only +could oppose and beat down the fanatics of Communistic proclivities. +There are cynics, however, who sneer at patriotic affirmations, and +whisper that loaves and fishes have more to do with them than love of +country." + +I reflected that patriotism of that order was not an exclusively Iberian +production, but that possibly the cynics were disappointed politicians +themselves. + +"The state of the army," resumed Mentor, "is the question after all. A +great portion of the rank and file are violently Republican, and one +cause of insubordination is that the privates do not believe in the +Republicanism of their officers. Of course, the object of the Ministry +in raising the proposed battalions of volunteers, is less to put down +Carlism than to have a force to fall back upon in case of the army +giving itself furlough. I have reason to know that one Minister at least +is very uneasy on account of the want of discipline of the troops, and +urges upon his colleagues that their first labour should be devoted to +repressing all signs of disorder. But the fight for place at Madrid has +more interest for them, and the army is melting away. When Ministers +make up their minds to a rigorous supervision of the soldiery, there may +be no soldiers to supervise." + +It dawned upon me that Spaniards, although enjoying the reputation of +being quick with lethal weapons under the spur of sudden passion, were +very slow in taking ordinary resolutions. "Maana" is the watchword of +the nation: a favourite proverb is twisted into "Never do to-day what +you can possibly put off till to-morrow." As a French writer wittily +observed, the chariot of State in Spain is fashioned of tortoise-shell +and drawn by snails. + +"What do you think of Castelar?" + +"Castelar!" echoed the Mentor, with a shoulder-movement of compassionate +irony, "honest, but weak. He is too good, too single-minded, too +amiable, too much of a student to play the Csar. Picture to yourself a +doctrinaire who can quote Aristotle in the Chamber, while his country is +travelling the road to ruin. Poor Seor Castelar is not the coming man." + +"And where may we look for him?" I asked. + +"Quien sabe? At this moment he may be waxing his moustache in the +Balearic Islands, or sipping chocolate in the coffee-house on the +ground-floor." + +That coffee-house was always full at the juncture. Indeed, to one who +had not been made stoical by familiarity with excitements, the tokens of +the atmosphere were portentous. Congress often sat under the protection +of an armed guard. The crowds in the streets were always large. The talk +was of bloodshed; but I had grown so sceptical that I would hardly +believe in bloodshed in Madrid until what looked a liquid red had been +chemically analyzed and proved to be blood. We had false alarms every +other night, and shops were shut for an hour or two; but we got no +nearer to revolution than the discussions of sundry excited parliaments +over the marble-topped tables. There Spaniards flushed purple, and +gesticulated violently over their temperate glasses of sweetened water. +What a blessing this is not a whisky-drinking country! + +"No," continued the Mentor; "Castelar is the least of all fitted to +govern Spain. This people requires to be ruled by stern will and strong +grip. The result of handing it over to a weak administration is +palpable. Of all nations of the world, Spain is least prepared for +Republicanism, and the theoretical Republicans who essayed to control +her, in an evil moment for themselves, must before this have discovered +the gross blunder they have made. The Republic is a splendid word; but +Order is a word more wholesome. The present so-called rulers are +incapable of preserving order. They sowed the wind when they taught the +soldiers to be malcontent under the Monarchy, because an army was an +artificial need in a free nation. Now that the soldiers are taking them +at their word, they are reaping the whirlwind. They promised Spain +liberty, and Spain, from every indication, is about to enjoy a spell of +license. Heaven knows how it will all end; but those who have acutely +watched changes like this in other countries are not slow to tell us +that we shall have anarchy first to the full." + +"And then?" I inquired, "for anarchy is no remedy. It is never final. +What shall we have after that?" + +"Perhaps a Conservative Republic, but more likely an iron despotism, the +dominance of some successful General who has the knack of answering his +opponents by ordering their heads to be sliced off." + +"Is not that General as likely as not to come from the Carlist camp?" I +demanded. + +Mentor shook his head in a decisive negative. "No," he said; "outside +the northern and a portion of the eastern provinces, Carlism has no +solidity." + +"But may not the name of Dorregaray, who has crossed the frontier again, +turn out to be a spell-word? They tell me he distinguished himself in +the war with Morocco." + +"Yes," assented Mentor, "he commanded a regiment of galley-slaves +there." + +"And," I continued, "in Cuba at the outbreak of hostilities he was to +the fore." + +"True, true; but I would not give that," and he snapped his fingers, +"for the fidelity of such as Dorregaray. He served under Don Carlos in +the civil war from 1836 to 1840, and that did not hinder him from +donning a uniform under Isabella. Cosas de Espaa! Have you never heard +of Piquero? His action is a pretty fair criterion of the political +morality of your ordinary ambitious Spanish soldier." + +No, the man's name was new to me. + +"Well, he commanded the regiment of Malaga when Ferdinand VII. returned +from France and was made absolute monarch. General Piquero, as soon as +he got wind of the decree of absolutism, thought he would be first to +curry favour at Court, and sent an address to the palace, praying that +his regiment might have the honour of wearing chains emblazoned on the +colours in testimony of attachment to the King. The prayer was +magnanimously acceded to, and the chains were absolutely borne on the +colours for years. Yet not very long afterward this Piquero, this mean, +fawning cur, changed front and became a yelping hungry mastiff of +democracy. I don't anticipate Dorregaray would play that part." + +"Anyhow," I persisted, "the Carlist General has sent forth a manifesto +in his self-assumed capacity of commander-in-chief of the Vascongadas +and Navarre to the soldiers of the Spanish army. He calls upon them to +lay down their arms, promising them free discharges if they desire it, +but promotion, decorations, and rewards if they join his standard. What +do you think of that?" + +"I do not blame him," said Mentor. "In thus tempting the army, he is +only doing as every military chief who has ever lifted himself to power +by a pronunciamiento has done. The sergeants and corporals are +invariably lured with the bait that they shall be made captains and +lieutenants, the common soldiers that their pay and rations shall be +increased. Such men as go over to Dorregaray only act as too many of +their predecessors have acted. In this instance they have an excuse; +they can say, 'We were Royalist soldiers a few weeks ago; we are +transformed into Republican soldiers now. Our will was never consulted. +We are Royalist still, therefore we rally to Don Carlos, who represents +the principle of Monarchy.' They could say this, but I am far from +thinking they will. Spaniards of the rank and file do not chop logic; it +is the non-commissioned officers who initiate mutinies for purposes of +personal advancement; the private is a machine, not a thinking bayonet." + +In response to my inquiry as to the influence which remained to the +Church, my Mentor shook his head, and said outside the hilly regions +where Carlism prevailed, and the remote rural districts, it was next to +null, save among the more comfortable class of women. The common +Spaniard took his faith as he would his heritage; he was a Christian +because his fathers were so before him--it was an affair of family--and +his calling himself a Christian, which signifies Christian exclusively +of the Roman Catholic persuasion, is a survival of the thoughts +bequeathed by the Saracenic occupation. He who was not a Christian was a +"Moro," and to this day the Jew or the Protestant is a Moor, tarred with +the same brush as the turbaned Islamite. + +"The Church," concluded Mentor, "is not to blame if it bums incense and +assaults Heaven with prayers for such a change of Government as will +bring money to its coffers. If the Republic last, the Church will be +separated from the State, and every congregation will have to pay its +own minister. That would be frank, at all events; but so long as there +is a State religion, the ministers of which are supposed to be paid, it +is a scandal not to pay them, and their reverences are perfectly right +to turn Carlist or Alfonsist." + +After these discussions in the reading-room I sometimes felt as if I had +been endeavouring to unravel the Schleswig-Holstein tangle. Was I not +right in warning off the ladies? Truly, Spanish politics are confusing. +My usual reflections upon them resolved themselves into the uneasy +conviction that they were a Lincoln morass overlaid by a London fog, +and that it would be a joy to have some thousands of Will-o'-the-Wisp +guides prisoned to the chins in the quagmire, and replaced by one +benevolent despot bearing the light with strong, sure grasp. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + The Carnival--About Kissing Feet--Mummers and Masquers--The Paseo + de Recoletos--The Writer is taken for Cluseret--Incongruity in + Costume--Shrove Tuesday--Panic on the Prado--A Fancy Ball--The + "Entierro de la Sardina"--Lenten Amusements--A Spanish + Mystery--"Pasion y Muerte de Jesus"--Of the Stage Stagey--Critical + Remarks. + + +Simultaneously with the Ministerial crisis we were tortured by the +throes of the Carnival, which was a trial too great for a Republic so +young. But the weather came to the aid of the powers that were, and +prevented the festival from rising to a height of merriment when it +might become tumultuous. The opening day was one of leaden skies and +moist pavements in the forenoon, of little patches of ultramarine above +and little eruptions of noise below in the afternoon. There is one +consolation on a wet day--you can conveniently make inspection of the +extremities of dear womankind. I no longer elevate my eyebrows at the +Spanish formula of compliment to the mistress of one's affections--"I +kiss your feet." Anyone could kiss them with pleasure; they are so tiny, +shapely, and sylph-like. There surely are the "little mice" of +Suckling's ballad! Atalanta must have had ankles like those revealed +under the lifted skirts of the doncella yonder, Cinderella such another +pair of arched insteps. But one cannot contemplate them for ever, bitten +by the statuary's mania for the symmetric though he be. + +On the second morning, there was a light grey fog, like the smoke after +gunpowder, on the square called "The Gate of the Sun." I have tasted the +joys of Carnival elsewhere--at Rome in Papal times and at Paris in +Imperial times--but never did the tomfoolery like me less. Muggy +weather, miserable Carnival. No showers of _confetti_, no procession of +the _boeuf gras_ even. Here and there the orchestras of the theatres, +clad in the cast-off finery of the supernumeraries thereof, parade the +streets, and make dissonance with their instruments. Very German-bandish +this dissonance sounds, with a variety of horror thrown in liberally in +the shape of tambourines and triangles. One corps of mumming musicians +is dressed as Zouaves; another might be directors of a Funeral Company, +so sad their garments; a third is got up in a costume semi-nightshirt, +semi-dressing-gown; all send out agents to tout for _backsheesh_. That +is their great point of resemblance. The masquers are few in the +streets, and, such as they are, wear their motley as if for pay, not for +pastime. They are of the usual order, Pierrots, Polichinelles, and +cavaliers, with no wigs, with powdered wigs, and with curly wigs, and +with vizors hideous or ghastly, or simply droll and grotesque. Among the +latter are some which might have been designed by Dykwnkyn for a Drury +Lane pantomime; but the individual who carried off the palm of burlesque +was an equestrian I met in the Plaza Mayor, looking like one of the men +in armour of a Lord Mayor's show with bonneted head-gear, astride of a +pot-bellied Clydesdale. Perhaps he may have been caricaturing "the +ingenious gentleman" of La Mancha. My most grateful anticipation of +Spain was, that it was behind the age, and was in no hurry to overtake +it. But this did not hold good in Madrid, and dear womankind with the +tiny feet was the culprit. She disfigured herself at that epoch with an +enormous bustle on which a Barbary ape might conveniently rehearse a +bolero. Well, we have had our Grecian bends, our crinolines and +crinolettes, our pull-backs and Piccadilly limps. Fashion spells despot +everywhere, and dear womankind will cheerfully obey its dictates, even +though she have to blur her cheeks with patches, distort her spine, or +tightlace herself into consumption. + +In the afternoon a long procession of carriages (mostly hired) traverses +the Calle de Alcal and the promenade to the left of the fountain where +Cybele is sculptured driving a pair of meekest ox-like lions; the folk +in the carriages are not wildly joyous in their dissipation, nor are the +horses that draw them restive with excitement. Everything is dull, +consequently respectable; orderly, consequently dreary. The Foresters' +_fte_ at the Crystal Palace is more hilarious. No shafts of delicate +raillery are shot by cherry lips; no peal of silvery laughter rings +out. The Carnival is "stale, flat, and unprofitable," except to those +mumming musicians who have paid sixteen shillings for the license to beg +during the three mock-mirthful days. I survey the scene from a window in +the Paseo de Recoletos, and get all my enjoyment out of the cynical +remarks of a monstrously fine Burgundian lady, who criticises the +dresses of her Spanish sisters as they glide by. The dresses are very +tasteless, but the Frenchwoman's remarks are very ill-natured, and +ill-nature is gratifying when your neighbour is its object. A friend +enters and claps me on the back. + +"Do you know, old fellow, that that stormy petrel of the Revolution, +Cluseret of the Commune, is said to be in Madrid?" + +"Never! What brings him here?" + +"_Said_ to be, was my expression," he added. "As a fact, I don't believe +he is here, but they take you for him. That is how the tale of his +arrival has got into the papers." + +The Burgundian lady turns. "Cluseret!" she ejaculates; "absurd! I have +seen Cluseret; he is much taller and much handsomer than this +gentleman!" + +I bowed to hide my face, which was what Mr. Whistler might have called a +symphony in black and red, frown and blush. I have since thought what a +caustic retort I might have made if I had said politely, "And, it is to +be hoped, much more well-bred." But I said nothing, for the same reason +that Dr. Johnson gave once to Boswell--"I had nothing ready, sir." + +The panorama underneath is duller now; occasionally a foolish horseman +canters by, covered as to his person and his charger's quarters with a +flowing roquelaure of sheeny green satin; or a black-haired damsel trips +it by, with features concealed by sky-blue mask, and proportions by an +outer vesture of a painfully bright gamboge colour. I wonder is her hair +her own, and are her eyes black. Most likely they are--night eyes are +the rule here--the fair (that is the dark) sex are all going to +purgatory if the French couplet be authority:-- + + "Les yeux noirs + Vont au purgatoire." + +Again fanciful reflection is broken in upon by the thrumming of guitars, +the shrill squeak of fifes, and the eternal whirr and jingle of the +tambourines and triangles, and I descend and make my way through the +fast-thickening crowds to my hotel. There, where the company, like the +waiters, is polyglot; where a noble, white-bearded English gentleman is +sandwiched between a little German professor and a Diputado to the +Congress, where French journalists sit by young American exquisites, who +are picking up notions in Europe, and mere tourists who have come to +"do" Spain in thirteen days are listening to the experiences of a mining +engineer from the West Riding of Yorkshire, who has been in the country +for thirteen years; the gossip, unlike the fun without, is fast and +furious. But as it is all of politics, and I gave the reader a dose of +that in the last chapter and may have to repeat it anon, I turn to the +windows and scan the ever-animated, always-varying picture on the Puerta +del Sol. Ladies in veils white and black, as of Genoa and Milan +respectively, pass and re-pass, gilt missals in their hands. They will +be at the masked balls to-night, for this, as I have said already, is +the home of paradox, where the announcement of the church in which the +Quarant'ore, or Forty-hours' Exposition of the Sacrament, is being held, +is printed in the same column with the theatrical advertisements. Over +the way stand a group in the national "capa." Why do they not wear +slouched and plumed beavers? To me a chimney-pot hat surmounting a cloak +is as dire an outrage on poetic association as a Venetian bravo with a +quizzing-glass. It offends the sense of fitness. What if the Madrileos +were to take to the Ulster-coat? It would make a capital Carnival +disguise at all events. But the cloak, is it not mysterious, +brigandish--tragic, if you will? Mark that loosely-built, tawny man of +dare-devil aspect on the edge, bending intently towards the excited +speaker in the middle. Something has discomposed him, for his cheeks +purple. There is an agitated flutter under the cloak, and its folds are +flung back. You expect to be startled by the blade of a stiletto, and +out comes a soiled pocket-handkerchief! It is as if Jupiter Tonans were +to threaten a thunderbolt and compromise with a sneeze. + +The third day of the Carnival, Shrove Tuesday, was all that could be +desired, sunny, sprightly, bustling. The streets palpitated with +merrymakers walking, riding, or driving, most of them handsomely +dressed; the music--good, bad, and indifferent--was unceasing; the +legions of roysterers attired themselves in every conceivable vagary of +costume, even to the cheap resource of a chintz dressing-gown. They were +cheerful, but in a business-like matter-of-fact way, and as they +promenaded twirled corncrakes, jingled tin cans, and tootled horns. Few +women disgraced themselves by appearing in men's clothes. Madrid is more +continent than Paris; and, to its credit be it recorded, there was +neither drunkenness nor horse-play. In the afternoon the scene in the +Prado was kaleidoscopic in variety and beauty and motion; it had in it +the gay element of the true Carnival, and those who had held aloof +before or had been deterred from sharing in the _fte_ by the +inauspicious natural weather or by nervousness owing to the unsettled +condition of the political weather, came out fresh, frolicsome, and bent +on making up for lost time. Some of the dresses were luxurious, and +triumphantly bore the test of sunshine, which is inexorable for what is +worn or seedy or imitation. And yet there seldom was a time to which the +stereotyped figure of speech about dancing on a volcano more strikingly +applied. Electricity was in the air; the troops were under arms; the +Deputies were consulting under the protection or the threat (as the +balance of feeling might incline) of canister-stuffed cannon, and it was +quite within the range of the possible that before nightfall the cavalry +might be fetlock deep in blood, and the carnage of the Dos de Mayo be +repeated--a worse carnage, for the Spaniards who fell then were patriots +slain gloriously fighting against the foreigner, and now they would be +Spaniards killed by brothers. + +The stream of pleasure was in its full force and flow when a strange +murmur followed by a succession of slight screams arrested the attention +of the merrymakers. Faces were turned inquiringly towards the point +whence the sounds came; the faces grew serious as a carriage was noticed +breaking from the ranks and driving smartly down a side-street, they +were overspread with alarm as other carriages filed off, and then, quick +as a cloud overcasts the sun, a curtain of gloom fell upon the moving +multitude. There was a halt as if by general consent, a dead silence, a +thrill of trepidation, and a rapid rush and scurry hither and thither to +shelter. Trailing skirts were caught up, vizors were thrown aside, +grey-bearded patriarchs tore off their wigs and spectacles, the fiddling +and singing came to an abrupt ending, and were replaced by curses and +shrieks; all order and courtesy were cast to the four winds of heaven. +It was a perfect tragi-comedy; a mixture of the terrible, the risible, +the ominous, the rococo. I never saw transformation so sharp. It was as +if there was no room for any less ignoble feeling in the lately jocose, +bantering throngs than self-preservation. Drivers lashed their horses +and mules and galloped off furiously; equestrians careered towards all +points of the compass; those on foot bolted into every hall-way that +stood ajar, or disappeared down the nearest openings; shrubs and flowers +were trampled upon, and in a span shorter than it takes to recount it, +the avenue of the Prado was a desert. It was fierce wholesale scamper +and stampede. The roadway and parks were strewn with fans, masks, +pocket-handkerchiefs, gloves and slippers; the entire company of +masquerading Arabs, Prussian officers, Morris dancers, Inquisitors, and +troubadours had taken incontinent flight, most of them breathless and +white; the ladies in their varied characters of gipsies, grisettes, +Galician nurses, and Court coquettes had all scudded off in such a +dismayed flutter that they had forgotten to swoon, and forfeited the +finest of opportunities of breaking into hysterics. They were really +frightened. I sought refuge (from what I knew not, whether earthquake, +hurricane or revolution) in a thick clump of bushes at the side of the +Paseo, where I stumbled over a panting make-believe toreador, and a +curious wire-woven article of ladies' dress, which latter I appropriated +as trophy. By-and-by, as no fresh cry of alarm was raised, the +bull-fighter crawled out, and I took heart of grace to return to the +centre of the town, where I learned that the scare was groundless. It +had its origin in the glitter of the bayonets of some soldiers returning +from their duties at the Palace of the Congress. Madrid was timid as a +sick girl. It struck me that if there had been genuine cause for the +panic, and that a charge had been made or a volley with lead fired, +there would have been unequalled scope for a picture of the type of +Grme's "Duel after the Bal Masqu," but on a more liberal +scale--Polichinelle pierced by a bayonet-thrust, the floured face of +Pierrot streaked with blood, and poor Jack Pudding sprawling in the +death-agonies in the gutter. + +The festivities were prolonged to the small hours of the night, or +rather of the morning, none the less vigorously for the passing +fear-spasm in the Prado; the masked balls at the theatres were packed +with guests who enjoyed themselves, or fancied they did, which is as +much as one can reasonably expect in this mundane sphere sometimes. + +The "Marseillaise" from a vibrating brass band might be heard, nay +almost felt, crashing through the glass-doors and bursting in a cataract +of sound through the drapery at the entrances of the caf on the +ground-floor of the Fonda de Paris at the hour when honest burgesses +should be _tte--tte_ with the pillow. + +On Ash Wednesday, which rose rainily, there was an augmentation in the +average of headaches, and a rise in the rates for apothecary's stuff. +The pious revellers went (with an interval for washing and change of +clothes) from the ball-room to the churches to receive the ashes. +"Remember, man, thou art but dust, and unto dust thou shalt return," +says the priest, and smears their foreheads with the cinders of last +year's palm-branches. Another custom, peculiar to the date, the +"entierro de la sardina," was duly observed by those wicked rogues, the +non-pious revellers. The sardina is not the fish, but a portion of the +intestines of a pig, which is laid to earth with pseudo-lamentation in +token of _carne vale_, farewell to flesh-meat for forty days. With a +lugubrious affectation of grief the funeral pageant passed. It was very +profane--an undissembled mockery of a religious procession. A banner +striped pink and yellow and inscribed " los Cubanos" was carried in +front by a fellow in West Indian negro dress with blackened face. Next +came a troop of blackened acolytes, two by two, and then a canopy such +as is borne over the Host, which canopy was held in travesty of homage +over a beer-keg. A sacrilegious choir, chanting a parody of a Gregorian +hymn, paced behind, and a gigantic blackguard, the _serpent du village_, +supplied a droning accompaniment from a bassoon. A blackened +high-priest, with a conical black hat and a cope bee-barred black and +yellow, closed the burlesque train and made believe to read a mass-book +through his pantomimic goggles. There was an attendant who rang a +funeral bell, another who tapped a muffled drum, and a third who swung +right under the nostrils of the onlookers a censer containing ground +resin made vile to the smell by some fetid compound. Occasionally the +profane rascals halted for a pull at a goat-skin of wine. + +There are some queer customs, the undeniable relics of paganism, in +Spain. On Christmas-eve the streets are paraded by men rattling pots, +just as the Romans used to celebrate the row that was made in Olympus to +hide the birth of Jupiter from Saturn. In the Basque provinces they +honour the Virgin Mary under the name of Astarte, a clear loan from the +worship of Venus. As I am treating of queer customs, it is worth +chronicling that the Republicans entered the churches as soon as their +favourite Government was proclaimed and frantically rang the bells. A +Bishop took care to exorcise the Republican demon next day by carefully +sprinkling the bells with holy-water. + +For all the Lent, the treacherous and trying weather, the wars and +rumours of wars, Madrid enjoyed herself, ate, drank and made merry, +flirted and gambled. The Opera, a cosy well-frequented resort of the +fashionable set, was open, and gave the _Creation_ and _L'Africaine_, +and the usual repertory of musical masterpieces of which I plead +profound technical ignorance redeemed by passionate fondness. The +soprano was that plump goddess with the dimpled double chin, fair-haired +Marie Sass. The orchestra was one of the finest I had ever heard, and +the chorus in personal appearance one of the ugliest I had ever seen, +and that, I can assure the reader, is saying much. The Zarzuela, a +play-house devoted to opera-bouffe--the sacred lamp of burlesque was not +trimmed--presented "Golden Dreams," a beautiful piece with plot and fun +not cumbered with that scenic sumptuousness which is trying to edge +acting ability off the boards elsewhere. + +The respectable theatres in Madrid shut their doors on the Fridays in +Lent, and respectable theatre-goers remain at home. It is not the +correct thing to be seen pleasure-hunting on a day of mortification and +white meats. But actors must live, as well as in London. Those who are +connected with high-priced houses and are decently paid can afford to +lose one night in the week. But there are poorer followers of the +Thespian art who are in very bad case indeed, owing to this tribute to +religious scruple. If we are to be virtuous, well and good: but let us +be virtuous in earnest. We have bull-fights on the Sundays in Lent. Why +may we not enjoy the singing of Marie Sass in _Norma_ on a Lenten +Friday? This thin distinction between what is right and what is not--so +thin that men of the cold north cannot make it out--comes under the +category of those indigenous peculiarities which surpass all +understanding. Anyhow, it presses rather heavily on the humble votaries +of the sock and buskin who are attached to the middle-class houses, and +who are docked of one night's salary in every week of the seven in the +penitential season, in order that the proprieties of a public which is +not particular to a shade as to how it observes the Sabbath may be +respected. The low theatres--the Romea, where the Republic is glorified; +the Alhambra, where heels are kicked up and lewd songs are rolled forth; +the Capellanes, where monks and nuns are caricatured, have reason on +their side, at all events. They dare to be logical in their contempt for +the Church, and keep open all the year round, on Friday as on Sunday, in +the time of fasting as of feasting. + +The Teatro Martin is not a low theatre nor yet is it a high-priced one. +The actors there are not rich, but the audience has some pretensions to +delicacy of taste. What is the lessee of the Martin to do during the +Lent? To rob his treasury of one night's receipts and cheat his patrons +of one night's enjoyment? That would be the last crime any spirited and +enterprising lessee would dream of committing--if he could avoid it. +From this dilemma the gentleman of the Teatro Martin has discovered an +escape. He opens his house on Fridays, but he converts it into a temple; +he reconciles amusement with religion; he produces a Passion Play! I +went to see it for the special reason that it was my privilege once to +describe the Passion Play in the Bavarian Highlands, and I was anxious +to compare one representation with the other, and, if possible, to renew +my emotions of the past. + +The house was tolerably full, except the boxes, which were unoccupied, +save one by a sedate family party. Devout folk of the Latin race are +famous for the interest they take in the spectacular. They admire the +pomps of religion; and this Passion Play, which was almost a function, +had evidently brought many to the theatre who are seldom seen there on +ordinary occasions. I thought I could detect a pious bearing in the +pittites. The well-to-do persons--male and female--who sat patiently on +the mouldy benches looked serious, as if they had come to assist at a +sacrifice. There were old ladies there, I could almost take my word, who +are more often to be encountered, with morocco-bound prayer-books in +their shrivelled hands, creeping to early service. The gallery was +packed, and the gods, for gods, were gentlemanlike. There was nothing in +the aspect of the house meriting description--it was roomy, ill-lit, +full of draughts and dust--one of those houses we know so well. The +scene-painter, if the act-drop was a fair sample of his powers, was a +victim to colour-blindness; the orchestra showed a Republican freedom in +its scorn for the trammels of time and tune; but the prompter in his +hooded box, full in the middle of the range of footlights, was the +feature of the show. He had a very distinct voice--so distinct was it +that every sentence he directed to the actors rebounded from the flats, +came back in sibilant echo, and ascended to the gods. I have no +intention of giving an analysis of the piece; to speak the sad truth, it +did not come up to my expectations. Ober-Ammergau spoiled me for +exhibitions of the kind. I could not screw up my enthusiasm, tried I +ever so hard. That which charmed in Bavaria had no charm in Spain. The +stately panorama which was put before the awe-struck spectator in that +valley of the Ammer was not visible here. The blue sky overhead and the +eternal hills in sight above the walls of the simple wooden structure; +the music so tender and solemn; the clear-browed peasants losing their +identity in the fervid rendering of their parts; the enraptured +attention of the auditory, whose lips moved in prayer sometimes, and +whose eyes sometimes brimmed with tears, as if the scenes they watched +were real--those were things to be remembered. They were the points that +helped to make an impression in Bavaria, that dispelled prejudice and +replaced it with a pleased satisfaction which insensibly swelled to +admiration; but they were wanting in this stuffy play-house. No illusion +was possible. One never lost the consciousness that he was looking on at +a stage-play acted for money by indifferent stage-players. There was a +smell of paint and tobacco-smoke about. Then there was the voice of that +irrepressible prompter, the shaven faces of the hungry supernumeraries +who played the Roman soldiers, the gas-rakes, the shaky wings, the mark +of the trap-doors from which devils with a family likeness to the imps +of pantomime spring up to-night, and the statue of the Commander may +emerge to-morrow night, the scenes that would not run smoothly in the +grooves, and the stiff stereotyped exits and entrances. Everything was +of the stage, stagey. One could not get rid of the notion that Caiaphas +had dined on puchero with its flavour heightened by garlic. It was very +palpable that the Apostle Peter wore a wig and a beard of tow. Mary +Magdalen had an air of operatic resignation, and was troubled with the +arrangement of her drapery. There was a layer of pearl-powder on the +Virgin's cheeks. + +I shall not bore the reader with an essay on mysteries and +miracle-plays; neither, as I have said, shall I attempt to analyse this +sacred drama, in seven acts, of "The Passion and Death of Jesus;" but I +shall take the liberty of giving an epitome of some notes, pencilled on +the spot, in the intervals of interruption by that loud prompter. The +_Pasion y Muerte de Jesus_ (that is the Spanish title) is written by Don +Enrique Zumel, who appears to have fathered as many pieces as Lope de +Vega, but whose pieces are not quite so well known. It was brought out +for the first time in this self-same Teatro Martin on the 3rd of March, +1871. It is in verse, and has some literary merit. In the main incidents +it resembles the Bavarian play, which does not deviate noticeably from +the Bible narrative. It is unnecessary, therefore, to go over the +incidents of its various acts. The Greek chorus to be remarked at +Ober-Ammergau is absent. The tableaux from the Old Testament prefiguring +events in the New are absent also. The first Act opens with a dialogue +between Magdalen and some women of Jerusalem. The Saviour, with the +Apostles, enters on the scene almost immediately after. Magdalen's +garments are rich with spangles; her mantle is scarlet; she has flowers +in her luxuriant tresses, and looks a vain creature. The Saviour is +personified by an actor with a singular likeness to Joseph Mayer, the +Bavarian Christus. Pale, clean-chiselled face, long black locks +smoothed over, downcast eyes, a meek demeanour generally--the +characteristics are identical. The voice of this man, who essayed so +awful a _rle_, was low and sweet; and, to give him his due, he moved as +if he was filled with respect for his dangerous part. The Virgin comes +on the scene in the same Act. She is clad in blue nun-like raiment. The +people who filled up the background wore sandals, and had white towels, +swathed in folds like those of the turban, round their raven-black hair. +The entry into Jerusalem was shown, the Saviour being mounted on a white +ass. The orchestra here woke up, and played a joyous strain to a chorus +commencing-- + + "Con palmas y oliva + Y alegre cantar + Y pintados florea + De lindos colores + Hijas de Jud + Llegad! Llegad!" + +and terminating with a hosannah to the Redeemer. The only anachronisms +in dress that impressed me in this first Act were a silk net with which +one young person of Jerusalem confined her rebellious hair, and a strip +of black velvet which another had fastened round her throat, bringing +out the whiteness of her skin by contrast. In the second Act Caiaphas +speaks of Jesus as the fomenter of a "thousand conflicts between Church +and State." The Last Supper is pictured after Leonardo da Vinci, and +Judas comes into relief, a sullen scowler, who overdoes his part thus +early. In the garden scene in the third Act the figure of Jesus in +prayer is shown with a ray of _luz Dumont_, the lime-light of our London +stage, playing upon it! I left my seat after this, and loitered outside +till the Crucifixion scene was on. At Ammergau it was appallingly +impressive; here it was sensational purely. The drama wound up with the +bursting open of the sepulchre. I came away free from any desire to +witness Don Enrique Zumel's production again. Without absolutely +shocking one's feelings on a subject which should be sacred and +approached reverently, if at all, his Passion Play offended fine taste +throughout because of the obtrusive staginess of its action, get-up, and +surroundings. Still the actors were occasionally applauded, and the +audience left in a contented mood. + +But the provisional rulers took care that those under their guardianship +should have stronger pabulum than spoon-meat. + +Napoleon I., unless the tale be a legend, used to order a new coat of +gilding to be laid on the dome of the Invalides when the people of Paris +chafed under his tyranny. That gave them something to talk +about--supplied a sensation of twenty-four hours. The Spanish Republican +governors are working on the same principle. _Panes et circenses_ was +the charter of the Roman plebs, "pan y toros" is that of the plebs of +Madrid. I do not know how it is with the bread, but the rulers let the +lieges have bulls galore to occupy their minds. There are grand corridas +for professionals and amateurs. Nor is bull-fighting the only pastime +provided for the populace; cock-fighting, with game-birds from the +Canary Islands, is also carried on every Sunday morning in a pit +constructed for the purpose, mains are scientifically fought, and money +is prodigally squandered. All countries have their peculiarities. In +some, people go racing on the Lord's Day; in others they are content +with getting drunk in the bosoms of their families. + + * * * * * + +NOTE BY MY VERY LEARNED AND AMIABLE ACCOMPLICE, DR. DANN.--That great +writer on Spanish folk-lore, Mesonero Romanos, better known as "El +curioso parlante," who flourished some fifty years since, seems utterly +ignorant of the record of the "entierro." His account only goes to show +that Spain is the most conservative country of Europe. A huge "sardina" +placed on the top of a bier is carried by a number of fellows in +carnival costume, each of them having on his head a cone of immense +height, somewhat resembling the dunce's cap that was formerly such a +usual thing in English village-schools. In front, and at the back of the +procession, appears a crowd of young men and of girls from the slums of +Southern Madrid, in three groups, called "coros," or choirs. There is +the "coro de mancebos," or young men's choir; the "coro de doncellas," +or girls' choir; and the "coro de inocentes," or innocents' choir. The +_locus in quo_ is that part of the south of the Spanish capital which +extends from the Vistillas de San Francisco to the Church of San +Lorenzo; for, in contradistinction to Paris, the South of Madrid is +almost exclusively inhabited by what M. Gambetta used to call the new +social strata, while Mr. Bright spoke of them many years ago as the +_residuum_. In connection with the sardina, and rising on the same +coffin, a figure of "Uncle Marcos" is carried, somewhat similar in form +to the stuffed Guy Fawkeses which are carried about in the streets of +London on the 5th of November. When the procession has reached the +Puente Toledana, the figure of Uncle Marcos is burnt on a funeral pile, +and the sardina is buried in a ditch prepared on purpose. While all this +is going on, songs intended to be parodies of the Catholic Church hymns +and canticles are chanted by the accompanying choirs, and altogether the +performance is, for all practical purposes, a parody of the Church +processions so frequent in Spain and all Southern countries. When it is +all over, a good many of the actors indulge in libations. Not +unfrequently the burial of the sardina is followed by a free fight, and +half a dozen dead or wounded are the outcome of the battle. Disgusting +as the whole performance may appear, more especially the blasphemous +simulacre of religious worship, it must be admitted in palliation that +the very idea of mocking the rites of the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman +Church never so much as enters the minds of the performers, who would +repudiate with the utmost indignation the notion of intentionally +placing themselves outside the pale of the Church, and violating the +"buenas costumbres" by what they are doing. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + Another Chat with Mentor--A Startling Solution of the Spanish + Question--The Penalties of Popularity--The Republic another + Saturn--The New Civil Governor--The Government Bill--Outside the + Palace of the Congress--Providential Rain--Wild Rumours--Federal + Threats--The Five Civil Guards--Inside the Chamber--The Great + Debate--The Two Reports--Compromise--Minor Speechmakers--A + Pickwickian Contention--The Division--Victory for the Ministry--The + Five Civil Guards Trot to Stables. + + +On the morning of March 8th, I met my Anglo-Spanish Mentor in the +reading-room of the hotel. To my usual inquiry as to the condition of +health of the Republic, he replied that he thought we were nearing the +critical point. + +"There is a cataclysm impending," he said. "We have got beyond the stage +of changing the names of streets and substituting the Hymn of Riego for +the Royal March. Everybody agrees that a _coup d'tat_ is necessary, and +may be imminent; we want an intelligent despotism--but the despot must +always be a man of our own party. There is the hitch. Castelar probably +may have some amiable hobby, like Lamartine, of 'employment for adults +and education for the young.' Whatever be the sequel of the trial of +strength, I hope we may have a strong administration, not one like the +present, where the Minister of Grace and Justice is all grace and no +justice. + +"Do you know," he added, after a pause, "I have an idea as to the +solution of this Spanish question?" + +"What is it, pray?" + +"SELL SPAIN TO ENGLAND!" + +I roared with derisive laughter. + +"I am serious," he continued. "This is the age of arbitration. Why not +of colossal international barter? We could rule the country as we rule +India, set Sikh against Hindoo, and play off Ghoorka against both." + +"You do not reckon with Spanish pride," I said. + +"Bah! The pride that lowered itself to the acceptance of foreign royalty +might condescend to pocket foreign gold." + +"When Pedro brought me my chocolate this morning he told me there had +been demonstrations in some of the lower quarters." + +"Yes; but they are easily accounted for. The populace do not see the +impracticable promises of the Republicans realized, and are impatient +for the millennium of liberty, equality, and fraternity, with no work +and lots to eat superadded. But the demonstration was very trivial, it +limited itself to the sticking of a red flag in front of a hall-door. +There are wicked slanderers who say that Figueras had something to do +with it, and passed the word that the 'people' should bring an outward +pressure to bear upon his brethren of the Assembly, so that he might get +rid of some of his ungrateful colleagues by the argument, 'See, you are +impossible, the people won't have you; better for the sake of order +leave, that you may avoid the humility of being sent away.'" + +"Surely," I expostulated, "Seor Figueras would not descend to such a +base trick of democracy!" + +"My innocent friend," said Mentor, "once a man binds himself to what is +falsely called the 'people' he has to put up with much inconvenience, +swallow his pride, and humour his exacting pet. Figueras knows this +already; he has been stopped by groups in the streets at various times, +and obliged to amuse them by small harangues, the same as if he were a +Punch-and-Judy showman, making his 'pitch' for ha'pence." + +"Unpleasant situation," I remarked. "He must weary of that soon." + +"Most likely his admirers will weary of him--and then," said Mentor, +with a chuckle--"then for a spell of chaos. The Republic, like Saturn, +has an ugly propensity for devouring its offspring. The mob fondles +Republicanism as its exclusive property, spreads palm-branches under the +feet of its prophets one week and stones them the next. Castelar, +Figueras, Pi y Margall, are the prophets to-day; they will be victimised +in the end. To them will succeed men more violent, who will make larger +promises, and then, finally, will spring up a strong reaction and a +return to something old-fashioned and stable." + +Mentor was a thorough-paced Conservative and a pessimist into the +bargain. In order to draw him out I pleaded that the Government was +doing its best to conciliate all parties. For instance, it had appointed +Estvanez, Civil Governor of Madrid. + +"Aye," said Mentor, "another evidence of the truth of what I advance. +That was done to please the Intransigentes. Estvanez is beloved of the +Reds, and took to the hills a few months ago in assertion of Federal +Republican principles. He held the rocky mountain pass of Despear +Perros in Andalusia, at the head of a handful of men, but he boasts that +he neither destroyed railways nor cut telegraphic wires, and holds +certificates to that effect from the railway companies and the +Government. He is an old soldier, a man of energy, and his influence +with his party in this province is paramount. If the Constituent Cortes +proclaim a moderate or a united Republic he may make himself +obstructive. But I must bid you good-day; I am off for my constitutional +in the Botanical Gardens." + +The reference to the Constituent Cortes reminded me that this was the +date appointed for the consideration of the Government Bill for their +election, introduced into Congress on the night of the 4th of March. +This Bill consisted of eight articles, the most important of which were +that the elections should take place on the 10th of April and three +following days, and the meeting on the 1st of May; that all Spaniards +above the age of twenty should have votes; and that on the suspension of +the session of the existing Cortes a permanent committee from their +members, with consultative functions, should be appointed for the +interregnum. It was felt that this was throwing down the glove, and the +lines were now marshalling for the tug of war. The Radicals are +disquieted. They know that if they go to the country not one-third of +them will be returned, for the reason that whoever holds the Ministry of +the Gobernacion, or Interior, in this paradise of universal suffrage can +return the nominees of his party, and determine their majorities with +mathematical certainty. Ministers act illegally in the article which +provides that men of twenty may vote. The young men are the main +strength of Republicanism everywhere, and this article at a single +arbitrary scratch of the pen adds half a million electors to the rolls. +Hitherto the right of voting was restricted to males who had attained +twenty-five years. The Radicals object to this sweeping alteration in +the law, made with the distinct object of defeating their chances; and +the hatred of those half-million of young men thus sought to be +enfranchised by the new Republic will be acquired to the Radicals from +the very fact of their opposition. + +When the hour for opening the Congress came, the building looked more +like a barrack than a House of Parliament. A grim Guardia Civil, in a +three-cornered hat, stood sentry, with fixed bayonet, at the side-door +in the Calle de Turco, by which the Deputies enter. At every window men +in uniform were to be seen; officers with jangling scabbards moved about +the lobbies and ante-rooms, instead of the usual moody, sallow, shabby +crowd of taciturn waiters on Providence, muffled in mantles and hidden +in smoke, who hang about for hours, and occasionally pass mysterious +slips of paper by the liveried and silver-laced ushers to Seor Don This +or That within. + +What can their business be? I often puzzle myself by asking. Have they +claims on Government for ancestral property gone down in the Armada? Are +they pretenders to the succession in a licence to sell tobacco and salt +in Minorca? Or are they simply intriguing for a ticket to the House? The +problem waits for solution. + +They are not here to-day. In their places are the soldiers who watch +over the safety of the representatives of the people. Luckily it is wet, +and the crowds outside cower and huddle under a camp of umbrellas. Your +persistent drizzle is a terrible enemy to revolution. There is nothing +like it for putting a damper on noisy out-of-door agitation. But the +occasion is a great one, and though the clouds seem to have been +transformed into tanks with bottoms pepper-castored with leaks, and +never tire of the weary drip-drip, the citizens of Madrid bravely +affront the weather and collect on the sloppy approaches to the Palace +of the Congress to discuss the affairs of the commonwealth. They look +resolute enough to go under a shower-bath in the interest of their +country. Patiently they stand, with knit brows, their soaked mantles +clinging to their persons, while the Deputies drive or walk up, and +enter to take part in the important discussion at hand--the discussion +which is to decide whether there are to be barricades in Madrid and in +all the great cities, and some widows the more in Spain within +four-and-twenty hours. + +Denser grow the throngs and livelier the excitement, for all the rain. +Reports the most eccentric and alarming are bandied about. The people +have burned down the churches in Malaga; but Malagueo, "as everybody +knows," remarks a French journalist, "is the synonym for _mchant_." In +another knot a rumour circulates that a meeting of Radicals had been +held the evening previous, at which the German, Austrian, and Italian +ambassadors were present, and that they spoke of the necessity of a +joint intervention to assist in the restoration of peace. This senseless +rumour was believed by some fools, and the Radicals who were supposed to +be ready to open the door to the foreigner were cursed and hissed, or +howled at, as they stepped into the Palace. Word passes that the +Intransigentes are in arms in the lower quarters of the town, and have +taken up "strategic points" in view of any emergency that may arise. If +the Government is beaten they mean to raise the red flag, to occupy the +theatres as they did once before, to turn the Plaza Santa Ana and the +Plazuela de Anton Martin into head-quarters, and, if necessary, to march +on the Parliament-house and make an example of those traitorous Radicals +who would betray the people and bring back the Monarchy. Law-fearing +Madrid is in a state of wan terror, and thanks Providence for that +thrice-blessed rain. The men who compose the noisy groups belong to the +lower classes; they are not very numerous, but they are very determined. +The active demonstration is confined to a nucleus of some one hundred +and fifty persons. Delegates occasionally arrive from distant parts of +the town, whisper to comrades in the mob, and depart. It is known that +the troops are confined to barracks, that a hundred picked men of the +Guardia Civil have reinforced the garrison of the Palace of Congress, +and that Seor Martos has not quitted it since the previous night. + +Try and realise to yourself a crowd from Clerkenwell Green surging and +yelling angrily in the open space before Westminster Hall, a battalion +of the Coldstreams keeping watch and ward on the faithful Commons, and +Mr. Speaker, for reasons of personal security, compelled to have a +shakedown in the House! + +At half-past three o'clock the flag is run up to the head of the staff +on the roof, but it droops limp and woebegone in the wet. The Assembly +is in session. The waiting crowds increase; the windows commanding a +view of the Palace are filled, and the pavements of the streets +contiguous are black with anxious loiterers, in spite of the detestable +weather. News of what is going on inside the Chamber escapes by +driblets; as soon as a Deputy or a reporter comes out he is button-holed +and interviewed. + +"The Radicals hold firm," says one, and there is a howl of rage, and the +chattering _flneurs_, who linger on the pavement at a safe distance, +stir their heels with a rare unity of sentiment. "Devil take the +hindmost!" is the motto of these dignified burgesses of Madrid when a +cry of danger is raised; bang go the shutters against the shop-windows +in a jiffy. + +At one period the attitude of the crowd immediately opposite the +entrance of the Palace boded ill; cries of "Viva la Repblica Federal!" +and "Death to the Radicals!" were raised, and Seor Estvanez, the Civil +Governor of Madrid, was obliged to come out and speak to his pet lambs, +and pacify them with the assurance that the Federal Republic was safe. +Five mounted Civil Guards took up their stations at the mouth of the +Calle de Turco after this, and stood there silent, statue-like, with +drawn swords in their gauntleted grip, until day had melted into +twilight, and twilight into night. These five cavaliers, in their heavy +cloaks, blacker than the darkness around, had really something +supernatural in their grisly quietude as they rested stock-still in +their saddles. Their mission was ominous of evil; they were there an +ugly index of what was feared. Had they found it necessary to clap spur +to their horses and plunge upon the mob, I would not have given much for +their lives. Those five "lost sentinels" were sure to have been picked +off before their comrades on foot could have sallied from the adjacent +building to their rescue. Sinister-looking fellows, in jackets and fur +caps, with rifles slung across their shoulders, were not ensconced in +the street-corners in easy range without a purpose. + +The scene inside the Chamber gave equal token that a question of vital +interest was being debated. The gallery assigned to the public was +crammed as closely as the pit of Drury Lane on Boxing Night; the press +gallery ran over with reporters; every seat available was full but those +reserved for the ambassadors. Their seats were empty; not even the +war-worn figure of General Sickles was to be distinguished. Cristinos +Martos, looking anxious but firm, was in the presidential chair; and the +halberdiers in purple and gold, with their heavy silver maces and +nodding white plumes, occupied their accustomed places to the right and +left. + +The President rings his bell for business. The first operation is to +read the minutes of the previous sitting, which are approved. Then one +of those obstructive members to be encountered in every legislative +assembly--be it Reichsrath, Rigsdag, Skupstina, or Storthing--rises to +take his little innings on some petty topic that concerns none beyond +his own small circle. He is quickly bowled out, and the order of the day +is arrived at--that for which we are all waiting, that which makes this +one of the most serious and important sittings since the abdication of +the King. The reading of the reports of the committee was first +proceeded with, that of the majority taking precedence. This document +was rather long, but may be summarised into a lament that the Government +intended to make the permanent committee a purely consultative body; a +declaration that the time was unsuitable for an election, civil war +being actually carried on in Spain; and a protest that the clause +establishing twenty as the age from which the privilege of voting dated +was "an abuse and an irregularity." It concluded with a project of law, +in a single article, binding the Assembly to convoke the Cortes whenever +it considered the condition of the country such as to guarantee freedom +of suffrage and the interests of the Republic. + +Primo de Rivero's report was then read. He based it on the conviction +that the transitory period should be closed in the interest of domestic +order, and that the Constituent Cortes would be the true representation +of the national will. To effect conciliation, he would submit a bill +fixing May 10th as the period of election, June 1st as that of the +meeting of the Cortes, and twenty-one as the age at which Spaniards +should have power to exercise electoral rights. + +The consideration of the report of the minority, which was looked on as +an amendment, came first. + +The Chief of the Executive Power, Figueras, himself opened the +discussion. The Government had presented a bill so framed that they +hoped it would satisfy the divers aspirations of the Assembly. They +thought they could go no further, but since Primo de Rivero had seen fit +to draw up his conciliatory report they had resolved to modify their +primitive proposition in certain particulars, such as the definition of +the faculties of the permanent committee and the date of the elections. +But that was the extreme limit of compromise. They would stand or fall +by the vote about to be given. If the Chamber gave them its support they +would proceed with the rude task of administration, and they were +resolved firmly to sustain order, military discipline, and the majesty +of the law. Here Seor Figueras branched off into a schoolboy digression +as to what the law was, and how it should be administered. Coming to the +real point, he said if Primo de Rivero's bill were rejected, the Cabinet +would hand in its resignation, and would ask the representatives to name +its successors on the spot, for in those critical moments a solution of +continuity in power would be attended with grave risks. + +Seor Guardia then rose to deny that the existing Chamber had fulfilled +its mission, and that the opportune time had arrived for the election of +another. The very Government itself had made avowal to that effect. +Certain bills remained to be discussed and voted. Besides, had they not +other duties of greater necessity? What was the state of the country? An +armed absolutism prevailed in some provinces; Catalonia recognised no +chiefs but those of the locality (here there were interruptions). In +the cities of the South, the public forces had abandoned their arms to +persons more or less authorised in some of them, and in others the +partition of sacred property had been announced. In the heart of Castile +and Andalusia the ayuntamientos had to resign in the presence of +superior force. Under those circumstances no elections could be carried +on with liberty. And, as if this were not sufficient, there was an +article which added 400,000 electors to the register. This was an +aggravation of difficulties when mistrust was supreme everywhere. The +majority of the reporting committee (of which he formed part) believed +that the initiative of a convocation of the Cortes should come, not from +the Government, but from the Chamber. The destruction of the elements +which were not represented in the Government was what was sought by this +call for a new Chamber. + +Primo de Rivero then explained his position, which was curious. He, a +member of the Radical party, disagreed with his colleagues; but his +motive was the salvation of the Republic. If his bill were not +accepted, the disasters that would fall upon the country would be +tremendous and immediate. This plump declaration created what is called +"sensation." The General next reviewed the different solutions which +offered themselves. A new Cabinet of Republicans of long standing was +not to be thought of, and a mixed Cabinet would be a calamity. One other +solution remained, the formation of a Cabinet from the Radical majority. +With all respect he would ask, Did that majority possess the moral +authority to raise the standard of Republicanism? Did they recollect +that their former chief, Ruiz Zorilla, called them cowards because they +were about to proclaim the Republic? He repudiated the accusation. + +Here there was a row, which recalled to mind that famous one between Mr. +Pickwick and Mr. Blotton, of Aldgate. Seor Juan Ramon Zorilla rose to +defend his absent relative. After a call to order, and a palaver, during +which Primo de Rivero explained that he was speaking merely of Seor +Zorilla the politician, but that Seor Zorilla personally was all that +was honourable and patriotic, the discussion flowed back into its proper +channel. + +The General frankly admitted that the Radicals lacked moral authority. +"Now," he said, "we are Republicans, but a month ago we were +Monarchists." He then related with an ingenuousness that was remarkable +in a professed friend, all the faults his party had committed, and +prophesied that if a Radical Cabinet were formed it would not last three +days. Who knows what might occur? Interruptions punctuated the soldier's +discourse, but he turned round and told those who did not like what he +said, that prudence was better than valour when valour was stupid and +made reckless exposure of lives. He wound up by asking the +representatives to seek inspiration in their patriotism and love of +liberty, and support his bill, which he confessed was his in spirit +only, and had not been drawn up by him but by members of the Government. + +These opening orations of the champions of the two parties in the +committee, the majority of six, and the minority of one, give the pith +of the arguments _pro_ and _con_. Then followed talkee-talkee by +obscurities--speechlets of the maundering school, habitual of nights in +St. Stephen's, when wise men betake themselves to the terrace, and the +stenographers yawn and chew their pencils. A Republican editor declared +that the Republican press was all that was lovely, and a Deputy from +Barcelona affirmed that the city by the Mediterranean was a model of +tranquillity (why was there a loud "haw-haw" here?). One of the Zorilla +family rose to defend his absent namesake a second time, and Seor +Lopez, chairman of the reporting committee, asseverated that the +Radicals had no yearning for office, that the Government should be +satisfied with an Assembly so liberal and so much inclined to help it, +and that if anarchy were to be the issue, the waters of the Jordan would +not wash the men who ruled of the responsibility. Then Cristinos Martos +descended from his tribune, and said he would accept any arrangement +which would secure peace. The crisis had come. The question by which the +Ministry had elected to stand or fall was put to the test, and exactly +nineteen Radicals, less than a score out of over two hundred, voted in +the opposition. + +So the Republicans retain their seats and bloodshed is averted. The +mercy is due, not to the goodness of the cause, nor to the persuasive +pleadings of its advocates, but to the intimidation of the mob. The +Radical majority were the judges, and the judges were cowed by the +rabble of the streets and their spokesmen in the Chamber. The Radical +majority had it in their power to put the Republicans off the coveted +blue benches of the Treasury; but the Radical majority, feeling that +there were no strong arms outside to back them, "caved in." That is the +plain way of putting it. Five members out of every six in the house were +Radicals, six out of seven of the sections of the house were Radical. +Those sections, or standing committees, are drawn by lot on the first of +every month, and all members must belong to one or other of them. Every +bill that is presented must be referred to a committee composed of seven +members, one selected by each section. Six of the members of the +committee to report on the bill of dissolution presented by Seor +Figueras were Radicals; one solitary member, General Primo de Rivero, +recalled from fighting the Carlists in Guipzcoa, favoured the +Government. The Opposition stood to the Ministry as six to one. And the +Opposition being thus strong, the Ministry had beaten it! The wonder +ceases when it is recollected that the hands of the majority were tied; +every plan was tried to influence them into not ousting the +Ministry--coaxing and cajolery, appeals to their love of peace and +country, and ultimately threats. As result, when it came to the "who +shall?" they did not sustain the convictions they had openly expressed +on all previous occasions. Peradventure this was patriotism, +peradventure it was prudence. + +The debate was over. It was ten o'clock. The crowd raised exultant +shouts and dispersed to their homes, to the clubs, or to the +coffee-houses, where there was soon a file-fire of hand-claps to summon +the waiters and a Babel of voluble jabber. The five ghostly cavaliers +outside the Palace of the Congress started to life, sheathed their +sabres, caught up their bridles, and returned to their stables. + +The Republic had been reprieved. What a sigh of relief San Isidro +Labrador, patron of Madrid, must have heaved. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + The Inventions of Don Fulano de Tal--Stopping a Train--"A Ver Fine + Blaggar"--The Legend of Santa Cruz--Dodging a + Warrant--Outlawed--Chased by Gendarmes--A Jack Sheppard Escape--The + Cura becomes Cabecilla--Sleeping with an Eye Open--Exploits and + Atrocities--Dilettante Carlists in London--The Combat of + Monreal--Ibarreta's Relics--A Tale for the Marines--The Carlists + Looking-up. + + +Every other day--every other hour, I might almost say--a new rumour was +born in Madrid. These rumours were usually figments, always +exaggerations. If one were to inquire into their origin Don Fulano de +Tal, the Man in the Street, was certain to have assisted as +_accoucheur_. Alas! truth in Spain is coyest of sparrows, and to be +caught must have not a grain but a whole bushel of salt shaken over its +tail. Don Carlos was always turning up somewhere like a bad shilling. +Were he to be where he was said to be, he must have been a supernatural +Don Carlos--must have inherited the seven-leagued boots of fairy tale, +as his brother had the invisible cloak, for he was here, there, +everywhere, and nowhere, at one and the same time. But wherever hovered +the Pretender, or the "heir presumptuous," as a Spanish acquaintance, +not well up in English as "she is spoke," persisted in calling him, or +whatever he may have been doing, there could be no doubt that some of +his followers were in the field and alarmingly active. On the 13th of +March, the capital was furious at the official news that communication +with France and the rest of Europe by the north had been cut. Vitoria +was the limit of Spain now; beyond it was the troublous No Man's Land, +where the legends of Manuel Santa Cruz and his desperadoes abounded. He +it was who had ripped up the rails near Tolosa, and waited for the +accident which was sure to occur when the first train travelling towards +the frontier would arrive. Four inoffensive passengers were hurled into +eternity. The excuse for the conduct of this minister of peace was that +these trains carried troops. If the railway company would pay him a +tribute and engage to carry no troops, Santa Cruz, who is accommodating, +would let them pass freely. The company was willing, for these +interruptions were killing the dividends, but the Government objected. +In common justice to the more intelligent members of the party this +soldier-priest disgraced, it should be admitted that they cursed him +loudly and deeply. His conduct was bringing his order into disrepute. +For instance, in Vitoria, near his own hunting-ground, when the Republic +was proclaimed, the Civil Governor dropped a hint that it would be +necessary to "exterminate the highwaymen of the black soutane." The +priests of the town got so frightened that they did not dare to show +themselves in the streets. But they were in no danger, though the +merciless Manuel was doing what he could to make the priests' garb +unpopular. A Carlist paper in Madrid, with some conscience left, had the +honesty to say Manuel was not a credit to his cloth, and that Don Carlos +did not approve of the many savage acts he had committed. Manuel sent +the editor a letter, with his compliments, promising to teach him better +manners than to speak ill of the absent when he came to Madrid! The +general anticipation, based on a fond hope, was that if Manuel ever did +come to Madrid, it would be strapped on a hurdle. But he had his +admirers, nevertheless. My friend, the Duke de Fitzpepper, swore in his +execrable execrating English that he was a "cottam ver fine blaggar--oh, +ye-es! _tous qu'il y avait de plus crne, mon cher!_" From one of these +admirers who knew his family, I obtained an interesting epitome of his +career. + +Santa Cruz was born at Elduayen in Guipzcoa in 1842. An aged uncle gave +him some lessons in Latin, and placed him in an ecclesiastical seminary, +where he seems to have principally devoted himself to the practice of +athletic exercises. He came out in 1866 a clerk and a gymnasiarch rolled +in one, and was appointed to the pastoral charge of Hernialde, a cluster +of houses near Tolosa. He attended zealously to the duties of his +ministry, leading a simple, frugal life with his sister; but when +stories of the struggles of Zumalacrregui and Gonzales Moreno in the +previous Carlist war were recounted by the wide hearth, it was noticed +that the priest's eyes blazed like the faggots sputtering in +flame-spikes towards the chimney-top. He was a Monarchist of the Basque +stamp by race, by education, by conviction. He should have been a +warrior, not a preacher of the Gospel; but if the circumstances which +produce the man had not arisen, he might have vegetated and died in +obscurity in his mountain village. The circumstances arose in August, +1870. A revolt of the four provinces of Alava, Guipzcoa, and Biscay +(the Basques or Vascongadas), and Navarre, was to take place in that +month. At the outset it was rendered abortive by the treachery of a +Colonel Escoda. It broke out on the 27th of August, and was suppressed +on the following day. Santa Cruz, whose opinions were well known to the +party, had been asked to watch over a depot of arms which had been +collected for the insurgents at Hernialde. His share in the plot was +betrayed, and one morning, as he was celebrating Divine Service, his +church was entered by a party of soldiers who waited at the foot of the +altar until he had finished the ceremony. + +"In the name of the law, follow me," said the officer in command; "I +have a warrant for your arrest from Madrid." + +"Very well," said the Cura; "but surely you will allow me to breakfast +first, unless they ordered you to take me captive on an empty stomach." + +This was murmured in a tone so dulcet and injured that the officer +hastened to assure the clergyman that he might breakfast, and +accompanied him to the presbytery. + +"Sin ceremonia," said the Cura, "will you condescend to share my meal?" + +"Thanks, very much." + +The priest entered the house; the soldiers waited outside, and argued +that it was an infernal shame and a piece of tyranny on the part of Prim +and the rest to have ordered such a harmless, nice man to be clapped +into gaol. Presently a peasant with a basket of fruit on his head came +out of the house. The soldiers waited long. They waited in vain. The +peasant and the priest were one and the same. + +For two years Santa Cruz wandered in the mountains and in France, was +"on his keeping," as they say in Munster, but was finally arrested and +interned at Nantes, by the French authorities. A characteristic story +was related of his arrest. He was stopped on the bridge between St. Jean +de Luz and Cibour by two gendarmes. + +"Your papers?" demanded one. + +"My papers! Wait till I look for them," answered Santa Cruz, not in the +least disconcerted. + +He fumbled in his pockets, turned them inside out, tapped the lining of +his clothes, searched high and low, pretending to be very much +astonished that he could not discover the document; and, suddenly, while +the gendarmes, thrown off their guard, were speaking to one another, +made a spring sideways, and was off like a bolt from a bow, the agents +of authority pounding after him in their clumsy jack-boots. The chase +lasted an hour, to the intense amusement of all the idlers of the town; +but a peasant, not grasping the true state of affairs, clutched the +panting Santa Cruz and held him until the arrival of the gendarmes. + +In 1872, when Don Carlos again made appeal to arms, Santa Cruz succeeded +in evading notice, and crossing the frontier, attached himself as +chaplain to the band of Recondo. The Pretendiente himself entered by the +pass of Vera, but was surprised at Oroquieta, in Navarre, by General +Moriones, who defeated him on the 4th of May, and withered his hopes for +that time. The convention of Amorovieta followed, arms were given up by +thousands, and the factions, or partidas, dispersed to their homes. +Santa Cruz returned to France. After a week's interval he re-entered +Spain, and joined a body of the insurgents who still ranged the hills in +Guipzcoa. One day he missed his companions in a forced march, and fell +into an ambuscade. + +"I am Santa Cruz," he said to the soldiers, unquailingly, "do what you +will with me." + +He was pinioned and led to the nearest village. + +The commandant of the detachment, one Urdanpilleta, went up to his +prisoner and said to him, with an inexcusable pettiness of sarcasm: + +"My good lad, you are out of luck. In a few hours you are safe to be +shot." + +"All right. We shall see about that," stoically answered Santa Cruz. + +The priest was led into a large two-storied house, and thrust into a +room near the garret, there to enter on his preparation for death. There +was a bed in the room, and from the sheets on that bed Santa Cruz made +the rosary on which to tell his litany, which was not one for the dying. +He tore them up, twisted them, tied them together, and letting himself +out of the window as far as his improvised rope would go, dropped into +the arms of a couple of friends beneath. Before the alarm could be given +he was up to his neck in a marsh, where his head was concealed by a rank +growth of rushes. After an enforced bath of twelve hours he sought +refuge with a wood-cutter, who helped him to pass over by night into +France. The tale of his escape added to his fame. He was no longer a +cura, he was a cabecilla--a born leader in partisan warfare. The +Carlists still kept the field in Catalonia, but in the north-west all +was apparently over. Order reigned as in Warsaw. Nevertheless, it was +felt that a spark would rekindle a conflagration. Santa Cruz was the +spark. + +"If I had only thirty men at my back, I'd lift the flag again," Santa +Cruz was overheard to boast. + +The thirty men presented themselves; and, on the 1st of December, 1872, +the irrepressible priest, now surnamed the Peter the Hermit of Carlism, +recrossed the frontier. Six days afterwards he stopped the mail train a +few miles outside San Sebastian, and Madrid learned with stupor that the +Carlist insurrection had flared up anew. + +"That was virtually the knell of the Savoy dynasty," said my informant, +"and Santa Cruz it was who tolled the knell." + +This notable individuality must have the rare magnetic power of +compelling men to follow and believe in him, and of winning over their +fidelity. His band of thirty has now swelled to five hundred, as devoted +as ever were the Highlanders of Preston and Falkirk. He believes in his +star; and he does not believe in carrying on hostilities with kid-gloves +on his hands. Vitriol is more in his line than rose-water. I should very +much like to meet Santa Cruz. He is said to be as agile as Mina, a +wonderful walker, and to share all the fatigues and privations of his +followers. He accomplished an almost incredible journey across the +craggy hills and ravines, from Tafalla in Navarre to the confines of +Biscay, in sixteen hours. At sunset, when the halt is called, and the +provisions are distributed, the guerrilleros assemble round their chief, +who resumes for a time the character of the Cura of Hernialde. Evening +devotions are repeated, and prayers are offered for his Majesty King +Charles VII., the Much-Desired; for Spain and her rescue from the +monster of anarchy; for the dead, and for those who are next to die on +the "campo de honor." The devotions ended, the priest again becomes the +partisan-chief, and praises or blames his soldiers; and then the guards +are set, and the guerrilleros, wrapped in their blankets, take a final +pull at the wine-skin, and sink to rest upon the heather. Long after the +band has been shrouded in mist lethargic, the figure of Santa Cruz may +be seen looming against a rock, upright but for the head, which is +supported by a huge gnarled staff. In his hand he grasps a key. When the +benumbed or listless fingers part and release that key four times, +Santa Cruz gives the rousing signal, the guerrilleros start to their +feet, and the line of march is again taken up. + +Is it not all delightfully romantic? If the late Miss Jane Porter, who +wrote that prized book of truant youth, "The Scottish Chiefs," were only +to have encountered this pretty man, she would have swooned with the joy +of authorship. Had Harrison Ainsworth but dreamed of such unconventional +possibilities, he would never have debased his intellect to the +glorification of a vulgar prison-breaker like Jack Sheppard. But the +only craftsman of the pen who could have risen to the height of the +theme was he who wove the gold-shot tale of "Paul Clifford." + +The latest news we hear of the Carlist priest is that a woman was shot +by his orders at Escoriaza.[A] On second thought I am not so sure that I +should very much like to meet Santa Cruz. And at this very period, +while the shrieks of a fusilladed female were ringing in the air, a +fussy committee of dilettante Carlists, sitting in London, protested +that the sacred cause of legitimacy was advancing by lawful, chivalric, +and immaculate means only! From the snug security of their back-parlour +they wrote letters to the papers denying the "wanton" destruction of +railway-stations by the Carlists. The flames were still undulating over +the station of Santa Olla, between Burgos and Pancorbo, while the ink +was wet on that inspired refutation! There are factories of falsehood +elsewhere than in Spain. + +A cabecilla had warned the station-masters in Guipzcoa that all +railway-servants who durst perform their work would be shot, and that +all trains which had the hardihood to move would be given over to the +flames; and Lizrraga, an ex-field-officer of the regular army, had +calmly notified to the alcaldes of the province that he would fine them +what would be the equivalent of a hundred pounds sterling with us the +first time they failed to advise him of the movements of troops, and +that he would stick them up against a wall and put a bullet through +their heads for the second offence. Passports through the Carlist lines, +formally drawn up, sealed, and signed, were for sale for ten duros +(about two pounds sterling) in bureaux transparently dissembled, and met +with ready purchasers. The article was cheap, if only as a curiosity. +Here is the textual copy of an announcement in _La Esperanza_, a +recognised and tolerated Carlist organ of Madrid: + +"The direction of the Northern Railway Company having failed to observe +the neutrality ordered respecting the conveyance of troops and stores of +war, the Carlists, we are assured, cut the line yesterday at four points +in the province of Guipzcoa." + +The Republic that permitted a newspaper published under its nose thus to +talk of rebels against its authority "ordering" the railway companies +not to convey troops was not arbitrary, to my thinking. But Spain is an +enigma. An English Government would hardly permit a journal to speak of +the operations of a Fenian band in the same terms. + +There could be no concealment of the fact that the adherents of Charles +VII., king _in nubibus_, were making headway. + +On the 9th of March a combat was fought at Monreal, a village on the +slope of a hill to the south-east of Pampeluna, between the factions of +Dorregaray, Ollo, Perula, and others, and the regulars under Nouvilas, +the General who had set out from the capital with such a grandiloquent +farewell speech. Pampeluna is distant sixteen hours by rail. The account +of the combat, the most important since Oroquieta, was published in the +official journal four days afterwards. + +In the interval the Carlist papers at Madrid had been singing hosannas +over an alleged victory of their friends, and boasting that the +Republican General had lost his artillery. The Republican Government did +not suppress those papers. As a matter of course, Nouvilas claimed the +victory for himself. Victories are always claimed by both sides in this +civil struggle. To get near truth one must read the narratives for and +against, compare and balance them, and by jealous analysis of evidence +it is possible one may light, in a haphazard way, on something vaguely +resembling what actually happened. + +The report of Nouvilas is before me as I write. He estimated the enemy +at 2,500 infantry and 200 cavalry. His own force, consisting of a +battalion of the Chasseurs of Porto Rico, two companies of the +Guadalajara infantry, a section of mountain artillery (two guns, I take +it), a couple of sections of the Hussars of Pavia, and one of the +Lancers of Numancia, made up a total of about 600 foot and 80 horse. The +combat lasted through two hours of darkness, and Nouvilas, although +bragging that he dislodged the Carlists, has to admit that he was unable +to follow up his success. Reason: his troops had marched eight leagues +without food or rest! A league is 4,565 English yards; multiply that by +eight, and I think it will be suspected that the tale of Nouvilas was +intended for the amphibious branch of the service. He confesses to a +loss of one superior officer (Colonel Don Manuel Ibarreta, of the Staff +Corps), and five rank and file killed, three officers and fifty-three +wounded, six _contused_, and four missing. + +An anecdote casts a lurid light of disclosure on the discipline of this +victorious column. The Staff Corps have a museum at Madrid, and were +anxious to procure some relics of their comrade who had "died gloriously +while holding a hazardous position with singular courage." All they +could get was his cap and sash. His boots were pulled off, his pockets +rifled, and every little article he possessed, to his English lever +watch, was appropriated--doubtless by soldiers who were desirous of +souvenirs of so gallant a gentleman. + +Certain inferences were to be drawn from the report of Nouvilas. The +Carlist position was admirably chosen, the leaders took proper +precautions against surprise, and the men fought with dogged pluck. They +must have been badly equipped, since they left behind them firearms of +every description. They are armed anyhow; some carry fowling-pieces, +some blunderbusses, and some fight with sticks and stones, as the return +of those six soldiers contused establishes. The General had +breechloaders and mountain howitzers; hussars and cuirassiers supported +his infantry; and yet these rebels of the hills held their own for two +hours! + +Even on his own showing the victory of the Republican commander was +poor, and dearly purchased. At one time he admits he was encircled by +the enemy, and had to unsheath in self-defence. He reports four men +missing--that means captured; and, though having routed his foes, he can +only point to thirteen prisoners and two dead horses! The Carlists fled +"precipitately," but they appear to have had leisure to carry off their +wounded with the exception of sixteen. Reference to Carlists supposed to +be wounded, coupled with the silence about those supposed to be dead, is +remarkable. Were there none killed? General Nouvilas, instead of going +forward next day, returned to Pampeluna to indite a despatch in which he +directly commends his own four sons, and indirectly praises himself. He +has been laid up with sore throat since, and has been unable to resume +his prosecution of the dislodged and dispersed enemy. I begin to think +these Carlists, as my landlord at Beasain predicted, "will give more +trouble." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + Barbarism of Tauromachy--A Surreptitious Ticket--The + Novillos--Islington _not_ Madrid--Apology for + Cock-Fighting--Maudlin Humanity--The Espada a Popular Idol--In the + Bull-Ring--A Precious "Ster-oh"--The Trumpets Speak--The + Procession--Play of the Quadrille--The Defiance--"Bravo, + Cucharra!"--"Bravo, Toro!" The Blemish of the Sport--An Indignant + English Lassie. + + +Constantine, the porter at the Fonda de Paris, asked me one forenoon +would I like to take a ticket for a bull-fight. He had an excellent one +(excellent batch, he meant) to dispose of "in the shade." I stared at +him indignantly, nodded my head in the same vein, but winked as I passed +through the hall and sprang up the stairs. An English clergyman and his +daughter, who had expressed an abhorrence for tauromachy in my presence, +had overheard Constantino's temptation, and hence my behaviour. + +"Tauromachy!" the dear old minister argued. "What can you expect, sir, +from a people who have to buckle two languages in double harness to find +a name for their brutal practice? 'Tis illegitimate, sir, like the +derivative. _Taurus_ is Latin, [Greek: mach] is Greek; the compound is +barbaric." + +I bowed, for Emmeline was seemly, with a delicate elegance, and she +looked up with a pleased and almost triumphant look, as much as to say, +Papa is not one of your common persons, but a mighty learned dignitary +indeed. + +That was why Constantine waited his opportunity to slip the ticket into +my hands in a corridor, explaining that a seat in the shade was a +privilege not to be despised, as the sun at the other side flung a glare +on the spectator that dazzled his view; besides, it was broiling and +headachy to sit for hours in its rays. + +"I knew you would go the first chance you had," said Constantine; "I +read it in your eyes as you gloated over the pictures of the sport in +the hall. They make a magnificent fan, or you could hang them up on the +wall in your house in England; I can let you have a lot a bargain. I +was sure of it when you stopped opposite the placard of the corrida +outside, and shook yourself with joy." + +Constantine was a good judge of human nature. I would as soon think of +visiting Madrid and not seeing a bull-fight, as of visiting +Constantinople and not hunting after the dancing dervishes; Kandy, and +not gazing on the Perra Harra procession; London in the season, and not +going to the Military Tournament. + +But, as I afterwards learned, the weather was still too cold for the +genuine game; this might be regarded as a rehearsal, but was patronized +by the connoisseurs, as there were openings for criticism on the style +of novices, and estimates as to who had in them the stuff of coming men. +The bull wants the ardent heats of midsummer to fire him for the combat. +The true season begins with a late Easter-tide, when the kings of the +herd, fresh from the meadows, have arrogant blood careering in their +veins, and are supple in the limbs. To stimulate them now, the dogs or +the banderillas de fuego, both alien to true tauromachy, would have to +be called in. This is but the heyday of the novillos, the unripe +beasts, with india-rubber or wooden balls blunting their half-developed +horns, who are sent into the arena to be at the mercy of youths +ambitious to become chulos. The novillos prance and frisk and toss their +adversaries; it is a frolic and no more. Months afterwards I saw a band +of blind mendicants armed with long sticks descend into the ring at +Murcia, and succeed, some of them, in keeping off the novillos. As well +as giving youngsters the favour of familiarizing themselves with the +capa, used to irritate the bull, this practice puts the animal himself +into good wind, and teaches him what he has to expect when he is +admitted into the pit of the amphitheatre for the final tussle. Your +common bull is not apt for these duels; he must be a bull of race, +haughty and high-spirited, before he is welcomed as a gladiator +_moriturus_. There are stock-breeders in Castile and Andalusia renowned +for the superb stamp of their cattle; and of these, not the least +renowned is a noble count who bears the name and is a descendant of +Christopher Columbus. But the immature tomfoolery has no more +resemblance to the stern, actual diversion than a donkey-race has to the +Derby. The description in "Childe Harold" is spirited, but has been +pared down to accommodate itself to the exigencies of rhyme. Byron when +he wrote it must have had a spasm of squeamishness. But that must have +been a gorgeous function at the marriage of Isabella, when a public +square was converted into an amphitheatre, Toro was monarch for days +consecutive, and the bonniest cavaliers of Spain, clad in jackets +glimmering with gems, entered the lists against him. + +In England, where patronizing leading-articles are indited about those +semi-civilized Spaniards, whenever a toreador is injured in the exercise +of his profession, nothing would seem to be really known about the +sport, and yet there is a self-sufficient assumption among persons +called "well-informed" that they know all about it. Speaking once with a +colleague of the press at Madrid, the representative of a very great +English paper, I was told almost the only instructions he had received +on leaving London were not to write anything of bull-fighting, or +"hackneyed rubbish of that sort." Yet no nearer approach to +bull-fighting has ever been witnessed in England than a silly simulacrum +at the Agricultural Hall. The first calf that was enlarged from the +make-believe toril on that occasion quietly proceeded to nibble a scrap +of paper on the tan. The toreadores were real toreadores, but the bulls +were not of the fiery breed of Andalusia. If they had been, the agents +of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals would have +thought twice before venturing into the same enclosure with them to bar +the entertainment on the score of cruelty. Still, the enterprising +public caterer who had brought over the quadrille of bull-fighters was +wise in his generation. Had the legitimate article been given, there was +enough foretokening of patronage on the opening night to prove it would +have been a great success. + +I call bull-fighting a glorious pastime. In my mental vision I can mark +the rising gorge of some splenetic Briton of the philanthropic school as +he reads this phrase, "glorious pastime," wipes his glasses and reads it +again. How am I wrong? It is savage, bloodthirsty, and debasing, he +will say. Therein I join issue with him, though I may bring a censorious +pile of cant crumbling and clattering about my ears. Cock-fighting was +once popular in these islands, and that not so long ago. I have often +played truant from school, and challenged a thrashing, to drain the high +pleasures of a well-contested main. The late Admiral Rous and the late +Lord Derby were admirers of the sport, and if I am not mistaken the +rules governing a London pit sometimes patronized by royalty had a place +in the earlier editions of Hoyle. The best apology for cock-fighting I +ever heard was made by an eccentric uncle of mine, who asked his censor, +"Why did God put the fighting drop into the game-cock's veins but that +he might fight when he got the chance?" + +There is cruelty, peradventure, in attaching long steel spurs, keen as +bradawls, to the cocks' legs, as there is in supplying men-at-arms with +swords and rifles instead of letting them wage war against one another +with teeth and feet and fists--the weapons of nature. Chanticleer of the +martial breed should be put into the ring with his natural spurs. + +Well, in Spain he is, for the sport flourishes there still; and one of +my recollections of my last day in Madrid is having sacrificed a meal to +be present at the Circo de Gallos, the recognised building where combats +of the kind are carried on in a well-filled amphitheatre, with roped +platform in the centre, and seats in tiers around. The roadway in front +was lined with equipages, and the curled darlings of the Madrilene +aristocracy stepped in to witness the tournament and bet on the result; +but I own the gentler sex I never met there. There are rules to regulate +the conduct of the matches posted conspicuously on the walls; there are +scales to weigh the combatants, lemons to clean their spurs, a regular +staff of heelers, time-keepers, and umpires; the fixtures are given in +the newspapers in the same column as the theatrical programme, and the +guardians of public order are always in attendance. On the same +principle bull-fighting is conducted, and the same argument holds good +in favour of its retention. + +This babble of cruelty is veriest wind-bag humanity, and, logically, has +not a leg to stand upon. To confront the king of the herd in the arena +is bolder and braver than to course the hare at Altcar, or shoot pigeons +at Hurlingham, or make a battue of pheasants in a Norfolk +preserve--sports to which our patricians are disposed, sports which are +chronicled in the fashionable organs with apparent approval. There is +more risk to those who share in a bull-fight than in knocking ponies +about on the polo-ground at Preston, sawing their mouths and breaking +their shins, or in worrying the fox over the pastures of Leicestershire. +As for that cold-blooded, cowardly, treacherous recreation of the +contemplative man, flinging bait to a harmless defenceless fish, and +luring him to a painful end, it is a piece of deliberate barbarism not +to be mentioned in the same breath with bull-fighting. And yet Mr. John +Bright, who has the reputation of being a gentleman of chivalrous temper +and pacific instincts, is said to be passionately fond of this +recreation. Observe to what the reasoning of those who frantically +protest against the national pastime of Spain reduces itself. So far, I +wish it to be understood that I am arguing with the intent of +establishing a _reductio ad absurdum_. If coursing, hunting, shooting, +and fishing are justifiable--and I hold that they are--then on the like +grounds are cock-fighting and bull-fighting justifiable. The beasts on +the earth, the birds of the air, and the fishes in the sea, are all +created for man's use and benefit. To kill them is no crime, if the +killing be not attended with the infliction of wanton pain. The destiny +of the minor order of creation is to minister to the appetites or +necessities of the lord of creation; and pleasurable excitement is a +necessity. The objections to the position here taken up are untenable, +except by maudlin and maundering humanitarians, who think more of the +life of a pet poodle than of the life of their fellow-man, and by that +lost section of mild lunatics, the vegetarians. + +Having said so much in defence of bull-fighting, I may be permitted, in +entering into details of the diversion, to anticipate experiences and +knowledge which did not come to me until later on. The further my +acquaintance with the ring extended, the more convinced I became that +tauromachy will last as long as Spain lasts. It has blemishes, like +other recreations. To my thinking, the chief is that Toro goes into the +sanded arena foredoomed to die. No matter how pluckily he fights, no +matter what play he shows, the cachetero awaits him. Then there is +torture, but an unavoidable torture, in the mode in which horses are +killed. I well remember what an acclimatized aficionado, M. de Coutuly, +of the Paris _Temps_, said to me in a discussion on the point: + +"These horses are under capital sentence when they are helped to the +grace of a historic death in the amphitheatre; they are rescued _en +route_ to the knacker's-yard; but, bah! it is useless to try to convince +men with English prejudices. With you, the horse is more valuable than +the man." + +Thorough garrons these horses are in old Spain; but in the South +American countries, colonized from Spain, I am told they bring spirited +barbs into the ring, who can bite and kick, and take their own part +generally, and who sometimes clear the bull at a bound, as he advances +to the attack. + +If tauromachy will last in Spain as long as Spain lasts, so likewise +will those who practise the art he held in honour. No names are guarded +in fonder reverence there to-day than those of Montes, Pepete, and +Pepe-Hillo; and when Frascuelo was wounded, his residence was besieged +by sympathizing inquirers. The bulletins of his health were read as +anxiously as if they were issued from a royal palace. Bouquets, pastry, +and billets-doux were laid in tribute on the mat of his bedchamber, and +the sweetest and proudest dames of the sweet and proud patrician houses +of Castile--houses with sangre azul unsuspicious in their veins, and +thirteen grandees in their pedigree--sent to inquire after the condition +of the famous espada. Tom Sayers was never more idolized in England than +Frascuelo is in Spain. And so, in like manner, are his compeers, +Lagartijo, and the rest. This liking for them is pushed to excess, much +as the cult for heroes of the prize-ring was with us in a past +generation. Once I was roused from a nap by Liberato, a faithful +body-man, shuffling his feet to the sprightly movements of a bolero. His +eyes twinkled like laughing fire, his gitano-tinted cheeks had a +tawny-purple grape-flush. He was under a high-pressure of exhilaration, +and instinctively sought to relieve himself by dancing. + +"Liberato?" + +"Caballero." + +"What devil possesses thee? Hast got a tress of thy ama's hair, or +fallen upon a treasure-box of Boabdil?" + +"Seor, I am proud as a hidalgo this day. You know Frascuelo?" + +"Si, si." + +"I have seen him; I have heard him speak." + +"Dios mio! If it be not a poor jest on thy part, thou'rt a happy man." + +"No jest, seor; and hearken!" approaching and lowering his voice: "he +sat at the same table with me, and," this impressively and +confidentially, "he shook hands with me as we parted!" + +"Caramba! Let me shake that hand." + +Laugh at this anecdote, but did not a New York hack-driver make a small +fortune by letting out for osculatory purposes the hand that helped +Jenny Lind from her carriage? Have not strawberries touched by the lips +of Lydia Thompson fetched a guinea each at a dramatic _fte_, and +photographs of Sara Bernhardt, signed with her sign-manual, run up to an +alarming figure at the Albert Hall? Have I not myself been privy to the +offer by a British matron of sums incredible for the straw through which +the Prince of Wales had sucked a sherry-cobbler at the Paris Exhibition +of 1867? + +"Ster-oh!" ejaculated the negro waiter with open mouth. "Why, bress you, +dat's no use, we trowed it away; but, as yer a nice ole lady, heah's a +dozen for nuffin!" + +The spectacle in the Plaza de Toros, the spacious unroofed area +surrounded by stone benches rising one above another, away to the +sheltered balconies up high at the back, is one of the most enlivening +that imagination can conceive on the afternoon of a corrida, when male +and female humanity, all jubilant bustle and expectancy, make a +prismatic girdle around. Fans move with an incessant tremulous flutter; +there is a continuous susurrus of voices, broken by occasional hoarse +bursts of laughter at some mishap, or hoarse roars of welcome as some +favourite enters; the regal sun discharges his fierce messages of light +from his throne of blue, and the costumes of every colour, wavering with +the pulsations of the throng, are an active kaleidoscope, most vivid and +variegated. We are in our places. We have stepped up the Alcal at the +heels of the picquet of armed militia charged with the maintenance of +order. We have threaded our way through the rough maze of passages to +our palco, peeping at the stable where the sorry horses are kept, at the +room where the toreadores dress themselves, and at the little oratory +where the matador prays before he stalks into the palestra. We are in +our places, and everybody is in his place; the Governor of the city in +his box of state yonder. While the music races over the assemblage in +glad alternation of rush and ripple, let us look below. There is a +strong wooden barrier some six feet high around the arena, and at +knee-height, on the inner side of this barrier, there is a berme to help +the pursued chulo to a footing as he vaults over into the surrounding +lane formed by this interior and an exterior barrier. This lane is +guarded by policemen, and is so narrow that a bull has not room to turn +in it; for bulls sometimes bound over the inner barrier. When that +occurs, and I have seen it occur not seldom, they are driven round until +they reach one of the gates opening into the ring. The trumpets and +tymbals speak warning; a profound silence falls upon the crowd for an +instant, and then from a side passage enters the cavalcade we have +awaited--enters to a stately martial march. First, the mounted alguazil +in his ancient garb, plumed, cloaked, funereal; then the chulos, lithe, +young, graceful; then the picadores on their garrons, Mexican-looking in +their saddles, with tall pummel and crupper and shovel-shaped stirrups, +wide-leafed sombreros, their short jackets tagged all over, their yellow +breeches and their high boots lead-lined; then the banderilleros, and +then the matador, the chieftain of the troop. The alguazil beseeches the +key of the toril from the Governor, receives it, turns it in the lock; +and as the bull with dazed vision enters into the sunshine at one gate, +he disappears at an amble through another. + +The bull! What a noble specimen of his race!--broad-browed, +clean-horned, and clean-limbed; high courage in his bloodshot orbs, his +dilated nostril, and his lashing tail! On the right and left the +quadrille arrange themselves, the picadores, each with a spike at the +end of his long shaft, and a kerchief bandaging one eye of his horse; +the chulos, pretty fellows in turban, loose embroidered jackets, ruffled +shirts, kneebreeches of coquettish hue and texture, silken hose and +buckled shoes, standing, with their cloaks, nearer to the centre of the +ring. All these toreadores are men of symmetry and power, all wear +chignons in nets, and are close-shaven, except as to side-whiskers of +the brief "mutton-chop" order, and all bear themselves as if they were +proud of their vocation. The bull waits. The chulos give challenge. They +rush upon him, shaking their gaudy little cloaks, and as he charges they +scamper to the sides, while one takes up the running from another. In +short, they tease him as much for the sake of tiring him out as of +testing his disposition. But by-and-by one chulo ingeniously leads the +charging bull towards a horse. Toro rushes head-foremost. The picador +is unequal to keep him off with his spike; the horse is gored in the +belly and overthrown, the rider falling under. The chulos cluster to the +rescue, with their fluttering cloaks, and draw the bull away confused. +The picador is extricated; the horse is taken out, and in a few moments +after re-enters, his entrails packed inside and stomach sewn up, and is +once more offered to the maddened brute, always on his blind side. We +shall hurry over this episode of the tournament; I do not like it, nor +do you. But here is something really fine. The banderilleros enter, with +barbed shafts decked with ribbons, poised in each hand, and make a +feinting advance on the bull, and as he runs to meet them they deftly +hurl their shafts and elude him by a demi-volte. The act of doing this +well is to plant one banderilla on each side of the bull's neck, close +by the streaming favours that mark the herd from which he is +furnished--the colours of his stable, so to speak--to plant them evenly +and at equal distances from his crest, and when this is skilfully +accomplished there are frantic yells of praise, and caps and cigars are +showered into the arena. When the banderillero is awkward, they rain on +him with potatoes. These banderilleros incur hazard. I have seen one so +keenly chased by the bull that he was pinned against the barriers by the +bull's horns as he was in the act of vaulting over. Pinned, but not in +the flesh; the branching horns stuck in the wood at either side, just +above the calf of one leg, and imprisoned him until he had to be sawed +out. + +This is but the prologue; now for the play. Toro by this time is in a +white rage; there is foam at his chaps, his steaming sides are laced +with blood. Cucharra of Puerto Santa Maria is the matador. Majestically +he strides towards the Governor's box, stoops in obeisance, and in a +loud voice makes proclamation: "Brindo por Puerto Santa Maria, por toda +su compaia, por el vulgo de Madrid; voy matar ese bicho el bicho me +mata mi;" an address which may thus be freely rendered: "I pledge +myself to Puerto Santa Maria and all its society, and to the people of +Madrid; and now I am ready to kill this animal, if the animal cannot +kill me." He removes his turban, and, with a graceful jerk with his +right hand from behind his back over his left shoulder, flings it into +the Governor's box, as a gage of his boasted prowess. He takes his +straight keen-tempered sword and his cloak of offensive scarlet, and +advances towards the bull. Now is the supreme trial, now is the time +when men let their lighted cigarettes drop from their mouths and clench +their teeth; now is the time when women close their fans and draw long +breaths. Cucharra faces Toro at a yard's distance. They regard each +other. Cucharra hides his sword under his cloak, and presents it to the +bull. Toro lowers his head, shuts his eyes, and charges, but the +toreador gracefully slips aside and saves his life by a turn of the +heel. Three times he repeats the feat of this risksome pirouette; but +woe to him if he is an instant too late in his movements, or if the soil +is treacherous. The fourth time, as the bull lowers his head, Cucharra +lifts himself on his toes, and with one sure swift blow plunges the +blade, almost to the hilt, into the spine of his antagonist. The bull +stands; there is a shout of "Bravo!" the bull still stands, ten seconds, +twenty, thirty; there is a howl of disappointment; but Cucharra gazes +contemptuously around; he knows he has done his work well, and, my +faith, he has. Toro quivers and drops, and Cucharra plants a foot on the +neck of his prostrate enemy. The bull has died of internal hmorrhage; +not a drop of blood has distilled from his mouth. Bravo, Cucharra! + +This death at the first thrust--death without drip of the crimson fluid +from the mouth--is the artistic death. When the sword pierces at the +wrong spot, is displaced by the shaking of the bull, and sent flying, +gore-wet, through the air, it is awkward workmanship. + +But Toro showed "mucho fuego" before he was so neatly pierced in the +medulla. Bravo, Toro! And now the cachetero stoops over him, and, with +one dig of his sharp knife in the neck, makes assurance doubly sure. The +team of mules trot in, and trot out again with the dead champion at +their heels; and the urchins outside are dancing on his carcase as the +drums and tymbals give prelude to the entrance of a second champion +into the enthusiastic circle. + +The slimy pools in the arena are promptly strewn with sand, and the +fresh bull is ushered into the lists, either against the same quadrille, +or against another espada with his special troop of assistants. Some of +the brutes are self-possessed, as that "proud and stately steer" Harpado +of Xarama, who was matched with Ganzul the Moor. + + "Dark is his hide on either side, but the blood within doth boil, + And the dun hide glows, as if on fire, as he paws to the turmoil, + His eyes are jet, and they are set in crystal rings of snow; + But now they stare with one red glare of brass upon the foe." + +All in vain, Toro. Thy fate is sealed. Useless to prance round with +defiance, to bellow with unsatisfied wrath, to churn the sand with +furious hoof and flash hither and thither the flaming arrows of thy +glance. Thou art foredoomed, and wilt fall as surely after brave +struggle as thy mate, less eager for the strife, who has to be pricked +up to anger, and drops at last bewildered amid the derision of the +crowd. That is where I find fault with the sport. Toro who shows good +fight should get his respite, like the Roman gladiator who pleased the +multitude. + +Still, is his fate to be deplored? Confess, is it not rather to be +envied? He gives up his vital principle in the rapture of battle; he +feels no wound but the grievous one to the combatant that he can beat +down no more foes; he yields breath with a bold front; there is threat +in his agony as he sinks, still with challenge in his port, amid the +applause of admiring thousands. There is something of martyr-heroism in +this ending. It is grander, nobler, happier than to fall by the +butcher's plebeian mallet in the slaughter-house, or to succumb to the +slow miseries of rinderpest. Whoso denies it will downface me next that +it is fitter for the warrior to die of podagra in a four-post bed than +to perish on the field with harness on his back--that dropsy at St. +Helena was more to be coveted than a bullet at Waterloo! + +Tauromachy, I repeat, will last as long as Spain lasts. It will have its +school and its dialect, its canons of skill expatiated upon in +elaborate treatises; its honoured exponents; its impassioned amateurs +and its munificent patrons; its historiographers and poets. In my +devotedness to it I have sacrificed the favour of a comely English +maiden, for Emmeline, who has seen through my hypocrisy in the hall, +averts the light of her countenance as we sit down to dinner. I am sorry +for it, for I had inclinings towards that lady, she was so attentive to +her father, and she had confided to me with such a pretty frankness that +she sighed for the days when Mohammad-al-Hamar was throned in Granada. + + * * * * * + +NOTE BY THE WRITER'S DAUGHTER.--The conceit of you. Emmeline, I think, +was quite right to cut you, after your brutishness. No doubt you think +the glorification of bull-butchery a piece of fine writing, and so +original, you know. I'm up to the games of you authors; but if I were +the printers I would not print one single line of it. I should just like +to put a pen in the bull's hand and read _his_ description of the +fight. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + The Shamrock of Erin and Olive of Spain--Hispano-Hibernian + Regiments--The Spanish Soldier--An Unpopular Hidalgo--Flaw in the + Harness--The Organization of the Army--The Guardia Civil--The + Cavalry, Engineers, and Infantry--General Cordova--The + Disorganization of the Army--Mutiny in Pampeluna--Officers Out of + Work--Turbulent Barcelona--Irresolute Contreras--Pistolet + Discharges Himself--The Madrid Garrison. + + +In Moore's "Melodies" crops up a martial lyric, in which there is a +jingling reference at the end of every verse to the shamrock of Erin and +olive of Spain. Here is about the pith of its sentiment: + + "May his tomb want a tear and a name, + Who would ask for a nobler, a holier death, + Than to turn his last sigh into victory's breath, + For the Shamrock of Erin and Olive of Spain!" + +The Blakes and O'Donnells are apostrophized; but as well as I can make +out what the bard is driving at, he had Wellington and his companions +in his mind's eye. + +There had been closer and earlier and longer ties than those of the +campaigns against the French between Spain and Ireland. According to the +annals of the Four Masters (translated by the father of the late Edmond +O'Donovan), the Clanna-Milidh set sail from Galicia and invaded the +Emerald Isle in the year 1698 before the Christian era. They established +the Milesian dynasty, which lasted two thousand eight hundred and +seventy years--rather a better record than we meet in Bulgaria, modern +Greece, and sometimes even in Spain itself. Galway, _teste_ Kohl, +carries the imagination to Granada and Valencia. At the beginning of the +eighteenth century there were six Irish regiments at least in the +Spanish service, namely, those of Hibernia, Irlanda, Limerick, Ultonia, +and Waterford (all infantry), and the Dragoons of Dublin. There was also +an infantry regiment called Conacia, or Wauchop, after its commander, +one of a fighting family well known in the Lothians. There were officers +of my name in the Limerick and Ultonia corps, as there are in the +Spanish army still.[B] Most of these Irish organizations were disbanded +at the close of the last century, and all had lost their purely Irish +character, although the titles, Hibernia, Ultonia, and Irlanda, were +retained on the list till 1833. + +Naturally, and because of profession and certain associations, I took an +interest in soldiers, and, at the risk of offending the lady-reader who +is waiting for the romantic part of this book, I intend to devote a +chapter to the Spanish army. Such judgment as I have to offer is formed +not alone upon what I saw at Madrid, but afterwards, when I had +opportunity of watching the troops at work. Before going any further, I +may unreservedly confess that I hold a high opinion of the Spanish +soldier. He is sober, enduring, brave, and an indefatigable marcher. +Better raw material for warfare, I am sure, could not readily be come +at, and I am equally sure that if more attention were paid to drill, and +if the curse of morbid aspirations for promotion amongst the lower +grades were more rigidly repressed, the Spanish army would regain its +ancient renown. This restless and diseased ambition is not to be traced +to the rank and file, but to those immediately above them, the men with +a puffed-up idea of themselves, and a smattering of education, and is +often developed by the connivance of their immediate superiors. Let us +take an example. In 1866 there was an uprising in favour of Prim, headed +by the sergeants of artillery at the San Gil barracks, in Madrid. +Captain Hidalgo was privy to the plot, which eventuated in a fiasco, but +not before sundry officers of the regiment had lost their lives. A large +number of the sergeants were summarily shot a few days afterwards. +Hidalgo escaped. In the November of 1872, Hidalgo, then a General, was +appointed Master-General of the Ordnance by Amadeus. Amongst the +artillery there is a strong _esprit de corps_, and the officers in a +body declared they would resign unless the appointment were cancelled. +They did not object to Hidalgo on account of his implication in mutiny, +which is a recognised institution in the Spanish army, but because they +believed he had previous knowledge that some of his brother-officers +would be sacrificed, and never gave them a word of warning or raised a +plea in their behalf. The want of comradeship was his crime, and the +resignations of those who protested against it were accepted in a bulk. + +At the time I was in Madrid the artillery was in a state of +demoralisation. The captains of the scientific force were all promoted +sergeants, and the old officers were idly parading the streets in plain +clothes. Amadeus had certainly committed a foolish act, although he may +have justified himself to himself by the reflection that in approving an +appointment made by his Ministers he was behaving loyally, and that by a +wholesale rejection of the demand of the discontented officers he would +set up an iron precedent against insubordination. He never paused to +think that he was stripping Spain of a vital portion of its harness. A +sergeant may be an excellent practical gunner, and be able to lay a +piece accurately; but that does not qualify him to command a battery. +Scientific acquirements and training are necessary, a mastery of +technique and tactics, quickness of resource, and the habit of +authority. The promoted sergeants were wanting in these essentials, and +the Carlists soon found out the weak spot in the armour. + +The strength of the permanent army is fixed annually by the Cortes, and +every Spaniard above the age of twenty is liable to be drawn, and has to +serve four years under the flag. The nation is divided for military +purposes into five captain-generalcies, the commandant of each of which +holds a rank corresponding to a British field-marshal. The nominal +strength of the infantry in round numbers is about 60,000; artillery, +9,500; engineers, 2,300; and cavalry, 11,500. Then there are the +provincial militia, some 44,000 strong; the carabineros, or revenue +police, 12,000; and the Guardia Civil, 10,000. These Civil Guards are +picked men, robust, strapping, seasoned fellows, and are distributed +over the country like the French gendarmery, to whose duties theirs are +similar. They form a _corps d'lite_, and are the very mainstay of +order. In fact, without them life and property during times of political +commotion would very often be at the mercy of any horde of ragamuffins +with weapons in their hands and the courage to use them. They are +handsomely uniformed, wearing cocked-hats of the pattern of those to be +seen in the prints of the First Napoleon, fine cloth tunics of dark +blue, with epaulettes of white cord, and yellow side and cross-belts, +and present a manful, soldierly appearance. From their valour and +topographical knowledge they have been very serviceable in carrying on +the guerrilla warfare with the Carlists, and are the terror of brigands +and evil-doers. If all the troops were as orderly and well disciplined +as these, Government would be easy, and those at its head might afford +to be firm, regardless of mob clamour. In short, these magnificent Civil +Guards are the best military force the country possesses. Some of them +are mounted (and capitally mounted too), and all have an elevated notion +of duty. A mutiny is never inaugurated by the Civil Guards. They stick +to each other like wax, and are faithful to the powers that be, +regardless of their political colour, so long as those powers are +accepted by the nation. Dynasties may change and depart, as Ministries +do; but the Guardia Civil is an organization immutable and goes on for +ever. The one charge made against them has its warrant in necessity. +When a prisoner is sent to gaol in some remote town under escort of the +Civil Guards, he often makes an attempt to run away, and is invariably +shot between the shoulders. No strict inquiry into the circumstances is +made--it is an understood practice--a rascal is got rid of, to the +relief of the community, by a quick and economic method, which is a +desirable improvement on the laggard processes of law. + +The cavalry is controlled by a director-general, who has a respectable +staff of subordinates at his disposal. There are only two regiments of +cuirassiers--the 1st, or King's; and the 2nd, or Queen's. There are two +regiments of carabineers known as Calatrava and Bailen. There are eight +regiments of lancers, viz., Farnesio, Villaviciosa, Espaa, Sagunto, +Santiago, Montesa, Numancia, and Lusitania. The hussar regiments are but +two, Pavia and the Princess's. Prim's son, a boy of fifteen, was captain +in the former, and the veteran Espartero honorary colonel of the latter. +The name of a former colonel, Don Pedro Elio, "who died gloriously on +the field of honour," like Latour d'Auvergne, first grenadier of France, +is also borne on the rolls of the Princess's. There are six regiments of +mounted chasseurs--namely, Almansa, Alcntara, Talavera, Albuera, +Tetuan, and Castillejos, and two squadrons of Galicia and Mallorca +respectively. These men, as far as I have seen, are well horsed, +Andalusia furnishing some capital chargers, well-made and well-paced, +and up to decent weights. There is nothing peculiar in the cavalry +uniform, which is formed upon the French model. In fact, it would be +difficult to distinguish the dragoons from the French dragoons, but that +they have a seat and know how to keep it, and that their helmets are of +a round Roman style, with a rising sun in a circuit of rays right in +front. + +The remount depts are at Granada and Crdoba, and there are four +establishments where sires for cavalry purposes are maintained at the +expense of the State--namely, Crdoba, Baeza, Llerena, and Alcal de +Henares (the latter exclusively for the use of the mounted artillery). +There is also a military school for the cavalry, maintained on the same +system as that of the French at Saumur. + +The Engineers are quite as tall but not so sturdy as our Grenadiers, and +look up to their work. This was the favourite force of Prim, and it is +only second to the Guardia Civil in its obedience to constituted +authorities. From what I hear the men are carefully trained in sapping +and mining, though of them, as of Spanish soldiers universally, one is +compelled to say that they have too much leisure, and when soldiers have +too much leisure the Devil invariably finds them occupation. The value +of the artillery, which had been one of the best organizations of its +class in Europe, as I have already said, at that precise epoch ranked at +_nil_. Reports were circulated every day that the difficulties in this +branch of the service had been arranged, but the wheels want such a +dose of oil in Spain that one can never be certain that the machine is +in order till it moves. The artillery is denuded of officers, and the +infantry and cavalry have officers too often that are valueless; and in +that lies the secret of the deterioration of an army which was once, and +still might be made, capable of great things. + +There are forty regiments of infantry, numbered as ours were, but known +also by distinctive names, generally those of the locality in which each +was originally raised. Thus the 1st Regiment is Rey, or the King's; the +2nd, Reina, or the Queen's; the 3rd, the Prince's; the 4th, the +Princess's; the 5th, the Infante's; the 6th, the Regiment of Saboya; the +7th, of Africa; and then come those with territorial titles--the +Regiments of Zamora, Soria, Crdoba, San Fernando, and so on, until we +reach the 40th, which is called the Regiment of Mlaga. The 14th, 29th, +and 30th are respectively known as the Regiments of America, of the +Constitucion, and of Iberia. + +Each regiment consists of three battalions, except the 20th (the +Guadalajara) and the 34th (the Granada), which have but two; and in +each battalion there are six companies. Nominally, each company numbers +about 80 rank and file, but he would be a wise man who could say how +many answer to the roll-call in the existing state of disorganization. +There are twenty-four battalions of handy light troops, who are equal to +almost anything human in the way of marching. Agile and untiring, sound +in wind and limb, they can get over an extraordinary length of ground +with a speed that would not discredit professional walkers in England. +The French foot-chasseur, who can put on an astonishing spurt now and +again, is no rival to the Spanish cazador. + +The infantry uniform is almost exactly that of the French--long grey +capote, blue tunic with the number of the regiment on the collar, and +red trousers. Instead of a shako the head is protected by a projecting +cap of cloth and glaze, something like a stiffened Glengarry without +ribbons. Those absurd white gaiters which gather dirt so quickly when it +is wet under foot, and give the French soldier incessant bother to look +after their pipe-claying, are replaced in the Spanish service by +calfskin buskins and black cloth spatterdashes. Few more sensible +uniforms are to be met with in Europe. Properly officered, there is +nothing to prevent the Spanish infantry from regaining the prestige it +once held. The men have the right stuff in them, are temperate and +frugal, cheerful under privation, and hardy as wild ducks. They do not +want pluck either; they have the reputation of showing a good deal of +dash in their pursuit of the Carlists; but that is no fair criterion of +what they could do when pitted against the troops of some great Power in +ordered line of battle. Good lungs are indispensable in Carlist warfare, +as an officer who was hunting them for six weeks in Catalonia, and never +caught one, begged me to recollect. "You want men who can breast hills," +he said. But good lungs are valuable in a campaign anywhere, and looking +at these lively, well-set Spaniards as they trot along under their +packs, I must say they favourably compare with those weakly men of the +French line I saw staggering to the Eastern Railway Terminus at Paris, +on their way to Metz, in 1870, or with some of the lank striplings I +saw defiling before Victor Emmanuel at Somma in the autumn of 1872. + +The Minister of War (Cordova) and the Minister of Marine (Branger) are +good. The general and the admiral had really no politics; but they knew +their respective departments better than any men in Spain. Cordova comes +of a fighting family, and "ran the army," to use an expressive +Americanism, under Isabella, under the Serrano-Prim Administration, +under Amadeus, and would, I dare say, under Don Carlos, if he came +to-morrow. In fact, the general is a military Vicar of Bray, but for the +less egotistical motive that he loves his profession, and does not care +to see it and Spain go to the bad, which Spain would if the army did. +But he is not a Republican, neither is Branger; and the sovereign +people will only be governed by Republicans. They will not permit men of +another party even to do them a service. Therefore the general and the +admiral, and their colleagues of the Finance, Public Works, and the +Colonies, have patriotically made up their minds to retire. Thus, for +the moment, stands Spain, ruled by an Assembly divided against itself +and an Executive in a state of dissolution. + +Meanwhile the army is hurrying to the devil at the double-quick. The +troops which fell back on Pampeluna, after the affair at Monreal, broke +into open mutiny a few days afterwards. Some of them raised cries in +favour of Don Carlos, others in favour of Don Alfonso; and the majority +threw up their caps and shouted enthusiastically for the Republic, +meaning always that Federal Republic which they did not understand, and +which had not yet been created. The latter demonstration was quite as +much a breach of discipline in its way as the others. It was stated that +agents of the Carlist party, which was strong in Pampeluna, provoked +these disturbances in the first instance, plying the men with liquor, +and supplying them with money. At all events, that is how the Government +accounts for the outbreak. In their turn the Republicans got excited, +and instigated the soldiers to demand that the thirteen Carlist +prisoners they had taken should be shot without trial or benefit of +clergy, in defiance of the laws of honourable warfare. These +Republicans are not scrupulous. They talked of massacring all the +Carlist sympathizers in Pampeluna--in short, of commencing a sort of +Sicilian Vespers on a smaller scale; and so threatening did their +attitude become at one period, that the priests in the town had to +disguise themselves as peasants and fly to the mountains, and the laymen +who were suspected of a love for Royalty had to block up their doors and +windows. This was what one of the few trustworthy journals of Madrid, +_El Imparcial_, related, and may account for the inactivity of the +gallant General Nouvilas quite as much as that sore throat which +confined him to his room. + +In Catalonia the disorganization was worse. The battalion of Chasseurs +of Manila separated into several parties, which were wandering over the +province, spreading terror wherever they went. The patriotism of the +volunteers of the Republic had been invoked to try and bring them back +to discipline. Such an attempt might lead to combats that would have the +result of embittering still more the spirit of the freebooters, which +those soldiers were in the fullest sense of the word. Persuasion by +gunpowder, when employed by irregulars, seldom pacifies regulars. Either +of two events was possible--those soldiers would get the better of the +volunteers, or might turn over to the side of Don Carlos. Meantime the +Carlist bands in the province are increasing, and have the field pretty +much to themselves. Four hundred officers of the army came to Madrid the +other day, and are now walking about the capital _en pkin_. Like the +frozen-out gardeners who parade London suburbs in the depth of a hard +winter, they've "got no work to do," but, unlike those impostors, they +are really anxious for a job. I have chatted with some of those +officers, and I know several of them would not be averse to flashing a +sword for the son of their former Queen. They had to leave their +regiments because they could no longer command them. The bonds of +discipline were completely smashed. The men were unmanageable. In some +barracks Phrygian caps were as common as the regulation head-gear. The +sergeants of the line, jealous of the promotion of the sergeants of the +artillery, thought they should have their turn; and the privates did not +see the justice of volunteers being offered two pesetas, or about 1s. +7d. a day, while they, who did more and better work, encountered more +risks, and suffered more hardships, received but a miserable pittance of +a few pence. The general in command was recalled, and Contreras sent +down in his place. He has a reputation as an unimpeachable Republican, +one of old standing, and not "for this occasion only;" and much faith +was reposed in the influence of his name. But Contreras failed to charm; +and, indeed, he appears to have gone the wrong way about his business. +An officer whom he put under reprimand went to two barracks and tried to +rouse the men to mutiny. He failed; but the men were so little careful +of discipline that they let him depart in peace. At last two adjutants +on the personal staff of Contreras arrested him and brought him before +the General. What course did the General, whose authority had been thus +grossly set at defiance, adopt? Order the offender to be shot? No. That +would be the mode in a serious army. But Contreras is not Suwarrow. He +dismissed the mutineer in epaulettes with a fatherly admonition--appealed +to his better feelings. In all likelihood, General Contreras felt that +he could not afford to be justly severe. The army was too restive. + +Private letters from Barcelona do not mince the matter. The few columns +which went out against the Carlists refused to march unless they were +headed by detachments of Republican volunteers. The officers ran serious +personal risks in their quarters. One of them was condemned to death by +a mock court-martial of his own men, and was actually put on his knees +preliminary to being shot, when a sergeant interposed, and harangued his +comrades into moderation. But all the sergeants have not the good sense +and courage of that worthy fellow. Some privates in Barcelona have been +trying to have their own profit out of the Republic, by discharging +themselves from further service without as much as asking leave; they +have sold their uniforms to the dealers in old clo', and are going about +the streets in peasant dress, making no secret of their intention to +give up the trade of fighting. The great anxiety of the Republican +man-at-arms in Spain is to turn his sword-bayonet into a sickle, and his +rifle into a mattock. That is what he pretends; I hope he has not a sly +hope of vegetating for the rest of his days in lazy vagabondage, with +occasional spasms of brigandage just to keep his hand in at shooting. A +training in the Spanish army is not exactly the thing to fit for the +peaceful and toilsome monotony of industrial occupations. + +The battalions of cazadores of Mrida and Barcelona, in garrison at +Valencia, exhibited symptoms of discontent; but the officers were on the +alert, and checked them on the spot. That is the only plan--nip the evil +in the bud. It is the custom in Spain to confine troops to barracks +during times of popular commotion. The artillery quartered at Valladolid +caught the contagion of mutiny, and would have broken their bounds but +for the prompt arrival of the captain-general and military governor, who +succeeded with some trouble in pacifying them. These unpleasant tokens +are not confined to the land forces; they are said to have spread to +the sailors and marines. A steamer was under orders to leave the port of +Barcelona the other night, but the crew emphatically refused to go; they +argued that they were entitled to be paid off, and enjoy liberty on +shore, under the benign regulations of the Republic. To be brutally +candid, the army has taken the bit between its teeth and bolted. I fear +I am repeating a twice-told tale, but it is well that it should be +impressed on the reader, that he may know what the cuckoo-cry of "No +army" signifies. One of the leading points of the programme of the +Spanish Republicans out of office was that a soldier was a machine, and +that no soldier should exist in a free nation. Now that the Republicans +are in office the soldiers take them at their word, and claim their +discharges. The machinery is out of gear. The Republicans never +contemplated that they would require soldiers to put down a civil war. +Seor Figueras, in spite of all his eloquence and honesty, can hardly be +more successful in pacifying turbulent Barcelona than General Contreras. +Catalonia is as great a stickler for its usages as the Basque provinces +are for their fueros. One of the fueros of the Basque provinces is +exemption from the quinta, or conscription; their only soldiers are the +Miqueletes, a body of men somewhat like the Irish constabulary, who are +not bound to act beyond their own provinces. Thus the army which is +serving against the Carlists in Biscay, Alava, and Guipzcoa, is in the +provinces, but not of them. Catalonia cries out against the +conscription, too, and Barcelona--hot-blooded, troublesome Barcelona, +which never loses a chance of standing up for independent +opinions--encouraged her garrison in the demand for its discharge. + +The regular troops were to be replaced by the highly-paid volunteers. +That was the proposition. But how is the increased call on the Financial +Ministry to be met? Where is the money to pay these volunteers to come +from? And without regular troops, what was to become of Cuba? The gold +that is brought back from the Pearl of the Antilles is dearly bought +with Spanish blood. People in England little dream what a drain that +everlasting little-thought-of Cuban insurrection was upon the Spanish +army. Thousands of men perished in the island every year, not from the +bullets of the insurgents, but from privations, fatigue, the torrid +clime, and the deadly swamp fever. + +In sum, the army has been petted; the army is spoiled; the army, like a +wanton child, is naughty. Ministers have shown indecision in shifting +generals, generals have set the example of indiscipline in tolerating +mutinous officers, officers have thrown off their uniforms in dudgeon +and despair, sergeants have waylaid the War Office, so to speak, with +the cry of "Promotion or your life!" Can poor Pistolet of the rank and +file be blamed if he sighs for freedom, his sweetheart, and his native +village? The Republic promised him all these, and now he is wicked +enough to ask for them. There is one way of bringing naughty children to +their senses, but Pistolet is too big a boy to submit to the rod from a +weakly master. + +In the capital we were comparatively safe. Unless the garrison divided +against itself or the ordinary troops and the Guardia Civil fell out, +there was no danger of bloodshed in any quantity. The population is not +singularly ferocious. The privates move quietly in the streets in pairs, +and are particular to salute their officers, though there is one +officer, on an average, to every fifteen men, and most of these officers +lack the thoroughbred air of gentlemen, and apparently have risen from a +low social level. The sergeants are self-controlled, and brighten the +promenades with their green worsted gloves and the great laced V's on +their sleeves. I never miss a chance of admiring the garrison at parade. +Physically the men are up to a high standard--superior to those of most +European armies; morally they have the name of being patient and +well-conducted; in formation they are steady, in dressing precise, and +in movement they have a step as quick, but more _dgag_ than the +Prussians. Were I a Spaniard, I would, every time I bent in prayer, +offer up a supplication for the conversion--or perhaps the something +else--of the bedizened culprits who are sending the soldiers to rack and +ruin. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + Luring the Reader into a Stony Desert--A Duel on the + Carpet--Disappointment of the Special Correspondents--The People + Amuses Itself--How the Ballot Works--A Historic Sitting of the + Congress--Castelar's Great Oration--The Glory of Spain--About Negro + Manumission--Distrust of "Uncle Sam"--Return of Figueras--The + Permanent Committee--A Love-Feast of Politicians--The Writer Orders + Wings. + + +It may be urged with some show of truth that under the mirage of the +adventurous, I have lured the reader, anxious for the sensational, into +exhausting deviations in the stony desert of politics. I am guilty, and +I am sorry that I shall have to sin again--politics are so ultimately +interwoven with life in Spain. But it must not be imagined that these +accounts of what happened more than a decade ago are no more useful or +interesting than the stale report of the death of Queen Anne. In Spain +history has the trick of literally repeating itself. The country is +split into the same camps still, and occurrences similar to those of +which I treat are certain to be presented to the world anew. The drama +will be the same; the company only will be strange. And the information, +such as it is, which I give now, may furnish the key to much that would +otherwise be hard to unlock when the curtain rings up again. + +Before one more error of political errantry, I must tell of a duel which +did not come off, for the sake of its moral. This was how the affair +arose. There was a discussion in the Assembly in reference to an alleged +insurrection in Porto Rico. Seor Padial asked, was it true that the +insurgents had raised cries of "Death to Spain," and demanded the +independence of Porto Rico, and the massacre of the local volunteers? +Several members got up to speak, and one of them, for what reason I +cannot fathom, characterized the question as "a farce unworthy of the +Conservative party." After a little while Seor Ardanay proceeded to +read some documents proving the reality of the disturbances. He was +interrupted by a torrent of voices, and Seor Padial shouted that the +Civil Guards and volunteers of the island had got up the whole row, and +that General Sanz was the author of the farce. General Sanz politely +retorted, "Your worship is wanting in truth." Several honourable +gentlemen sprang to their feet, and asked that Seor Padial's words +should be taken down in writing. And then the Assembly became a +bear-garden. Seor Olavarrieta claimed "la palabra," but the President +would not give him the privilege of speaking. He spoke all the same, and +said, "We shall not allow ourselves to be insulted by those seores," +pointing to the Porto Rico deputies. The confusion became worse +confounded. The President rang his bell, called "Order," and threatened +to suspend the sitting. General Sanz then rose, looking wicked, and +asked that the words offensive to the Civil Guards and the volunteers +should be taken down in writing. As for what had been said offensive to +himself, he asked nothing; he knew what course to take. In England this +might have meant that the soldier would treat Seor Padial with silent +contempt; in Spain, with my preconceived notions of the pride of blue +blood and the fire of Castile, and all the rest, I took it that it could +only mean "pistols for two and coffee for one." The confession is sad; +but the truth at any price, the truth is so rare under this sky. Sundry +Special Correspondents who had come out to describe the revolution that +would not come off, were cudgelling their brains to discover how they +could assist at this passage of arms, in order that they might render a +full, true, and particular account to the public. The encounter would +have been more diverting than a bull-fight. Opinions were divided as to +whether it was better to go disguised as a hackney coachman or an +apothecary's assistant. I hurried, after dinner, to the Caf Fornos, the +great rendezvous of Madrid politicians, to hear the latest details of +the pending affair of honour. It was to come off--no doubt of it; but +when and where, I could not hear. Next morning I read that the +difficulty had been arranged. It may be a satisfaction that the +barbarous "code of honour" has fallen out of fashion in Spain; but it +would be a still greater satisfaction if the practice of gentlemen +giving each other the lie in public were to fall out of fashion also. +The scene was disgraceful, and I am glad to be able to add that most of +the deputies were thoroughly ashamed of it; and in places of public +resort some went so far as to say that they would take their seats no +more in the Assembly. But they were in their places all the same on the +following afternoon. The Congress of Spain is no more mannerly on +occasions than legislatures elsewhere; but the occasions are rare. + +My visit to the Caf Fornos was not for nothing, after all. There was a +scene there too. A group of low fellows, overheated with wine, entered +about eight o'clock, while the immense hall on the ground-floor was +crowded with Radical deputies, officers, and quiet Madrileos who +frequent it nightly, and commenced bellowing for the Republic after +their hearts--that is to say, the Republic, Federal, Social, and +Uncompromising. The shout was taken up by another group outside, which +blocked up the entrance in the Calle de Alcal. It was evidently a +premeditated manifestation. A Republican deputy who was present tried to +calm the disorderly crew, but to no purpose. They had come to shout, +and they would have their shout out. Seor Estvanez, the civil +governor, was dining in a room upstairs, but Seor Estvanez did not +leave his repast. When the thirsty and uncompromising federal social +citizens were hoarse they retired. They had effectually succeeded in +annoying the coffee-drinking tyrants who had the impudence to wear +broadcloth, and they withdrew to drain bumpers to their tremendous +exploit elsewhere. + +These individuals were all in favour of the "social liquidation." This +cry of the drones had partisans in every citizen with an empty pocket +and a patch on his garments, for it means that the provident shall be +robbed to satisfy the improvident. But nathless these agitators, Spain, +I was told, was likely to be quiet for five or six weeks--that is, quiet +in the Spanish sense, with an insurrection in one stage of heat or +another, smouldering or flaming, in half a dozen provinces. The +elections would be tranquil, with "scrimmages" here and there; they +would not be elections without. The voting is by ballot. Theoretically +the system is faultless, but in practice jugglery is possible, and does +habitually occur. The alcalde has some influence in the matter, so has +the parish priest, so has the nearest large landed proprietor, so has +the local police functionary, and so has the mob. Ballot-boxes have been +broken open or have disappeared mysteriously. And thus it happens that a +Spanish constituency sends in a buff man as its representative by a +crushing majority at one election, and a blue man or a red man by a +crushing majority at the next. The constituency has not changed in the +interval, but the Minister in the Gobernacion, or, as we should call it, +the Home Office, has. There lies the secret. + +I pass over small squabbles, which were of daily occurrence at the +Palace of the Congress, to come to the sitting of the 21st March, 1873, +which deserves to be handed down to history. On that day the Bill for +the Abolition of Slavery in Porto Rico was introduced by Castelar, in a +speech over which all Madrid went into raptures. The "inimitable +tribune," as his admirers call him, surpassed himself. He led off in the +usual oratorical style by pretending that he was not going to be +oratorical--"the bench on which he sat was one for actions, not +words"--and then, in the usual oratorical style, he contrived to say so +many words that the official paper next morning was full of them. + +His first speech, made when he was but twenty-one, in the year 1854, was +on the very same subject, as he reminded his hearers. The Christian +religion, he said in the course of his remarks, was the religion of the +slave, and the Apocalypse the poem of the slave. Christ was the +descendant of enslaved kings, a bondsman of Roman conquerors. But I must +give up the attempt to follow the "inimitable tribune;" his lengthened +and dazzling chain of eloquence was too elaborate to be picked up link +by link. He was historical, passionate, and poetical by turns, but +always intensely rhetorical, keeping a close watchfulness for effect, +for Seor Castelar does not argue so much as declaim. He had the good +taste to defend the Radical Ministry from the charge of having acted in +favour of emancipation because the influence of the United States was +brought to bear upon it. Such a course, he asserted, would be unworthy +of the dignity and independence of the country. + +I must tell you that the way to make Spain recoil from doing an act she +admits to be good and needful is to counsel her to do it--she will not +be advised by others. It would not be Spanish. If a Spaniard has a +notion of getting himself re-vaccinated, take care, if you are a friend +of his, how you talk to him on the subject. If you recommend him to have +the operation performed, he will change his mind at once. He will not be +bidden, he will risk small-pox in preference. It may happen that he will +die, but at all events he will have the satisfaction of having had his +own way. + +Seor Castelar flattered the self-love of his countrymen by assuring +them that they were magnanimous of their own free will, and not because +foreigners had advised them to be magnanimous. He next delivered himself +of some tuneful periods about humanity, and then wandered off into a +spoken essay on the behaviour of the great European Powers on this +question of serfdom. He alluded to England as "the least democratic, but +most liberal of nations," and praised Russia for having set Spain the +example of unriveting the shackles of the slave. He apostrophized the +opponents of abolition, telling them that on their heads would fall the +responsibility if the law were not passed, but that he and his +colleagues would be answerable for the consequences if the law were +passed. Then the speaker waxed patriotic, and spoke the stereotyped +sentences on the glory and grandeur of Spain. Why should there be +rivalries between Creoles and Peninsulars--those who were born in the +colonies and those who were born in the mother-country? It was +deplorable. Were they not all of the same race? Was not the blood of the +Cid and of Pelayo careering in all their noble veins, and the spirit of +Spain living in all their generous souls? His peroration was +grandiloquent; he appealed to them to cease their bickerings, to close +up their ranks, and to labour unitedly for the maintenance of order, +authority, and the integrity of the territory, and they would earn the +benediction of history and of conscience, which was much more, for it +was the benediction of God. + +At the close of his discourse, which was incontrovertibly a masterpiece, +Seor Castelar was surrounded by numerous colleagues, and warmly +congratulated. His speech established among other welcome things that +the orator-minister was no atheist. His remarks breathed the truest +Christianity. Next it was manifest that Spain, Republican as +Monarchical, would not, without a bitter struggle, cede one inch of +territory over which the national flag floated. Those who were +interested in the retention of slavery in the colonies were the holders +of slave property, and the deputies who had lived there and shaken the +pagoda-tree to some purpose, and who, now that they were back in Spain, +had a grateful recollection of what they owed to slavery. Those +gentlemen predicted that the immediate emancipation of the negro would +be the ruin of the colonies, and would inevitably lead to their loss by +the mother-country. The Ministry of King Amadeus originally brought in +the measure for the abolition of slavery in Porto Rico, preliminary to +the introduction of another to get rid of the system in Cuba. The chief +argument against the measure was that it was due to intriguing on the +part of American politicians, whose object was to smooth the way to the +ultimate incorporation of the Antilles with the United States. The +sincerity of American friendship is suspected by Spaniards. They know +that Uncle Sam has a longing eye on the islands in the Caribbean Sea; +and has already tried to negotiate Spain out of her American +possessions. Spain, recollecting this keenly, mistrusts him. And Seor +Castelar, whilst acquitting his predecessors in office of having acted +at the suggestion of the United States, let it be very plainly +understood that this Republic would fight that other and greater and +aggrandizing Republic to her last man and last dollar, before she would +consent to the abandonment of one square foot of soil. The vested rights +of slave-owners would not suffer completely, for the bill embraced a +proposition to pay them an indemnity equivalent to eighty per cent. of +the value of their live chattels. Forty per cent. of this was to be +guaranteed by the mother-country, and forty by the enfranchised colony, +so that twenty per cent. was the comparatively small pecuniary +sacrifice the inheritors of an odious system would have to make to +conscience. + +Whether the manumission of the bondsman in Cuba, which was bound to +come, would hasten the independence of that island--or, what was more +likely, its annexation to the United States--I am not competent to +pronounce. Ultimately, it is the conviction of the wise and experienced +that the Queen of the Antilles must achieve her independence; but it +will be less on account of abolition than for reasons geographical, +climatic, and military. The ocean rolls between Spain and the sunny +cluster of isles, the climate is deadly to the Spanish soldier, and the +Spanish army cannot afford a perpetual depletion. + +Nobody in Spain dares to defend slavery as moral, or protest against its +abolition on grounds higher than those of political expediency. The +adversaries of the bill affirmed that gradual abolition would be safer +than immediate abolition, and that the matter could well afford to wait. +The newly-proclaimed Republic had interests of far greater present +importance to attend to, they said; but the philo-negrists retorted that +it was a shame not to free the negro under the Republic, which was based +on the broad principle of freedom to all, without distinction of colour, +and that a beneficent and noble act could not be done too soon. If the +Monarchy had lasted, there could be no denying it, this project of +abolition would have been enacted without fail. + +Late in the night, after Castelar had delivered his oration, Seor +Figueras returned from his trip to the provinces. He was met at the +railway-station by groups of friends, personal and political, and +escorted to his residence, where he was serenaded by the band of a +regiment of foot artillery. The night was dark and rainy, which was an +ingratitude to the patriotism of the musicians. If it did not savour of +ill-nature one might be permitted to remark that speeches, however +splendid as specimens of composition from a bench, which the speaker +admits should be one for acts, not words, and midnight clangours of a +brass band under the dripping window-sills of a tired Minister, were +hardly what was needed most and first in the country. But Spain is not +like any place else. + +On the 22nd the Assembly sat until seven, when there was a break-up of +two hours for refreshments; after which was held a night sitting (a most +unusual thing), prolonged until half-past one the next morning. This was +the last of that Assembly. The powers of the Cortes, save and excepting +such as were purely legislative, were delegated to a Permanent Committee +of twenty, which was to aid Ministers in their task, until the meeting +of the Constituent Cortes. In the interval between the two sittings this +committee was chosen by the nominating sections of the Radical and +Republican parties respectively, all shades of opinion being represented +upon it. The President of the Assembly, the four Vice-Presidents, and +the four Secretaries, held _ex-officio_ seats on the board. An analysis +of the names of the twenty-nine shows that there were fourteen Radicals, +eight Federals, four Conciliadores (who may be counted with the +Federals), two Conservatives, and an Alfonsist. + +This moribund sitting was unique in its unanimity and enthusiasm. The +Bill for the Abolition of Slavery in Porto Rico was passed without a +dissentient voice. There was kissing and clasping of hands, and friendly +hugging all round. Seor Padial and General Sanz, who were anxious to +fight a duel to the death a few days before, met in the Salon de +Conferencias and made up their quarrel. They cemented their +reconciliation with an embrace, and one sentimental Deputy who was +looking on, cried, "May this be an auspicious omen of the union between +Spain and the Antilles!" Seor Figueras promised that the Executive +Power would faithfully see to the maintenance of order during the +elections. Another seor proposed that the act they had accomplished on +the date of the 23rd should be recorded on a marble tablet, to be +erected in the chamber. The proposition was received with cheers; and +truly the act which knocked the chains off the limbs of 35,000 slaves +merited record. The Marquis of Sardoal, who occupied the presidential +throne, prayed God to enlighten the minds of the Government and the +Permanent Committee, and then declared the Assembly dissolved. There +were loud shouts for the "Federal Republic," and just one weak voice for +the "Spanish Republic." + +The clouds had blown over. Now was the hour for congratulations. Many +persons who were preparing to send away their families resolved to let +them remain. I had no further occupation in Madrid. A Deputy who had +thirty years' experience of life in the capital told me that this was +the last place in Spain where there was likely to be a disturbance for +the present; but he added, "If you think of going elsewhere, be sure to +give me an address where I can telegraph to you, for something may +always turn up." I had waited nigh five weeks in the expectation of that +something turning up, and at length I began to think I had better seek +fresh fields and take a look at real Spain. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + The Writer Turns Churlish and Quits Madrid--Sleep under + Difficulties--A Bad Dream--Santa Cruz again--Off St. + Helena!--Dissertation on Stomach Matters--A Hint to British Railway + Directors--"Odds, Hilts and Blades"--A Delicate Little Gentleman is + Curious--The "Tierra Deleitosa"--That Butcher again. + + +"If you want to see real Spain," said the British Minister to me, "don't +stop here longer than you can help. Go south." That fixed me. With a +natural impulsiveness I pronounced "the imperial and crowned, very noble +and very loyal and very heroic town"--all which titles it bears--a fraud +and a failure as far as my calling was concerned. There had been great +cry and little wool. I was as churlish as a hangman cheated of his +client. That terrible thing which was perpetually on the eve of coming +to pass had not come to pass. After all, I reflected, it was for the +better; for if there had been stupendous tidings to wire, the +Government telegraphic system would have broken down under the +operation. A message more than twenty lines long was a shock to the +clerks, and set them discussing so excitedly that they let the fire of +their cigarettes die out. The "only court" grew hateful to my mind. It +had produced no men to charm by, save Frey Lope de Vega Carpio, Don +Pedro Calderon de la Barca, and the Maestro Tirso de Molina--and they +were dead. It was a nest of political hornets, and head-quarters of +hyperbole; flimsy feathers of lying gossip floated thick as midges in +midsummer air; as in Athens, the populace spent its leisure, which was +the best part of its life, in nothing but hearing or telling new +stories. I would shake the dust of the Prado off my feet, in testimony +against the unsatisfying capital. Architecturally, it was a +higgledy-piggledy of houses on a high bare site; climatically, it was a +mixture of furnace and hall of winds; socially, it was slow, and a +disappointment; intellectually, it was below zero. My parting words--I +cannot say my farewell--will be framed on those of Jugurtha to Rome: +"_Urbem venalem et mature perituram, si emtorem invenerit._" + +I paid a good-bye visit, with thoughts of a stirrup-cup, to Maceehan, at +the Fornos, and discovered him listening to Bret Harte's poem of "Table +Mountain," recited by Russell Young, who was lolling on a sofa in an +upstairs cabinet. The dentist did not seem to "take much stock in it." +An appreciation of the horrors of Chinese cheap labour requires a +liberal antecedent education on the Pacific slope. Dr. Maceehan was, for +his own sake, sincerely sorry I was going away; but for my sake he was +glad, as I had been overworking myself, and was badly in want of a kick +in the liver. + +It is an error to speak of any city or people when you are under the +influence of sluggish bile, for you are liable to do them injustice. It +is a sin not to withdraw the unjust words. I am tempted to sin; but on +consideration I follow the example familiar in a certain legislature, +and take back the unparliamentary language into which I have been +betrayed by jecoral derangement. Honour to the manes of Uxem-Ali-Beck, +Ambassador from the Shah of Persia, who came to Madrid in 1601, and fell +in love there. He liked it. I fell in love ten times a day, but nobody +would fall in love with me. + +On a Sunday night at nine o'clock, I quitted the city, and on Tuesday +morning I had my hair trimmed by a barber of Seville. The journey, like +most long railway journeys, is one of infinite weariness to the flesh. +The first-class carriages are roomy and well-padded, so that short +travelling, except for invalids, is comfortable enough. The correo, or +mail train--that which I took--leaves but once in twenty-four hours, +and, in consequence of carrying the mails, has to stop at every station, +so that its progress is slow, albeit the quickest to be had for money. +There were nine sociable young Spaniards in the compartment with me. The +gauge of the road is wide, admitting of five broad seats at each side, +and the motion of the train is easy and nurses to sleep, without that +violent rocking which one sometimes experiences while rattling +northwards from London in the Flying Scotchman. But the backs of the +seats are stiff and straight as a Prussian drill-sergeant, and do not +nurse, but "murder sleep," as I speedily found to my sorrow. However, +they do nurse a crick in the neck. I was woke out of a wayward doze just +as I was about to undergo the punishment of death by the garrote. I had +been dreaming a fearsome dream. In a weak moment I had accepted the +crown of Spain. I had granted my subjects every conceivable privilege, +pandered to all their crazes, gone so far as to give them a bull-fight +every day in the week and two on Sundays and festivals, paying all +expenses out of my own royal pockets. But they were not to be satisfied, +unless I would go into the bull-ring myself. That was the straw that +breaks the camel's back. I flatly refused. They rebelled, kicked me off +the throne, led me in a felon's yellow coat on a wretched donkey to the +place of execution, and planted me in the fatal chair. Most poignant +humiliation yet, all the crowned heads of Europe, led by the Czar of +Russia, were invited to the spectacle and joined in a howling chorus of +"Serve him right." I looked my last around, and woke up with a toss of +my noddle against the back of the seat. We were at Alczar. A +fellow-traveller kindly offered to let me lay my head between his legs +if I would give him my carpet-bag for a pillow. There is nothing like +reciprocal accommodation on a journey. I agreed, the train started +again, and I lost myself in the land of Nod. This time I was following +the campaign against the Carlists. Suddenly I was roused by a cry-- + +"Santa Cruz!" + +I knuckled my eyes, the carriage was motionless, and I distinctly heard +the name of the dreaded priest Santa Cruz repeated. This was no dream. +Had I mistaken the terminus? Had I been speeding northwards all this +time? I was in a most perplexed tangle of mind, half pleased at the +prospect of meeting the redoubtable Cura in person, half apprehensive +lest I might give lodging to a chance bullet, and miss the opportunity +of describing him. As I was preparing to jump out, the tram moved on +anew. I turned to the railway guide and discovered the explanation of +the mystery. Santa Cruz is a station on the Andalusian line between Val +de Peas and Almuradiel. A third time I fell asleep, to be roused by +another cry-- + +"St. Helena!" + +Taught by former experience, I was not to be discomposed now. We had +pierced the bowels of the Sierra Morena, and Santa Elena was but the +name of a station on its southern side. The next time I fell off I +enjoyed a genuine sleep. I do not think it would have roused me if "Salt +Lake" or "Skibbereen" had been shouted in my ear through a +speaking-trumpet. + +At Menjibar, where we arrived about ten in the morning, there was a +delay of twenty minutes for breakfast. By way of whet, I presume, my +fellow-travellers all lit cigarettes as we were gliding up by the +platform. This Spanish railway restaurant was a reproach to Mugby +Junction. It was scrupulously clean, the fare was excellent, and the +tariff moderate. The price of every article was legibly painted in +distemper on the walls. Premising that a real is, roundly speaking, +twopence halfpenny of our money, a list of some of the viands and +liquids to be had and their cost will be interesting--only the reader is +requested not to open the book previous to bolting his food at the +hurry-up and grab-all refreshment-room at Amiens, or when he is about to +confront scalding soup and monumental sandwiches at some of our British +buffets. It might ruffle his temper and jeopardize his digestion. A +breakfast consisting of a couple of eggs, two plates of meat or fish, +dessert, bread and wine, can be had for twelve reals. The wine is the +common wine of the country, and pleasant and healthy tipple it is when +you get used to it. You can procure a baby bottle full for one real, and +if you like to be extravagant you can pay twenty-four for a bottle of +Bordeaux, or forty for a bottle of champagne. The Bordeaux is too dear. +As for champagne, nobody drinks that habitually except kings of the +Bonanza dynasty; but myriads of men, especially at race-meetings, drink +a beverage which they take for the bubbling, roseate, kindling nectar +with inspiration in every wavering pearlet. "Fizz," I think they call +it. I hope they enjoy it. "Compound of crime at a sovereign a quart" +(see James Smith's poems somewhere), I call it. He who quaffs champagne +at dinner, save on a foggy day, is unworthy of God's gifts. The proper +hour for the absorption of that delicious exhilarant is at eleven in the +forenoon, and then but two glasses at the most should be taken. These +glasses should not be the absurd shallow lapping-glasses, nor yet the +slender stork-glasses, but the goodly tumbler. If it be summer, there +should be a lump of ice in the crystal goblet; and the connoisseur will +always hold it between him and the sunlight before imbibition, and +ejaculate, "There's a picture!" For these hints I am indebted to that +princely gourmet of palate most exquisite, John Kavanagh, of the Inman +ocean-ferry line, Founder and President of the Cocktail Club, of which I +am the Laureate. Returning from our divagation, the amateur of beer may +have a big bottle at these Spanish railway hotels for four reals, but I +counsel him abstention. It is never advisable to drink beer in a +wine-growing country. The soul of Sir Wilfrid Lawson would be elevated +to the height of successful joke-making at the catalogue of the +teetotal drinks, which range from sugared water to milk and orangeade. +My weakness is egg-flip. For dinner, which is to be partaken of at +fourteen reals, one has a soup, a fry, an _entre_, a roast, a salad, +two sweets or fruits, bread and wine. The _entres_ are usually rib of +mutton, veal or a beefsteak, which sometimes makes you think there is +something like leather. A hen, which is a luxury, rates at fourteen +reals, but a tortilla of the hen's eggs is to be preferred. If any +complaints are felt to be necessary as to attendance or provand, the +station-master has a volume wherein to write them down at the disposal +of travellers. + +From Menjibar we steamed along through a beautiful landscape of this +beautiful province of Andalusia. The fields were emerald green and ought +to be fertile, but they seemed to lack cultivation. Very few persons +were to be seen working in them. In proportion as nature had been +prodigal, man appeared to be lazy. Still, viewed as the painter, not the +agriculturist would view it, the landscape was delicious in its quiet +loveliness. Patches of silvery grey--that dreamy neutral silvery grey +which is to be caught in perfection on willows played upon by +moonlight--here and there lightened the mellow masses of verdure. Those +were olive groves. The hills on the horizon, seen through an odd curtain +of rain, for the day was showery, had the vaporous hazy outline of some +of Murillo's pictures. Anon we passed by the bridge of Alcolea, the +scene of the defeat of Queen Isabella's forces under Nouvaliches by +Serrano in 1868. The field is altogether too pretty to have been defiled +by a sanguinary episode of civil war. A gently winding stream courses +'mid rich undulating meadows at the base of a ridge of hills covered +with cottages enbowered in plantations and orchards. As if inflamed by +the warlike associations of the locality, my companions produced +sword-canes, dirks and poniards, and began comparing them with the air +of experts. Not one of these sociable young Spaniards was unprovided +with a lethal weapon. I was devoutly thankful that they had not got to +talking politics on the road, or I might have had to deplore the absence +of a bye-law applying to passengers carrying edged tools from that code +which so carefully shuts out the drunkard, and insists that nobody with +a loaded gun or pistol shall enter a carriage. + +At Crdoba the train stopped, and we changed carriages for the +Andalusian capital. During my short stay I was invited to take my choice +of a varied assortment of daggers, navajas, skeens, and stylets, which a +sturdy hawker, who looked as if he knew how to handle them, had strung +round his waist. + +The fellow was a perfect walking arsenal, or rather a peripatetic bit of +Sheffield, and expatiated affectionately on the temper and cutting +qualities of his wares. I declined to buy. He showed his teeth, and told +me I might go farther and fare worse. I was very happy to take him at +his word, and get into a carriage that was going as far as Seville, +which was occupied by only one person, a delicate little gentleman with +a bright, keen, kindly face. To him came a courier as he leant out of +the carriage-window. + +"Why does one see so many Scotch caps about?" asked the little +gentleman, in English. + +"Because Gibraltar is near, and there are smugglers there," answered the +courier. + +"Why does one see so many dogs about?" asked the little gentleman. + +"Because they find more food here than at home," answered the courier. + +"Why does not one see the train start to time?" asked the little +gentleman. + +"Because this is Spain," answered the courier. + +That was conclusive, and the little gentleman drew in his head and sat +down opposite me. He was a charming companion, a young American of +culture and courtly manners, who was travelling in Spain for his health. +He loved the country and the people, and told me many anecdotes of acts +of kindness of which, being sickly, he had been the object from this +strange, tender, passionate race, as ready with generous help as with +the stiletto-point. Poor little gentleman! I fear he has made a void in +some fond household long since, for he was sore stricken with decline. + +"The Spaniard," he said, "in fine, is the most courteous of men; he +never sits down to eat in your presence without offering you a share of +his meal." And it is true. + +From Crdoba to Seville the way lies through a land of delights--the +"tierra deleitosa" of Andalusia. Again we swept by green fields and +silvery grey olive groves; anon we skirted vivid clusters of +orange-trees laden with the great luscious fruit, which is ever in +season. On we passed by plains bristling with huge spiky clumps of aloes +alternating with growths of Barbary figs, until, towards twilight, we +came in sight of the Guadalquivir with its boats, and on the farther +side, near a copse of cypress, the walls of the Cartuja Convent, now +turned into a porcelain factory by an enterprising Englishman, who makes +imitation Moorish tiles where the hooded friars sang matins and lauds. + +It was seven o'clock when we drove into "proud Seville," too late to +look at any of her marvels, but not too late to enjoy a good dinner in +the Fonda de Paris, a namesake and branch of the hotel where I had been +stopping at Madrid. My _vis--vis_ at the dinner-table was the Saragossa +butcher--I began to think now he was a political agent--who had been my +_vis--vis_ on my tedious ride over the mountains from Beasain to +Alsasua. Was this varlet on my track? I began to entertain serious +apprehensions on the score. It has been my lot for years to have been +shadowed by _mouchards_, gendarmes, detectives, and policemen. + +My goings-out and my comings-in have been noted; my house has been +watched by hulking louts in uniform whom their foolish superiors pitched +upon as accomplished pryers; nay, even a female with _pince-nez_, +sealskin jacket, long purse, and an Ollendorffian intimacy with most +Continental tongues, has been cunningly slipped at my heels. I have +been, thank the Lord, misunderstood by fools, belied by knaves, avoided +by the timorous, tabooed by the contemptibly "respectable" (odious +word), and slandered by scoundrels whom I had befriended. Heads have +been wagged, and I have been adjudged a deep card and a dangerous +character. Nothing could be got out of _me_. + +The explanation is simple. I had nothing to conceal. You cannot squeeze +aqua tofana out of a stone. I was suspected, I take it now, because, in +the exercise of my vocation, I had been thrown into the society of +Communists, Nihilists, Fenians, and Carbonari. Had I confined myself to +card-sharpers, prize-fighters, copper captains, hypocrites, libertines, +and ladies of the Loosened Cincture, all would have been well. And yet, +'fore Heaven, I can assure the Powers, great and small, I have never +meditated wrong to a State or a potentate, never harboured an unkind +thought for a dog, and never joined a secret society but the Order of +Antediluvian Buffaloes, and they expelled me from the lodge for +unbuffalo-like behaviour. + +If I was sure that Saragossa butcher was a spy, I would not put prussic +acid in his chocolate, but I almost think I would sprinkle cowhage +between his sheets. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + Delectable Seville--Don Juan Scapegrace--The Women in Black--In the + Triana Suburb--The City of the Seven Sleepers--Guide-Book + Boredom--Romance and Reality--The Prosaic Manchester Man--King + Ferdinand Puzzling the Judges--Mortification by Proxy--Some Notable + Treasures--Papers and Politics--The Porcelain Factory--"The Lazy + Andalusiennes"--About Cigars--The Gipsy Dance. + + +There are but three spots in the world of which I had formed mental +pictures from my reading, that rose to the level of anticipation when I +came to visit them. Venice was one of these, Naples another, and +Seville, delectable Seville, the third. There is a Spanish proverb which +declares, "Who hath not seen Seville hath not seen a marvel," and I am +prepared to own that who doth not believe that proverb is an unenviable +sceptic. At first sight the city is a disappointment. Glance at it from +the railway and you will have no wish to stop. But alight and remain +there a few days, and you will find it hard to drag yourself away. The +place grows upon you. Each hour reveals new charms; there is a +fascination in the very atmosphere; and in the end you will catch +yourself exclaiming that the pearl of Andalusia is the fairest gem in +the Spanish crown--would be a priceless ornament to any crown. + +The setting of the jewel is not worthy of it--a great plain covered with +greyish grass; clumps of tall, brown-blossomed agave; a sky metallic in +its lustre, blazing and intense; a dim streak of azure on the horizon +indicating the far sierra, and, creeping lazily through the flat, a +dull, yellow river. But the city itself! Verily, it is a marvel--a +grotto of serene mysteries in a granary of plenty, the true city to +cultivate the gay science and savour the delicate relishes of bliss. + +Don Juan--I mean the Don Juan of the Tenorio family, linked to fame by +Tirso de Molina, Glck, and Mozart, not the hero of Byron's poem--was +born here, lived here, and lies under an ivy-clad sarcophagus in the +gardens attached to the Duke de Monpensier's palace. No sweeter nook of +earth could he have chosen for life's dreary pilgrimage, which he made +as little dreary as he well could, if one-half that is said and sung of +him be true. He was a sad scapegrace, and no pattern to the rising +generation; his back knew no sackcloth, and his shoes no peas; but he +died penitent. His tomb, a chaste thing in marble and brass, ought to be +as attractive for pilgrims of the Wertherian school as the monument to +Ablard in the Pre-la-Chaise. + +Threading the puzzling maze of Seville streets, one might fancy that all +the ladies here had been in love with the wanton rascal, and were still +in mourning for him. The dress of womankind of the better class is +invariably black; their tiny feet, coffined in dainty shoes, peep from +under a pall of black skirts; black mantillas float over billows of inky +hair, while black eyes flash with the melancholy fire of funeral torches +over the tremulous tips of black fans. Why they patronize black (which +is a conductor of heat) in this hot climate I cannot for the life of me +make out. Certainly it is not because of sympathies solemn or +lugubrious; for the character of these lissom damsels of Seville is the +reverse of gloomy. There is no taint of Inquisitorial days in their +souls. They are grave only externally, and all that is coquettish, +winning, and womanly within. If they hang out the undertaker's emblems +it can only be through love of the rule of contraries, for they are arch +in every step and glance, and bring sunshine with them into shady +places. They are fond of seeing and being seen; they cannot be looked on +as mutes, for they carry a fan, which in Spain is equivalent to a +semaphore; why then will they persevere in wearing this sepulchral +raiment? I flatter myself I have discovered two reasons, either of which +will answer--first, to typify their remorse for all the hearts they have +broken; and, next, because it is very becoming. + +The women of the lower classes do not confine themselves to the same +severity of taste. They are as amorous of glaring colours as negresses. +Cross the iron bridge over the Guadalquivir, here a slow current of +chocolate and milk, and go into the Triana suburb where Tatterdemalion +holds court. There you will meet gowns of printed cotton of the +liveliest hue--gowns that flaunt violent pinks and gamboges, but never a +violet or a pearl-grey, much less a black. These daughters of the people +generally adorn their braided dark hair, which is thick and silky enough +to drive a Parisian belle into agonies of jealousy, with a few bright +natural flowers, and sport cheap trinkets and ear-rings, and fling gay +kerchiefs over their shoulders. The men are as true to the native +costume as the women. That abomination, the stove-pipe hat, seldom +shocks the sthetic mind. The head-gear is the wide round hat with low +crown and inward-turned brim. The large blue or brown cloak, with +parti-coloured lining, is almost universally worn as in Madrid, but with +this difference: in Madrid the tail of it is held before the mouth as if +there was an epidemic of toothache; in Seville, it drapes full and free. +The Andalusian jacket--broidered with tags, and short so as to show the +scarlet waist-sash--tight trousers, and shoes of untanned leather, are +likewise common. A tidy active working-suit this Andalusian suit is, but +it must no more be argued that the men who wear it are tidy and active +and addicted to hard work than that the women who wear black are going +to a burial-service. No; Seville is the most deliciously idle place in +creation, and the Sevillanos are the most deliciously idle people. + +The _vis inerti_ is cultivated here as a science; the Castle of +Indolence is somewhere in the vicinity; the central offices of the Lazy +Society are situated in the Calle de las Sierpes. The natives take to +lotus-eating naturally. Pure effect of climate. The Seven Sleepers were +born in Seville, and their descendants still have their torpid being in +the city. It was never meant for the bustle of trade or the whirr of +machinery. It is the place of all others to read Theocritus, 'mid bowers +dipping their leaves into plashing fountains, to eat fruit, listen to +distant music, blow languid wreaths of perfumed smoke, and shut one's +eyes to have visions of fair women. It is the veritable opium-eater's +Paradise. + +Of deliberate design, I abstain from writing of the public buildings and +monumental curiosities of Seville. All that can be had by those who +choose in the exhaustive guide-books of Richard Ford and Henry O'Shea. +To my thinking, nothing can be more insufferable than the statistics of +architecture, the bald jargon of styles plateresque and ornaments +charrigueresque, the raptures over chancels and transepts and ogee +windows, the precise accounts of such a bell, which would turn the scale +at so many hundredweight, and such a spire, which is three yards and a +quarter taller than the York Column, with the everlasting scraps of +poetry from the treasury of ready-made quotations interlarded between. +It is worse even than the cant of criticism which Laurence Sterne +castigated with honest pen. Hugo was a genius, and even Hugo was almost +unequal to saving "Notre Dame de Paris" from the dead weight of +architectural detail which cumbered its spirit. + +Let us look at Seville without the guide-book or guide, walk through its +labyrinth of narrow paved streets with mind open to receive, and mark +the features of the East side by side with those of the West. Those +flat-roofed buildings with greeneries on the summit, those jealous +balconies and windows with their iron trellis-work, those cool inner +spaces with tesselated floors and surrounding of marble pillars of which +we catch glimpses through the metal fret-work of the private doors--how +Moorish they are! The sights and sounds, the ragged and bronzed beggar +urchins, the hawkers of lemons and water, the strings of donkeys and +mules in fringed blinkers pattering along under huge net or straw +panniers, crammed with fruit, or charcoal, or tiles, or cork-wood--how +characteristic, how utterly un-Frankish! That lolling clown, with legs +dangling over the tawny sheared sides of a diminutive donkey, is a study +in himself. Then the melodious street-cries, the lively braying and +whinnying, and the perpetual tinkling of the collar-bells worn by all +four-footed beasts that pass, except nobody's dog and the rich man's +horse--what a pleasant concert they make! + +If you wish to change the scene, roam through the plazas, with their +marble water-basins and orange-trees; go to the Duke de Montpensier's +garden, with its wealth of myrtles and fern palms; wander to the +river-side and look at the ships lading or unlading; or ascend the +Giralda, the old mosque steeple from which the muezzin called the +faithful to prayer, and take in the comely mass of colour beneath in one +broad sweep. Then the changing sky that canopies this "fragment of +heaven let fall upon earth!" The riot of clouds when the elements war, +and after the midday heats the genial rain pours down as if the blue +expanse overheard were a lake--how fervent and cordial! At night, when +the city streets are crowded with groups in conversation; when the +fragrant, flower-garlanded patios are visible by mystic lights pendent +from gilt chandeliers, like votive lamps before a shrine; when +caballeros pay court to their lady-loves through gratings as caballeros +are licensed only to pay court in Spain; when plaintive songs, with a +reminiscence of the desert about them, are chanted in monotonous cadence +to the accompaniment of a guitar--how grateful it all is to him who is +not lost to the sense of poetry! Imperceptibly one yields himself to the +associations of the bygone, and imagination takes wing. As the night +ages and silence enwraps the scene--a silence only broken by the deep +boom from a clock-tower or the voice of the sereno, the Spanish +watchman, hobbling along with his lantern swinging from his pike and his +bunch of keys from his girdle, singing out the hours--the effect is +stronger; and I confess, while roaming in such a frame once, I so lost +myself to the present that I should not have been surprised if I had met +the Knight of La Mancha and the three gallants of the _Canard Trois +Becs_ in mocking whispers at his heels, or Figaro himself on a +serenading excursion; but with the last puff of my cigar died out the +ideal and returned the real. I hastened back to my hotel, which might +once have been a Moorish palace, and there, to make the assurance doubly +sure that this was the nineteenth century, sat in an American +rocking-chair a gentleman in a tweed suit, reading _Galignani's +Messenger_ and drinking pale ale. + +That gentleman was not a poet; he was an English tourist. It was the +period before the Holy Week, with its world-renowned solemnities, +celebrated with a pomp second only to that of Rome in her heyday, and +drawing strangers in swarms from every point of the compass. If I +expected to enjoy an intellectual chat with that gentleman I was +mistaken. + +"Only fancy!" he began; "the landlord has been here, and the beggar says +we'll have to pay double for board and lodging if we don't clear out +before the 5th of April." + +To my explanation that a time of deep interest was at hand, and that +accommodation would be at a premium, Manchester (I felt instinctively he +must be a commercial traveller and in the dry-goods line) continued: +"Yes, I know: bull-fights, Italian opera at the San Fernando, races, fat +women, talking seals, peep-shows, whirligigs--all the fun of the fair. +By Jove! I've half a mind to hang on." + +He had not heard of the grand open-air religious processions from Palm +Sunday to Good Friday, nor of the uniquely pathetic service of the +_Tenebr_, nor of the gorgeous jubilance of Easter Sunday. Some enemy to +Seville spread the rumour that the Republic had set its face against +such ceremonies as mere gauds and vanities, customs more honoured in +the breach than the observance, and that this year they would not be +held. But Seville would not have it so; she would not relinquish her +chance of enjoying a religious raree-show and fleecing the foreigner for +any Republicans. The civil governor issued a proclamation comforting the +lieges by the pledge that now, as ever, the Holy Week would be grandly +kept, kept in a way worthy of cultured Seville, and cultured Seville +rubbed her hands with glee. Crowds were expected to flock in, and the +master of the hotel intended to act royally by them--that is, exact +tribute from them whilst they were at his mercy. Seville meant to be +awfully devout during Passion Week, and awfully jolly the week after. On +Easter Sunday there was to be a bull-fight, one of the finest in Spain, +between the greatest of living toreadores and some bulls of choicely +savage breed. The annual fair, which was represented to me as a revel of +glowing and changing tints in dress--a treat not to be missed by the +artist on any account--was to be held in the middle of April, and +speculative committees were busy over the details of race-meetings, +balls, fireworks, and merry-making generally. + +I pressed the representative of the mart of cotton not to depart. But he +was obdurate to arguments touching on the sthetic. For him the sacred +Biblico-traditional drama of "The Seven Dolours of the Virgin Mary" had +no attraction. He preferred fireworks and the learned pig. + +"No," he added, as if musing; "on second thought, I shan't. Bull-fights +I can see at Madrid; and the only race-meeting worth attending, I'm +told, is that at the place where the sherry is manufactured." + +"Surely," I ventured, with artless good-nature, "you will wait to +patronize Mr. Spiller, who is advertised as skater-in-ordinary to the +Duke of Edinburgh. It will be something to boast of, that you saw him +gliding and gyrating before the astonished natives, whose only idea of +ice is in the shape of creams, dyed a delicate amber, and tinctured with +essence of lemon. Then, again, your countryman, old Tom Price, the Batty +of the Peninsula, has pitched his tent on the Alameda of Hercules. He's +not to be missed." + +"Tom Price--bah! You should go to Astley's, in the Westminster Bridge +Road, my boy. That fairly takes the cake. I'm off!" + +He went, and I was not sorry; but the spell was broken. I was guest of +an inn. My elysian train of reverie had been smashed up; the genius of +dry-goods had evicted poetry under circumstances of aggravated +harshness; before the stamp of the elastic-sided boot of Manchester, +Pedro the Cruel and Alonso the Wise, Murillo and Luca Giordano, Maria de +Padilla and Leonora de Guzman, "el Rey Chiquito" Boabdil and the heir of +Columbus--all had melted into thinnest of air. + +Inexorable duty called me elsewhere before the Holy Week solemnities, so +that I have no opportunity of describing them _de proprio visu_, and I +do not care to rehearse twice-told tales. But whilst I was in Seville I +wandered to and fro and made good use of my leisure, hearing and seeing +as much as most visitors. Of those things which remain imprinted on my +memory I may repeat some without incurring--at least so I trust--the +imputation of boring the reader. There was a basin in the gardens of the +Alczar, where I was wont to sit beneath the shade of the foliage in +the strong heats of noon. There is an anecdote concerning it which +impressed me mightily. King Ferdinand was here one day, and was sore +perplexed by an affair of state. He required a just and astute judge to +decide some vexed question of the first importance. Walking up and down +he unconsciously picked an orange, cut it in twain, and flung one half +into the water, the cut side downwards. Suddenly an idea struck him. The +monarch sent for a judge, and asked what was that floating before him. + +"An orange," was the answer. + +Irritated, he dismissed him, summoned another, put the same question, +and received the same reply. This went on until at length one authority, +before answering, drew the fruit towards him with the branch of a tree, +picked it out of the water, and gave the true reply: + +"Half an orange!" + +There is a sound moral at the core of this orange. + +There are five-and-twenty parish churches in Seville and two thousand +priests; but, as too often happens on the Continent, the women were +vastly more attentive than the men to observances of devotion. I made +the acquaintance of a wealthy burgess, a dealer in curiosities, who +asked me round to his shop to inspect some of the charming peasant +costumes of Murcia, now fast falling into disuse--and a grievous pity it +is. It was Friday when I visited him, and he was gobbling pork-chops. + +"What! you a Christian, you a son of the Church!" I exclaimed. + +"Ah! seor," he apologized; "forgive me! I am very frail, but my wife is +_so_ good a Christian. I reverence that woman. She has gone to Mass +without breaking her fast, and when she returns she will only take one +small cup of chocolate." + +But all the burgesses of Seville are not like to him who practised +mortification by proxy. The gentlefolk are pious, and the commonalty are +not irreligious. Cheerfulness and sobriety are the rule; gambling and an +idleness excused by the enervating influences of the too generous sun +are the predominating vices, as elsewhere in Southern Spain. + +I saw few ebullitions of temper, much hospitality among the poor, no +downright thievishness, but the irresistible tendency to pass bad +money--which is accounted a venial failing in the Peninsula. + +The Cathedral is a superb pile, and occupies the site of an ancient +mosque. The stained-glass windows are so many captive rainbows. +Pretermitting talk about dimensions and the like, I may note some few of +the remarkable features which are most apt to be recalled by the +stranger. Foremost among these are the stone pulpit from which St. +Vincent de Ferrer preached; the slab over the remains of Ferdinand, son +of Christopher Columbus, whereon are inscribed the words (referring to +his illustrious father), "A Castilla y Leon Mundo Nuevo Di Colon," +and a Crucifixion by a Mexican negro, who was never known to paint any +other subject. It is a peculiarity of artists of the Spanish school, in +representations of the Sacrifice on Calvary, to use three nails and +place the wound on the right side; Italians use four, and place it on +the left. In the Capilla Real is the figure of the "Vrgen de los +Reyes," the patron of Seville, a gift from St. Louis of France, +surmounted by the identical crown with which the brow of the canonized +monarch was pressed, and enclasped as to the throat by a diamond +necklace valued at ninety thousand duros, presented by Doa Berenguela, +the mother of St. Ferdinand. Among the treasures in the relicario of the +sacristy is a massive gold group made of ore brought by Columbus from +America, consisting of two figures sustaining a globe, the globe alone +weighing fifteen pounds. Passing under a horseshoe arch, in a dusty +corridor beside which is preserved the shrivelled mummy of an ungainly +alligator sent by the Sultan of Egypt to Alonso the Wise when seeking +his daughter's hand, the Chapter Library is reached. The prizes of this +collection are the manuscripts of the discoverer of the New World and +the book, "_Tractatus de Imagine Mundi_," which he took with him on the +caravel when he first crossed the Atlantic. There are marginal notes to +it in his own minute and legible handwriting, in one of which he lays +down this apothegm of sad wisdom: "No one is secure from adversity." +There are no especially beautiful pictures by Murillo--especially, I +say, for all of his are beautiful--in the Cathedral, but the church of +La Caridad contains two masterpieces: the "Miracle of our Lord feeding +the Multitude," and that of "Moses bringing the Living Water from the +Rock of Horeb." The latter is full of diversity of expression underlain +by a thrill of mad eagerness brought out with a terrible truth. Another +famous picture is the "Descent from the Cross" of Campana. This was +painted in 1548, and was so natural that Murillo was never weary of +resting in rapt contemplation before it, and on his death-bed asked to +be buried at its feet in the church of Santa Cruz. He had his wish. But +the dogs of war came panting that way. Soult entered Seville, pulled +down the church, desecrated the master's grave, and stole all of his +canvas he could lay his sacrilegious paws upon to grace the Louvre. The +Spaniards do not love the French, nor is it astonishing. + +Among the delights of Seville one of the chief must not fail to be +enumerated--no shrieking newsboys shove latest editions into the face of +the lounger. This is not a reading people; for a woman to know how to +read was accounted immoral so late as the beginning of this century. +There are some papers at Seville, nevertheless; among others, _El +Oriente_, devoted to Carlism, and _La Legitimidad_, which advocated the +interests of the ex-Queen Isabella's son and heir; but they have little +to say. In the lack of suicides, stabs in the dark, and +pronunciamientos, they are driven to fill up their space with extracts +from the almanac and lists of letters thrown into the Post Office +without prepayment. Some countryman must have caught the local disease, +for in one list given in _La Legitimidad_ it was notified that two +envelopes had been indolently committed to the box without stamps, one +addressed to "Miss Mary, Hyde Park," and the other to "Monsieur" (an +evident misprint for "Mister") "Francis O'Mahony, Shankerhill." + +It may be a surprise to some that Carlism had its adherents, but +wherever the Church is powerful there Carlism exists, and as the Church +is particularly powerful amongst the weaker sex, the Spanish women are +almost universally Carlists. Many a ferocious Intransigente, who spouts +fire and brimstone, and death to kings and priests in the clubs, has to +sing very small when he comes home, for the Seora dotes on Don Carlos +and works slippers for the father confessor. In Seville I should say the +Intransigente element is feeble; it is strongest, perhaps, in the +municipality (which, by the way, issued an edict secularizing the +cemetery of San Fernando), because this party of action is always on the +watch and pushes itself into office; but the immense majority of the +business folk are monarchical, only they wish to have the Prince of the +Asturias, not Don Carlos, for their monarch, and all the gentlefolk, +without exception, are anti-Republican. I had proof of this at the +theatre, where "La Marsellesa," a comedy intended to glorify the advent +of the Republic, was played. The speeches in favour of Federalism very +often fell flat, and occasionally were hissed, while the satirical hits +at "social liquidation" and the like were uncommonly relished. + +I have dwelt on indolent Seville. Surely there must be some industries +pursued in this metropolis of the _dolce far niente_. They are not many. + +There is a cannon-foundry and a copper-foundry, but more in keeping with +the associations of the radiant district is the porcelain factory. An +Englishman, Mr. Charles Pickman, bought one of the convents sequestered +in 1836, and has transformed it into a factory, where he turns out some +capital imitations of the ancient glazed tiles. Seldom has a hive of +industry been reared in nobler building or on more lovely site, nestling +in gardens enamelled with flowers, wealthy in fruit-trees, and on the +banks of a river. Some may consider it profanity that potters' wheels +spin and buzz in an edifice once consecrated to religion; but labour is +prayer, and sanctifies of itself. A number of healthy, handsome girls +are busily engaged colouring and burnishing the ceramic ware which is +fashioned in the old cloisters; and their joyous songs over their work +cannot be very displeasing to the spirits of the pious brethren who +preceded them in the locality, if there be any ground for the belief +that the shades of the dead are permitted to haunt the spots they +tenanted in the flesh. There are in those songs reminiscences of Bizet's +_Carmen_. These Andalusian lasses have to thank the Englishman for +giving them the opportunity of earning their bread and olives honestly, +and they have the happy look of independence. Their full-blooded +complexions would shame our pale Lancashire factory hands. They can +hardly realize how lucky they are to ply such a neat trade in an +atmosphere of freshness and sweet odour, under a dome of sapphire. + +Another institution to go over is the great Government tobacco-factory, +close by the Cathedral, where no less than five thousand women are +employed. The sight is the workwomen. The process of cigar-making is as +uninteresting as that of diamond-polishing, and yet one goes to witness +both with far more anxious anticipation than to inspect what is far more +remarkable--the making of a pin. The building in which the manufactory +is carried on is a world in itself--an imposing oblong block, with a +railed enclosure in front. Being Government property, it is guarded by +soldiers, and the stranger is apt to take it, at first sight, for a +gigantic barrack. The name of the king in whose reign it was erected +(one of the Ferdinands) is still outside. The Republic has not ordered +it to be erased, as a French Republic would have done before this. At +Madrid I noticed the same delicacy, or forgetfulness, if you prefer it; +the monogram and crown of Isabella were untouched on the lamp-posts in +the most revolutionary quarters. The interior of the building consists +of long whitewashed halls, divided into colonnades by rows of pillars, +from which spring vaulted ceilings. The women are seated at low tables +about two feet from the ground, in parties of half-dozens. They were +there of every age, from the tawny hussy of sixteen to the fully +developed matron with her infant tumbling in a cradle beside her, and +the wrinkled hag with her iron-grey locks bound with a gay bandana. +Poor, but merry and impudent withal, they were; and some of the +sprightly hoydens, with sprays of lilac and rosebuds in their +magnificent ebon hair, were a little too ready with a wink. There is a +tradition that they smoke, not dainty cigarettes, but full-flavoured +cigars; in any case, they are carefully searched before leaving to see +that they do not smuggle out any trabucos for personal consumption or as +gifts to their favoured swains. They were dressed invariably in lively +cotton prints, with short shawls of red, or crimson, or saffron, or +other hue outvying the tulip in garishness. To be shockingly frank, not +one of them was conspicuously pretty; they had brilliant eyes and teeth, +but all had an ill-fed, dried-up appearance, even those who were +inclined to flesh. The Spanish woman, after a certain age, has a +tendency to get fat without passing through the buxom stage; +connoisseurs pretend that this is the combined effect of rancid oil and +sweetstuff. But it is not gallant to dive into the secrets of female +nature. Very assiduously these "lazy Andalusiennes" bent to their tasks, +picked and sorted the leaves, rolled the cigars into shape, clipped +them, gummed the ends, and packed them into bundles tied with smart +ribands of silk; for they are paid by the piece, and the bull-fighting +season is near, and they must save the price of a seat at the corrida on +Easter Sunday, come what will. The cigars are assorted in boxes +according to their shape and size, their brand and their strength, the +latter being indicated by the words "claro," "claro colorado," +"colorado" (which is the medium flavour), "colorado maduro" and "maduro" +as they advance in five gradations from mild to strong. Leaving the +cigar-hall, I was shown into the cigarette-hall, where a number of +quieter girls, with shallow boxes of tobacco-dust almost as fine as +snuff before them, were rolling the paper cylinders exactly as it is +done by smokers, but with fingers surer and nimbler. In another hall the +cartuchos, or packages to hold cigarettes and tobacco, were made. They +were ready printed and cut, waiting to be put on a wooden frame, turned +over, and pasted. One child of ten was pointed out to me as the quickest +in the lot. Her small hands flew over her work with a rapidity that +dazzled. She had need to be expeditious, poor wean, for she received +just one farthing for every hundred packages she made! + +There are others besides the tantalizing tile-makers and the saucy +cigarreras who are rebellious to the drowsy influences of clime, and +profanely work--the gipsies and the beggars. There are some of the +former here, though not so many as in the pages of Murray. The +excessively dirty and extremely picturesque race, with parchment skins +and high cheek-bones, is dying out. A few stray members of the tribe +remain in the remotest and raggedest part of the transpontine suburb, +and shear mules, cope horses, and do tinkering jobs generally, filling +in their spare time with petty larceny. Their women shuffle cards and +tell fortunes. A splendid people they are, those gipsies--in Borrow's +book and on canvas. In private life their society is not to be courted. +If you do not want to see them, they are sure to turn up; if you do, as +I did, you must look for them, and not always with success. I came +across but one during my stay in Spain--a yellow girl who was eager to +exhibit her palmistry at my expense in the immense coffee-house under +the Fonda de Paris at Madrid--and she left a strong impression on my +mind of having been own sister to a persuasive prophetess who once +cozened me of half-a-crown on the towing-path at Putney at the 'Varsity +boat-race on the Thames. Your hopes of assisting at a gipsy dance at +Seville will be disappointed. If you give a courier two pounds sterling, +he may be able to improvise you one; a pack of filthy, bony men and +women will execute epileptic saltatory movements before you--not the +Esmeralda dance, but lewd swaying of the body from the hips, and +vehement contortions; and finally one creature will throw her +handkerchief at your feet. A well-bred caballero will fill the +handkerchief with shining dollars, and hand it back to her with a bow. +This dance is work, downright hard work; but it is a dance for money. +Mammon, not Terpsichore, is the genius to whom worship is paid. The +mendicants toil as hard at their trade as those dancing gipsies. I +counted fifty-seven in a short morning walk--some robust and some +well-dressed, with the well-acted meekness of genteel poverty. The +cripples, the deformed, the adults with baby arms and the jumping +Billy-the-Bowls could not be paralleled out of South Italy. From the +assortment could be furnished Burns's "Holy Fair" and the Pattern in +"Peep o' Day" twice over, with something to leave. They are all +past-masters and mistresses in the art of petitioning; they are +professors of physiognomy like Lavater, and can tell at a glance a face +which ought to belong to a charitable mortal; and then, what a command +they have of the gamut of lungs, from the whine, the wheedle, and the +snuffle, to the unctuous, droning prayer or the fierce malediction! + +Still--beggars, gipsies, heat, and laziness to the contrary +notwithstanding--Seville is delectable, and a marvel in its gardens and +groves, its flowers and fruit, its fountains and fish-pools, its soft +climate and soft people, its languorous repose and silvery tinkles to +prayer. Seville is romance. Shall it ever be mine again to lie beneath +the shade of its secular orange-trees, and blink at clustering shafts +of marble tipped with silver sun-rays, and dream dreams? As I write, +methinks to my ear rises the cry of the guardian of the night, the last +I heard as I left, half warning, half supplication: "Ave Maria +Purissima, las diez han dado." + + +END OF VOL. 1. + +BILLING & SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[A] In fair play to Santa Cruz, it is right to state that he believed +this female to be a spy, who, under the pretence of Carlism, was willing +to "betray the volunteers of God and the King, and carried despatches to +the enemy sewn up in her dress." Still, the idea of a minister of +religion ordering a woman to be shot does not recommend itself, although +the woman may have justly deserved her fate. + +[B] The Duke de Sanlucar is an O'Shea. I hope he is a relative of mine; +for kinship with a grandee, however distant, is something to brag about. +We always speak of our exalted connections. One never hears me dropping +a syllable of a cousin of mine who was a bounty-jumper in the United +States, agent-in-advance to a nigger-minstrel troop, and subsequently +drove a butcher's cart in Brooklyn. He was a fearful, but most +fascinating ruffian. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Romantic Spain, by John Augustus O'Shea + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROMANTIC SPAIN *** + +***** This file should be named 34753-8.txt or 34753-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/7/5/34753/ + +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.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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. I) + +Author: John Augustus O'Shea + +Release Date: December 25, 2010 [EBook #34753] + +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.) + + + + + + +</pre> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<p><a name="page_v" id="page_v"></a></p> + +<h1>ROMANTIC SPAIN:<br /><br /> +<small><small><i>A RECORD OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCES.</i></small></small></h1> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p class="c"><small><b>BY</b></small><br /> +<b>JOHN AUGUSTUS O'SHEA,</b><br /> +<small><small><b>AUTHOR OF</b><br /> +<b>"LEAVES FROM THE LIFE or A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,"</b><br /> +<b>"AN IRON-BOUND CITY," ETC</b></small>.</small></p> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align="left">"Oh, lovely Spain! renowned, romantic land!"</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">C<small>HILDE</small> H<small>AROLD</small>.</td></tr> +</table> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p class="c"><b>IN TWO VOLUMES.<br /> +VOL. I.</b></p> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p class="c"><b>LONDON:<br /> +WARD AND DOWNEY,<br /> +12, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C.<br /> +1887.<br /> +[<i>All Rights Reserved.</i>]</b></p> + +<p><a name="page_vi" id="page_vi"></a></p> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p class="c">TO<br /> +WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT, ESQ.,<br /><br /> +<small>IN TOKEN OF ESTEEM FOR<br /><br /> +HIS BOLD AND TRUTHFUL CHARACTER,<br /><br /> +<small>AND OF</small><br /><br /> +GLADNESS THAT WE HAVE SO MANY KINDRED SYMPATHIES,<br /><br /> +This Book is Enscribed</small><br /><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 50%;">BY THE WRITER.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="page_vii" id="page_vii"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE.</h3> + +<p class="nind">T<small>HIS</small> simple recital of personal haps and mishaps in perturbed Spain from +the abdication of Amadeus to the entry of Don Carlos, puts forward no +claim to the didactic or dogmatic. Its chief aim is to amuse. Of course, +if I succeed in conveying knowledge and dispelling illusions—in Tasso's +words, if I administer a pill under a coating of jam—I shall be +cock-a-hoop with delight. But I warn the reader I am not an unprejudiced +witness. I am passionately fond of Spain and her people. Although years +have elapsed since the events dealt with occurred, I fancy the narrative +will not be hackneyed, for in Spain public life repeats itself with a +fidelity which is never monotonous. I do not pretend to cast the +horoscope of the poor little monarch who is in the nurse's arms, <a name="page_viii" id="page_viii"></a>but +Heaven guard him! 'Twere better for him that he had been born in a +Highland shieling.</p> + +<p>Should there be much individualism in these pages, it is intentional, +and to be ascribed to the instance of friends. They said, "Bother +history; give us plenty of your own experiences." It is to be hoped they +have not led me astray by their well-meant advice.<a name="page_ix" id="page_ix"></a></p> + +<h3>CONTENTS OF VOL. I.</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> </td><td align="right" class="sml">Page</td></tr> + +<tr><td>Which, being non-essential, treats partly of Spain, +but principally of the Writer</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_001">1-23</a></td></tr> + +<tr valign="bottom"><td colspan="2" align="center" class="chap"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td>The Old-Fashioned Invocation—"Them 'ere Spanish +Kings!"—Candidates for a Throne—<i>En Voyage</i>—Bordeaux +and the Back-ache—An Unmannerly +Alsatian—The Patriot gets a Roland for his Oliver—Small +Change for a Hot Bath—Plan for Universal +Coinage—Daughters of Israel—The Jews Diagnosed—Across +the Border—The Writer is Saluted "Caballero"—Bugaboo +Santa Cruz—Over a Brasero</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_024">24-42</a></td></tr> + +<tr valign="bottom"><td colspan="2" align="center" class="chap"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td>A Make-Believe Spain—The Mountain Convoy—A +Tough Road to Travel—Spanish Superiority in +Blasphemy—Short Essay on Oaths—The Basque +Peasants—Carlism under a Cloak—How Guerilla-Fighting +is Conducted—A Hyperborean Landscape—A +Mysterious Grandee—An Adventurous Frenchman—The +Shebeen on the Summit—Armed Alsasua—Base +Coin<a name="page_x" id="page_x"></a></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_043">43-60</a></td></tr> + +<tr valign="bottom"><td colspan="2" align="center" class="chap"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td>Madrid—The Fonda and its Porter—The Puerta del +Sol—Postal Irregularities—Tribute to the Madrileos—The +Barber's Pronunciamiento—Anecdotes of King +Amadeus—Checkmating the Grand Dames—Queen +Isabella—The Embarrassed Mr. Layard of Nineveh—The +Great Powers Hesitate—America Goes Ahead—General +Sickles—Mahomet and the Mountain—Republicanism +among the Troops—A Peculiar Pennsylvanian +Dentist—Castelar under Torture—The +Writer meets one of his Sept—Politicians by Trade—Honour +among Insurgents—Alonso the Reckless</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_061">61-91</a></td></tr> + +<tr valign="bottom"><td colspan="2" align="center" class="chap"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td>A Late Capital—The Gambling Mania—A French +Rendezvous—The Duke de Fitzpepper—The Morality +of Passing Bad Money—Spanish Compliments—Men +in Pickle—A Licentious Ballet—Federal Manners—Prim's +Artifice—Nouvilas Goes North—A Carlist +Proclamation—Don Alfonso—Midnight Oil—Castelar's +Circular</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_092">92-112</a></td></tr> + +<tr valign="bottom"><td colspan="2" align="center" class="chap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td>Warning to Ladies—The Hotel Parliament—An Anglo-Spanish +Mentor—The Evil Genii of the Monarchy—The +Curses of Spain—Government and Religion +Affairs of Climate—The Carlists, Norwegians, and +English, all Republicans!—Notions on Heredity—The +Five Spanish Parties—The Army the Lever of +Power—The Student-Csar—Order <i>versus</i> Republic—The<a name="page_xi" id="page_xi"></a> +Chained Colours—Dorregaray's Appeal to the +Soldiers—Influence of the Church—Wanted: a +Benevolent Despot</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_113">113-131</a></td></tr> + +<tr valign="bottom"><td colspan="2" align="center" class="chap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td>The Carnival—About Kissing Feet—Mummers and +Masquers—The Paseo de Recoletos—The Writer is +taken for Cluseret—Incongruity in Costume—Shrove +Tuesday—Panic on the Prado—A Fancy Ball—The +"Entierro de la Sardina"—Lenten Amusements—A +Spanish Mystery—"Pasion y Muerte de Jesus"—Of +the Stage Stagey—Critical Remarks</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_132">132-160</a></td></tr> + +<tr valign="bottom"><td colspan="2" align="center" class="chap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td>Another Chat with Mentor—A Startling Solution of +the Spanish Question—The Penalties of Popularity—The +Republic another Saturn—The New Civil +Governor—The Government Bill—Outside the Palace +of the Congress—Providential Rain—Wild Rumours—Federal +Threats—The Five Civil Guards—Inside +the Chamber—The Great Debate—The Two Reports—Compromise—Minor +Speechmakers—A Pickwickian +Contention—The Division—Victory for the +Ministry—The Five Civil Guards Trot to Stables</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_161">161-182</a></td></tr> + +<tr valign="bottom"><td colspan="2" align="center" class="chap"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td>The Inventions of Don Fulano de Tal—Stopping a +Train—"A Ver Fine Blaggar"—The Legend of Santa +Cruz—Dodging a Warrant—Outlawed—Chased by +Gendarmes—A Jack Sheppard Escape—The Cura<a name="page_xii" id="page_xii"></a> +becomes Cabecilla—Sleeping with an Eye Open—Exploits +and Atrocities—Dilettante Carlists in +London—The Combat of Monreal—Ibarreta's Relics—A +Tale for the Marines—The Carlists Looking-up</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_183">183-200</a></td></tr> + +<tr valign="bottom"><td colspan="2" align="center" class="chap"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td>Barbarism of Tauromachy—A Surreptitious Ticket—The +Novillos—Islington <i>not</i> Madrid—Apology for +Cock-Fighting—Maudlin Humanity—The Espada a +Popular Idol—In the Bull-Ring—A Precious "Ster-oh"—The +Trumpets Speak—The Procession—Play of +the Quadrille—The Defiance—"Bravo, Cucharra!"—"Bravo, +Toro!"—The Blemish of the Sport—An +Indignant English Lassie</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_201">201-224</a></td></tr> + +<tr valign="bottom"><td colspan="2" align="center" class="chap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td>The Shamrock of Erin and Olive of Spain—Hispano-Hibernian +Regiments—The Spanish Soldier—An +Unpopular Hidalgo—Flaw in the Harness—The +Organization of the Army—The Guardia Civil—The +Cavalry, Engineers, and Infantry—General Cordova—The +Disorganization of the Army—Mutiny in +Pampeluna—Officers Out of Work—Turbulent Barcelona—Irresolute +Contreras—Pistolet Discharges +Himself—The Madrid Garrison<a name="page_xiii" id="page_xiii"></a></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_225">225-248</a></td></tr> + +<tr valign="bottom"><td colspan="2" align="center" class="chap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td>Luring the Reader into a Stony Desert—A Duel on the +Carpet—Disappointment of the Special Correspondents—The +People Amuses Itself—How the Ballot +Works—A Historic Sitting of the Congress—Castelar's +Great Oration—The Glory of Spain—About +Negro Manumission—Distrust of "Uncle Sam"—Return +of Figueras—The Permanent Committee—A +Love-Feast of Politicians—The Writer Orders +Wings</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_249">249-265</a></td></tr> + +<tr valign="bottom"><td colspan="2" align="center" class="chap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td>The Writer Turns Churlish and Quits Madrid—Sleep +under Difficulties—A Bad Dream—Santa Cruz again—Off +St. Helena!—Dissertation on Stomach Matters—A +Hint to British Railway Directors—"Odds, Hilts +and Blades"—A Delicate Little Gentleman is Curious—The +"Tierra Deleitosa"—That Butcher again</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_266">266-281</a></td></tr> + +<tr valign="bottom"><td colspan="2" align="center" class="chap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td>Delectable Seville—Don Juan Scapegrace—The Women +in Black—In the Triana Suburb—The City of the +Seven Sleepers—Guide-Book Boredom—Romance +and Reality—The Prosaic Manchester Man—King +Ferdinand Puzzling the Judges—Mortification by +Proxy—Some Notable Treasures—Papers and Politics—The +Porcelain Factory—"The Lazy Andalusiennes"—About +Cigars—The Gipsy Dance</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_282">282-311</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<p><a name="page_001" id="page_001"></a></p> + +<h1>ROMANTIC SPAIN.</h1> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h3> + +<p class="ch1">Which, being non-essential, treats partly of Spain, but principally +of the Writer.</p> + +<p class="nind">T<small>HE</small> sun was shining with a Spanish lustre—a lustre as of glowing +sarcasm—seeing that on that very day a Fire-Worshipper, Dadabhai +Naoroji, was over-shadowed in his attempt to become a Member of +Parliament for Holborn. The sun, I repeat, was shining with a Spanish +lustre while the inquisition was being held. The tribunal was in the +open air, under the mid plane-tree in Camberwell Green, the trimmest +public garden in London. Conscience was the inquisitor, and the charge I +had brought against myself was that of harbouring a vagrom spirit. I +should have been born in a gipsy caravan<a name="page_002" id="page_002"></a> or under a Bedaween's tent. +Nature intended me to have become a traveller, a showman, or a +knight-errant; and had Nature been properly seconded, I should have been +doing something Burnabyish, Barnumesque, or Quixotic this afternoon, +instead of sitting down on a bench between a tremulous old man in +almshouse livery and a small boy fanning himself with a cap. Yes; I fear +I must plead guilty. I am possessed by a demon of unrest; my soul chafes +at inaction, calls aloud for excitement. Had I the ordering of my own +fortune I should spread the white wings of a yacht to woo the faint wind +(but it may be blowing freshly off the Foreland), or should vault on the +back of a neighing barb with bushy mane and tail. But I am Ixion-lashed +to the wheel of duty, leg-hampered by the log of necessity.</p> + +<p>What is a gentle-born vagabond to do?</p> + +<p>The law will not permit him to pink with his sword-stick the first smug +fellow he meets on the side-path, self-respect debars him from +highway-robbery which can be perpetrated without fear of the law, and it +is idle to expect a revolution in this<a name="page_003" id="page_003"></a> humdrum country within any +reasonable period. A General Election which is going on, with its paltry +show of coloured strips of calico, its printed appeals to the gullible, +its occasional bits of ribbon and bursts of cheering, its egotisms, its +stupidities, its self-seekings, its shabby intrigues and simulated fire, +its dull, dreary, drivelling floods of witless substance in +ungrammatical form—that, surely, is no satisfying substitute for the +tumult of real political strife.</p> + +<p>Motion is the sovereign remedy for the vagabond's disease, and lo! +through the leafy barrier of the pollarded limes bordering the Green, +jingle the bells of the tram-car with its trotting team of three +abreast. Three mules, which bring my thoughts to Spain, and to a letter +I have had from my publishers, satirically asking how soon they might +expect the last pages of a promised book on the land of the Dons, the +first line of which is not yet committed to paper. I must think over +that book as I jog along the grooves of the street rails, and survey the +prospect from the roof. How do those mules on the flanks manage to avoid +knocking their hoofs<a name="page_004" id="page_004"></a> against the metal-ruts, and tripping themselves +up? What a stand-and-deliver air the conductor has as he presents his +snip-snap apparatus, like the brutal key of the primitive dentist, and +viciously punches an orifice in your ticket! For these conductors, as +for letter-carriers, I have a profound sympathy; they are over-worked +and under-paid; and yet they enjoy motion in abundance. But there is a +poetry of motion, as when charging squadrons skim the plain, or a +graceful girl with dainty ankles trips across the beeswaxed floor; and +there is a prose of motion, as of a policeman plodding over his beat, or +the Sisyphus-toil of the treadmill. I ask myself, Will a tram-conductor +ever write a poem? Hardly, I think; and yet, why not? Was not Edward +Capern, who achieved some smooth verses, a letter-carrier?</p> + +<p>New Cross, our terminus so far. Over the way is another tram, which will +take us to Greenwich for the outlay of another twopence. Shortly it will +be one continuous avenue of pretentious masonry, from the Thames at +Blackfriars to the Thames by the naval palace, instead of the former +pleasant<a name="page_005" id="page_005"></a> drive through Surrey fields. With what a fever they are +building, terrace upon terrace, street upon street, interminable rows of +villas in line or semi-detached! The patches of verdure, so refreshing +to the jaded city eye, are diminishing in size and lessening in number. +I like Greenwich; but they should never have removed the veterans of the +ocean from it. Dear to the soul of youth, hankering for the strange and +the stirring, were their three-cornered hats, their wooden stumps, their +withered monkey-jaws puffed with quids, and their hoarse, squall-tearing +voices. What a consuming thirst they had, and with what heroic industry +they did tell lies! Peter of Russia was right: the sovereigns of +England, the sea-rulers, should hold court in Greenwich. The Park with +its fallow-deer is regal; the Painted Hall is eloquent with historic +memories; the initial meridian is an imposing address; and then the +Thames—but here, we are at it. A steamer awaits, and will carry us to +the heart of London for a groat.</p> + +<p>How dingy, dirty, despicable most of those steamers are! with their +low-roofed, grimy cabins;<a name="page_006" id="page_006"></a> their irritating hawkers of hat-strings and +small beer; their stale stock of mawkish refections; their job-lot +orchestras of wheeze and pipe and scrape and tootle; their smell of +bilge and oil, sweat and cheap cigars, overtopped at holiday-times by +the sulphurous oath or the rank obscenity of some reeling passenger. And +yet how skilfully they thread their way through the crowded Pool; how +readily they answer the wheel; with what ease they slow or quicken their +run, and dart hither and thither; and with what nicety they are brought +alongside the floating wharf! I wonder do the skippers of these boats +move their hands in their dreams. Is the finger-sign for "Back her," +that they use at home when they wish to replenish their pipes? +Collisions there may be, explosions there have been; but the career of +the mariner who plies between Chelsea Pier and the port of Woolwich must +be singularly free from such vicissitudes as shipwreck or failure of +provisions; he is seldom caught in a tornado, or banged into by a +privateer; he rarely knocks up against an iceberg, or gets a glimpse of +the Flying Dutchman; sharks he may<a name="page_007" id="page_007"></a> not study, except, perhaps, in the +Westminster Aquarium, and when he dies he is trenched in commonplace +clay. I cannot picture such a mariner to myself as having the spirit to +ejaculate, "Shiver my timbers!"</p> + +<p>The sight of a vessel from Seville laden with fruit and wine recalls me +to that letter from the publishers and the book anent Spain. Not a word +of it written yet. <i>They</i> will be shivering <i>my</i> timbers if I have it +not ready in season. But I am not of those, like Anthony Trollope, who +can sit down to their desks and turn out so many pages of copy at a +stretch mechanically, much as a tinglary with its rotating handle grinds +out a series of tunes. I cannot write unless I am in the mood, and that, +I find, depends on the state of health and the absence of mental worry. +The brain with some people refuses to become a piece of machinery. Of +motion is often born inspiration—Hermes, god of oratory, is represented +with <i>petasus</i> and <i>talaria</i>—and I am enjoying motion.</p> + +<p>"Ease her—stop her!" Blackfriars Bridge, and here I quit the steamer's +deck for the tram that<a name="page_008" id="page_008"></a> will take me back to the place whence I came, +and so enable me to have made a diversified circular tour by land and +water for the expenditure of tenpence. Who would waste his substance on +coach-men and high-steppers; who would envy Sir Thomas Brassey his +lordly pleasure-craft, when this round of travel, with its buoyant sense +of independence at the end, can be accomplished for tenpence? And now I +shall hie me to a bar I wot of, and with the two pence that remain of my +splendid shilling, I shall cheer the inner man with a clear, cool, +mantling glass of foam-crowned bitter beer.</p> + +<p>The beer ought to be good in Camberwell, for here Mrs. Thrale lived of +yore, and the ponderous lexicographer took his walks, and mused on the +vanity of human wishes. We have breweries still, and we have groves, +even groves of Academus, where one may laugh; for are they not sacred to +the shades of the two Hoods and Jeff Prowse, the "Nicholas" of <i>Fun</i>, as +to Nick Woods, the Napier-recorder of Inkermann, and to associations +with William Black, Henry Bessemer, and John Ruskin,<a name="page_009" id="page_009"></a> master of art, +which is something more, and more significant, than that <i>Magister +Artium</i> which persons doubtful of their gifts or station ostentatiously +affix to their names? And in our groves we have such variety of +arborescent prizes as no other district of London can boast, extending +to the arbutus or strawberry-tree, and the liriodendron or tulip-tree. +The liriodendron has been planted in Palace Yard, in the hope that the +breath of wholesomeness, genial to its native America, shall permeate +the badly-ventilated atmosphere of the adjacent House of Commons. I love +trees as if I were suckled by a hamadryad. May he who cuts them down to +build whereon they stood taste the bitterness of Acheron!</p> + +<p>And Camberwell Green, which I dearly affect, is it not replete with +every modern convenience, as those ambitious amateurs who write the +auction-bills are wont to phrase it? There is a bank where you may cash +a cheque; two public-houses where you may spend great part of it +fuddling yourself; a police-station where you may sleep the fuddle off; +a pillar-box where a letter may be posted summoning<a name="page_010" id="page_010"></a> a bail to your aid; +a drinking-fountain where you may slake your thirst when you come out +penitent from the police-office; a Turkish-bath, with a +crescent-and-star daubed piece of bunting over it, where you may knead +your frame into sobriety; a hairdresser's where you may make yourself +presentable; a stationer's where my friend Morris will lavishly dose you +with the tonic of moral apothegm; and, right opposite, a horse-trough +where you may give yourself the ducking you deserve.</p> + +<p>Inside the tavern, where I sought the beer, I met a financier, a shrewd +fellow of a gross habit of body and a dry wit. He is accountant to a +firm of book-makers, and can hold his own with the tongue; he married +into the family of a late eminent prizefighter, and, with the +connection, seems to have acquired the talent of holding his own with +the fist. I like Wat much, and have obtained various scraps of desultory +information from him which are useful.</p> + +<p>Imprimis, that a penny ticket on a river-steamer on a Sunday constitutes +a man as <i>bon fide</i> a<a name="page_011" id="page_011"></a> traveller as Henry M. Stanley, and endows him +with the privilege of getting liquid comfort within prohibited hours.</p> + +<p>Item, that the cigars on the outside of a bundle, and therefore indented +with the tape, are generally the best.</p> + +<p>Item, that if there is hide or pelt on a carcase before a butcher's +stall, you may take for granted it is a British carcase. Foreign meat +has to be skinned to avoid the risk of importation of cattle-disease.</p> + +<p>And, ultimately, that if you are about to drown yourself in the Thames, +and are anxious to avert identification, the best spot to throw yourself +off is in the neighbourhood of a ship at moorings, as then you are +likely to be drawn under her and kept in the chains for months.</p> + +<p>Some readers who are unaware that there were no gentlemen with +coat-armour in the College of Apostles, may object that in presenting +them to Wat I am introducing them to low society; but I can assure them +that I have seen a very respectable Duke hail-fellow-well-met with a +jockey, and my<a name="page_012" id="page_012"></a> friend Wat has a far fuller education than the primest +of jockeys. He is apt and accurate in quotations from English +literature; and if you venture to make Greeks "meet" Greeks in his +presence, or talk of fresh "fields" and pastures new, or attribute the +tempering of the wind to the shorn lamb to Holy Writ, he will lay you +ten to one in sovereigns you are wrong, and win your money. He is also a +champion orthographist, and will back himself to spell English words +against any man in the British Empire for 500, bar words technical.</p> + +<p>"Ah," he said, "my noble! is it true you are going on a lecturing-tour +next winter?"</p> + +<p>"If God but spare me health and lung-power I am," was my reply.</p> + +<p>"And wherefore, may I ask? Can you not do better at the desk?"</p> + +<p>"The desk is monotonous; besides, I yearn for change, and I may be able +to freshen up my ideas, and set down some notes in my tables. 'Twill +improve intellectual and physical health."</p> + +<p>"It will, of course," agreed Wat. "For instance,<a name="page_013" id="page_013"></a> it will be perfectly +delightful journeying to Inverness, say, in the depth of December."</p> + +<p>"As it so happens, I am booked for Inverness on a date in that month."</p> + +<p>Wat stared at me. "Do you know," he said, "'tis a far cry to Loch Awe, +and Inverness is at the other side of Loch Awe? Thither and back from +where we stand is eleven hundred and ninety miles."</p> + +<p>I was surprised; I had not entered into these details; but I held my +peace.</p> + +<p>"Have you got many engagements?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; the first was from Dollar, which I accept as a good omen; and, +curiously enough, 'tis not in the United States."</p> + +<p>"No," said Wat; "'tis between Edinburgh and Stirling. What fee do they +tender you there?"</p> + +<p>I told him.</p> + +<p>"Ahem!" he continued, fondling his chin as he spoke. "If you don't +cumber yourself with luggage—a courier-bag will do—and if you bus it +to King's Cross, and stop at a temperance hotel in 'Auld Reekie,' and +give servants no tips, and condescend<a name="page_014" id="page_014"></a> to all invitations, with a wise +economy, I take it, you won't drop more than five-and-twenty shillings +on that transaction."</p> + +<p>"How! What do you mean? You surely are not serious?"</p> + +<p>"Why, the railway return fare to Edinburgh alone is +five-pun-nine-and-six; and that will burn a hole in your fee."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," I ventured, not to look foolish, "I may have means of getting +to Edinburgh for nothing."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said Wat, with a sigh and a sorrowful sententiousness, "if you +think you can try on that, well and good; but I'm getting so precious +fat that I can no longer hide myself under a seat!"</p> + +<p>The barman, who had overheard the dialogue, here burst into an ill-bred +fit of laughter. That attendant had some appreciation of humour; but Wat +did the correct thing, nevertheless, in rebuking him for his untimely +hilarity. The barman should have waited until he had retired to his own +room.</p> + +<p>This lecturing, as I explained to the financier, is rather a hazardous +experiment after a man has passed his fortieth year. It is like learning +to act—even<a name="page_015" id="page_015"></a> more arduous than that, for you have no prompter, and must +be qualified to think upon your legs. Interruptions must not check the +flow of your eloquence; indifference must not chill your enthusiasm. You +must be suave, alert, sonorous, and roll forth a discourse got off by +rote as if it were the offspring of the moment's inspiration. The +combustion of thought must appear to be a spontaneous combustion. Once +your tale is set a-going, there must be no pause, no hesitancy; the +electric current must be maintained to strong and constant power, or +your audience sinks into a freezing dulness of courteous attention, +which wishes, but fears, to yawn.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Wat, "the steam must be kept up. But if a Derby dog strays +on the course—I mean if a bullock blunders on the track, what then?"</p> + +<p>"That is the difficulty. It is vexatious if a man dozes off and +endeavours to balance himself on the tip of his nose on the floor, when +you are in the high ecstasy of a rhetorical period."</p> + +<p>"I know," said Wat. "When you are what you call piling up the agony."<a name="page_016" id="page_016"></a></p> + +<p>"Or when a deaf dowager is seized with a fancy to sternutate as you are +waxing pathetic."</p> + +<p>"Sternutate. That's a good word," remarked Wat admiringly. "I swear I +could spell that. By-the-bye, how are you getting on with that book on +Spain?"</p> + +<p><i>Ecce iterum Crispinus.</i></p> + +<p>"Good-afternoon I am just on my way home to write it."</p> + +<p class="astr">* * * * *</p> + +<p>The title I shall leave to the finish. Something catching is sure to +suggest itself. The dedication I pencilled off months ago. Let that +stand.</p> + +<p>The subject, I think, is good. Spain is comparatively unknown. John Bull +on his travels will not open to it. The British tourist in the Peninsula +too often carries with him his native sense of superiority and his +constitutional tendency to spleen. He turns up his nose at what he +cannot, or will not, understand. If the beef is tough, he does not +consider that it ought to be, most of the animals from whose ribs it +came having done honest work as beasts of burden before they were<a name="page_017" id="page_017"></a> +driven to the slaughter-house. If the Val de Peas is rasping to his +palate, he ignores that the taste for wine, as for olives and Dublin +stout and Glenlivat, is acquired. If the tobacco is coarse and weedy, he +forgets that it is cheap, and that he can roll his cigarette and smoke +it between the courses. But why does he not console himself for the +absent by what is present—the ripe golden sun, the luscious fruits, the +picturesque costumes, the high-bred dignity of the humblest beggar, the +weird olian melody of sudden trills of song, the flashing eyes, +mantilla-shaded, which speak romances in three volumes in every glance? +The truth is, your Briton abroad, I mean the average one—not men like +Mr. Gladstone in Sicily, or Captain Burton everywhere, Queen's +Messengers and Special Correspondents, travelling Fellows of Oxford and +pilgrims of art—your Briton of the tourist type is less inclined to +adapt himself to another sphere than to try and assimilate that other to +his own.</p> + +<p>This tourist goes to Spain; he hurries from end to end of the Peninsula, +his guide-book in his hand and his opera-glass across his shoulder; he +pays a<a name="page_018" id="page_018"></a> flying visit to the Escurial, and pronounces it a gloomy crib; +drops in on Seville, sees it, and does not marvel; mayhap he wanders as +far as Granada, and finds it a dreary "sell;" and then he returns +homeward, hot and tired and disappointed, and is eloquent on the +rapacity of innkeepers, the profusion of counterfeit coin, the +discomforts and unpunctuality of locomotion, the shocking +uncleanliness—but, however, "you know, we got on better than the +Joneses; we saw more sights and covered more country in fewer days." And +this peripatetic postures for the rest of his life as an authority on +Spain! The only point, perhaps, on which his judgment is to be accepted +is one which he might have learned in London, namely, that Price's +circus is not quite so good as Sanger's in Westminster or Hengler's off +Oxford Street. Out upon the poor fool! <i>He</i> know Spain! Why, that is +more than I could dare to say, and I have had experience of it under +Monarchy and Republic, in peace and in war; have mixed with Carlists in +the field, and Intransigentes in the fortress; have traversed it from +Irun to Gibraltar, from Santander to Malaga. He<a name="page_019" id="page_019"></a> who has not been +admitted into the intimacy of domestic life in Spain, who has not +listened to habaneras by the camp-fire, joined in the jota on the +village sward, shared in thorough sympathy in the sports of the arena +and in the rites of religion, dipped into the peasant's olla podrida, +nay, even watched the flushed gamblers over their cards, with the +eager-eyed baratero standing by—he does not know Spain. All this have I +done, and more; and yet I am but on the threshold of acquaintance with +that great and beautiful home of paradox, that land of valour and +courtesy, of fidelity and magnanimity, of piety and patriotism; and, in +a lesser degree, of the vices which are opposed to these good qualities. +No country of Europe so near to us is so little known. Yet in none is +the soil fertilized by so much British blood. But this was in the +bygone; and the yearly increasing swell of journeying-against-time +tourists has not swept in tidal wave over the Peninsula. Even Spanish +plays—and Spain can boast of one of the richest springs of dramatic +literature in Europe—are comparatively sacred from the desecrating +touch<a name="page_020" id="page_020"></a> of the ruck of contemporary English stage adulterators.</p> + +<p>Spain is not known; and yet it is not for the lack of word-painters to +make it familiar in pen-and-ink pictures. There is Ford, most learned +and graphic of guides, as full of irresistible prejudice as he is of +impulsive affection. There is Borrow, that robust, quaint, and +captivating, if sometimes over-fanciful, cicerone, albeit his errand to +Spain was as indiscreet in purpose as it was bootless in result. There +is Sala, of memory richly stored—whom I freely salute as past-master in +his craft—most charming, observant, and illustrative of roving +journalists. Ford, Borrow, Sala, all know Spain and "things Spanish" by +personal experience; but it is plain that too many of the latter-day +critics of Spain and the Spaniards are of the class who are ready to +write social novels on Chinese life with no more knowledge of the +Flowery Land than is to be obtained under the dome of the Reading-room +of the British Museum. The pity of it is that this second-hand evidence +is too often taken on trust, while the truthful records of eye-witnesses +are<a name="page_021" id="page_021"></a> shoved into a dusty corner of the cupboard. It is so nice to be +patted on the head and rubbed down with the grain, to be reminded that +we are what we always thought ourselves to be—the perfect, the +registered A 1 people of the universe, the people who set the pattern, +the people who are righteous, moral, honest, tolerant, charitable, and +modest; who wage no unjust wars; who have no Divorce Court scandals; who +know not bank frauds; who never persecuted Highlanders, or Jews, or +Irishmen; who permit no misappropriations of money left to the poor; who +make no brag over small victories against badly-armed savages. But stay, +this is taking me to Africa, not Spain; and Africa does not begin at the +other side of the Pyrenees, the epigram of Dumas to the contrary +notwithstanding. My great object is to coax the English reader to be +reasonable, and not to take the dimensions of the round world by the +parochial yard-measure, nor to gauge the Coliseum by the standard of +Clapham.</p> + +<p>However, I shall not complete this work unless I make a start. <i>Dimidium +facti</i>—but these odds<a name="page_022" id="page_022"></a> and ends of Latin, which give to style an +eighteen-penny polish of erudition and prove nothing, you can pick at +will from "Swain's Collection of Easy Sentences." If I wait till I am in +the mood, my suspense may be as long as that of the rustic on the bank +of the stream. Perhaps Samuel Johnson, LL.D., was near the mark when he +said that the author that thinks himself weather-bound will find, with a +little help from hellebore, that he is only idle or exhausted.</p> + +<p>And now a paragraph to elucidate why I have dedicated this book to a +gentleman with whom I never exchanged a word. Apart from the bright and +solid facts that he wards the weak, and has the pluck to change his +opinions when he feels himself in the wrong, there are in his case two +reasons all-sufficient to secure his counterfeit presentment a niche in +my album, and himself a nook in my heart—he hath killed a bull in the +arena, and he is husband of Byron's grand-daughter; and Byron was a +poet—yea, a poet, I re-affirm, the hysterics to the contrary of sixteen +screaming<a name="page_023" id="page_023"></a> <i>laudatores Veneris</i> in non-lucid intervals counting for +naught.</p> + +<p class="astr">* * * * *</p> + +<p>I have lost faith in Wat. In a moment of misplaced confidence I laid a +wager on him at a spelling competition. He put one <i>n</i> in innuendo, and +the <i>i</i> after the <i>ll</i>s in paillasse. If he had only gone to the root of +the matter! I offered such long odds, too—a frayed copy of the "Iliad" +to a gilt and morocco-bound set of the "Newgate Calendar."<a name="page_024" id="page_024"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h3> + +<p class="ch">The Old-Fashioned Invocation—"Them 'ere Spanish +Kings!"—Candidates for a Throne—<i>En Voyage</i>—Bordeaux and the +Back-ache—An Unmannerly Alsatian—The Patriot gets a Roland for +his Oliver—Small Change for a Hot Bath—Plan for Universal +Coinage—Daughters of Israel—The Jews Diagnosed—Across the +Border—The Writer is Saluted "Caballero"—Bugaboo Santa Cruz—Over +a Brasero.</p> + +<p class="nind">O <small>MULES</small>, liquorice, onions, oranges, garlic, and eke figs, cork and +olives, and all you other products of Spain, come to my aid now that I +enter upon my theme! Why should not a prose-chronicler of this era +proffer his appeal as did the poets of era undetermined, of the eras of +Augustus or the Second Charles? Perchance the <span title="Greek: Thea"> +<i>Θεα</i></span>, <i>Musa</i>, or +Muse, to whom he makes his plea, may prove less kind than those to whom +Homer, Virgil, or Milton prayed; but he has his remedy. In most +instances, he can eat them.<a name="page_025" id="page_025"></a></p> + +<p>Having complied with what used to be a hallowed custom, I shall now, +following the example of that shrewd man, the late Abraham Lincoln, +proceed to tell a story. The deadly sin in any book is dulness, and an +occasional anecdote—if it point a moral so much the better—is sovran +balsam for spleen.</p> + +<p>I had a literary friend in London, and as he once returned to his +residence by Regent's Park after a long walk, and asked had anyone +called during his absence, the housekeeper replied "No;" but, correcting +herself, added, "leastways, nobody, sir, except one of them 'ere Spanish +kings!"</p> + +<p>The Spanish king who was of no consequence was one of the race of +Pretenders, and had the proud blood of countless generations of +thick-lipped Bourbons meandering through his veins.</p> + +<p>In the February of 1873, from which my personal knowledge of Spain +dates, there were quite a number of these Spanish kings on the carpet. +Amadeus, the Italian, had vacated the throne on the 11th, in a message +which substantially affirmed that the peaceful government of Spain was +hopeless—his Majesty gave it up as a bad job—and the<a name="page_026" id="page_026"></a> two Chambers, +combining as the sovereign Cortes, proclaimed the Republic by a majority +of four to one. Of the aspirants to the crown there were notably Don +Carlos Maria de los Dolores, the legitimate heir—if there be any virtue +in legitimacy—and Don Alfonso, only son of the deposed Isabella, a boy +of fifteen, at school at Vienna, a legitimate claimant if the abolition +of the Salic law in 1830 be acknowledged. There was one who might have +been a king, but sensibly declined the proffered honour, in the person +of the ancient Espartero, Duke of Victory, Prince of Vergara; and there +was a Prussian princeling, a Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, who had been +nominated king in the midsummer of 1870, and whose nomination afforded +the coveted pretext for the war between France and Germany. Besides, +every Captain-General in the country—and the allowance is five—was a +king <i>in prospectu</i>, not to mention the multifarious leaders of the many +parties in the Congress, all of whom were qualified to be kings in their +own conceit. Spain being thus suffering from a plethora of kings—as one +result of which the Republic<a name="page_027" id="page_027"></a> existed—it struck those who had +commissioned me to chronicle the humours of besieged Paris that I might +find some material for instructive and entertaining writing at the other +side of the Pyrenees.</p> + +<p>There are several ways of getting to Madrid. I had no difficulty in +selecting mine—in fact, I had no choice. It was my duty to go there by +the quickest route, no matter what the expense, the danger, or the +inconvenience. These were the terms implied in my bond. The first stage +was to Bordeaux. Over that I shall not dwell beyond a passing note on +the excitement of the mad drive from terminus to terminus through Paris +streets, in the early morn, at the rate of four statute miles an hour, +in order, as Brother Jonathan has it, to "establish connection," and the +misery of the long railway pilgrimage south. The scenery, I believe, was +lovely; but fatigue, and the worry of a constrained position, and the +frequent jerky stops as one was dozing to sleep, and the impatient +summons "<i>en voiture</i>" as the hungry man was settling to a square meal, +indisposed one for the proper appreciation of the picturesque. I got so +eye-dazed from the whirl<a name="page_028" id="page_028"></a> and dust and flitting sentinels of +telegraph-posts on the long music-lines of telegraph-wires, that I could +not distinguish a life-buoy from a funeral wreath. There were no +sleeping-cars between Paris and Bordeaux then; back-ache, with an +occasional variety in the shape of migraine, is my principal memory of +that journey. Back-ache, the reader will allow, would take the poetry +out of a honeymoon trip. And here I interpose a short parenthesis to +register my acknowledgment to the philanthropist who invented +sleeping-cars with their complementary accommodations. He is a +benefactor to travelling humanity. Statues have been erected to dozens +who have done less good to their kind—soldiers, lawyers, politicians, +and patent pill-makers. Sleeping-cars avert exhaustion, ill-humour, bad +dreams, and kidney-disease, not to exclude the back-ache and migraine +afore-mentioned. Whenever a bronze memorial is to be raised on the +Thames Embankment to their inventor, I am ready with my contribution.</p> + +<p>At Bordeaux, where I shuffled into the nearest hotel, I uncoiled myself, +and took the kinks out of<a name="page_029" id="page_029"></a> my bones; but of the wine capital I shall say +no more than that "I came, I slept, I left." At leaving, a little +adventure variegated the itinerary. As I entered the railway-carriage, a +gentleman on the opposite seat, its only occupant, was sucking an +orange. I pulled out my cigar-case, and politely asked him if he had any +objection to my smoking.</p> + +<p>"Are you a German?" he demanded stiffly.</p> + +<p>"Pardon me," I said, "I inquired if you had any objection to my +smoking."</p> + +<p>"Are you a German?" he repeated almost fiercely, his eyes flashing.</p> + +<p>"I fail to see what business it is of yours what my nationality may be."</p> + +<p>"It is my business, and I insist on your answering my question," he +shouted, dropping the orange in his anger.</p> + +<p>"And I decline to answer it," I said quietly.</p> + +<p>Now he fairly raged. There is nothing which so provokes a man of hasty +temper, with whom you may be in a controversy, as to preserve a +tranquil, self-possessed demeanour. Ladies who nag their<a name="page_030" id="page_030"></a> husbands are +aware of this interesting feature in household ethics.</p> + +<p>"Ah, you <i>are</i> a German!" he yelled. "You are a Prussian. I will not sit +in the same compartment with you'!" and he stood up, and danced, and +went through a round of epileptic gesticulation.</p> + +<p>"Your absence will not leave me inconsolable," said I, in soft, sweet +accents, ceremoniously lifting my hat.</p> + +<p>He bounced out of the carriage like a maniac, stamped along the +platform, muttering with incoherent vehemence as he went, and presently +reappeared with a gendarme, whom he informed that he suspected I was a +Prussian spy. Interrogated, he could advance no proof beyond his own +suspicions, my arrogant coolness of manner, and my hesitation in +returning a straightforward reply.</p> + +<p>"I am sure he is," he concluded, "for he all but admitted it."</p> + +<p>The gendarme was perplexed, and asked me very civilly, was I a German?</p> + +<p>"Distinctly not," I answered.</p> + +<p>Had Monsieur any papers? I produced my<a name="page_031" id="page_031"></a> British passport, which he +looked at, pretended to understand, folded up, returned to me with +excuses for having given me so much trouble, and fixed a look of grave +reproach on his countryman. The latter was embarrassed, and had not the +grace to make a frank apology, but mumbled something to the effect that +I might have saved all this annoyance if I had stated what countryman I +was at first.</p> + +<p>"If you had put your question in the French fashion, that is to say +courteously, I might have done so," I said.</p> + +<p>He blushed, and stammered forth the apology at last; he hoped I would +forgive his quickness, but he could not control himself when he met a +German; he hated the race—the Germans were a pack of cold-blooded +robbers, who had brought ruin on his country. He had vowed vengeance +against them, and he had reason for it, for he was an Alsatian.</p> + +<p>I saw my chance.</p> + +<p>"<i>Mon Dieu!</i>" I exclaimed, throwing up my hands in affected horror. "It +is you who are the German, then, and not I. Do you not know, sir,<a name="page_032" id="page_032"></a> that +Alsace has been a province of Germany for the past two years?"</p> + +<p>If the face be an index to the mind, that Alsatian must have passed +through a mental cyclone. Luckily for the angel who records bad +language, his rage was so terrible that he lost the power of speech, the +while I gently moved my head to and fro, and gazed at him with +compassionate remonstrance, as much as to say how could he, a +sausage-eating creature, have had the heart to pass himself off on me as +a Frenchman? It was cruel, but it was merited. That Alsatian I despised +as the meanest thing in patriotism I had ever met—and my experience of +the article is not limited—for even were I a German, so long as I +behaved myself with propriety he had no right to insult me by his surly +cross-examination. But I suppose the poor devil thought he was playing +the rle of redresser of the wrongs of his country, and exacting an +instalment of that <i>revanche</i> of which we hear occasional frothing +babble. If I were a German I should be proud of it, and I hope I should +have had the firmness to tell my Alsatian interlocutor so to his teeth.<a name="page_033" id="page_033"></a></p> + +<p>From Bordeaux to Bayonne, down through the Landes, is a most interesting +ride, as I dimly recollect; but I have no notes of it, and I infer that +nothing particular occurred as I sped through the fat, nice, pleasant +country. I had a short stay at Bayonne—long enough, however, to enable +me to mark by ethnological signs and tinge of complexion that Spain was +near. There were architectural signs, too, for there were colonnades in +some of the streets to shelter promenaders from the powerful sun. Plenty +of soldiers in Bayonne, and plenty of Hebrews. All of the latter seem to +be engaged in the money-changing business. The whole art of +money-changing consists in undervaluing the coin you are buying, and +setting an exaggerated value on that you are giving for it. I must have +lost a small fortune in the course of my money-changing transactions, +therefore am I a most determined adherent of a uniform system of coinage +for all civilized nations; and that coinage, I maintain, should be +decimal. Fancy a foreigner getting small money for a sovereign after he +has incurred a debt of one and sixpence for a hot salt-water bath on the +South<a name="page_034" id="page_034"></a> Coast! The fair attendant offers him a crown-piece, two +half-crowns, two florins, two shillings, two six-pences, two groats, two +threepenny bits, a postage stamp, a wheedling simper and a charity-bob. +He is puzzled, and to my thinking he is justified in being puzzled; and +if the attendant be not exceedingly attractive he is cheated. Coinage +should be simple—should be so plain in identity that a child could +distinguish it in the dark, and its worth should descend in regulated +gradation. This reform will come eventually. One of the objections to a +universal mintage may be that there would be a struggle as to whose +profile should be sunk into the stamps—a point on which many rulers are +solicitous, for they foresee that it is the only species of immortality +they will ever attain. His Majesty of Araucania might legitimately +protest against having his individuality merged in the lineaments of the +artistic concretion of the Republic of San Marino, and the Queen of +Madagascar (what is her name, by-the-bye?) might not easily be weaned +from a natural longing for the luxury of having her own face in the +perpetual youthfulness of Hebe imprinted on the<a name="page_035" id="page_035"></a> discs which circulate +at Tananarivo. That objection might be met in two ways; one side of the +coin might be common to all the world, and the other reserved for the +vanities, or the vanities might toss up, and acquire the renown of the +numismatist's glass-case in turn.</p> + +<p>That the reform will come I am convinced, but not while the Hebrews can +hinder it. It is their interest to have this diversity of coinage; and +they are very conservative of what is their interest. I have for a long +time been trying to make up my mind about the Hebrews. My sympathies fly +out to them because they have been persecuted, foully persecuted, on +account of their religious belief, while, on the other hand, my +antipathies are stirred because they make to themselves an idol of gold. +Beautiful are the daughters of Israel with a striking Old Testament +beauty, marvellously imperious considering the lengthened apprenticeship +of helotry through which they have served; but <i>navet</i> is not the +quality one would look for in their countenances. As well seek a dimple, +or a blush, or a coy reserve. Oh! beautiful indeed, and<a name="page_036" id="page_036"></a> to an imposing +degree, with long straight nose, full orbs, pursing lips, +clean-chiselled regular contour; but the earliest lesson they learn is +how many grains Troy go to a silver shekel. They may have in them still +the fire of Jael, who drove the tent-peg into the skull of the tyrant, +or the fierce genius of the poetic Deborah, who was one of the first to +strike the lyre of triumph; but, alas! that it must be said, the gentle +Ruth, gleaning in the fields of barley, is a lost tradition of the race. +I can almost imagine the tender-eyed Leah and the well-favoured Rachel +figuring in an idyl of another Wakefield family; but, then, where are we +to seek for them? Not in Bayonne. There are no artless Jewesses there; +the pupils under their black lashes glitter with the glow of cupidity, +and I prefer the light of love. There is something in it more womanly +and mellow. I have seen the eyes of a Jewess almost bulge out of their +sockets like those of the telescope fish, as she gazed on the treasures +of Notre Dame at Paris—to me a degrading dilatation—and I set it down +to the instincts engendered by centuries of servitude, when the Jews<a name="page_037" id="page_037"></a> +discovered that the surest mode of checkmating their masters was by +amassing money, and lending it out to them at usurious rates. Certes, +they are a pushing and clannish tribe, and skilled in the mimetic arts; +but they are not so high-souled and all-influential as their friend +Disraeli would fain make them in a chapter of elaborate gush in that +fine novel, "Coningsby." In the main I admire them; but I could wish +that they stripped to manual toil oftener; that they were less +obsequious in indigence, and less despotic and dictatorial when they are +in authority—niggers and Hindoos can be that; that they were less prone +to exhibit their entire stock-in-trade in the shop-window; that they +were less ostentatious in their hospitality, when they are hospitable, +and that they had a quieter taste in raiment. Now, I think I have had +ample retribution out of that greasy matron at Bayonne, who exploited me +when converting my honest notes of the Bank of England into Spanish +duros.</p> + +<p>From Bayonne the train rattled along not far from the fringe of the Bay +of Biscay, by Biarritz and St. Jean de Luz, and across the bridge +spanning<a name="page_038" id="page_038"></a> the Bidassoa to Irun, the border town of Spain, close by +Fontarabia's wooded height. Here we had a pause for customs and passport +examination and change of carriages. No railway official could give me +any information as to how far the line went; it might go to Madrid, it +might not go more than a few miles; the country was unsettled. These +officials impressed me as sulky or stupid or timorous, or all three +combined, and made glaring contrast with the smart servants on the +London, Chatham and Dover line, who know everything that regards their +calling, and are always quick and decisive in answer without taint of +rudeness. But I was recalled from my comparisons by one word, which +wrought a magic effect upon me.</p> + +<p>That word was "<i>caballero</i>!"</p> + +<p>How elated I felt! I realized that I was in Spain, and seemed to grow in +inches and self-esteem. I lent myself to an unconscious swagger, tipped +my hat jauntily on one side of my head, and was swayed by an almost +irresistible inclination to retire to some unobserved corner and wax the +ends of my moustache.<a name="page_039" id="page_039"></a></p> + +<p>The speaker was a Guardia Civil, the Spanish equivalent for a French +gendarme. A solemn man in a cocked-hat, protected by a glazed cover, his +complexion was of sickly walnut-juice sallow, like the flesh-tint on a +portrait in oils by an old master. The complexion was characteristically +Spanish. He was the State personified, and had much dignity. He told me +I might count upon getting to Beasain, a village in a valley at this +side of one of the mountains of the Pyrenean range, but that progress +beyond that by rail was problematical, as the Cura Santa Cruz had torn +up the track.</p> + +<p>This was the first I had heard of the Cura Santa Cruz, one of the most +ferocious and redoubtable of the partisans of Don Carlos. Truculent were +the stories which were told of him. He was Raw-head-and-bloody-bones in +cassock; priest and picaroon, with a well-developed tendency towards +wholesale murder; Bogie with a breviary—that is, according to some. +According to others, he was a brave, disinterested and reverend patriot; +a sort of Hofer-cum-Tell individual, etherealized by the sanctity of his +vocation. Anyhow, be he maleficent or benign,<a name="page_040" id="page_040"></a> it was clear that he was +Somebody, and had filled the whole country-side with awe. He led a corps +of guerrilleros, who rejoiced in the nickname of the Black Band; and +such was the terror inspired by their exploits, that the whisper that +Santa Cruz was hovering near stunned opposition, and brought in any +ransom demanded. He must have been in one of his benign moods on this +occasion, for he permitted our train free passage through his territory; +and in the evening we drew up in a snow-bound basin, where shuddered the +straggling hamlet of Beasain. I took up my lodging for the night in a +two-storied cabin, and sent a news-letter to London, recounting what I +had seen and heard so far. I was urged to this by an intimation which +had reached me, that a rival had preceded me on the road to Madrid by +twenty-four hours. The first blow is half the battle, and I calculated +that if I could get the ear of the public in advance of him, there would +be a point gained. Communication with England was open from Beasain. +Heaven knows how it would be to-morrow or next day.<a name="page_041" id="page_041"></a></p> + +<p>There was fearful tangible evidence of the presence of Santa Cruz in +this remote valley. At one extremity where the cavernous opening of the +railway tunnel made a dark gap in the hillside, the track had been +wrenched from its fastenings, and the sleepers smeared with oil and set +on fire. Heaps of charred timber marked the spot, and alongside, down in +a ravine, lay the wreck of shattered carriages and locomotive, just as +they had been tumbled in a topsy-turvy blending of complete collapse. It +made me tremble to reflect what this meant, and I came to the conclusion +that Santa Cruz was thoroughgoing in his warfare and restrained by few +scruples of compassion.</p> + +<p>Over the fumes of the brasero, the brass-pan with its stifling embers of +charcoal, placed on a stand in the middle of my room, my landlord and I +with outstretched palms held long confab before I turned into bed. His +mother had been French, and we gossiped in that tongue. His views were +tolerably impartial, but it was plain that the Carlists had his good +wishes. The factions were partially dispersed, but were not defeated, he +said; they would give<a name="page_042" id="page_042"></a> more trouble; and then he horrified me with a +well-authenticated tale of a recent fight at Aspeitia, where an old +villager had taken refuge in a house which was subsequently occupied by +the troops. He fell dead after a volley fired by the Carlists. His son +was one of those who had joined in the volley, and the awful muffled +rumour was spreading among the peasantry that it was by the son's bullet +the father had been slain.<a name="page_043" id="page_043"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h3> + +<p class="ch">A Make-Believe Spain—The Mountain Convoy—A Tough Road to +Travel—Spanish Superiority in Blasphemy—Short Essay on Oaths—The +Basque Peasants—Carlism under a Cloak—How Guerilla-Fighting is +Conducted—A Hyperborean Landscape—A Mysterious Grandee—An +Adventurous Frenchman—The Shebeen on the Summit—Armed +Alsasua—Base Coin.</p> + +<p class="nind">A<small>ND</small> this is sunny Spain, the land of the olive and the vine. Spain it +certainly is in the absolute sense of the word in political geography, +but in no other. It is no more Spain than the Highlands are England. The +language, the race, the habits, the growths, are different. The +language, the Euscara, is known to only one man not born within the +borders, the polyglot Prince Lucien Buonaparte. A hackneyed legend runs +that the devil tried to learn it, and dislocated his jaw. The race is +the aboriginal Iberian, and has none of the languor of the south in +it—a stubborn, not a supple race.<a name="page_044" id="page_044"></a> The habits of the people are +industrious. The growths are rather of the apple and the pine than the +olive and the vine.</p> + +<p>There before us rises the wall of Nature's handiwork which shuts us out +from the true Spain.</p> + +<p>In my boyhood I often gazed with admiration on a print of Napoleon +crossing the Alps. He was astride of a prancing white charger. I have +since learned to detest Napoleon, and to know more of mountain travel. +That masterful general, but cruel, dishonourable, bad man—demon-man +with genius undoubted and will unbendable, but with the most +unscrupulous of insatiate and insensate ambitions, and a leaven of +littleness—did not face the heights of St. Bernard on a mettlesome +steed, but on a patient mule, and the luxury of his apparel was +restricted to furs. Wrapped up in the thickest clothing I could find, I +watched the convoy forming outside the station at Beasain in the sunlit +cold.</p> + +<p>The train from San Sebastian got in at nine in the morning, and before +ten a procession of six waggons, built after the massive, clumsy fashion +of the French diligence, was drawn up in line. Horses<a name="page_045" id="page_045"></a> and mules, +generally in teams of five—three leaders and two wheelers—were yoked +to the ramshackle vehicles. The passengers, muffled in cloaks, rugs, +scarfs, shawls and comforters—for there was ice in the breath of the +keen air of the mountain—literally packed themselves in the narrow +"insides" of the old-fashioned coaches. There were five in the low, +narrow hutch upon wheels with myself, all males; we were as close as +sardines in a box. There were some ladies of the party. I trust they had +more space at their disposal. The luggage was piled on the roofs and +covered with tarpaulins, the drivers mounted the seats in front, whips +were cracked, and off we bounded at a pace that would rouse the +applause, or peradventure the envy, of the gentlemen who tool the +Brighton coach. Gaily our skinny steeds breasted the rise, sending a +curl of mist from their hides, and shaking merry music out of the +collars of bells round their necks as they clattered over the hard road. +For three miles we dashed along at express speed. How spirit-stirring is +rapid motion! I actually was warming into a wild joy, and praying that +we might encounter<a name="page_046" id="page_046"></a> the Carlists, under the influence of this gallop in +the bracing morning atmosphere.</p> + +<p>Suddenly there is a stop. The Carlists? No. But here the ascent begins, +and a body of mountaineers await us with a string of bullocks. The three +leaders are unharnessed and attached behind; and eight bullocks, two by +two, are yoked in front of the pair of mules who act as wheelers. The +same is done with the other waggons. I watch this process of yoking the +bullocks with much curiosity. A strong piece of board is run across the +heads of the pair who are coupled, and firmly tied in front of the +horns; a sheepskin is thrown over that, for what purpose I cannot tell; +and the ropes by which the bullocks drag us are fastened to the piece of +board afore-mentioned. They pull, not against the shoulder, but against +the horn. Their owners, muscular peasants, lightly clad, though it is +cold, walk beside them with long pointed sticks, and occasionally goad +them in the flanks. When that does not suffice, they push them, or rain +blows on their hides, or twist their tails, and when all other means +fail they swear at them. But the grave oxen<a name="page_047" id="page_047"></a> move no quicker; they cling +to their own gait as if deeply convinced of the truth of the adage, +"Fair and easy goes far in the day." The peasants call one "demonio" and +another a cow; but the sleepy pair keep never minding, as they waddle +along with drooping heads, held closely together as if whispering +conspiracy.</p> + +<p>At this early point in my experiences, the painful knowledge is forced +upon me that the Spaniards are highly accomplished in the art of +imprecation. If our army swore terribly in Flanders, I have my theory to +account for it. They must have picked up the habit there, and the +Spaniards under Alva had left their traces behind them in the speech of +the region they had occupied. As a rule, swearing betrays a poverty of +invention; it is the resource of the vulgar and ignorant to emphasize +their assertions; but in Spain the swearing developed an originality +that almost reconciled one to it. There was an awful insolence, a ribald +riotousness in some of the oaths which redeemed them from the scorn +which every well-balanced mind should feel for displays of petulance. I +respect a<a name="page_048" id="page_048"></a> good round oath—an oath that blanches my cheeks and makes me +imagine that it would not be extraordinary if the ground were to open +and swallow the varlet who uttered it. That sort of oath is to be +tolerated for its audacity. The malediction is a higher form of oath, +and some maledictions are magnificent. To the amateur I can recommend +King Lear's upon Cordelia, Francesco Cenci's upon Beatrice—which is +more Shakspearian than Shakspeare—and even puny Moore's upon the +traitorous Gheber. The joint-stock oath which Sterne puts into the +mouths of the Abbess of Andoillets and the novice, Margarita, who had +the whitlow on her middle finger, is passable for its fantastic +ingenuity; and the strong locutions pat in the lips of a certain +Duke—unless notoriety belies him—are to be licensed because of his +rank, and because he is a soldier. But he should have the courage to +blurt them out on all occasions. He who dares to outrage society should +not shrink from offending an individual.</p> + +<p>"You —— naughty boy, why did you sound the wrong call?" said H.R.H. to +a bugler, but as soon<a name="page_049" id="page_049"></a> as he got out of earshot of a certain Personage, +he muttered in an angry undertone, "You canonized little beggar, you +know what I meant."</p> + +<p>The Spaniards are liberal and earnest and dogged in their railings, +anathemas, and execrations, but still the sleepy oxen do not hurry +themselves. They care no more for a volley of select comminations than +the jackdaw of Rheims did for the archbishop's curse. Of a verity this +bullock's pace is a snail's pace, and we have ample leisure to inspect +the peasants as we crawl along. Brawny, hardy, and firmly-knit as +Highlandmen, their faces are weather-beaten and frank; their manner, +when one speaks to them, independent but polite; in dress like unto +their Celtic kinsmen of Brittany, short-jacketed, loose, and slovenly, +but in stature more like to the tall mountaineers of Tipperary. They +must be poor, very poor; but they have the appearance of content, and +with it of honesty, sobriety, and civility.</p> + +<p>And now a little secret must be imparted. Every man-jack of these +ox-drivers is a Carlist, and that is the reason we are not attacked +to-day! In a<a name="page_050" id="page_050"></a> week those innocent clowns may be blazing away at the +regular army of Spain from the brushwood on a hillside, for after such +fashion are Carlist wars conducted. A band assembles at the call of some +chief—that is to say, the peasants leave their cabins and meet at some +rock, some conspicuous tree, or some cross-roads. They have with them a +flag, perhaps; perhaps a priest or two; they are badly armed with such +arms as insurgents carry—blunderbusses, flint-muskets, fowling-pieces, +horse-pistols; they have no distinctive uniform, except a few of the +older bands—the permanent army of Carlism—which are clad in the seedy +clothes that the French Garde Mobile wore during the late war. The +campaign opens; a descent is made upon some village, the mayor is asked +to supply so many hundred rations, and the young men are summoned to +join the flag. Sometimes the mayor refuses, and there is a fight between +"the volunteers of liberty," that is to say, the local national guard, +and the Carlists. On the average, so the reports go, one man is killed +in each of these combats, and three wounded. That is a battle at this +stage of<a name="page_051" id="page_051"></a> the Carlist war. With the regular troops sent against them the +Carlists act otherwise. They take up ground in some inaccessible eyrie, +pop at the passing detachments from their ambuscade, draw them on in the +hope of catching them in a trap; but the troops are cautious, they +pepper away at the Carlists from a distance until the Carlists run, and +the affair ends, as usual, with the loss of one man killed and three +wounded. The peasants return to their cabins to tell the tale of their +gallantry, and if the troops perchance should come their way, why they +are but inoffensive, ingenuous tillers of the soil, the most peaceful +beings on the face of nature. The firearm is hid in the thatch or in the +neighbouring hedge. But the officers who lead the troops do not allow +their enemies the monopoly of gasconade. In the <i>Gaceta de Madrid</i> the +bulletin of the engagement duly appears, and the names of the doughty +warriors are chronicled for the admiration of the seoritas. One Carlist +chief—at least, so pretend the wags—had been killed outright thrice, +wounded mortally five times, and has had his band completely dispersed +and<a name="page_052" id="page_052"></a> broken up seven times in the <i>Gaceta</i>, and yet he is still alive +and troublesome. A most outlandish war, but how disastrous in its +effects on the trade and prosperity of the country! It could not be +carried on if the soil were not rich to plenteousness. There is an +adventurous vigour in the breed, too, and the terrain lends itself to +guerilla fighting. So far, I know nothing of the merits of Carlism; but +this I can divine, that it is the old rivalry betwixt town and country, +and the "pagans" or villagers are all Carlists—question of transmitted +feud or local traditions, or both. The rustics have the advantage over +the town-bred men; they are familiar with the by-paths; every sheiling +is a refuge for them, every dweller therein a self-constituted scout. +When they choose to seek them, they must have secure hiding-places. +Artillery is an arm of derision in the hills; cavalry can rarely act +effectually, and in the way of reconnoitring is next to useless, as its +movements can be espied from rock-cover on every eminence; but in the +open these insurgents can do nothing against disciplined troops. Pity +that they should be such fools as to<a name="page_053" id="page_053"></a> abandon their pleasant and +comfortable, if humble, homesteads, to help on the aspirations of any +right-divine make-believe claimant to the heaven-sent mission—by +accident of birth—of impressing other human beings that he is wiser +than they, and should have revenues and reverence for condescending to +govern them.</p> + +<p>What would our ox-drivers do, I wonder, if they could overhear and +understand the conversation in which thoughts like these are exchanged +in the lumbering Noah's ark they are helping through their domain? We +are getting nigh and nigher to the clouds, and the quilt of snow on the +mountain grows thicker. The pathway is traceable only by the marks of +the hoofs of beasts of burden and the ruts of wheels, and the fleecy +banks at each side rise gradually higher. It is palpably colder, and yet +we are far from the culminating point of the Pyrenean pass; straight +saplings are not infrequent around, and here and there a lowly hut in a +nook under some sheltering rock, both hut and rock hoary with snow, +startles us with the reminder that human beings actually live here. The +Basques,<a name="page_054" id="page_054"></a> said Voltaire, are a people who sing and dance on the summit +of the Pyrenees. Our ox-drivers do not sing, neither do our muleteers. +This interminable glare is becoming very fatiguing to the eyes, and the +higher we ascend the rarer are the refreshing little streaks of darker +hue. Stumps of dwarf trees replace the straight saplings to be seen +lower down; and hardly are we on the crest of one snow-capped hill than +another, hidden under the same smooth sheet of everlasting lime-white, +mocks us. Slowly and painfully the oxen toil along, and the peasants by +their side sink knee-deep at every step. Will this ever end? It was +picturesque at first to watch the long caravan coiling over the spiral +track which turns right and left like a corkscrew. Now it is tedious, +for we are chilled and worn-out, hungry and cramped. The sublimity of +nature is grandiose, but there may be too much of it. One tires of +rolling perpetual cigarettes; one even tires of studying the forcible +Spanish adjurations that begin with the third letter of the alphabet. My +companions, four French commercial travellers, relapse into silence and +doze off into fitful starts of<a name="page_055" id="page_055"></a> the sleepiness begot of extreme cold; +the fifth—a grandee of Castile I take him to be at the very least by +his appearance, broad swarthy countenance, shaven upper lip and chin, +and short spade whiskers of a night-black—the fifth, this Spaniard, did +not relapse into silence, for he had never uttered a word since we +started.</p> + +<p>What weariness to the flesh is this tedious climb to regions +hyperborean! I catch myself yawning. What if our waggon were to break +down! At last one of the Frenchmen bursts out, "<i>Dieu de Dieu, j'en ai +assez</i>." He would stand or rather sit it no longer, opened the door, and +alighted. We all followed his example, even to the taciturn Spaniard, +and took to the road. A walk in advance might send the blood +circulating, and on we plodded in the middle of the path, regardless of +the snow which soaked into our boots and saturated our trousers to the +knees. Not a living being was visible but two crows who bore us company, +and hopped on our flanks like a covering-party. The road was tantalizing +in its tortuousness; after walking a furlong we found ourselves a couple +of<a name="page_056" id="page_056"></a> yards directly above the point we had quitted a quarter of an hour +before. One of the Frenchmen, seeing this, had an inspiration; he +determined to go up the mountain perpendicularly, and before we could +dissuade him he had sunk to his armpits in a treacherous crevasse. We +dragged him out by making a cable of our pocket-handkerchiefs and +throwing it to him. He took his wetting in good part.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" he cried, "shan't I have something to tell them when I get back to +the Boulevard des Italiens." And then, as if reflecting, he added, "But +no, 'twill never do; they'd call me <i>farceur</i>."</p> + +<p>A red-brick building with an arrangement of iron on the roof, as if it +had been employed as a signal-post, faced us—high up on the pinnacle of +a ridge at one moment; was at our side the next; behind us anon; and +directly before us now. By turns it was small and large. We were asking +ourselves (all except the Spaniard; he never spoke) was this a +phantasmagoria, when a jingle of bells was heard on the still air. Where +did it come from? We could see nothing. Suddenly, as a<a name="page_057" id="page_057"></a> theatrical ghost +springs from a trap-door, at an abrupt turn a wild figure appears +bearing right down upon us. A Carlist chieftain? Not so fast. A muleteer +simply, sitting sideways on his prad, and leading a half-dozen mules +laden with panniers in Indian file behind him. He told us we had reached +the summit, and that there was a fonda a short distance off. Signs of +life multiplied; we met mountaineers, with oxen drawing small cars with +solid wheels similar to those of toy carriages—wheels that kept up +perpetual creak and croak—and finally we encountered the caravan from +Alsasua to Beasain. But we encountered no Carlists, that is, no armed +Carlists, for every man there is Carlist in soul. The smoky fonda was as +miserable as the most miserable of Irish shebeens; yet they gave us good +white bread and eggs to eat, and, with the aid of the sauce of hunger +and sundry glasses of acid Val de Peas to wash it down, we made a +hearty meal. The caravan overtook us in half an hour; the rest of the +journey was downhill, the snow was deeper than on the other side, and +the jolting terrific, but we did not care. Our goal was<a name="page_058" id="page_058"></a> near, and we +had eaten and drunk. We laughed at the dangers we had passed, and even +the Spaniard unbent and exhibited unexpected powers of conversation. +Alas! for my judgment; he was no grandee of Castile, but a butcher from +Saragossa, a mere <i>carnifex</i> with blood of the common red tint.</p> + +<p>At Alsasua we came upon a village bleaker than Beasain, with soldiers +billeted under every roof. They loitered in twos and threes about the +wide street, which was drab with patches of dirty snow. Here were placed +a few mountain guns under custody of a shivering sentry, there a bugler +in slovenly greatcoat blew some call with pinched lips on a battered +instrument. At the station—a rude shanty with wooden partitions and a +plank erection run up as refreshment-stall—some attempt had been made +at fortification. There were mud-works thrown up in its vicinity, and +the walls were roughly loop-holed. A party of Linesmen were in +possession. On a siding close by was the locomotive which had been +riddled with shot by the insurgents on the now disused line to +Pampeluna. Our own locomotive<a name="page_059" id="page_059"></a> was awaiting us, with steam up, and I +hurried to procure my ticket. I pushed a piece of honest red gold +through the wicket, and an extremely nice, slim female clerk gave me the +pasteboard with my change and thanks. Something struck me in the silver +shoved towards me; the leaden hue of the pesetas was suspicious. I took +up one and rung it; the dull sound convinced me it was bad. I rung +another—same result. I was desolate; but I had to call the attention of +the extremely nice girl to the error she had fallen into; and she +coolly, without adumbration of a blush, or faintest pretence at apology, +took back the base coins, and gave me their equivalent in coins that +were sterling. And then, for the first time, it broke upon me, that it +was not considered a scoundrelly act to pass bad money upon an innocent +foreigner, or upon an innocent native, for the matter of that. I further +learned that if I had removed that bad money from the counter, I should +have had to bear with the loss. That extremely nice girl would have +assured me with all politeness that I must be labouring under an +illusion.<a name="page_060" id="page_060"></a></p> + +<p>The Spaniard has personal dignity to a prodigious degree. But his +personal dignity does not hinder the ordinary Spaniard from endeavouring +to foist counterfeit stamps upon his neighbour whenever he has the +chance.</p> + +<p>The tarantara of a bugle stirred a company of soldiers to take their +places in the train. They were our escort to Miranda, on the borders of +Old Castile, where we might consider ourselves out of danger. It is my +opinion we were never in any danger.</p> + +<p>We reached Miranda safely, and from that swept down in the darkness to +Madrid without molest, the most of us snoring as regularly as the funnel +of the engine snorted. I had a fearsome vision of a sweet Spanish maiden +who had knowingly placed a worthless peseta in the tirelire at Mass, and +had been sentenced by Santa Cruz to grill on the gridiron of hell for +the term of her natural life. A carpet-bag utilized as a pillow was the +origin of my vision. Had that carpet-bag been more carelessly packed, +the penalty on the poor girl might have been prolonged to eternity.<a name="page_061" id="page_061"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h3> + +<p class="ch">Madrid—The Fonda and its Porter—The Puerta del Sol—Postal +Irregularities—Tribute to the Madrileos—The Barber's +Pronunciamiento—Anecdotes of King Amadeus—Checkmating the Grand +Dames—Queen Isabella—The Embarrassed Mr. Layard of Nineveh—The +Great Powers Hesitate—America Goes Ahead—General Sickles—Mahomet +and the Mountain—Republicanism among the troops—A Peculiar +Pennsylvanian Dentist—Castelar under Torture—The Writer meets one +of his Sept—Politicians by Trade—Honour among Insurgents—Alonso +the Reckless.</p> + +<p class="nind">F<small>IRST</small> impressions of Madrid, "the only court," do not fill the visitor +with awe. It is an aggregate of masonry, fragmentary on the edges, +compact in the middle, on a sandy plateau in a waste of arid landscape. +There is lack of natural shade and water, albeit there are tree-planted +walks and gardens, with cedars and Himalayan pines, and fountains with +fulness of clear flow are abundant. It wants a river; the Manzanares, I +am told, is but a ditch.<a name="page_062" id="page_062"></a> I do not know if that is so; I never could see +the Manzanares. A rugged, sun-blistered city, Madrid struck me as no +more characteristically Spanish—or what I had taught myself to accept +as such—than Turin is Italian; both are half-Frenchified. In the +northern distance are the summits of the Guadarrama hills, and the +unseen breeze which sweeps down from its snowy eyries amongst them cuts +like an icicle. The Madrileo fears it, for it has a trick of permeating +the streets with a subtile, chilling, killing breath; and when the +Madrileo steps from the sunny to the shady side of the street he is +careful to lift a corner of his cloak as screen to his mouth.</p> + +<p>The central point of Madrid is the Puerta del Sol—a bare, broad, +irregular area off which nine thoroughfares diverge. Round it the +day-god, greatest friend of Spain, pivots in glory. Now he floods one +side with radiance, now he drops his cloth of gold over another. The +Puerta del Sol is the focus of interest for the population. Thither the +gossips repair, and there the affairs of the nation are discussed very +often by those who have acted, act, or hope to act as leaders of the +nation.<a name="page_063" id="page_063"></a> Naturally I made for the Puerta del Sol, for it was of vital +importance to me to be in the movement, in the very vortex of the pool. +I was fortunate. I got rooms in the Fonda de Paris, an hotel at the +corner of the Calle de Alcal, the principal avenue leading from the +Plaza. As proof of the unsettled condition of affairs and its effect +upon trade, it need only be said that at the <i>table d'hte</i> of this, the +first hotel in the capital, where one hundred and thirty persons usually +sit down to dinner, there were sometimes not more than fifteen or +twenty, and a proportion of these were fly-about Special Correspondents. +Yet in this exiguous circle of prudent people who were detained in +Madrid, or foolhardy people who had travelled there, turned up the +irrepressible British tourist. Of the latter class we had charming +specimens at dinner one evening in two English girls, with fresh peachy +complexions, and hair like wavy masses of ripe maize. They had no guide +but their faithful "Murray." What became of them subsequently I never +ascertained; but it is to be trusted they were as lucky as the +enterprising young lady who relied on Erin's honour<a name="page_064" id="page_064"></a> and Erin's pride in +the reign of King Brian, and made the tour of the Emerald Isle with a +gold ring on the tip of a wand. That would hardly pay the hotel-bills +nowadays.</p> + +<p>A great feature in the fonda was Constantine, the hall-porter, a tall +swarthy man, who was as fluent a linguist as an Alexandria dragoman. He +was Greek by birth, but had a strain of English blood on the mother's +side. His sire may have been a South Sea cannibal or a South African +lion-slayer for aught I remember; but that there was something +phenomenally bold in him I am certain. Constantine's instincts were +predatory, and his manners morose. There was a tradition that he had +been a bandit in the neighbourhood of Smyrna, or an innkeeper by the +Marseilles docks—much about the same thing, and that he was prepared to +do little jobs of human carving for a consideration. However, these may +have been fables got up by travellers in search of excitement to invest +Constantine with an interesting air of romance. He was very civil to me +and did not cheat me more than I chose. I never had occasion to ask him +to kill anybody.<a name="page_065" id="page_065"></a></p> + +<p>From my windows I could command the mid-basin in the Plaza, more for use +than ornament, and as great a rendezvous of the quidnuncs as a +village-pump. The panorama of life lounged or moved or bustled +beneath—shifting groups of cloaked disputants, veiled women tripping +gracefully along, stately Civil Guards in three-cornered hats, sombre +priests with Don Basilio head-gear, the various moulds of human nature +from the grandee to the mendicant, and above all that brood with which I +soon grew familiar, and for which I conceived an invincible disgust—the +sallow, peering, prating, importunate brood of hungry place-hunters, +impatient to dip their fingers into the Government pie. Cabriolets +passed to and fro, tram-cars with such sleek well-conditioned mule-teams +jolted on the rails; here a horse-soldier trotted by with clattering +accoutrements, there a water-carrier sturdily trudged; and in a +sheltered angle a long-locked vendor of a magic hair-restorer vaunted +his wondrous balm in sonorous patter, and occasionally curtained his +face with his thick mane brought over from his back as tangible +testimony to the fertilizing properties of<a name="page_066" id="page_066"></a> the balm. In short, from +those windows I could take in the cardiac pulsing of Madrid. Below me, +as I sat and smoked my cigarette, the beginning of change or crux, +accident or riot, the initial whims or humours of the populace, the +formation of a procession or the overture of a pronunciamiento, were +within my ken. And at one corner of the Puerta were the General Post +Office and Telegraphic Bureau, a matter of great convenience to me, if +only they were properly managed. However, it was far easier to collect +news than to send it to the desired destination. The post was as unsafe +as in those days in another land when Mr. Richard Turpin, highwayman, +and his comrogues intercepted his Majesty's mails. As for messages by +wire, I was not long in learning that no important information was +allowed to be sent; true, the money for its transmission was taken, +but—delayed, or forwarded, or suppressed even—the strict rule in that +establishment was "no money returned." Vain were complaints. The Special +Correspondent had no resource but that of the negro suffering from +toothache; 'twas his to grin and bear it. The idea<a name="page_067" id="page_067"></a> of ever again seeing +the colour of the coin which has passed into the palm of a Spanish +functionary is laughable in its pastoral innocence. As well expect to +handle last year's snow. The system of ignorant espionage still obtained +in the Peninsula, as I was forced reluctantly to observe: the word +"Cuba" or "Carlos" on the telegraphic form at once aroused the scruples +and suspicions of the official, and led to the confiscation of the +message. In the end, I discovered how to facilitate the despatch of +news; but as that is my secret I keep it to myself. Suffice it that in +my bill of expenses the item "sundries" was elastic.</p> + +<p>There are some valuable guide-books to Spain, and to them I refer the +reader if he desire to be crammed with curious knowledge about churches +and picture-galleries, museums of arms, and the beautiful upholstery of +the Duke of Sixty-Blazons' palace. My behest was with living not dead +Spain, as investigated during the throes of a political convulsion. I +made my notes on the Madrileos without bias, and without bias I give +them. I spent five weeks in constant and free intercourse with all<a name="page_068" id="page_068"></a> +classes of the inhabitants. During that time I did not detect one +Belleville face; I did not catch the glitter of a knife except at a +dinner-table, nor remark a single drunkard staggering along the streets. +Yet I was in every quarter of the town, to the lowest, at all hours. +There are parts of London where the foreign visitor could not penetrate +and come back with the same story. The Madrileos are indolent—granted; +but they are frugal, temperate, and well-conducted. Occasionally a +poniard is slipped into the ribs of an enemy, but mistakes will occur in +the best-regulated families. If this be a vindictive and blood-sucking +people, the vampirism is adroitly concealed; the dirty linen must be +washed in the dark corner where the charcoal is stored, so that Paul Pry +may not be gratified with the sight. There is no working population at +Madrid; there are no large manufactories, no thriving centres of +employment. That is one reason why Madrid is orderly compared to other +and livelier cities. Prosperous Barcelona swarms with mechanics and +artisans, and that is one reason why Barcelona is disorderly. The +rights-of-man<a name="page_069" id="page_069"></a> agitators generally find favour there. The International +has its ramifications in the Catalonian capital. In Madrid, the +International is a pigmy failure. Its emissaries came once and laboured +zealously to stir up the son of toil to a proper consciousness of his +dignity. After months of propagandism they succeeded in persuading +Figaro to shake a rebellious pole and fiercely flourish his +lathering-brush.</p> + +<p>"Know, ye smooth-lipped minions of the despot Capital," quoth the +barbers in an indignant round-robin, "we shall no longer submit to the +gross tyranny of shaving you before eight of the morning!"</p> + +<p>But Figaro was defeated; Madrid let its beard grow.</p> + +<p>The sudden departure of the Italian-bred monarch had apparently plunged +the politicians into a pit of bewilderment. They did not know how they +stood. Amadeus after his reign of five-and-twenty months had perchance +left few partisans behind him, but assuredly no enemies. His principal +fault, but that was fatal, consisted in his being a foreigner. It<a name="page_070" id="page_070"></a> was +universally vouchsafed that he was very brave, a true hidalgo in that +respect, and if he had been removed in the orthodox method by revolution +or the assassin, his name would have been garlanded with rosemary for +remembrance. But Spanish pride was nettled to the quick at the cavalier +way he had tossed back, with a shrug of the shoulders, the gift of a +crown when he had tired of it. He had looked upon the throne of Castile +as a gewgaw to be surrendered with indifference, and steamed contentedly +to Italy to enjoy his comparatively obscure Dukedom and rank of General +in preference. He had chosen the wiser and happier part, but to those he +had abandoned it was mortifying in the extreme. Still, he was an +unquailing chevalier, almost fit to be a Spaniard, this son of Victor +Emmanuel. He had disarmed hostility, and compelled the praise of the +envious, the very day he entered Madrid, forty-eight hours after the +funeral of Prim, when he spurred ahead of his escort and offered his +breast undismayed to the aim of any or all assassins.</p> + +<p>That entry of Amadeus could not have inspired him with much of the +buoyancy of a bright expectation.<a name="page_071" id="page_071"></a> There was in it more of sanguinary +suggestiveness than sanguine hope. The ghostly presence at the King's +first dinner in the palace could not be denied—that of the slaughtered +"Paladino," no longer fiery and strenuous, but a figure, inert, waxen, +blood-bolstered, a bullet-riddled flesh-target It was most unpropitious +of entries. There was an odour of cerecloth in the tapestry, the yellow +hue of immortelles in the pergnes, a sediment of bitterness in the +wine-cup, a strain of melancholy in the music. And yet there was some +semblance of gaiety, for with all his austere stateliness your Spaniard +is very like unto the Irishman:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left">"With one auspicious, and one dropping eye,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">In equal scale weighing delight and dole."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>There were sundry plots to take the life of Amadeus, but Providence +protected him, and he made it a point, after each attempt or threat, to +show himself in public with the ostentation of a reckless courage. He +rode or walked about with a single aide-de-camp, which was a crime with +those monarchists who set store by the pageantry of<a name="page_072" id="page_072"></a> state. On one +occasion, as he was returning to the palace, the horse in a +hackney-coach with a fat bourgeois inside took fright, and started off +at break-neck speed, overtaking the King's carriage. The King's coachman +whipped up his team, but the wheels of the two vehicles had locked in +each other, and the horses galloped frantically side by side. The +aide-de-camp, fearing a new and daring experiment in regicide, snatched +his rapier from the sheath and began furiously prodding through the +window of the hackney-coach. The fat bourgeois shrunk and flattened +himself into a corner, drew in his breath, and dodged the lunges of the +searching steel. When the palace-gates were reached, and the animals +were stopped, the unfortunate citizen was extricated from his hazardous +position more dead than alive. He was glistening with the wetness of +fright, trembled like an aspen, and blubbered as he begged for mercy. +The panelling was pierced, and the cushion ripped into rags; but by some +extraordinary luck the poor man, who was a harmless dealer in +provisions, had escaped without a scratch. But he owned that he never +before had<a name="page_073" id="page_073"></a> five minutes of such violent exercise complicated with vile +terror. During the scene Amadeus kept his seat tranquilly, and relaxed +into a smile as he discovered the mistake of his too-zealous companion.</p> + +<p>The conspiracies of the saloons were more successful, as efforts to +annoy without contravening law always are. They are not so readily met. +And the malicious ingenuity of woman, when she lays herself out to be +offensive, is remarkably inventive and diabolically persistent. Some of +the grand dames of Madrid had the impish inspiration to put the Royal +couple into Coventry. There is a fashionable carriage-drive in the +capital corresponding much to ours between Hyde Park Corner and Queen's +Gate. Whenever Amadeus and his spouse went there for an airing, the +blue-blooded of the opposition significantly trotted off. Once an +immense procession of the aristocratic families made its appearance, and +slowly and perseveringly "took the dust." Such a turn-out of gala +equipages had not been witnessed for years. All the ladies were arrayed +in the ancient Spanish costume; the<a name="page_074" id="page_074"></a> fan and veil with high comb and +carnation in the hair in every case replaced the Parisian bonnet and +parasol. It was a protest against the foreign dynasty, and was clearly +meant as a demonstration of insult. One of the Royal household was equal +to the provocation; whether Spaniard or Italian I am not sure, but the +latter I think, so subtle was his revenge. He went round to all the +houses of ill-fame in the capital that night, and entered into +conversation, burnished with duros, with their female occupants. The +next evening Madrid was afforded the spectacle in its most fashionable +drive of a parade of courtesans, in ancient Spanish costumes, fanning +themselves, and smirking at their acquaintances from the vantage of +luxurious chariots. It was a scandal, but Madrid grinned, and the +patricians of the antediluvian stem confessed themselves beaten.</p> + +<p>There was still a lingering fondness for the deposed Isabella among the +lower orders. They looked upon her as a good sort, one of the old stock, +prayerful, and affable. She was accustomed to enter wayside cabins, and +get into homely chat<a name="page_075" id="page_075"></a> with the peasants. The Italian woman never did +that. Alphonse Daudet's description of Isabella as a stout queen, who by +her massive jaws and high complexion resembled a coarse-rinded +blood-orange, would not be endorsed by these humble yearners after the +bygone. Indeed, they regarded her as one who had been a type of beauty +in her time, and was still a type of good-nature, and were forgiving to +her peccadilloes, she was so devout. Of course I must not be understood +as speaking here of Spanish partisans of the Republican idea. They had +no more pity for the creatures tainted with Royalty than the Polynesian +for his leprous kinsman—but they were comparatively few.</p> + +<p>Great Britain, at that period, was represented by Mr. Austin Layard, and +the United States by General Daniel Sickles. The British Envoy was in a +dilemma; he did not know how far he would be justified in recognising +the newly-proclaimed Republic; if he received visits of ceremonial it +would be an unpardonable breach of courtesy not to return them; in +short, to use a very graphic locution of the masses, he was waiting to +see how the<a name="page_076" id="page_076"></a> cat jumped, and cheerfully submitted to a diplomatic +catarrh which confined him to his room. I went to visit him, when we had +an interesting dialogue on some recently exhumed relics of antiquity and +exquisite bits of crockery-ware. Mr. Layard impressed me as more taken +up with concerns of Nineveh and Wardour Street than of <i>la haute +politique</i>. But, as he frankly acknowledged, he was not free to act +until he had received his instructions from Downing Street. Though there +is no written pact to the effect, the rule is that Russia, Germany, +Austria—the Great Powers in short—shall only act in conjunction, and +after having exchanged confidential notes, when eventualities arise +affecting all their interests, such as this in Madrid; and—another +consideration besides—was there really any Government yet? It was only +provisional. It could hardly be supposed that any of the Great Powers +would refuse to bow to the will of the Spanish people; but what was its +will? That was a question that could not be admitted to be definitely +settled.</p> + +<p>The United States had struck the key-note—had<a name="page_077" id="page_077"></a> recognised the infant +Republic, while the Prime Minister, Seor Figueras, was waiting for the +chorus of acclamation from the "robust voices" of those Great Powers +which deliberate before they act. The United States are a fast-trotting +buggy; but these Great Powers in this miserable, played-out old +Continent are slow coaches. Not that there were not deliberations in the +White House before General Sickles was authorized to use his +discretionary power in signing the baptismal certificate of this +Republic of accident. General Sickles was undoubtedly clever; he had +experience in his time as a journalist, an advocate, and a soldier. It +was his opinion that Spain had found in the Republic the means of +establishing her power and prosperity on a solid basis. During the +crisis, he kept his Government informed of what was passing, and to his +demand transmitted by cable in the dawn of Wednesday, the 14th of +February, an answer was returned within twenty hours, permitting him to +exercise his judgment as he thought proper. He imagined that a Federal +Republic, on the pattern of that of the United States, with provincial<a name="page_078" id="page_078"></a> +legislatures in Catalonia, Aragon, Andalusia, and so on, and a National +Congress in Madrid, was the panacea for the ills of Spain, and that that +would be sufficient to dissolve all antagonisms of race, custom, and +feeling, and amalgamate them into one accordant patriotic sentiment. The +General was over-hopeful in the estimation of others, who knew Spain as +well as he; but he acted rightly according to his views, and ably +according to his gifts—only it was to be hoped the General would use +his influence to dissuade his Government from offending its friends and +brothers of Spain by proposing anew a transaction that would lead to the +abandonment of Cuba—an awkward mission with which he was once charged. +Surely if a diplomatic representative could quietly talk the influential +personages of the nation to which he was accredited into a zeal for the +abolition of slavery in Porto Rico, he could quietly talk the +influential personages of his own nation into letting Spanish territory +alone. A pompous man this American Minister, active, talkative, and on +cordial terms with himself. He hobbled about on his cork leg, leaning on +the arm<a name="page_079" id="page_079"></a> of his handsome Spanish wife, the second. There was a legend in +Madrid that the General had lost his limb in a duel about a lady; there +had been a question of petticoats in his career once, but it never +entered into the minds of those simple Madrileos that a soldier without +a breastful of decorations might have been wounded, as he had been, on +the battle-field.</p> + +<p>The United States were friendly; but France, Republican France, what was +she doing? Why did she delay to move? She, at least, ought to have had +some fellow-feeling for another Republic without Republicans. The truth +was, M. Thiers could not come to any decision without consulting his +Council of Ministers. His action was not quite so unfettered as that of +President Grant. This was the more to be regretted that Seor Olzaga +recognised the Republic of mob acclamation—that of the 4th September, +1870, in Paris—without hesitation. The same compliment was felt by +Spaniards to be due to the Republic of accident.</p> + +<p>On the 20th of February, Seor Castelar took a course that might give a +galvanic shock to the<a name="page_080" id="page_080"></a> world of diplomats, but which was worthy of a +bold Republican prophet. Since the mountain would not come to Mahomet, +Mahomet went to the mountain. In plainer words—but has not one an +excuse for being figurative when speaking of Seor Castelar?—the +Minister for Foreign Affairs determined to take the bull by the horns +(pardon this figure for the sake of its aptness in Spain). The +representatives of the Great Powers did not call on him; he called on +them. His coy advances were met with frigid politeness. A Madrid paper +asserted that "an important and friendly conference" had been held +between the Minister and Mr. Layard, which, to say the least, was a +<i>suggestio falsi</i>. Mr. Layard, as an English gentleman, could not but +have received his visitor in a friendly manner; but he kept within the +strict line of his very delicate duties with a studious discretion. +Seor Castelar saw plainly that events had not prepared the way and made +straight the path of the new Republic towards recognition. The Great +Powers could not be found fault with, if they were slow to admit to the +brotherhood of nations a Republic which had<a name="page_081" id="page_081"></a> already exhibited within +its fortnight's existence what may be literally called two dictatures +(those of Seores Rivero and Martos), the abdication of power by a +majority, two provisional and two "permanent" Governments, a cabinet of +conciliation, and a cabinet of homogeneity, not to mention a round of +permutations in the civil governorships of Madrid, and the +captain-generalcy of New Castile, and in the commands of the armies of +the North and Catalonia.</p> + +<p>From the country poured in felicitations to the Republic from hamlet and +city, tumid with a rampant joy. These documents emphatically protested +that the majority of the population was Republican. Yet talk +confidentially to any Spaniard, not actually a Republican propagandist, +and not one of the ignorant lower classes of the towns—an average, +intelligent, middle-class Spaniard—and he would tell you there were no +Republicans in Spain. The thorough frankness with which Spaniards speak +of their own country, its divisions and its national faults, is +phenomenal. "We are very foolish," they own with a charming candour, +but<a name="page_082" id="page_082"></a> the foreigner had better not chime in with them. They will fire up +in an instant. If they are foolish, it is no business of his; Spanish +quarrels are conducted precisely on the principles of those between man +and wife. The outsider who interposes in them must be prepared to wipe a +bloody nose.</p> + +<p>But the doctrines of Republicanism were producing their effects in the +army nevertheless, and the first of these was a tendency to +demoralization. The troops at Barcelona fraternized with the working +men, and raised cries for the Republic and for their own liberation from +service. They desired individual as well as national independence. In +that they were but logical. The Republicans out of power inveighed +against standing armies as a monstrosity, a relic of effete Monarchical +tyranny. The argument was now used against the Republic; the bird of +freedom was menaced by a shaft plumed from her own wing. If discipline +were once generally relaxed in the army, which is the salt of Spain, +then farewell security and come chaos. That was the chief peril in the +way. A<a name="page_083" id="page_083"></a> man, in the highest meaning of the word, one born to command, +was wanted to save the country. He was looked for in vain. Prim had left +no successor.</p> + +<p>In forming my opinions on Spain and the Spaniards, I was aided not a +little by the good offices of a shrewd but eccentric American dentist, +named Maceehan, who had left Pennsylvania at so remote a date that +nobody could recollect it. Long as he had been absent from his native +country, he retained its accent, its peculiarities, and evergreen +patriotism, and on each recurring 4th of July gave a lavish banquet in +honour of American Independence in a restaurant decked with +star-spangled banners, and had the privilege of making all the magnates +of the capital, soldiers, ministers, courtiers, nobles, poets, and +painters, clink their glasses as he sang "Yankee Doodle." Long as he had +been in Madrid, he could not speak Spanish correctly, and his mistakes +fed the clubs with side-splitting anecdotes. He was the soul of +hospitality, and garrulous as a jay. He was in the secrets of the +wire-workers, and had a novel process of extracting<a name="page_084" id="page_084"></a> information as he +extracted teeth. As his patient sat in the chair of torture he plied him +slyly with interrogatories, and learned what he wanted, but he never +betrayed confidences. In his way he was as proud as the proudest +Spaniard of them all. Emilio Castelar came to him once with an agonizing +toothache. Maceehan laid hold of the offending fang with his forceps. +Castelar shrieked and clutched at his hand.</p> + +<p>"You have got the wrong tooth!"</p> + +<p>"Caramba!" said the Pennsylvanian, lowering his instrument. "So you have +come here to teach me my business. I will thank you to leave the room, +seor."</p> + +<p>"I beg a thousand pardons, but consider the pain. Do with me as you +like, dear doctor."</p> + +<p>"The dear doctor in that case will adjourn the operation till to-morrow. +By that time the seor may have discovered that though the dear doctor +may not be an adept at literature or administration, he has some skill +at pulling teeth."</p> + +<p>And Castelar, in spite of his apologies and entreaties and plaints, had +to accept the penance of<a name="page_085" id="page_085"></a> four-and-twenty hours. He could not think of +going anywhere else, for Maceehan was master of his profession. There +was not a set of artificial grinders in Madrid with which the American +was not familiar. He had looked into the mouths of every Infante and +Infanta, had lanced the gums of awful Captains-General, and inserted +gold wires in the ivory treasures of most of the reigning beauties. He +had been dentist by appointment to Isabella, and had care of the +<i>mchoire</i> of the lovely Eugenia de Montijo in her maidenhood. The very +thought of sipping a cup of tea in the intimacy of a man who had +fingered the palate of a Cardinal, plugged the hollow in a Queen's +molar, and arrested the manifestation of caries in the central incisor +of an Empress, was too much. It was oppressive.</p> + +<p>I was amply provided with letters of introduction at starting, but I was +in no hurry to present them. It was fortunate for me. Those who were in +power to-day were in disgrace to-morrow, and <i>vice vers</i>, and most of +those to whom I had credentials were leaders of parties. One +non-politician, a scion of my own sept, but no relative, I did call +upon, as<a name="page_086" id="page_086"></a> funds were to be forwarded to me through his agency. A +pleasant old man, he had a brogue as Irish as the <i>canavaun</i> of the Bog +of Allen, although he had quitted Ireland in early childhood—a mellow, +musical, unctuous brogue. What a sovereign contempt he had for fomenters +of revolution, intriguers, and the drones who buzzed while others +worked, and wanted to be rewarded for buzzing!</p> + +<p>"Namesake," he said, "if you knew the mean secret motives of half these +wretched politicians by trade, you would spit upon them. There was but +one man fit to govern this nation."</p> + +<p>I forget whom he mentioned, but it was a Marshal (Narvez, I fancy), +who, when asked on his death-bed by his father-confessor, Did he forgive +his enemies? answered that he had none—he had shot them all.</p> + +<p>"There may be nothing serious here for the present," he continued, "and +yet one can't tell; but I think they will go on shilly-shallying and +tinkering up constitutions for months to come."</p> + +<p>"Then I should have a better field for my labours in the Carlist +country."<a name="page_087" id="page_087"></a></p> + +<p>"Undoubtedly; but if you think of going there, you must cut off that +yellowish-red beard or they will call you Judas Iscariot. Do you speak +Basque?"</p> + +<p>"No; but as to the beard, I am equal to the sacrifice of shaving it and +dying my moustache."</p> + +<p>"Ah, yes; you may do that sure enough, but it is not so easy to learn +Basque!"</p> + +<p>If I could not learn Basque I could learn of the Basques, and what I did +learn was so much to their credit that it is only fair to write it down. +They were not Thugs, they were neither sanguinary nor thievish. The +peasantry of the Basque provinces are the finest in Spain—intelligent, +hospitable, brave, gentle, but fiercely fanatical where religion is +concerned. Instances were narrated to me of travellers who had been +arrested by them, being liberated without damage to person or detriment +to purse. In one case a Frenchman was robbed by a small party, but his +money and papers were restored to him a few days after by one of the +chiefs, with an apology. The correspondent of the <i>Temps</i>, who +accompanied the army in a previous Carlist campaign, informed me that +after a skirmish<a name="page_088" id="page_088"></a> in which forty Carlists were captured, he was anxious +to send an account of the affair to Paris, but he did not know how.</p> + +<p>"Hold!" said a colonel, "I'll find you the means."</p> + +<p>He called over a prisoner, and asked him if he were let off on parole, +would he take a letter through the disturbed district, and post it on +the other side for a French gentleman? The man pleaded fatigue.</p> + +<p>"You'll be well paid."</p> + +<p>At last he consented; my informant gave him the letter and a five-franc +piece. While monsieur was searching his pockets for more money to give +him, the prisoner said:</p> + +<p>"I have no change, caballero; how shall we manage?"</p> + +<p>The prisoner duly set off; the letter was duly posted and duly arrived, +and the prisoner faithfully returned and delivered himself up. Honour is +not yet extinct in the Basque provinces, nor is magnanimity in the +Spanish army. The commandant dismissed the peasant with a look of +admiration and a push on the back. But some fireside philosopher will +argue:<a name="page_089" id="page_089"></a></p> + +<p>"Why, these honourable fellows cut telegraph wires and fire on railway +trains."</p> + +<p>The Carlists explain: "The telegraph and the railway are our greatest +enemies; the one sends for reinforcements, the other brings them."</p> + +<p>The unfortunate station-masters are to be pitied. Lizrraga sends one +word that he will incur the penalty of death if he makes up a train for +troops. The troops arrive, their commander demands to be furnished with +a train to take him to a certain point; if the station-master refuses he +is not merely threatened with the death-penalty, but incurs it on the +spot. But the fireside philosophers, assuming the cocked-hat of the +general, will continue:</p> + +<p>"Why not protect the telegraphs and the railways?" The query may be met, +<i>more Hibernico</i>, by another:</p> + +<p>Do the philosophers know how enormous and difficult an extent of country +has to be protected?</p> + +<p>It would take more men than there are in the Spanish army altogether, +including the regiment of dismissed generals in Madrid, to act as +military milesmen in the perturbed territory. The Army of<a name="page_090" id="page_090"></a> the North did +what it could—that is to say, it fortified the railway stations, +converting them into veritable block-houses, and supplied escorts to the +trains; but the Carlists had an unpurchasable ally in the darkness. They +could come down in the night and play old Harry with metals and wires. +The insurgents were ill-armed and undisciplined, but they were on their +own ground, every square inch of which they knew; they were leal to each +other, and they had acquired the secret of guerrilla campaigning—that +is, they harassed the regulars by fighting and running away, so that +they might live to fight another day. They avoided concentration in +mass, knowing how dangerous it is to pack all one's eggs in a single +basket.</p> + +<p>So daring had these Carlists become that bands had made demonstrations +in perilous nearness to the capital, or rather they had been organized +in the capital itself and had taken to the field in the neighbourhood. +From a rising ground hard by the palace could be distinguished with the +naked eye a thicket on the desolate plain in the distance, where the +remnants of one band were known to be<a name="page_091" id="page_091"></a> hiding. The fates were against +the insurgents, as they were met at Buendia and badly beaten two days +after they had unfurled the banner of revolt. Eleven of them were slain, +including a priest, twenty wounded and one hundred and seventeen taken +prisoners, including their two chiefs. The elder of these, Alonso, a man +of three-score and ten, died in the military hospital of Madrid on the +19th of March. He was a venerable fanatic of asinine stupidity to have +risked a fight with regular troops in the open. Fortune, in my +experience, favours not so much the brave as the wary. Had this +particular Alonso the brave, really an Alonso the reckless, availed +himself of a few picks and spades—the first farmhouse will seldom fail +to supply entrenching tools—he might have lived to die in his own bed +of a natural disease.<a name="page_092" id="page_092"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h3> + +<p class="ch">A Late Capital—The Gambling Mania—A French Rendezvous—The Duke +de Fitzpepper—The Morality of Passing Bad Money—Spanish +Compliments—Men in Pickle—A Licentious Ballet—Federal +Manners—Prim's Artifice—Nouvilas Goes North—A Carlist +Proclamation—Don Alfonso—Midnight Oil—Castelar's Circular.</p> + +<p class="nind">M<small>ADRID</small> is not an early capital—natural effect of the climate. In the +middle of the day the blinds are let down, the shops are shut, the +streets are empty—everybody who can at all manage it is taking the +siesta. The business of sunlight is at a standstill. The few hours thus +stolen from the day are religiously made restitution of to the night, +which is undoubtedly the most agreeable period for a stroll. Pleasure is +in full swing, the promenades are alive, flirtation is methodically +practised in the Spanish way—that is, through an intervening +lattice—theatres and ball-rooms contribute to the programme of +diversion, the coffee-houses (where<a name="page_093" id="page_093"></a> chocolate is mostly consumed) are +packed to the door-posts, and the business of gaslight is prosecuted +with a desperate concentration of energy and a brooding perseverance.</p> + +<p>The business of gaslight, unfortunately, is high play. That is one of +the social curses of Spain. Everybody gambles, to the sentries in the +guard-house, the patients in the hospitals, the felons in the gaols. +Such is the overwhelming dominion of this national passion that I should +not be surprised at reading of a condemned man on his way to the garrote +craving a hand of cards with the executioner to distract him from his +sorrows. Strained the situation was at this crisis, and in all the clubs +the cards were thrown on the tables with a fever as of men seeking some +relaxation from the fierce game of politics; but, as I had opportunity +to assure myself afterwards, this was nothing exceptional. The fever for +play as high as the pocket can allow, often higher, is normal. The +foreigner—and all foreigners provided with the slightest credentials +are most graciously made free of the clubs—soon takes note of that.<a name="page_094" id="page_094"></a></p> + +<p>The Fornos, the Suizo, and other coffee-houses were transformed into +debating-forums, and sometimes I frequented them to catch what was going +on; but my haunt of predilection was a restaurant patronized by French +refugees. They had brought with them the Gaulish gaiety, and it was +instructive to see Communists, fugitive aristocrats, bagmen with the +asphalte of the boulevards still clinging to the soles of their boots, +and steady old settlers in Madrid foregathering in friendly +forgetfulness of differing shades of political coats. One of the three +Marquesses de Fonvielle and de Coutuly, of the <i>Temps</i>, amongst other +journalists, used to drop in regularly. De Coutuly has since strayed +into diplomacy. Touching journalists who wander into that luxurious +labyrinth, the representative of the <i>New York Herald</i>, at Madrid, a +painstaking gentleman with a certain cleverness, Russell Young, +subsequently became United States' Minister to China. Prizes of this +class, which rain upon Continental and American publicists, seldom fall +to the lot of their brethren of the British press, unless they get into +Parliament or boldly single themselves out<a name="page_095" id="page_095"></a> from the anonymous herd. +Then they are sometimes promoted to a Consulship in an insalubrious +region, where they have every facility for studying the manners of the +buck-nigger, and the customs of the lively sand-fly. Far and away the +most interesting customer of this restaurant was the Duke de Fitzpepper, +a tall, dark, strong man with curly black hair, a boisterous voice, and +a bold laugh. He had to quit France on account of an affair of honour. +He had been in the Imperial Navy, had a squabble with his captain, and +resigned his commission that he might send him a challenge. They met +with the customary duelling swords, but de Fitzpepper made a mistake. He +ran his antagonist through. I know naught of the merits of the quarrel, +but to my insularly uneducated mind it appeared that the gallant +nobleman experienced inadequate remorse at having the blood of a +fellow-creature on his soul. Perhaps I am hyper-sensitive, but when de +Fitzpepper used to boast "<i>Je me connais dans le flingot</i>," it sent a +thread of cold water creeping down my spine, not from fear but from +aversion. Yet it was impossible to keep aloof<a name="page_096" id="page_096"></a> from him for long, he was +such a joyous, dashing, carry-your-outworks pattern of a musketeer.</p> + +<p>Evil associations corrupt good manners, I suppose, which must be the +excuse for a Frenchman with whom I entered into conversation in this +mirthful caravanserai. I happened to show him a coin which had been +passed upon me, an escudo, which would be worth a sovereign if it were +not counterfeit.</p> + +<p>"What a shame!" he exclaimed as he fingered it. "What are you going to +do with it?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing," I said. "It's useless to me."</p> + +<p>"Lend it to me, pray."</p> + +<p>I gave it to him, and the following night he asked me what commission I +would allow him. He had passed the bad escudo in his turn. I was +indignant, and accused him of having been guilty of a dishonest act. I +would touch none of the proceeds of his crookedness.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense!" he said, astonished. "I got rid of it in a hell. They're all +rogues there when they have a chance."</p> + +<p>I submit to the casuists that this was a very<a name="page_097" id="page_097"></a> nice case of conscience. +Winning money at cards is not earning it. He who seeks to win it is +demoralized, and it is to his advantage and the advantage of society +that he should be discouraged in his pernicious foolishness. Therefore, +q.e.d., it was commendable to palm that base coin upon him. I was +unequal to deciding the question off-hand, so I elected to take not a +real of the Frenchman's equivocal profit. But if the Frenchman was to +blame, was I not responsible in the first instance, as having afforded +him the means of cheating his neighbour? When the casuists shall have +elucidated this riddle to their satisfaction, perhaps they will oblige +by telling me how many thousand angels could alight on the point of a +needle.</p> + +<p>Morality is at a low ebb in Madrid, or rather the moral code is +regulated by notions peculiar to the latitude. So with habits. A man +must be "native and to the manner born," before he can affect competency +to interpret them. For example, when a Madrileo asseverates that his +house is yours, or that his equipage which you so much admire is at your +disposal, he does not intend that<a name="page_098" id="page_098"></a> you should take up your residence +with him there and then, or hold his coachman at your beck. It is simply +a form of etiquette, a mode of speech, as of the Englishman of past +generations who challenged you to mortal combat and subscribed himself +"your obedient humble servant." You will be guilty of a grave solecism +if you imitate that American to whom the grandee remarked with effusion +that the stud which captivated his taste was his own, his very own.</p> + +<p>"Thanks," said Brother Jonathan; "I'll take the roan and the chestnut +to-day and call for the others to-morrow!"</p> + +<p>Although a man may tender you fraudulent coinage with a brazen front, he +may be keen in honour, and resent an insult to his sister with a +knife-stab; although he may intrigue for a Government place with a slimy +self-abasement, under circumstances the same being may go forth +unflinchingly and sacrifice himself on the altar of his country. Spain +is the home of paradox. The beggar is addressed as "your worship," +mutiny is a venial offence, bribery of officials is a recognised +prescription. At the very epoch of which I write,<a name="page_099" id="page_099"></a> the murderers of Prim +were stalking about the capital; it was a town-crier's secret who they +were and who was the personage who was their employer, yet none had the +temerity to denounce them. And in the saladero, or the "salting-tub," as +the prison was called, it was notorious that there were malefactors who +gave lessons in forgery, and who positively utilized their cells as +convenient head-quarters from which to prey on the unwary public. Their +plan was to write to somebody of position, whose name they had lighted +on in a directory, and inform him that they had often heard speak of him +as a citizen of integrity, and felt that they might trust him; they were +singularly situated, immured for a debt of a few duros, and yet in the +vicinity of his residence they were cognizant of an immense buried +treasure; if he would only send them the trifle needful to pay off that +debt and cover their fare to his town, they would take him with them to +the site of the secret hoard, and repay him with interest for his +kindness. This transparent ruse actually told with hundreds of dupes. +How the <i>auri sacra fames</i> will deprive sane men of<a name="page_100" id="page_100"></a> sense! He would be +a spendthrift of sympathy who would waste his sympathy upon them.</p> + +<p>I had been under the impression that Spain was a deeply religious +country. The impression was illusive. It may be fanatically religious in +parts, but too often the educated classes rail at religion. As comes to +pass when inordinate demand has been made on credulity, a reaction +arises, and those whose faith was implicit yesterday become the scoffing +heretics of to-day. The tide has turned, and it is no unfrequent +occurrence to hear a Spaniard declare he is not a Christian, whose +fathers would have perhaps burned at a stake the wretch who would have +dared to utter such a profanity. This is very bad. One extreme is as +wicked as another. If the Scylla of stupid superstition was dangerous, +the Charybdis of arrogant scepticism is destructive. This is essentially +a Roman Catholic country, yet never have I seen anywhere, in the lands +where Roman Catholicism is disliked and contemned even, the ceremonies +and institutions of the Church treated with more undisguised ribaldry. I +went to the Novedades, a popular theatre in a<a name="page_101" id="page_101"></a> humble quarter of the +town in the vicinity of the Calle de Toledo, to see what the piece on +the occasion, "El Triunfo de la Repblica," was like. I got in as a +"Carlist ballet" was being danced; two men were dressed to represent two +famous cabecillas, Saballs and a colleague, two others to represent the +Carlist priest, Santa Cruz, and a monk of the party. Santa Cruz was +bulky as Friar Tuck, leered from under his scoop hat, drank wine, +reeled, toddled, fell, and kicked up his heels as the wild Mabille +quadrille music was played; and high was the content and noisily +expressed the delight of the audience. The four women who took part in +the Terpsichorean orgie wore the robes of nuns, and must have belonged +to the order of Sisters of Shame, if to any. They had blue hoods, white +bands across their foreheads and bosoms, red crosses wrought on their +habits, and trailing skirts of white. Their dancing was not voluptuous; +it would be a misnomer to let it down with so mild an epithet; it was +grossly indecent. They exposed their limbs, and the audience was +ecstatic at the sight. Not a murmur of censure was to be heard. And +this<a name="page_102" id="page_102"></a> bacchanalian riot, too obscene for any self-respecting house of +ill-fame, was supposed to be held in a church. The scenery showed a +mockery of ecclesiastical architecture and pious pictures. As a dramatic +effort, "El Triunfo de la Repblica" was very poor. Zorilla was +caricatured as a fox (a play upon his name), and Sagasta as a +devil-fish, and the apotheosis revealed the Genius of Spain waving a +flag lettered with the words, "Viva la Repblica Federal!" The flag was +welcomed with vehement cheers, in affirmation that those who looked on +and admired the burlesque of ministers of the national faith were all +stout Federal Republicans, corresponding somewhat to the Communists of +the Paris of two years before.</p> + +<p>These Federals, I own, I do not like. A deputation of them from the +provinces arrived one of these evenings, and put up at the Fonda de +Paris. They were scrubby louts, smoked between the courses although +ladies were at table, which, however, could be condoned, as it was +Spanish. But they also wore their hats. That irritated one guest, and he +called to a waiter to bring him a hat which he would find<a name="page_103" id="page_103"></a> on a peg +outside. Having been handed his head-gear, he clapped it on, and said +that was all he wanted. The hint was not lost. The boors dined in a room +by themselves during the rest of their stay. And yet these Federal +Republicans profess to respect public opinion; but by the phrase must be +understood the opinion of those who agree with them. The Intransigentes, +on whose support they depend, have arms in their hands, and will try to +keep them. Only one man was ever able to disarm them, and he was +assassinated. If Prim did not know the Spanish mind intuitively, and as +no other man ever knew it, even he would not have succeeded. After the +promiscuous distribution of arms to the multitude had been made from the +windows of the storehouses in Madrid at the close of 1868, he tried +every means to get them back, but to no purpose. Promises of rewards to +those who would give up the guns were useless; threats and coaxings were +in vain. At last Prim hit on a notable scheme. At a review he publicly +insulted the corps he was so long trying to disembody; he either rode +past them without noticing them, or made remarks on<a name="page_104" id="page_104"></a> their appearance +the reverse of complimentary. The officers threw up their commissions in +dudgeon; they had served the cause of the people faithfully, and were +not to be treated with contempt; they would no longer carry arms for +such ungrateful friends. It was just what Prim wanted.</p> + +<p>While Madrid was thus seething and bubbling as if it were on the verge +of boiling over, and the great question of elections for the new Cortes +to determine the future "permanent" style of administration was being +mooted, the Carlists were plucking up heart and maturing their designs. +They fancied they would soon have the nation before them the <i>nudum et +cœcum corpus</i> of Sylla's description—defenceless and blind. +Nouvilas, one of the numberless generals of Spain, was ordered to the +north. At a Republican meeting before his departure, he promised that he +would take his five sons with him to fight against the Carlists. At the +same meeting he declared himself the uncompromising enemy of all +dictatorships, and warned those who expected that he would use his power +in that sense not to make a mistake. He was a soldier, not a politician, +and the<a name="page_105" id="page_105"></a> day that the Republic would be consolidated, and peace secured, +he would retire into private life. It did not seem as if peace were +shortly to be secured. There was a proposition to raise fifty battalions +of free corps to crush the insurgents. The only difficulty in the way +was the loan for their armaments. The battalions were to be organized by +provinces, and each was to be composed of 900 men (making a total of +44,100), and to be officered from the reserve. The proposition of itself +was sufficient to wake the fools out of their paradise. These Carlists +were not to be underrated. If they could do nothing else, they could +issue proclamations. They were great at these. They promised to give the +army the "licencia absoluta" which some soldiers demanded from the +Republic at Barcelona. One Ramon V. Valcarces, commandant-general of the +province of Lugo, was exceedingly anxious that the Galicians should come +out to conquer or die. He told them that the national banner of their +legitimate King waved triumphantly in the provinces of Catalonia, +Castile, Leon, the Asturias, and the Vasco-Navarre, which was a piece of +bounce—<a name="page_106" id="page_106"></a>legitimate, may it be called?—on his part; and added +scathingly that the Government at Madrid was in the hands of a group of +adventurers, who called themselves Spaniards and Liberals. Those +impostors would raise the taxes until it would be impossible to pay +them, would sell the Antilles and persecute religion.</p> + +<p>Tidings were wafted to us mysteriously that the brother of the +legitimate King, H.R.H. Don Alfonso, of Bourbon and Lorraine, had held a +review of the forces of Saballs at Vidra, in Catalonia. His Royal +Highness was accompanied by his wife, the Doa Maria. His Royal Highness +wore flesh-coloured riding breeches with black stripes, jack-boots, a +zamarra or sheep-skin upper garment, and a flat white cap of the make of +those used by Scotch shepherds. Doa Maria wore a cap of the same kind, +with a gold tassel coquettishly falling over her left shoulder. The +august pair were mounted, and the lady, who chivalrously accompanied her +husband, witched the Carlists with noble horsemanship. Don Alfonso was +surrounded by a brilliant staff, conspicuous amongst whom was a son of<a name="page_107" id="page_107"></a> +that Don Enrique of Bourbon who was shot in a duel by the Duke of +Montpensier.</p> + +<p>The "only court" did not lack a moidering liveliness. Of nights I +usually leant by my balcony overlooking the Puerta del Sol, and watched +the frail sodality of the Moon prowling about in charge of the +superfluous duenna, the while the brawl of palaver, the cries of "gua +fresca," or of the last edition of the <i>Correspondencia</i>, the "theeah" +in such wise cadenced, or the boom of the watchman's voice came floating +upwards, before I sat me down to a hard spell of work, sifting grain +from chaff, and committing my thoughts to paper, a moistened towel round +my temples, and a pot of black coffee at my elbow. The sun was usually +ogling the fountain in the Plaza before I had finished.</p> + +<p>The burden of work imposed upon the correspondent who desired to be +loyal to duty was weighty on occasion. For example, late on the 26th of +February the official journal came out with a lengthy circular from Don +Emilio Castelar, to the representatives of Spain abroad. The object was +to obtain the recognition of the Republic by Powers<a name="page_108" id="page_108"></a> other than the +United States and Switzerland. I saw the importance of sending a +translation of this pregnant State paper at once, and shut myself up in +my room with a supply of pens, ink, and paper, and the indispensable +coffee-pot. I was not an accomplished Spanish scholar, but with the aid +of a youthful groundwork in Latin, a fair knowledge of Italian, a +familiarity with French, and a dictionary, I succeeded in turning out a +full, accurate—nay, I will say a vivid—rendering of this historic +composition before I unlocked my door, and transmitted it to London +within twelve hours. Spanish is not difficult. If Italian is the +daughter of Latin, Spanish is the son. And with energy and mother-wit, +one can do much.</p> + +<p>Castelar's was a brilliant and sustained effort; but it read more like +an essay by Macaulay than a diplomatic holograph. It was splendid, but +it was not official. It lacked crispness, and dealt in excessive +rhetoric from the phrase in an opening paragraph where it spoke of Spain +assuming a place in the Amphictyonic council of Europe, to the closing +sentence. The fall of the Monarchy was<a name="page_109" id="page_109"></a> traced to the hour when the +institution solemnly ceded its own country to the foreigner (alluding to +the pitiful abdication of Charles IV. in favour of his "friend and ally" +Napoleon, at Bayonne in 1808). True, attempts had been thrice made since +to revive the old system with a new spirit, but they had failed; in +1812, the Democratic Monarchy; in 1837, the Parliamentary Monarchy; in +1869, the Elective Monarchy. The former order of things disappeared +through inherent domestic causes; the Republic appeared of its own +virtue, by the law of necessity. In 1869 the Constituent Cortes had +proclaimed a Monarchy for three fundamental reasons: firstly, because it +corresponded with the traditions of the Spanish people; secondly, +because they believed it would secure liberal principles; and thirdly, +because it would harmonize their form of government with that existing +in nearly every part of Europe. The trouble was where to find the +monarch. They had no dynasty typifying religious and national principles +united to modern spirit like that of England, no princes like those who +had built up the unity of Italy and of Germany on battlefields;<a name="page_110" id="page_110"></a> their +sovereign houses presented no stability. They had to look outside for a +king, at the double risk of disturbing the peace of Europe and wounding +the national sentiment. They found him in the scion of an illustrious +line, united to France by the war of 1859, to Prussia by the war of +1866, to Great Britain by the establishment of parliamentary rule in +Italy. But the national sentiment of Spain was against him. It left him +in a solitude that was asphyxia. At last he renounced a crown of which +he only felt the weight on his brow and not the dignity in his soul. +When he left, this Government came not by violent revolution, but by +logical evolution. The Republic was not provisional, but definitive. (As +if there were any finality in politics!) The Cortes which had proclaimed +it were the most permanent estate in the nation, inasmuch as when others +melted away they remained. It was the same Cortes which undertook the +national defence in the epic years from 1808 to 1814, which abrogated +the rights of Don Carlos to the ancient crown, and which sanctioned the +dethronement of the Bourbons. Spain owed<a name="page_111" id="page_111"></a> the change she had effected to +no cosmopolitan influences or agitations. She sought autonomy, not +Utopianism; she coveted no conquest, but she wished to show that she was +living, not dead; that she was still great, but not with the greatness +of ruin, like the empires buried under the valleys of Asia.</p> + +<p>There was an excellent thickset gentleman in Madrid, a literary +pluralist, who combined the offices of "own correspondent" to several +London journals. He was a diligent "snapper-up of unconsidered trifles," +who would never set even the Manzanares on fire. He met me after I had +despatched my version of Castelar's circular, and was cooling my aching +brain on the shady side of the Puerta del Sol.</p> + +<p>"Did you read that thing of 'Musica's'?" he said. ("Musica" was the +nickname of the silver-tongued professor-politician.)</p> + +<p>"Yes; lovely and long and flimsy as a rainbow," I remarked.</p> + +<p>"I think you ought to send an epitome of it to London."<a name="page_112" id="page_112"></a></p> + +<p>"I shall not."</p> + +<p>"Well, I may tell you Chose is sending the whole of it on," he +continued.</p> + +<p>Chose was a most formidable rival.</p> + +<p>"Who translated it for him?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"As it is very important I am getting my sons to do it. Indeed, he asked +me."</p> + +<p>"And you never told me."</p> + +<p>"Ah! you see, he has a reputation to sustain."</p> + +<p>"And I have a reputation to make."</p> + +<p>"I'll let you have a <i>prcis</i> to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"No, thanks," I answered, turning on my heel.</p> + +<p>The thickset gentleman looked mighty blank when he gazed on the paper a +few days after with my translation covering nearly two columns of small +type, nor did his astonishment lessen when I confided to him that it had +been made for me by the Man in the Moon.<a name="page_113" id="page_113"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h3> + +<p class="ch">Warning to Ladies—The Hotel Parliament—An Anglo-Spanish +Mentor—The Evil Genii of the Monarchy—The Curses of +Spain—Government and Religion Affairs of Climate—The Carlists, +Norwegians, and English, all Republicans!—Notions on Heredity—The +Five Spanish Parties—The Army the Lever of Power—The +Student-Csar—Order <i>versus</i> Republic—The Chained +Colours—Dorregaray's Appeal to the Soldiers—Influence of the +Church—Wanted: a Benevolent Despot.</p> + +<p class="nind">I<small>N</small> the first line, it may be generous to warn ladies (if any of the +gentler sex there be among my readers) to skip this chapter. There will +be no indelicate disclosures—not that indelicate disclosures would bar +the inquisitiveness of some females, judging by the ingenuity with which +they intrigue for seats at the trials in the Divorce Court, and the +avidity with which they devour "spicy," that is scandalous, details; but +matter of a political, speculative, and quasi-philosophical nature is to +be<a name="page_114" id="page_114"></a> discussed, and I fear me much it will be dry and prosy.</p> + +<p>A shady little room in one of the upper stories of the Fonda de Paris +was used as reading-room. It was thickly carpeted, the walls were +covered with oil paintings in massive ornamented frames, and on the +tables were placed curious jars, antique candlesticks, bronze +statuettes, damascened daggers, and what is known as the merchandise of +<i>bijouterie</i> and <i>vertu</i>. There were few papers there, and but one book, +a Spanish Army List in gorgeous green velvet cover with gilt clasps. In +fact, it was more of an auctioneer's private show-room than <i>cabinet de +lecture</i>, for the Brothers Fallola were dealers in <i>bric--brac</i>, and +could not forego the chance of poking their wares under the notice of +their customers. The Italian is first cousin to the Hebrew.</p> + +<p>We held a grave Parliament of our own in this little room, and there I +made the acquaintance of an English settler in Spain—an elderly +gentleman who had been engaged in mining. He was well educated, had +travelled widely, was pronounced in his views, and as he expressed them +with candour<a name="page_115" id="page_115"></a> and was possessed of a high order of intelligence, I +listened to him with attention. Indeed, we all accepted him as Mentor. +He indoctrinated me into the knotty catechism of Spanish politics.</p> + +<p>Broadly speaking, he maintained that the monarchy was its own greatest +enemy. It had fallen because of its indifference to public opinion. +Among its evil genii were the pastrycook Marforio, Father Claret, and +Sister Patrocinio. The birth of a daughter to Ferdinand VII., fault of +nature, was the primal fatality. As Count O'Neil remarked when he heard +the natal salute stop at the nineteenth cannon-shot, unhappy Spain was +doomed, because of the gender of the newly-born, to be over-shadowed +with the pall of grief and mourning. But the primal error was the +unnatural marriage of Isabella to her cousin, Don Francisco. Never was +there a more ill-assorted union. A woman of ardent temperament and +strong fibre was allied to a feeble nonentity without sap or spirit. Had +she become the spouse of a man like Victor Emmanuel, things might have +gone better.</p> + +<p>Spain was a grand country, he held, one of the<a name="page_116" id="page_116"></a> richest in creation in +minerals, forests, vineyards, orchards, silk and flocks. The people were +a people that improved upon intercourse, and had some grand qualities. +But the curses of Spain were the ignorance of the masses, the greed of +the professional politicians, and the varying ascendancy of some one +man's power in the army.</p> + +<p>"Was the country ripe for its existing form of government?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Government," said he, "like religion, is very much a matter of birth +and training, or, to put it more briefly, of climate. The circumcision +of Judaism, the ablutions of Mahometanism, are the simple useful +dictates of some wise man skilled in sanitary science. People of warm +southern natures crave light and colour and music in worship; in colder +lands, with dispositions hardier and less imaginative, they are +satisfied with severe forms——"</p> + +<p>"I know all those theories about religion," I interrupted, "but I am +anxious to have your judgment on government."</p> + +<p>"Identically the same—affair of climate. Those who have to brave +privations and work hard for a<a name="page_117" id="page_117"></a> living are Republicans; the Swiss, for +example, the Norwegians, and the Carlists."</p> + +<p>"The Carlists! I thought they were Royalists."</p> + +<p>The Mentor laughed as he said, "Royalists! why, they are the only +Republicans in this land. Have you not heard of their fueros? They +reject the tax of blood—they will have no unwilling soldiers taken from +their midst. So Republican are they that they will not tolerate a Bishop +in their ecclesiastical organization, strict Catholics though they +profess themselves. He of Seo de Urgel is the nearest Bishop to their +territory, and his diocese is properly in Andorra."</p> + +<p>"But the Norwegians are Monarchists," I ventured.</p> + +<p>"In name only, as the English are. There is no more democratic +administration in the world than that of king-ruled Norway; and in +England you are likewise a Republic—that is, you enjoy Republican +freedom, only you choose to call the President a Queen. The Queen is but +a figure-head, the vivified Union Jack. The Prime Minister, that is to +say the elect of the people, not the Queen, sways the genuine wand of +power."<a name="page_118" id="page_118"></a></p> + +<p>"And the House of Lords, the most Conservative hereditary legislature in +Europe, how do you account for its existence in this British Republic?" +I hazarded as a clincher.</p> + +<p>"An accident, my dear sir," he replied, as he pulled at his cigarette. +"Like that puff of smoke, it has no power; it is but vapour, and like +vapour it will disappear some day, to be succeeded by a Senate on the +French or American model. Life-peerages can be justified; the hereditary +principle has been tried and found wanting. The male offspring of a +jockey are not necessarily skilful horsemen; the son of a fencing-master +may be an awkward butter-fingers; the daughter of a <i>prima ballerina</i> +may be a cripple."</p> + +<p>I passed that figure of speech about the vapour, though disciplined +vapour drives a locomotive. But I urged, "Do you not believe in blood? +Would you place the descendant of a line of brave and cultured men, with +traditions to look back upon, on the same level with Bill Sykes or a +Bosjesman? Is a game-cock a dunghill? Is a thoroughbred a +plough-horse?"<a name="page_119" id="page_119"></a></p> + +<p>"R-o-t, rot, my dear sir," said Mentor, with an irritating coolness. "Of +game-cocks I know nothing; but as far as your horse argument goes, I am +prepared to meet you. Care is taken that the mare shall be mated with +the proper sire, so that the qualities long worked up to, by judicious +crossing, shall not be lost or deteriorated; but there is no such +selection in the case of a lord; he follows his own figary, and his +figary is usually money, to regild a faded shield. Blood, sir, has less +to do with those things than education and the associations of +childhood. Send an earl's son to St. Giles', and he will grow up a saucy +gutter-boy; send a burglar's son to Eton, and he may develop into what +is conventionally recognised as a gentleman."</p> + +<p>There was no arguing down our Mentor on this point, so the subject was +changed, and he tried to disintegrate the ingredients in the very mixed +dish of Spanish parties—a complete olla podrida. There were five +factions in the distracted State, two schools of Monarchists and three +of Republicans. These were—1st, the Alfonsists, or those who wished +that the son of the deposed Queen should be raised to<a name="page_120" id="page_120"></a> the throne; 2nd, +the Legitimists or Carlists (embracing a large body of the clergy); 3rd, +the Republicans of long standing, who were actually in power; 4th, the +ex-Monarchists—the neo-Republicans or Radicals, who sometimes called +themselves Progresistas, and favoured the United Republic; and 5th, the +Intransigentes, or the Irreconcilables, the extreme of the extreme, who +clamoured for a Federal Republic.</p> + +<p>"As example of that ignorance of the masses of which I spoke," said +Mentor, "the mob of Madrid is fiercely Federal, which proves that it +does not know what Federalism is; for one of the first results of +Federalism would be to reduce this capital to the plane of a third-rate +provincial town. Federalism is Spanish dismemberment. If such a system +were adopted, you would have a Royalist North, a Red Republican +Catalonia, and a pauperized Castile, politically piebald. Catalonia is +Federal, in which Catalonia writes itself down ass, for that province is +manufacturing, and with the downfall of protection its prosperity must +depart."<a name="page_121" id="page_121"></a></p> + +<p>"Is there any chance of Amadeus being coaxed back?"</p> + +<p>He laughed a laugh that embarrassed me.</p> + +<p>"A kick is not soon forgotten, for it is always an insult even when +administered with an embroidered slipper."</p> + +<p>"What do you think of the situation at the moment?" (This was in the +first week of March.)</p> + +<p>"Madrid," he answered, "is a hot-bed of political intrigue, and a +complicated intrigue is in act of being developed at present. This, I +take it, is a fair estimate of the situation. The men in office are +controlled by fears of the violent Republicans outside, whom they are +powerless to keep under; and the Radicals are anxious to get into office +to restrain these same violent Republicans, but hesitate because of the +apprehension that they have not sufficient material force behind them. +They would fain climb, but that they fear to fall. Thus, as you +perceive, the disorganization of the army is at the bottom of all the +difficulties, for that it is which leaves the mastery with the dreaded +Intransigents. Those, the 'partisans of action' as they are aptly<a name="page_122" id="page_122"></a> +called sometimes, have more energy than either the Ministry or the +Radicals, and if this dilly-dallying goes on much longer they may make a +bold attempt to get the reins into their own hands. The Radicals are +opposed to a dissolution of the Assembly because they fear the Reds +would command the polls at the new elections, and go in for sweeping +changes on the model of their predecessors in Paris. The present +Ministers have not the vigour to check the manœuvring that would +bring about such an occurrence, and the Radicals believe that they only +could oppose and beat down the fanatics of Communistic proclivities. +There are cynics, however, who sneer at patriotic affirmations, and +whisper that loaves and fishes have more to do with them than love of +country."</p> + +<p>I reflected that patriotism of that order was not an exclusively Iberian +production, but that possibly the cynics were disappointed politicians +themselves.</p> + +<p>"The state of the army," resumed Mentor, "is the question after all. A +great portion of the rank and file are violently Republican, and one +cause of<a name="page_123" id="page_123"></a> insubordination is that the privates do not believe in the +Republicanism of their officers. Of course, the object of the Ministry +in raising the proposed battalions of volunteers, is less to put down +Carlism than to have a force to fall back upon in case of the army +giving itself furlough. I have reason to know that one Minister at least +is very uneasy on account of the want of discipline of the troops, and +urges upon his colleagues that their first labour should be devoted to +repressing all signs of disorder. But the fight for place at Madrid has +more interest for them, and the army is melting away. When Ministers +make up their minds to a rigorous supervision of the soldiery, there may +be no soldiers to supervise."</p> + +<p>It dawned upon me that Spaniards, although enjoying the reputation of +being quick with lethal weapons under the spur of sudden passion, were +very slow in taking ordinary resolutions. "Maana" is the watchword of +the nation: a favourite proverb is twisted into "Never do to-day what +you can possibly put off till to-morrow." As a French writer wittily +observed, the chariot of State in<a name="page_124" id="page_124"></a> Spain is fashioned of tortoise-shell +and drawn by snails.</p> + +<p>"What do you think of Castelar?"</p> + +<p>"Castelar!" echoed the Mentor, with a shoulder-movement of compassionate +irony, "honest, but weak. He is too good, too single-minded, too +amiable, too much of a student to play the Csar. Picture to yourself a +doctrinaire who can quote Aristotle in the Chamber, while his country is +travelling the road to ruin. Poor Seor Castelar is not the coming man."</p> + +<p>"And where may we look for him?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Quien sabe? At this moment he may be waxing his moustache in the +Balearic Islands, or sipping chocolate in the coffee-house on the +ground-floor."</p> + +<p>That coffee-house was always full at the juncture. Indeed, to one who +had not been made stoical by familiarity with excitements, the tokens of +the atmosphere were portentous. Congress often sat under the protection +of an armed guard. The crowds in the streets were always large. The talk +was of bloodshed; but I had grown so sceptical that I would hardly +believe in bloodshed in Madrid<a name="page_125" id="page_125"></a> until what looked a liquid red had been +chemically analyzed and proved to be blood. We had false alarms every +other night, and shops were shut for an hour or two; but we got no +nearer to revolution than the discussions of sundry excited parliaments +over the marble-topped tables. There Spaniards flushed purple, and +gesticulated violently over their temperate glasses of sweetened water. +What a blessing this is not a whisky-drinking country!</p> + +<p>"No," continued the Mentor; "Castelar is the least of all fitted to +govern Spain. This people requires to be ruled by stern will and strong +grip. The result of handing it over to a weak administration is +palpable. Of all nations of the world, Spain is least prepared for +Republicanism, and the theoretical Republicans who essayed to control +her, in an evil moment for themselves, must before this have discovered +the gross blunder they have made. The Republic is a splendid word; but +Order is a word more wholesome. The present so-called rulers are +incapable of preserving order. They sowed the wind when they taught the +soldiers to be malcontent under the Monarchy, because an army was an<a name="page_126" id="page_126"></a> +artificial need in a free nation. Now that the soldiers are taking them +at their word, they are reaping the whirlwind. They promised Spain +liberty, and Spain, from every indication, is about to enjoy a spell of +license. Heaven knows how it will all end; but those who have acutely +watched changes like this in other countries are not slow to tell us +that we shall have anarchy first to the full."</p> + +<p>"And then?" I inquired, "for anarchy is no remedy. It is never final. +What shall we have after that?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps a Conservative Republic, but more likely an iron despotism, the +dominance of some successful General who has the knack of answering his +opponents by ordering their heads to be sliced off."</p> + +<p>"Is not that General as likely as not to come from the Carlist camp?" I +demanded.</p> + +<p>Mentor shook his head in a decisive negative. "No," he said; "outside +the northern and a portion of the eastern provinces, Carlism has no +solidity."</p> + +<p>"But may not the name of Dorregaray, who has crossed the frontier again, +turn out to be a spell-word?<a name="page_127" id="page_127"></a> They tell me he distinguished himself in +the war with Morocco."</p> + +<p>"Yes," assented Mentor, "he commanded a regiment of galley-slaves +there."</p> + +<p>"And," I continued, "in Cuba at the outbreak of hostilities he was to +the fore."</p> + +<p>"True, true; but I would not give that," and he snapped his fingers, +"for the fidelity of such as Dorregaray. He served under Don Carlos in +the civil war from 1836 to 1840, and that did not hinder him from +donning a uniform under Isabella. Cosas de Espaa! Have you never heard +of Piquero? His action is a pretty fair criterion of the political +morality of your ordinary ambitious Spanish soldier."</p> + +<p>No, the man's name was new to me.</p> + +<p>"Well, he commanded the regiment of Malaga when Ferdinand VII. returned +from France and was made absolute monarch. General Piquero, as soon as +he got wind of the decree of absolutism, thought he would be first to +curry favour at Court, and sent an address to the palace, praying that +his regiment might have the honour of wearing chains<a name="page_128" id="page_128"></a> emblazoned on the +colours in testimony of attachment to the King. The prayer was +magnanimously acceded to, and the chains were absolutely borne on the +colours for years. Yet not very long afterward this Piquero, this mean, +fawning cur, changed front and became a yelping hungry mastiff of +democracy. I don't anticipate Dorregaray would play that part."</p> + +<p>"Anyhow," I persisted, "the Carlist General has sent forth a manifesto +in his self-assumed capacity of commander-in-chief of the Vascongadas +and Navarre to the soldiers of the Spanish army. He calls upon them to +lay down their arms, promising them free discharges if they desire it, +but promotion, decorations, and rewards if they join his standard. What +do you think of that?"</p> + +<p>"I do not blame him," said Mentor. "In thus tempting the army, he is +only doing as every military chief who has ever lifted himself to power +by a pronunciamiento has done. The sergeants and corporals are +invariably lured with the bait that they shall be made captains and +lieutenants, the common soldiers that their pay and rations<a name="page_129" id="page_129"></a> shall be +increased. Such men as go over to Dorregaray only act as too many of +their predecessors have acted. In this instance they have an excuse; +they can say, 'We were Royalist soldiers a few weeks ago; we are +transformed into Republican soldiers now. Our will was never consulted. +We are Royalist still, therefore we rally to Don Carlos, who represents +the principle of Monarchy.' They could say this, but I am far from +thinking they will. Spaniards of the rank and file do not chop logic; it +is the non-commissioned officers who initiate mutinies for purposes of +personal advancement; the private is a machine, not a thinking bayonet."</p> + +<p>In response to my inquiry as to the influence which remained to the +Church, my Mentor shook his head, and said outside the hilly regions +where Carlism prevailed, and the remote rural districts, it was next to +null, save among the more comfortable class of women. The common +Spaniard took his faith as he would his heritage; he was a Christian +because his fathers were so before him—it was an affair of family—and +his calling himself a Christian,<a name="page_130" id="page_130"></a> which signifies Christian exclusively +of the Roman Catholic persuasion, is a survival of the thoughts +bequeathed by the Saracenic occupation. He who was not a Christian was a +"Moro," and to this day the Jew or the Protestant is a Moor, tarred with +the same brush as the turbaned Islamite.</p> + +<p>"The Church," concluded Mentor, "is not to blame if it bums incense and +assaults Heaven with prayers for such a change of Government as will +bring money to its coffers. If the Republic last, the Church will be +separated from the State, and every congregation will have to pay its +own minister. That would be frank, at all events; but so long as there +is a State religion, the ministers of which are supposed to be paid, it +is a scandal not to pay them, and their reverences are perfectly right +to turn Carlist or Alfonsist."</p> + +<p>After these discussions in the reading-room I sometimes felt as if I had +been endeavouring to unravel the Schleswig-Holstein tangle. Was I not +right in warning off the ladies? Truly, Spanish politics are confusing. +My usual reflections upon them resolved themselves into the uneasy +conviction<a name="page_131" id="page_131"></a> that they were a Lincoln morass overlaid by a London fog, +and that it would be a joy to have some thousands of Will-o'-the-Wisp +guides prisoned to the chins in the quagmire, and replaced by one +benevolent despot bearing the light with strong, sure grasp.<a name="page_132" id="page_132"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h3> + +<p class="ch">The Carnival—About Kissing Feet—Mummers and Masquers—The Paseo +de Recoletos—The Writer is taken for Cluseret—Incongruity in +Costume—Shrove Tuesday—Panic on the Prado—A Fancy Ball—The +"Entierro de la Sardina"—Lenten Amusements—A Spanish +Mystery—"Pasion y Muerte de Jesus"—Of the Stage Stagey—Critical +Remarks.</p> + +<p class="nind">S<small>IMULTANEOUSLY</small> with the Ministerial crisis we were tortured by the +throes of the Carnival, which was a trial too great for a Republic so +young. But the weather came to the aid of the powers that were, and +prevented the festival from rising to a height of merriment when it +might become tumultuous. The opening day was one of leaden skies and +moist pavements in the forenoon, of little patches of ultramarine above +and little eruptions of noise below in the afternoon. There is one +consolation on a wet day—you can conveniently make inspection of the +extremities of dear womankind.<a name="page_133" id="page_133"></a> I no longer elevate my eyebrows at the +Spanish formula of compliment to the mistress of one's affections—"I +kiss your feet." Anyone could kiss them with pleasure; they are so tiny, +shapely, and sylph-like. There surely are the "little mice" of +Suckling's ballad! Atalanta must have had ankles like those revealed +under the lifted skirts of the doncella yonder, Cinderella such another +pair of arched insteps. But one cannot contemplate them for ever, bitten +by the statuary's mania for the symmetric though he be.</p> + +<p>On the second morning, there was a light grey fog, like the smoke after +gunpowder, on the square called "The Gate of the Sun." I have tasted the +joys of Carnival elsewhere—at Rome in Papal times and at Paris in +Imperial times—but never did the tomfoolery like me less. Muggy +weather, miserable Carnival. No showers of <i>confetti</i>, no procession of +the <i>bœuf gras</i> even. Here and there the orchestras of the theatres, +clad in the cast-off finery of the supernumeraries thereof, parade the +streets, and make dissonance with their instruments. Very German-bandish +this dissonance sounds, with a<a name="page_134" id="page_134"></a> variety of horror thrown in liberally in +the shape of tambourines and triangles. One corps of mumming musicians +is dressed as Zouaves; another might be directors of a Funeral Company, +so sad their garments; a third is got up in a costume semi-nightshirt, +semi-dressing-gown; all send out agents to tout for <i>backsheesh</i>. That +is their great point of resemblance. The masquers are few in the +streets, and, such as they are, wear their motley as if for pay, not for +pastime. They are of the usual order, Pierrots, Polichinelles, and +cavaliers, with no wigs, with powdered wigs, and with curly wigs, and +with vizors hideous or ghastly, or simply droll and grotesque. Among the +latter are some which might have been designed by Dykwnkyn for a Drury +Lane pantomime; but the individual who carried off the palm of burlesque +was an equestrian I met in the Plaza Mayor, looking like one of the men +in armour of a Lord Mayor's show with bonneted head-gear, astride of a +pot-bellied Clydesdale. Perhaps he may have been caricaturing "the +ingenious gentleman" of La Mancha. My most grateful anticipation of +Spain was, that it was<a name="page_135" id="page_135"></a> behind the age, and was in no hurry to overtake +it. But this did not hold good in Madrid, and dear womankind with the +tiny feet was the culprit. She disfigured herself at that epoch with an +enormous bustle on which a Barbary ape might conveniently rehearse a +bolero. Well, we have had our Grecian bends, our crinolines and +crinolettes, our pull-backs and Piccadilly limps. Fashion spells despot +everywhere, and dear womankind will cheerfully obey its dictates, even +though she have to blur her cheeks with patches, distort her spine, or +tightlace herself into consumption.</p> + +<p>In the afternoon a long procession of carriages (mostly hired) traverses +the Calle de Alcal and the promenade to the left of the fountain where +Cybele is sculptured driving a pair of meekest ox-like lions; the folk +in the carriages are not wildly joyous in their dissipation, nor are the +horses that draw them restive with excitement. Everything is dull, +consequently respectable; orderly, consequently dreary. The Foresters' +<i>fte</i> at the Crystal Palace is more hilarious. No shafts of delicate +raillery are shot by cherry lips; no peal of silvery<a name="page_136" id="page_136"></a> laughter rings +out. The Carnival is "stale, flat, and unprofitable," except to those +mumming musicians who have paid sixteen shillings for the license to beg +during the three mock-mirthful days. I survey the scene from a window in +the Paseo de Recoletos, and get all my enjoyment out of the cynical +remarks of a monstrously fine Burgundian lady, who criticises the +dresses of her Spanish sisters as they glide by. The dresses are very +tasteless, but the Frenchwoman's remarks are very ill-natured, and +ill-nature is gratifying when your neighbour is its object. A friend +enters and claps me on the back.</p> + +<p>"Do you know, old fellow, that that stormy petrel of the Revolution, +Cluseret of the Commune, is said to be in Madrid?"</p> + +<p>"Never! What brings him here?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Said</i> to be, was my expression," he added. "As a fact, I don't believe +he is here, but they take you for him. That is how the tale of his +arrival has got into the papers."</p> + +<p>The Burgundian lady turns. "Cluseret!" she ejaculates; "absurd! I have +seen Cluseret; he is<a name="page_137" id="page_137"></a> much taller and much handsomer than this +gentleman!"</p> + +<p>I bowed to hide my face, which was what Mr. Whistler might have called a +symphony in black and red, frown and blush. I have since thought what a +caustic retort I might have made if I had said politely, "And, it is to +be hoped, much more well-bred." But I said nothing, for the same reason +that Dr. Johnson gave once to Boswell—"I had nothing ready, sir."</p> + +<p>The panorama underneath is duller now; occasionally a foolish horseman +canters by, covered as to his person and his charger's quarters with a +flowing roquelaure of sheeny green satin; or a black-haired damsel trips +it by, with features concealed by sky-blue mask, and proportions by an +outer vesture of a painfully bright gamboge colour. I wonder is her hair +her own, and are her eyes black. Most likely they are—night eyes are +the rule here—the fair (that is the dark) sex are all going to +purgatory if the French couplet be authority:—</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"Les yeux noirs</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Vont au purgatoire."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>Again fanciful reflection is broken in upon by the thrumming of guitars, +the shrill squeak of fifes, and the eternal whirr and jingle of the +tambourines and triangles, and I descend and make my way through the +fast-thickening crowds to my hotel. There, where the company, like the +waiters, is polyglot; where a noble, white-bearded English gentleman is +sandwiched between a little German professor and a Diputado to the +Congress, where French journalists sit by young American exquisites, who +are picking up notions in Europe, and mere tourists who have come to +"do" Spain in thirteen days are listening to the experiences of a mining +engineer from the West Riding of Yorkshire, who has been in the country +for thirteen years; the gossip, unlike the fun without, is fast and +furious. But as it is all of politics, and I gave the reader a dose of +that in the last chapter and may have to repeat it anon, I turn to the +windows and scan the ever-animated, always-varying picture on the Puerta +del Sol. Ladies in veils white and black, as of Genoa and Milan +respectively, pass and re-pass, gilt missals in their hands. They will +be at the masked balls<a name="page_139" id="page_139"></a> to-night, for this, as I have said already, is +the home of paradox, where the announcement of the church in which the +Quarant'ore, or Forty-hours' Exposition of the Sacrament, is being held, +is printed in the same column with the theatrical advertisements. Over +the way stand a group in the national "capa." Why do they not wear +slouched and plumed beavers? To me a chimney-pot hat surmounting a cloak +is as dire an outrage on poetic association as a Venetian bravo with a +quizzing-glass. It offends the sense of fitness. What if the Madrileos +were to take to the Ulster-coat? It would make a capital Carnival +disguise at all events. But the cloak, is it not mysterious, +brigandish—tragic, if you will? Mark that loosely-built, tawny man of +dare-devil aspect on the edge, bending intently towards the excited +speaker in the middle. Something has discomposed him, for his cheeks +purple. There is an agitated flutter under the cloak, and its folds are +flung back. You expect to be startled by the blade of a stiletto, and +out comes a soiled pocket-handkerchief! It is as if Jupiter Tonans were +to threaten a thunderbolt and compromise with a sneeze.<a name="page_140" id="page_140"></a></p> + +<p>The third day of the Carnival, Shrove Tuesday, was all that could be +desired, sunny, sprightly, bustling. The streets palpitated with +merrymakers walking, riding, or driving, most of them handsomely +dressed; the music—good, bad, and indifferent—was unceasing; the +legions of roysterers attired themselves in every conceivable vagary of +costume, even to the cheap resource of a chintz dressing-gown. They were +cheerful, but in a business-like matter-of-fact way, and as they +promenaded twirled corncrakes, jingled tin cans, and tootled horns. Few +women disgraced themselves by appearing in men's clothes. Madrid is more +continent than Paris; and, to its credit be it recorded, there was +neither drunkenness nor horse-play. In the afternoon the scene in the +Prado was kaleidoscopic in variety and beauty and motion; it had in it +the gay element of the true Carnival, and those who had held aloof +before or had been deterred from sharing in the <i>fte</i> by the +inauspicious natural weather or by nervousness owing to the unsettled +condition of the political weather, came out fresh, frolicsome, and bent +on making up for<a name="page_141" id="page_141"></a> lost time. Some of the dresses were luxurious, and +triumphantly bore the test of sunshine, which is inexorable for what is +worn or seedy or imitation. And yet there seldom was a time to which the +stereotyped figure of speech about dancing on a volcano more strikingly +applied. Electricity was in the air; the troops were under arms; the +Deputies were consulting under the protection or the threat (as the +balance of feeling might incline) of canister-stuffed cannon, and it was +quite within the range of the possible that before nightfall the cavalry +might be fetlock deep in blood, and the carnage of the Dos de Mayo be +repeated—a worse carnage, for the Spaniards who fell then were patriots +slain gloriously fighting against the foreigner, and now they would be +Spaniards killed by brothers.</p> + +<p>The stream of pleasure was in its full force and flow when a strange +murmur followed by a succession of slight screams arrested the attention +of the merrymakers. Faces were turned inquiringly towards the point +whence the sounds came; the faces grew serious as a carriage was noticed +breaking<a name="page_142" id="page_142"></a> from the ranks and driving smartly down a side-street, they +were overspread with alarm as other carriages filed off, and then, quick +as a cloud overcasts the sun, a curtain of gloom fell upon the moving +multitude. There was a halt as if by general consent, a dead silence, a +thrill of trepidation, and a rapid rush and scurry hither and thither to +shelter. Trailing skirts were caught up, vizors were thrown aside, +grey-bearded patriarchs tore off their wigs and spectacles, the fiddling +and singing came to an abrupt ending, and were replaced by curses and +shrieks; all order and courtesy were cast to the four winds of heaven. +It was a perfect tragi-comedy; a mixture of the terrible, the risible, +the ominous, the rococo. I never saw transformation so sharp. It was as +if there was no room for any less ignoble feeling in the lately jocose, +bantering throngs than self-preservation. Drivers lashed their horses +and mules and galloped off furiously; equestrians careered towards all +points of the compass; those on foot bolted into every hall-way that +stood ajar, or disappeared down the nearest openings; shrubs and flowers +were trampled upon, and in a span<a name="page_143" id="page_143"></a> shorter than it takes to recount it, +the avenue of the Prado was a desert. It was fierce wholesale scamper +and stampede. The roadway and parks were strewn with fans, masks, +pocket-handkerchiefs, gloves and slippers; the entire company of +masquerading Arabs, Prussian officers, Morris dancers, Inquisitors, and +troubadours had taken incontinent flight, most of them breathless and +white; the ladies in their varied characters of gipsies, grisettes, +Galician nurses, and Court coquettes had all scudded off in such a +dismayed flutter that they had forgotten to swoon, and forfeited the +finest of opportunities of breaking into hysterics. They were really +frightened. I sought refuge (from what I knew not, whether earthquake, +hurricane or revolution) in a thick clump of bushes at the side of the +Paseo, where I stumbled over a panting make-believe toreador, and a +curious wire-woven article of ladies' dress, which latter I appropriated +as trophy. By-and-by, as no fresh cry of alarm was raised, the +bull-fighter crawled out, and I took heart of grace to return to the +centre of the town, where I learned that the scare was groundless.<a name="page_144" id="page_144"></a> It +had its origin in the glitter of the bayonets of some soldiers returning +from their duties at the Palace of the Congress. Madrid was timid as a +sick girl. It struck me that if there had been genuine cause for the +panic, and that a charge had been made or a volley with lead fired, +there would have been unequalled scope for a picture of the type of +Grme's "Duel after the Bal Masqu," but on a more liberal +scale—Polichinelle pierced by a bayonet-thrust, the floured face of +Pierrot streaked with blood, and poor Jack Pudding sprawling in the +death-agonies in the gutter.</p> + +<p>The festivities were prolonged to the small hours of the night, or +rather of the morning, none the less vigorously for the passing +fear-spasm in the Prado; the masked balls at the theatres were packed +with guests who enjoyed themselves, or fancied they did, which is as +much as one can reasonably expect in this mundane sphere sometimes.</p> + +<p>The "Marseillaise" from a vibrating brass band might be heard, nay +almost felt, crashing through the glass-doors and bursting in a cataract +of sound through the drapery at the entrances of the<a name="page_145" id="page_145"></a> caf on the +ground-floor of the Fonda de Paris at the hour when honest burgesses +should be <i>tte--tte</i> with the pillow.</p> + +<p>On Ash Wednesday, which rose rainily, there was an augmentation in the +average of headaches, and a rise in the rates for apothecary's stuff. +The pious revellers went (with an interval for washing and change of +clothes) from the ball-room to the churches to receive the ashes. +"Remember, man, thou art but dust, and unto dust thou shalt return," +says the priest, and smears their foreheads with the cinders of last +year's palm-branches. Another custom, peculiar to the date, the +"entierro de la sardina," was duly observed by those wicked rogues, the +non-pious revellers. The sardina is not the fish, but a portion of the +intestines of a pig, which is laid to earth with pseudo-lamentation in +token of <i>carne vale</i>, farewell to flesh-meat for forty days. With a +lugubrious affectation of grief the funeral pageant passed. It was very +profane—an undissembled mockery of a religious procession. A banner +striped pink and yellow and inscribed " los Cubanos" was carried in +front by a fellow in<a name="page_146" id="page_146"></a> West Indian negro dress with blackened face. Next +came a troop of blackened acolytes, two by two, and then a canopy such +as is borne over the Host, which canopy was held in travesty of homage +over a beer-keg. A sacrilegious choir, chanting a parody of a Gregorian +hymn, paced behind, and a gigantic blackguard, the <i>serpent du village</i>, +supplied a droning accompaniment from a bassoon. A blackened +high-priest, with a conical black hat and a cope bee-barred black and +yellow, closed the burlesque train and made believe to read a mass-book +through his pantomimic goggles. There was an attendant who rang a +funeral bell, another who tapped a muffled drum, and a third who swung +right under the nostrils of the onlookers a censer containing ground +resin made vile to the smell by some fetid compound. Occasionally the +profane rascals halted for a pull at a goat-skin of wine.</p> + +<p>There are some queer customs, the undeniable relics of paganism, in +Spain. On Christmas-eve the streets are paraded by men rattling pots, +just as the Romans used to celebrate the row that was made in Olympus to +hide the birth of Jupiter from<a name="page_147" id="page_147"></a> Saturn. In the Basque provinces they +honour the Virgin Mary under the name of Astarte, a clear loan from the +worship of Venus. As I am treating of queer customs, it is worth +chronicling that the Republicans entered the churches as soon as their +favourite Government was proclaimed and frantically rang the bells. A +Bishop took care to exorcise the Republican demon next day by carefully +sprinkling the bells with holy-water.</p> + +<p>For all the Lent, the treacherous and trying weather, the wars and +rumours of wars, Madrid enjoyed herself, ate, drank and made merry, +flirted and gambled. The Opera, a cosy well-frequented resort of the +fashionable set, was open, and gave the <i>Creation</i> and <i>L'Africaine</i>, +and the usual repertory of musical masterpieces of which I plead +profound technical ignorance redeemed by passionate fondness. The +soprano was that plump goddess with the dimpled double chin, fair-haired +Marie Sass. The orchestra was one of the finest I had ever heard, and +the chorus in personal appearance one of the ugliest I had ever seen, +and that, I can assure the reader, is saying much. The Zarzuela,<a name="page_148" id="page_148"></a> a +play-house devoted to opera-bouffe—the sacred lamp of burlesque was not +trimmed—presented "Golden Dreams," a beautiful piece with plot and fun +not cumbered with that scenic sumptuousness which is trying to edge +acting ability off the boards elsewhere.</p> + +<p>The respectable theatres in Madrid shut their doors on the Fridays in +Lent, and respectable theatre-goers remain at home. It is not the +correct thing to be seen pleasure-hunting on a day of mortification and +white meats. But actors must live, as well as in London. Those who are +connected with high-priced houses and are decently paid can afford to +lose one night in the week. But there are poorer followers of the +Thespian art who are in very bad case indeed, owing to this tribute to +religious scruple. If we are to be virtuous, well and good: but let us +be virtuous in earnest. We have bull-fights on the Sundays in Lent. Why +may we not enjoy the singing of Marie Sass in <i>Norma</i> on a Lenten +Friday? This thin distinction between what is right and what is not—so +thin that men of the cold north cannot make it out—<a name="page_149" id="page_149"></a>comes under the +category of those indigenous peculiarities which surpass all +understanding. Anyhow, it presses rather heavily on the humble votaries +of the sock and buskin who are attached to the middle-class houses, and +who are docked of one night's salary in every week of the seven in the +penitential season, in order that the proprieties of a public which is +not particular to a shade as to how it observes the Sabbath may be +respected. The low theatres—the Romea, where the Republic is glorified; +the Alhambra, where heels are kicked up and lewd songs are rolled forth; +the Capellanes, where monks and nuns are caricatured, have reason on +their side, at all events. They dare to be logical in their contempt for +the Church, and keep open all the year round, on Friday as on Sunday, in +the time of fasting as of feasting.</p> + +<p>The Teatro Martin is not a low theatre nor yet is it a high-priced one. +The actors there are not rich, but the audience has some pretensions to +delicacy of taste. What is the lessee of the Martin to do during the +Lent? To rob his treasury of one night's receipts and cheat his patrons +of one night's<a name="page_150" id="page_150"></a> enjoyment? That would be the last crime any spirited and +enterprising lessee would dream of committing—if he could avoid it. +From this dilemma the gentleman of the Teatro Martin has discovered an +escape. He opens his house on Fridays, but he converts it into a temple; +he reconciles amusement with religion; he produces a Passion Play! I +went to see it for the special reason that it was my privilege once to +describe the Passion Play in the Bavarian Highlands, and I was anxious +to compare one representation with the other, and, if possible, to renew +my emotions of the past.</p> + +<p>The house was tolerably full, except the boxes, which were unoccupied, +save one by a sedate family party. Devout folk of the Latin race are +famous for the interest they take in the spectacular. They admire the +pomps of religion; and this Passion Play, which was almost a function, +had evidently brought many to the theatre who are seldom seen there on +ordinary occasions. I thought I could detect a pious bearing in the +pittites. The well-to-do persons—male and female—who sat patiently<a name="page_151" id="page_151"></a> on +the mouldy benches looked serious, as if they had come to assist at a +sacrifice. There were old ladies there, I could almost take my word, who +are more often to be encountered, with morocco-bound prayer-books in +their shrivelled hands, creeping to early service. The gallery was +packed, and the gods, for gods, were gentlemanlike. There was nothing in +the aspect of the house meriting description—it was roomy, ill-lit, +full of draughts and dust—one of those houses we know so well. The +scene-painter, if the act-drop was a fair sample of his powers, was a +victim to colour-blindness; the orchestra showed a Republican freedom in +its scorn for the trammels of time and tune; but the prompter in his +hooded box, full in the middle of the range of footlights, was the +feature of the show. He had a very distinct voice—so distinct was it +that every sentence he directed to the actors rebounded from the flats, +came back in sibilant echo, and ascended to the gods. I have no +intention of giving an analysis of the piece; to speak the sad truth, it +did not come up to my expectations. Ober-Ammergau spoiled me for +exhibitions of the<a name="page_152" id="page_152"></a> kind. I could not screw up my enthusiasm, tried I +ever so hard. That which charmed in Bavaria had no charm in Spain. The +stately panorama which was put before the awe-struck spectator in that +valley of the Ammer was not visible here. The blue sky overhead and the +eternal hills in sight above the walls of the simple wooden structure; +the music so tender and solemn; the clear-browed peasants losing their +identity in the fervid rendering of their parts; the enraptured +attention of the auditory, whose lips moved in prayer sometimes, and +whose eyes sometimes brimmed with tears, as if the scenes they watched +were real—those were things to be remembered. They were the points that +helped to make an impression in Bavaria, that dispelled prejudice and +replaced it with a pleased satisfaction which insensibly swelled to +admiration; but they were wanting in this stuffy play-house. No illusion +was possible. One never lost the consciousness that he was looking on at +a stage-play acted for money by indifferent stage-players. There was a +smell of paint and tobacco-smoke about. Then there was the voice of that +irrepressible<a name="page_153" id="page_153"></a> prompter, the shaven faces of the hungry supernumeraries +who played the Roman soldiers, the gas-rakes, the shaky wings, the mark +of the trap-doors from which devils with a family likeness to the imps +of pantomime spring up to-night, and the statue of the Commander may +emerge to-morrow night, the scenes that would not run smoothly in the +grooves, and the stiff stereotyped exits and entrances. Everything was +of the stage, stagey. One could not get rid of the notion that Caiaphas +had dined on puchero with its flavour heightened by garlic. It was very +palpable that the Apostle Peter wore a wig and a beard of tow. Mary +Magdalen had an air of operatic resignation, and was troubled with the +arrangement of her drapery. There was a layer of pearl-powder on the +Virgin's cheeks.</p> + +<p>I shall not bore the reader with an essay on mysteries and +miracle-plays; neither, as I have said, shall I attempt to analyse this +sacred drama, in seven acts, of "The Passion and Death of Jesus;" but I +shall take the liberty of giving an epitome of some notes, pencilled on +the spot, in the intervals of<a name="page_154" id="page_154"></a> interruption by that loud prompter. The +<i>Pasion y Muerte de Jesus</i> (that is the Spanish title) is written by Don +Enrique Zumel, who appears to have fathered as many pieces as Lope de +Vega, but whose pieces are not quite so well known. It was brought out +for the first time in this self-same Teatro Martin on the 3rd of March, +1871. It is in verse, and has some literary merit. In the main incidents +it resembles the Bavarian play, which does not deviate noticeably from +the Bible narrative. It is unnecessary, therefore, to go over the +incidents of its various acts. The Greek chorus to be remarked at +Ober-Ammergau is absent. The tableaux from the Old Testament prefiguring +events in the New are absent also. The first Act opens with a dialogue +between Magdalen and some women of Jerusalem. The Saviour, with the +Apostles, enters on the scene almost immediately after. Magdalen's +garments are rich with spangles; her mantle is scarlet; she has flowers +in her luxuriant tresses, and looks a vain creature. The Saviour is +personified by an actor with a singular likeness to Joseph Mayer, the +Bavarian Christus. Pale, clean-chiselled<a name="page_155" id="page_155"></a> face, long black locks +smoothed over, downcast eyes, a meek demeanour generally—the +characteristics are identical. The voice of this man, who essayed so +awful a <i>rle</i>, was low and sweet; and, to give him his due, he moved as +if he was filled with respect for his dangerous part. The Virgin comes +on the scene in the same Act. She is clad in blue nun-like raiment. The +people who filled up the background wore sandals, and had white towels, +swathed in folds like those of the turban, round their raven-black hair. +The entry into Jerusalem was shown, the Saviour being mounted on a white +ass. The orchestra here woke up, and played a joyous strain to a chorus +commencing—</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"Con palmas y oliva</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Y alegre cantar</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Y pintados florea</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">De lindos colores</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Hijas de Jud</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Llegad! Llegad!"</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p class="nind">and terminating with a hosannah to the Redeemer. The only anachronisms +in dress that impressed me in this first Act were a silk net with which +one<a name="page_156" id="page_156"></a> young person of Jerusalem confined her rebellious hair, and a strip +of black velvet which another had fastened round her throat, bringing +out the whiteness of her skin by contrast. In the second Act Caiaphas +speaks of Jesus as the fomenter of a "thousand conflicts between Church +and State." The Last Supper is pictured after Leonardo da Vinci, and +Judas comes into relief, a sullen scowler, who overdoes his part thus +early. In the garden scene in the third Act the figure of Jesus in +prayer is shown with a ray of <i>luz Dumont</i>, the lime-light of our London +stage, playing upon it! I left my seat after this, and loitered outside +till the Crucifixion scene was on. At Ammergau it was appallingly +impressive; here it was sensational purely. The drama wound up with the +bursting open of the sepulchre. I came away free from any desire to +witness Don Enrique Zumel's production again. Without absolutely +shocking one's feelings on a subject which should be sacred and +approached reverently, if at all, his Passion Play offended fine taste +throughout because of the obtrusive staginess of its action, get-up, and +surroundings. Still the<a name="page_157" id="page_157"></a> actors were occasionally applauded, and the +audience left in a contented mood.</p> + +<p>But the provisional rulers took care that those under their guardianship +should have stronger pabulum than spoon-meat.</p> + +<p>Napoleon I., unless the tale be a legend, used to order a new coat of +gilding to be laid on the dome of the Invalides when the people of Paris +chafed under his tyranny. That gave them something to talk +about—supplied a sensation of twenty-four hours. The Spanish Republican +governors are working on the same principle. <i>Panes et circenses</i> was +the charter of the Roman plebs, "pan y toros" is that of the plebs of +Madrid. I do not know how it is with the bread, but the rulers let the +lieges have bulls galore to occupy their minds. There are grand corridas +for professionals and amateurs. Nor is bull-fighting the only pastime +provided for the populace; cock-fighting, with game-birds from the +Canary Islands, is also carried on every Sunday morning in a pit +constructed for the purpose, mains are scientifically fought, and money +is prodigally squandered. All countries have their peculiarities.<a name="page_158" id="page_158"></a> In +some, people go racing on the Lord's Day; in others they are content +with getting drunk in the bosoms of their families.</p> + +<p class="c">————</p> + +<p>N<small>OTE BY MY VERY LEARNED AND AMIABLE ACCOMPLICE</small>, D<small>R</small>. D<small>ANN.</small>—That great +writer on Spanish folk-lore, Mesonero Romanos, better known as "El +curioso parlante," who flourished some fifty years since, seems utterly +ignorant of the record of the "entierro." His account only goes to show +that Spain is the most conservative country of Europe. A huge "sardina" +placed on the top of a bier is carried by a number of fellows in +carnival costume, each of them having on his head a cone of immense +height, somewhat resembling the dunce's cap that was formerly such a +usual thing in English village-schools. In front, and at the back of the +procession, appears a crowd of young men and of girls from the slums of +Southern Madrid, in three groups, called "coros," or choirs. There is +the "coro de mancebos," or young men's choir; the "coro de doncellas," +or girls' choir; and the "coro de inocentes,"<a name="page_159" id="page_159"></a> or innocents' choir. The +<i>locus in quo</i> is that part of the south of the Spanish capital which +extends from the Vistillas de San Francisco to the Church of San +Lorenzo; for, in contradistinction to Paris, the South of Madrid is +almost exclusively inhabited by what M. Gambetta used to call the new +social strata, while Mr. Bright spoke of them many years ago as the +<i>residuum</i>. In connection with the sardina, and rising on the same +coffin, a figure of "Uncle Marcos" is carried, somewhat similar in form +to the stuffed Guy Fawkeses which are carried about in the streets of +London on the 5th of November. When the procession has reached the +Puente Toledana, the figure of Uncle Marcos is burnt on a funeral pile, +and the sardina is buried in a ditch prepared on purpose. While all this +is going on, songs intended to be parodies of the Catholic Church hymns +and canticles are chanted by the accompanying choirs, and altogether the +performance is, for all practical purposes, a parody of the Church +processions so frequent in Spain and all Southern countries. When it is +all over, a good many of the actors indulge in libations. Not +unfrequently<a name="page_160" id="page_160"></a> the burial of the sardina is followed by a free fight, and +half a dozen dead or wounded are the outcome of the battle. Disgusting +as the whole performance may appear, more especially the blasphemous +simulacre of religious worship, it must be admitted in palliation that +the very idea of mocking the rites of the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman +Church never so much as enters the minds of the performers, who would +repudiate with the utmost indignation the notion of intentionally +placing themselves outside the pale of the Church, and violating the +"buenas costumbres" by what they are doing.<a name="page_161" id="page_161"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h3> + +<p class="ch">Another Chat with Mentor—A Startling Solution of the Spanish +Question—The Penalties of Popularity—The Republic another +Saturn—The New Civil Governor—The Government Bill—Outside the +Palace of the Congress—Providential Rain—Wild Rumours—Federal +Threats—The Five Civil Guards—Inside the Chamber—The Great +Debate—The Two Reports—Compromise—Minor Speechmakers—A +Pickwickian Contention—The Division—Victory for the Ministry—The +Five Civil Guards Trot to Stables.</p> + +<p class="nind">O<small>N</small> the morning of March 8th, I met my Anglo-Spanish Mentor in the +reading-room of the hotel. To my usual inquiry as to the condition of +health of the Republic, he replied that he thought we were nearing the +critical point.</p> + +<p>"There is a cataclysm impending," he said. "We have got beyond the stage +of changing the names of streets and substituting the Hymn of Riego for +the Royal March. Everybody agrees that a <i>coup d'tat</i> is necessary, and +may be imminent; we want<a name="page_162" id="page_162"></a> an intelligent despotism—but the despot must +always be a man of our own party. There is the hitch. Castelar probably +may have some amiable hobby, like Lamartine, of 'employment for adults +and education for the young.' Whatever be the sequel of the trial of +strength, I hope we may have a strong administration, not one like the +present, where the Minister of Grace and Justice is all grace and no +justice.</p> + +<p>"Do you know," he added, after a pause, "I have an idea as to the +solution of this Spanish question?"</p> + +<p>"What is it, pray?"</p> + +<p>"S<small>ELL</small> S<small>PAIN TO</small> E<small>NGLAND</small>!"</p> + +<p>I roared with derisive laughter.</p> + +<p>"I am serious," he continued. "This is the age of arbitration. Why not +of colossal international barter? We could rule the country as we rule +India, set Sikh against Hindoo, and play off Ghoorka against both."</p> + +<p>"You do not reckon with Spanish pride," I said.</p> + +<p>"Bah! The pride that lowered itself to the acceptance of foreign royalty +might condescend to pocket foreign gold."<a name="page_163" id="page_163"></a></p> + +<p>"When Pedro brought me my chocolate this morning he told me there had +been demonstrations in some of the lower quarters."</p> + +<p>"Yes; but they are easily accounted for. The populace do not see the +impracticable promises of the Republicans realized, and are impatient +for the millennium of liberty, equality, and fraternity, with no work +and lots to eat superadded. But the demonstration was very trivial, it +limited itself to the sticking of a red flag in front of a hall-door. +There are wicked slanderers who say that Figueras had something to do +with it, and passed the word that the 'people' should bring an outward +pressure to bear upon his brethren of the Assembly, so that he might get +rid of some of his ungrateful colleagues by the argument, 'See, you are +impossible, the people won't have you; better for the sake of order +leave, that you may avoid the humility of being sent away.'"</p> + +<p>"Surely," I expostulated, "Seor Figueras would not descend to such a +base trick of democracy!"</p> + +<p>"My innocent friend," said Mentor, "once a man binds himself to what is +falsely called the 'people'<a name="page_164" id="page_164"></a> he has to put up with much inconvenience, +swallow his pride, and humour his exacting pet. Figueras knows this +already; he has been stopped by groups in the streets at various times, +and obliged to amuse them by small harangues, the same as if he were a +Punch-and-Judy showman, making his 'pitch' for ha'pence."</p> + +<p>"Unpleasant situation," I remarked. "He must weary of that soon."</p> + +<p>"Most likely his admirers will weary of him—and then," said Mentor, +with a chuckle—"then for a spell of chaos. The Republic, like Saturn, +has an ugly propensity for devouring its offspring. The mob fondles +Republicanism as its exclusive property, spreads palm-branches under the +feet of its prophets one week and stones them the next. Castelar, +Figueras, Pi y Margall, are the prophets to-day; they will be victimised +in the end. To them will succeed men more violent, who will make larger +promises, and then, finally, will spring up a strong reaction and a +return to something old-fashioned and stable."</p> + +<p>Mentor was a thorough-paced Conservative and a<a name="page_165" id="page_165"></a> pessimist into the +bargain. In order to draw him out I pleaded that the Government was +doing its best to conciliate all parties. For instance, it had appointed +Estvanez, Civil Governor of Madrid.</p> + +<p>"Aye," said Mentor, "another evidence of the truth of what I advance. +That was done to please the Intransigentes. Estvanez is beloved of the +Reds, and took to the hills a few months ago in assertion of Federal +Republican principles. He held the rocky mountain pass of Despear +Perros in Andalusia, at the head of a handful of men, but he boasts that +he neither destroyed railways nor cut telegraphic wires, and holds +certificates to that effect from the railway companies and the +Government. He is an old soldier, a man of energy, and his influence +with his party in this province is paramount. If the Constituent Cortes +proclaim a moderate or a united Republic he may make himself +obstructive. But I must bid you good-day; I am off for my constitutional +in the Botanical Gardens."</p> + +<p>The reference to the Constituent Cortes reminded me that this was the +date appointed for the consideration of the Government Bill for their +election,<a name="page_166" id="page_166"></a> introduced into Congress on the night of the 4th of March. +This Bill consisted of eight articles, the most important of which were +that the elections should take place on the 10th of April and three +following days, and the meeting on the 1st of May; that all Spaniards +above the age of twenty should have votes; and that on the suspension of +the session of the existing Cortes a permanent committee from their +members, with consultative functions, should be appointed for the +interregnum. It was felt that this was throwing down the glove, and the +lines were now marshalling for the tug of war. The Radicals are +disquieted. They know that if they go to the country not one-third of +them will be returned, for the reason that whoever holds the Ministry of +the Gobernacion, or Interior, in this paradise of universal suffrage can +return the nominees of his party, and determine their majorities with +mathematical certainty. Ministers act illegally in the article which +provides that men of twenty may vote. The young men are the main +strength of Republicanism everywhere, and this article at a single +arbitrary scratch of the pen adds<a name="page_167" id="page_167"></a> half a million electors to the rolls. +Hitherto the right of voting was restricted to males who had attained +twenty-five years. The Radicals object to this sweeping alteration in +the law, made with the distinct object of defeating their chances; and +the hatred of those half-million of young men thus sought to be +enfranchised by the new Republic will be acquired to the Radicals from +the very fact of their opposition.</p> + +<p>When the hour for opening the Congress came, the building looked more +like a barrack than a House of Parliament. A grim Guardia Civil, in a +three-cornered hat, stood sentry, with fixed bayonet, at the side-door +in the Calle de Turco, by which the Deputies enter. At every window men +in uniform were to be seen; officers with jangling scabbards moved about +the lobbies and ante-rooms, instead of the usual moody, sallow, shabby +crowd of taciturn waiters on Providence, muffled in mantles and hidden +in smoke, who hang about for hours, and occasionally pass mysterious +slips of paper by the liveried and silver-laced ushers to Seor Don This +or That within.<a name="page_168" id="page_168"></a></p> + +<p>What can their business be? I often puzzle myself by asking. Have they +claims on Government for ancestral property gone down in the Armada? Are +they pretenders to the succession in a licence to sell tobacco and salt +in Minorca? Or are they simply intriguing for a ticket to the House? The +problem waits for solution.</p> + +<p>They are not here to-day. In their places are the soldiers who watch +over the safety of the representatives of the people. Luckily it is wet, +and the crowds outside cower and huddle under a camp of umbrellas. Your +persistent drizzle is a terrible enemy to revolution. There is nothing +like it for putting a damper on noisy out-of-door agitation. But the +occasion is a great one, and though the clouds seem to have been +transformed into tanks with bottoms pepper-castored with leaks, and +never tire of the weary drip-drip, the citizens of Madrid bravely +affront the weather and collect on the sloppy approaches to the Palace +of the Congress to discuss the affairs of the commonwealth. They look +resolute enough to go under a shower-bath in the interest of their +country. Patiently they stand,<a name="page_169" id="page_169"></a> with knit brows, their soaked mantles +clinging to their persons, while the Deputies drive or walk up, and +enter to take part in the important discussion at hand—the discussion +which is to decide whether there are to be barricades in Madrid and in +all the great cities, and some widows the more in Spain within +four-and-twenty hours.</p> + +<p>Denser grow the throngs and livelier the excitement, for all the rain. +Reports the most eccentric and alarming are bandied about. The people +have burned down the churches in Malaga; but Malagueo, "as everybody +knows," remarks a French journalist, "is the synonym for <i>mchant</i>." In +another knot a rumour circulates that a meeting of Radicals had been +held the evening previous, at which the German, Austrian, and Italian +ambassadors were present, and that they spoke of the necessity of a +joint intervention to assist in the restoration of peace. This senseless +rumour was believed by some fools, and the Radicals who were supposed to +be ready to open the door to the foreigner were cursed and hissed, or +howled at, as they stepped into the Palace. Word passes that the +Intransigentes are<a name="page_170" id="page_170"></a> in arms in the lower quarters of the town, and have +taken up "strategic points" in view of any emergency that may arise. If +the Government is beaten they mean to raise the red flag, to occupy the +theatres as they did once before, to turn the Plaza Santa Ana and the +Plazuela de Anton Martin into head-quarters, and, if necessary, to march +on the Parliament-house and make an example of those traitorous Radicals +who would betray the people and bring back the Monarchy. Law-fearing +Madrid is in a state of wan terror, and thanks Providence for that +thrice-blessed rain. The men who compose the noisy groups belong to the +lower classes; they are not very numerous, but they are very determined. +The active demonstration is confined to a nucleus of some one hundred +and fifty persons. Delegates occasionally arrive from distant parts of +the town, whisper to comrades in the mob, and depart. It is known that +the troops are confined to barracks, that a hundred picked men of the +Guardia Civil have reinforced the garrison of the Palace of Congress, +and that Seor Martos has not quitted it since the previous night.<a name="page_171" id="page_171"></a></p> + +<p>Try and realise to yourself a crowd from Clerkenwell Green surging and +yelling angrily in the open space before Westminster Hall, a battalion +of the Coldstreams keeping watch and ward on the faithful Commons, and +Mr. Speaker, for reasons of personal security, compelled to have a +shakedown in the House!</p> + +<p>At half-past three o'clock the flag is run up to the head of the staff +on the roof, but it droops limp and woebegone in the wet. The Assembly +is in session. The waiting crowds increase; the windows commanding a +view of the Palace are filled, and the pavements of the streets +contiguous are black with anxious loiterers, in spite of the detestable +weather. News of what is going on inside the Chamber escapes by +driblets; as soon as a Deputy or a reporter comes out he is button-holed +and interviewed.</p> + +<p>"The Radicals hold firm," says one, and there is a howl of rage, and the +chattering <i>flneurs</i>, who linger on the pavement at a safe distance, +stir their heels with a rare unity of sentiment. "Devil take the +hindmost!" is the motto of these dignified<a name="page_172" id="page_172"></a> burgesses of Madrid when a +cry of danger is raised; bang go the shutters against the shop-windows +in a jiffy.</p> + +<p>At one period the attitude of the crowd immediately opposite the +entrance of the Palace boded ill; cries of "Viva la Repblica Federal!" +and "Death to the Radicals!" were raised, and Seor Estvanez, the Civil +Governor of Madrid, was obliged to come out and speak to his pet lambs, +and pacify them with the assurance that the Federal Republic was safe. +Five mounted Civil Guards took up their stations at the mouth of the +Calle de Turco after this, and stood there silent, statue-like, with +drawn swords in their gauntleted grip, until day had melted into +twilight, and twilight into night. These five cavaliers, in their heavy +cloaks, blacker than the darkness around, had really something +supernatural in their grisly quietude as they rested stock-still in +their saddles. Their mission was ominous of evil; they were there an +ugly index of what was feared. Had they found it necessary to clap spur +to their horses and plunge upon the mob, I would not have given much for +their lives. Those<a name="page_173" id="page_173"></a> five "lost sentinels" were sure to have been picked +off before their comrades on foot could have sallied from the adjacent +building to their rescue. Sinister-looking fellows, in jackets and fur +caps, with rifles slung across their shoulders, were not ensconced in +the street-corners in easy range without a purpose.</p> + +<p>The scene inside the Chamber gave equal token that a question of vital +interest was being debated. The gallery assigned to the public was +crammed as closely as the pit of Drury Lane on Boxing Night; the press +gallery ran over with reporters; every seat available was full but those +reserved for the ambassadors. Their seats were empty; not even the +war-worn figure of General Sickles was to be distinguished. Cristinos +Martos, looking anxious but firm, was in the presidential chair; and the +halberdiers in purple and gold, with their heavy silver maces and +nodding white plumes, occupied their accustomed places to the right and +left.</p> + +<p>The President rings his bell for business. The first operation is to +read the minutes of the previous sitting, which are approved. Then one +of those obstructive members to be encountered in<a name="page_174" id="page_174"></a> every legislative +assembly—be it Reichsrath, Rigsdag, Skupstina, or Storthing—rises to +take his little innings on some petty topic that concerns none beyond +his own small circle. He is quickly bowled out, and the order of the day +is arrived at—that for which we are all waiting, that which makes this +one of the most serious and important sittings since the abdication of +the King. The reading of the reports of the committee was first +proceeded with, that of the majority taking precedence. This document +was rather long, but may be summarised into a lament that the Government +intended to make the permanent committee a purely consultative body; a +declaration that the time was unsuitable for an election, civil war +being actually carried on in Spain; and a protest that the clause +establishing twenty as the age from which the privilege of voting dated +was "an abuse and an irregularity." It concluded with a project of law, +in a single article, binding the Assembly to convoke the Cortes whenever +it considered the condition of the country such as to guarantee freedom +of suffrage and the interests of the Republic.<a name="page_175" id="page_175"></a></p> + +<p>Primo de Rivero's report was then read. He based it on the conviction +that the transitory period should be closed in the interest of domestic +order, and that the Constituent Cortes would be the true representation +of the national will. To effect conciliation, he would submit a bill +fixing May 10th as the period of election, June 1st as that of the +meeting of the Cortes, and twenty-one as the age at which Spaniards +should have power to exercise electoral rights.</p> + +<p>The consideration of the report of the minority, which was looked on as +an amendment, came first.</p> + +<p>The Chief of the Executive Power, Figueras, himself opened the +discussion. The Government had presented a bill so framed that they +hoped it would satisfy the divers aspirations of the Assembly. They +thought they could go no further, but since Primo de Rivero had seen fit +to draw up his conciliatory report they had resolved to modify their +primitive proposition in certain particulars, such as the definition of +the faculties of the permanent committee and the date of the elections. +But that was the extreme limit of compromise. They would<a name="page_176" id="page_176"></a> stand or fall +by the vote about to be given. If the Chamber gave them its support they +would proceed with the rude task of administration, and they were +resolved firmly to sustain order, military discipline, and the majesty +of the law. Here Seor Figueras branched off into a schoolboy digression +as to what the law was, and how it should be administered. Coming to the +real point, he said if Primo de Rivero's bill were rejected, the Cabinet +would hand in its resignation, and would ask the representatives to name +its successors on the spot, for in those critical moments a solution of +continuity in power would be attended with grave risks.</p> + +<p>Seor Guardia then rose to deny that the existing Chamber had fulfilled +its mission, and that the opportune time had arrived for the election of +another. The very Government itself had made avowal to that effect. +Certain bills remained to be discussed and voted. Besides, had they not +other duties of greater necessity? What was the state of the country? An +armed absolutism prevailed in some provinces; Catalonia recognised no +chiefs but<a name="page_177" id="page_177"></a> those of the locality (here there were interruptions). In +the cities of the South, the public forces had abandoned their arms to +persons more or less authorised in some of them, and in others the +partition of sacred property had been announced. In the heart of Castile +and Andalusia the ayuntamientos had to resign in the presence of +superior force. Under those circumstances no elections could be carried +on with liberty. And, as if this were not sufficient, there was an +article which added 400,000 electors to the register. This was an +aggravation of difficulties when mistrust was supreme everywhere. The +majority of the reporting committee (of which he formed part) believed +that the initiative of a convocation of the Cortes should come, not from +the Government, but from the Chamber. The destruction of the elements +which were not represented in the Government was what was sought by this +call for a new Chamber.</p> + +<p>Primo de Rivero then explained his position, which was curious. He, a +member of the Radical party, disagreed with his colleagues; but his +motive was the salvation of the Republic. If his bill were<a name="page_178" id="page_178"></a> not +accepted, the disasters that would fall upon the country would be +tremendous and immediate. This plump declaration created what is called +"sensation." The General next reviewed the different solutions which +offered themselves. A new Cabinet of Republicans of long standing was +not to be thought of, and a mixed Cabinet would be a calamity. One other +solution remained, the formation of a Cabinet from the Radical majority. +With all respect he would ask, Did that majority possess the moral +authority to raise the standard of Republicanism? Did they recollect +that their former chief, Ruiz Zorilla, called them cowards because they +were about to proclaim the Republic? He repudiated the accusation.</p> + +<p>Here there was a row, which recalled to mind that famous one between Mr. +Pickwick and Mr. Blotton, of Aldgate. Seor Juan Ramon Zorilla rose to +defend his absent relative. After a call to order, and a palaver, during +which Primo de Rivero explained that he was speaking merely of Seor +Zorilla the politician, but that Seor Zorilla personally was all that +was honourable and patriotic, the discussion flowed back into its proper +channel.<a name="page_179" id="page_179"></a></p> + +<p>The General frankly admitted that the Radicals lacked moral authority. +"Now," he said, "we are Republicans, but a month ago we were +Monarchists." He then related with an ingenuousness that was remarkable +in a professed friend, all the faults his party had committed, and +prophesied that if a Radical Cabinet were formed it would not last three +days. Who knows what might occur? Interruptions punctuated the soldier's +discourse, but he turned round and told those who did not like what he +said, that prudence was better than valour when valour was stupid and +made reckless exposure of lives. He wound up by asking the +representatives to seek inspiration in their patriotism and love of +liberty, and support his bill, which he confessed was his in spirit +only, and had not been drawn up by him but by members of the Government.</p> + +<p>These opening orations of the champions of the two parties in the +committee, the majority of six, and the minority of one, give the pith +of the arguments <i>pro</i> and <i>con</i>. Then followed talkee-talkee by +obscurities—speechlets of the maundering school, habitual of nights in +St. Stephen's, when<a name="page_180" id="page_180"></a> wise men betake themselves to the terrace, and the +stenographers yawn and chew their pencils. A Republican editor declared +that the Republican press was all that was lovely, and a Deputy from +Barcelona affirmed that the city by the Mediterranean was a model of +tranquillity (why was there a loud "haw-haw" here?). One of the Zorilla +family rose to defend his absent namesake a second time, and Seor +Lopez, chairman of the reporting committee, asseverated that the +Radicals had no yearning for office, that the Government should be +satisfied with an Assembly so liberal and so much inclined to help it, +and that if anarchy were to be the issue, the waters of the Jordan would +not wash the men who ruled of the responsibility. Then Cristinos Martos +descended from his tribune, and said he would accept any arrangement +which would secure peace. The crisis had come. The question by which the +Ministry had elected to stand or fall was put to the test, and exactly +nineteen Radicals, less than a score out of over two hundred, voted in +the opposition.</p> + +<p>So the Republicans retain their seats and bloodshed<a name="page_181" id="page_181"></a> is averted. The +mercy is due, not to the goodness of the cause, nor to the persuasive +pleadings of its advocates, but to the intimidation of the mob. The +Radical majority were the judges, and the judges were cowed by the +rabble of the streets and their spokesmen in the Chamber. The Radical +majority had it in their power to put the Republicans off the coveted +blue benches of the Treasury; but the Radical majority, feeling that +there were no strong arms outside to back them, "caved in." That is the +plain way of putting it. Five members out of every six in the house were +Radicals, six out of seven of the sections of the house were Radical. +Those sections, or standing committees, are drawn by lot on the first of +every month, and all members must belong to one or other of them. Every +bill that is presented must be referred to a committee composed of seven +members, one selected by each section. Six of the members of the +committee to report on the bill of dissolution presented by Seor +Figueras were Radicals; one solitary member, General Primo de Rivero, +recalled from fighting the Carlists in Guipzcoa, favoured the +Government.<a name="page_182" id="page_182"></a> The Opposition stood to the Ministry as six to one. And the +Opposition being thus strong, the Ministry had beaten it! The wonder +ceases when it is recollected that the hands of the majority were tied; +every plan was tried to influence them into not ousting the +Ministry—coaxing and cajolery, appeals to their love of peace and +country, and ultimately threats. As result, when it came to the "who +shall?" they did not sustain the convictions they had openly expressed +on all previous occasions. Peradventure this was patriotism, +peradventure it was prudence.</p> + +<p>The debate was over. It was ten o'clock. The crowd raised exultant +shouts and dispersed to their homes, to the clubs, or to the +coffee-houses, where there was soon a file-fire of hand-claps to summon +the waiters and a Babel of voluble jabber. The five ghostly cavaliers +outside the Palace of the Congress started to life, sheathed their +sabres, caught up their bridles, and returned to their stables.</p> + +<p>The Republic had been reprieved. What a sigh of relief San Isidro +Labrador, patron of Madrid, must have heaved.<a name="page_183" id="page_183"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h3> + +<p class="ch">The Inventions of Don Fulano de Tal—Stopping a Train—"A Ver Fine +Blaggar"—The Legend of Santa Cruz—Dodging a +Warrant—Outlawed—Chased by Gendarmes—A Jack Sheppard Escape—The +Cura becomes Cabecilla—Sleeping with an Eye Open—Exploits and +Atrocities—Dilettante Carlists in London—The Combat of +Monreal—Ibarreta's Relics—A Tale for the Marines—The Carlists +Looking-up.</p> + +<p class="nind">E<small>VERY</small> other day—every other hour, I might almost say—a new rumour was +born in Madrid. These rumours were usually figments, always +exaggerations. If one were to inquire into their origin Don Fulano de +Tal, the Man in the Street, was certain to have assisted as +<i>accoucheur</i>. Alas! truth in Spain is coyest of sparrows, and to be +caught must have not a grain but a whole bushel of salt shaken over its +tail. Don Carlos was always turning up somewhere like a bad shilling. +Were he to be where he was said to be, he must have been a supernatural<a name="page_184" id="page_184"></a> +Don Carlos—must have inherited the seven-leagued boots of fairy tale, +as his brother had the invisible cloak, for he was here, there, +everywhere, and nowhere, at one and the same time. But wherever hovered +the Pretender, or the "heir presumptuous," as a Spanish acquaintance, +not well up in English as "she is spoke," persisted in calling him, or +whatever he may have been doing, there could be no doubt that some of +his followers were in the field and alarmingly active. On the 13th of +March, the capital was furious at the official news that communication +with France and the rest of Europe by the north had been cut. Vitoria +was the limit of Spain now; beyond it was the troublous No Man's Land, +where the legends of Manuel Santa Cruz and his desperadoes abounded. He +it was who had ripped up the rails near Tolosa, and waited for the +accident which was sure to occur when the first train travelling towards +the frontier would arrive. Four inoffensive passengers were hurled into +eternity. The excuse for the conduct of this minister of peace was that +these trains carried troops. If the railway company would pay him a<a name="page_185" id="page_185"></a> +tribute and engage to carry no troops, Santa Cruz, who is accommodating, +would let them pass freely. The company was willing, for these +interruptions were killing the dividends, but the Government objected. +In common justice to the more intelligent members of the party this +soldier-priest disgraced, it should be admitted that they cursed him +loudly and deeply. His conduct was bringing his order into disrepute. +For instance, in Vitoria, near his own hunting-ground, when the Republic +was proclaimed, the Civil Governor dropped a hint that it would be +necessary to "exterminate the highwaymen of the black soutane." The +priests of the town got so frightened that they did not dare to show +themselves in the streets. But they were in no danger, though the +merciless Manuel was doing what he could to make the priests' garb +unpopular. A Carlist paper in Madrid, with some conscience left, had the +honesty to say Manuel was not a credit to his cloth, and that Don Carlos +did not approve of the many savage acts he had committed. Manuel sent +the editor a letter, with his compliments, promising to teach him better +manners<a name="page_186" id="page_186"></a> than to speak ill of the absent when he came to Madrid! The +general anticipation, based on a fond hope, was that if Manuel ever did +come to Madrid, it would be strapped on a hurdle. But he had his +admirers, nevertheless. My friend, the Duke de Fitzpepper, swore in his +execrable execrating English that he was a "cottam ver fine blaggar—oh, +ye-es! <i>tous qu'il y avait de plus crne, mon cher!</i>" From one of these +admirers who knew his family, I obtained an interesting epitome of his +career.</p> + +<p>Santa Cruz was born at Elduayen in Guipzcoa in 1842. An aged uncle gave +him some lessons in Latin, and placed him in an ecclesiastical seminary, +where he seems to have principally devoted himself to the practice of +athletic exercises. He came out in 1866 a clerk and a gymnasiarch rolled +in one, and was appointed to the pastoral charge of Hernialde, a cluster +of houses near Tolosa. He attended zealously to the duties of his +ministry, leading a simple, frugal life with his sister; but when +stories of the struggles of Zumalacrregui and Gonzales Moreno in the +previous Carlist war were recounted by the wide hearth, it was noticed +that the priest's<a name="page_187" id="page_187"></a> eyes blazed like the faggots sputtering in +flame-spikes towards the chimney-top. He was a Monarchist of the Basque +stamp by race, by education, by conviction. He should have been a +warrior, not a preacher of the Gospel; but if the circumstances which +produce the man had not arisen, he might have vegetated and died in +obscurity in his mountain village. The circumstances arose in August, +1870. A revolt of the four provinces of Alava, Guipzcoa, and Biscay +(the Basques or Vascongadas), and Navarre, was to take place in that +month. At the outset it was rendered abortive by the treachery of a +Colonel Escoda. It broke out on the 27th of August, and was suppressed +on the following day. Santa Cruz, whose opinions were well known to the +party, had been asked to watch over a depot of arms which had been +collected for the insurgents at Hernialde. His share in the plot was +betrayed, and one morning, as he was celebrating Divine Service, his +church was entered by a party of soldiers who waited at the foot of the +altar until he had finished the ceremony.<a name="page_188" id="page_188"></a></p> + +<p>"In the name of the law, follow me," said the officer in command; "I +have a warrant for your arrest from Madrid."</p> + +<p>"Very well," said the Cura; "but surely you will allow me to breakfast +first, unless they ordered you to take me captive on an empty stomach."</p> + +<p>This was murmured in a tone so dulcet and injured that the officer +hastened to assure the clergyman that he might breakfast, and +accompanied him to the presbytery.</p> + +<p>"Sin ceremonia," said the Cura, "will you condescend to share my meal?"</p> + +<p>"Thanks, very much."</p> + +<p>The priest entered the house; the soldiers waited outside, and argued +that it was an infernal shame and a piece of tyranny on the part of Prim +and the rest to have ordered such a harmless, nice man to be clapped +into gaol. Presently a peasant with a basket of fruit on his head came +out of the house. The soldiers waited long. They waited in vain. The +peasant and the priest were one and the same.</p> + +<p>For two years Santa Cruz wandered in the mountains and in France, was +"on his keeping," as<a name="page_189" id="page_189"></a> they say in Munster, but was finally arrested and +interned at Nantes, by the French authorities. A characteristic story +was related of his arrest. He was stopped on the bridge between St. Jean +de Luz and Cibour by two gendarmes.</p> + +<p>"Your papers?" demanded one.</p> + +<p>"My papers! Wait till I look for them," answered Santa Cruz, not in the +least disconcerted.</p> + +<p>He fumbled in his pockets, turned them inside out, tapped the lining of +his clothes, searched high and low, pretending to be very much +astonished that he could not discover the document; and, suddenly, while +the gendarmes, thrown off their guard, were speaking to one another, +made a spring sideways, and was off like a bolt from a bow, the agents +of authority pounding after him in their clumsy jack-boots. The chase +lasted an hour, to the intense amusement of all the idlers of the town; +but a peasant, not grasping the true state of affairs, clutched the +panting Santa Cruz and held him until the arrival of the gendarmes.</p> + +<p>In 1872, when Don Carlos again made appeal to arms, Santa Cruz succeeded +in evading notice, and<a name="page_190" id="page_190"></a> crossing the frontier, attached himself as +chaplain to the band of Recondo. The Pretendiente himself entered by the +pass of Vera, but was surprised at Oroquieta, in Navarre, by General +Moriones, who defeated him on the 4th of May, and withered his hopes for +that time. The convention of Amorovieta followed, arms were given up by +thousands, and the factions, or partidas, dispersed to their homes. +Santa Cruz returned to France. After a week's interval he re-entered +Spain, and joined a body of the insurgents who still ranged the hills in +Guipzcoa. One day he missed his companions in a forced march, and fell +into an ambuscade.</p> + +<p>"I am Santa Cruz," he said to the soldiers, unquailingly, "do what you +will with me."</p> + +<p>He was pinioned and led to the nearest village.</p> + +<p>The commandant of the detachment, one Urdanpilleta, went up to his +prisoner and said to him, with an inexcusable pettiness of sarcasm:</p> + +<p>"My good lad, you are out of luck. In a few hours you are safe to be +shot."</p> + +<p>"All right. We shall see about that," stoically answered Santa Cruz.<a name="page_191" id="page_191"></a></p> + +<p>The priest was led into a large two-storied house, and thrust into a +room near the garret, there to enter on his preparation for death. There +was a bed in the room, and from the sheets on that bed Santa Cruz made +the rosary on which to tell his litany, which was not one for the dying. +He tore them up, twisted them, tied them together, and letting himself +out of the window as far as his improvised rope would go, dropped into +the arms of a couple of friends beneath. Before the alarm could be given +he was up to his neck in a marsh, where his head was concealed by a rank +growth of rushes. After an enforced bath of twelve hours he sought +refuge with a wood-cutter, who helped him to pass over by night into +France. The tale of his escape added to his fame. He was no longer a +cura, he was a cabecilla—a born leader in partisan warfare. The +Carlists still kept the field in Catalonia, but in the north-west all +was apparently over. Order reigned as in Warsaw. Nevertheless, it was +felt that a spark would rekindle a conflagration. Santa Cruz was the +spark.</p> + +<p>"If I had only thirty men at my back, I'd lift<a name="page_192" id="page_192"></a> the flag again," Santa +Cruz was overheard to boast.</p> + +<p>The thirty men presented themselves; and, on the 1st of December, 1872, +the irrepressible priest, now surnamed the Peter the Hermit of Carlism, +recrossed the frontier. Six days afterwards he stopped the mail train a +few miles outside San Sebastian, and Madrid learned with stupor that the +Carlist insurrection had flared up anew.</p> + +<p>"That was virtually the knell of the Savoy dynasty," said my informant, +"and Santa Cruz it was who tolled the knell."</p> + +<p>This notable individuality must have the rare magnetic power of +compelling men to follow and believe in him, and of winning over their +fidelity. His band of thirty has now swelled to five hundred, as devoted +as ever were the Highlanders of Preston and Falkirk. He believes in his +star; and he does not believe in carrying on hostilities with kid-gloves +on his hands. Vitriol is more in his line than rose-water. I should very +much like to meet Santa Cruz. He is said to be as agile as Mina, a +wonderful walker, and to share all the fatigues<a name="page_193" id="page_193"></a> and privations of his +followers. He accomplished an almost incredible journey across the +craggy hills and ravines, from Tafalla in Navarre to the confines of +Biscay, in sixteen hours. At sunset, when the halt is called, and the +provisions are distributed, the guerrilleros assemble round their chief, +who resumes for a time the character of the Cura of Hernialde. Evening +devotions are repeated, and prayers are offered for his Majesty King +Charles VII., the Much-Desired; for Spain and her rescue from the +monster of anarchy; for the dead, and for those who are next to die on +the "campo de honor." The devotions ended, the priest again becomes the +partisan-chief, and praises or blames his soldiers; and then the guards +are set, and the guerrilleros, wrapped in their blankets, take a final +pull at the wine-skin, and sink to rest upon the heather. Long after the +band has been shrouded in mist lethargic, the figure of Santa Cruz may +be seen looming against a rock, upright but for the head, which is +supported by a huge gnarled staff. In his hand he grasps a key. When the +benumbed or listless fingers part and release that key four<a name="page_194" id="page_194"></a> times, +Santa Cruz gives the rousing signal, the guerrilleros start to their +feet, and the line of march is again taken up.</p> + +<p>Is it not all delightfully romantic? If the late Miss Jane Porter, who +wrote that prized book of truant youth, "The Scottish Chiefs," were only +to have encountered this pretty man, she would have swooned with the joy +of authorship. Had Harrison Ainsworth but dreamed of such unconventional +possibilities, he would never have debased his intellect to the +glorification of a vulgar prison-breaker like Jack Sheppard. But the +only craftsman of the pen who could have risen to the height of the +theme was he who wove the gold-shot tale of "Paul Clifford."</p> + +<p>The latest news we hear of the Carlist priest is that a woman was shot +by his orders at Escoriaza.<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> On second thought I am not so sure that I +should<a name="page_195" id="page_195"></a> very much like to meet Santa Cruz. And at this very period, +while the shrieks of a fusilladed female were ringing in the air, a +fussy committee of dilettante Carlists, sitting in London, protested +that the sacred cause of legitimacy was advancing by lawful, chivalric, +and immaculate means only! From the snug security of their back-parlour +they wrote letters to the papers denying the "wanton" destruction of +railway-stations by the Carlists. The flames were still undulating over +the station of Santa Olla, between Burgos and Pancorbo, while the ink +was wet on that inspired refutation! There are factories of falsehood +elsewhere than in Spain.</p> + +<p>A cabecilla had warned the station-masters in Guipzcoa that all +railway-servants who durst perform their work would be shot, and that +all trains which had the hardihood to move would be given over to the +flames; and Lizrraga, an ex-field-officer of the regular army, had +calmly notified to the alcaldes of the province that he would fine them +what would be the equivalent of a hundred pounds sterling with us the +first time they failed to<a name="page_196" id="page_196"></a> advise him of the movements of troops, and +that he would stick them up against a wall and put a bullet through +their heads for the second offence. Passports through the Carlist lines, +formally drawn up, sealed, and signed, were for sale for ten duros +(about two pounds sterling) in bureaux transparently dissembled, and met +with ready purchasers. The article was cheap, if only as a curiosity. +Here is the textual copy of an announcement in <i>La Esperanza</i>, a +recognised and tolerated Carlist organ of Madrid:</p> + +<p>"The direction of the Northern Railway Company having failed to observe +the neutrality ordered respecting the conveyance of troops and stores of +war, the Carlists, we are assured, cut the line yesterday at four points +in the province of Guipzcoa."</p> + +<p>The Republic that permitted a newspaper published under its nose thus to +talk of rebels against its authority "ordering" the railway companies +not to convey troops was not arbitrary, to my thinking. But Spain is an +enigma. An English Government would hardly permit a journal to speak of +the operations of a Fenian band in the same terms.<a name="page_197" id="page_197"></a></p> + +<p>There could be no concealment of the fact that the adherents of Charles +VII., king <i>in nubibus</i>, were making headway.</p> + +<p>On the 9th of March a combat was fought at Monreal, a village on the +slope of a hill to the south-east of Pampeluna, between the factions of +Dorregaray, Ollo, Perula, and others, and the regulars under Nouvilas, +the General who had set out from the capital with such a grandiloquent +farewell speech. Pampeluna is distant sixteen hours by rail. The account +of the combat, the most important since Oroquieta, was published in the +official journal four days afterwards.</p> + +<p>In the interval the Carlist papers at Madrid had been singing hosannas +over an alleged victory of their friends, and boasting that the +Republican General had lost his artillery. The Republican Government did +not suppress those papers. As a matter of course, Nouvilas claimed the +victory for himself. Victories are always claimed by both sides in this +civil struggle. To get near truth one must read the narratives for and +against, compare and balance them, and by jealous analysis of evidence<a name="page_198" id="page_198"></a> +it is possible one may light, in a haphazard way, on something vaguely +resembling what actually happened.</p> + +<p>The report of Nouvilas is before me as I write. He estimated the enemy +at 2,500 infantry and 200 cavalry. His own force, consisting of a +battalion of the Chasseurs of Porto Rico, two companies of the +Guadalajara infantry, a section of mountain artillery (two guns, I take +it), a couple of sections of the Hussars of Pavia, and one of the +Lancers of Numancia, made up a total of about 600 foot and 80 horse. The +combat lasted through two hours of darkness, and Nouvilas, although +bragging that he dislodged the Carlists, has to admit that he was unable +to follow up his success. Reason: his troops had marched eight leagues +without food or rest! A league is 4,565 English yards; multiply that by +eight, and I think it will be suspected that the tale of Nouvilas was +intended for the amphibious branch of the service. He confesses to a +loss of one superior officer (Colonel Don Manuel Ibarreta, of the Staff +Corps), and five rank and file killed, three officers and fifty-three +wounded, six <i>contused</i>, and four missing.<a name="page_199" id="page_199"></a></p> + +<p>An anecdote casts a lurid light of disclosure on the discipline of this +victorious column. The Staff Corps have a museum at Madrid, and were +anxious to procure some relics of their comrade who had "died gloriously +while holding a hazardous position with singular courage." All they +could get was his cap and sash. His boots were pulled off, his pockets +rifled, and every little article he possessed, to his English lever +watch, was appropriated—doubtless by soldiers who were desirous of +souvenirs of so gallant a gentleman.</p> + +<p>Certain inferences were to be drawn from the report of Nouvilas. The +Carlist position was admirably chosen, the leaders took proper +precautions against surprise, and the men fought with dogged pluck. They +must have been badly equipped, since they left behind them firearms of +every description. They are armed anyhow; some carry fowling-pieces, +some blunderbusses, and some fight with sticks and stones, as the return +of those six soldiers contused establishes. The General had +breechloaders and mountain howitzers; hussars and cuirassiers supported +his infantry; and yet these rebels of the hills held their own for two +hours!<a name="page_200" id="page_200"></a></p> + +<p>Even on his own showing the victory of the Republican commander was +poor, and dearly purchased. At one time he admits he was encircled by +the enemy, and had to unsheath in self-defence. He reports four men +missing—that means captured; and, though having routed his foes, he can +only point to thirteen prisoners and two dead horses! The Carlists fled +"precipitately," but they appear to have had leisure to carry off their +wounded with the exception of sixteen. Reference to Carlists supposed to +be wounded, coupled with the silence about those supposed to be dead, is +remarkable. Were there none killed? General Nouvilas, instead of going +forward next day, returned to Pampeluna to indite a despatch in which he +directly commends his own four sons, and indirectly praises himself. He +has been laid up with sore throat since, and has been unable to resume +his prosecution of the dislodged and dispersed enemy. I begin to think +these Carlists, as my landlord at Beasain predicted, "will give more +trouble."<a name="page_201" id="page_201"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h3> + +<p class="ch">Barbarism of Tauromachy—A Surreptitious Ticket—The +Novillos—Islington <i>not</i> Madrid—Apology for +Cock-Fighting—Maudlin Humanity—The Espada a Popular Idol—In the +Bull-Ring—A Precious "Ster-oh"—The Trumpets Speak—The +Procession—Play of the Quadrille—The Defiance—"Bravo, +Cucharra!"—"Bravo, Toro!" The Blemish of the Sport—An Indignant +English Lassie.</p> + +<p class="nind">C<small>ONSTANTINE</small>, the porter at the Fonda de Paris, asked me one forenoon +would I like to take a ticket for a bull-fight. He had an excellent one +(excellent batch, he meant) to dispose of "in the shade." I stared at +him indignantly, nodded my head in the same vein, but winked as I passed +through the hall and sprang up the stairs. An English clergyman and his +daughter, who had expressed an abhorrence for tauromachy in my presence, +had overheard Constantino's temptation, and hence my behaviour.<a name="page_202" id="page_202"></a></p> + +<p>"Tauromachy!" the dear old minister argued. "What can you expect, sir, +from a people who have to buckle two languages in double harness to find +a name for their brutal practice? 'Tis illegitimate, sir, like the +derivative. <i>Taurus</i> is Latin, <span title="Greek: mach">μἁχη</span> is Greek; the compound is +barbaric."</p> + +<p>I bowed, for Emmeline was seemly, with a delicate elegance, and she +looked up with a pleased and almost triumphant look, as much as to say, +Papa is not one of your common persons, but a mighty learned dignitary +indeed.</p> + +<p>That was why Constantine waited his opportunity to slip the ticket into +my hands in a corridor, explaining that a seat in the shade was a +privilege not to be despised, as the sun at the other side flung a glare +on the spectator that dazzled his view; besides, it was broiling and +headachy to sit for hours in its rays.</p> + +<p>"I knew you would go the first chance you had," said Constantine; "I +read it in your eyes as you gloated over the pictures of the sport in +the hall. They make a magnificent fan, or you could hang them up on the +wall in your house in England;<a name="page_203" id="page_203"></a> I can let you have a lot a bargain. I +was sure of it when you stopped opposite the placard of the corrida +outside, and shook yourself with joy."</p> + +<p>Constantine was a good judge of human nature. I would as soon think of +visiting Madrid and not seeing a bull-fight, as of visiting +Constantinople and not hunting after the dancing dervishes; Kandy, and +not gazing on the Perra Harra procession; London in the season, and not +going to the Military Tournament.</p> + +<p>But, as I afterwards learned, the weather was still too cold for the +genuine game; this might be regarded as a rehearsal, but was patronized +by the connoisseurs, as there were openings for criticism on the style +of novices, and estimates as to who had in them the stuff of coming men. +The bull wants the ardent heats of midsummer to fire him for the combat. +The true season begins with a late Easter-tide, when the kings of the +herd, fresh from the meadows, have arrogant blood careering in their +veins, and are supple in the limbs. To stimulate them now, the dogs or +the banderillas de fuego, both alien to true tauromachy, would have to +be called<a name="page_204" id="page_204"></a> in. This is but the heyday of the novillos, the unripe +beasts, with india-rubber or wooden balls blunting their half-developed +horns, who are sent into the arena to be at the mercy of youths +ambitious to become chulos. The novillos prance and frisk and toss their +adversaries; it is a frolic and no more. Months afterwards I saw a band +of blind mendicants armed with long sticks descend into the ring at +Murcia, and succeed, some of them, in keeping off the novillos. As well +as giving youngsters the favour of familiarizing themselves with the +capa, used to irritate the bull, this practice puts the animal himself +into good wind, and teaches him what he has to expect when he is +admitted into the pit of the amphitheatre for the final tussle. Your +common bull is not apt for these duels; he must be a bull of race, +haughty and high-spirited, before he is welcomed as a gladiator +<i>moriturus</i>. There are stock-breeders in Castile and Andalusia renowned +for the superb stamp of their cattle; and of these, not the least +renowned is a noble count who bears the name and is a descendant of +Christopher Columbus. But the immature tomfoolery<a name="page_205" id="page_205"></a> has no more +resemblance to the stern, actual diversion than a donkey-race has to the +Derby. The description in "Childe Harold" is spirited, but has been +pared down to accommodate itself to the exigencies of rhyme. Byron when +he wrote it must have had a spasm of squeamishness. But that must have +been a gorgeous function at the marriage of Isabella, when a public +square was converted into an amphitheatre, Toro was monarch for days +consecutive, and the bonniest cavaliers of Spain, clad in jackets +glimmering with gems, entered the lists against him.</p> + +<p>In England, where patronizing leading-articles are indited about those +semi-civilized Spaniards, whenever a toreador is injured in the exercise +of his profession, nothing would seem to be really known about the +sport, and yet there is a self-sufficient assumption among persons +called "well-informed" that they know all about it. Speaking once with a +colleague of the press at Madrid, the representative of a very great +English paper, I was told almost the only instructions he had received +on leaving London were not to write anything<a name="page_206" id="page_206"></a> of bull-fighting, or +"hackneyed rubbish of that sort." Yet no nearer approach to +bull-fighting has ever been witnessed in England than a silly simulacrum +at the Agricultural Hall. The first calf that was enlarged from the +make-believe toril on that occasion quietly proceeded to nibble a scrap +of paper on the tan. The toreadores were real toreadores, but the bulls +were not of the fiery breed of Andalusia. If they had been, the agents +of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals would have +thought twice before venturing into the same enclosure with them to bar +the entertainment on the score of cruelty. Still, the enterprising +public caterer who had brought over the quadrille of bull-fighters was +wise in his generation. Had the legitimate article been given, there was +enough foretokening of patronage on the opening night to prove it would +have been a great success.</p> + +<p>I call bull-fighting a glorious pastime. In my mental vision I can mark +the rising gorge of some splenetic Briton of the philanthropic school as +he reads this phrase, "glorious pastime," wipes his glasses and reads it +again. How am I wrong? It<a name="page_207" id="page_207"></a> is savage, bloodthirsty, and debasing, he +will say. Therein I join issue with him, though I may bring a censorious +pile of cant crumbling and clattering about my ears. Cock-fighting was +once popular in these islands, and that not so long ago. I have often +played truant from school, and challenged a thrashing, to drain the high +pleasures of a well-contested main. The late Admiral Rous and the late +Lord Derby were admirers of the sport, and if I am not mistaken the +rules governing a London pit sometimes patronized by royalty had a place +in the earlier editions of Hoyle. The best apology for cock-fighting I +ever heard was made by an eccentric uncle of mine, who asked his censor, +"Why did God put the fighting drop into the game-cock's veins but that +he might fight when he got the chance?"</p> + +<p>There is cruelty, peradventure, in attaching long steel spurs, keen as +bradawls, to the cocks' legs, as there is in supplying men-at-arms with +swords and rifles instead of letting them wage war against one another +with teeth and feet and fists—the weapons of nature. Chanticleer of the +martial<a name="page_208" id="page_208"></a> breed should be put into the ring with his natural spurs.</p> + +<p>Well, in Spain he is, for the sport flourishes there still; and one of +my recollections of my last day in Madrid is having sacrificed a meal to +be present at the Circo de Gallos, the recognised building where combats +of the kind are carried on in a well-filled amphitheatre, with roped +platform in the centre, and seats in tiers around. The roadway in front +was lined with equipages, and the curled darlings of the Madrilene +aristocracy stepped in to witness the tournament and bet on the result; +but I own the gentler sex I never met there. There are rules to regulate +the conduct of the matches posted conspicuously on the walls; there are +scales to weigh the combatants, lemons to clean their spurs, a regular +staff of heelers, time-keepers, and umpires; the fixtures are given in +the newspapers in the same column as the theatrical programme, and the +guardians of public order are always in attendance. On the same +principle bull-fighting is conducted, and the same argument holds good +in favour of its retention.<a name="page_209" id="page_209"></a></p> + +<p>This babble of cruelty is veriest wind-bag humanity, and, logically, has +not a leg to stand upon. To confront the king of the herd in the arena +is bolder and braver than to course the hare at Altcar, or shoot pigeons +at Hurlingham, or make a battue of pheasants in a Norfolk +preserve—sports to which our patricians are disposed, sports which are +chronicled in the fashionable organs with apparent approval. There is +more risk to those who share in a bull-fight than in knocking ponies +about on the polo-ground at Preston, sawing their mouths and breaking +their shins, or in worrying the fox over the pastures of Leicestershire. +As for that cold-blooded, cowardly, treacherous recreation of the +contemplative man, flinging bait to a harmless defenceless fish, and +luring him to a painful end, it is a piece of deliberate barbarism not +to be mentioned in the same breath with bull-fighting. And yet Mr. John +Bright, who has the reputation of being a gentleman of chivalrous temper +and pacific instincts, is said to be passionately fond of this +recreation. Observe to what the reasoning of those who frantically +protest against the national<a name="page_210" id="page_210"></a> pastime of Spain reduces itself. So far, I +wish it to be understood that I am arguing with the intent of +establishing a <i>reductio ad absurdum</i>. If coursing, hunting, shooting, +and fishing are justifiable—and I hold that they are—then on the like +grounds are cock-fighting and bull-fighting justifiable. The beasts on +the earth, the birds of the air, and the fishes in the sea, are all +created for man's use and benefit. To kill them is no crime, if the +killing be not attended with the infliction of wanton pain. The destiny +of the minor order of creation is to minister to the appetites or +necessities of the lord of creation; and pleasurable excitement is a +necessity. The objections to the position here taken up are untenable, +except by maudlin and maundering humanitarians, who think more of the +life of a pet poodle than of the life of their fellow-man, and by that +lost section of mild lunatics, the vegetarians.</p> + +<p>Having said so much in defence of bull-fighting, I may be permitted, in +entering into details of the diversion, to anticipate experiences and +knowledge which did not come to me until later on. The further my +acquaintance with the ring extended,<a name="page_211" id="page_211"></a> the more convinced I became that +tauromachy will last as long as Spain lasts. It has blemishes, like +other recreations. To my thinking, the chief is that Toro goes into the +sanded arena foredoomed to die. No matter how pluckily he fights, no +matter what play he shows, the cachetero awaits him. Then there is +torture, but an unavoidable torture, in the mode in which horses are +killed. I well remember what an acclimatized aficionado, M. de Coutuly, +of the Paris <i>Temps</i>, said to me in a discussion on the point:</p> + +<p>"These horses are under capital sentence when they are helped to the +grace of a historic death in the amphitheatre; they are rescued <i>en +route</i> to the knacker's-yard; but, bah! it is useless to try to convince +men with English prejudices. With you, the horse is more valuable than +the man."</p> + +<p>Thorough garrons these horses are in old Spain; but in the South +American countries, colonized from Spain, I am told they bring spirited +barbs into the ring, who can bite and kick, and take their own part +generally, and who sometimes clear the bull at a bound, as he advances +to the attack.<a name="page_212" id="page_212"></a></p> + +<p>If tauromachy will last in Spain as long as Spain lasts, so likewise +will those who practise the art he held in honour. No names are guarded +in fonder reverence there to-day than those of Montes, Pepete, and +Pepe-Hillo; and when Frascuelo was wounded, his residence was besieged +by sympathizing inquirers. The bulletins of his health were read as +anxiously as if they were issued from a royal palace. Bouquets, pastry, +and billets-doux were laid in tribute on the mat of his bedchamber, and +the sweetest and proudest dames of the sweet and proud patrician houses +of Castile—houses with sangre azul unsuspicious in their veins, and +thirteen grandees in their pedigree—sent to inquire after the condition +of the famous espada. Tom Sayers was never more idolized in England than +Frascuelo is in Spain. And so, in like manner, are his compeers, +Lagartijo, and the rest. This liking for them is pushed to excess, much +as the cult for heroes of the prize-ring was with us in a past +generation. Once I was roused from a nap by Liberato, a faithful +body-man, shuffling his feet to the sprightly movements of a bolero. His +eyes twinkled like<a name="page_213" id="page_213"></a> laughing fire, his gitano-tinted cheeks had a +tawny-purple grape-flush. He was under a high-pressure of exhilaration, +and instinctively sought to relieve himself by dancing.</p> + +<p>"Liberato?"</p> + +<p>"Caballero."</p> + +<p>"What devil possesses thee? Hast got a tress of thy ama's hair, or +fallen upon a treasure-box of Boabdil?"</p> + +<p>"Seor, I am proud as a hidalgo this day. You know Frascuelo?"</p> + +<p>"Si, si."</p> + +<p>"I have seen him; I have heard him speak."</p> + +<p>"Dios mio! If it be not a poor jest on thy part, thou'rt a happy man."</p> + +<p>"No jest, seor; and hearken!" approaching and lowering his voice: "he +sat at the same table with me, and," this impressively and +confidentially, "he shook hands with me as we parted!"</p> + +<p>"Caramba! Let me shake that hand."</p> + +<p>Laugh at this anecdote, but did not a New York hack-driver make a small +fortune by letting out for osculatory purposes the hand that helped +Jenny<a name="page_214" id="page_214"></a> Lind from her carriage? Have not strawberries touched by the lips +of Lydia Thompson fetched a guinea each at a dramatic <i>fte</i>, and +photographs of Sara Bernhardt, signed with her sign-manual, run up to an +alarming figure at the Albert Hall? Have I not myself been privy to the +offer by a British matron of sums incredible for the straw through which +the Prince of Wales had sucked a sherry-cobbler at the Paris Exhibition +of 1867?</p> + +<p>"Ster-oh!" ejaculated the negro waiter with open mouth. "Why, bress you, +dat's no use, we trowed it away; but, as yer a nice ole lady, heah's a +dozen for nuffin!"</p> + +<p>The spectacle in the Plaza de Toros, the spacious unroofed area +surrounded by stone benches rising one above another, away to the +sheltered balconies up high at the back, is one of the most enlivening +that imagination can conceive on the afternoon of a corrida, when male +and female humanity, all jubilant bustle and expectancy, make a +prismatic girdle around. Fans move with an incessant tremulous flutter; +there is a continuous susurrus of voices, broken by occasional hoarse +bursts of laughter at<a name="page_215" id="page_215"></a> some mishap, or hoarse roars of welcome as some +favourite enters; the regal sun discharges his fierce messages of light +from his throne of blue, and the costumes of every colour, wavering with +the pulsations of the throng, are an active kaleidoscope, most vivid and +variegated. We are in our places. We have stepped up the Alcal at the +heels of the picquet of armed militia charged with the maintenance of +order. We have threaded our way through the rough maze of passages to +our palco, peeping at the stable where the sorry horses are kept, at the +room where the toreadores dress themselves, and at the little oratory +where the matador prays before he stalks into the palestra. We are in +our places, and everybody is in his place; the Governor of the city in +his box of state yonder. While the music races over the assemblage in +glad alternation of rush and ripple, let us look below. There is a +strong wooden barrier some six feet high around the arena, and at +knee-height, on the inner side of this barrier, there is a berme to help +the pursued chulo to a footing as he vaults over into the surrounding +lane formed by this interior<a name="page_216" id="page_216"></a> and an exterior barrier. This lane is +guarded by policemen, and is so narrow that a bull has not room to turn +in it; for bulls sometimes bound over the inner barrier. When that +occurs, and I have seen it occur not seldom, they are driven round until +they reach one of the gates opening into the ring. The trumpets and +tymbals speak warning; a profound silence falls upon the crowd for an +instant, and then from a side passage enters the cavalcade we have +awaited—enters to a stately martial march. First, the mounted alguazil +in his ancient garb, plumed, cloaked, funereal; then the chulos, lithe, +young, graceful; then the picadores on their garrons, Mexican-looking in +their saddles, with tall pummel and crupper and shovel-shaped stirrups, +wide-leafed sombreros, their short jackets tagged all over, their yellow +breeches and their high boots lead-lined; then the banderilleros, and +then the matador, the chieftain of the troop. The alguazil beseeches the +key of the toril from the Governor, receives it, turns it in the lock; +and as the bull with dazed vision enters into the sunshine at one gate, +he disappears at an amble through another.<a name="page_217" id="page_217"></a></p> + +<p>The bull! What a noble specimen of his race!—broad-browed, +clean-horned, and clean-limbed; high courage in his bloodshot orbs, his +dilated nostril, and his lashing tail! On the right and left the +quadrille arrange themselves, the picadores, each with a spike at the +end of his long shaft, and a kerchief bandaging one eye of his horse; +the chulos, pretty fellows in turban, loose embroidered jackets, ruffled +shirts, kneebreeches of coquettish hue and texture, silken hose and +buckled shoes, standing, with their cloaks, nearer to the centre of the +ring. All these toreadores are men of symmetry and power, all wear +chignons in nets, and are close-shaven, except as to side-whiskers of +the brief "mutton-chop" order, and all bear themselves as if they were +proud of their vocation. The bull waits. The chulos give challenge. They +rush upon him, shaking their gaudy little cloaks, and as he charges they +scamper to the sides, while one takes up the running from another. In +short, they tease him as much for the sake of tiring him out as of +testing his disposition. But by-and-by one chulo ingeniously leads the +charging bull towards<a name="page_218" id="page_218"></a> a horse. Toro rushes head-foremost. The picador +is unequal to keep him off with his spike; the horse is gored in the +belly and overthrown, the rider falling under. The chulos cluster to the +rescue, with their fluttering cloaks, and draw the bull away confused. +The picador is extricated; the horse is taken out, and in a few moments +after re-enters, his entrails packed inside and stomach sewn up, and is +once more offered to the maddened brute, always on his blind side. We +shall hurry over this episode of the tournament; I do not like it, nor +do you. But here is something really fine. The banderilleros enter, with +barbed shafts decked with ribbons, poised in each hand, and make a +feinting advance on the bull, and as he runs to meet them they deftly +hurl their shafts and elude him by a demi-volte. The act of doing this +well is to plant one banderilla on each side of the bull's neck, close +by the streaming favours that mark the herd from which he is +furnished—the colours of his stable, so to speak—to plant them evenly +and at equal distances from his crest, and when this is skilfully +accomplished there are frantic yells of<a name="page_219" id="page_219"></a> praise, and caps and cigars are +showered into the arena. When the banderillero is awkward, they rain on +him with potatoes. These banderilleros incur hazard. I have seen one so +keenly chased by the bull that he was pinned against the barriers by the +bull's horns as he was in the act of vaulting over. Pinned, but not in +the flesh; the branching horns stuck in the wood at either side, just +above the calf of one leg, and imprisoned him until he had to be sawed +out.</p> + +<p>This is but the prologue; now for the play. Toro by this time is in a +white rage; there is foam at his chaps, his steaming sides are laced +with blood. Cucharra of Puerto Santa Maria is the matador. Majestically +he strides towards the Governor's box, stoops in obeisance, and in a +loud voice makes proclamation: "Brindo por Puerto Santa Maria, por toda +su compaia, por el vulgo de Madrid; voy matar ese bicho el bicho me +mata mi;" an address which may thus be freely rendered: "I pledge +myself to Puerto Santa Maria and all its society, and to the people of +Madrid; and now I am ready to kill this animal, if the<a name="page_220" id="page_220"></a> animal cannot +kill me." He removes his turban, and, with a graceful jerk with his +right hand from behind his back over his left shoulder, flings it into +the Governor's box, as a gage of his boasted prowess. He takes his +straight keen-tempered sword and his cloak of offensive scarlet, and +advances towards the bull. Now is the supreme trial, now is the time +when men let their lighted cigarettes drop from their mouths and clench +their teeth; now is the time when women close their fans and draw long +breaths. Cucharra faces Toro at a yard's distance. They regard each +other. Cucharra hides his sword under his cloak, and presents it to the +bull. Toro lowers his head, shuts his eyes, and charges, but the +toreador gracefully slips aside and saves his life by a turn of the +heel. Three times he repeats the feat of this risksome pirouette; but +woe to him if he is an instant too late in his movements, or if the soil +is treacherous. The fourth time, as the bull lowers his head, Cucharra +lifts himself on his toes, and with one sure swift blow plunges the +blade, almost to the hilt, into the spine of his antagonist. The bull<a name="page_221" id="page_221"></a> +stands; there is a shout of "Bravo!" the bull still stands, ten seconds, +twenty, thirty; there is a howl of disappointment; but Cucharra gazes +contemptuously around; he knows he has done his work well, and, my +faith, he has. Toro quivers and drops, and Cucharra plants a foot on the +neck of his prostrate enemy. The bull has died of internal hmorrhage; +not a drop of blood has distilled from his mouth. Bravo, Cucharra!</p> + +<p>This death at the first thrust—death without drip of the crimson fluid +from the mouth—is the artistic death. When the sword pierces at the +wrong spot, is displaced by the shaking of the bull, and sent flying, +gore-wet, through the air, it is awkward workmanship.</p> + +<p>But Toro showed "mucho fuego" before he was so neatly pierced in the +medulla. Bravo, Toro! And now the cachetero stoops over him, and, with +one dig of his sharp knife in the neck, makes assurance doubly sure. The +team of mules trot in, and trot out again with the dead champion at +their heels; and the urchins outside are dancing on his carcase as the +drums and tymbals give<a name="page_222" id="page_222"></a> prelude to the entrance of a second champion +into the enthusiastic circle.</p> + +<p>The slimy pools in the arena are promptly strewn with sand, and the +fresh bull is ushered into the lists, either against the same quadrille, +or against another espada with his special troop of assistants. Some of +the brutes are self-possessed, as that "proud and stately steer" Harpado +of Xarama, who was matched with Ganzul the Moor.</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"Dark is his hide on either side, but the blood within doth boil,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">And the dun hide glows, as if on fire, as he paws to the turmoil,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">His eyes are jet, and they are set in crystal rings of snow;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">But now they stare with one red glare of brass upon the foe."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>All in vain, Toro. Thy fate is sealed. Useless to prance round with +defiance, to bellow with unsatisfied wrath, to churn the sand with +furious hoof and flash hither and thither the flaming arrows of thy +glance. Thou art foredoomed, and wilt fall as surely after brave +struggle as thy mate, less eager for the strife, who has to be pricked +up to anger, and drops at last bewildered amid the derision of<a name="page_223" id="page_223"></a> the +crowd. That is where I find fault with the sport. Toro who shows good +fight should get his respite, like the Roman gladiator who pleased the +multitude.</p> + +<p>Still, is his fate to be deplored? Confess, is it not rather to be +envied? He gives up his vital principle in the rapture of battle; he +feels no wound but the grievous one to the combatant that he can beat +down no more foes; he yields breath with a bold front; there is threat +in his agony as he sinks, still with challenge in his port, amid the +applause of admiring thousands. There is something of martyr-heroism in +this ending. It is grander, nobler, happier than to fall by the +butcher's plebeian mallet in the slaughter-house, or to succumb to the +slow miseries of rinderpest. Whoso denies it will downface me next that +it is fitter for the warrior to die of podagra in a four-post bed than +to perish on the field with harness on his back—that dropsy at St. +Helena was more to be coveted than a bullet at Waterloo!</p> + +<p>Tauromachy, I repeat, will last as long as Spain lasts. It will have its +school and its dialect, its<a name="page_224" id="page_224"></a> canons of skill expatiated upon in +elaborate treatises; its honoured exponents; its impassioned amateurs +and its munificent patrons; its historiographers and poets. In my +devotedness to it I have sacrificed the favour of a comely English +maiden, for Emmeline, who has seen through my hypocrisy in the hall, +averts the light of her countenance as we sit down to dinner. I am sorry +for it, for I had inclinings towards that lady, she was so attentive to +her father, and she had confided to me with such a pretty frankness that +she sighed for the days when Mohammad-al-Hamar was throned in Granada.</p> + +<p class="c">————</p> + +<p>N<small>OTE BY THE WRITER'S DAUGHTER.</small>—The conceit of you. Emmeline, I think, +was quite right to cut you, after your brutishness. No doubt you think +the glorification of bull-butchery a piece of fine writing, and so +original, you know. I'm up to the games of you authors; but if I were +the printers I would not print one single line of it. I should just like +to put a pen in the bull's hand and read <i>his</i> description of the +fight.<a name="page_225" id="page_225"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h3> + +<p class="ch">The Shamrock of Erin and Olive of Spain—Hispano-Hibernian +Regiments—The Spanish Soldier—An Unpopular Hidalgo—Flaw in the +Harness—The Organization of the Army—The Guardia Civil—The +Cavalry, Engineers, and Infantry—General Cordova—The +Disorganization of the Army—Mutiny in Pampeluna—Officers Out of +Work—Turbulent Barcelona—Irresolute Contreras—Pistolet +Discharges Himself—The Madrid Garrison.</p> + +<p class="nind">I<small>N</small> Moore's "Melodies" crops up a martial lyric, in which there is a +jingling reference at the end of every verse to the shamrock of Erin and +olive of Spain. Here is about the pith of its sentiment:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"May his tomb want a tear and a name,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Who would ask for a nobler, a holier death,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Than to turn his last sigh into victory's breath,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2.25em;">For the Shamrock of Erin and Olive of Spain!"</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>The Blakes and O'Donnells are apostrophized; but as well as I can make +out what the bard is driving<a name="page_226" id="page_226"></a> at, he had Wellington and his companions +in his mind's eye.</p> + +<p>There had been closer and earlier and longer ties than those of the +campaigns against the French between Spain and Ireland. According to the +annals of the Four Masters (translated by the father of the late Edmond +O'Donovan), the Clanna-Milidh set sail from Galicia and invaded the +Emerald Isle in the year 1698 before the Christian era. They established +the Milesian dynasty, which lasted two thousand eight hundred and +seventy years—rather a better record than we meet in Bulgaria, modern +Greece, and sometimes even in Spain itself. Galway, <i>teste</i> Kohl, +carries the imagination to Granada and Valencia. At the beginning of the +eighteenth century there were six Irish regiments at least in the +Spanish service, namely, those of Hibernia, Irlanda, Limerick, Ultonia, +and Waterford (all infantry), and the Dragoons of Dublin. There was also +an infantry regiment called Conacia, or Wauchop, after its commander, +one of a fighting family well known in the Lothians. There were officers +of my name in the Limerick and Ultonia<a name="page_227" id="page_227"></a> corps, as there are in the +Spanish army still.<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> Most of these Irish organizations were disbanded +at the close of the last century, and all had lost their purely Irish +character, although the titles, Hibernia, Ultonia, and Irlanda, were +retained on the list till 1833.</p> + +<p>Naturally, and because of profession and certain associations, I took an +interest in soldiers, and, at the risk of offending the lady-reader who +is waiting for the romantic part of this book, I intend to devote a +chapter to the Spanish army. Such judgment as I have to offer is formed +not alone upon what I saw at Madrid, but afterwards, when I had +opportunity of watching the troops at work. Before going any further, I +may unreservedly confess that I hold a high opinion of the Spanish +soldier. He is sober, enduring, brave, and an indefatigable<a name="page_228" id="page_228"></a> marcher. +Better raw material for warfare, I am sure, could not readily be come +at, and I am equally sure that if more attention were paid to drill, and +if the curse of morbid aspirations for promotion amongst the lower +grades were more rigidly repressed, the Spanish army would regain its +ancient renown. This restless and diseased ambition is not to be traced +to the rank and file, but to those immediately above them, the men with +a puffed-up idea of themselves, and a smattering of education, and is +often developed by the connivance of their immediate superiors. Let us +take an example. In 1866 there was an uprising in favour of Prim, headed +by the sergeants of artillery at the San Gil barracks, in Madrid. +Captain Hidalgo was privy to the plot, which eventuated in a fiasco, but +not before sundry officers of the regiment had lost their lives. A large +number of the sergeants were summarily shot a few days afterwards. +Hidalgo escaped. In the November of 1872, Hidalgo, then a General, was +appointed Master-General of the Ordnance by Amadeus. Amongst the +artillery there is a strong <i>esprit de corps</i>, and the officers<a name="page_229" id="page_229"></a> in a +body declared they would resign unless the appointment were cancelled. +They did not object to Hidalgo on account of his implication in mutiny, +which is a recognised institution in the Spanish army, but because they +believed he had previous knowledge that some of his brother-officers +would be sacrificed, and never gave them a word of warning or raised a +plea in their behalf. The want of comradeship was his crime, and the +resignations of those who protested against it were accepted in a bulk.</p> + +<p>At the time I was in Madrid the artillery was in a state of +demoralisation. The captains of the scientific force were all promoted +sergeants, and the old officers were idly parading the streets in plain +clothes. Amadeus had certainly committed a foolish act, although he may +have justified himself to himself by the reflection that in approving an +appointment made by his Ministers he was behaving loyally, and that by a +wholesale rejection of the demand of the discontented officers he would +set up an iron precedent against insubordination. He never paused to +think that he was stripping<a name="page_230" id="page_230"></a> Spain of a vital portion of its harness. A +sergeant may be an excellent practical gunner, and be able to lay a +piece accurately; but that does not qualify him to command a battery. +Scientific acquirements and training are necessary, a mastery of +technique and tactics, quickness of resource, and the habit of +authority. The promoted sergeants were wanting in these essentials, and +the Carlists soon found out the weak spot in the armour.</p> + +<p>The strength of the permanent army is fixed annually by the Cortes, and +every Spaniard above the age of twenty is liable to be drawn, and has to +serve four years under the flag. The nation is divided for military +purposes into five captain-generalcies, the commandant of each of which +holds a rank corresponding to a British field-marshal. The nominal +strength of the infantry in round numbers is about 60,000; artillery, +9,500; engineers, 2,300; and cavalry, 11,500. Then there are the +provincial militia, some 44,000 strong; the carabineros, or revenue +police, 12,000; and the Guardia Civil, 10,000. These Civil Guards are +picked men, robust, strapping, seasoned fellows, and are distributed +over<a name="page_231" id="page_231"></a> the country like the French gendarmery, to whose duties theirs are +similar. They form a <i>corps d'lite</i>, and are the very mainstay of +order. In fact, without them life and property during times of political +commotion would very often be at the mercy of any horde of ragamuffins +with weapons in their hands and the courage to use them. They are +handsomely uniformed, wearing cocked-hats of the pattern of those to be +seen in the prints of the First Napoleon, fine cloth tunics of dark +blue, with epaulettes of white cord, and yellow side and cross-belts, +and present a manful, soldierly appearance. From their valour and +topographical knowledge they have been very serviceable in carrying on +the guerrilla warfare with the Carlists, and are the terror of brigands +and evil-doers. If all the troops were as orderly and well disciplined +as these, Government would be easy, and those at its head might afford +to be firm, regardless of mob clamour. In short, these magnificent Civil +Guards are the best military force the country possesses. Some of them +are mounted (and capitally mounted too), and all have an elevated notion +of duty. A mutiny is<a name="page_232" id="page_232"></a> never inaugurated by the Civil Guards. They stick +to each other like wax, and are faithful to the powers that be, +regardless of their political colour, so long as those powers are +accepted by the nation. Dynasties may change and depart, as Ministries +do; but the Guardia Civil is an organization immutable and goes on for +ever. The one charge made against them has its warrant in necessity. +When a prisoner is sent to gaol in some remote town under escort of the +Civil Guards, he often makes an attempt to run away, and is invariably +shot between the shoulders. No strict inquiry into the circumstances is +made—it is an understood practice—a rascal is got rid of, to the +relief of the community, by a quick and economic method, which is a +desirable improvement on the laggard processes of law.</p> + +<p>The cavalry is controlled by a director-general, who has a respectable +staff of subordinates at his disposal. There are only two regiments of +cuirassiers—the 1st, or King's; and the 2nd, or Queen's. There are two +regiments of carabineers known as Calatrava and Bailen. There are eight +regiments<a name="page_233" id="page_233"></a> of lancers, viz., Farnesio, Villaviciosa, Espaa, Sagunto, +Santiago, Montesa, Numancia, and Lusitania. The hussar regiments are but +two, Pavia and the Princess's. Prim's son, a boy of fifteen, was captain +in the former, and the veteran Espartero honorary colonel of the latter. +The name of a former colonel, Don Pedro Elio, "who died gloriously on +the field of honour," like Latour d'Auvergne, first grenadier of France, +is also borne on the rolls of the Princess's. There are six regiments of +mounted chasseurs—namely, Almansa, Alcntara, Talavera, Albuera, +Tetuan, and Castillejos, and two squadrons of Galicia and Mallorca +respectively. These men, as far as I have seen, are well horsed, +Andalusia furnishing some capital chargers, well-made and well-paced, +and up to decent weights. There is nothing peculiar in the cavalry +uniform, which is formed upon the French model. In fact, it would be +difficult to distinguish the dragoons from the French dragoons, but that +they have a seat and know how to keep it, and that their helmets are of +a round Roman style, with a rising sun in a circuit of rays right in +front.<a name="page_234" id="page_234"></a></p> + +<p>The remount depts are at Granada and Crdoba, and there are four +establishments where sires for cavalry purposes are maintained at the +expense of the State—namely, Crdoba, Baeza, Llerena, and Alcal de +Henares (the latter exclusively for the use of the mounted artillery). +There is also a military school for the cavalry, maintained on the same +system as that of the French at Saumur.</p> + +<p>The Engineers are quite as tall but not so sturdy as our Grenadiers, and +look up to their work. This was the favourite force of Prim, and it is +only second to the Guardia Civil in its obedience to constituted +authorities. From what I hear the men are carefully trained in sapping +and mining, though of them, as of Spanish soldiers universally, one is +compelled to say that they have too much leisure, and when soldiers have +too much leisure the Devil invariably finds them occupation. The value +of the artillery, which had been one of the best organizations of its +class in Europe, as I have already said, at that precise epoch ranked at +<i>nil</i>. Reports were circulated every day that the difficulties in this +branch of the service had been arranged, but the<a name="page_235" id="page_235"></a> wheels want such a +dose of oil in Spain that one can never be certain that the machine is +in order till it moves. The artillery is denuded of officers, and the +infantry and cavalry have officers too often that are valueless; and in +that lies the secret of the deterioration of an army which was once, and +still might be made, capable of great things.</p> + +<p>There are forty regiments of infantry, numbered as ours were, but known +also by distinctive names, generally those of the locality in which each +was originally raised. Thus the 1st Regiment is Rey, or the King's; the +2nd, Reina, or the Queen's; the 3rd, the Prince's; the 4th, the +Princess's; the 5th, the Infante's; the 6th, the Regiment of Saboya; the +7th, of Africa; and then come those with territorial titles—the +Regiments of Zamora, Soria, Crdoba, San Fernando, and so on, until we +reach the 40th, which is called the Regiment of Mlaga. The 14th, 29th, +and 30th are respectively known as the Regiments of America, of the +Constitucion, and of Iberia.</p> + +<p>Each regiment consists of three battalions, except the 20th (the +Guadalajara) and the 34th (the<a name="page_236" id="page_236"></a> Granada), which have but two; and in +each battalion there are six companies. Nominally, each company numbers +about 80 rank and file, but he would be a wise man who could say how +many answer to the roll-call in the existing state of disorganization. +There are twenty-four battalions of handy light troops, who are equal to +almost anything human in the way of marching. Agile and untiring, sound +in wind and limb, they can get over an extraordinary length of ground +with a speed that would not discredit professional walkers in England. +The French foot-chasseur, who can put on an astonishing spurt now and +again, is no rival to the Spanish cazador.</p> + +<p>The infantry uniform is almost exactly that of the French—long grey +capote, blue tunic with the number of the regiment on the collar, and +red trousers. Instead of a shako the head is protected by a projecting +cap of cloth and glaze, something like a stiffened Glengarry without +ribbons. Those absurd white gaiters which gather dirt so quickly when it +is wet under foot, and give the French soldier incessant bother to look +after their pipe-claying,<a name="page_237" id="page_237"></a> are replaced in the Spanish service by +calfskin buskins and black cloth spatterdashes. Few more sensible +uniforms are to be met with in Europe. Properly officered, there is +nothing to prevent the Spanish infantry from regaining the prestige it +once held. The men have the right stuff in them, are temperate and +frugal, cheerful under privation, and hardy as wild ducks. They do not +want pluck either; they have the reputation of showing a good deal of +dash in their pursuit of the Carlists; but that is no fair criterion of +what they could do when pitted against the troops of some great Power in +ordered line of battle. Good lungs are indispensable in Carlist warfare, +as an officer who was hunting them for six weeks in Catalonia, and never +caught one, begged me to recollect. "You want men who can breast hills," +he said. But good lungs are valuable in a campaign anywhere, and looking +at these lively, well-set Spaniards as they trot along under their +packs, I must say they favourably compare with those weakly men of the +French line I saw staggering to the Eastern Railway Terminus at Paris, +on their way to Metz,<a name="page_238" id="page_238"></a> in 1870, or with some of the lank striplings I +saw defiling before Victor Emmanuel at Somma in the autumn of 1872.</p> + +<p>The Minister of War (Cordova) and the Minister of Marine (Branger) are +good. The general and the admiral had really no politics; but they knew +their respective departments better than any men in Spain. Cordova comes +of a fighting family, and "ran the army," to use an expressive +Americanism, under Isabella, under the Serrano-Prim Administration, +under Amadeus, and would, I dare say, under Don Carlos, if he came +to-morrow. In fact, the general is a military Vicar of Bray, but for the +less egotistical motive that he loves his profession, and does not care +to see it and Spain go to the bad, which Spain would if the army did. +But he is not a Republican, neither is Branger; and the sovereign +people will only be governed by Republicans. They will not permit men of +another party even to do them a service. Therefore the general and the +admiral, and their colleagues of the Finance, Public Works, and the +Colonies, have patriotically made up their minds to retire. Thus,<a name="page_239" id="page_239"></a> for +the moment, stands Spain, ruled by an Assembly divided against itself +and an Executive in a state of dissolution.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the army is hurrying to the devil at the double-quick. The +troops which fell back on Pampeluna, after the affair at Monreal, broke +into open mutiny a few days afterwards. Some of them raised cries in +favour of Don Carlos, others in favour of Don Alfonso; and the majority +threw up their caps and shouted enthusiastically for the Republic, +meaning always that Federal Republic which they did not understand, and +which had not yet been created. The latter demonstration was quite as +much a breach of discipline in its way as the others. It was stated that +agents of the Carlist party, which was strong in Pampeluna, provoked +these disturbances in the first instance, plying the men with liquor, +and supplying them with money. At all events, that is how the Government +accounts for the outbreak. In their turn the Republicans got excited, +and instigated the soldiers to demand that the thirteen Carlist +prisoners they had taken should be shot without trial or benefit of +clergy, in<a name="page_240" id="page_240"></a> defiance of the laws of honourable warfare. These +Republicans are not scrupulous. They talked of massacring all the +Carlist sympathizers in Pampeluna—in short, of commencing a sort of +Sicilian Vespers on a smaller scale; and so threatening did their +attitude become at one period, that the priests in the town had to +disguise themselves as peasants and fly to the mountains, and the laymen +who were suspected of a love for Royalty had to block up their doors and +windows. This was what one of the few trustworthy journals of Madrid, +<i>El Imparcial</i>, related, and may account for the inactivity of the +gallant General Nouvilas quite as much as that sore throat which +confined him to his room.</p> + +<p>In Catalonia the disorganization was worse. The battalion of Chasseurs +of Manila separated into several parties, which were wandering over the +province, spreading terror wherever they went. The patriotism of the +volunteers of the Republic had been invoked to try and bring them back +to discipline. Such an attempt might lead to combats that would have the +result of embittering still more the spirit of the freebooters, which +those<a name="page_241" id="page_241"></a> soldiers were in the fullest sense of the word. Persuasion by +gunpowder, when employed by irregulars, seldom pacifies regulars. Either +of two events was possible—those soldiers would get the better of the +volunteers, or might turn over to the side of Don Carlos. Meantime the +Carlist bands in the province are increasing, and have the field pretty +much to themselves. Four hundred officers of the army came to Madrid the +other day, and are now walking about the capital <i>en pkin</i>. Like the +frozen-out gardeners who parade London suburbs in the depth of a hard +winter, they've "got no work to do," but, unlike those impostors, they +are really anxious for a job. I have chatted with some of those +officers, and I know several of them would not be averse to flashing a +sword for the son of their former Queen. They had to leave their +regiments because they could no longer command them. The bonds of +discipline were completely smashed. The men were unmanageable. In some +barracks Phrygian caps were as common as the regulation head-gear. The +sergeants of the line, jealous of the promotion of the sergeants of the<a name="page_242" id="page_242"></a> +artillery, thought they should have their turn; and the privates did not +see the justice of volunteers being offered two pesetas, or about 1s. +7d. a day, while they, who did more and better work, encountered more +risks, and suffered more hardships, received but a miserable pittance of +a few pence. The general in command was recalled, and Contreras sent +down in his place. He has a reputation as an unimpeachable Republican, +one of old standing, and not "for this occasion only;" and much faith +was reposed in the influence of his name. But Contreras failed to charm; +and, indeed, he appears to have gone the wrong way about his business. +An officer whom he put under reprimand went to two barracks and tried to +rouse the men to mutiny. He failed; but the men were so little careful +of discipline that they let him depart in peace. At last two adjutants +on the personal staff of Contreras arrested him and brought him before +the General. What course did the General, whose authority had been thus +grossly set at defiance, adopt? Order the offender to be shot? No. That +would be the mode in a serious army. But<a name="page_243" id="page_243"></a> Contreras is not Suwarrow. He +dismissed the mutineer in epaulettes with a fatherly +admonition—appealed to his better feelings. In all likelihood, General +Contreras felt that he could not afford to be justly severe. The army +was too restive.</p> + +<p>Private letters from Barcelona do not mince the matter. The few columns +which went out against the Carlists refused to march unless they were +headed by detachments of Republican volunteers. The officers ran serious +personal risks in their quarters. One of them was condemned to death by +a mock court-martial of his own men, and was actually put on his knees +preliminary to being shot, when a sergeant interposed, and harangued his +comrades into moderation. But all the sergeants have not the good sense +and courage of that worthy fellow. Some privates in Barcelona have been +trying to have their own profit out of the Republic, by discharging +themselves from further service without as much as asking leave; they +have sold their uniforms to the dealers in old clo', and are going about +the streets in peasant dress, making no secret of their intention to +give<a name="page_244" id="page_244"></a> up the trade of fighting. The great anxiety of the Republican +man-at-arms in Spain is to turn his sword-bayonet into a sickle, and his +rifle into a mattock. That is what he pretends; I hope he has not a sly +hope of vegetating for the rest of his days in lazy vagabondage, with +occasional spasms of brigandage just to keep his hand in at shooting. A +training in the Spanish army is not exactly the thing to fit for the +peaceful and toilsome monotony of industrial occupations.</p> + +<p>The battalions of cazadores of Mrida and Barcelona, in garrison at +Valencia, exhibited symptoms of discontent; but the officers were on the +alert, and checked them on the spot. That is the only plan—nip the evil +in the bud. It is the custom in Spain to confine troops to barracks +during times of popular commotion. The artillery quartered at Valladolid +caught the contagion of mutiny, and would have broken their bounds but +for the prompt arrival of the captain-general and military governor, who +succeeded with some trouble in pacifying them. These unpleasant tokens +are not confined to the land forces; they are said to have<a name="page_245" id="page_245"></a> spread to +the sailors and marines. A steamer was under orders to leave the port of +Barcelona the other night, but the crew emphatically refused to go; they +argued that they were entitled to be paid off, and enjoy liberty on +shore, under the benign regulations of the Republic. To be brutally +candid, the army has taken the bit between its teeth and bolted. I fear +I am repeating a twice-told tale, but it is well that it should be +impressed on the reader, that he may know what the cuckoo-cry of "No +army" signifies. One of the leading points of the programme of the +Spanish Republicans out of office was that a soldier was a machine, and +that no soldier should exist in a free nation. Now that the Republicans +are in office the soldiers take them at their word, and claim their +discharges. The machinery is out of gear. The Republicans never +contemplated that they would require soldiers to put down a civil war. +Seor Figueras, in spite of all his eloquence and honesty, can hardly be +more successful in pacifying turbulent Barcelona than General Contreras. +Catalonia is as great a stickler for its usages as the Basque provinces +are for their<a name="page_246" id="page_246"></a> fueros. One of the fueros of the Basque provinces is +exemption from the quinta, or conscription; their only soldiers are the +Miqueletes, a body of men somewhat like the Irish constabulary, who are +not bound to act beyond their own provinces. Thus the army which is +serving against the Carlists in Biscay, Alava, and Guipzcoa, is in the +provinces, but not of them. Catalonia cries out against the +conscription, too, and Barcelona—hot-blooded, troublesome Barcelona, +which never loses a chance of standing up for independent +opinions—encouraged her garrison in the demand for its discharge.</p> + +<p>The regular troops were to be replaced by the highly-paid volunteers. +That was the proposition. But how is the increased call on the Financial +Ministry to be met? Where is the money to pay these volunteers to come +from? And without regular troops, what was to become of Cuba? The gold +that is brought back from the Pearl of the Antilles is dearly bought +with Spanish blood. People in England little dream what a drain that +everlasting little-thought-of Cuban insurrection was upon<a name="page_247" id="page_247"></a> the Spanish +army. Thousands of men perished in the island every year, not from the +bullets of the insurgents, but from privations, fatigue, the torrid +clime, and the deadly swamp fever.</p> + +<p>In sum, the army has been petted; the army is spoiled; the army, like a +wanton child, is naughty. Ministers have shown indecision in shifting +generals, generals have set the example of indiscipline in tolerating +mutinous officers, officers have thrown off their uniforms in dudgeon +and despair, sergeants have waylaid the War Office, so to speak, with +the cry of "Promotion or your life!" Can poor Pistolet of the rank and +file be blamed if he sighs for freedom, his sweetheart, and his native +village? The Republic promised him all these, and now he is wicked +enough to ask for them. There is one way of bringing naughty children to +their senses, but Pistolet is too big a boy to submit to the rod from a +weakly master.</p> + +<p>In the capital we were comparatively safe. Unless the garrison divided +against itself or the ordinary troops and the Guardia Civil fell out, +there was no danger of bloodshed in any quantity. The<a name="page_248" id="page_248"></a> population is not +singularly ferocious. The privates move quietly in the streets in pairs, +and are particular to salute their officers, though there is one +officer, on an average, to every fifteen men, and most of these officers +lack the thoroughbred air of gentlemen, and apparently have risen from a +low social level. The sergeants are self-controlled, and brighten the +promenades with their green worsted gloves and the great laced V's on +their sleeves. I never miss a chance of admiring the garrison at parade. +Physically the men are up to a high standard—superior to those of most +European armies; morally they have the name of being patient and +well-conducted; in formation they are steady, in dressing precise, and +in movement they have a step as quick, but more <i>dgag</i> than the +Prussians. Were I a Spaniard, I would, every time I bent in prayer, +offer up a supplication for the conversion—or perhaps the something +else—of the bedizened culprits who are sending the soldiers to rack and +ruin.<a name="page_249" id="page_249"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h3> + +<p class="ch">Luring the Reader into a Stony Desert—A Duel on the +Carpet—Disappointment of the Special Correspondents—The People +Amuses Itself—How the Ballot Works—A Historic Sitting of the +Congress—Castelar's Great Oration—The Glory of Spain—About Negro +Manumission—Distrust of "Uncle Sam"—Return of Figueras—The +Permanent Committee—A Love-Feast of Politicians—The Writer Orders +Wings.</p> + +<p class="nind">I<small>T</small> may be urged with some show of truth that under the mirage of the +adventurous, I have lured the reader, anxious for the sensational, into +exhausting deviations in the stony desert of politics. I am guilty, and +I am sorry that I shall have to sin again—politics are so ultimately +interwoven with life in Spain. But it must not be imagined that these +accounts of what happened more than a decade ago are no more useful or +interesting than the stale report of the death of Queen Anne. In Spain +history has the trick of literally repeating itself.<a name="page_250" id="page_250"></a> The country is +split into the same camps still, and occurrences similar to those of +which I treat are certain to be presented to the world anew. The drama +will be the same; the company only will be strange. And the information, +such as it is, which I give now, may furnish the key to much that would +otherwise be hard to unlock when the curtain rings up again.</p> + +<p>Before one more error of political errantry, I must tell of a duel which +did not come off, for the sake of its moral. This was how the affair +arose. There was a discussion in the Assembly in reference to an alleged +insurrection in Porto Rico. Seor Padial asked, was it true that the +insurgents had raised cries of "Death to Spain," and demanded the +independence of Porto Rico, and the massacre of the local volunteers? +Several members got up to speak, and one of them, for what reason I +cannot fathom, characterized the question as "a farce unworthy of the +Conservative party." After a little while Seor Ardanay proceeded to +read some documents proving the reality of the disturbances. He was +interrupted by a torrent of voices,<a name="page_251" id="page_251"></a> and Seor Padial shouted that the +Civil Guards and volunteers of the island had got up the whole row, and +that General Sanz was the author of the farce. General Sanz politely +retorted, "Your worship is wanting in truth." Several honourable +gentlemen sprang to their feet, and asked that Seor Padial's words +should be taken down in writing. And then the Assembly became a +bear-garden. Seor Olavarrieta claimed "la palabra," but the President +would not give him the privilege of speaking. He spoke all the same, and +said, "We shall not allow ourselves to be insulted by those seores," +pointing to the Porto Rico deputies. The confusion became worse +confounded. The President rang his bell, called "Order," and threatened +to suspend the sitting. General Sanz then rose, looking wicked, and +asked that the words offensive to the Civil Guards and the volunteers +should be taken down in writing. As for what had been said offensive to +himself, he asked nothing; he knew what course to take. In England this +might have meant that the soldier would treat Seor Padial with silent +contempt; in Spain, with<a name="page_252" id="page_252"></a> my preconceived notions of the pride of blue +blood and the fire of Castile, and all the rest, I took it that it could +only mean "pistols for two and coffee for one." The confession is sad; +but the truth at any price, the truth is so rare under this sky. Sundry +Special Correspondents who had come out to describe the revolution that +would not come off, were cudgelling their brains to discover how they +could assist at this passage of arms, in order that they might render a +full, true, and particular account to the public. The encounter would +have been more diverting than a bull-fight. Opinions were divided as to +whether it was better to go disguised as a hackney coachman or an +apothecary's assistant. I hurried, after dinner, to the Caf Fornos, the +great rendezvous of Madrid politicians, to hear the latest details of +the pending affair of honour. It was to come off—no doubt of it; but +when and where, I could not hear. Next morning I read that the +difficulty had been arranged. It may be a satisfaction that the +barbarous "code of honour" has fallen out of fashion in Spain; but it +would be a still greater satisfaction if the practice of gentlemen<a name="page_253" id="page_253"></a> +giving each other the lie in public were to fall out of fashion also. +The scene was disgraceful, and I am glad to be able to add that most of +the deputies were thoroughly ashamed of it; and in places of public +resort some went so far as to say that they would take their seats no +more in the Assembly. But they were in their places all the same on the +following afternoon. The Congress of Spain is no more mannerly on +occasions than legislatures elsewhere; but the occasions are rare.</p> + +<p>My visit to the Caf Fornos was not for nothing, after all. There was a +scene there too. A group of low fellows, overheated with wine, entered +about eight o'clock, while the immense hall on the ground-floor was +crowded with Radical deputies, officers, and quiet Madrileos who +frequent it nightly, and commenced bellowing for the Republic after +their hearts—that is to say, the Republic, Federal, Social, and +Uncompromising. The shout was taken up by another group outside, which +blocked up the entrance in the Calle de Alcal. It was evidently a +premeditated manifestation. A Republican deputy who was present tried to +calm the disorderly crew,<a name="page_254" id="page_254"></a> but to no purpose. They had come to shout, +and they would have their shout out. Seor Estvanez, the civil +governor, was dining in a room upstairs, but Seor Estvanez did not +leave his repast. When the thirsty and uncompromising federal social +citizens were hoarse they retired. They had effectually succeeded in +annoying the coffee-drinking tyrants who had the impudence to wear +broadcloth, and they withdrew to drain bumpers to their tremendous +exploit elsewhere.</p> + +<p>These individuals were all in favour of the "social liquidation." This +cry of the drones had partisans in every citizen with an empty pocket +and a patch on his garments, for it means that the provident shall be +robbed to satisfy the improvident. But nathless these agitators, Spain, +I was told, was likely to be quiet for five or six weeks—that is, quiet +in the Spanish sense, with an insurrection in one stage of heat or +another, smouldering or flaming, in half a dozen provinces. The +elections would be tranquil, with "scrimmages" here and there; they +would not be elections without. The voting is by ballot. Theoretically +the system is<a name="page_255" id="page_255"></a> faultless, but in practice jugglery is possible, and does +habitually occur. The alcalde has some influence in the matter, so has +the parish priest, so has the nearest large landed proprietor, so has +the local police functionary, and so has the mob. Ballot-boxes have been +broken open or have disappeared mysteriously. And thus it happens that a +Spanish constituency sends in a buff man as its representative by a +crushing majority at one election, and a blue man or a red man by a +crushing majority at the next. The constituency has not changed in the +interval, but the Minister in the Gobernacion, or, as we should call it, +the Home Office, has. There lies the secret.</p> + +<p>I pass over small squabbles, which were of daily occurrence at the +Palace of the Congress, to come to the sitting of the 21st March, 1873, +which deserves to be handed down to history. On that day the Bill for +the Abolition of Slavery in Porto Rico was introduced by Castelar, in a +speech over which all Madrid went into raptures. The "inimitable +tribune," as his admirers call him, surpassed himself. He led off in the +usual oratorical style by pretending<a name="page_256" id="page_256"></a> that he was not going to be +oratorical—"the bench on which he sat was one for actions, not +words"—and then, in the usual oratorical style, he contrived to say so +many words that the official paper next morning was full of them.</p> + +<p>His first speech, made when he was but twenty-one, in the year 1854, was +on the very same subject, as he reminded his hearers. The Christian +religion, he said in the course of his remarks, was the religion of the +slave, and the Apocalypse the poem of the slave. Christ was the +descendant of enslaved kings, a bondsman of Roman conquerors. But I must +give up the attempt to follow the "inimitable tribune;" his lengthened +and dazzling chain of eloquence was too elaborate to be picked up link +by link. He was historical, passionate, and poetical by turns, but +always intensely rhetorical, keeping a close watchfulness for effect, +for Seor Castelar does not argue so much as declaim. He had the good +taste to defend the Radical Ministry from the charge of having acted in +favour of emancipation because the influence of the United States was +brought to bear upon it. Such a course, he<a name="page_257" id="page_257"></a> asserted, would be unworthy +of the dignity and independence of the country.</p> + +<p>I must tell you that the way to make Spain recoil from doing an act she +admits to be good and needful is to counsel her to do it—she will not +be advised by others. It would not be Spanish. If a Spaniard has a +notion of getting himself re-vaccinated, take care, if you are a friend +of his, how you talk to him on the subject. If you recommend him to have +the operation performed, he will change his mind at once. He will not be +bidden, he will risk small-pox in preference. It may happen that he will +die, but at all events he will have the satisfaction of having had his +own way.</p> + +<p>Seor Castelar flattered the self-love of his countrymen by assuring +them that they were magnanimous of their own free will, and not because +foreigners had advised them to be magnanimous. He next delivered himself +of some tuneful periods about humanity, and then wandered off into a +spoken essay on the behaviour of the great European Powers on this +question of serfdom. He alluded to England as "the least democratic, but +most liberal<a name="page_258" id="page_258"></a> of nations," and praised Russia for having set Spain the +example of unriveting the shackles of the slave. He apostrophized the +opponents of abolition, telling them that on their heads would fall the +responsibility if the law were not passed, but that he and his +colleagues would be answerable for the consequences if the law were +passed. Then the speaker waxed patriotic, and spoke the stereotyped +sentences on the glory and grandeur of Spain. Why should there be +rivalries between Creoles and Peninsulars—those who were born in the +colonies and those who were born in the mother-country? It was +deplorable. Were they not all of the same race? Was not the blood of the +Cid and of Pelayo careering in all their noble veins, and the spirit of +Spain living in all their generous souls? His peroration was +grandiloquent; he appealed to them to cease their bickerings, to close +up their ranks, and to labour unitedly for the maintenance of order, +authority, and the integrity of the territory, and they would earn the +benediction of history and of conscience, which was much more, for it +was the benediction of God.<a name="page_259" id="page_259"></a></p> + +<p>At the close of his discourse, which was incontrovertibly a masterpiece, +Seor Castelar was surrounded by numerous colleagues, and warmly +congratulated. His speech established among other welcome things that +the orator-minister was no atheist. His remarks breathed the truest +Christianity. Next it was manifest that Spain, Republican as +Monarchical, would not, without a bitter struggle, cede one inch of +territory over which the national flag floated. Those who were +interested in the retention of slavery in the colonies were the holders +of slave property, and the deputies who had lived there and shaken the +pagoda-tree to some purpose, and who, now that they were back in Spain, +had a grateful recollection of what they owed to slavery. Those +gentlemen predicted that the immediate emancipation of the negro would +be the ruin of the colonies, and would inevitably lead to their loss by +the mother-country. The Ministry of King Amadeus originally brought in +the measure for the abolition of slavery in Porto Rico, preliminary to +the introduction of another to get rid of the system in Cuba. The chief +argument<a name="page_260" id="page_260"></a> against the measure was that it was due to intriguing on the +part of American politicians, whose object was to smooth the way to the +ultimate incorporation of the Antilles with the United States. The +sincerity of American friendship is suspected by Spaniards. They know +that Uncle Sam has a longing eye on the islands in the Caribbean Sea; +and has already tried to negotiate Spain out of her American +possessions. Spain, recollecting this keenly, mistrusts him. And Seor +Castelar, whilst acquitting his predecessors in office of having acted +at the suggestion of the United States, let it be very plainly +understood that this Republic would fight that other and greater and +aggrandizing Republic to her last man and last dollar, before she would +consent to the abandonment of one square foot of soil. The vested rights +of slave-owners would not suffer completely, for the bill embraced a +proposition to pay them an indemnity equivalent to eighty per cent. of +the value of their live chattels. Forty per cent. of this was to be +guaranteed by the mother-country, and forty by the enfranchised colony, +so that twenty per cent.<a name="page_261" id="page_261"></a> was the comparatively small pecuniary +sacrifice the inheritors of an odious system would have to make to +conscience.</p> + +<p>Whether the manumission of the bondsman in Cuba, which was bound to +come, would hasten the independence of that island—or, what was more +likely, its annexation to the United States—I am not competent to +pronounce. Ultimately, it is the conviction of the wise and experienced +that the Queen of the Antilles must achieve her independence; but it +will be less on account of abolition than for reasons geographical, +climatic, and military. The ocean rolls between Spain and the sunny +cluster of isles, the climate is deadly to the Spanish soldier, and the +Spanish army cannot afford a perpetual depletion.</p> + +<p>Nobody in Spain dares to defend slavery as moral, or protest against its +abolition on grounds higher than those of political expediency. The +adversaries of the bill affirmed that gradual abolition would be safer +than immediate abolition, and that the matter could well afford to wait. +The newly-proclaimed Republic had interests of far<a name="page_262" id="page_262"></a> greater present +importance to attend to, they said; but the philo-negrists retorted that +it was a shame not to free the negro under the Republic, which was based +on the broad principle of freedom to all, without distinction of colour, +and that a beneficent and noble act could not be done too soon. If the +Monarchy had lasted, there could be no denying it, this project of +abolition would have been enacted without fail.</p> + +<p>Late in the night, after Castelar had delivered his oration, Seor +Figueras returned from his trip to the provinces. He was met at the +railway-station by groups of friends, personal and political, and +escorted to his residence, where he was serenaded by the band of a +regiment of foot artillery. The night was dark and rainy, which was an +ingratitude to the patriotism of the musicians. If it did not savour of +ill-nature one might be permitted to remark that speeches, however +splendid as specimens of composition from a bench, which the speaker +admits should be one for acts, not words, and midnight clangours of a +brass band under the dripping window-sills of a tired Minister, were<a name="page_263" id="page_263"></a> +hardly what was needed most and first in the country. But Spain is not +like any place else.</p> + +<p>On the 22nd the Assembly sat until seven, when there was a break-up of +two hours for refreshments; after which was held a night sitting (a most +unusual thing), prolonged until half-past one the next morning. This was +the last of that Assembly. The powers of the Cortes, save and excepting +such as were purely legislative, were delegated to a Permanent Committee +of twenty, which was to aid Ministers in their task, until the meeting +of the Constituent Cortes. In the interval between the two sittings this +committee was chosen by the nominating sections of the Radical and +Republican parties respectively, all shades of opinion being represented +upon it. The President of the Assembly, the four Vice-Presidents, and +the four Secretaries, held <i>ex-officio</i> seats on the board. An analysis +of the names of the twenty-nine shows that there were fourteen Radicals, +eight Federals, four Conciliadores (who may be counted with the +Federals), two Conservatives, and an Alfonsist.</p> + +<p>This moribund sitting was unique in its unanimity<a name="page_264" id="page_264"></a> and enthusiasm. The +Bill for the Abolition of Slavery in Porto Rico was passed without a +dissentient voice. There was kissing and clasping of hands, and friendly +hugging all round. Seor Padial and General Sanz, who were anxious to +fight a duel to the death a few days before, met in the Salon de +Conferencias and made up their quarrel. They cemented their +reconciliation with an embrace, and one sentimental Deputy who was +looking on, cried, "May this be an auspicious omen of the union between +Spain and the Antilles!" Seor Figueras promised that the Executive +Power would faithfully see to the maintenance of order during the +elections. Another seor proposed that the act they had accomplished on +the date of the 23rd should be recorded on a marble tablet, to be +erected in the chamber. The proposition was received with cheers; and +truly the act which knocked the chains off the limbs of 35,000 slaves +merited record. The Marquis of Sardoal, who occupied the presidential +throne, prayed God to enlighten the minds of the Government and the +Permanent Committee, and then declared the<a name="page_265" id="page_265"></a> Assembly dissolved. There +were loud shouts for the "Federal Republic," and just one weak voice for +the "Spanish Republic."</p> + +<p>The clouds had blown over. Now was the hour for congratulations. Many +persons who were preparing to send away their families resolved to let +them remain. I had no further occupation in Madrid. A Deputy who had +thirty years' experience of life in the capital told me that this was +the last place in Spain where there was likely to be a disturbance for +the present; but he added, "If you think of going elsewhere, be sure to +give me an address where I can telegraph to you, for something may +always turn up." I had waited nigh five weeks in the expectation of that +something turning up, and at length I began to think I had better seek +fresh fields and take a look at real Spain.<a name="page_266" id="page_266"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h3> + +<p class="ch">The Writer Turns Churlish and Quits Madrid—Sleep under +Difficulties—A Bad Dream—Santa Cruz again—Off St. +Helena!—Dissertation on Stomach Matters—A Hint to British Railway +Directors—"Odds, Hilts and Blades"—A Delicate Little Gentleman is +Curious—The "Tierra Deleitosa"—That Butcher again.</p> + +<p class="nind">"I<small>F</small> you want to see real Spain," said the British Minister to me, "don't +stop here longer than you can help. Go south." That fixed me. With a +natural impulsiveness I pronounced "the imperial and crowned, very noble +and very loyal and very heroic town"—all which titles it bears—a fraud +and a failure as far as my calling was concerned. There had been great +cry and little wool. I was as churlish as a hangman cheated of his +client. That terrible thing which was perpetually on the eve of coming +to pass had not come to pass. After all, I reflected, it was for the +better; for if there<a name="page_267" id="page_267"></a> had been stupendous tidings to wire, the +Government telegraphic system would have broken down under the +operation. A message more than twenty lines long was a shock to the +clerks, and set them discussing so excitedly that they let the fire of +their cigarettes die out. The "only court" grew hateful to my mind. It +had produced no men to charm by, save Frey Lope de Vega Carpio, Don +Pedro Calderon de la Barca, and the Maestro Tirso de Molina—and they +were dead. It was a nest of political hornets, and head-quarters of +hyperbole; flimsy feathers of lying gossip floated thick as midges in +midsummer air; as in Athens, the populace spent its leisure, which was +the best part of its life, in nothing but hearing or telling new +stories. I would shake the dust of the Prado off my feet, in testimony +against the unsatisfying capital. Architecturally, it was a +higgledy-piggledy of houses on a high bare site; climatically, it was a +mixture of furnace and hall of winds; socially, it was slow, and a +disappointment; intellectually, it was below zero. My parting words—I +cannot say my farewell—will be framed on<a name="page_268" id="page_268"></a> those of Jugurtha to Rome: +"<i>Urbem venalem et mature perituram, si emtorem invenerit.</i>"</p> + +<p>I paid a good-bye visit, with thoughts of a stirrup-cup, to Maceehan, at +the Fornos, and discovered him listening to Bret Harte's poem of "Table +Mountain," recited by Russell Young, who was lolling on a sofa in an +upstairs cabinet. The dentist did not seem to "take much stock in it." +An appreciation of the horrors of Chinese cheap labour requires a +liberal antecedent education on the Pacific slope. Dr. Maceehan was, for +his own sake, sincerely sorry I was going away; but for my sake he was +glad, as I had been overworking myself, and was badly in want of a kick +in the liver.</p> + +<p>It is an error to speak of any city or people when you are under the +influence of sluggish bile, for you are liable to do them injustice. It +is a sin not to withdraw the unjust words. I am tempted to sin; but on +consideration I follow the example familiar in a certain legislature, +and take back the unparliamentary language into which I have been +betrayed by jecoral derangement. Honour<a name="page_269" id="page_269"></a> to the manes of Uxem-Ali-Beck, +Ambassador from the Shah of Persia, who came to Madrid in 1601, and fell +in love there. He liked it. I fell in love ten times a day, but nobody +would fall in love with me.</p> + +<p>On a Sunday night at nine o'clock, I quitted the city, and on Tuesday +morning I had my hair trimmed by a barber of Seville. The journey, like +most long railway journeys, is one of infinite weariness to the flesh. +The first-class carriages are roomy and well-padded, so that short +travelling, except for invalids, is comfortable enough. The correo, or +mail train—that which I took—leaves but once in twenty-four hours, +and, in consequence of carrying the mails, has to stop at every station, +so that its progress is slow, albeit the quickest to be had for money. +There were nine sociable young Spaniards in the compartment with me. The +gauge of the road is wide, admitting of five broad seats at each side, +and the motion of the train is easy and nurses to sleep, without that +violent rocking which one sometimes experiences while rattling +northwards from London in the<a name="page_270" id="page_270"></a> Flying Scotchman. But the backs of the +seats are stiff and straight as a Prussian drill-sergeant, and do not +nurse, but "murder sleep," as I speedily found to my sorrow. However, +they do nurse a crick in the neck. I was woke out of a wayward doze just +as I was about to undergo the punishment of death by the garrote. I had +been dreaming a fearsome dream. In a weak moment I had accepted the +crown of Spain. I had granted my subjects every conceivable privilege, +pandered to all their crazes, gone so far as to give them a bull-fight +every day in the week and two on Sundays and festivals, paying all +expenses out of my own royal pockets. But they were not to be satisfied, +unless I would go into the bull-ring myself. That was the straw that +breaks the camel's back. I flatly refused. They rebelled, kicked me off +the throne, led me in a felon's yellow coat on a wretched donkey to the +place of execution, and planted me in the fatal chair. Most poignant +humiliation yet, all the crowned heads of Europe, led by the Czar of +Russia, were invited to the spectacle and joined in a howling chorus of +"Serve him right."<a name="page_271" id="page_271"></a> I looked my last around, and woke up with a toss of +my noddle against the back of the seat. We were at Alczar. A +fellow-traveller kindly offered to let me lay my head between his legs +if I would give him my carpet-bag for a pillow. There is nothing like +reciprocal accommodation on a journey. I agreed, the train started +again, and I lost myself in the land of Nod. This time I was following +the campaign against the Carlists. Suddenly I was roused by a cry—</p> + +<p>"Santa Cruz!"</p> + +<p>I knuckled my eyes, the carriage was motionless, and I distinctly heard +the name of the dreaded priest Santa Cruz repeated. This was no dream. +Had I mistaken the terminus? Had I been speeding northwards all this +time? I was in a most perplexed tangle of mind, half pleased at the +prospect of meeting the redoubtable Cura in person, half apprehensive +lest I might give lodging to a chance bullet, and miss the opportunity +of describing him. As I was preparing to jump out, the tram moved on +anew. I turned to the railway guide and discovered the explanation of +the<a name="page_272" id="page_272"></a> mystery. Santa Cruz is a station on the Andalusian line between Val +de Peas and Almuradiel. A third time I fell asleep, to be roused by +another cry—</p> + +<p>"St. Helena!"</p> + +<p>Taught by former experience, I was not to be discomposed now. We had +pierced the bowels of the Sierra Morena, and Santa Elena was but the +name of a station on its southern side. The next time I fell off I +enjoyed a genuine sleep. I do not think it would have roused me if "Salt +Lake" or "Skibbereen" had been shouted in my ear through a +speaking-trumpet.</p> + +<p>At Menjibar, where we arrived about ten in the morning, there was a +delay of twenty minutes for breakfast. By way of whet, I presume, my +fellow-travellers all lit cigarettes as we were gliding up by the +platform. This Spanish railway restaurant was a reproach to Mugby +Junction. It was scrupulously clean, the fare was excellent, and the +tariff moderate. The price of every article was legibly painted in +distemper on the walls. Premising that a real is, roundly speaking, +twopence halfpenny<a name="page_273" id="page_273"></a> of our money, a list of some of the viands and +liquids to be had and their cost will be interesting—only the reader is +requested not to open the book previous to bolting his food at the +hurry-up and grab-all refreshment-room at Amiens, or when he is about to +confront scalding soup and monumental sandwiches at some of our British +buffets. It might ruffle his temper and jeopardize his digestion. A +breakfast consisting of a couple of eggs, two plates of meat or fish, +dessert, bread and wine, can be had for twelve reals. The wine is the +common wine of the country, and pleasant and healthy tipple it is when +you get used to it. You can procure a baby bottle full for one real, and +if you like to be extravagant you can pay twenty-four for a bottle of +Bordeaux, or forty for a bottle of champagne. The Bordeaux is too dear. +As for champagne, nobody drinks that habitually except kings of the +Bonanza dynasty; but myriads of men, especially at race-meetings, drink +a beverage which they take for the bubbling, roseate, kindling nectar +with inspiration in every wavering pearlet. "Fizz," I think they call +it. I hope they enjoy it.<a name="page_274" id="page_274"></a> "Compound of crime at a sovereign a quart" +(see James Smith's poems somewhere), I call it. He who quaffs champagne +at dinner, save on a foggy day, is unworthy of God's gifts. The proper +hour for the absorption of that delicious exhilarant is at eleven in the +forenoon, and then but two glasses at the most should be taken. These +glasses should not be the absurd shallow lapping-glasses, nor yet the +slender stork-glasses, but the goodly tumbler. If it be summer, there +should be a lump of ice in the crystal goblet; and the connoisseur will +always hold it between him and the sunlight before imbibition, and +ejaculate, "There's a picture!" For these hints I am indebted to that +princely gourmet of palate most exquisite, John Kavanagh, of the Inman +ocean-ferry line, Founder and President of the Cocktail Club, of which I +am the Laureate. Returning from our divagation, the amateur of beer may +have a big bottle at these Spanish railway hotels for four reals, but I +counsel him abstention. It is never advisable to drink beer in a +wine-growing country. The soul of Sir Wilfrid Lawson would be elevated +to the height of successful joke-making<a name="page_275" id="page_275"></a> at the catalogue of the +teetotal drinks, which range from sugared water to milk and orangeade. +My weakness is egg-flip. For dinner, which is to be partaken of at +fourteen reals, one has a soup, a fry, an <i>entre</i>, a roast, a salad, +two sweets or fruits, bread and wine. The <i>entres</i> are usually rib of +mutton, veal or a beefsteak, which sometimes makes you think there is +something like leather. A hen, which is a luxury, rates at fourteen +reals, but a tortilla of the hen's eggs is to be preferred. If any +complaints are felt to be necessary as to attendance or provand, the +station-master has a volume wherein to write them down at the disposal +of travellers.</p> + +<p>From Menjibar we steamed along through a beautiful landscape of this +beautiful province of Andalusia. The fields were emerald green and ought +to be fertile, but they seemed to lack cultivation. Very few persons +were to be seen working in them. In proportion as nature had been +prodigal, man appeared to be lazy. Still, viewed as the painter, not the +agriculturist would view it, the landscape was delicious in its quiet +loveliness.<a name="page_276" id="page_276"></a> Patches of silvery grey—that dreamy neutral silvery grey +which is to be caught in perfection on willows played upon by +moonlight—here and there lightened the mellow masses of verdure. Those +were olive groves. The hills on the horizon, seen through an odd curtain +of rain, for the day was showery, had the vaporous hazy outline of some +of Murillo's pictures. Anon we passed by the bridge of Alcolea, the +scene of the defeat of Queen Isabella's forces under Nouvaliches by +Serrano in 1868. The field is altogether too pretty to have been defiled +by a sanguinary episode of civil war. A gently winding stream courses +'mid rich undulating meadows at the base of a ridge of hills covered +with cottages enbowered in plantations and orchards. As if inflamed by +the warlike associations of the locality, my companions produced +sword-canes, dirks and poniards, and began comparing them with the air +of experts. Not one of these sociable young Spaniards was unprovided +with a lethal weapon. I was devoutly thankful that they had not got to +talking politics on the road, or I might have had to deplore the absence +of a bye-law applying to<a name="page_277" id="page_277"></a> passengers carrying edged tools from that code +which so carefully shuts out the drunkard, and insists that nobody with +a loaded gun or pistol shall enter a carriage.</p> + +<p>At Crdoba the train stopped, and we changed carriages for the +Andalusian capital. During my short stay I was invited to take my choice +of a varied assortment of daggers, navajas, skeens, and stylets, which a +sturdy hawker, who looked as if he knew how to handle them, had strung +round his waist.</p> + +<p>The fellow was a perfect walking arsenal, or rather a peripatetic bit of +Sheffield, and expatiated affectionately on the temper and cutting +qualities of his wares. I declined to buy. He showed his teeth, and told +me I might go farther and fare worse. I was very happy to take him at +his word, and get into a carriage that was going as far as Seville, +which was occupied by only one person, a delicate little gentleman with +a bright, keen, kindly face. To him came a courier as he leant out of +the carriage-window.</p> + +<p>"Why does one see so many Scotch caps about?" asked the little +gentleman, in English.<a name="page_278" id="page_278"></a></p> + +<p>"Because Gibraltar is near, and there are smugglers there," answered the +courier.</p> + +<p>"Why does one see so many dogs about?" asked the little gentleman.</p> + +<p>"Because they find more food here than at home," answered the courier.</p> + +<p>"Why does not one see the train start to time?" asked the little +gentleman.</p> + +<p>"Because this is Spain," answered the courier.</p> + +<p>That was conclusive, and the little gentleman drew in his head and sat +down opposite me. He was a charming companion, a young American of +culture and courtly manners, who was travelling in Spain for his health. +He loved the country and the people, and told me many anecdotes of acts +of kindness of which, being sickly, he had been the object from this +strange, tender, passionate race, as ready with generous help as with +the stiletto-point. Poor little gentleman! I fear he has made a void in +some fond household long since, for he was sore stricken with decline.</p> + +<p>"The Spaniard," he said, "in fine, is the most courteous of men; he +never sits down to eat in<a name="page_279" id="page_279"></a> your presence without offering you a share of +his meal." And it is true.</p> + +<p>From Crdoba to Seville the way lies through a land of delights—the +"tierra deleitosa" of Andalusia. Again we swept by green fields and +silvery grey olive groves; anon we skirted vivid clusters of +orange-trees laden with the great luscious fruit, which is ever in +season. On we passed by plains bristling with huge spiky clumps of aloes +alternating with growths of Barbary figs, until, towards twilight, we +came in sight of the Guadalquivir with its boats, and on the farther +side, near a copse of cypress, the walls of the Cartuja Convent, now +turned into a porcelain factory by an enterprising Englishman, who makes +imitation Moorish tiles where the hooded friars sang matins and lauds.</p> + +<p>It was seven o'clock when we drove into "proud Seville," too late to +look at any of her marvels, but not too late to enjoy a good dinner in +the Fonda de Paris, a namesake and branch of the hotel where I had been +stopping at Madrid. My <i>vis--vis</i> at the dinner-table was the Saragossa +butcher—I began to think now he was a political agent—who<a name="page_280" id="page_280"></a> had been my +<i>vis--vis</i> on my tedious ride over the mountains from Beasain to +Alsasua. Was this varlet on my track? I began to entertain serious +apprehensions on the score. It has been my lot for years to have been +shadowed by <i>mouchards</i>, gendarmes, detectives, and policemen.</p> + +<p>My goings-out and my comings-in have been noted; my house has been +watched by hulking louts in uniform whom their foolish superiors pitched +upon as accomplished pryers; nay, even a female with <i>pince-nez</i>, +sealskin jacket, long purse, and an Ollendorffian intimacy with most +Continental tongues, has been cunningly slipped at my heels. I have +been, thank the Lord, misunderstood by fools, belied by knaves, avoided +by the timorous, tabooed by the contemptibly "respectable" (odious +word), and slandered by scoundrels whom I had befriended. Heads have +been wagged, and I have been adjudged a deep card and a dangerous +character. Nothing could be got out of <i>me</i>.</p> + +<p>The explanation is simple. I had nothing to conceal. You cannot squeeze +aqua tofana out of a stone. I was suspected, I take it now, because, in<a name="page_281" id="page_281"></a> +the exercise of my vocation, I had been thrown into the society of +Communists, Nihilists, Fenians, and Carbonari. Had I confined myself to +card-sharpers, prize-fighters, copper captains, hypocrites, libertines, +and ladies of the Loosened Cincture, all would have been well. And yet, +'fore Heaven, I can assure the Powers, great and small, I have never +meditated wrong to a State or a potentate, never harboured an unkind +thought for a dog, and never joined a secret society but the Order of +Antediluvian Buffaloes, and they expelled me from the lodge for +unbuffalo-like behaviour.</p> + +<p>If I was sure that Saragossa butcher was a spy, I would not put prussic +acid in his chocolate, but I almost think I would sprinkle cowhage +between his sheets.<a name="page_282" id="page_282"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h3> + +<p class="ch">Delectable Seville—Don Juan Scapegrace—The Women in Black—In the +Triana Suburb—The City of the Seven Sleepers—Guide-Book +Boredom—Romance and Reality—The Prosaic Manchester Man—King +Ferdinand Puzzling the Judges—Mortification by Proxy—Some Notable +Treasures—Papers and Politics—The Porcelain Factory—"The Lazy +Andalusiennes"—About Cigars—The Gipsy Dance.</p> + +<p class="nind">T<small>HERE</small> are but three spots in the world of which I had formed mental +pictures from my reading, that rose to the level of anticipation when I +came to visit them. Venice was one of these, Naples another, and +Seville, delectable Seville, the third. There is a Spanish proverb which +declares, "Who hath not seen Seville hath not seen a marvel," and I am +prepared to own that who doth not believe that proverb is an unenviable +sceptic. At first sight the city is a disappointment. Glance at it from +the railway and you will have no wish to stop. But<a name="page_283" id="page_283"></a> alight and remain +there a few days, and you will find it hard to drag yourself away. The +place grows upon you. Each hour reveals new charms; there is a +fascination in the very atmosphere; and in the end you will catch +yourself exclaiming that the pearl of Andalusia is the fairest gem in +the Spanish crown—would be a priceless ornament to any crown.</p> + +<p>The setting of the jewel is not worthy of it—a great plain covered with +greyish grass; clumps of tall, brown-blossomed agave; a sky metallic in +its lustre, blazing and intense; a dim streak of azure on the horizon +indicating the far sierra, and, creeping lazily through the flat, a +dull, yellow river. But the city itself! Verily, it is a marvel—a +grotto of serene mysteries in a granary of plenty, the true city to +cultivate the gay science and savour the delicate relishes of bliss.</p> + +<p>Don Juan—I mean the Don Juan of the Tenorio family, linked to fame by +Tirso de Molina, Glck, and Mozart, not the hero of Byron's poem—was +born here, lived here, and lies under an ivy-clad sarcophagus in the +gardens attached to the Duke de Monpensier's<a name="page_284" id="page_284"></a> palace. No sweeter nook of +earth could he have chosen for life's dreary pilgrimage, which he made +as little dreary as he well could, if one-half that is said and sung of +him be true. He was a sad scapegrace, and no pattern to the rising +generation; his back knew no sackcloth, and his shoes no peas; but he +died penitent. His tomb, a chaste thing in marble and brass, ought to be +as attractive for pilgrims of the Wertherian school as the monument to +Ablard in the Pre-la-Chaise.</p> + +<p>Threading the puzzling maze of Seville streets, one might fancy that all +the ladies here had been in love with the wanton rascal, and were still +in mourning for him. The dress of womankind of the better class is +invariably black; their tiny feet, coffined in dainty shoes, peep from +under a pall of black skirts; black mantillas float over billows of inky +hair, while black eyes flash with the melancholy fire of funeral torches +over the tremulous tips of black fans. Why they patronize black (which +is a conductor of heat) in this hot climate I cannot for the life of me +make out. Certainly it is not because of sympathies solemn or +lugubrious; for<a name="page_285" id="page_285"></a> the character of these lissom damsels of Seville is the +reverse of gloomy. There is no taint of Inquisitorial days in their +souls. They are grave only externally, and all that is coquettish, +winning, and womanly within. If they hang out the undertaker's emblems +it can only be through love of the rule of contraries, for they are arch +in every step and glance, and bring sunshine with them into shady +places. They are fond of seeing and being seen; they cannot be looked on +as mutes, for they carry a fan, which in Spain is equivalent to a +semaphore; why then will they persevere in wearing this sepulchral +raiment? I flatter myself I have discovered two reasons, either of which +will answer—first, to typify their remorse for all the hearts they have +broken; and, next, because it is very becoming.</p> + +<p>The women of the lower classes do not confine themselves to the same +severity of taste. They are as amorous of glaring colours as negresses. +Cross the iron bridge over the Guadalquivir, here a slow current of +chocolate and milk, and go into the Triana suburb where Tatterdemalion +holds court.<a name="page_286" id="page_286"></a> There you will meet gowns of printed cotton of the +liveliest hue—gowns that flaunt violent pinks and gamboges, but never a +violet or a pearl-grey, much less a black. These daughters of the people +generally adorn their braided dark hair, which is thick and silky enough +to drive a Parisian belle into agonies of jealousy, with a few bright +natural flowers, and sport cheap trinkets and ear-rings, and fling gay +kerchiefs over their shoulders. The men are as true to the native +costume as the women. That abomination, the stove-pipe hat, seldom +shocks the sthetic mind. The head-gear is the wide round hat with low +crown and inward-turned brim. The large blue or brown cloak, with +parti-coloured lining, is almost universally worn as in Madrid, but with +this difference: in Madrid the tail of it is held before the mouth as if +there was an epidemic of toothache; in Seville, it drapes full and free. +The Andalusian jacket—broidered with tags, and short so as to show the +scarlet waist-sash—tight trousers, and shoes of untanned leather, are +likewise common. A tidy active working-suit this Andalusian suit is, but +it<a name="page_287" id="page_287"></a> must no more be argued that the men who wear it are tidy and active +and addicted to hard work than that the women who wear black are going +to a burial-service. No; Seville is the most deliciously idle place in +creation, and the Sevillanos are the most deliciously idle people.</p> + +<p>The <i>vis inerti</i> is cultivated here as a science; the Castle of +Indolence is somewhere in the vicinity; the central offices of the Lazy +Society are situated in the Calle de las Sierpes. The natives take to +lotus-eating naturally. Pure effect of climate. The Seven Sleepers were +born in Seville, and their descendants still have their torpid being in +the city. It was never meant for the bustle of trade or the whirr of +machinery. It is the place of all others to read Theocritus, 'mid bowers +dipping their leaves into plashing fountains, to eat fruit, listen to +distant music, blow languid wreaths of perfumed smoke, and shut one's +eyes to have visions of fair women. It is the veritable opium-eater's +Paradise.</p> + +<p>Of deliberate design, I abstain from writing of the public buildings and +monumental curiosities<a name="page_288" id="page_288"></a> of Seville. All that can be had by those who +choose in the exhaustive guide-books of Richard Ford and Henry O'Shea. +To my thinking, nothing can be more insufferable than the statistics of +architecture, the bald jargon of styles plateresque and ornaments +charrigueresque, the raptures over chancels and transepts and ogee +windows, the precise accounts of such a bell, which would turn the scale +at so many hundredweight, and such a spire, which is three yards and a +quarter taller than the York Column, with the everlasting scraps of +poetry from the treasury of ready-made quotations interlarded between. +It is worse even than the cant of criticism which Laurence Sterne +castigated with honest pen. Hugo was a genius, and even Hugo was almost +unequal to saving "Notre Dame de Paris" from the dead weight of +architectural detail which cumbered its spirit.</p> + +<p>Let us look at Seville without the guide-book or guide, walk through its +labyrinth of narrow paved streets with mind open to receive, and mark +the features of the East side by side with those of the West. Those +flat-roofed buildings with greeneries<a name="page_289" id="page_289"></a> on the summit, those jealous +balconies and windows with their iron trellis-work, those cool inner +spaces with tesselated floors and surrounding of marble pillars of which +we catch glimpses through the metal fret-work of the private doors—how +Moorish they are! The sights and sounds, the ragged and bronzed beggar +urchins, the hawkers of lemons and water, the strings of donkeys and +mules in fringed blinkers pattering along under huge net or straw +panniers, crammed with fruit, or charcoal, or tiles, or cork-wood—how +characteristic, how utterly un-Frankish! That lolling clown, with legs +dangling over the tawny sheared sides of a diminutive donkey, is a study +in himself. Then the melodious street-cries, the lively braying and +whinnying, and the perpetual tinkling of the collar-bells worn by all +four-footed beasts that pass, except nobody's dog and the rich man's +horse—what a pleasant concert they make!</p> + +<p>If you wish to change the scene, roam through the plazas, with their +marble water-basins and orange-trees; go to the Duke de Montpensier's +garden, with its wealth of myrtles and fern palms;<a name="page_290" id="page_290"></a> wander to the +river-side and look at the ships lading or unlading; or ascend the +Giralda, the old mosque steeple from which the muezzin called the +faithful to prayer, and take in the comely mass of colour beneath in one +broad sweep. Then the changing sky that canopies this "fragment of +heaven let fall upon earth!" The riot of clouds when the elements war, +and after the midday heats the genial rain pours down as if the blue +expanse overheard were a lake—how fervent and cordial! At night, when +the city streets are crowded with groups in conversation; when the +fragrant, flower-garlanded patios are visible by mystic lights pendent +from gilt chandeliers, like votive lamps before a shrine; when +caballeros pay court to their lady-loves through gratings as caballeros +are licensed only to pay court in Spain; when plaintive songs, with a +reminiscence of the desert about them, are chanted in monotonous cadence +to the accompaniment of a guitar—how grateful it all is to him who is +not lost to the sense of poetry! Imperceptibly one yields himself to the +associations of the bygone, and imagination takes wing. As the night +ages<a name="page_291" id="page_291"></a> and silence enwraps the scene—a silence only broken by the deep +boom from a clock-tower or the voice of the sereno, the Spanish +watchman, hobbling along with his lantern swinging from his pike and his +bunch of keys from his girdle, singing out the hours—the effect is +stronger; and I confess, while roaming in such a frame once, I so lost +myself to the present that I should not have been surprised if I had met +the Knight of La Mancha and the three gallants of the <i>Canard Trois +Becs</i> in mocking whispers at his heels, or Figaro himself on a +serenading excursion; but with the last puff of my cigar died out the +ideal and returned the real. I hastened back to my hotel, which might +once have been a Moorish palace, and there, to make the assurance doubly +sure that this was the nineteenth century, sat in an American +rocking-chair a gentleman in a tweed suit, reading <i>Galignani's +Messenger</i> and drinking pale ale.</p> + +<p>That gentleman was not a poet; he was an English tourist. It was the +period before the Holy Week, with its world-renowned solemnities, +celebrated with a pomp second only to that of Rome<a name="page_292" id="page_292"></a> in her heyday, and +drawing strangers in swarms from every point of the compass. If I +expected to enjoy an intellectual chat with that gentleman I was +mistaken.</p> + +<p>"Only fancy!" he began; "the landlord has been here, and the beggar says +we'll have to pay double for board and lodging if we don't clear out +before the 5th of April."</p> + +<p>To my explanation that a time of deep interest was at hand, and that +accommodation would be at a premium, Manchester (I felt instinctively he +must be a commercial traveller and in the dry-goods line) continued: +"Yes, I know: bull-fights, Italian opera at the San Fernando, races, fat +women, talking seals, peep-shows, whirligigs—all the fun of the fair. +By Jove! I've half a mind to hang on."</p> + +<p>He had not heard of the grand open-air religious processions from Palm +Sunday to Good Friday, nor of the uniquely pathetic service of the +<i>Tenebr</i>, nor of the gorgeous jubilance of Easter Sunday. Some enemy to +Seville spread the rumour that the Republic had set its face against +such ceremonies as mere gauds and vanities, customs more honoured<a name="page_293" id="page_293"></a> in +the breach than the observance, and that this year they would not be +held. But Seville would not have it so; she would not relinquish her +chance of enjoying a religious raree-show and fleecing the foreigner for +any Republicans. The civil governor issued a proclamation comforting the +lieges by the pledge that now, as ever, the Holy Week would be grandly +kept, kept in a way worthy of cultured Seville, and cultured Seville +rubbed her hands with glee. Crowds were expected to flock in, and the +master of the hotel intended to act royally by them—that is, exact +tribute from them whilst they were at his mercy. Seville meant to be +awfully devout during Passion Week, and awfully jolly the week after. On +Easter Sunday there was to be a bull-fight, one of the finest in Spain, +between the greatest of living toreadores and some bulls of choicely +savage breed. The annual fair, which was represented to me as a revel of +glowing and changing tints in dress—a treat not to be missed by the +artist on any account—was to be held in the middle of April, and +speculative committees were busy over the details of race-meetings, +balls, fireworks, and merry-making generally.<a name="page_294" id="page_294"></a></p> + +<p>I pressed the representative of the mart of cotton not to depart. But he +was obdurate to arguments touching on the sthetic. For him the sacred +Biblico-traditional drama of "The Seven Dolours of the Virgin Mary" had +no attraction. He preferred fireworks and the learned pig.</p> + +<p>"No," he added, as if musing; "on second thought, I shan't. Bull-fights +I can see at Madrid; and the only race-meeting worth attending, I'm +told, is that at the place where the sherry is manufactured."</p> + +<p>"Surely," I ventured, with artless good-nature, "you will wait to +patronize Mr. Spiller, who is advertised as skater-in-ordinary to the +Duke of Edinburgh. It will be something to boast of, that you saw him +gliding and gyrating before the astonished natives, whose only idea of +ice is in the shape of creams, dyed a delicate amber, and tinctured with +essence of lemon. Then, again, your countryman, old Tom Price, the Batty +of the Peninsula, has pitched his tent on the Alameda of Hercules. He's +not to be missed."</p> + +<p>"Tom Price—bah! You should go to Astley's,<a name="page_295" id="page_295"></a> in the Westminster Bridge +Road, my boy. That fairly takes the cake. I'm off!"</p> + +<p>He went, and I was not sorry; but the spell was broken. I was guest of +an inn. My elysian train of reverie had been smashed up; the genius of +dry-goods had evicted poetry under circumstances of aggravated +harshness; before the stamp of the elastic-sided boot of Manchester, +Pedro the Cruel and Alonso the Wise, Murillo and Luca Giordano, Maria de +Padilla and Leonora de Guzman, "el Rey Chiquito" Boabdil and the heir of +Columbus—all had melted into thinnest of air.</p> + +<p>Inexorable duty called me elsewhere before the Holy Week solemnities, so +that I have no opportunity of describing them <i>de proprio visu</i>, and I +do not care to rehearse twice-told tales. But whilst I was in Seville I +wandered to and fro and made good use of my leisure, hearing and seeing +as much as most visitors. Of those things which remain imprinted on my +memory I may repeat some without incurring—at least so I trust—the +imputation of boring the reader. There was a basin in the gardens of the +Alczar, where I was wont to sit<a name="page_296" id="page_296"></a> beneath the shade of the foliage in +the strong heats of noon. There is an anecdote concerning it which +impressed me mightily. King Ferdinand was here one day, and was sore +perplexed by an affair of state. He required a just and astute judge to +decide some vexed question of the first importance. Walking up and down +he unconsciously picked an orange, cut it in twain, and flung one half +into the water, the cut side downwards. Suddenly an idea struck him. The +monarch sent for a judge, and asked what was that floating before him.</p> + +<p>"An orange," was the answer.</p> + +<p>Irritated, he dismissed him, summoned another, put the same question, +and received the same reply. This went on until at length one authority, +before answering, drew the fruit towards him with the branch of a tree, +picked it out of the water, and gave the true reply:</p> + +<p>"Half an orange!"</p> + +<p>There is a sound moral at the core of this orange.</p> + +<p>There are five-and-twenty parish churches in<a name="page_297" id="page_297"></a> Seville and two thousand +priests; but, as too often happens on the Continent, the women were +vastly more attentive than the men to observances of devotion. I made +the acquaintance of a wealthy burgess, a dealer in curiosities, who +asked me round to his shop to inspect some of the charming peasant +costumes of Murcia, now fast falling into disuse—and a grievous pity it +is. It was Friday when I visited him, and he was gobbling pork-chops.</p> + +<p>"What! you a Christian, you a son of the Church!" I exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"Ah! seor," he apologized; "forgive me! I am very frail, but my wife is +<i>so</i> good a Christian. I reverence that woman. She has gone to Mass +without breaking her fast, and when she returns she will only take one +small cup of chocolate."</p> + +<p>But all the burgesses of Seville are not like to him who practised +mortification by proxy. The gentlefolk are pious, and the commonalty are +not irreligious. Cheerfulness and sobriety are the rule; gambling and an +idleness excused by the enervating influences of the too generous sun +are the<a name="page_298" id="page_298"></a> predominating vices, as elsewhere in Southern Spain.</p> + +<p>I saw few ebullitions of temper, much hospitality among the poor, no +downright thievishness, but the irresistible tendency to pass bad +money—which is accounted a venial failing in the Peninsula.</p> + +<p>The Cathedral is a superb pile, and occupies the site of an ancient +mosque. The stained-glass windows are so many captive rainbows. +Pretermitting talk about dimensions and the like, I may note some few of +the remarkable features which are most apt to be recalled by the +stranger. Foremost among these are the stone pulpit from which St. +Vincent de Ferrer preached; the slab over the remains of Ferdinand, son +of Christopher Columbus, whereon are inscribed the words (referring to +his illustrious father), "A Castilla y Leon Mundo Nuevo Di Colon," +and a Crucifixion by a Mexican negro, who was never known to paint any +other subject. It is a peculiarity of artists of the Spanish school, in +representations of the Sacrifice on Calvary, to use three nails and +place the wound on the right side; Italians use four, and place it on +the left.<a name="page_299" id="page_299"></a> In the Capilla Real is the figure of the "Vrgen de los +Reyes," the patron of Seville, a gift from St. Louis of France, +surmounted by the identical crown with which the brow of the canonized +monarch was pressed, and enclasped as to the throat by a diamond +necklace valued at ninety thousand duros, presented by Doa Berenguela, +the mother of St. Ferdinand. Among the treasures in the relicario of the +sacristy is a massive gold group made of ore brought by Columbus from +America, consisting of two figures sustaining a globe, the globe alone +weighing fifteen pounds. Passing under a horseshoe arch, in a dusty +corridor beside which is preserved the shrivelled mummy of an ungainly +alligator sent by the Sultan of Egypt to Alonso the Wise when seeking +his daughter's hand, the Chapter Library is reached. The prizes of this +collection are the manuscripts of the discoverer of the New World and +the book, "<i>Tractatus de Imagine Mundi</i>," which he took with him on the +caravel when he first crossed the Atlantic. There are marginal notes to +it in his own minute and legible handwriting, in one of which he lays +down this<a name="page_300" id="page_300"></a> apothegm of sad wisdom: "No one is secure from adversity." +There are no especially beautiful pictures by Murillo—especially, I +say, for all of his are beautiful—in the Cathedral, but the church of +La Caridad contains two masterpieces: the "Miracle of our Lord feeding +the Multitude," and that of "Moses bringing the Living Water from the +Rock of Horeb." The latter is full of diversity of expression underlain +by a thrill of mad eagerness brought out with a terrible truth. Another +famous picture is the "Descent from the Cross" of Campana. This was +painted in 1548, and was so natural that Murillo was never weary of +resting in rapt contemplation before it, and on his death-bed asked to +be buried at its feet in the church of Santa Cruz. He had his wish. But +the dogs of war came panting that way. Soult entered Seville, pulled +down the church, desecrated the master's grave, and stole all of his +canvas he could lay his sacrilegious paws upon to grace the Louvre. The +Spaniards do not love the French, nor is it astonishing.</p> + +<p>Among the delights of Seville one of the chief<a name="page_301" id="page_301"></a> must not fail to be +enumerated—no shrieking newsboys shove latest editions into the face of +the lounger. This is not a reading people; for a woman to know how to +read was accounted immoral so late as the beginning of this century. +There are some papers at Seville, nevertheless; among others, <i>El +Oriente</i>, devoted to Carlism, and <i>La Legitimidad</i>, which advocated the +interests of the ex-Queen Isabella's son and heir; but they have little +to say. In the lack of suicides, stabs in the dark, and +pronunciamientos, they are driven to fill up their space with extracts +from the almanac and lists of letters thrown into the Post Office +without prepayment. Some countryman must have caught the local disease, +for in one list given in <i>La Legitimidad</i> it was notified that two +envelopes had been indolently committed to the box without stamps, one +addressed to "Miss Mary, Hyde Park," and the other to "Monsieur" (an +evident misprint for "Mister") "Francis O'Mahony, Shankerhill."</p> + +<p>It may be a surprise to some that Carlism had its adherents, but +wherever the Church is powerful there Carlism exists, and as the Church +is particularly<a name="page_302" id="page_302"></a> powerful amongst the weaker sex, the Spanish women are +almost universally Carlists. Many a ferocious Intransigente, who spouts +fire and brimstone, and death to kings and priests in the clubs, has to +sing very small when he comes home, for the Seora dotes on Don Carlos +and works slippers for the father confessor. In Seville I should say the +Intransigente element is feeble; it is strongest, perhaps, in the +municipality (which, by the way, issued an edict secularizing the +cemetery of San Fernando), because this party of action is always on the +watch and pushes itself into office; but the immense majority of the +business folk are monarchical, only they wish to have the Prince of the +Asturias, not Don Carlos, for their monarch, and all the gentlefolk, +without exception, are anti-Republican. I had proof of this at the +theatre, where "La Marsellesa," a comedy intended to glorify the advent +of the Republic, was played. The speeches in favour of Federalism very +often fell flat, and occasionally were hissed, while the satirical hits +at "social liquidation" and the like were uncommonly relished.<a name="page_303" id="page_303"></a></p> + +<p>I have dwelt on indolent Seville. Surely there must be some industries +pursued in this metropolis of the <i>dolce far niente</i>. They are not many.</p> + +<p>There is a cannon-foundry and a copper-foundry, but more in keeping with +the associations of the radiant district is the porcelain factory. An +Englishman, Mr. Charles Pickman, bought one of the convents sequestered +in 1836, and has transformed it into a factory, where he turns out some +capital imitations of the ancient glazed tiles. Seldom has a hive of +industry been reared in nobler building or on more lovely site, nestling +in gardens enamelled with flowers, wealthy in fruit-trees, and on the +banks of a river. Some may consider it profanity that potters' wheels +spin and buzz in an edifice once consecrated to religion; but labour is +prayer, and sanctifies of itself. A number of healthy, handsome girls +are busily engaged colouring and burnishing the ceramic ware which is +fashioned in the old cloisters; and their joyous songs over their work +cannot be very displeasing to the spirits of the pious brethren who +preceded them in the locality, if there be any ground for the belief +that the<a name="page_304" id="page_304"></a> shades of the dead are permitted to haunt the spots they +tenanted in the flesh. There are in those songs reminiscences of Bizet's +<i>Carmen</i>. These Andalusian lasses have to thank the Englishman for +giving them the opportunity of earning their bread and olives honestly, +and they have the happy look of independence. Their full-blooded +complexions would shame our pale Lancashire factory hands. They can +hardly realize how lucky they are to ply such a neat trade in an +atmosphere of freshness and sweet odour, under a dome of sapphire.</p> + +<p>Another institution to go over is the great Government tobacco-factory, +close by the Cathedral, where no less than five thousand women are +employed. The sight is the workwomen. The process of cigar-making is as +uninteresting as that of diamond-polishing, and yet one goes to witness +both with far more anxious anticipation than to inspect what is far more +remarkable—the making of a pin. The building in which the manufactory +is carried on is a world in itself—an imposing oblong block, with a +railed enclosure in front.<a name="page_305" id="page_305"></a> Being Government property, it is guarded by +soldiers, and the stranger is apt to take it, at first sight, for a +gigantic barrack. The name of the king in whose reign it was erected +(one of the Ferdinands) is still outside. The Republic has not ordered +it to be erased, as a French Republic would have done before this. At +Madrid I noticed the same delicacy, or forgetfulness, if you prefer it; +the monogram and crown of Isabella were untouched on the lamp-posts in +the most revolutionary quarters. The interior of the building consists +of long whitewashed halls, divided into colonnades by rows of pillars, +from which spring vaulted ceilings. The women are seated at low tables +about two feet from the ground, in parties of half-dozens. They were +there of every age, from the tawny hussy of sixteen to the fully +developed matron with her infant tumbling in a cradle beside her, and +the wrinkled hag with her iron-grey locks bound with a gay bandana. +Poor, but merry and impudent withal, they were; and some of the +sprightly hoydens, with sprays of lilac and rosebuds in their<a name="page_306" id="page_306"></a> +magnificent ebon hair, were a little too ready with a wink. There is a +tradition that they smoke, not dainty cigarettes, but full-flavoured +cigars; in any case, they are carefully searched before leaving to see +that they do not smuggle out any trabucos for personal consumption or as +gifts to their favoured swains. They were dressed invariably in lively +cotton prints, with short shawls of red, or crimson, or saffron, or +other hue outvying the tulip in garishness. To be shockingly frank, not +one of them was conspicuously pretty; they had brilliant eyes and teeth, +but all had an ill-fed, dried-up appearance, even those who were +inclined to flesh. The Spanish woman, after a certain age, has a +tendency to get fat without passing through the buxom stage; +connoisseurs pretend that this is the combined effect of rancid oil and +sweetstuff. But it is not gallant to dive into the secrets of female +nature. Very assiduously these "lazy Andalusiennes" bent to their tasks, +picked and sorted the leaves, rolled the cigars into shape, clipped +them, gummed the ends, and packed them into bundles<a name="page_307" id="page_307"></a> tied with smart +ribands of silk; for they are paid by the piece, and the bull-fighting +season is near, and they must save the price of a seat at the corrida on +Easter Sunday, come what will. The cigars are assorted in boxes +according to their shape and size, their brand and their strength, the +latter being indicated by the words "claro," "claro colorado," +"colorado" (which is the medium flavour), "colorado maduro" and "maduro" +as they advance in five gradations from mild to strong. Leaving the +cigar-hall, I was shown into the cigarette-hall, where a number of +quieter girls, with shallow boxes of tobacco-dust almost as fine as +snuff before them, were rolling the paper cylinders exactly as it is +done by smokers, but with fingers surer and nimbler. In another hall the +cartuchos, or packages to hold cigarettes and tobacco, were made. They +were ready printed and cut, waiting to be put on a wooden frame, turned +over, and pasted. One child of ten was pointed out to me as the quickest +in the lot. Her small hands flew over her work with a rapidity that +dazzled. She had need to be<a name="page_308" id="page_308"></a> expeditious, poor wean, for she received +just one farthing for every hundred packages she made!</p> + +<p>There are others besides the tantalizing tile-makers and the saucy +cigarreras who are rebellious to the drowsy influences of clime, and +profanely work—the gipsies and the beggars. There are some of the +former here, though not so many as in the pages of Murray. The +excessively dirty and extremely picturesque race, with parchment skins +and high cheek-bones, is dying out. A few stray members of the tribe +remain in the remotest and raggedest part of the transpontine suburb, +and shear mules, cope horses, and do tinkering jobs generally, filling +in their spare time with petty larceny. Their women shuffle cards and +tell fortunes. A splendid people they are, those gipsies—in Borrow's +book and on canvas. In private life their society is not to be courted. +If you do not want to see them, they are sure to turn up; if you do, as +I did, you must look for them, and not always with success. I came +across but one during my stay in Spain—a yellow girl who was eager to<a name="page_309" id="page_309"></a> +exhibit her palmistry at my expense in the immense coffee-house under +the Fonda de Paris at Madrid—and she left a strong impression on my +mind of having been own sister to a persuasive prophetess who once +cozened me of half-a-crown on the towing-path at Putney at the 'Varsity +boat-race on the Thames. Your hopes of assisting at a gipsy dance at +Seville will be disappointed. If you give a courier two pounds sterling, +he may be able to improvise you one; a pack of filthy, bony men and +women will execute epileptic saltatory movements before you—not the +Esmeralda dance, but lewd swaying of the body from the hips, and +vehement contortions; and finally one creature will throw her +handkerchief at your feet. A well-bred caballero will fill the +handkerchief with shining dollars, and hand it back to her with a bow. +This dance is work, downright hard work; but it is a dance for money. +Mammon, not Terpsichore, is the genius to whom worship is paid. The +mendicants toil as hard at their trade as those dancing gipsies. I +counted fifty-seven in a short morning<a name="page_310" id="page_310"></a> walk—some robust and some +well-dressed, with the well-acted meekness of genteel poverty. The +cripples, the deformed, the adults with baby arms and the jumping +Billy-the-Bowls could not be paralleled out of South Italy. From the +assortment could be furnished Burns's "Holy Fair" and the Pattern in +"Peep o' Day" twice over, with something to leave. They are all +past-masters and mistresses in the art of petitioning; they are +professors of physiognomy like Lavater, and can tell at a glance a face +which ought to belong to a charitable mortal; and then, what a command +they have of the gamut of lungs, from the whine, the wheedle, and the +snuffle, to the unctuous, droning prayer or the fierce malediction!</p> + +<p>Still—beggars, gipsies, heat, and laziness to the contrary +notwithstanding—Seville is delectable, and a marvel in its gardens and +groves, its flowers and fruit, its fountains and fish-pools, its soft +climate and soft people, its languorous repose and silvery tinkles to +prayer. Seville is romance. Shall it ever be mine again to lie beneath +the shade of its<a name="page_311" id="page_311"></a> secular orange-trees, and blink at clustering shafts +of marble tipped with silver sun-rays, and dream dreams? As I write, +methinks to my ear rises the cry of the guardian of the night, the last +I heard as I left, half warning, half supplication: "Ave Maria +Purissima, las diez han dado."</p> + +<p class="c">END OF VOL. 1.</p> + +<p class="c">BILLING & SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>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> In fair play to Santa Cruz, it is right to state that he +believed this female to be a spy, who, under the pretence of Carlism, +was willing to "betray the volunteers of God and the King, and carried +despatches to the enemy sewn up in her dress." Still, the idea of a +minister of religion ordering a woman to be shot does not recommend +itself, although the woman may have justly deserved her fate.</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> The Duke de Sanlucar is an O'Shea. I hope he is a relative +of mine; for kinship with a grandee, however distant, is something to +brag about. We always speak of our exalted connections. One never hears +me dropping a syllable of a cousin of mine who was a bounty-jumper in +the United States, agent-in-advance to a nigger-minstrel troop, and +subsequently drove a butcher's cart in Brooklyn. He was a fearful, but +most fascinating ruffian.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr class="full" /> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Romantic Spain, by John Augustus O'Shea + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROMANTIC SPAIN *** + +***** This file should be named 34753-h.htm or 34753-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/7/5/34753/ + +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.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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. I) + +Author: John Augustus O'Shea + +Release Date: December 25, 2010 [EBook #34753] + +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. + +BY +JOHN AUGUSTUS O'SHEA, + +AUTHOR OF + +"LEAVES FROM THE LIFE or A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT," +"AN IRON-BOUND CITY," ETC. + +"Oh, lovely Spain! renowned, romantic land!" + +CHILDE HAROLD. + +IN TWO VOLUMES. +VOL. I. + +LONDON: +WARD AND DOWNEY, +12, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C. +1887. +[_All Rights Reserved._] + + +TO +WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT, ESQ., +IN TOKEN OF ESTEEM FOR +HIS BOLD AND TRUTHFUL CHARACTER, +AND OF +GLADNESS THAT WE HAVE SO MANY KINDRED SYMPATHIES, + +This Book is Enscribed + +BY THE WRITER. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +This simple recital of personal haps and mishaps in perturbed Spain from +the abdication of Amadeus to the entry of Don Carlos, puts forward no +claim to the didactic or dogmatic. Its chief aim is to amuse. Of course, +if I succeed in conveying knowledge and dispelling illusions--in Tasso's +words, if I administer a pill under a coating of jam--I shall be +cock-a-hoop with delight. But I warn the reader I am not an unprejudiced +witness. I am passionately fond of Spain and her people. Although years +have elapsed since the events dealt with occurred, I fancy the narrative +will not be hackneyed, for in Spain public life repeats itself with a +fidelity which is never monotonous. I do not pretend to cast the +horoscope of the poor little monarch who is in the nurse's arms, but +Heaven guard him! 'Twere better for him that he had been born in a +Highland shieling. + +Should there be much individualism in these pages, it is intentional, +and to be ascribed to the instance of friends. They said, "Bother +history; give us plenty of your own experiences." It is to be hoped they +have not led me astray by their well-meant advice. + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOL. I. + + +CHAPTER I. + +PAGE + +Which, being non-essential, treats partly of Spain, +but principally of the Writer 1-23 + +CHAPTER II. + +The Old-Fashioned Invocation--"Them 'ere Spanish +Kings!"--Candidates for a Throne--_En Voyage_--Bordeaux +and the Back-ache--An Unmannerly +Alsatian--The Patriot gets a Roland for his Oliver--Small +Change for a Hot Bath--Plan for Universal +Coinage--Daughters of Israel--The Jews Diagnosed--Across +the Border--The Writer is Saluted "Caballero"--Bugaboo +Santa Cruz--Over a Brasero 24-42 + +CHAPTER III. + +A Make-Believe Spain--The Mountain Convoy--A +Tough Road to Travel--Spanish Superiority in +Blasphemy--Short Essay on Oaths--The Basque +Peasants--Carlism under a Cloak--How Guerilla-Fighting +is Conducted--A Hyperborean Landscape--A +Mysterious Grandee--An Adventurous Frenchman--The +Shebeen on the Summit--Armed Alsasua--Base +Coin 43-60 + +CHAPTER IV. + +Madrid--The Fonda and its Porter--The Puerta del +Sol--Postal Irregularities--Tribute to the Madrilenos--The +Barber's Pronunciamiento--Anecdotes of King +Amadeus--Checkmating the Grand Dames--Queen +Isabella--The Embarrassed Mr. Layard of Nineveh--The +Great Powers Hesitate--America Goes Ahead--General +Sickles--Mahomet and the Mountain--Republicanism +among the Troops--A Peculiar Pennsylvanian +Dentist--Castelar under Torture--The +Writer meets one of his Sept--Politicians by Trade--Honour +among Insurgents--Alonso the Reckless 61-91 + +CHAPTER V. + +A Late Capital--The Gambling Mania--A French +Rendezvous--The Duke de Fitzpepper--The Morality +of Passing Bad Money--Spanish Compliments--Men +in Pickle--A Licentious Ballet--Federal Manners--Prim's +Artifice--Nouvilas Goes North--A Carlist +Proclamation--Don Alfonso--Midnight Oil--Castelar's +Circular 92-112 + +CHAPTER VI. + +Warning to Ladies--The Hotel Parliament--An Anglo-Spanish +Mentor--The Evil Genii of the Monarchy--The +Curses of Spain--Government and Religion +Affairs of Climate--The Carlists, Norwegians, and +English, all Republicans!--Notions on Heredity--The +Five Spanish Parties--The Army the Lever of +Power--The Student-Caesar--Order _versus_ Republic--The +Chained Colours--Dorregaray's Appeal to the +Soldiers--Influence of the Church--Wanted: a +Benevolent Despot 113-131 + +CHAPTER VII. + +The Carnival--About Kissing Feet--Mummers and +Masquers--The Paseo de Recoletos--The Writer is +taken for Cluseret--Incongruity in Costume--Shrove +Tuesday--Panic on the Prado--A Fancy Ball--The +"Entierro de la Sardina"--Lenten Amusements--A +Spanish Mystery--"Pasion y Muerte de Jesus"--Of +the Stage Stagey--Critical Remarks 132-160 + +CHAPTER VIII. + +Another Chat with Mentor--A Startling Solution of +the Spanish Question--The Penalties of Popularity--The +Republic another Saturn--The New Civil +Governor--The Government Bill--Outside the Palace +of the Congress--Providential Rain--Wild Rumours--Federal +Threats--The Five Civil Guards--Inside +the Chamber--The Great Debate--The Two Reports--Compromise--Minor +Speechmakers--A Pickwickian +Contention--The Division--Victory for the +Ministry--The Five Civil Guards Trot to Stables 161-182 + +CHAPTER IX. + +The Inventions of Don Fulano de Tal--Stopping a +Train--"A Ver Fine Blaggar"--The Legend of Santa +Cruz--Dodging a Warrant--Outlawed--Chased by +Gendarmes--A Jack Sheppard Escape--The Cura +becomes Cabecilla--Sleeping with an Eye Open--Exploits +and Atrocities--Dilettante Carlists in +London--The Combat of Monreal--Ibarreta's Relics--A +Tale for the Marines--The Carlists Looking-up 183-200 + +CHAPTER X. + +Barbarism of Tauromachy--A Surreptitious Ticket--The +Novillos--Islington _not_ Madrid--Apology for +Cock-Fighting--Maudlin Humanity--The Espada a +Popular Idol--In the Bull-Ring--A Precious "Ster-oh"--The +Trumpets Speak--The Procession--Play of +the Quadrille--The Defiance--"Bravo, Cucharra!"--"Bravo, +Toro!"--The Blemish of the Sport--An +Indignant English Lassie 201-224 + +CHAPTER XI. + +The Shamrock of Erin and Olive of Spain--Hispano-Hibernian +Regiments--The Spanish Soldier--An +Unpopular Hidalgo--Flaw in the Harness--The +Organization of the Army--The Guardia Civil--The +Cavalry, Engineers, and Infantry--General Cordova--The +Disorganization of the Army--Mutiny in +Pampeluna--Officers Out of Work--Turbulent Barcelona--Irresolute +Contreras--Pistolet Discharges +Himself--The Madrid Garrison 225-248 + +CHAPTER XII. + +Luring the Reader into a Stony Desert--A Duel on the +Carpet--Disappointment of the Special Correspondents--The +People Amuses Itself--How the Ballot +Works--A Historic Sitting of the Congress--Castelar's +Great Oration--The Glory of Spain--About +Negro Manumission--Distrust of "Uncle Sam"--Return +of Figueras--The Permanent Committee--A +Love-Feast of Politicians--The Writer Orders +Wings 249-265 + +CHAPTER XIII. + +The Writer Turns Churlish and Quits Madrid--Sleep +under Difficulties--A Bad Dream--Santa Cruz again--Off +St. Helena!--Dissertation on Stomach Matters--A +Hint to British Railway Directors--"Odds, Hilts +and Blades"--A Delicate Little Gentleman is Curious--The +"Tierra Deleitosa"--That Butcher again 266-281 + +CHAPTER XIV. + +Delectable Seville--Don Juan Scapegrace--The Women +in Black--In the Triana Suburb--The City of the +Seven Sleepers--Guide-Book Boredom--Romance +and Reality--The Prosaic Manchester Man--King +Ferdinand Puzzling the Judges--Mortification by +Proxy--Some Notable Treasures--Papers and Politics--The +Porcelain Factory--"The Lazy Andalusiennes"--About +Cigars--The Gipsy Dance 282-311 + + + + +ROMANTIC SPAIN. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + Which, being non-essential, treats partly of Spain, but principally + of the Writer. + + +The sun was shining with a Spanish lustre--a lustre as of glowing +sarcasm--seeing that on that very day a Fire-Worshipper, Dadabhai +Naoroji, was over-shadowed in his attempt to become a Member of +Parliament for Holborn. The sun, I repeat, was shining with a Spanish +lustre while the inquisition was being held. The tribunal was in the +open air, under the mid plane-tree in Camberwell Green, the trimmest +public garden in London. Conscience was the inquisitor, and the charge I +had brought against myself was that of harbouring a vagrom spirit. I +should have been born in a gipsy caravan or under a Bedaween's tent. +Nature intended me to have become a traveller, a showman, or a +knight-errant; and had Nature been properly seconded, I should have been +doing something Burnabyish, Barnumesque, or Quixotic this afternoon, +instead of sitting down on a bench between a tremulous old man in +almshouse livery and a small boy fanning himself with a cap. Yes; I fear +I must plead guilty. I am possessed by a demon of unrest; my soul chafes +at inaction, calls aloud for excitement. Had I the ordering of my own +fortune I should spread the white wings of a yacht to woo the faint wind +(but it may be blowing freshly off the Foreland), or should vault on the +back of a neighing barb with bushy mane and tail. But I am Ixion-lashed +to the wheel of duty, leg-hampered by the log of necessity. + +What is a gentle-born vagabond to do? + +The law will not permit him to pink with his sword-stick the first smug +fellow he meets on the side-path, self-respect debars him from +highway-robbery which can be perpetrated without fear of the law, and it +is idle to expect a revolution in this humdrum country within any +reasonable period. A General Election which is going on, with its paltry +show of coloured strips of calico, its printed appeals to the gullible, +its occasional bits of ribbon and bursts of cheering, its egotisms, its +stupidities, its self-seekings, its shabby intrigues and simulated fire, +its dull, dreary, drivelling floods of witless substance in +ungrammatical form--that, surely, is no satisfying substitute for the +tumult of real political strife. + +Motion is the sovereign remedy for the vagabond's disease, and lo! +through the leafy barrier of the pollarded limes bordering the Green, +jingle the bells of the tram-car with its trotting team of three +abreast. Three mules, which bring my thoughts to Spain, and to a letter +I have had from my publishers, satirically asking how soon they might +expect the last pages of a promised book on the land of the Dons, the +first line of which is not yet committed to paper. I must think over +that book as I jog along the grooves of the street rails, and survey the +prospect from the roof. How do those mules on the flanks manage to avoid +knocking their hoofs against the metal-ruts, and tripping themselves +up? What a stand-and-deliver air the conductor has as he presents his +snip-snap apparatus, like the brutal key of the primitive dentist, and +viciously punches an orifice in your ticket! For these conductors, as +for letter-carriers, I have a profound sympathy; they are over-worked +and under-paid; and yet they enjoy motion in abundance. But there is a +poetry of motion, as when charging squadrons skim the plain, or a +graceful girl with dainty ankles trips across the beeswaxed floor; and +there is a prose of motion, as of a policeman plodding over his beat, or +the Sisyphus-toil of the treadmill. I ask myself, Will a tram-conductor +ever write a poem? Hardly, I think; and yet, why not? Was not Edward +Capern, who achieved some smooth verses, a letter-carrier? + +New Cross, our terminus so far. Over the way is another tram, which will +take us to Greenwich for the outlay of another twopence. Shortly it will +be one continuous avenue of pretentious masonry, from the Thames at +Blackfriars to the Thames by the naval palace, instead of the former +pleasant drive through Surrey fields. With what a fever they are +building, terrace upon terrace, street upon street, interminable rows of +villas in line or semi-detached! The patches of verdure, so refreshing +to the jaded city eye, are diminishing in size and lessening in number. +I like Greenwich; but they should never have removed the veterans of the +ocean from it. Dear to the soul of youth, hankering for the strange and +the stirring, were their three-cornered hats, their wooden stumps, their +withered monkey-jaws puffed with quids, and their hoarse, squall-tearing +voices. What a consuming thirst they had, and with what heroic industry +they did tell lies! Peter of Russia was right: the sovereigns of +England, the sea-rulers, should hold court in Greenwich. The Park with +its fallow-deer is regal; the Painted Hall is eloquent with historic +memories; the initial meridian is an imposing address; and then the +Thames--but here, we are at it. A steamer awaits, and will carry us to +the heart of London for a groat. + +How dingy, dirty, despicable most of those steamers are! with their +low-roofed, grimy cabins; their irritating hawkers of hat-strings and +small beer; their stale stock of mawkish refections; their job-lot +orchestras of wheeze and pipe and scrape and tootle; their smell of +bilge and oil, sweat and cheap cigars, overtopped at holiday-times by +the sulphurous oath or the rank obscenity of some reeling passenger. And +yet how skilfully they thread their way through the crowded Pool; how +readily they answer the wheel; with what ease they slow or quicken their +run, and dart hither and thither; and with what nicety they are brought +alongside the floating wharf! I wonder do the skippers of these boats +move their hands in their dreams. Is the finger-sign for "Back her," +that they use at home when they wish to replenish their pipes? +Collisions there may be, explosions there have been; but the career of +the mariner who plies between Chelsea Pier and the port of Woolwich must +be singularly free from such vicissitudes as shipwreck or failure of +provisions; he is seldom caught in a tornado, or banged into by a +privateer; he rarely knocks up against an iceberg, or gets a glimpse of +the Flying Dutchman; sharks he may not study, except, perhaps, in the +Westminster Aquarium, and when he dies he is trenched in commonplace +clay. I cannot picture such a mariner to myself as having the spirit to +ejaculate, "Shiver my timbers!" + +The sight of a vessel from Seville laden with fruit and wine recalls me +to that letter from the publishers and the book anent Spain. Not a word +of it written yet. _They_ will be shivering _my_ timbers if I have it +not ready in season. But I am not of those, like Anthony Trollope, who +can sit down to their desks and turn out so many pages of copy at a +stretch mechanically, much as a tinglary with its rotating handle grinds +out a series of tunes. I cannot write unless I am in the mood, and that, +I find, depends on the state of health and the absence of mental worry. +The brain with some people refuses to become a piece of machinery. Of +motion is often born inspiration--Hermes, god of oratory, is represented +with _petasus_ and _talaria_--and I am enjoying motion. + +"Ease her--stop her!" Blackfriars Bridge, and here I quit the steamer's +deck for the tram that will take me back to the place whence I came, +and so enable me to have made a diversified circular tour by land and +water for the expenditure of tenpence. Who would waste his substance on +coach-men and high-steppers; who would envy Sir Thomas Brassey his +lordly pleasure-craft, when this round of travel, with its buoyant sense +of independence at the end, can be accomplished for tenpence? And now I +shall hie me to a bar I wot of, and with the two pence that remain of my +splendid shilling, I shall cheer the inner man with a clear, cool, +mantling glass of foam-crowned bitter beer. + +The beer ought to be good in Camberwell, for here Mrs. Thrale lived of +yore, and the ponderous lexicographer took his walks, and mused on the +vanity of human wishes. We have breweries still, and we have groves, +even groves of Academus, where one may laugh; for are they not sacred to +the shades of the two Hoods and Jeff Prowse, the "Nicholas" of _Fun_, as +to Nick Woods, the Napier-recorder of Inkermann, and to associations +with William Black, Henry Bessemer, and John Ruskin, master of art, +which is something more, and more significant, than that _Magister +Artium_ which persons doubtful of their gifts or station ostentatiously +affix to their names? And in our groves we have such variety of +arborescent prizes as no other district of London can boast, extending +to the arbutus or strawberry-tree, and the liriodendron or tulip-tree. +The liriodendron has been planted in Palace Yard, in the hope that the +breath of wholesomeness, genial to its native America, shall permeate +the badly-ventilated atmosphere of the adjacent House of Commons. I love +trees as if I were suckled by a hamadryad. May he who cuts them down to +build whereon they stood taste the bitterness of Acheron! + +And Camberwell Green, which I dearly affect, is it not replete with +every modern convenience, as those ambitious amateurs who write the +auction-bills are wont to phrase it? There is a bank where you may cash +a cheque; two public-houses where you may spend great part of it +fuddling yourself; a police-station where you may sleep the fuddle off; +a pillar-box where a letter may be posted summoning a bail to your aid; +a drinking-fountain where you may slake your thirst when you come out +penitent from the police-office; a Turkish-bath, with a +crescent-and-star daubed piece of bunting over it, where you may knead +your frame into sobriety; a hairdresser's where you may make yourself +presentable; a stationer's where my friend Morris will lavishly dose you +with the tonic of moral apothegm; and, right opposite, a horse-trough +where you may give yourself the ducking you deserve. + +Inside the tavern, where I sought the beer, I met a financier, a shrewd +fellow of a gross habit of body and a dry wit. He is accountant to a +firm of book-makers, and can hold his own with the tongue; he married +into the family of a late eminent prizefighter, and, with the +connection, seems to have acquired the talent of holding his own with +the fist. I like Wat much, and have obtained various scraps of desultory +information from him which are useful. + +Imprimis, that a penny ticket on a river-steamer on a Sunday constitutes +a man as _bona fide_ a traveller as Henry M. Stanley, and endows him +with the privilege of getting liquid comfort within prohibited hours. + +Item, that the cigars on the outside of a bundle, and therefore indented +with the tape, are generally the best. + +Item, that if there is hide or pelt on a carcase before a butcher's +stall, you may take for granted it is a British carcase. Foreign meat +has to be skinned to avoid the risk of importation of cattle-disease. + +And, ultimately, that if you are about to drown yourself in the Thames, +and are anxious to avert identification, the best spot to throw yourself +off is in the neighbourhood of a ship at moorings, as then you are +likely to be drawn under her and kept in the chains for months. + +Some readers who are unaware that there were no gentlemen with +coat-armour in the College of Apostles, may object that in presenting +them to Wat I am introducing them to low society; but I can assure them +that I have seen a very respectable Duke hail-fellow-well-met with a +jockey, and my friend Wat has a far fuller education than the primest +of jockeys. He is apt and accurate in quotations from English +literature; and if you venture to make Greeks "meet" Greeks in his +presence, or talk of fresh "fields" and pastures new, or attribute the +tempering of the wind to the shorn lamb to Holy Writ, he will lay you +ten to one in sovereigns you are wrong, and win your money. He is also a +champion orthographist, and will back himself to spell English words +against any man in the British Empire for L500, bar words technical. + +"Ah," he said, "my noble! is it true you are going on a lecturing-tour +next winter?" + +"If God but spare me health and lung-power I am," was my reply. + +"And wherefore, may I ask? Can you not do better at the desk?" + +"The desk is monotonous; besides, I yearn for change, and I may be able +to freshen up my ideas, and set down some notes in my tables. 'Twill +improve intellectual and physical health." + +"It will, of course," agreed Wat. "For instance, it will be perfectly +delightful journeying to Inverness, say, in the depth of December." + +"As it so happens, I am booked for Inverness on a date in that month." + +Wat stared at me. "Do you know," he said, "'tis a far cry to Loch Awe, +and Inverness is at the other side of Loch Awe? Thither and back from +where we stand is eleven hundred and ninety miles." + +I was surprised; I had not entered into these details; but I held my +peace. + +"Have you got many engagements?" + +"Yes; the first was from Dollar, which I accept as a good omen; and, +curiously enough, 'tis not in the United States." + +"No," said Wat; "'tis between Edinburgh and Stirling. What fee do they +tender you there?" + +I told him. + +"Ahem!" he continued, fondling his chin as he spoke. "If you don't +cumber yourself with luggage--a courier-bag will do--and if you bus it +to King's Cross, and stop at a temperance hotel in 'Auld Reekie,' and +give servants no tips, and condescend to all invitations, with a wise +economy, I take it, you won't drop more than five-and-twenty shillings +on that transaction." + +"How! What do you mean? You surely are not serious?" + +"Why, the railway return fare to Edinburgh alone is +five-pun-nine-and-six; and that will burn a hole in your fee." + +"Perhaps," I ventured, not to look foolish, "I may have means of getting +to Edinburgh for nothing." + +"Ah!" said Wat, with a sigh and a sorrowful sententiousness, "if you +think you can try on that, well and good; but I'm getting so precious +fat that I can no longer hide myself under a seat!" + +The barman, who had overheard the dialogue, here burst into an ill-bred +fit of laughter. That attendant had some appreciation of humour; but Wat +did the correct thing, nevertheless, in rebuking him for his untimely +hilarity. The barman should have waited until he had retired to his own +room. + +This lecturing, as I explained to the financier, is rather a hazardous +experiment after a man has passed his fortieth year. It is like learning +to act--even more arduous than that, for you have no prompter, and must +be qualified to think upon your legs. Interruptions must not check the +flow of your eloquence; indifference must not chill your enthusiasm. You +must be suave, alert, sonorous, and roll forth a discourse got off by +rote as if it were the offspring of the moment's inspiration. The +combustion of thought must appear to be a spontaneous combustion. Once +your tale is set a-going, there must be no pause, no hesitancy; the +electric current must be maintained to strong and constant power, or +your audience sinks into a freezing dulness of courteous attention, +which wishes, but fears, to yawn. + +"Yes," said Wat, "the steam must be kept up. But if a Derby dog strays +on the course--I mean if a bullock blunders on the track, what then?" + +"That is the difficulty. It is vexatious if a man dozes off and +endeavours to balance himself on the tip of his nose on the floor, when +you are in the high ecstasy of a rhetorical period." + +"I know," said Wat. "When you are what you call piling up the agony." + +"Or when a deaf dowager is seized with a fancy to sternutate as you are +waxing pathetic." + +"Sternutate. That's a good word," remarked Wat admiringly. "I swear I +could spell that. By-the-bye, how are you getting on with that book on +Spain?" + +_Ecce iterum Crispinus._ + +"Good-afternoon I am just on my way home to write it." + + * * * * * + +The title I shall leave to the finish. Something catching is sure to +suggest itself. The dedication I pencilled off months ago. Let that +stand. + +The subject, I think, is good. Spain is comparatively unknown. John Bull +on his travels will not open to it. The British tourist in the Peninsula +too often carries with him his native sense of superiority and his +constitutional tendency to spleen. He turns up his nose at what he +cannot, or will not, understand. If the beef is tough, he does not +consider that it ought to be, most of the animals from whose ribs it +came having done honest work as beasts of burden before they were +driven to the slaughter-house. If the Val de Penas is rasping to his +palate, he ignores that the taste for wine, as for olives and Dublin +stout and Glenlivat, is acquired. If the tobacco is coarse and weedy, he +forgets that it is cheap, and that he can roll his cigarette and smoke +it between the courses. But why does he not console himself for the +absent by what is present--the ripe golden sun, the luscious fruits, the +picturesque costumes, the high-bred dignity of the humblest beggar, the +weird AEolian melody of sudden trills of song, the flashing eyes, +mantilla-shaded, which speak romances in three volumes in every glance? +The truth is, your Briton abroad, I mean the average one--not men like +Mr. Gladstone in Sicily, or Captain Burton everywhere, Queen's +Messengers and Special Correspondents, travelling Fellows of Oxford and +pilgrims of art--your Briton of the tourist type is less inclined to +adapt himself to another sphere than to try and assimilate that other to +his own. + +This tourist goes to Spain; he hurries from end to end of the Peninsula, +his guide-book in his hand and his opera-glass across his shoulder; he +pays a flying visit to the Escurial, and pronounces it a gloomy crib; +drops in on Seville, sees it, and does not marvel; mayhap he wanders as +far as Granada, and finds it a dreary "sell;" and then he returns +homeward, hot and tired and disappointed, and is eloquent on the +rapacity of innkeepers, the profusion of counterfeit coin, the +discomforts and unpunctuality of locomotion, the shocking +uncleanliness--but, however, "you know, we got on better than the +Joneses; we saw more sights and covered more country in fewer days." And +this peripatetic postures for the rest of his life as an authority on +Spain! The only point, perhaps, on which his judgment is to be accepted +is one which he might have learned in London, namely, that Price's +circus is not quite so good as Sanger's in Westminster or Hengler's off +Oxford Street. Out upon the poor fool! _He_ know Spain! Why, that is +more than I could dare to say, and I have had experience of it under +Monarchy and Republic, in peace and in war; have mixed with Carlists in +the field, and Intransigentes in the fortress; have traversed it from +Irun to Gibraltar, from Santander to Malaga. He who has not been +admitted into the intimacy of domestic life in Spain, who has not +listened to habaneras by the camp-fire, joined in the jota on the +village sward, shared in thorough sympathy in the sports of the arena +and in the rites of religion, dipped into the peasant's olla podrida, +nay, even watched the flushed gamblers over their cards, with the +eager-eyed baratero standing by--he does not know Spain. All this have I +done, and more; and yet I am but on the threshold of acquaintance with +that great and beautiful home of paradox, that land of valour and +courtesy, of fidelity and magnanimity, of piety and patriotism; and, in +a lesser degree, of the vices which are opposed to these good qualities. +No country of Europe so near to us is so little known. Yet in none is +the soil fertilized by so much British blood. But this was in the +bygone; and the yearly increasing swell of journeying-against-time +tourists has not swept in tidal wave over the Peninsula. Even Spanish +plays--and Spain can boast of one of the richest springs of dramatic +literature in Europe--are comparatively sacred from the desecrating +touch of the ruck of contemporary English stage adulterators. + +Spain is not known; and yet it is not for the lack of word-painters to +make it familiar in pen-and-ink pictures. There is Ford, most learned +and graphic of guides, as full of irresistible prejudice as he is of +impulsive affection. There is Borrow, that robust, quaint, and +captivating, if sometimes over-fanciful, cicerone, albeit his errand to +Spain was as indiscreet in purpose as it was bootless in result. There +is Sala, of memory richly stored--whom I freely salute as past-master in +his craft--most charming, observant, and illustrative of roving +journalists. Ford, Borrow, Sala, all know Spain and "things Spanish" by +personal experience; but it is plain that too many of the latter-day +critics of Spain and the Spaniards are of the class who are ready to +write social novels on Chinese life with no more knowledge of the +Flowery Land than is to be obtained under the dome of the Reading-room +of the British Museum. The pity of it is that this second-hand evidence +is too often taken on trust, while the truthful records of eye-witnesses +are shoved into a dusty corner of the cupboard. It is so nice to be +patted on the head and rubbed down with the grain, to be reminded that +we are what we always thought ourselves to be--the perfect, the +registered A 1 people of the universe, the people who set the pattern, +the people who are righteous, moral, honest, tolerant, charitable, and +modest; who wage no unjust wars; who have no Divorce Court scandals; who +know not bank frauds; who never persecuted Highlanders, or Jews, or +Irishmen; who permit no misappropriations of money left to the poor; who +make no brag over small victories against badly-armed savages. But stay, +this is taking me to Africa, not Spain; and Africa does not begin at the +other side of the Pyrenees, the epigram of Dumas to the contrary +notwithstanding. My great object is to coax the English reader to be +reasonable, and not to take the dimensions of the round world by the +parochial yard-measure, nor to gauge the Coliseum by the standard of +Clapham. + +However, I shall not complete this work unless I make a start. _Dimidium +facti_--but these odds and ends of Latin, which give to style an +eighteen-penny polish of erudition and prove nothing, you can pick at +will from "Swain's Collection of Easy Sentences." If I wait till I am in +the mood, my suspense may be as long as that of the rustic on the bank +of the stream. Perhaps Samuel Johnson, LL.D., was near the mark when he +said that the author that thinks himself weather-bound will find, with a +little help from hellebore, that he is only idle or exhausted. + +And now a paragraph to elucidate why I have dedicated this book to a +gentleman with whom I never exchanged a word. Apart from the bright and +solid facts that he wards the weak, and has the pluck to change his +opinions when he feels himself in the wrong, there are in his case two +reasons all-sufficient to secure his counterfeit presentment a niche in +my album, and himself a nook in my heart--he hath killed a bull in the +arena, and he is husband of Byron's grand-daughter; and Byron was a +poet--yea, a poet, I re-affirm, the hysterics to the contrary of sixteen +screaming _laudatores Veneris_ in non-lucid intervals counting for +naught. + + * * * * * + +I have lost faith in Wat. In a moment of misplaced confidence I laid a +wager on him at a spelling competition. He put one _n_ in innuendo, and +the _i_ after the _ll_s in paillasse. If he had only gone to the root of +the matter! I offered such long odds, too--a frayed copy of the "Iliad" +to a gilt and morocco-bound set of the "Newgate Calendar." + + + + +CHAPTER II + + The Old-Fashioned Invocation--"Them 'ere Spanish + Kings!"--Candidates for a Throne--_En Voyage_--Bordeaux and the + Back-ache--An Unmannerly Alsatian--The Patriot gets a Roland for + his Oliver--Small Change for a Hot Bath--Plan for Universal + Coinage--Daughters of Israel--The Jews Diagnosed--Across the + Border--The Writer is Saluted "Caballero"--Bugaboo Santa Cruz--Over + a Brasero. + + +O mules, liquorice, onions, oranges, garlic, and eke figs, cork and +olives, and all you other products of Spain, come to my aid now that I +enter upon my theme! Why should not a prose-chronicler of this era +proffer his appeal as did the poets of era undetermined, of the eras of +Augustus or the Second Charles? Perchance the [Greek:_Thea_], _Musa_, or +Muse, to whom he makes his plea, may prove less kind than those to whom +Homer, Virgil, or Milton prayed; but he has his remedy. In most +instances, he can eat them. + +Having complied with what used to be a hallowed custom, I shall now, +following the example of that shrewd man, the late Abraham Lincoln, +proceed to tell a story. The deadly sin in any book is dulness, and an +occasional anecdote--if it point a moral so much the better--is sovran +balsam for spleen. + +I had a literary friend in London, and as he once returned to his +residence by Regent's Park after a long walk, and asked had anyone +called during his absence, the housekeeper replied "No;" but, correcting +herself, added, "leastways, nobody, sir, except one of them 'ere Spanish +kings!" + +The Spanish king who was of no consequence was one of the race of +Pretenders, and had the proud blood of countless generations of +thick-lipped Bourbons meandering through his veins. + +In the February of 1873, from which my personal knowledge of Spain +dates, there were quite a number of these Spanish kings on the carpet. +Amadeus, the Italian, had vacated the throne on the 11th, in a message +which substantially affirmed that the peaceful government of Spain was +hopeless--his Majesty gave it up as a bad job--and the two Chambers, +combining as the sovereign Cortes, proclaimed the Republic by a majority +of four to one. Of the aspirants to the crown there were notably Don +Carlos Maria de los Dolores, the legitimate heir--if there be any virtue +in legitimacy--and Don Alfonso, only son of the deposed Isabella, a boy +of fifteen, at school at Vienna, a legitimate claimant if the abolition +of the Salic law in 1830 be acknowledged. There was one who might have +been a king, but sensibly declined the proffered honour, in the person +of the ancient Espartero, Duke of Victory, Prince of Vergara; and there +was a Prussian princeling, a Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, who had been +nominated king in the midsummer of 1870, and whose nomination afforded +the coveted pretext for the war between France and Germany. Besides, +every Captain-General in the country--and the allowance is five--was a +king _in prospectu_, not to mention the multifarious leaders of the many +parties in the Congress, all of whom were qualified to be kings in their +own conceit. Spain being thus suffering from a plethora of kings--as one +result of which the Republic existed--it struck those who had +commissioned me to chronicle the humours of besieged Paris that I might +find some material for instructive and entertaining writing at the other +side of the Pyrenees. + +There are several ways of getting to Madrid. I had no difficulty in +selecting mine--in fact, I had no choice. It was my duty to go there by +the quickest route, no matter what the expense, the danger, or the +inconvenience. These were the terms implied in my bond. The first stage +was to Bordeaux. Over that I shall not dwell beyond a passing note on +the excitement of the mad drive from terminus to terminus through Paris +streets, in the early morn, at the rate of four statute miles an hour, +in order, as Brother Jonathan has it, to "establish connection," and the +misery of the long railway pilgrimage south. The scenery, I believe, was +lovely; but fatigue, and the worry of a constrained position, and the +frequent jerky stops as one was dozing to sleep, and the impatient +summons "_en voiture_" as the hungry man was settling to a square meal, +indisposed one for the proper appreciation of the picturesque. I got so +eye-dazed from the whirl and dust and flitting sentinels of +telegraph-posts on the long music-lines of telegraph-wires, that I could +not distinguish a life-buoy from a funeral wreath. There were no +sleeping-cars between Paris and Bordeaux then; back-ache, with an +occasional variety in the shape of migraine, is my principal memory of +that journey. Back-ache, the reader will allow, would take the poetry +out of a honeymoon trip. And here I interpose a short parenthesis to +register my acknowledgment to the philanthropist who invented +sleeping-cars with their complementary accommodations. He is a +benefactor to travelling humanity. Statues have been erected to dozens +who have done less good to their kind--soldiers, lawyers, politicians, +and patent pill-makers. Sleeping-cars avert exhaustion, ill-humour, bad +dreams, and kidney-disease, not to exclude the back-ache and migraine +afore-mentioned. Whenever a bronze memorial is to be raised on the +Thames Embankment to their inventor, I am ready with my contribution. + +At Bordeaux, where I shuffled into the nearest hotel, I uncoiled myself, +and took the kinks out of my bones; but of the wine capital I shall say +no more than that "I came, I slept, I left." At leaving, a little +adventure variegated the itinerary. As I entered the railway-carriage, a +gentleman on the opposite seat, its only occupant, was sucking an +orange. I pulled out my cigar-case, and politely asked him if he had any +objection to my smoking. + +"Are you a German?" he demanded stiffly. + +"Pardon me," I said, "I inquired if you had any objection to my +smoking." + +"Are you a German?" he repeated almost fiercely, his eyes flashing. + +"I fail to see what business it is of yours what my nationality may be." + +"It is my business, and I insist on your answering my question," he +shouted, dropping the orange in his anger. + +"And I decline to answer it," I said quietly. + +Now he fairly raged. There is nothing which so provokes a man of hasty +temper, with whom you may be in a controversy, as to preserve a +tranquil, self-possessed demeanour. Ladies who nag their husbands are +aware of this interesting feature in household ethics. + +"Ah, you _are_ a German!" he yelled. "You are a Prussian. I will not sit +in the same compartment with you'!" and he stood up, and danced, and +went through a round of epileptic gesticulation. + +"Your absence will not leave me inconsolable," said I, in soft, sweet +accents, ceremoniously lifting my hat. + +He bounced out of the carriage like a maniac, stamped along the +platform, muttering with incoherent vehemence as he went, and presently +reappeared with a gendarme, whom he informed that he suspected I was a +Prussian spy. Interrogated, he could advance no proof beyond his own +suspicions, my arrogant coolness of manner, and my hesitation in +returning a straightforward reply. + +"I am sure he is," he concluded, "for he all but admitted it." + +The gendarme was perplexed, and asked me very civilly, was I a German? + +"Distinctly not," I answered. + +Had Monsieur any papers? I produced my British passport, which he +looked at, pretended to understand, folded up, returned to me with +excuses for having given me so much trouble, and fixed a look of grave +reproach on his countryman. The latter was embarrassed, and had not the +grace to make a frank apology, but mumbled something to the effect that +I might have saved all this annoyance if I had stated what countryman I +was at first. + +"If you had put your question in the French fashion, that is to say +courteously, I might have done so," I said. + +He blushed, and stammered forth the apology at last; he hoped I would +forgive his quickness, but he could not control himself when he met a +German; he hated the race--the Germans were a pack of cold-blooded +robbers, who had brought ruin on his country. He had vowed vengeance +against them, and he had reason for it, for he was an Alsatian. + +I saw my chance. + +"_Mon Dieu!_" I exclaimed, throwing up my hands in affected horror. "It +is you who are the German, then, and not I. Do you not know, sir, that +Alsace has been a province of Germany for the past two years?" + +If the face be an index to the mind, that Alsatian must have passed +through a mental cyclone. Luckily for the angel who records bad +language, his rage was so terrible that he lost the power of speech, the +while I gently moved my head to and fro, and gazed at him with +compassionate remonstrance, as much as to say how could he, a +sausage-eating creature, have had the heart to pass himself off on me as +a Frenchman? It was cruel, but it was merited. That Alsatian I despised +as the meanest thing in patriotism I had ever met--and my experience of +the article is not limited--for even were I a German, so long as I +behaved myself with propriety he had no right to insult me by his surly +cross-examination. But I suppose the poor devil thought he was playing +the role of redresser of the wrongs of his country, and exacting an +instalment of that _revanche_ of which we hear occasional frothing +babble. If I were a German I should be proud of it, and I hope I should +have had the firmness to tell my Alsatian interlocutor so to his teeth. + +From Bordeaux to Bayonne, down through the Landes, is a most interesting +ride, as I dimly recollect; but I have no notes of it, and I infer that +nothing particular occurred as I sped through the fat, nice, pleasant +country. I had a short stay at Bayonne--long enough, however, to enable +me to mark by ethnological signs and tinge of complexion that Spain was +near. There were architectural signs, too, for there were colonnades in +some of the streets to shelter promenaders from the powerful sun. Plenty +of soldiers in Bayonne, and plenty of Hebrews. All of the latter seem to +be engaged in the money-changing business. The whole art of +money-changing consists in undervaluing the coin you are buying, and +setting an exaggerated value on that you are giving for it. I must have +lost a small fortune in the course of my money-changing transactions, +therefore am I a most determined adherent of a uniform system of coinage +for all civilized nations; and that coinage, I maintain, should be +decimal. Fancy a foreigner getting small money for a sovereign after he +has incurred a debt of one and sixpence for a hot salt-water bath on the +South Coast! The fair attendant offers him a crown-piece, two +half-crowns, two florins, two shillings, two six-pences, two groats, two +threepenny bits, a postage stamp, a wheedling simper and a charity-bob. +He is puzzled, and to my thinking he is justified in being puzzled; and +if the attendant be not exceedingly attractive he is cheated. Coinage +should be simple--should be so plain in identity that a child could +distinguish it in the dark, and its worth should descend in regulated +gradation. This reform will come eventually. One of the objections to a +universal mintage may be that there would be a struggle as to whose +profile should be sunk into the stamps--a point on which many rulers are +solicitous, for they foresee that it is the only species of immortality +they will ever attain. His Majesty of Araucania might legitimately +protest against having his individuality merged in the lineaments of the +artistic concretion of the Republic of San Marino, and the Queen of +Madagascar (what is her name, by-the-bye?) might not easily be weaned +from a natural longing for the luxury of having her own face in the +perpetual youthfulness of Hebe imprinted on the discs which circulate +at Tananarivo. That objection might be met in two ways; one side of the +coin might be common to all the world, and the other reserved for the +vanities, or the vanities might toss up, and acquire the renown of the +numismatist's glass-case in turn. + +That the reform will come I am convinced, but not while the Hebrews can +hinder it. It is their interest to have this diversity of coinage; and +they are very conservative of what is their interest. I have for a long +time been trying to make up my mind about the Hebrews. My sympathies fly +out to them because they have been persecuted, foully persecuted, on +account of their religious belief, while, on the other hand, my +antipathies are stirred because they make to themselves an idol of gold. +Beautiful are the daughters of Israel with a striking Old Testament +beauty, marvellously imperious considering the lengthened apprenticeship +of helotry through which they have served; but _naivete_ is not the +quality one would look for in their countenances. As well seek a dimple, +or a blush, or a coy reserve. Oh! beautiful indeed, and to an imposing +degree, with long straight nose, full orbs, pursing lips, +clean-chiselled regular contour; but the earliest lesson they learn is +how many grains Troy go to a silver shekel. They may have in them still +the fire of Jael, who drove the tent-peg into the skull of the tyrant, +or the fierce genius of the poetic Deborah, who was one of the first to +strike the lyre of triumph; but, alas! that it must be said, the gentle +Ruth, gleaning in the fields of barley, is a lost tradition of the race. +I can almost imagine the tender-eyed Leah and the well-favoured Rachel +figuring in an idyl of another Wakefield family; but, then, where are we +to seek for them? Not in Bayonne. There are no artless Jewesses there; +the pupils under their black lashes glitter with the glow of cupidity, +and I prefer the light of love. There is something in it more womanly +and mellow. I have seen the eyes of a Jewess almost bulge out of their +sockets like those of the telescope fish, as she gazed on the treasures +of Notre Dame at Paris--to me a degrading dilatation--and I set it down +to the instincts engendered by centuries of servitude, when the Jews +discovered that the surest mode of checkmating their masters was by +amassing money, and lending it out to them at usurious rates. Certes, +they are a pushing and clannish tribe, and skilled in the mimetic arts; +but they are not so high-souled and all-influential as their friend +Disraeli would fain make them in a chapter of elaborate gush in that +fine novel, "Coningsby." In the main I admire them; but I could wish +that they stripped to manual toil oftener; that they were less +obsequious in indigence, and less despotic and dictatorial when they are +in authority--niggers and Hindoos can be that; that they were less prone +to exhibit their entire stock-in-trade in the shop-window; that they +were less ostentatious in their hospitality, when they are hospitable, +and that they had a quieter taste in raiment. Now, I think I have had +ample retribution out of that greasy matron at Bayonne, who exploited me +when converting my honest notes of the Bank of England into Spanish +duros. + +From Bayonne the train rattled along not far from the fringe of the Bay +of Biscay, by Biarritz and St. Jean de Luz, and across the bridge +spanning the Bidassoa to Irun, the border town of Spain, close by +Fontarabia's wooded height. Here we had a pause for customs and passport +examination and change of carriages. No railway official could give me +any information as to how far the line went; it might go to Madrid, it +might not go more than a few miles; the country was unsettled. These +officials impressed me as sulky or stupid or timorous, or all three +combined, and made glaring contrast with the smart servants on the +London, Chatham and Dover line, who know everything that regards their +calling, and are always quick and decisive in answer without taint of +rudeness. But I was recalled from my comparisons by one word, which +wrought a magic effect upon me. + +That word was "_caballero_!" + +How elated I felt! I realized that I was in Spain, and seemed to grow in +inches and self-esteem. I lent myself to an unconscious swagger, tipped +my hat jauntily on one side of my head, and was swayed by an almost +irresistible inclination to retire to some unobserved corner and wax the +ends of my moustache. + +The speaker was a Guardia Civil, the Spanish equivalent for a French +gendarme. A solemn man in a cocked-hat, protected by a glazed cover, his +complexion was of sickly walnut-juice sallow, like the flesh-tint on a +portrait in oils by an old master. The complexion was characteristically +Spanish. He was the State personified, and had much dignity. He told me +I might count upon getting to Beasain, a village in a valley at this +side of one of the mountains of the Pyrenean range, but that progress +beyond that by rail was problematical, as the Cura Santa Cruz had torn +up the track. + +This was the first I had heard of the Cura Santa Cruz, one of the most +ferocious and redoubtable of the partisans of Don Carlos. Truculent were +the stories which were told of him. He was Raw-head-and-bloody-bones in +cassock; priest and picaroon, with a well-developed tendency towards +wholesale murder; Bogie with a breviary--that is, according to some. +According to others, he was a brave, disinterested and reverend patriot; +a sort of Hofer-cum-Tell individual, etherealized by the sanctity of his +vocation. Anyhow, be he maleficent or benign, it was clear that he was +Somebody, and had filled the whole country-side with awe. He led a corps +of guerrilleros, who rejoiced in the nickname of the Black Band; and +such was the terror inspired by their exploits, that the whisper that +Santa Cruz was hovering near stunned opposition, and brought in any +ransom demanded. He must have been in one of his benign moods on this +occasion, for he permitted our train free passage through his territory; +and in the evening we drew up in a snow-bound basin, where shuddered the +straggling hamlet of Beasain. I took up my lodging for the night in a +two-storied cabin, and sent a news-letter to London, recounting what I +had seen and heard so far. I was urged to this by an intimation which +had reached me, that a rival had preceded me on the road to Madrid by +twenty-four hours. The first blow is half the battle, and I calculated +that if I could get the ear of the public in advance of him, there would +be a point gained. Communication with England was open from Beasain. +Heaven knows how it would be to-morrow or next day. + +There was fearful tangible evidence of the presence of Santa Cruz in +this remote valley. At one extremity where the cavernous opening of the +railway tunnel made a dark gap in the hillside, the track had been +wrenched from its fastenings, and the sleepers smeared with oil and set +on fire. Heaps of charred timber marked the spot, and alongside, down in +a ravine, lay the wreck of shattered carriages and locomotive, just as +they had been tumbled in a topsy-turvy blending of complete collapse. It +made me tremble to reflect what this meant, and I came to the conclusion +that Santa Cruz was thoroughgoing in his warfare and restrained by few +scruples of compassion. + +Over the fumes of the brasero, the brass-pan with its stifling embers of +charcoal, placed on a stand in the middle of my room, my landlord and I +with outstretched palms held long confab before I turned into bed. His +mother had been French, and we gossiped in that tongue. His views were +tolerably impartial, but it was plain that the Carlists had his good +wishes. The factions were partially dispersed, but were not defeated, he +said; they would give more trouble; and then he horrified me with a +well-authenticated tale of a recent fight at Aspeitia, where an old +villager had taken refuge in a house which was subsequently occupied by +the troops. He fell dead after a volley fired by the Carlists. His son +was one of those who had joined in the volley, and the awful muffled +rumour was spreading among the peasantry that it was by the son's bullet +the father had been slain. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + A Make-Believe Spain--The Mountain Convoy--A Tough Road to + Travel--Spanish Superiority in Blasphemy--Short Essay on Oaths--The + Basque Peasants--Carlism under a Cloak--How Guerilla-Fighting is + Conducted--A Hyperborean Landscape--A Mysterious Grandee--An + Adventurous Frenchman--The Shebeen on the Summit--Armed + Alsasua--Base Coin. + + +And this is sunny Spain, the land of the olive and the vine. Spain it +certainly is in the absolute sense of the word in political geography, +but in no other. It is no more Spain than the Highlands are England. The +language, the race, the habits, the growths, are different. The +language, the Euscara, is known to only one man not born within the +borders, the polyglot Prince Lucien Buonaparte. A hackneyed legend runs +that the devil tried to learn it, and dislocated his jaw. The race is +the aboriginal Iberian, and has none of the languor of the south in +it--a stubborn, not a supple race. The habits of the people are +industrious. The growths are rather of the apple and the pine than the +olive and the vine. + +There before us rises the wall of Nature's handiwork which shuts us out +from the true Spain. + +In my boyhood I often gazed with admiration on a print of Napoleon +crossing the Alps. He was astride of a prancing white charger. I have +since learned to detest Napoleon, and to know more of mountain travel. +That masterful general, but cruel, dishonourable, bad man--demon-man +with genius undoubted and will unbendable, but with the most +unscrupulous of insatiate and insensate ambitions, and a leaven of +littleness--did not face the heights of St. Bernard on a mettlesome +steed, but on a patient mule, and the luxury of his apparel was +restricted to furs. Wrapped up in the thickest clothing I could find, I +watched the convoy forming outside the station at Beasain in the sunlit +cold. + +The train from San Sebastian got in at nine in the morning, and before +ten a procession of six waggons, built after the massive, clumsy fashion +of the French diligence, was drawn up in line. Horses and mules, +generally in teams of five--three leaders and two wheelers--were yoked +to the ramshackle vehicles. The passengers, muffled in cloaks, rugs, +scarfs, shawls and comforters--for there was ice in the breath of the +keen air of the mountain--literally packed themselves in the narrow +"insides" of the old-fashioned coaches. There were five in the low, +narrow hutch upon wheels with myself, all males; we were as close as +sardines in a box. There were some ladies of the party. I trust they had +more space at their disposal. The luggage was piled on the roofs and +covered with tarpaulins, the drivers mounted the seats in front, whips +were cracked, and off we bounded at a pace that would rouse the +applause, or peradventure the envy, of the gentlemen who tool the +Brighton coach. Gaily our skinny steeds breasted the rise, sending a +curl of mist from their hides, and shaking merry music out of the +collars of bells round their necks as they clattered over the hard road. +For three miles we dashed along at express speed. How spirit-stirring is +rapid motion! I actually was warming into a wild joy, and praying that +we might encounter the Carlists, under the influence of this gallop in +the bracing morning atmosphere. + +Suddenly there is a stop. The Carlists? No. But here the ascent begins, +and a body of mountaineers await us with a string of bullocks. The three +leaders are unharnessed and attached behind; and eight bullocks, two by +two, are yoked in front of the pair of mules who act as wheelers. The +same is done with the other waggons. I watch this process of yoking the +bullocks with much curiosity. A strong piece of board is run across the +heads of the pair who are coupled, and firmly tied in front of the +horns; a sheepskin is thrown over that, for what purpose I cannot tell; +and the ropes by which the bullocks drag us are fastened to the piece of +board afore-mentioned. They pull, not against the shoulder, but against +the horn. Their owners, muscular peasants, lightly clad, though it is +cold, walk beside them with long pointed sticks, and occasionally goad +them in the flanks. When that does not suffice, they push them, or rain +blows on their hides, or twist their tails, and when all other means +fail they swear at them. But the grave oxen move no quicker; they cling +to their own gait as if deeply convinced of the truth of the adage, +"Fair and easy goes far in the day." The peasants call one "demonio" and +another a cow; but the sleepy pair keep never minding, as they waddle +along with drooping heads, held closely together as if whispering +conspiracy. + +At this early point in my experiences, the painful knowledge is forced +upon me that the Spaniards are highly accomplished in the art of +imprecation. If our army swore terribly in Flanders, I have my theory to +account for it. They must have picked up the habit there, and the +Spaniards under Alva had left their traces behind them in the speech of +the region they had occupied. As a rule, swearing betrays a poverty of +invention; it is the resource of the vulgar and ignorant to emphasize +their assertions; but in Spain the swearing developed an originality +that almost reconciled one to it. There was an awful insolence, a ribald +riotousness in some of the oaths which redeemed them from the scorn +which every well-balanced mind should feel for displays of petulance. I +respect a good round oath--an oath that blanches my cheeks and makes me +imagine that it would not be extraordinary if the ground were to open +and swallow the varlet who uttered it. That sort of oath is to be +tolerated for its audacity. The malediction is a higher form of oath, +and some maledictions are magnificent. To the amateur I can recommend +King Lear's upon Cordelia, Francesco Cenci's upon Beatrice--which is +more Shakspearian than Shakspeare--and even puny Moore's upon the +traitorous Gheber. The joint-stock oath which Sterne puts into the +mouths of the Abbess of Andoueillets and the novice, Margarita, who had +the whitlow on her middle finger, is passable for its fantastic +ingenuity; and the strong locutions pat in the lips of a certain +Duke--unless notoriety belies him--are to be licensed because of his +rank, and because he is a soldier. But he should have the courage to +blurt them out on all occasions. He who dares to outrage society should +not shrink from offending an individual. + +"You ---- naughty boy, why did you sound the wrong call?" said H.R.H. to +a bugler, but as soon as he got out of earshot of a certain Personage, +he muttered in an angry undertone, "You canonized little beggar, you +know what I meant." + +The Spaniards are liberal and earnest and dogged in their railings, +anathemas, and execrations, but still the sleepy oxen do not hurry +themselves. They care no more for a volley of select comminations than +the jackdaw of Rheims did for the archbishop's curse. Of a verity this +bullock's pace is a snail's pace, and we have ample leisure to inspect +the peasants as we crawl along. Brawny, hardy, and firmly-knit as +Highlandmen, their faces are weather-beaten and frank; their manner, +when one speaks to them, independent but polite; in dress like unto +their Celtic kinsmen of Brittany, short-jacketed, loose, and slovenly, +but in stature more like to the tall mountaineers of Tipperary. They +must be poor, very poor; but they have the appearance of content, and +with it of honesty, sobriety, and civility. + +And now a little secret must be imparted. Every man-jack of these +ox-drivers is a Carlist, and that is the reason we are not attacked +to-day! In a week those innocent clowns may be blazing away at the +regular army of Spain from the brushwood on a hillside, for after such +fashion are Carlist wars conducted. A band assembles at the call of some +chief--that is to say, the peasants leave their cabins and meet at some +rock, some conspicuous tree, or some cross-roads. They have with them a +flag, perhaps; perhaps a priest or two; they are badly armed with such +arms as insurgents carry--blunderbusses, flint-muskets, fowling-pieces, +horse-pistols; they have no distinctive uniform, except a few of the +older bands--the permanent army of Carlism--which are clad in the seedy +clothes that the French Garde Mobile wore during the late war. The +campaign opens; a descent is made upon some village, the mayor is asked +to supply so many hundred rations, and the young men are summoned to +join the flag. Sometimes the mayor refuses, and there is a fight between +"the volunteers of liberty," that is to say, the local national guard, +and the Carlists. On the average, so the reports go, one man is killed +in each of these combats, and three wounded. That is a battle at this +stage of the Carlist war. With the regular troops sent against them the +Carlists act otherwise. They take up ground in some inaccessible eyrie, +pop at the passing detachments from their ambuscade, draw them on in the +hope of catching them in a trap; but the troops are cautious, they +pepper away at the Carlists from a distance until the Carlists run, and +the affair ends, as usual, with the loss of one man killed and three +wounded. The peasants return to their cabins to tell the tale of their +gallantry, and if the troops perchance should come their way, why they +are but inoffensive, ingenuous tillers of the soil, the most peaceful +beings on the face of nature. The firearm is hid in the thatch or in the +neighbouring hedge. But the officers who lead the troops do not allow +their enemies the monopoly of gasconade. In the _Gaceta de Madrid_ the +bulletin of the engagement duly appears, and the names of the doughty +warriors are chronicled for the admiration of the senoritas. One Carlist +chief--at least, so pretend the wags--had been killed outright thrice, +wounded mortally five times, and has had his band completely dispersed +and broken up seven times in the _Gaceta_, and yet he is still alive +and troublesome. A most outlandish war, but how disastrous in its +effects on the trade and prosperity of the country! It could not be +carried on if the soil were not rich to plenteousness. There is an +adventurous vigour in the breed, too, and the terrain lends itself to +guerilla fighting. So far, I know nothing of the merits of Carlism; but +this I can divine, that it is the old rivalry betwixt town and country, +and the "pagans" or villagers are all Carlists--question of transmitted +feud or local traditions, or both. The rustics have the advantage over +the town-bred men; they are familiar with the by-paths; every sheiling +is a refuge for them, every dweller therein a self-constituted scout. +When they choose to seek them, they must have secure hiding-places. +Artillery is an arm of derision in the hills; cavalry can rarely act +effectually, and in the way of reconnoitring is next to useless, as its +movements can be espied from rock-cover on every eminence; but in the +open these insurgents can do nothing against disciplined troops. Pity +that they should be such fools as to abandon their pleasant and +comfortable, if humble, homesteads, to help on the aspirations of any +right-divine make-believe claimant to the heaven-sent mission--by +accident of birth--of impressing other human beings that he is wiser +than they, and should have revenues and reverence for condescending to +govern them. + +What would our ox-drivers do, I wonder, if they could overhear and +understand the conversation in which thoughts like these are exchanged +in the lumbering Noah's ark they are helping through their domain? We +are getting nigh and nigher to the clouds, and the quilt of snow on the +mountain grows thicker. The pathway is traceable only by the marks of +the hoofs of beasts of burden and the ruts of wheels, and the fleecy +banks at each side rise gradually higher. It is palpably colder, and yet +we are far from the culminating point of the Pyrenean pass; straight +saplings are not infrequent around, and here and there a lowly hut in a +nook under some sheltering rock, both hut and rock hoary with snow, +startles us with the reminder that human beings actually live here. The +Basques, said Voltaire, are a people who sing and dance on the summit +of the Pyrenees. Our ox-drivers do not sing, neither do our muleteers. +This interminable glare is becoming very fatiguing to the eyes, and the +higher we ascend the rarer are the refreshing little streaks of darker +hue. Stumps of dwarf trees replace the straight saplings to be seen +lower down; and hardly are we on the crest of one snow-capped hill than +another, hidden under the same smooth sheet of everlasting lime-white, +mocks us. Slowly and painfully the oxen toil along, and the peasants by +their side sink knee-deep at every step. Will this ever end? It was +picturesque at first to watch the long caravan coiling over the spiral +track which turns right and left like a corkscrew. Now it is tedious, +for we are chilled and worn-out, hungry and cramped. The sublimity of +nature is grandiose, but there may be too much of it. One tires of +rolling perpetual cigarettes; one even tires of studying the forcible +Spanish adjurations that begin with the third letter of the alphabet. My +companions, four French commercial travellers, relapse into silence and +doze off into fitful starts of the sleepiness begot of extreme cold; +the fifth--a grandee of Castile I take him to be at the very least by +his appearance, broad swarthy countenance, shaven upper lip and chin, +and short spade whiskers of a night-black--the fifth, this Spaniard, did +not relapse into silence, for he had never uttered a word since we +started. + +What weariness to the flesh is this tedious climb to regions +hyperborean! I catch myself yawning. What if our waggon were to break +down! At last one of the Frenchmen bursts out, "_Dieu de Dieu, j'en ai +assez_." He would stand or rather sit it no longer, opened the door, and +alighted. We all followed his example, even to the taciturn Spaniard, +and took to the road. A walk in advance might send the blood +circulating, and on we plodded in the middle of the path, regardless of +the snow which soaked into our boots and saturated our trousers to the +knees. Not a living being was visible but two crows who bore us company, +and hopped on our flanks like a covering-party. The road was tantalizing +in its tortuousness; after walking a furlong we found ourselves a couple +of yards directly above the point we had quitted a quarter of an hour +before. One of the Frenchmen, seeing this, had an inspiration; he +determined to go up the mountain perpendicularly, and before we could +dissuade him he had sunk to his armpits in a treacherous crevasse. We +dragged him out by making a cable of our pocket-handkerchiefs and +throwing it to him. He took his wetting in good part. + +"Ah!" he cried, "shan't I have something to tell them when I get back to +the Boulevard des Italiens." And then, as if reflecting, he added, "But +no, 'twill never do; they'd call me _farceur_." + +A red-brick building with an arrangement of iron on the roof, as if it +had been employed as a signal-post, faced us--high up on the pinnacle of +a ridge at one moment; was at our side the next; behind us anon; and +directly before us now. By turns it was small and large. We were asking +ourselves (all except the Spaniard; he never spoke) was this a +phantasmagoria, when a jingle of bells was heard on the still air. Where +did it come from? We could see nothing. Suddenly, as a theatrical ghost +springs from a trap-door, at an abrupt turn a wild figure appears +bearing right down upon us. A Carlist chieftain? Not so fast. A muleteer +simply, sitting sideways on his prad, and leading a half-dozen mules +laden with panniers in Indian file behind him. He told us we had reached +the summit, and that there was a fonda a short distance off. Signs of +life multiplied; we met mountaineers, with oxen drawing small cars with +solid wheels similar to those of toy carriages--wheels that kept up +perpetual creak and croak--and finally we encountered the caravan from +Alsasua to Beasain. But we encountered no Carlists, that is, no armed +Carlists, for every man there is Carlist in soul. The smoky fonda was as +miserable as the most miserable of Irish shebeens; yet they gave us good +white bread and eggs to eat, and, with the aid of the sauce of hunger +and sundry glasses of acid Val de Penas to wash it down, we made a +hearty meal. The caravan overtook us in half an hour; the rest of the +journey was downhill, the snow was deeper than on the other side, and +the jolting terrific, but we did not care. Our goal was near, and we +had eaten and drunk. We laughed at the dangers we had passed, and even +the Spaniard unbent and exhibited unexpected powers of conversation. +Alas! for my judgment; he was no grandee of Castile, but a butcher from +Saragossa, a mere _carnifex_ with blood of the common red tint. + +At Alsasua we came upon a village bleaker than Beasain, with soldiers +billeted under every roof. They loitered in twos and threes about the +wide street, which was drab with patches of dirty snow. Here were placed +a few mountain guns under custody of a shivering sentry, there a bugler +in slovenly greatcoat blew some call with pinched lips on a battered +instrument. At the station--a rude shanty with wooden partitions and a +plank erection run up as refreshment-stall--some attempt had been made +at fortification. There were mud-works thrown up in its vicinity, and +the walls were roughly loop-holed. A party of Linesmen were in +possession. On a siding close by was the locomotive which had been +riddled with shot by the insurgents on the now disused line to +Pampeluna. Our own locomotive was awaiting us, with steam up, and I +hurried to procure my ticket. I pushed a piece of honest red gold +through the wicket, and an extremely nice, slim female clerk gave me the +pasteboard with my change and thanks. Something struck me in the silver +shoved towards me; the leaden hue of the pesetas was suspicious. I took +up one and rung it; the dull sound convinced me it was bad. I rung +another--same result. I was desolate; but I had to call the attention of +the extremely nice girl to the error she had fallen into; and she +coolly, without adumbration of a blush, or faintest pretence at apology, +took back the base coins, and gave me their equivalent in coins that +were sterling. And then, for the first time, it broke upon me, that it +was not considered a scoundrelly act to pass bad money upon an innocent +foreigner, or upon an innocent native, for the matter of that. I further +learned that if I had removed that bad money from the counter, I should +have had to bear with the loss. That extremely nice girl would have +assured me with all politeness that I must be labouring under an +illusion. + +The Spaniard has personal dignity to a prodigious degree. But his +personal dignity does not hinder the ordinary Spaniard from endeavouring +to foist counterfeit stamps upon his neighbour whenever he has the +chance. + +The tarantara of a bugle stirred a company of soldiers to take their +places in the train. They were our escort to Miranda, on the borders of +Old Castile, where we might consider ourselves out of danger. It is my +opinion we were never in any danger. + +We reached Miranda safely, and from that swept down in the darkness to +Madrid without molest, the most of us snoring as regularly as the funnel +of the engine snorted. I had a fearsome vision of a sweet Spanish maiden +who had knowingly placed a worthless peseta in the tirelire at Mass, and +had been sentenced by Santa Cruz to grill on the gridiron of hell for +the term of her natural life. A carpet-bag utilized as a pillow was the +origin of my vision. Had that carpet-bag been more carelessly packed, +the penalty on the poor girl might have been prolonged to eternity. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + Madrid--The Fonda and its Porter--The Puerta del Sol--Postal + Irregularities--Tribute to the Madrilenos--The Barber's + Pronunciamiento--Anecdotes of King Amadeus--Checkmating the Grand + Dames--Queen Isabella--The Embarrassed Mr. Layard of Nineveh--The + Great Powers Hesitate--America Goes Ahead--General Sickles--Mahomet + and the Mountain--Republicanism among the troops--A Peculiar + Pennsylvanian Dentist--Castelar under Torture--The Writer meets one + of his Sept--Politicians by Trade--Honour among Insurgents--Alonso + the Reckless. + + +First impressions of Madrid, "the only court," do not fill the visitor +with awe. It is an aggregate of masonry, fragmentary on the edges, +compact in the middle, on a sandy plateau in a waste of arid landscape. +There is lack of natural shade and water, albeit there are tree-planted +walks and gardens, with cedars and Himalayan pines, and fountains with +fulness of clear flow are abundant. It wants a river; the Manzanares, I +am told, is but a ditch. I do not know if that is so; I never could see +the Manzanares. A rugged, sun-blistered city, Madrid struck me as no +more characteristically Spanish--or what I had taught myself to accept +as such--than Turin is Italian; both are half-Frenchified. In the +northern distance are the summits of the Guadarrama hills, and the +unseen breeze which sweeps down from its snowy eyries amongst them cuts +like an icicle. The Madrileno fears it, for it has a trick of permeating +the streets with a subtile, chilling, killing breath; and when the +Madrileno steps from the sunny to the shady side of the street he is +careful to lift a corner of his cloak as screen to his mouth. + +The central point of Madrid is the Puerta del Sol--a bare, broad, +irregular area off which nine thoroughfares diverge. Round it the +day-god, greatest friend of Spain, pivots in glory. Now he floods one +side with radiance, now he drops his cloth of gold over another. The +Puerta del Sol is the focus of interest for the population. Thither the +gossips repair, and there the affairs of the nation are discussed very +often by those who have acted, act, or hope to act as leaders of the +nation. Naturally I made for the Puerta del Sol, for it was of vital +importance to me to be in the movement, in the very vortex of the pool. +I was fortunate. I got rooms in the Fonda de Paris, an hotel at the +corner of the Calle de Alcala, the principal avenue leading from the +Plaza. As proof of the unsettled condition of affairs and its effect +upon trade, it need only be said that at the _table d'hote_ of this, the +first hotel in the capital, where one hundred and thirty persons usually +sit down to dinner, there were sometimes not more than fifteen or +twenty, and a proportion of these were fly-about Special Correspondents. +Yet in this exiguous circle of prudent people who were detained in +Madrid, or foolhardy people who had travelled there, turned up the +irrepressible British tourist. Of the latter class we had charming +specimens at dinner one evening in two English girls, with fresh peachy +complexions, and hair like wavy masses of ripe maize. They had no guide +but their faithful "Murray." What became of them subsequently I never +ascertained; but it is to be trusted they were as lucky as the +enterprising young lady who relied on Erin's honour and Erin's pride in +the reign of King Brian, and made the tour of the Emerald Isle with a +gold ring on the tip of a wand. That would hardly pay the hotel-bills +nowadays. + +A great feature in the fonda was Constantine, the hall-porter, a tall +swarthy man, who was as fluent a linguist as an Alexandria dragoman. He +was Greek by birth, but had a strain of English blood on the mother's +side. His sire may have been a South Sea cannibal or a South African +lion-slayer for aught I remember; but that there was something +phenomenally bold in him I am certain. Constantine's instincts were +predatory, and his manners morose. There was a tradition that he had +been a bandit in the neighbourhood of Smyrna, or an innkeeper by the +Marseilles docks--much about the same thing, and that he was prepared to +do little jobs of human carving for a consideration. However, these may +have been fables got up by travellers in search of excitement to invest +Constantine with an interesting air of romance. He was very civil to me +and did not cheat me more than I chose. I never had occasion to ask him +to kill anybody. + +From my windows I could command the mid-basin in the Plaza, more for use +than ornament, and as great a rendezvous of the quidnuncs as a +village-pump. The panorama of life lounged or moved or bustled +beneath--shifting groups of cloaked disputants, veiled women tripping +gracefully along, stately Civil Guards in three-cornered hats, sombre +priests with Don Basilio head-gear, the various moulds of human nature +from the grandee to the mendicant, and above all that brood with which I +soon grew familiar, and for which I conceived an invincible disgust--the +sallow, peering, prating, importunate brood of hungry place-hunters, +impatient to dip their fingers into the Government pie. Cabriolets +passed to and fro, tram-cars with such sleek well-conditioned mule-teams +jolted on the rails; here a horse-soldier trotted by with clattering +accoutrements, there a water-carrier sturdily trudged; and in a +sheltered angle a long-locked vendor of a magic hair-restorer vaunted +his wondrous balm in sonorous patter, and occasionally curtained his +face with his thick mane brought over from his back as tangible +testimony to the fertilizing properties of the balm. In short, from +those windows I could take in the cardiac pulsing of Madrid. Below me, +as I sat and smoked my cigarette, the beginning of change or crux, +accident or riot, the initial whims or humours of the populace, the +formation of a procession or the overture of a pronunciamiento, were +within my ken. And at one corner of the Puerta were the General Post +Office and Telegraphic Bureau, a matter of great convenience to me, if +only they were properly managed. However, it was far easier to collect +news than to send it to the desired destination. The post was as unsafe +as in those days in another land when Mr. Richard Turpin, highwayman, +and his comrogues intercepted his Majesty's mails. As for messages by +wire, I was not long in learning that no important information was +allowed to be sent; true, the money for its transmission was taken, +but--delayed, or forwarded, or suppressed even--the strict rule in that +establishment was "no money returned." Vain were complaints. The Special +Correspondent had no resource but that of the negro suffering from +toothache; 'twas his to grin and bear it. The idea of ever again seeing +the colour of the coin which has passed into the palm of a Spanish +functionary is laughable in its pastoral innocence. As well expect to +handle last year's snow. The system of ignorant espionage still obtained +in the Peninsula, as I was forced reluctantly to observe: the word +"Cuba" or "Carlos" on the telegraphic form at once aroused the scruples +and suspicions of the official, and led to the confiscation of the +message. In the end, I discovered how to facilitate the despatch of +news; but as that is my secret I keep it to myself. Suffice it that in +my bill of expenses the item "sundries" was elastic. + +There are some valuable guide-books to Spain, and to them I refer the +reader if he desire to be crammed with curious knowledge about churches +and picture-galleries, museums of arms, and the beautiful upholstery of +the Duke of Sixty-Blazons' palace. My behest was with living not dead +Spain, as investigated during the throes of a political convulsion. I +made my notes on the Madrilenos without bias, and without bias I give +them. I spent five weeks in constant and free intercourse with all +classes of the inhabitants. During that time I did not detect one +Belleville face; I did not catch the glitter of a knife except at a +dinner-table, nor remark a single drunkard staggering along the streets. +Yet I was in every quarter of the town, to the lowest, at all hours. +There are parts of London where the foreign visitor could not penetrate +and come back with the same story. The Madrilenos are indolent--granted; +but they are frugal, temperate, and well-conducted. Occasionally a +poniard is slipped into the ribs of an enemy, but mistakes will occur in +the best-regulated families. If this be a vindictive and blood-sucking +people, the vampirism is adroitly concealed; the dirty linen must be +washed in the dark corner where the charcoal is stored, so that Paul Pry +may not be gratified with the sight. There is no working population at +Madrid; there are no large manufactories, no thriving centres of +employment. That is one reason why Madrid is orderly compared to other +and livelier cities. Prosperous Barcelona swarms with mechanics and +artisans, and that is one reason why Barcelona is disorderly. The +rights-of-man agitators generally find favour there. The International +has its ramifications in the Catalonian capital. In Madrid, the +International is a pigmy failure. Its emissaries came once and laboured +zealously to stir up the son of toil to a proper consciousness of his +dignity. After months of propagandism they succeeded in persuading +Figaro to shake a rebellious pole and fiercely flourish his +lathering-brush. + +"Know, ye smooth-lipped minions of the despot Capital," quoth the +barbers in an indignant round-robin, "we shall no longer submit to the +gross tyranny of shaving you before eight of the morning!" + +But Figaro was defeated; Madrid let its beard grow. + +The sudden departure of the Italian-bred monarch had apparently plunged +the politicians into a pit of bewilderment. They did not know how they +stood. Amadeus after his reign of five-and-twenty months had perchance +left few partisans behind him, but assuredly no enemies. His principal +fault, but that was fatal, consisted in his being a foreigner. It was +universally vouchsafed that he was very brave, a true hidalgo in that +respect, and if he had been removed in the orthodox method by revolution +or the assassin, his name would have been garlanded with rosemary for +remembrance. But Spanish pride was nettled to the quick at the cavalier +way he had tossed back, with a shrug of the shoulders, the gift of a +crown when he had tired of it. He had looked upon the throne of Castile +as a gewgaw to be surrendered with indifference, and steamed contentedly +to Italy to enjoy his comparatively obscure Dukedom and rank of General +in preference. He had chosen the wiser and happier part, but to those he +had abandoned it was mortifying in the extreme. Still, he was an +unquailing chevalier, almost fit to be a Spaniard, this son of Victor +Emmanuel. He had disarmed hostility, and compelled the praise of the +envious, the very day he entered Madrid, forty-eight hours after the +funeral of Prim, when he spurred ahead of his escort and offered his +breast undismayed to the aim of any or all assassins. + +That entry of Amadeus could not have inspired him with much of the +buoyancy of a bright expectation. There was in it more of sanguinary +suggestiveness than sanguine hope. The ghostly presence at the King's +first dinner in the palace could not be denied--that of the slaughtered +"Paladino," no longer fiery and strenuous, but a figure, inert, waxen, +blood-bolstered, a bullet-riddled flesh-target It was most unpropitious +of entries. There was an odour of cerecloth in the tapestry, the yellow +hue of immortelles in the epergnes, a sediment of bitterness in the +wine-cup, a strain of melancholy in the music. And yet there was some +semblance of gaiety, for with all his austere stateliness your Spaniard +is very like unto the Irishman: + + "With one auspicious, and one dropping eye, + With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage, + In equal scale weighing delight and dole." + +There were sundry plots to take the life of Amadeus, but Providence +protected him, and he made it a point, after each attempt or threat, to +show himself in public with the ostentation of a reckless courage. He +rode or walked about with a single aide-de-camp, which was a crime with +those monarchists who set store by the pageantry of state. On one +occasion, as he was returning to the palace, the horse in a +hackney-coach with a fat bourgeois inside took fright, and started off +at break-neck speed, overtaking the King's carriage. The King's coachman +whipped up his team, but the wheels of the two vehicles had locked in +each other, and the horses galloped frantically side by side. The +aide-de-camp, fearing a new and daring experiment in regicide, snatched +his rapier from the sheath and began furiously prodding through the +window of the hackney-coach. The fat bourgeois shrunk and flattened +himself into a corner, drew in his breath, and dodged the lunges of the +searching steel. When the palace-gates were reached, and the animals +were stopped, the unfortunate citizen was extricated from his hazardous +position more dead than alive. He was glistening with the wetness of +fright, trembled like an aspen, and blubbered as he begged for mercy. +The panelling was pierced, and the cushion ripped into rags; but by some +extraordinary luck the poor man, who was a harmless dealer in +provisions, had escaped without a scratch. But he owned that he never +before had five minutes of such violent exercise complicated with vile +terror. During the scene Amadeus kept his seat tranquilly, and relaxed +into a smile as he discovered the mistake of his too-zealous companion. + +The conspiracies of the saloons were more successful, as efforts to +annoy without contravening law always are. They are not so readily met. +And the malicious ingenuity of woman, when she lays herself out to be +offensive, is remarkably inventive and diabolically persistent. Some of +the grand dames of Madrid had the impish inspiration to put the Royal +couple into Coventry. There is a fashionable carriage-drive in the +capital corresponding much to ours between Hyde Park Corner and Queen's +Gate. Whenever Amadeus and his spouse went there for an airing, the +blue-blooded of the opposition significantly trotted off. Once an +immense procession of the aristocratic families made its appearance, and +slowly and perseveringly "took the dust." Such a turn-out of gala +equipages had not been witnessed for years. All the ladies were arrayed +in the ancient Spanish costume; the fan and veil with high comb and +carnation in the hair in every case replaced the Parisian bonnet and +parasol. It was a protest against the foreign dynasty, and was clearly +meant as a demonstration of insult. One of the Royal household was equal +to the provocation; whether Spaniard or Italian I am not sure, but the +latter I think, so subtle was his revenge. He went round to all the +houses of ill-fame in the capital that night, and entered into +conversation, burnished with duros, with their female occupants. The +next evening Madrid was afforded the spectacle in its most fashionable +drive of a parade of courtesans, in ancient Spanish costumes, fanning +themselves, and smirking at their acquaintances from the vantage of +luxurious chariots. It was a scandal, but Madrid grinned, and the +patricians of the antediluvian stem confessed themselves beaten. + +There was still a lingering fondness for the deposed Isabella among the +lower orders. They looked upon her as a good sort, one of the old stock, +prayerful, and affable. She was accustomed to enter wayside cabins, and +get into homely chat with the peasants. The Italian woman never did +that. Alphonse Daudet's description of Isabella as a stout queen, who by +her massive jaws and high complexion resembled a coarse-rinded +blood-orange, would not be endorsed by these humble yearners after the +bygone. Indeed, they regarded her as one who had been a type of beauty +in her time, and was still a type of good-nature, and were forgiving to +her peccadilloes, she was so devout. Of course I must not be understood +as speaking here of Spanish partisans of the Republican idea. They had +no more pity for the creatures tainted with Royalty than the Polynesian +for his leprous kinsman--but they were comparatively few. + +Great Britain, at that period, was represented by Mr. Austin Layard, and +the United States by General Daniel Sickles. The British Envoy was in a +dilemma; he did not know how far he would be justified in recognising +the newly-proclaimed Republic; if he received visits of ceremonial it +would be an unpardonable breach of courtesy not to return them; in +short, to use a very graphic locution of the masses, he was waiting to +see how the cat jumped, and cheerfully submitted to a diplomatic +catarrh which confined him to his room. I went to visit him, when we had +an interesting dialogue on some recently exhumed relics of antiquity and +exquisite bits of crockery-ware. Mr. Layard impressed me as more taken +up with concerns of Nineveh and Wardour Street than of _la haute +politique_. But, as he frankly acknowledged, he was not free to act +until he had received his instructions from Downing Street. Though there +is no written pact to the effect, the rule is that Russia, Germany, +Austria--the Great Powers in short--shall only act in conjunction, and +after having exchanged confidential notes, when eventualities arise +affecting all their interests, such as this in Madrid; and--another +consideration besides--was there really any Government yet? It was only +provisional. It could hardly be supposed that any of the Great Powers +would refuse to bow to the will of the Spanish people; but what was its +will? That was a question that could not be admitted to be definitely +settled. + +The United States had struck the key-note--had recognised the infant +Republic, while the Prime Minister, Senor Figueras, was waiting for the +chorus of acclamation from the "robust voices" of those Great Powers +which deliberate before they act. The United States are a fast-trotting +buggy; but these Great Powers in this miserable, played-out old +Continent are slow coaches. Not that there were not deliberations in the +White House before General Sickles was authorized to use his +discretionary power in signing the baptismal certificate of this +Republic of accident. General Sickles was undoubtedly clever; he had +experience in his time as a journalist, an advocate, and a soldier. It +was his opinion that Spain had found in the Republic the means of +establishing her power and prosperity on a solid basis. During the +crisis, he kept his Government informed of what was passing, and to his +demand transmitted by cable in the dawn of Wednesday, the 14th of +February, an answer was returned within twenty hours, permitting him to +exercise his judgment as he thought proper. He imagined that a Federal +Republic, on the pattern of that of the United States, with provincial +legislatures in Catalonia, Aragon, Andalusia, and so on, and a National +Congress in Madrid, was the panacea for the ills of Spain, and that that +would be sufficient to dissolve all antagonisms of race, custom, and +feeling, and amalgamate them into one accordant patriotic sentiment. The +General was over-hopeful in the estimation of others, who knew Spain as +well as he; but he acted rightly according to his views, and ably +according to his gifts--only it was to be hoped the General would use +his influence to dissuade his Government from offending its friends and +brothers of Spain by proposing anew a transaction that would lead to the +abandonment of Cuba--an awkward mission with which he was once charged. +Surely if a diplomatic representative could quietly talk the influential +personages of the nation to which he was accredited into a zeal for the +abolition of slavery in Porto Rico, he could quietly talk the +influential personages of his own nation into letting Spanish territory +alone. A pompous man this American Minister, active, talkative, and on +cordial terms with himself. He hobbled about on his cork leg, leaning on +the arm of his handsome Spanish wife, the second. There was a legend in +Madrid that the General had lost his limb in a duel about a lady; there +had been a question of petticoats in his career once, but it never +entered into the minds of those simple Madrilenos that a soldier without +a breastful of decorations might have been wounded, as he had been, on +the battle-field. + +The United States were friendly; but France, Republican France, what was +she doing? Why did she delay to move? She, at least, ought to have had +some fellow-feeling for another Republic without Republicans. The truth +was, M. Thiers could not come to any decision without consulting his +Council of Ministers. His action was not quite so unfettered as that of +President Grant. This was the more to be regretted that Senor Olozaga +recognised the Republic of mob acclamation--that of the 4th September, +1870, in Paris--without hesitation. The same compliment was felt by +Spaniards to be due to the Republic of accident. + +On the 20th of February, Senor Castelar took a course that might give a +galvanic shock to the world of diplomats, but which was worthy of a +bold Republican prophet. Since the mountain would not come to Mahomet, +Mahomet went to the mountain. In plainer words--but has not one an +excuse for being figurative when speaking of Senor Castelar?--the +Minister for Foreign Affairs determined to take the bull by the horns +(pardon this figure for the sake of its aptness in Spain). The +representatives of the Great Powers did not call on him; he called on +them. His coy advances were met with frigid politeness. A Madrid paper +asserted that "an important and friendly conference" had been held +between the Minister and Mr. Layard, which, to say the least, was a +_suggestio falsi_. Mr. Layard, as an English gentleman, could not but +have received his visitor in a friendly manner; but he kept within the +strict line of his very delicate duties with a studious discretion. +Senor Castelar saw plainly that events had not prepared the way and made +straight the path of the new Republic towards recognition. The Great +Powers could not be found fault with, if they were slow to admit to the +brotherhood of nations a Republic which had already exhibited within +its fortnight's existence what may be literally called two dictatures +(those of Senores Rivero and Martos), the abdication of power by a +majority, two provisional and two "permanent" Governments, a cabinet of +conciliation, and a cabinet of homogeneity, not to mention a round of +permutations in the civil governorships of Madrid, and the +captain-generalcy of New Castile, and in the commands of the armies of +the North and Catalonia. + +From the country poured in felicitations to the Republic from hamlet and +city, tumid with a rampant joy. These documents emphatically protested +that the majority of the population was Republican. Yet talk +confidentially to any Spaniard, not actually a Republican propagandist, +and not one of the ignorant lower classes of the towns--an average, +intelligent, middle-class Spaniard--and he would tell you there were no +Republicans in Spain. The thorough frankness with which Spaniards speak +of their own country, its divisions and its national faults, is +phenomenal. "We are very foolish," they own with a charming candour, +but the foreigner had better not chime in with them. They will fire up +in an instant. If they are foolish, it is no business of his; Spanish +quarrels are conducted precisely on the principles of those between man +and wife. The outsider who interposes in them must be prepared to wipe a +bloody nose. + +But the doctrines of Republicanism were producing their effects in the +army nevertheless, and the first of these was a tendency to +demoralization. The troops at Barcelona fraternized with the working +men, and raised cries for the Republic and for their own liberation from +service. They desired individual as well as national independence. In +that they were but logical. The Republicans out of power inveighed +against standing armies as a monstrosity, a relic of effete Monarchical +tyranny. The argument was now used against the Republic; the bird of +freedom was menaced by a shaft plumed from her own wing. If discipline +were once generally relaxed in the army, which is the salt of Spain, +then farewell security and come chaos. That was the chief peril in the +way. A man, in the highest meaning of the word, one born to command, +was wanted to save the country. He was looked for in vain. Prim had left +no successor. + +In forming my opinions on Spain and the Spaniards, I was aided not a +little by the good offices of a shrewd but eccentric American dentist, +named Maceehan, who had left Pennsylvania at so remote a date that +nobody could recollect it. Long as he had been absent from his native +country, he retained its accent, its peculiarities, and evergreen +patriotism, and on each recurring 4th of July gave a lavish banquet in +honour of American Independence in a restaurant decked with +star-spangled banners, and had the privilege of making all the magnates +of the capital, soldiers, ministers, courtiers, nobles, poets, and +painters, clink their glasses as he sang "Yankee Doodle." Long as he had +been in Madrid, he could not speak Spanish correctly, and his mistakes +fed the clubs with side-splitting anecdotes. He was the soul of +hospitality, and garrulous as a jay. He was in the secrets of the +wire-workers, and had a novel process of extracting information as he +extracted teeth. As his patient sat in the chair of torture he plied him +slyly with interrogatories, and learned what he wanted, but he never +betrayed confidences. In his way he was as proud as the proudest +Spaniard of them all. Emilio Castelar came to him once with an agonizing +toothache. Maceehan laid hold of the offending fang with his forceps. +Castelar shrieked and clutched at his hand. + +"You have got the wrong tooth!" + +"Caramba!" said the Pennsylvanian, lowering his instrument. "So you have +come here to teach me my business. I will thank you to leave the room, +senor." + +"I beg a thousand pardons, but consider the pain. Do with me as you +like, dear doctor." + +"The dear doctor in that case will adjourn the operation till to-morrow. +By that time the senor may have discovered that though the dear doctor +may not be an adept at literature or administration, he has some skill +at pulling teeth." + +And Castelar, in spite of his apologies and entreaties and plaints, had +to accept the penance of four-and-twenty hours. He could not think of +going anywhere else, for Maceehan was master of his profession. There +was not a set of artificial grinders in Madrid with which the American +was not familiar. He had looked into the mouths of every Infante and +Infanta, had lanced the gums of awful Captains-General, and inserted +gold wires in the ivory treasures of most of the reigning beauties. He +had been dentist by appointment to Isabella, and had care of the +_machoire_ of the lovely Eugenia de Montijo in her maidenhood. The very +thought of sipping a cup of tea in the intimacy of a man who had +fingered the palate of a Cardinal, plugged the hollow in a Queen's +molar, and arrested the manifestation of caries in the central incisor +of an Empress, was too much. It was oppressive. + +I was amply provided with letters of introduction at starting, but I was +in no hurry to present them. It was fortunate for me. Those who were in +power to-day were in disgrace to-morrow, and _vice versa_, and most of +those to whom I had credentials were leaders of parties. One +non-politician, a scion of my own sept, but no relative, I did call +upon, as funds were to be forwarded to me through his agency. A +pleasant old man, he had a brogue as Irish as the _canavaun_ of the Bog +of Allen, although he had quitted Ireland in early childhood--a mellow, +musical, unctuous brogue. What a sovereign contempt he had for fomenters +of revolution, intriguers, and the drones who buzzed while others +worked, and wanted to be rewarded for buzzing! + +"Namesake," he said, "if you knew the mean secret motives of half these +wretched politicians by trade, you would spit upon them. There was but +one man fit to govern this nation." + +I forget whom he mentioned, but it was a Marshal (Narvaez, I fancy), +who, when asked on his death-bed by his father-confessor, Did he forgive +his enemies? answered that he had none--he had shot them all. + +"There may be nothing serious here for the present," he continued, "and +yet one can't tell; but I think they will go on shilly-shallying and +tinkering up constitutions for months to come." + +"Then I should have a better field for my labours in the Carlist +country." + +"Undoubtedly; but if you think of going there, you must cut off that +yellowish-red beard or they will call you Judas Iscariot. Do you speak +Basque?" + +"No; but as to the beard, I am equal to the sacrifice of shaving it and +dying my moustache." + +"Ah, yes; you may do that sure enough, but it is not so easy to learn +Basque!" + +If I could not learn Basque I could learn of the Basques, and what I did +learn was so much to their credit that it is only fair to write it down. +They were not Thugs, they were neither sanguinary nor thievish. The +peasantry of the Basque provinces are the finest in Spain--intelligent, +hospitable, brave, gentle, but fiercely fanatical where religion is +concerned. Instances were narrated to me of travellers who had been +arrested by them, being liberated without damage to person or detriment +to purse. In one case a Frenchman was robbed by a small party, but his +money and papers were restored to him a few days after by one of the +chiefs, with an apology. The correspondent of the _Temps_, who +accompanied the army in a previous Carlist campaign, informed me that +after a skirmish in which forty Carlists were captured, he was anxious +to send an account of the affair to Paris, but he did not know how. + +"Hold!" said a colonel, "I'll find you the means." + +He called over a prisoner, and asked him if he were let off on parole, +would he take a letter through the disturbed district, and post it on +the other side for a French gentleman? The man pleaded fatigue. + +"You'll be well paid." + +At last he consented; my informant gave him the letter and a five-franc +piece. While monsieur was searching his pockets for more money to give +him, the prisoner said: + +"I have no change, caballero; how shall we manage?" + +The prisoner duly set off; the letter was duly posted and duly arrived, +and the prisoner faithfully returned and delivered himself up. Honour is +not yet extinct in the Basque provinces, nor is magnanimity in the +Spanish army. The commandant dismissed the peasant with a look of +admiration and a push on the back. But some fireside philosopher will +argue: + +"Why, these honourable fellows cut telegraph wires and fire on railway +trains." + +The Carlists explain: "The telegraph and the railway are our greatest +enemies; the one sends for reinforcements, the other brings them." + +The unfortunate station-masters are to be pitied. Lizarraga sends one +word that he will incur the penalty of death if he makes up a train for +troops. The troops arrive, their commander demands to be furnished with +a train to take him to a certain point; if the station-master refuses he +is not merely threatened with the death-penalty, but incurs it on the +spot. But the fireside philosophers, assuming the cocked-hat of the +general, will continue: + +"Why not protect the telegraphs and the railways?" The query may be met, +_more Hibernico_, by another: + +Do the philosophers know how enormous and difficult an extent of country +has to be protected? + +It would take more men than there are in the Spanish army altogether, +including the regiment of dismissed generals in Madrid, to act as +military milesmen in the perturbed territory. The Army of the North did +what it could--that is to say, it fortified the railway stations, +converting them into veritable block-houses, and supplied escorts to the +trains; but the Carlists had an unpurchasable ally in the darkness. They +could come down in the night and play old Harry with metals and wires. +The insurgents were ill-armed and undisciplined, but they were on their +own ground, every square inch of which they knew; they were leal to each +other, and they had acquired the secret of guerrilla campaigning--that +is, they harassed the regulars by fighting and running away, so that +they might live to fight another day. They avoided concentration in +mass, knowing how dangerous it is to pack all one's eggs in a single +basket. + +So daring had these Carlists become that bands had made demonstrations +in perilous nearness to the capital, or rather they had been organized +in the capital itself and had taken to the field in the neighbourhood. +From a rising ground hard by the palace could be distinguished with the +naked eye a thicket on the desolate plain in the distance, where the +remnants of one band were known to be hiding. The fates were against +the insurgents, as they were met at Buendia and badly beaten two days +after they had unfurled the banner of revolt. Eleven of them were slain, +including a priest, twenty wounded and one hundred and seventeen taken +prisoners, including their two chiefs. The elder of these, Alonso, a man +of three-score and ten, died in the military hospital of Madrid on the +19th of March. He was a venerable fanatic of asinine stupidity to have +risked a fight with regular troops in the open. Fortune, in my +experience, favours not so much the brave as the wary. Had this +particular Alonso the brave, really an Alonso the reckless, availed +himself of a few picks and spades--the first farmhouse will seldom fail +to supply entrenching tools--he might have lived to die in his own bed +of a natural disease. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + A Late Capital--The Gambling Mania--A French Rendezvous--The Duke + de Fitzpepper--The Morality of Passing Bad Money--Spanish + Compliments--Men in Pickle--A Licentious Ballet--Federal + Manners--Prim's Artifice--Nouvilas Goes North--A Carlist + Proclamation--Don Alfonso--Midnight Oil--Castelar's Circular. + + +Madrid is not an early capital--natural effect of the climate. In the +middle of the day the blinds are let down, the shops are shut, the +streets are empty--everybody who can at all manage it is taking the +siesta. The business of sunlight is at a standstill. The few hours thus +stolen from the day are religiously made restitution of to the night, +which is undoubtedly the most agreeable period for a stroll. Pleasure is +in full swing, the promenades are alive, flirtation is methodically +practised in the Spanish way--that is, through an intervening +lattice--theatres and ball-rooms contribute to the programme of +diversion, the coffee-houses (where chocolate is mostly consumed) are +packed to the door-posts, and the business of gaslight is prosecuted +with a desperate concentration of energy and a brooding perseverance. + +The business of gaslight, unfortunately, is high play. That is one of +the social curses of Spain. Everybody gambles, to the sentries in the +guard-house, the patients in the hospitals, the felons in the gaols. +Such is the overwhelming dominion of this national passion that I should +not be surprised at reading of a condemned man on his way to the garrote +craving a hand of cards with the executioner to distract him from his +sorrows. Strained the situation was at this crisis, and in all the clubs +the cards were thrown on the tables with a fever as of men seeking some +relaxation from the fierce game of politics; but, as I had opportunity +to assure myself afterwards, this was nothing exceptional. The fever for +play as high as the pocket can allow, often higher, is normal. The +foreigner--and all foreigners provided with the slightest credentials +are most graciously made free of the clubs--soon takes note of that. + +The Fornos, the Suizo, and other coffee-houses were transformed into +debating-forums, and sometimes I frequented them to catch what was going +on; but my haunt of predilection was a restaurant patronized by French +refugees. They had brought with them the Gaulish gaiety, and it was +instructive to see Communists, fugitive aristocrats, bagmen with the +asphalte of the boulevards still clinging to the soles of their boots, +and steady old settlers in Madrid foregathering in friendly +forgetfulness of differing shades of political coats. One of the three +Marquesses de Fonvielle and de Coutuly, of the _Temps_, amongst other +journalists, used to drop in regularly. De Coutuly has since strayed +into diplomacy. Touching journalists who wander into that luxurious +labyrinth, the representative of the _New York Herald_, at Madrid, a +painstaking gentleman with a certain cleverness, Russell Young, +subsequently became United States' Minister to China. Prizes of this +class, which rain upon Continental and American publicists, seldom fall +to the lot of their brethren of the British press, unless they get into +Parliament or boldly single themselves out from the anonymous herd. +Then they are sometimes promoted to a Consulship in an insalubrious +region, where they have every facility for studying the manners of the +buck-nigger, and the customs of the lively sand-fly. Far and away the +most interesting customer of this restaurant was the Duke de Fitzpepper, +a tall, dark, strong man with curly black hair, a boisterous voice, and +a bold laugh. He had to quit France on account of an affair of honour. +He had been in the Imperial Navy, had a squabble with his captain, and +resigned his commission that he might send him a challenge. They met +with the customary duelling swords, but de Fitzpepper made a mistake. He +ran his antagonist through. I know naught of the merits of the quarrel, +but to my insularly uneducated mind it appeared that the gallant +nobleman experienced inadequate remorse at having the blood of a +fellow-creature on his soul. Perhaps I am hyper-sensitive, but when de +Fitzpepper used to boast "_Je me connais dans le flingot_," it sent a +thread of cold water creeping down my spine, not from fear but from +aversion. Yet it was impossible to keep aloof from him for long, he was +such a joyous, dashing, carry-your-outworks pattern of a musketeer. + +Evil associations corrupt good manners, I suppose, which must be the +excuse for a Frenchman with whom I entered into conversation in this +mirthful caravanserai. I happened to show him a coin which had been +passed upon me, an escudo, which would be worth a sovereign if it were +not counterfeit. + +"What a shame!" he exclaimed as he fingered it. "What are you going to +do with it?" + +"Nothing," I said. "It's useless to me." + +"Lend it to me, pray." + +I gave it to him, and the following night he asked me what commission I +would allow him. He had passed the bad escudo in his turn. I was +indignant, and accused him of having been guilty of a dishonest act. I +would touch none of the proceeds of his crookedness. + +"Nonsense!" he said, astonished. "I got rid of it in a hell. They're all +rogues there when they have a chance." + +I submit to the casuists that this was a very nice case of conscience. +Winning money at cards is not earning it. He who seeks to win it is +demoralized, and it is to his advantage and the advantage of society +that he should be discouraged in his pernicious foolishness. Therefore, +q.e.d., it was commendable to palm that base coin upon him. I was +unequal to deciding the question off-hand, so I elected to take not a +real of the Frenchman's equivocal profit. But if the Frenchman was to +blame, was I not responsible in the first instance, as having afforded +him the means of cheating his neighbour? When the casuists shall have +elucidated this riddle to their satisfaction, perhaps they will oblige +by telling me how many thousand angels could alight on the point of a +needle. + +Morality is at a low ebb in Madrid, or rather the moral code is +regulated by notions peculiar to the latitude. So with habits. A man +must be "native and to the manner born," before he can affect competency +to interpret them. For example, when a Madrileno asseverates that his +house is yours, or that his equipage which you so much admire is at your +disposal, he does not intend that you should take up your residence +with him there and then, or hold his coachman at your beck. It is simply +a form of etiquette, a mode of speech, as of the Englishman of past +generations who challenged you to mortal combat and subscribed himself +"your obedient humble servant." You will be guilty of a grave solecism +if you imitate that American to whom the grandee remarked with effusion +that the stud which captivated his taste was his own, his very own. + +"Thanks," said Brother Jonathan; "I'll take the roan and the chestnut +to-day and call for the others to-morrow!" + +Although a man may tender you fraudulent coinage with a brazen front, he +may be keen in honour, and resent an insult to his sister with a +knife-stab; although he may intrigue for a Government place with a slimy +self-abasement, under circumstances the same being may go forth +unflinchingly and sacrifice himself on the altar of his country. Spain +is the home of paradox. The beggar is addressed as "your worship," +mutiny is a venial offence, bribery of officials is a recognised +prescription. At the very epoch of which I write, the murderers of Prim +were stalking about the capital; it was a town-crier's secret who they +were and who was the personage who was their employer, yet none had the +temerity to denounce them. And in the saladero, or the "salting-tub," as +the prison was called, it was notorious that there were malefactors who +gave lessons in forgery, and who positively utilized their cells as +convenient head-quarters from which to prey on the unwary public. Their +plan was to write to somebody of position, whose name they had lighted +on in a directory, and inform him that they had often heard speak of him +as a citizen of integrity, and felt that they might trust him; they were +singularly situated, immured for a debt of a few duros, and yet in the +vicinity of his residence they were cognizant of an immense buried +treasure; if he would only send them the trifle needful to pay off that +debt and cover their fare to his town, they would take him with them to +the site of the secret hoard, and repay him with interest for his +kindness. This transparent ruse actually told with hundreds of dupes. +How the _auri sacra fames_ will deprive sane men of sense! He would be +a spendthrift of sympathy who would waste his sympathy upon them. + +I had been under the impression that Spain was a deeply religious +country. The impression was illusive. It may be fanatically religious in +parts, but too often the educated classes rail at religion. As comes to +pass when inordinate demand has been made on credulity, a reaction +arises, and those whose faith was implicit yesterday become the scoffing +heretics of to-day. The tide has turned, and it is no unfrequent +occurrence to hear a Spaniard declare he is not a Christian, whose +fathers would have perhaps burned at a stake the wretch who would have +dared to utter such a profanity. This is very bad. One extreme is as +wicked as another. If the Scylla of stupid superstition was dangerous, +the Charybdis of arrogant scepticism is destructive. This is essentially +a Roman Catholic country, yet never have I seen anywhere, in the lands +where Roman Catholicism is disliked and contemned even, the ceremonies +and institutions of the Church treated with more undisguised ribaldry. I +went to the Novedades, a popular theatre in a humble quarter of the +town in the vicinity of the Calle de Toledo, to see what the piece on +the occasion, "El Triunfo de la Republica," was like. I got in as a +"Carlist ballet" was being danced; two men were dressed to represent two +famous cabecillas, Saballs and a colleague, two others to represent the +Carlist priest, Santa Cruz, and a monk of the party. Santa Cruz was +bulky as Friar Tuck, leered from under his scoop hat, drank wine, +reeled, toddled, fell, and kicked up his heels as the wild Mabille +quadrille music was played; and high was the content and noisily +expressed the delight of the audience. The four women who took part in +the Terpsichorean orgie wore the robes of nuns, and must have belonged +to the order of Sisters of Shame, if to any. They had blue hoods, white +bands across their foreheads and bosoms, red crosses wrought on their +habits, and trailing skirts of white. Their dancing was not voluptuous; +it would be a misnomer to let it down with so mild an epithet; it was +grossly indecent. They exposed their limbs, and the audience was +ecstatic at the sight. Not a murmur of censure was to be heard. And +this bacchanalian riot, too obscene for any self-respecting house of +ill-fame, was supposed to be held in a church. The scenery showed a +mockery of ecclesiastical architecture and pious pictures. As a dramatic +effort, "El Triunfo de la Republica" was very poor. Zorilla was +caricatured as a fox (a play upon his name), and Sagasta as a +devil-fish, and the apotheosis revealed the Genius of Spain waving a +flag lettered with the words, "Viva la Republica Federal!" The flag was +welcomed with vehement cheers, in affirmation that those who looked on +and admired the burlesque of ministers of the national faith were all +stout Federal Republicans, corresponding somewhat to the Communists of +the Paris of two years before. + +These Federals, I own, I do not like. A deputation of them from the +provinces arrived one of these evenings, and put up at the Fonda de +Paris. They were scrubby louts, smoked between the courses although +ladies were at table, which, however, could be condoned, as it was +Spanish. But they also wore their hats. That irritated one guest, and he +called to a waiter to bring him a hat which he would find on a peg +outside. Having been handed his head-gear, he clapped it on, and said +that was all he wanted. The hint was not lost. The boors dined in a room +by themselves during the rest of their stay. And yet these Federal +Republicans profess to respect public opinion; but by the phrase must be +understood the opinion of those who agree with them. The Intransigentes, +on whose support they depend, have arms in their hands, and will try to +keep them. Only one man was ever able to disarm them, and he was +assassinated. If Prim did not know the Spanish mind intuitively, and as +no other man ever knew it, even he would not have succeeded. After the +promiscuous distribution of arms to the multitude had been made from the +windows of the storehouses in Madrid at the close of 1868, he tried +every means to get them back, but to no purpose. Promises of rewards to +those who would give up the guns were useless; threats and coaxings were +in vain. At last Prim hit on a notable scheme. At a review he publicly +insulted the corps he was so long trying to disembody; he either rode +past them without noticing them, or made remarks on their appearance +the reverse of complimentary. The officers threw up their commissions in +dudgeon; they had served the cause of the people faithfully, and were +not to be treated with contempt; they would no longer carry arms for +such ungrateful friends. It was just what Prim wanted. + +While Madrid was thus seething and bubbling as if it were on the verge +of boiling over, and the great question of elections for the new Cortes +to determine the future "permanent" style of administration was being +mooted, the Carlists were plucking up heart and maturing their designs. +They fancied they would soon have the nation before them the _nudum et +coecum corpus_ of Sylla's description--defenceless and blind. +Nouvilas, one of the numberless generals of Spain, was ordered to the +north. At a Republican meeting before his departure, he promised that he +would take his five sons with him to fight against the Carlists. At the +same meeting he declared himself the uncompromising enemy of all +dictatorships, and warned those who expected that he would use his power +in that sense not to make a mistake. He was a soldier, not a politician, +and the day that the Republic would be consolidated, and peace secured, +he would retire into private life. It did not seem as if peace were +shortly to be secured. There was a proposition to raise fifty battalions +of free corps to crush the insurgents. The only difficulty in the way +was the loan for their armaments. The battalions were to be organized by +provinces, and each was to be composed of 900 men (making a total of +44,100), and to be officered from the reserve. The proposition of itself +was sufficient to wake the fools out of their paradise. These Carlists +were not to be underrated. If they could do nothing else, they could +issue proclamations. They were great at these. They promised to give the +army the "licencia absoluta" which some soldiers demanded from the +Republic at Barcelona. One Ramon V. Valcarces, commandant-general of the +province of Lugo, was exceedingly anxious that the Galicians should come +out to conquer or die. He told them that the national banner of their +legitimate King waved triumphantly in the provinces of Catalonia, +Castile, Leon, the Asturias, and the Vasco-Navarre, which was a piece of +bounce--legitimate, may it be called?--on his part; and added +scathingly that the Government at Madrid was in the hands of a group of +adventurers, who called themselves Spaniards and Liberals. Those +impostors would raise the taxes until it would be impossible to pay +them, would sell the Antilles and persecute religion. + +Tidings were wafted to us mysteriously that the brother of the +legitimate King, H.R.H. Don Alfonso, of Bourbon and Lorraine, had held a +review of the forces of Saballs at Vidra, in Catalonia. His Royal +Highness was accompanied by his wife, the Dona Maria. His Royal Highness +wore flesh-coloured riding breeches with black stripes, jack-boots, a +zamarra or sheep-skin upper garment, and a flat white cap of the make of +those used by Scotch shepherds. Dona Maria wore a cap of the same kind, +with a gold tassel coquettishly falling over her left shoulder. The +august pair were mounted, and the lady, who chivalrously accompanied her +husband, witched the Carlists with noble horsemanship. Don Alfonso was +surrounded by a brilliant staff, conspicuous amongst whom was a son of +that Don Enrique of Bourbon who was shot in a duel by the Duke of +Montpensier. + +The "only court" did not lack a moidering liveliness. Of nights I +usually leant by my balcony overlooking the Puerta del Sol, and watched +the frail sodality of the Moon prowling about in charge of the +superfluous duenna, the while the brawl of palaver, the cries of "agua +fresca," or of the last edition of the _Correspondencia_, the "theeah" +in such wise cadenced, or the boom of the watchman's voice came floating +upwards, before I sat me down to a hard spell of work, sifting grain +from chaff, and committing my thoughts to paper, a moistened towel round +my temples, and a pot of black coffee at my elbow. The sun was usually +ogling the fountain in the Plaza before I had finished. + +The burden of work imposed upon the correspondent who desired to be +loyal to duty was weighty on occasion. For example, late on the 26th of +February the official journal came out with a lengthy circular from Don +Emilio Castelar, to the representatives of Spain abroad. The object was +to obtain the recognition of the Republic by Powers other than the +United States and Switzerland. I saw the importance of sending a +translation of this pregnant State paper at once, and shut myself up in +my room with a supply of pens, ink, and paper, and the indispensable +coffee-pot. I was not an accomplished Spanish scholar, but with the aid +of a youthful groundwork in Latin, a fair knowledge of Italian, a +familiarity with French, and a dictionary, I succeeded in turning out a +full, accurate--nay, I will say a vivid--rendering of this historic +composition before I unlocked my door, and transmitted it to London +within twelve hours. Spanish is not difficult. If Italian is the +daughter of Latin, Spanish is the son. And with energy and mother-wit, +one can do much. + +Castelar's was a brilliant and sustained effort; but it read more like +an essay by Macaulay than a diplomatic holograph. It was splendid, but +it was not official. It lacked crispness, and dealt in excessive +rhetoric from the phrase in an opening paragraph where it spoke of Spain +assuming a place in the Amphictyonic council of Europe, to the closing +sentence. The fall of the Monarchy was traced to the hour when the +institution solemnly ceded its own country to the foreigner (alluding to +the pitiful abdication of Charles IV. in favour of his "friend and ally" +Napoleon, at Bayonne in 1808). True, attempts had been thrice made since +to revive the old system with a new spirit, but they had failed; in +1812, the Democratic Monarchy; in 1837, the Parliamentary Monarchy; in +1869, the Elective Monarchy. The former order of things disappeared +through inherent domestic causes; the Republic appeared of its own +virtue, by the law of necessity. In 1869 the Constituent Cortes had +proclaimed a Monarchy for three fundamental reasons: firstly, because it +corresponded with the traditions of the Spanish people; secondly, +because they believed it would secure liberal principles; and thirdly, +because it would harmonize their form of government with that existing +in nearly every part of Europe. The trouble was where to find the +monarch. They had no dynasty typifying religious and national principles +united to modern spirit like that of England, no princes like those who +had built up the unity of Italy and of Germany on battlefields; their +sovereign houses presented no stability. They had to look outside for a +king, at the double risk of disturbing the peace of Europe and wounding +the national sentiment. They found him in the scion of an illustrious +line, united to France by the war of 1859, to Prussia by the war of +1866, to Great Britain by the establishment of parliamentary rule in +Italy. But the national sentiment of Spain was against him. It left him +in a solitude that was asphyxia. At last he renounced a crown of which +he only felt the weight on his brow and not the dignity in his soul. +When he left, this Government came not by violent revolution, but by +logical evolution. The Republic was not provisional, but definitive. (As +if there were any finality in politics!) The Cortes which had proclaimed +it were the most permanent estate in the nation, inasmuch as when others +melted away they remained. It was the same Cortes which undertook the +national defence in the epic years from 1808 to 1814, which abrogated +the rights of Don Carlos to the ancient crown, and which sanctioned the +dethronement of the Bourbons. Spain owed the change she had effected to +no cosmopolitan influences or agitations. She sought autonomy, not +Utopianism; she coveted no conquest, but she wished to show that she was +living, not dead; that she was still great, but not with the greatness +of ruin, like the empires buried under the valleys of Asia. + +There was an excellent thickset gentleman in Madrid, a literary +pluralist, who combined the offices of "own correspondent" to several +London journals. He was a diligent "snapper-up of unconsidered trifles," +who would never set even the Manzanares on fire. He met me after I had +despatched my version of Castelar's circular, and was cooling my aching +brain on the shady side of the Puerta del Sol. + +"Did you read that thing of 'Musica's'?" he said. ("Musica" was the +nickname of the silver-tongued professor-politician.) + +"Yes; lovely and long and flimsy as a rainbow," I remarked. + +"I think you ought to send an epitome of it to London." + +"I shall not." + +"Well, I may tell you Chose is sending the whole of it on," he +continued. + +Chose was a most formidable rival. + +"Who translated it for him?" I asked. + +"As it is very important I am getting my sons to do it. Indeed, he asked +me." + +"And you never told me." + +"Ah! you see, he has a reputation to sustain." + +"And I have a reputation to make." + +"I'll let you have a _precis_ to-morrow." + +"No, thanks," I answered, turning on my heel. + +The thickset gentleman looked mighty blank when he gazed on the paper a +few days after with my translation covering nearly two columns of small +type, nor did his astonishment lessen when I confided to him that it had +been made for me by the Man in the Moon. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + Warning to Ladies--The Hotel Parliament--An Anglo-Spanish + Mentor--The Evil Genii of the Monarchy--The Curses of + Spain--Government and Religion Affairs of Climate--The Carlists, + Norwegians, and English, all Republicans!--Notions on Heredity--The + Five Spanish Parties--The Army the Lever of Power--The + Student-Caesar--Order _versus_ Republic--The Chained + Colours--Dorregaray's Appeal to the Soldiers--Influence of the + Church--Wanted: a Benevolent Despot. + + +In the first line, it may be generous to warn ladies (if any of the +gentler sex there be among my readers) to skip this chapter. There will +be no indelicate disclosures--not that indelicate disclosures would bar +the inquisitiveness of some females, judging by the ingenuity with which +they intrigue for seats at the trials in the Divorce Court, and the +avidity with which they devour "spicy," that is scandalous, details; but +matter of a political, speculative, and quasi-philosophical nature is to +be discussed, and I fear me much it will be dry and prosy. + +A shady little room in one of the upper stories of the Fonda de Paris +was used as reading-room. It was thickly carpeted, the walls were +covered with oil paintings in massive ornamented frames, and on the +tables were placed curious jars, antique candlesticks, bronze +statuettes, damascened daggers, and what is known as the merchandise of +_bijouterie_ and _vertu_. There were few papers there, and but one book, +a Spanish Army List in gorgeous green velvet cover with gilt clasps. In +fact, it was more of an auctioneer's private show-room than _cabinet de +lecture_, for the Brothers Fallola were dealers in _bric-a-brac_, and +could not forego the chance of poking their wares under the notice of +their customers. The Italian is first cousin to the Hebrew. + +We held a grave Parliament of our own in this little room, and there I +made the acquaintance of an English settler in Spain--an elderly +gentleman who had been engaged in mining. He was well educated, had +travelled widely, was pronounced in his views, and as he expressed them +with candour and was possessed of a high order of intelligence, I +listened to him with attention. Indeed, we all accepted him as Mentor. +He indoctrinated me into the knotty catechism of Spanish politics. + +Broadly speaking, he maintained that the monarchy was its own greatest +enemy. It had fallen because of its indifference to public opinion. +Among its evil genii were the pastrycook Marforio, Father Claret, and +Sister Patrocinio. The birth of a daughter to Ferdinand VII., fault of +nature, was the primal fatality. As Count O'Neil remarked when he heard +the natal salute stop at the nineteenth cannon-shot, unhappy Spain was +doomed, because of the gender of the newly-born, to be over-shadowed +with the pall of grief and mourning. But the primal error was the +unnatural marriage of Isabella to her cousin, Don Francisco. Never was +there a more ill-assorted union. A woman of ardent temperament and +strong fibre was allied to a feeble nonentity without sap or spirit. Had +she become the spouse of a man like Victor Emmanuel, things might have +gone better. + +Spain was a grand country, he held, one of the richest in creation in +minerals, forests, vineyards, orchards, silk and flocks. The people were +a people that improved upon intercourse, and had some grand qualities. +But the curses of Spain were the ignorance of the masses, the greed of +the professional politicians, and the varying ascendancy of some one +man's power in the army. + +"Was the country ripe for its existing form of government?" I asked. + +"Government," said he, "like religion, is very much a matter of birth +and training, or, to put it more briefly, of climate. The circumcision +of Judaism, the ablutions of Mahometanism, are the simple useful +dictates of some wise man skilled in sanitary science. People of warm +southern natures crave light and colour and music in worship; in colder +lands, with dispositions hardier and less imaginative, they are +satisfied with severe forms----" + +"I know all those theories about religion," I interrupted, "but I am +anxious to have your judgment on government." + +"Identically the same--affair of climate. Those who have to brave +privations and work hard for a living are Republicans; the Swiss, for +example, the Norwegians, and the Carlists." + +"The Carlists! I thought they were Royalists." + +The Mentor laughed as he said, "Royalists! why, they are the only +Republicans in this land. Have you not heard of their fueros? They +reject the tax of blood--they will have no unwilling soldiers taken from +their midst. So Republican are they that they will not tolerate a Bishop +in their ecclesiastical organization, strict Catholics though they +profess themselves. He of Seo de Urgel is the nearest Bishop to their +territory, and his diocese is properly in Andorra." + +"But the Norwegians are Monarchists," I ventured. + +"In name only, as the English are. There is no more democratic +administration in the world than that of king-ruled Norway; and in +England you are likewise a Republic--that is, you enjoy Republican +freedom, only you choose to call the President a Queen. The Queen is but +a figure-head, the vivified Union Jack. The Prime Minister, that is to +say the elect of the people, not the Queen, sways the genuine wand of +power." + +"And the House of Lords, the most Conservative hereditary legislature in +Europe, how do you account for its existence in this British Republic?" +I hazarded as a clincher. + +"An accident, my dear sir," he replied, as he pulled at his cigarette. +"Like that puff of smoke, it has no power; it is but vapour, and like +vapour it will disappear some day, to be succeeded by a Senate on the +French or American model. Life-peerages can be justified; the hereditary +principle has been tried and found wanting. The male offspring of a +jockey are not necessarily skilful horsemen; the son of a fencing-master +may be an awkward butter-fingers; the daughter of a _prima ballerina_ +may be a cripple." + +I passed that figure of speech about the vapour, though disciplined +vapour drives a locomotive. But I urged, "Do you not believe in blood? +Would you place the descendant of a line of brave and cultured men, with +traditions to look back upon, on the same level with Bill Sykes or a +Bosjesman? Is a game-cock a dunghill? Is a thoroughbred a +plough-horse?" + +"R-o-t, rot, my dear sir," said Mentor, with an irritating coolness. "Of +game-cocks I know nothing; but as far as your horse argument goes, I am +prepared to meet you. Care is taken that the mare shall be mated with +the proper sire, so that the qualities long worked up to, by judicious +crossing, shall not be lost or deteriorated; but there is no such +selection in the case of a lord; he follows his own figary, and his +figary is usually money, to regild a faded shield. Blood, sir, has less +to do with those things than education and the associations of +childhood. Send an earl's son to St. Giles', and he will grow up a saucy +gutter-boy; send a burglar's son to Eton, and he may develop into what +is conventionally recognised as a gentleman." + +There was no arguing down our Mentor on this point, so the subject was +changed, and he tried to disintegrate the ingredients in the very mixed +dish of Spanish parties--a complete olla podrida. There were five +factions in the distracted State, two schools of Monarchists and three +of Republicans. These were--1st, the Alfonsists, or those who wished +that the son of the deposed Queen should be raised to the throne; 2nd, +the Legitimists or Carlists (embracing a large body of the clergy); 3rd, +the Republicans of long standing, who were actually in power; 4th, the +ex-Monarchists--the neo-Republicans or Radicals, who sometimes called +themselves Progresistas, and favoured the United Republic; and 5th, the +Intransigentes, or the Irreconcilables, the extreme of the extreme, who +clamoured for a Federal Republic. + +"As example of that ignorance of the masses of which I spoke," said +Mentor, "the mob of Madrid is fiercely Federal, which proves that it +does not know what Federalism is; for one of the first results of +Federalism would be to reduce this capital to the plane of a third-rate +provincial town. Federalism is Spanish dismemberment. If such a system +were adopted, you would have a Royalist North, a Red Republican +Catalonia, and a pauperized Castile, politically piebald. Catalonia is +Federal, in which Catalonia writes itself down ass, for that province is +manufacturing, and with the downfall of protection its prosperity must +depart." + +"Is there any chance of Amadeus being coaxed back?" + +He laughed a laugh that embarrassed me. + +"A kick is not soon forgotten, for it is always an insult even when +administered with an embroidered slipper." + +"What do you think of the situation at the moment?" (This was in the +first week of March.) + +"Madrid," he answered, "is a hot-bed of political intrigue, and a +complicated intrigue is in act of being developed at present. This, I +take it, is a fair estimate of the situation. The men in office are +controlled by fears of the violent Republicans outside, whom they are +powerless to keep under; and the Radicals are anxious to get into office +to restrain these same violent Republicans, but hesitate because of the +apprehension that they have not sufficient material force behind them. +They would fain climb, but that they fear to fall. Thus, as you +perceive, the disorganization of the army is at the bottom of all the +difficulties, for that it is which leaves the mastery with the dreaded +Intransigents. Those, the 'partisans of action' as they are aptly +called sometimes, have more energy than either the Ministry or the +Radicals, and if this dilly-dallying goes on much longer they may make a +bold attempt to get the reins into their own hands. The Radicals are +opposed to a dissolution of the Assembly because they fear the Reds +would command the polls at the new elections, and go in for sweeping +changes on the model of their predecessors in Paris. The present +Ministers have not the vigour to check the manoeuvring that would +bring about such an occurrence, and the Radicals believe that they only +could oppose and beat down the fanatics of Communistic proclivities. +There are cynics, however, who sneer at patriotic affirmations, and +whisper that loaves and fishes have more to do with them than love of +country." + +I reflected that patriotism of that order was not an exclusively Iberian +production, but that possibly the cynics were disappointed politicians +themselves. + +"The state of the army," resumed Mentor, "is the question after all. A +great portion of the rank and file are violently Republican, and one +cause of insubordination is that the privates do not believe in the +Republicanism of their officers. Of course, the object of the Ministry +in raising the proposed battalions of volunteers, is less to put down +Carlism than to have a force to fall back upon in case of the army +giving itself furlough. I have reason to know that one Minister at least +is very uneasy on account of the want of discipline of the troops, and +urges upon his colleagues that their first labour should be devoted to +repressing all signs of disorder. But the fight for place at Madrid has +more interest for them, and the army is melting away. When Ministers +make up their minds to a rigorous supervision of the soldiery, there may +be no soldiers to supervise." + +It dawned upon me that Spaniards, although enjoying the reputation of +being quick with lethal weapons under the spur of sudden passion, were +very slow in taking ordinary resolutions. "Manana" is the watchword of +the nation: a favourite proverb is twisted into "Never do to-day what +you can possibly put off till to-morrow." As a French writer wittily +observed, the chariot of State in Spain is fashioned of tortoise-shell +and drawn by snails. + +"What do you think of Castelar?" + +"Castelar!" echoed the Mentor, with a shoulder-movement of compassionate +irony, "honest, but weak. He is too good, too single-minded, too +amiable, too much of a student to play the Caesar. Picture to yourself a +doctrinaire who can quote Aristotle in the Chamber, while his country is +travelling the road to ruin. Poor Senor Castelar is not the coming man." + +"And where may we look for him?" I asked. + +"Quien sabe? At this moment he may be waxing his moustache in the +Balearic Islands, or sipping chocolate in the coffee-house on the +ground-floor." + +That coffee-house was always full at the juncture. Indeed, to one who +had not been made stoical by familiarity with excitements, the tokens of +the atmosphere were portentous. Congress often sat under the protection +of an armed guard. The crowds in the streets were always large. The talk +was of bloodshed; but I had grown so sceptical that I would hardly +believe in bloodshed in Madrid until what looked a liquid red had been +chemically analyzed and proved to be blood. We had false alarms every +other night, and shops were shut for an hour or two; but we got no +nearer to revolution than the discussions of sundry excited parliaments +over the marble-topped tables. There Spaniards flushed purple, and +gesticulated violently over their temperate glasses of sweetened water. +What a blessing this is not a whisky-drinking country! + +"No," continued the Mentor; "Castelar is the least of all fitted to +govern Spain. This people requires to be ruled by stern will and strong +grip. The result of handing it over to a weak administration is +palpable. Of all nations of the world, Spain is least prepared for +Republicanism, and the theoretical Republicans who essayed to control +her, in an evil moment for themselves, must before this have discovered +the gross blunder they have made. The Republic is a splendid word; but +Order is a word more wholesome. The present so-called rulers are +incapable of preserving order. They sowed the wind when they taught the +soldiers to be malcontent under the Monarchy, because an army was an +artificial need in a free nation. Now that the soldiers are taking them +at their word, they are reaping the whirlwind. They promised Spain +liberty, and Spain, from every indication, is about to enjoy a spell of +license. Heaven knows how it will all end; but those who have acutely +watched changes like this in other countries are not slow to tell us +that we shall have anarchy first to the full." + +"And then?" I inquired, "for anarchy is no remedy. It is never final. +What shall we have after that?" + +"Perhaps a Conservative Republic, but more likely an iron despotism, the +dominance of some successful General who has the knack of answering his +opponents by ordering their heads to be sliced off." + +"Is not that General as likely as not to come from the Carlist camp?" I +demanded. + +Mentor shook his head in a decisive negative. "No," he said; "outside +the northern and a portion of the eastern provinces, Carlism has no +solidity." + +"But may not the name of Dorregaray, who has crossed the frontier again, +turn out to be a spell-word? They tell me he distinguished himself in +the war with Morocco." + +"Yes," assented Mentor, "he commanded a regiment of galley-slaves +there." + +"And," I continued, "in Cuba at the outbreak of hostilities he was to +the fore." + +"True, true; but I would not give that," and he snapped his fingers, +"for the fidelity of such as Dorregaray. He served under Don Carlos in +the civil war from 1836 to 1840, and that did not hinder him from +donning a uniform under Isabella. Cosas de Espana! Have you never heard +of Piquero? His action is a pretty fair criterion of the political +morality of your ordinary ambitious Spanish soldier." + +No, the man's name was new to me. + +"Well, he commanded the regiment of Malaga when Ferdinand VII. returned +from France and was made absolute monarch. General Piquero, as soon as +he got wind of the decree of absolutism, thought he would be first to +curry favour at Court, and sent an address to the palace, praying that +his regiment might have the honour of wearing chains emblazoned on the +colours in testimony of attachment to the King. The prayer was +magnanimously acceded to, and the chains were absolutely borne on the +colours for years. Yet not very long afterward this Piquero, this mean, +fawning cur, changed front and became a yelping hungry mastiff of +democracy. I don't anticipate Dorregaray would play that part." + +"Anyhow," I persisted, "the Carlist General has sent forth a manifesto +in his self-assumed capacity of commander-in-chief of the Vascongadas +and Navarre to the soldiers of the Spanish army. He calls upon them to +lay down their arms, promising them free discharges if they desire it, +but promotion, decorations, and rewards if they join his standard. What +do you think of that?" + +"I do not blame him," said Mentor. "In thus tempting the army, he is +only doing as every military chief who has ever lifted himself to power +by a pronunciamiento has done. The sergeants and corporals are +invariably lured with the bait that they shall be made captains and +lieutenants, the common soldiers that their pay and rations shall be +increased. Such men as go over to Dorregaray only act as too many of +their predecessors have acted. In this instance they have an excuse; +they can say, 'We were Royalist soldiers a few weeks ago; we are +transformed into Republican soldiers now. Our will was never consulted. +We are Royalist still, therefore we rally to Don Carlos, who represents +the principle of Monarchy.' They could say this, but I am far from +thinking they will. Spaniards of the rank and file do not chop logic; it +is the non-commissioned officers who initiate mutinies for purposes of +personal advancement; the private is a machine, not a thinking bayonet." + +In response to my inquiry as to the influence which remained to the +Church, my Mentor shook his head, and said outside the hilly regions +where Carlism prevailed, and the remote rural districts, it was next to +null, save among the more comfortable class of women. The common +Spaniard took his faith as he would his heritage; he was a Christian +because his fathers were so before him--it was an affair of family--and +his calling himself a Christian, which signifies Christian exclusively +of the Roman Catholic persuasion, is a survival of the thoughts +bequeathed by the Saracenic occupation. He who was not a Christian was a +"Moro," and to this day the Jew or the Protestant is a Moor, tarred with +the same brush as the turbaned Islamite. + +"The Church," concluded Mentor, "is not to blame if it bums incense and +assaults Heaven with prayers for such a change of Government as will +bring money to its coffers. If the Republic last, the Church will be +separated from the State, and every congregation will have to pay its +own minister. That would be frank, at all events; but so long as there +is a State religion, the ministers of which are supposed to be paid, it +is a scandal not to pay them, and their reverences are perfectly right +to turn Carlist or Alfonsist." + +After these discussions in the reading-room I sometimes felt as if I had +been endeavouring to unravel the Schleswig-Holstein tangle. Was I not +right in warning off the ladies? Truly, Spanish politics are confusing. +My usual reflections upon them resolved themselves into the uneasy +conviction that they were a Lincoln morass overlaid by a London fog, +and that it would be a joy to have some thousands of Will-o'-the-Wisp +guides prisoned to the chins in the quagmire, and replaced by one +benevolent despot bearing the light with strong, sure grasp. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + The Carnival--About Kissing Feet--Mummers and Masquers--The Paseo + de Recoletos--The Writer is taken for Cluseret--Incongruity in + Costume--Shrove Tuesday--Panic on the Prado--A Fancy Ball--The + "Entierro de la Sardina"--Lenten Amusements--A Spanish + Mystery--"Pasion y Muerte de Jesus"--Of the Stage Stagey--Critical + Remarks. + + +Simultaneously with the Ministerial crisis we were tortured by the +throes of the Carnival, which was a trial too great for a Republic so +young. But the weather came to the aid of the powers that were, and +prevented the festival from rising to a height of merriment when it +might become tumultuous. The opening day was one of leaden skies and +moist pavements in the forenoon, of little patches of ultramarine above +and little eruptions of noise below in the afternoon. There is one +consolation on a wet day--you can conveniently make inspection of the +extremities of dear womankind. I no longer elevate my eyebrows at the +Spanish formula of compliment to the mistress of one's affections--"I +kiss your feet." Anyone could kiss them with pleasure; they are so tiny, +shapely, and sylph-like. There surely are the "little mice" of +Suckling's ballad! Atalanta must have had ankles like those revealed +under the lifted skirts of the doncella yonder, Cinderella such another +pair of arched insteps. But one cannot contemplate them for ever, bitten +by the statuary's mania for the symmetric though he be. + +On the second morning, there was a light grey fog, like the smoke after +gunpowder, on the square called "The Gate of the Sun." I have tasted the +joys of Carnival elsewhere--at Rome in Papal times and at Paris in +Imperial times--but never did the tomfoolery like me less. Muggy +weather, miserable Carnival. No showers of _confetti_, no procession of +the _boeuf gras_ even. Here and there the orchestras of the theatres, +clad in the cast-off finery of the supernumeraries thereof, parade the +streets, and make dissonance with their instruments. Very German-bandish +this dissonance sounds, with a variety of horror thrown in liberally in +the shape of tambourines and triangles. One corps of mumming musicians +is dressed as Zouaves; another might be directors of a Funeral Company, +so sad their garments; a third is got up in a costume semi-nightshirt, +semi-dressing-gown; all send out agents to tout for _backsheesh_. That +is their great point of resemblance. The masquers are few in the +streets, and, such as they are, wear their motley as if for pay, not for +pastime. They are of the usual order, Pierrots, Polichinelles, and +cavaliers, with no wigs, with powdered wigs, and with curly wigs, and +with vizors hideous or ghastly, or simply droll and grotesque. Among the +latter are some which might have been designed by Dykwnkyn for a Drury +Lane pantomime; but the individual who carried off the palm of burlesque +was an equestrian I met in the Plaza Mayor, looking like one of the men +in armour of a Lord Mayor's show with bonneted head-gear, astride of a +pot-bellied Clydesdale. Perhaps he may have been caricaturing "the +ingenious gentleman" of La Mancha. My most grateful anticipation of +Spain was, that it was behind the age, and was in no hurry to overtake +it. But this did not hold good in Madrid, and dear womankind with the +tiny feet was the culprit. She disfigured herself at that epoch with an +enormous bustle on which a Barbary ape might conveniently rehearse a +bolero. Well, we have had our Grecian bends, our crinolines and +crinolettes, our pull-backs and Piccadilly limps. Fashion spells despot +everywhere, and dear womankind will cheerfully obey its dictates, even +though she have to blur her cheeks with patches, distort her spine, or +tightlace herself into consumption. + +In the afternoon a long procession of carriages (mostly hired) traverses +the Calle de Alcala and the promenade to the left of the fountain where +Cybele is sculptured driving a pair of meekest ox-like lions; the folk +in the carriages are not wildly joyous in their dissipation, nor are the +horses that draw them restive with excitement. Everything is dull, +consequently respectable; orderly, consequently dreary. The Foresters' +_fete_ at the Crystal Palace is more hilarious. No shafts of delicate +raillery are shot by cherry lips; no peal of silvery laughter rings +out. The Carnival is "stale, flat, and unprofitable," except to those +mumming musicians who have paid sixteen shillings for the license to beg +during the three mock-mirthful days. I survey the scene from a window in +the Paseo de Recoletos, and get all my enjoyment out of the cynical +remarks of a monstrously fine Burgundian lady, who criticises the +dresses of her Spanish sisters as they glide by. The dresses are very +tasteless, but the Frenchwoman's remarks are very ill-natured, and +ill-nature is gratifying when your neighbour is its object. A friend +enters and claps me on the back. + +"Do you know, old fellow, that that stormy petrel of the Revolution, +Cluseret of the Commune, is said to be in Madrid?" + +"Never! What brings him here?" + +"_Said_ to be, was my expression," he added. "As a fact, I don't believe +he is here, but they take you for him. That is how the tale of his +arrival has got into the papers." + +The Burgundian lady turns. "Cluseret!" she ejaculates; "absurd! I have +seen Cluseret; he is much taller and much handsomer than this +gentleman!" + +I bowed to hide my face, which was what Mr. Whistler might have called a +symphony in black and red, frown and blush. I have since thought what a +caustic retort I might have made if I had said politely, "And, it is to +be hoped, much more well-bred." But I said nothing, for the same reason +that Dr. Johnson gave once to Boswell--"I had nothing ready, sir." + +The panorama underneath is duller now; occasionally a foolish horseman +canters by, covered as to his person and his charger's quarters with a +flowing roquelaure of sheeny green satin; or a black-haired damsel trips +it by, with features concealed by sky-blue mask, and proportions by an +outer vesture of a painfully bright gamboge colour. I wonder is her hair +her own, and are her eyes black. Most likely they are--night eyes are +the rule here--the fair (that is the dark) sex are all going to +purgatory if the French couplet be authority:-- + + "Les yeux noirs + Vont au purgatoire." + +Again fanciful reflection is broken in upon by the thrumming of guitars, +the shrill squeak of fifes, and the eternal whirr and jingle of the +tambourines and triangles, and I descend and make my way through the +fast-thickening crowds to my hotel. There, where the company, like the +waiters, is polyglot; where a noble, white-bearded English gentleman is +sandwiched between a little German professor and a Diputado to the +Congress, where French journalists sit by young American exquisites, who +are picking up notions in Europe, and mere tourists who have come to +"do" Spain in thirteen days are listening to the experiences of a mining +engineer from the West Riding of Yorkshire, who has been in the country +for thirteen years; the gossip, unlike the fun without, is fast and +furious. But as it is all of politics, and I gave the reader a dose of +that in the last chapter and may have to repeat it anon, I turn to the +windows and scan the ever-animated, always-varying picture on the Puerta +del Sol. Ladies in veils white and black, as of Genoa and Milan +respectively, pass and re-pass, gilt missals in their hands. They will +be at the masked balls to-night, for this, as I have said already, is +the home of paradox, where the announcement of the church in which the +Quarant'ore, or Forty-hours' Exposition of the Sacrament, is being held, +is printed in the same column with the theatrical advertisements. Over +the way stand a group in the national "capa." Why do they not wear +slouched and plumed beavers? To me a chimney-pot hat surmounting a cloak +is as dire an outrage on poetic association as a Venetian bravo with a +quizzing-glass. It offends the sense of fitness. What if the Madrilenos +were to take to the Ulster-coat? It would make a capital Carnival +disguise at all events. But the cloak, is it not mysterious, +brigandish--tragic, if you will? Mark that loosely-built, tawny man of +dare-devil aspect on the edge, bending intently towards the excited +speaker in the middle. Something has discomposed him, for his cheeks +purple. There is an agitated flutter under the cloak, and its folds are +flung back. You expect to be startled by the blade of a stiletto, and +out comes a soiled pocket-handkerchief! It is as if Jupiter Tonans were +to threaten a thunderbolt and compromise with a sneeze. + +The third day of the Carnival, Shrove Tuesday, was all that could be +desired, sunny, sprightly, bustling. The streets palpitated with +merrymakers walking, riding, or driving, most of them handsomely +dressed; the music--good, bad, and indifferent--was unceasing; the +legions of roysterers attired themselves in every conceivable vagary of +costume, even to the cheap resource of a chintz dressing-gown. They were +cheerful, but in a business-like matter-of-fact way, and as they +promenaded twirled corncrakes, jingled tin cans, and tootled horns. Few +women disgraced themselves by appearing in men's clothes. Madrid is more +continent than Paris; and, to its credit be it recorded, there was +neither drunkenness nor horse-play. In the afternoon the scene in the +Prado was kaleidoscopic in variety and beauty and motion; it had in it +the gay element of the true Carnival, and those who had held aloof +before or had been deterred from sharing in the _fete_ by the +inauspicious natural weather or by nervousness owing to the unsettled +condition of the political weather, came out fresh, frolicsome, and bent +on making up for lost time. Some of the dresses were luxurious, and +triumphantly bore the test of sunshine, which is inexorable for what is +worn or seedy or imitation. And yet there seldom was a time to which the +stereotyped figure of speech about dancing on a volcano more strikingly +applied. Electricity was in the air; the troops were under arms; the +Deputies were consulting under the protection or the threat (as the +balance of feeling might incline) of canister-stuffed cannon, and it was +quite within the range of the possible that before nightfall the cavalry +might be fetlock deep in blood, and the carnage of the Dos de Mayo be +repeated--a worse carnage, for the Spaniards who fell then were patriots +slain gloriously fighting against the foreigner, and now they would be +Spaniards killed by brothers. + +The stream of pleasure was in its full force and flow when a strange +murmur followed by a succession of slight screams arrested the attention +of the merrymakers. Faces were turned inquiringly towards the point +whence the sounds came; the faces grew serious as a carriage was noticed +breaking from the ranks and driving smartly down a side-street, they +were overspread with alarm as other carriages filed off, and then, quick +as a cloud overcasts the sun, a curtain of gloom fell upon the moving +multitude. There was a halt as if by general consent, a dead silence, a +thrill of trepidation, and a rapid rush and scurry hither and thither to +shelter. Trailing skirts were caught up, vizors were thrown aside, +grey-bearded patriarchs tore off their wigs and spectacles, the fiddling +and singing came to an abrupt ending, and were replaced by curses and +shrieks; all order and courtesy were cast to the four winds of heaven. +It was a perfect tragi-comedy; a mixture of the terrible, the risible, +the ominous, the rococo. I never saw transformation so sharp. It was as +if there was no room for any less ignoble feeling in the lately jocose, +bantering throngs than self-preservation. Drivers lashed their horses +and mules and galloped off furiously; equestrians careered towards all +points of the compass; those on foot bolted into every hall-way that +stood ajar, or disappeared down the nearest openings; shrubs and flowers +were trampled upon, and in a span shorter than it takes to recount it, +the avenue of the Prado was a desert. It was fierce wholesale scamper +and stampede. The roadway and parks were strewn with fans, masks, +pocket-handkerchiefs, gloves and slippers; the entire company of +masquerading Arabs, Prussian officers, Morris dancers, Inquisitors, and +troubadours had taken incontinent flight, most of them breathless and +white; the ladies in their varied characters of gipsies, grisettes, +Galician nurses, and Court coquettes had all scudded off in such a +dismayed flutter that they had forgotten to swoon, and forfeited the +finest of opportunities of breaking into hysterics. They were really +frightened. I sought refuge (from what I knew not, whether earthquake, +hurricane or revolution) in a thick clump of bushes at the side of the +Paseo, where I stumbled over a panting make-believe toreador, and a +curious wire-woven article of ladies' dress, which latter I appropriated +as trophy. By-and-by, as no fresh cry of alarm was raised, the +bull-fighter crawled out, and I took heart of grace to return to the +centre of the town, where I learned that the scare was groundless. It +had its origin in the glitter of the bayonets of some soldiers returning +from their duties at the Palace of the Congress. Madrid was timid as a +sick girl. It struck me that if there had been genuine cause for the +panic, and that a charge had been made or a volley with lead fired, +there would have been unequalled scope for a picture of the type of +Gerome's "Duel after the Bal Masque," but on a more liberal +scale--Polichinelle pierced by a bayonet-thrust, the floured face of +Pierrot streaked with blood, and poor Jack Pudding sprawling in the +death-agonies in the gutter. + +The festivities were prolonged to the small hours of the night, or +rather of the morning, none the less vigorously for the passing +fear-spasm in the Prado; the masked balls at the theatres were packed +with guests who enjoyed themselves, or fancied they did, which is as +much as one can reasonably expect in this mundane sphere sometimes. + +The "Marseillaise" from a vibrating brass band might be heard, nay +almost felt, crashing through the glass-doors and bursting in a cataract +of sound through the drapery at the entrances of the cafe on the +ground-floor of the Fonda de Paris at the hour when honest burgesses +should be _tete-a-tete_ with the pillow. + +On Ash Wednesday, which rose rainily, there was an augmentation in the +average of headaches, and a rise in the rates for apothecary's stuff. +The pious revellers went (with an interval for washing and change of +clothes) from the ball-room to the churches to receive the ashes. +"Remember, man, thou art but dust, and unto dust thou shalt return," +says the priest, and smears their foreheads with the cinders of last +year's palm-branches. Another custom, peculiar to the date, the +"entierro de la sardina," was duly observed by those wicked rogues, the +non-pious revellers. The sardina is not the fish, but a portion of the +intestines of a pig, which is laid to earth with pseudo-lamentation in +token of _carne vale_, farewell to flesh-meat for forty days. With a +lugubrious affectation of grief the funeral pageant passed. It was very +profane--an undissembled mockery of a religious procession. A banner +striped pink and yellow and inscribed "a los Cubanos" was carried in +front by a fellow in West Indian negro dress with blackened face. Next +came a troop of blackened acolytes, two by two, and then a canopy such +as is borne over the Host, which canopy was held in travesty of homage +over a beer-keg. A sacrilegious choir, chanting a parody of a Gregorian +hymn, paced behind, and a gigantic blackguard, the _serpent du village_, +supplied a droning accompaniment from a bassoon. A blackened +high-priest, with a conical black hat and a cope bee-barred black and +yellow, closed the burlesque train and made believe to read a mass-book +through his pantomimic goggles. There was an attendant who rang a +funeral bell, another who tapped a muffled drum, and a third who swung +right under the nostrils of the onlookers a censer containing ground +resin made vile to the smell by some fetid compound. Occasionally the +profane rascals halted for a pull at a goat-skin of wine. + +There are some queer customs, the undeniable relics of paganism, in +Spain. On Christmas-eve the streets are paraded by men rattling pots, +just as the Romans used to celebrate the row that was made in Olympus to +hide the birth of Jupiter from Saturn. In the Basque provinces they +honour the Virgin Mary under the name of Astarte, a clear loan from the +worship of Venus. As I am treating of queer customs, it is worth +chronicling that the Republicans entered the churches as soon as their +favourite Government was proclaimed and frantically rang the bells. A +Bishop took care to exorcise the Republican demon next day by carefully +sprinkling the bells with holy-water. + +For all the Lent, the treacherous and trying weather, the wars and +rumours of wars, Madrid enjoyed herself, ate, drank and made merry, +flirted and gambled. The Opera, a cosy well-frequented resort of the +fashionable set, was open, and gave the _Creation_ and _L'Africaine_, +and the usual repertory of musical masterpieces of which I plead +profound technical ignorance redeemed by passionate fondness. The +soprano was that plump goddess with the dimpled double chin, fair-haired +Marie Sass. The orchestra was one of the finest I had ever heard, and +the chorus in personal appearance one of the ugliest I had ever seen, +and that, I can assure the reader, is saying much. The Zarzuela, a +play-house devoted to opera-bouffe--the sacred lamp of burlesque was not +trimmed--presented "Golden Dreams," a beautiful piece with plot and fun +not cumbered with that scenic sumptuousness which is trying to edge +acting ability off the boards elsewhere. + +The respectable theatres in Madrid shut their doors on the Fridays in +Lent, and respectable theatre-goers remain at home. It is not the +correct thing to be seen pleasure-hunting on a day of mortification and +white meats. But actors must live, as well as in London. Those who are +connected with high-priced houses and are decently paid can afford to +lose one night in the week. But there are poorer followers of the +Thespian art who are in very bad case indeed, owing to this tribute to +religious scruple. If we are to be virtuous, well and good: but let us +be virtuous in earnest. We have bull-fights on the Sundays in Lent. Why +may we not enjoy the singing of Marie Sass in _Norma_ on a Lenten +Friday? This thin distinction between what is right and what is not--so +thin that men of the cold north cannot make it out--comes under the +category of those indigenous peculiarities which surpass all +understanding. Anyhow, it presses rather heavily on the humble votaries +of the sock and buskin who are attached to the middle-class houses, and +who are docked of one night's salary in every week of the seven in the +penitential season, in order that the proprieties of a public which is +not particular to a shade as to how it observes the Sabbath may be +respected. The low theatres--the Romea, where the Republic is glorified; +the Alhambra, where heels are kicked up and lewd songs are rolled forth; +the Capellanes, where monks and nuns are caricatured, have reason on +their side, at all events. They dare to be logical in their contempt for +the Church, and keep open all the year round, on Friday as on Sunday, in +the time of fasting as of feasting. + +The Teatro Martin is not a low theatre nor yet is it a high-priced one. +The actors there are not rich, but the audience has some pretensions to +delicacy of taste. What is the lessee of the Martin to do during the +Lent? To rob his treasury of one night's receipts and cheat his patrons +of one night's enjoyment? That would be the last crime any spirited and +enterprising lessee would dream of committing--if he could avoid it. +From this dilemma the gentleman of the Teatro Martin has discovered an +escape. He opens his house on Fridays, but he converts it into a temple; +he reconciles amusement with religion; he produces a Passion Play! I +went to see it for the special reason that it was my privilege once to +describe the Passion Play in the Bavarian Highlands, and I was anxious +to compare one representation with the other, and, if possible, to renew +my emotions of the past. + +The house was tolerably full, except the boxes, which were unoccupied, +save one by a sedate family party. Devout folk of the Latin race are +famous for the interest they take in the spectacular. They admire the +pomps of religion; and this Passion Play, which was almost a function, +had evidently brought many to the theatre who are seldom seen there on +ordinary occasions. I thought I could detect a pious bearing in the +pittites. The well-to-do persons--male and female--who sat patiently on +the mouldy benches looked serious, as if they had come to assist at a +sacrifice. There were old ladies there, I could almost take my word, who +are more often to be encountered, with morocco-bound prayer-books in +their shrivelled hands, creeping to early service. The gallery was +packed, and the gods, for gods, were gentlemanlike. There was nothing in +the aspect of the house meriting description--it was roomy, ill-lit, +full of draughts and dust--one of those houses we know so well. The +scene-painter, if the act-drop was a fair sample of his powers, was a +victim to colour-blindness; the orchestra showed a Republican freedom in +its scorn for the trammels of time and tune; but the prompter in his +hooded box, full in the middle of the range of footlights, was the +feature of the show. He had a very distinct voice--so distinct was it +that every sentence he directed to the actors rebounded from the flats, +came back in sibilant echo, and ascended to the gods. I have no +intention of giving an analysis of the piece; to speak the sad truth, it +did not come up to my expectations. Ober-Ammergau spoiled me for +exhibitions of the kind. I could not screw up my enthusiasm, tried I +ever so hard. That which charmed in Bavaria had no charm in Spain. The +stately panorama which was put before the awe-struck spectator in that +valley of the Ammer was not visible here. The blue sky overhead and the +eternal hills in sight above the walls of the simple wooden structure; +the music so tender and solemn; the clear-browed peasants losing their +identity in the fervid rendering of their parts; the enraptured +attention of the auditory, whose lips moved in prayer sometimes, and +whose eyes sometimes brimmed with tears, as if the scenes they watched +were real--those were things to be remembered. They were the points that +helped to make an impression in Bavaria, that dispelled prejudice and +replaced it with a pleased satisfaction which insensibly swelled to +admiration; but they were wanting in this stuffy play-house. No illusion +was possible. One never lost the consciousness that he was looking on at +a stage-play acted for money by indifferent stage-players. There was a +smell of paint and tobacco-smoke about. Then there was the voice of that +irrepressible prompter, the shaven faces of the hungry supernumeraries +who played the Roman soldiers, the gas-rakes, the shaky wings, the mark +of the trap-doors from which devils with a family likeness to the imps +of pantomime spring up to-night, and the statue of the Commander may +emerge to-morrow night, the scenes that would not run smoothly in the +grooves, and the stiff stereotyped exits and entrances. Everything was +of the stage, stagey. One could not get rid of the notion that Caiaphas +had dined on puchero with its flavour heightened by garlic. It was very +palpable that the Apostle Peter wore a wig and a beard of tow. Mary +Magdalen had an air of operatic resignation, and was troubled with the +arrangement of her drapery. There was a layer of pearl-powder on the +Virgin's cheeks. + +I shall not bore the reader with an essay on mysteries and +miracle-plays; neither, as I have said, shall I attempt to analyse this +sacred drama, in seven acts, of "The Passion and Death of Jesus;" but I +shall take the liberty of giving an epitome of some notes, pencilled on +the spot, in the intervals of interruption by that loud prompter. The +_Pasion y Muerte de Jesus_ (that is the Spanish title) is written by Don +Enrique Zumel, who appears to have fathered as many pieces as Lope de +Vega, but whose pieces are not quite so well known. It was brought out +for the first time in this self-same Teatro Martin on the 3rd of March, +1871. It is in verse, and has some literary merit. In the main incidents +it resembles the Bavarian play, which does not deviate noticeably from +the Bible narrative. It is unnecessary, therefore, to go over the +incidents of its various acts. The Greek chorus to be remarked at +Ober-Ammergau is absent. The tableaux from the Old Testament prefiguring +events in the New are absent also. The first Act opens with a dialogue +between Magdalen and some women of Jerusalem. The Saviour, with the +Apostles, enters on the scene almost immediately after. Magdalen's +garments are rich with spangles; her mantle is scarlet; she has flowers +in her luxuriant tresses, and looks a vain creature. The Saviour is +personified by an actor with a singular likeness to Joseph Mayer, the +Bavarian Christus. Pale, clean-chiselled face, long black locks +smoothed over, downcast eyes, a meek demeanour generally--the +characteristics are identical. The voice of this man, who essayed so +awful a _role_, was low and sweet; and, to give him his due, he moved as +if he was filled with respect for his dangerous part. The Virgin comes +on the scene in the same Act. She is clad in blue nun-like raiment. The +people who filled up the background wore sandals, and had white towels, +swathed in folds like those of the turban, round their raven-black hair. +The entry into Jerusalem was shown, the Saviour being mounted on a white +ass. The orchestra here woke up, and played a joyous strain to a chorus +commencing-- + + "Con palmas y oliva + Y alegre cantar + Y pintados florea + De lindos colores + Hijas de Juda + Llegad! Llegad!" + +and terminating with a hosannah to the Redeemer. The only anachronisms +in dress that impressed me in this first Act were a silk net with which +one young person of Jerusalem confined her rebellious hair, and a strip +of black velvet which another had fastened round her throat, bringing +out the whiteness of her skin by contrast. In the second Act Caiaphas +speaks of Jesus as the fomenter of a "thousand conflicts between Church +and State." The Last Supper is pictured after Leonardo da Vinci, and +Judas comes into relief, a sullen scowler, who overdoes his part thus +early. In the garden scene in the third Act the figure of Jesus in +prayer is shown with a ray of _luz Dumont_, the lime-light of our London +stage, playing upon it! I left my seat after this, and loitered outside +till the Crucifixion scene was on. At Ammergau it was appallingly +impressive; here it was sensational purely. The drama wound up with the +bursting open of the sepulchre. I came away free from any desire to +witness Don Enrique Zumel's production again. Without absolutely +shocking one's feelings on a subject which should be sacred and +approached reverently, if at all, his Passion Play offended fine taste +throughout because of the obtrusive staginess of its action, get-up, and +surroundings. Still the actors were occasionally applauded, and the +audience left in a contented mood. + +But the provisional rulers took care that those under their guardianship +should have stronger pabulum than spoon-meat. + +Napoleon I., unless the tale be a legend, used to order a new coat of +gilding to be laid on the dome of the Invalides when the people of Paris +chafed under his tyranny. That gave them something to talk +about--supplied a sensation of twenty-four hours. The Spanish Republican +governors are working on the same principle. _Panes et circenses_ was +the charter of the Roman plebs, "pan y toros" is that of the plebs of +Madrid. I do not know how it is with the bread, but the rulers let the +lieges have bulls galore to occupy their minds. There are grand corridas +for professionals and amateurs. Nor is bull-fighting the only pastime +provided for the populace; cock-fighting, with game-birds from the +Canary Islands, is also carried on every Sunday morning in a pit +constructed for the purpose, mains are scientifically fought, and money +is prodigally squandered. All countries have their peculiarities. In +some, people go racing on the Lord's Day; in others they are content +with getting drunk in the bosoms of their families. + + * * * * * + +NOTE BY MY VERY LEARNED AND AMIABLE ACCOMPLICE, DR. DANN.--That great +writer on Spanish folk-lore, Mesonero Romanos, better known as "El +curioso parlante," who flourished some fifty years since, seems utterly +ignorant of the record of the "entierro." His account only goes to show +that Spain is the most conservative country of Europe. A huge "sardina" +placed on the top of a bier is carried by a number of fellows in +carnival costume, each of them having on his head a cone of immense +height, somewhat resembling the dunce's cap that was formerly such a +usual thing in English village-schools. In front, and at the back of the +procession, appears a crowd of young men and of girls from the slums of +Southern Madrid, in three groups, called "coros," or choirs. There is +the "coro de mancebos," or young men's choir; the "coro de doncellas," +or girls' choir; and the "coro de inocentes," or innocents' choir. The +_locus in quo_ is that part of the south of the Spanish capital which +extends from the Vistillas de San Francisco to the Church of San +Lorenzo; for, in contradistinction to Paris, the South of Madrid is +almost exclusively inhabited by what M. Gambetta used to call the new +social strata, while Mr. Bright spoke of them many years ago as the +_residuum_. In connection with the sardina, and rising on the same +coffin, a figure of "Uncle Marcos" is carried, somewhat similar in form +to the stuffed Guy Fawkeses which are carried about in the streets of +London on the 5th of November. When the procession has reached the +Puente Toledana, the figure of Uncle Marcos is burnt on a funeral pile, +and the sardina is buried in a ditch prepared on purpose. While all this +is going on, songs intended to be parodies of the Catholic Church hymns +and canticles are chanted by the accompanying choirs, and altogether the +performance is, for all practical purposes, a parody of the Church +processions so frequent in Spain and all Southern countries. When it is +all over, a good many of the actors indulge in libations. Not +unfrequently the burial of the sardina is followed by a free fight, and +half a dozen dead or wounded are the outcome of the battle. Disgusting +as the whole performance may appear, more especially the blasphemous +simulacre of religious worship, it must be admitted in palliation that +the very idea of mocking the rites of the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman +Church never so much as enters the minds of the performers, who would +repudiate with the utmost indignation the notion of intentionally +placing themselves outside the pale of the Church, and violating the +"buenas costumbres" by what they are doing. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + Another Chat with Mentor--A Startling Solution of the Spanish + Question--The Penalties of Popularity--The Republic another + Saturn--The New Civil Governor--The Government Bill--Outside the + Palace of the Congress--Providential Rain--Wild Rumours--Federal + Threats--The Five Civil Guards--Inside the Chamber--The Great + Debate--The Two Reports--Compromise--Minor Speechmakers--A + Pickwickian Contention--The Division--Victory for the Ministry--The + Five Civil Guards Trot to Stables. + + +On the morning of March 8th, I met my Anglo-Spanish Mentor in the +reading-room of the hotel. To my usual inquiry as to the condition of +health of the Republic, he replied that he thought we were nearing the +critical point. + +"There is a cataclysm impending," he said. "We have got beyond the stage +of changing the names of streets and substituting the Hymn of Riego for +the Royal March. Everybody agrees that a _coup d'etat_ is necessary, and +may be imminent; we want an intelligent despotism--but the despot must +always be a man of our own party. There is the hitch. Castelar probably +may have some amiable hobby, like Lamartine, of 'employment for adults +and education for the young.' Whatever be the sequel of the trial of +strength, I hope we may have a strong administration, not one like the +present, where the Minister of Grace and Justice is all grace and no +justice. + +"Do you know," he added, after a pause, "I have an idea as to the +solution of this Spanish question?" + +"What is it, pray?" + +"SELL SPAIN TO ENGLAND!" + +I roared with derisive laughter. + +"I am serious," he continued. "This is the age of arbitration. Why not +of colossal international barter? We could rule the country as we rule +India, set Sikh against Hindoo, and play off Ghoorka against both." + +"You do not reckon with Spanish pride," I said. + +"Bah! The pride that lowered itself to the acceptance of foreign royalty +might condescend to pocket foreign gold." + +"When Pedro brought me my chocolate this morning he told me there had +been demonstrations in some of the lower quarters." + +"Yes; but they are easily accounted for. The populace do not see the +impracticable promises of the Republicans realized, and are impatient +for the millennium of liberty, equality, and fraternity, with no work +and lots to eat superadded. But the demonstration was very trivial, it +limited itself to the sticking of a red flag in front of a hall-door. +There are wicked slanderers who say that Figueras had something to do +with it, and passed the word that the 'people' should bring an outward +pressure to bear upon his brethren of the Assembly, so that he might get +rid of some of his ungrateful colleagues by the argument, 'See, you are +impossible, the people won't have you; better for the sake of order +leave, that you may avoid the humility of being sent away.'" + +"Surely," I expostulated, "Senor Figueras would not descend to such a +base trick of democracy!" + +"My innocent friend," said Mentor, "once a man binds himself to what is +falsely called the 'people' he has to put up with much inconvenience, +swallow his pride, and humour his exacting pet. Figueras knows this +already; he has been stopped by groups in the streets at various times, +and obliged to amuse them by small harangues, the same as if he were a +Punch-and-Judy showman, making his 'pitch' for ha'pence." + +"Unpleasant situation," I remarked. "He must weary of that soon." + +"Most likely his admirers will weary of him--and then," said Mentor, +with a chuckle--"then for a spell of chaos. The Republic, like Saturn, +has an ugly propensity for devouring its offspring. The mob fondles +Republicanism as its exclusive property, spreads palm-branches under the +feet of its prophets one week and stones them the next. Castelar, +Figueras, Pi y Margall, are the prophets to-day; they will be victimised +in the end. To them will succeed men more violent, who will make larger +promises, and then, finally, will spring up a strong reaction and a +return to something old-fashioned and stable." + +Mentor was a thorough-paced Conservative and a pessimist into the +bargain. In order to draw him out I pleaded that the Government was +doing its best to conciliate all parties. For instance, it had appointed +Estevanez, Civil Governor of Madrid. + +"Aye," said Mentor, "another evidence of the truth of what I advance. +That was done to please the Intransigentes. Estevanez is beloved of the +Reds, and took to the hills a few months ago in assertion of Federal +Republican principles. He held the rocky mountain pass of Despenar +Perros in Andalusia, at the head of a handful of men, but he boasts that +he neither destroyed railways nor cut telegraphic wires, and holds +certificates to that effect from the railway companies and the +Government. He is an old soldier, a man of energy, and his influence +with his party in this province is paramount. If the Constituent Cortes +proclaim a moderate or a united Republic he may make himself +obstructive. But I must bid you good-day; I am off for my constitutional +in the Botanical Gardens." + +The reference to the Constituent Cortes reminded me that this was the +date appointed for the consideration of the Government Bill for their +election, introduced into Congress on the night of the 4th of March. +This Bill consisted of eight articles, the most important of which were +that the elections should take place on the 10th of April and three +following days, and the meeting on the 1st of May; that all Spaniards +above the age of twenty should have votes; and that on the suspension of +the session of the existing Cortes a permanent committee from their +members, with consultative functions, should be appointed for the +interregnum. It was felt that this was throwing down the glove, and the +lines were now marshalling for the tug of war. The Radicals are +disquieted. They know that if they go to the country not one-third of +them will be returned, for the reason that whoever holds the Ministry of +the Gobernacion, or Interior, in this paradise of universal suffrage can +return the nominees of his party, and determine their majorities with +mathematical certainty. Ministers act illegally in the article which +provides that men of twenty may vote. The young men are the main +strength of Republicanism everywhere, and this article at a single +arbitrary scratch of the pen adds half a million electors to the rolls. +Hitherto the right of voting was restricted to males who had attained +twenty-five years. The Radicals object to this sweeping alteration in +the law, made with the distinct object of defeating their chances; and +the hatred of those half-million of young men thus sought to be +enfranchised by the new Republic will be acquired to the Radicals from +the very fact of their opposition. + +When the hour for opening the Congress came, the building looked more +like a barrack than a House of Parliament. A grim Guardia Civil, in a +three-cornered hat, stood sentry, with fixed bayonet, at the side-door +in the Calle de Turco, by which the Deputies enter. At every window men +in uniform were to be seen; officers with jangling scabbards moved about +the lobbies and ante-rooms, instead of the usual moody, sallow, shabby +crowd of taciturn waiters on Providence, muffled in mantles and hidden +in smoke, who hang about for hours, and occasionally pass mysterious +slips of paper by the liveried and silver-laced ushers to Senor Don This +or That within. + +What can their business be? I often puzzle myself by asking. Have they +claims on Government for ancestral property gone down in the Armada? Are +they pretenders to the succession in a licence to sell tobacco and salt +in Minorca? Or are they simply intriguing for a ticket to the House? The +problem waits for solution. + +They are not here to-day. In their places are the soldiers who watch +over the safety of the representatives of the people. Luckily it is wet, +and the crowds outside cower and huddle under a camp of umbrellas. Your +persistent drizzle is a terrible enemy to revolution. There is nothing +like it for putting a damper on noisy out-of-door agitation. But the +occasion is a great one, and though the clouds seem to have been +transformed into tanks with bottoms pepper-castored with leaks, and +never tire of the weary drip-drip, the citizens of Madrid bravely +affront the weather and collect on the sloppy approaches to the Palace +of the Congress to discuss the affairs of the commonwealth. They look +resolute enough to go under a shower-bath in the interest of their +country. Patiently they stand, with knit brows, their soaked mantles +clinging to their persons, while the Deputies drive or walk up, and +enter to take part in the important discussion at hand--the discussion +which is to decide whether there are to be barricades in Madrid and in +all the great cities, and some widows the more in Spain within +four-and-twenty hours. + +Denser grow the throngs and livelier the excitement, for all the rain. +Reports the most eccentric and alarming are bandied about. The people +have burned down the churches in Malaga; but Malagueno, "as everybody +knows," remarks a French journalist, "is the synonym for _mechant_." In +another knot a rumour circulates that a meeting of Radicals had been +held the evening previous, at which the German, Austrian, and Italian +ambassadors were present, and that they spoke of the necessity of a +joint intervention to assist in the restoration of peace. This senseless +rumour was believed by some fools, and the Radicals who were supposed to +be ready to open the door to the foreigner were cursed and hissed, or +howled at, as they stepped into the Palace. Word passes that the +Intransigentes are in arms in the lower quarters of the town, and have +taken up "strategic points" in view of any emergency that may arise. If +the Government is beaten they mean to raise the red flag, to occupy the +theatres as they did once before, to turn the Plaza Santa Ana and the +Plazuela de Anton Martin into head-quarters, and, if necessary, to march +on the Parliament-house and make an example of those traitorous Radicals +who would betray the people and bring back the Monarchy. Law-fearing +Madrid is in a state of wan terror, and thanks Providence for that +thrice-blessed rain. The men who compose the noisy groups belong to the +lower classes; they are not very numerous, but they are very determined. +The active demonstration is confined to a nucleus of some one hundred +and fifty persons. Delegates occasionally arrive from distant parts of +the town, whisper to comrades in the mob, and depart. It is known that +the troops are confined to barracks, that a hundred picked men of the +Guardia Civil have reinforced the garrison of the Palace of Congress, +and that Senor Martos has not quitted it since the previous night. + +Try and realise to yourself a crowd from Clerkenwell Green surging and +yelling angrily in the open space before Westminster Hall, a battalion +of the Coldstreams keeping watch and ward on the faithful Commons, and +Mr. Speaker, for reasons of personal security, compelled to have a +shakedown in the House! + +At half-past three o'clock the flag is run up to the head of the staff +on the roof, but it droops limp and woebegone in the wet. The Assembly +is in session. The waiting crowds increase; the windows commanding a +view of the Palace are filled, and the pavements of the streets +contiguous are black with anxious loiterers, in spite of the detestable +weather. News of what is going on inside the Chamber escapes by +driblets; as soon as a Deputy or a reporter comes out he is button-holed +and interviewed. + +"The Radicals hold firm," says one, and there is a howl of rage, and the +chattering _flaneurs_, who linger on the pavement at a safe distance, +stir their heels with a rare unity of sentiment. "Devil take the +hindmost!" is the motto of these dignified burgesses of Madrid when a +cry of danger is raised; bang go the shutters against the shop-windows +in a jiffy. + +At one period the attitude of the crowd immediately opposite the +entrance of the Palace boded ill; cries of "Viva la Republica Federal!" +and "Death to the Radicals!" were raised, and Senor Estevanez, the Civil +Governor of Madrid, was obliged to come out and speak to his pet lambs, +and pacify them with the assurance that the Federal Republic was safe. +Five mounted Civil Guards took up their stations at the mouth of the +Calle de Turco after this, and stood there silent, statue-like, with +drawn swords in their gauntleted grip, until day had melted into +twilight, and twilight into night. These five cavaliers, in their heavy +cloaks, blacker than the darkness around, had really something +supernatural in their grisly quietude as they rested stock-still in +their saddles. Their mission was ominous of evil; they were there an +ugly index of what was feared. Had they found it necessary to clap spur +to their horses and plunge upon the mob, I would not have given much for +their lives. Those five "lost sentinels" were sure to have been picked +off before their comrades on foot could have sallied from the adjacent +building to their rescue. Sinister-looking fellows, in jackets and fur +caps, with rifles slung across their shoulders, were not ensconced in +the street-corners in easy range without a purpose. + +The scene inside the Chamber gave equal token that a question of vital +interest was being debated. The gallery assigned to the public was +crammed as closely as the pit of Drury Lane on Boxing Night; the press +gallery ran over with reporters; every seat available was full but those +reserved for the ambassadors. Their seats were empty; not even the +war-worn figure of General Sickles was to be distinguished. Cristinos +Martos, looking anxious but firm, was in the presidential chair; and the +halberdiers in purple and gold, with their heavy silver maces and +nodding white plumes, occupied their accustomed places to the right and +left. + +The President rings his bell for business. The first operation is to +read the minutes of the previous sitting, which are approved. Then one +of those obstructive members to be encountered in every legislative +assembly--be it Reichsrath, Rigsdag, Skupstina, or Storthing--rises to +take his little innings on some petty topic that concerns none beyond +his own small circle. He is quickly bowled out, and the order of the day +is arrived at--that for which we are all waiting, that which makes this +one of the most serious and important sittings since the abdication of +the King. The reading of the reports of the committee was first +proceeded with, that of the majority taking precedence. This document +was rather long, but may be summarised into a lament that the Government +intended to make the permanent committee a purely consultative body; a +declaration that the time was unsuitable for an election, civil war +being actually carried on in Spain; and a protest that the clause +establishing twenty as the age from which the privilege of voting dated +was "an abuse and an irregularity." It concluded with a project of law, +in a single article, binding the Assembly to convoke the Cortes whenever +it considered the condition of the country such as to guarantee freedom +of suffrage and the interests of the Republic. + +Primo de Rivero's report was then read. He based it on the conviction +that the transitory period should be closed in the interest of domestic +order, and that the Constituent Cortes would be the true representation +of the national will. To effect conciliation, he would submit a bill +fixing May 10th as the period of election, June 1st as that of the +meeting of the Cortes, and twenty-one as the age at which Spaniards +should have power to exercise electoral rights. + +The consideration of the report of the minority, which was looked on as +an amendment, came first. + +The Chief of the Executive Power, Figueras, himself opened the +discussion. The Government had presented a bill so framed that they +hoped it would satisfy the divers aspirations of the Assembly. They +thought they could go no further, but since Primo de Rivero had seen fit +to draw up his conciliatory report they had resolved to modify their +primitive proposition in certain particulars, such as the definition of +the faculties of the permanent committee and the date of the elections. +But that was the extreme limit of compromise. They would stand or fall +by the vote about to be given. If the Chamber gave them its support they +would proceed with the rude task of administration, and they were +resolved firmly to sustain order, military discipline, and the majesty +of the law. Here Senor Figueras branched off into a schoolboy digression +as to what the law was, and how it should be administered. Coming to the +real point, he said if Primo de Rivero's bill were rejected, the Cabinet +would hand in its resignation, and would ask the representatives to name +its successors on the spot, for in those critical moments a solution of +continuity in power would be attended with grave risks. + +Senor Guardia then rose to deny that the existing Chamber had fulfilled +its mission, and that the opportune time had arrived for the election of +another. The very Government itself had made avowal to that effect. +Certain bills remained to be discussed and voted. Besides, had they not +other duties of greater necessity? What was the state of the country? An +armed absolutism prevailed in some provinces; Catalonia recognised no +chiefs but those of the locality (here there were interruptions). In +the cities of the South, the public forces had abandoned their arms to +persons more or less authorised in some of them, and in others the +partition of sacred property had been announced. In the heart of Castile +and Andalusia the ayuntamientos had to resign in the presence of +superior force. Under those circumstances no elections could be carried +on with liberty. And, as if this were not sufficient, there was an +article which added 400,000 electors to the register. This was an +aggravation of difficulties when mistrust was supreme everywhere. The +majority of the reporting committee (of which he formed part) believed +that the initiative of a convocation of the Cortes should come, not from +the Government, but from the Chamber. The destruction of the elements +which were not represented in the Government was what was sought by this +call for a new Chamber. + +Primo de Rivero then explained his position, which was curious. He, a +member of the Radical party, disagreed with his colleagues; but his +motive was the salvation of the Republic. If his bill were not +accepted, the disasters that would fall upon the country would be +tremendous and immediate. This plump declaration created what is called +"sensation." The General next reviewed the different solutions which +offered themselves. A new Cabinet of Republicans of long standing was +not to be thought of, and a mixed Cabinet would be a calamity. One other +solution remained, the formation of a Cabinet from the Radical majority. +With all respect he would ask, Did that majority possess the moral +authority to raise the standard of Republicanism? Did they recollect +that their former chief, Ruiz Zorilla, called them cowards because they +were about to proclaim the Republic? He repudiated the accusation. + +Here there was a row, which recalled to mind that famous one between Mr. +Pickwick and Mr. Blotton, of Aldgate. Senor Juan Ramon Zorilla rose to +defend his absent relative. After a call to order, and a palaver, during +which Primo de Rivero explained that he was speaking merely of Senor +Zorilla the politician, but that Senor Zorilla personally was all that +was honourable and patriotic, the discussion flowed back into its proper +channel. + +The General frankly admitted that the Radicals lacked moral authority. +"Now," he said, "we are Republicans, but a month ago we were +Monarchists." He then related with an ingenuousness that was remarkable +in a professed friend, all the faults his party had committed, and +prophesied that if a Radical Cabinet were formed it would not last three +days. Who knows what might occur? Interruptions punctuated the soldier's +discourse, but he turned round and told those who did not like what he +said, that prudence was better than valour when valour was stupid and +made reckless exposure of lives. He wound up by asking the +representatives to seek inspiration in their patriotism and love of +liberty, and support his bill, which he confessed was his in spirit +only, and had not been drawn up by him but by members of the Government. + +These opening orations of the champions of the two parties in the +committee, the majority of six, and the minority of one, give the pith +of the arguments _pro_ and _con_. Then followed talkee-talkee by +obscurities--speechlets of the maundering school, habitual of nights in +St. Stephen's, when wise men betake themselves to the terrace, and the +stenographers yawn and chew their pencils. A Republican editor declared +that the Republican press was all that was lovely, and a Deputy from +Barcelona affirmed that the city by the Mediterranean was a model of +tranquillity (why was there a loud "haw-haw" here?). One of the Zorilla +family rose to defend his absent namesake a second time, and Senor +Lopez, chairman of the reporting committee, asseverated that the +Radicals had no yearning for office, that the Government should be +satisfied with an Assembly so liberal and so much inclined to help it, +and that if anarchy were to be the issue, the waters of the Jordan would +not wash the men who ruled of the responsibility. Then Cristinos Martos +descended from his tribune, and said he would accept any arrangement +which would secure peace. The crisis had come. The question by which the +Ministry had elected to stand or fall was put to the test, and exactly +nineteen Radicals, less than a score out of over two hundred, voted in +the opposition. + +So the Republicans retain their seats and bloodshed is averted. The +mercy is due, not to the goodness of the cause, nor to the persuasive +pleadings of its advocates, but to the intimidation of the mob. The +Radical majority were the judges, and the judges were cowed by the +rabble of the streets and their spokesmen in the Chamber. The Radical +majority had it in their power to put the Republicans off the coveted +blue benches of the Treasury; but the Radical majority, feeling that +there were no strong arms outside to back them, "caved in." That is the +plain way of putting it. Five members out of every six in the house were +Radicals, six out of seven of the sections of the house were Radical. +Those sections, or standing committees, are drawn by lot on the first of +every month, and all members must belong to one or other of them. Every +bill that is presented must be referred to a committee composed of seven +members, one selected by each section. Six of the members of the +committee to report on the bill of dissolution presented by Senor +Figueras were Radicals; one solitary member, General Primo de Rivero, +recalled from fighting the Carlists in Guipuzcoa, favoured the +Government. The Opposition stood to the Ministry as six to one. And the +Opposition being thus strong, the Ministry had beaten it! The wonder +ceases when it is recollected that the hands of the majority were tied; +every plan was tried to influence them into not ousting the +Ministry--coaxing and cajolery, appeals to their love of peace and +country, and ultimately threats. As result, when it came to the "who +shall?" they did not sustain the convictions they had openly expressed +on all previous occasions. Peradventure this was patriotism, +peradventure it was prudence. + +The debate was over. It was ten o'clock. The crowd raised exultant +shouts and dispersed to their homes, to the clubs, or to the +coffee-houses, where there was soon a file-fire of hand-claps to summon +the waiters and a Babel of voluble jabber. The five ghostly cavaliers +outside the Palace of the Congress started to life, sheathed their +sabres, caught up their bridles, and returned to their stables. + +The Republic had been reprieved. What a sigh of relief San Isidro +Labrador, patron of Madrid, must have heaved. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + The Inventions of Don Fulano de Tal--Stopping a Train--"A Ver Fine + Blaggar"--The Legend of Santa Cruz--Dodging a + Warrant--Outlawed--Chased by Gendarmes--A Jack Sheppard Escape--The + Cura becomes Cabecilla--Sleeping with an Eye Open--Exploits and + Atrocities--Dilettante Carlists in London--The Combat of + Monreal--Ibarreta's Relics--A Tale for the Marines--The Carlists + Looking-up. + + +Every other day--every other hour, I might almost say--a new rumour was +born in Madrid. These rumours were usually figments, always +exaggerations. If one were to inquire into their origin Don Fulano de +Tal, the Man in the Street, was certain to have assisted as +_accoucheur_. Alas! truth in Spain is coyest of sparrows, and to be +caught must have not a grain but a whole bushel of salt shaken over its +tail. Don Carlos was always turning up somewhere like a bad shilling. +Were he to be where he was said to be, he must have been a supernatural +Don Carlos--must have inherited the seven-leagued boots of fairy tale, +as his brother had the invisible cloak, for he was here, there, +everywhere, and nowhere, at one and the same time. But wherever hovered +the Pretender, or the "heir presumptuous," as a Spanish acquaintance, +not well up in English as "she is spoke," persisted in calling him, or +whatever he may have been doing, there could be no doubt that some of +his followers were in the field and alarmingly active. On the 13th of +March, the capital was furious at the official news that communication +with France and the rest of Europe by the north had been cut. Vitoria +was the limit of Spain now; beyond it was the troublous No Man's Land, +where the legends of Manuel Santa Cruz and his desperadoes abounded. He +it was who had ripped up the rails near Tolosa, and waited for the +accident which was sure to occur when the first train travelling towards +the frontier would arrive. Four inoffensive passengers were hurled into +eternity. The excuse for the conduct of this minister of peace was that +these trains carried troops. If the railway company would pay him a +tribute and engage to carry no troops, Santa Cruz, who is accommodating, +would let them pass freely. The company was willing, for these +interruptions were killing the dividends, but the Government objected. +In common justice to the more intelligent members of the party this +soldier-priest disgraced, it should be admitted that they cursed him +loudly and deeply. His conduct was bringing his order into disrepute. +For instance, in Vitoria, near his own hunting-ground, when the Republic +was proclaimed, the Civil Governor dropped a hint that it would be +necessary to "exterminate the highwaymen of the black soutane." The +priests of the town got so frightened that they did not dare to show +themselves in the streets. But they were in no danger, though the +merciless Manuel was doing what he could to make the priests' garb +unpopular. A Carlist paper in Madrid, with some conscience left, had the +honesty to say Manuel was not a credit to his cloth, and that Don Carlos +did not approve of the many savage acts he had committed. Manuel sent +the editor a letter, with his compliments, promising to teach him better +manners than to speak ill of the absent when he came to Madrid! The +general anticipation, based on a fond hope, was that if Manuel ever did +come to Madrid, it would be strapped on a hurdle. But he had his +admirers, nevertheless. My friend, the Duke de Fitzpepper, swore in his +execrable execrating English that he was a "cottam ver fine blaggar--oh, +ye-es! _tous qu'il y avait de plus crane, mon cher!_" From one of these +admirers who knew his family, I obtained an interesting epitome of his +career. + +Santa Cruz was born at Elduayen in Guipuzcoa in 1842. An aged uncle gave +him some lessons in Latin, and placed him in an ecclesiastical seminary, +where he seems to have principally devoted himself to the practice of +athletic exercises. He came out in 1866 a clerk and a gymnasiarch rolled +in one, and was appointed to the pastoral charge of Hernialde, a cluster +of houses near Tolosa. He attended zealously to the duties of his +ministry, leading a simple, frugal life with his sister; but when +stories of the struggles of Zumalacarregui and Gonzales Moreno in the +previous Carlist war were recounted by the wide hearth, it was noticed +that the priest's eyes blazed like the faggots sputtering in +flame-spikes towards the chimney-top. He was a Monarchist of the Basque +stamp by race, by education, by conviction. He should have been a +warrior, not a preacher of the Gospel; but if the circumstances which +produce the man had not arisen, he might have vegetated and died in +obscurity in his mountain village. The circumstances arose in August, +1870. A revolt of the four provinces of Alava, Guipuzcoa, and Biscay +(the Basques or Vascongadas), and Navarre, was to take place in that +month. At the outset it was rendered abortive by the treachery of a +Colonel Escoda. It broke out on the 27th of August, and was suppressed +on the following day. Santa Cruz, whose opinions were well known to the +party, had been asked to watch over a depot of arms which had been +collected for the insurgents at Hernialde. His share in the plot was +betrayed, and one morning, as he was celebrating Divine Service, his +church was entered by a party of soldiers who waited at the foot of the +altar until he had finished the ceremony. + +"In the name of the law, follow me," said the officer in command; "I +have a warrant for your arrest from Madrid." + +"Very well," said the Cura; "but surely you will allow me to breakfast +first, unless they ordered you to take me captive on an empty stomach." + +This was murmured in a tone so dulcet and injured that the officer +hastened to assure the clergyman that he might breakfast, and +accompanied him to the presbytery. + +"Sin ceremonia," said the Cura, "will you condescend to share my meal?" + +"Thanks, very much." + +The priest entered the house; the soldiers waited outside, and argued +that it was an infernal shame and a piece of tyranny on the part of Prim +and the rest to have ordered such a harmless, nice man to be clapped +into gaol. Presently a peasant with a basket of fruit on his head came +out of the house. The soldiers waited long. They waited in vain. The +peasant and the priest were one and the same. + +For two years Santa Cruz wandered in the mountains and in France, was +"on his keeping," as they say in Munster, but was finally arrested and +interned at Nantes, by the French authorities. A characteristic story +was related of his arrest. He was stopped on the bridge between St. Jean +de Luz and Cibour by two gendarmes. + +"Your papers?" demanded one. + +"My papers! Wait till I look for them," answered Santa Cruz, not in the +least disconcerted. + +He fumbled in his pockets, turned them inside out, tapped the lining of +his clothes, searched high and low, pretending to be very much +astonished that he could not discover the document; and, suddenly, while +the gendarmes, thrown off their guard, were speaking to one another, +made a spring sideways, and was off like a bolt from a bow, the agents +of authority pounding after him in their clumsy jack-boots. The chase +lasted an hour, to the intense amusement of all the idlers of the town; +but a peasant, not grasping the true state of affairs, clutched the +panting Santa Cruz and held him until the arrival of the gendarmes. + +In 1872, when Don Carlos again made appeal to arms, Santa Cruz succeeded +in evading notice, and crossing the frontier, attached himself as +chaplain to the band of Recondo. The Pretendiente himself entered by the +pass of Vera, but was surprised at Oroquieta, in Navarre, by General +Moriones, who defeated him on the 4th of May, and withered his hopes for +that time. The convention of Amorovieta followed, arms were given up by +thousands, and the factions, or partidas, dispersed to their homes. +Santa Cruz returned to France. After a week's interval he re-entered +Spain, and joined a body of the insurgents who still ranged the hills in +Guipuzcoa. One day he missed his companions in a forced march, and fell +into an ambuscade. + +"I am Santa Cruz," he said to the soldiers, unquailingly, "do what you +will with me." + +He was pinioned and led to the nearest village. + +The commandant of the detachment, one Urdanpilleta, went up to his +prisoner and said to him, with an inexcusable pettiness of sarcasm: + +"My good lad, you are out of luck. In a few hours you are safe to be +shot." + +"All right. We shall see about that," stoically answered Santa Cruz. + +The priest was led into a large two-storied house, and thrust into a +room near the garret, there to enter on his preparation for death. There +was a bed in the room, and from the sheets on that bed Santa Cruz made +the rosary on which to tell his litany, which was not one for the dying. +He tore them up, twisted them, tied them together, and letting himself +out of the window as far as his improvised rope would go, dropped into +the arms of a couple of friends beneath. Before the alarm could be given +he was up to his neck in a marsh, where his head was concealed by a rank +growth of rushes. After an enforced bath of twelve hours he sought +refuge with a wood-cutter, who helped him to pass over by night into +France. The tale of his escape added to his fame. He was no longer a +cura, he was a cabecilla--a born leader in partisan warfare. The +Carlists still kept the field in Catalonia, but in the north-west all +was apparently over. Order reigned as in Warsaw. Nevertheless, it was +felt that a spark would rekindle a conflagration. Santa Cruz was the +spark. + +"If I had only thirty men at my back, I'd lift the flag again," Santa +Cruz was overheard to boast. + +The thirty men presented themselves; and, on the 1st of December, 1872, +the irrepressible priest, now surnamed the Peter the Hermit of Carlism, +recrossed the frontier. Six days afterwards he stopped the mail train a +few miles outside San Sebastian, and Madrid learned with stupor that the +Carlist insurrection had flared up anew. + +"That was virtually the knell of the Savoy dynasty," said my informant, +"and Santa Cruz it was who tolled the knell." + +This notable individuality must have the rare magnetic power of +compelling men to follow and believe in him, and of winning over their +fidelity. His band of thirty has now swelled to five hundred, as devoted +as ever were the Highlanders of Preston and Falkirk. He believes in his +star; and he does not believe in carrying on hostilities with kid-gloves +on his hands. Vitriol is more in his line than rose-water. I should very +much like to meet Santa Cruz. He is said to be as agile as Mina, a +wonderful walker, and to share all the fatigues and privations of his +followers. He accomplished an almost incredible journey across the +craggy hills and ravines, from Tafalla in Navarre to the confines of +Biscay, in sixteen hours. At sunset, when the halt is called, and the +provisions are distributed, the guerrilleros assemble round their chief, +who resumes for a time the character of the Cura of Hernialde. Evening +devotions are repeated, and prayers are offered for his Majesty King +Charles VII., the Much-Desired; for Spain and her rescue from the +monster of anarchy; for the dead, and for those who are next to die on +the "campo de honor." The devotions ended, the priest again becomes the +partisan-chief, and praises or blames his soldiers; and then the guards +are set, and the guerrilleros, wrapped in their blankets, take a final +pull at the wine-skin, and sink to rest upon the heather. Long after the +band has been shrouded in mist lethargic, the figure of Santa Cruz may +be seen looming against a rock, upright but for the head, which is +supported by a huge gnarled staff. In his hand he grasps a key. When the +benumbed or listless fingers part and release that key four times, +Santa Cruz gives the rousing signal, the guerrilleros start to their +feet, and the line of march is again taken up. + +Is it not all delightfully romantic? If the late Miss Jane Porter, who +wrote that prized book of truant youth, "The Scottish Chiefs," were only +to have encountered this pretty man, she would have swooned with the joy +of authorship. Had Harrison Ainsworth but dreamed of such unconventional +possibilities, he would never have debased his intellect to the +glorification of a vulgar prison-breaker like Jack Sheppard. But the +only craftsman of the pen who could have risen to the height of the +theme was he who wove the gold-shot tale of "Paul Clifford." + +The latest news we hear of the Carlist priest is that a woman was shot +by his orders at Escoriaza.[A] On second thought I am not so sure that I +should very much like to meet Santa Cruz. And at this very period, +while the shrieks of a fusilladed female were ringing in the air, a +fussy committee of dilettante Carlists, sitting in London, protested +that the sacred cause of legitimacy was advancing by lawful, chivalric, +and immaculate means only! From the snug security of their back-parlour +they wrote letters to the papers denying the "wanton" destruction of +railway-stations by the Carlists. The flames were still undulating over +the station of Santa Olla, between Burgos and Pancorbo, while the ink +was wet on that inspired refutation! There are factories of falsehood +elsewhere than in Spain. + +A cabecilla had warned the station-masters in Guipuzcoa that all +railway-servants who durst perform their work would be shot, and that +all trains which had the hardihood to move would be given over to the +flames; and Lizarraga, an ex-field-officer of the regular army, had +calmly notified to the alcaldes of the province that he would fine them +what would be the equivalent of a hundred pounds sterling with us the +first time they failed to advise him of the movements of troops, and +that he would stick them up against a wall and put a bullet through +their heads for the second offence. Passports through the Carlist lines, +formally drawn up, sealed, and signed, were for sale for ten duros +(about two pounds sterling) in bureaux transparently dissembled, and met +with ready purchasers. The article was cheap, if only as a curiosity. +Here is the textual copy of an announcement in _La Esperanza_, a +recognised and tolerated Carlist organ of Madrid: + +"The direction of the Northern Railway Company having failed to observe +the neutrality ordered respecting the conveyance of troops and stores of +war, the Carlists, we are assured, cut the line yesterday at four points +in the province of Guipuzcoa." + +The Republic that permitted a newspaper published under its nose thus to +talk of rebels against its authority "ordering" the railway companies +not to convey troops was not arbitrary, to my thinking. But Spain is an +enigma. An English Government would hardly permit a journal to speak of +the operations of a Fenian band in the same terms. + +There could be no concealment of the fact that the adherents of Charles +VII., king _in nubibus_, were making headway. + +On the 9th of March a combat was fought at Monreal, a village on the +slope of a hill to the south-east of Pampeluna, between the factions of +Dorregaray, Ollo, Perula, and others, and the regulars under Nouvilas, +the General who had set out from the capital with such a grandiloquent +farewell speech. Pampeluna is distant sixteen hours by rail. The account +of the combat, the most important since Oroquieta, was published in the +official journal four days afterwards. + +In the interval the Carlist papers at Madrid had been singing hosannas +over an alleged victory of their friends, and boasting that the +Republican General had lost his artillery. The Republican Government did +not suppress those papers. As a matter of course, Nouvilas claimed the +victory for himself. Victories are always claimed by both sides in this +civil struggle. To get near truth one must read the narratives for and +against, compare and balance them, and by jealous analysis of evidence +it is possible one may light, in a haphazard way, on something vaguely +resembling what actually happened. + +The report of Nouvilas is before me as I write. He estimated the enemy +at 2,500 infantry and 200 cavalry. His own force, consisting of a +battalion of the Chasseurs of Porto Rico, two companies of the +Guadalajara infantry, a section of mountain artillery (two guns, I take +it), a couple of sections of the Hussars of Pavia, and one of the +Lancers of Numancia, made up a total of about 600 foot and 80 horse. The +combat lasted through two hours of darkness, and Nouvilas, although +bragging that he dislodged the Carlists, has to admit that he was unable +to follow up his success. Reason: his troops had marched eight leagues +without food or rest! A league is 4,565 English yards; multiply that by +eight, and I think it will be suspected that the tale of Nouvilas was +intended for the amphibious branch of the service. He confesses to a +loss of one superior officer (Colonel Don Manuel Ibarreta, of the Staff +Corps), and five rank and file killed, three officers and fifty-three +wounded, six _contused_, and four missing. + +An anecdote casts a lurid light of disclosure on the discipline of this +victorious column. The Staff Corps have a museum at Madrid, and were +anxious to procure some relics of their comrade who had "died gloriously +while holding a hazardous position with singular courage." All they +could get was his cap and sash. His boots were pulled off, his pockets +rifled, and every little article he possessed, to his English lever +watch, was appropriated--doubtless by soldiers who were desirous of +souvenirs of so gallant a gentleman. + +Certain inferences were to be drawn from the report of Nouvilas. The +Carlist position was admirably chosen, the leaders took proper +precautions against surprise, and the men fought with dogged pluck. They +must have been badly equipped, since they left behind them firearms of +every description. They are armed anyhow; some carry fowling-pieces, +some blunderbusses, and some fight with sticks and stones, as the return +of those six soldiers contused establishes. The General had +breechloaders and mountain howitzers; hussars and cuirassiers supported +his infantry; and yet these rebels of the hills held their own for two +hours! + +Even on his own showing the victory of the Republican commander was +poor, and dearly purchased. At one time he admits he was encircled by +the enemy, and had to unsheath in self-defence. He reports four men +missing--that means captured; and, though having routed his foes, he can +only point to thirteen prisoners and two dead horses! The Carlists fled +"precipitately," but they appear to have had leisure to carry off their +wounded with the exception of sixteen. Reference to Carlists supposed to +be wounded, coupled with the silence about those supposed to be dead, is +remarkable. Were there none killed? General Nouvilas, instead of going +forward next day, returned to Pampeluna to indite a despatch in which he +directly commends his own four sons, and indirectly praises himself. He +has been laid up with sore throat since, and has been unable to resume +his prosecution of the dislodged and dispersed enemy. I begin to think +these Carlists, as my landlord at Beasain predicted, "will give more +trouble." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + Barbarism of Tauromachy--A Surreptitious Ticket--The + Novillos--Islington _not_ Madrid--Apology for + Cock-Fighting--Maudlin Humanity--The Espada a Popular Idol--In the + Bull-Ring--A Precious "Ster-oh"--The Trumpets Speak--The + Procession--Play of the Quadrille--The Defiance--"Bravo, + Cucharra!"--"Bravo, Toro!" The Blemish of the Sport--An Indignant + English Lassie. + + +Constantine, the porter at the Fonda de Paris, asked me one forenoon +would I like to take a ticket for a bull-fight. He had an excellent one +(excellent batch, he meant) to dispose of "in the shade." I stared at +him indignantly, nodded my head in the same vein, but winked as I passed +through the hall and sprang up the stairs. An English clergyman and his +daughter, who had expressed an abhorrence for tauromachy in my presence, +had overheard Constantino's temptation, and hence my behaviour. + +"Tauromachy!" the dear old minister argued. "What can you expect, sir, +from a people who have to buckle two languages in double harness to find +a name for their brutal practice? 'Tis illegitimate, sir, like the +derivative. _Taurus_ is Latin, [Greek: mache] is Greek; the compound is +barbaric." + +I bowed, for Emmeline was seemly, with a delicate elegance, and she +looked up with a pleased and almost triumphant look, as much as to say, +Papa is not one of your common persons, but a mighty learned dignitary +indeed. + +That was why Constantine waited his opportunity to slip the ticket into +my hands in a corridor, explaining that a seat in the shade was a +privilege not to be despised, as the sun at the other side flung a glare +on the spectator that dazzled his view; besides, it was broiling and +headachy to sit for hours in its rays. + +"I knew you would go the first chance you had," said Constantine; "I +read it in your eyes as you gloated over the pictures of the sport in +the hall. They make a magnificent fan, or you could hang them up on the +wall in your house in England; I can let you have a lot a bargain. I +was sure of it when you stopped opposite the placard of the corrida +outside, and shook yourself with joy." + +Constantine was a good judge of human nature. I would as soon think of +visiting Madrid and not seeing a bull-fight, as of visiting +Constantinople and not hunting after the dancing dervishes; Kandy, and +not gazing on the Perra Harra procession; London in the season, and not +going to the Military Tournament. + +But, as I afterwards learned, the weather was still too cold for the +genuine game; this might be regarded as a rehearsal, but was patronized +by the connoisseurs, as there were openings for criticism on the style +of novices, and estimates as to who had in them the stuff of coming men. +The bull wants the ardent heats of midsummer to fire him for the combat. +The true season begins with a late Easter-tide, when the kings of the +herd, fresh from the meadows, have arrogant blood careering in their +veins, and are supple in the limbs. To stimulate them now, the dogs or +the banderillas de fuego, both alien to true tauromachy, would have to +be called in. This is but the heyday of the novillos, the unripe +beasts, with india-rubber or wooden balls blunting their half-developed +horns, who are sent into the arena to be at the mercy of youths +ambitious to become chulos. The novillos prance and frisk and toss their +adversaries; it is a frolic and no more. Months afterwards I saw a band +of blind mendicants armed with long sticks descend into the ring at +Murcia, and succeed, some of them, in keeping off the novillos. As well +as giving youngsters the favour of familiarizing themselves with the +capa, used to irritate the bull, this practice puts the animal himself +into good wind, and teaches him what he has to expect when he is +admitted into the pit of the amphitheatre for the final tussle. Your +common bull is not apt for these duels; he must be a bull of race, +haughty and high-spirited, before he is welcomed as a gladiator +_moriturus_. There are stock-breeders in Castile and Andalusia renowned +for the superb stamp of their cattle; and of these, not the least +renowned is a noble count who bears the name and is a descendant of +Christopher Columbus. But the immature tomfoolery has no more +resemblance to the stern, actual diversion than a donkey-race has to the +Derby. The description in "Childe Harold" is spirited, but has been +pared down to accommodate itself to the exigencies of rhyme. Byron when +he wrote it must have had a spasm of squeamishness. But that must have +been a gorgeous function at the marriage of Isabella, when a public +square was converted into an amphitheatre, Toro was monarch for days +consecutive, and the bonniest cavaliers of Spain, clad in jackets +glimmering with gems, entered the lists against him. + +In England, where patronizing leading-articles are indited about those +semi-civilized Spaniards, whenever a toreador is injured in the exercise +of his profession, nothing would seem to be really known about the +sport, and yet there is a self-sufficient assumption among persons +called "well-informed" that they know all about it. Speaking once with a +colleague of the press at Madrid, the representative of a very great +English paper, I was told almost the only instructions he had received +on leaving London were not to write anything of bull-fighting, or +"hackneyed rubbish of that sort." Yet no nearer approach to +bull-fighting has ever been witnessed in England than a silly simulacrum +at the Agricultural Hall. The first calf that was enlarged from the +make-believe toril on that occasion quietly proceeded to nibble a scrap +of paper on the tan. The toreadores were real toreadores, but the bulls +were not of the fiery breed of Andalusia. If they had been, the agents +of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals would have +thought twice before venturing into the same enclosure with them to bar +the entertainment on the score of cruelty. Still, the enterprising +public caterer who had brought over the quadrille of bull-fighters was +wise in his generation. Had the legitimate article been given, there was +enough foretokening of patronage on the opening night to prove it would +have been a great success. + +I call bull-fighting a glorious pastime. In my mental vision I can mark +the rising gorge of some splenetic Briton of the philanthropic school as +he reads this phrase, "glorious pastime," wipes his glasses and reads it +again. How am I wrong? It is savage, bloodthirsty, and debasing, he +will say. Therein I join issue with him, though I may bring a censorious +pile of cant crumbling and clattering about my ears. Cock-fighting was +once popular in these islands, and that not so long ago. I have often +played truant from school, and challenged a thrashing, to drain the high +pleasures of a well-contested main. The late Admiral Rous and the late +Lord Derby were admirers of the sport, and if I am not mistaken the +rules governing a London pit sometimes patronized by royalty had a place +in the earlier editions of Hoyle. The best apology for cock-fighting I +ever heard was made by an eccentric uncle of mine, who asked his censor, +"Why did God put the fighting drop into the game-cock's veins but that +he might fight when he got the chance?" + +There is cruelty, peradventure, in attaching long steel spurs, keen as +bradawls, to the cocks' legs, as there is in supplying men-at-arms with +swords and rifles instead of letting them wage war against one another +with teeth and feet and fists--the weapons of nature. Chanticleer of the +martial breed should be put into the ring with his natural spurs. + +Well, in Spain he is, for the sport flourishes there still; and one of +my recollections of my last day in Madrid is having sacrificed a meal to +be present at the Circo de Gallos, the recognised building where combats +of the kind are carried on in a well-filled amphitheatre, with roped +platform in the centre, and seats in tiers around. The roadway in front +was lined with equipages, and the curled darlings of the Madrilene +aristocracy stepped in to witness the tournament and bet on the result; +but I own the gentler sex I never met there. There are rules to regulate +the conduct of the matches posted conspicuously on the walls; there are +scales to weigh the combatants, lemons to clean their spurs, a regular +staff of heelers, time-keepers, and umpires; the fixtures are given in +the newspapers in the same column as the theatrical programme, and the +guardians of public order are always in attendance. On the same +principle bull-fighting is conducted, and the same argument holds good +in favour of its retention. + +This babble of cruelty is veriest wind-bag humanity, and, logically, has +not a leg to stand upon. To confront the king of the herd in the arena +is bolder and braver than to course the hare at Altcar, or shoot pigeons +at Hurlingham, or make a battue of pheasants in a Norfolk +preserve--sports to which our patricians are disposed, sports which are +chronicled in the fashionable organs with apparent approval. There is +more risk to those who share in a bull-fight than in knocking ponies +about on the polo-ground at Preston, sawing their mouths and breaking +their shins, or in worrying the fox over the pastures of Leicestershire. +As for that cold-blooded, cowardly, treacherous recreation of the +contemplative man, flinging bait to a harmless defenceless fish, and +luring him to a painful end, it is a piece of deliberate barbarism not +to be mentioned in the same breath with bull-fighting. And yet Mr. John +Bright, who has the reputation of being a gentleman of chivalrous temper +and pacific instincts, is said to be passionately fond of this +recreation. Observe to what the reasoning of those who frantically +protest against the national pastime of Spain reduces itself. So far, I +wish it to be understood that I am arguing with the intent of +establishing a _reductio ad absurdum_. If coursing, hunting, shooting, +and fishing are justifiable--and I hold that they are--then on the like +grounds are cock-fighting and bull-fighting justifiable. The beasts on +the earth, the birds of the air, and the fishes in the sea, are all +created for man's use and benefit. To kill them is no crime, if the +killing be not attended with the infliction of wanton pain. The destiny +of the minor order of creation is to minister to the appetites or +necessities of the lord of creation; and pleasurable excitement is a +necessity. The objections to the position here taken up are untenable, +except by maudlin and maundering humanitarians, who think more of the +life of a pet poodle than of the life of their fellow-man, and by that +lost section of mild lunatics, the vegetarians. + +Having said so much in defence of bull-fighting, I may be permitted, in +entering into details of the diversion, to anticipate experiences and +knowledge which did not come to me until later on. The further my +acquaintance with the ring extended, the more convinced I became that +tauromachy will last as long as Spain lasts. It has blemishes, like +other recreations. To my thinking, the chief is that Toro goes into the +sanded arena foredoomed to die. No matter how pluckily he fights, no +matter what play he shows, the cachetero awaits him. Then there is +torture, but an unavoidable torture, in the mode in which horses are +killed. I well remember what an acclimatized aficionado, M. de Coutuly, +of the Paris _Temps_, said to me in a discussion on the point: + +"These horses are under capital sentence when they are helped to the +grace of a historic death in the amphitheatre; they are rescued _en +route_ to the knacker's-yard; but, bah! it is useless to try to convince +men with English prejudices. With you, the horse is more valuable than +the man." + +Thorough garrons these horses are in old Spain; but in the South +American countries, colonized from Spain, I am told they bring spirited +barbs into the ring, who can bite and kick, and take their own part +generally, and who sometimes clear the bull at a bound, as he advances +to the attack. + +If tauromachy will last in Spain as long as Spain lasts, so likewise +will those who practise the art he held in honour. No names are guarded +in fonder reverence there to-day than those of Montes, Pepete, and +Pepe-Hillo; and when Frascuelo was wounded, his residence was besieged +by sympathizing inquirers. The bulletins of his health were read as +anxiously as if they were issued from a royal palace. Bouquets, pastry, +and billets-doux were laid in tribute on the mat of his bedchamber, and +the sweetest and proudest dames of the sweet and proud patrician houses +of Castile--houses with sangre azul unsuspicious in their veins, and +thirteen grandees in their pedigree--sent to inquire after the condition +of the famous espada. Tom Sayers was never more idolized in England than +Frascuelo is in Spain. And so, in like manner, are his compeers, +Lagartijo, and the rest. This liking for them is pushed to excess, much +as the cult for heroes of the prize-ring was with us in a past +generation. Once I was roused from a nap by Liberato, a faithful +body-man, shuffling his feet to the sprightly movements of a bolero. His +eyes twinkled like laughing fire, his gitano-tinted cheeks had a +tawny-purple grape-flush. He was under a high-pressure of exhilaration, +and instinctively sought to relieve himself by dancing. + +"Liberato?" + +"Caballero." + +"What devil possesses thee? Hast got a tress of thy ama's hair, or +fallen upon a treasure-box of Boabdil?" + +"Senor, I am proud as a hidalgo this day. You know Frascuelo?" + +"Si, si." + +"I have seen him; I have heard him speak." + +"Dios mio! If it be not a poor jest on thy part, thou'rt a happy man." + +"No jest, senor; and hearken!" approaching and lowering his voice: "he +sat at the same table with me, and," this impressively and +confidentially, "he shook hands with me as we parted!" + +"Caramba! Let me shake that hand." + +Laugh at this anecdote, but did not a New York hack-driver make a small +fortune by letting out for osculatory purposes the hand that helped +Jenny Lind from her carriage? Have not strawberries touched by the lips +of Lydia Thompson fetched a guinea each at a dramatic _fete_, and +photographs of Sara Bernhardt, signed with her sign-manual, run up to an +alarming figure at the Albert Hall? Have I not myself been privy to the +offer by a British matron of sums incredible for the straw through which +the Prince of Wales had sucked a sherry-cobbler at the Paris Exhibition +of 1867? + +"Ster-oh!" ejaculated the negro waiter with open mouth. "Why, bress you, +dat's no use, we trowed it away; but, as yer a nice ole lady, heah's a +dozen for nuffin!" + +The spectacle in the Plaza de Toros, the spacious unroofed area +surrounded by stone benches rising one above another, away to the +sheltered balconies up high at the back, is one of the most enlivening +that imagination can conceive on the afternoon of a corrida, when male +and female humanity, all jubilant bustle and expectancy, make a +prismatic girdle around. Fans move with an incessant tremulous flutter; +there is a continuous susurrus of voices, broken by occasional hoarse +bursts of laughter at some mishap, or hoarse roars of welcome as some +favourite enters; the regal sun discharges his fierce messages of light +from his throne of blue, and the costumes of every colour, wavering with +the pulsations of the throng, are an active kaleidoscope, most vivid and +variegated. We are in our places. We have stepped up the Alcala at the +heels of the picquet of armed militia charged with the maintenance of +order. We have threaded our way through the rough maze of passages to +our palco, peeping at the stable where the sorry horses are kept, at the +room where the toreadores dress themselves, and at the little oratory +where the matador prays before he stalks into the palestra. We are in +our places, and everybody is in his place; the Governor of the city in +his box of state yonder. While the music races over the assemblage in +glad alternation of rush and ripple, let us look below. There is a +strong wooden barrier some six feet high around the arena, and at +knee-height, on the inner side of this barrier, there is a berme to help +the pursued chulo to a footing as he vaults over into the surrounding +lane formed by this interior and an exterior barrier. This lane is +guarded by policemen, and is so narrow that a bull has not room to turn +in it; for bulls sometimes bound over the inner barrier. When that +occurs, and I have seen it occur not seldom, they are driven round until +they reach one of the gates opening into the ring. The trumpets and +tymbals speak warning; a profound silence falls upon the crowd for an +instant, and then from a side passage enters the cavalcade we have +awaited--enters to a stately martial march. First, the mounted alguazil +in his ancient garb, plumed, cloaked, funereal; then the chulos, lithe, +young, graceful; then the picadores on their garrons, Mexican-looking in +their saddles, with tall pummel and crupper and shovel-shaped stirrups, +wide-leafed sombreros, their short jackets tagged all over, their yellow +breeches and their high boots lead-lined; then the banderilleros, and +then the matador, the chieftain of the troop. The alguazil beseeches the +key of the toril from the Governor, receives it, turns it in the lock; +and as the bull with dazed vision enters into the sunshine at one gate, +he disappears at an amble through another. + +The bull! What a noble specimen of his race!--broad-browed, +clean-horned, and clean-limbed; high courage in his bloodshot orbs, his +dilated nostril, and his lashing tail! On the right and left the +quadrille arrange themselves, the picadores, each with a spike at the +end of his long shaft, and a kerchief bandaging one eye of his horse; +the chulos, pretty fellows in turban, loose embroidered jackets, ruffled +shirts, kneebreeches of coquettish hue and texture, silken hose and +buckled shoes, standing, with their cloaks, nearer to the centre of the +ring. All these toreadores are men of symmetry and power, all wear +chignons in nets, and are close-shaven, except as to side-whiskers of +the brief "mutton-chop" order, and all bear themselves as if they were +proud of their vocation. The bull waits. The chulos give challenge. They +rush upon him, shaking their gaudy little cloaks, and as he charges they +scamper to the sides, while one takes up the running from another. In +short, they tease him as much for the sake of tiring him out as of +testing his disposition. But by-and-by one chulo ingeniously leads the +charging bull towards a horse. Toro rushes head-foremost. The picador +is unequal to keep him off with his spike; the horse is gored in the +belly and overthrown, the rider falling under. The chulos cluster to the +rescue, with their fluttering cloaks, and draw the bull away confused. +The picador is extricated; the horse is taken out, and in a few moments +after re-enters, his entrails packed inside and stomach sewn up, and is +once more offered to the maddened brute, always on his blind side. We +shall hurry over this episode of the tournament; I do not like it, nor +do you. But here is something really fine. The banderilleros enter, with +barbed shafts decked with ribbons, poised in each hand, and make a +feinting advance on the bull, and as he runs to meet them they deftly +hurl their shafts and elude him by a demi-volte. The act of doing this +well is to plant one banderilla on each side of the bull's neck, close +by the streaming favours that mark the herd from which he is +furnished--the colours of his stable, so to speak--to plant them evenly +and at equal distances from his crest, and when this is skilfully +accomplished there are frantic yells of praise, and caps and cigars are +showered into the arena. When the banderillero is awkward, they rain on +him with potatoes. These banderilleros incur hazard. I have seen one so +keenly chased by the bull that he was pinned against the barriers by the +bull's horns as he was in the act of vaulting over. Pinned, but not in +the flesh; the branching horns stuck in the wood at either side, just +above the calf of one leg, and imprisoned him until he had to be sawed +out. + +This is but the prologue; now for the play. Toro by this time is in a +white rage; there is foam at his chaps, his steaming sides are laced +with blood. Cucharra of Puerto Santa Maria is the matador. Majestically +he strides towards the Governor's box, stoops in obeisance, and in a +loud voice makes proclamation: "Brindo por Puerto Santa Maria, por toda +su compania, por el vulgo de Madrid; voy a matar ese bicho o el bicho me +mata a mi;" an address which may thus be freely rendered: "I pledge +myself to Puerto Santa Maria and all its society, and to the people of +Madrid; and now I am ready to kill this animal, if the animal cannot +kill me." He removes his turban, and, with a graceful jerk with his +right hand from behind his back over his left shoulder, flings it into +the Governor's box, as a gage of his boasted prowess. He takes his +straight keen-tempered sword and his cloak of offensive scarlet, and +advances towards the bull. Now is the supreme trial, now is the time +when men let their lighted cigarettes drop from their mouths and clench +their teeth; now is the time when women close their fans and draw long +breaths. Cucharra faces Toro at a yard's distance. They regard each +other. Cucharra hides his sword under his cloak, and presents it to the +bull. Toro lowers his head, shuts his eyes, and charges, but the +toreador gracefully slips aside and saves his life by a turn of the +heel. Three times he repeats the feat of this risksome pirouette; but +woe to him if he is an instant too late in his movements, or if the soil +is treacherous. The fourth time, as the bull lowers his head, Cucharra +lifts himself on his toes, and with one sure swift blow plunges the +blade, almost to the hilt, into the spine of his antagonist. The bull +stands; there is a shout of "Bravo!" the bull still stands, ten seconds, +twenty, thirty; there is a howl of disappointment; but Cucharra gazes +contemptuously around; he knows he has done his work well, and, my +faith, he has. Toro quivers and drops, and Cucharra plants a foot on the +neck of his prostrate enemy. The bull has died of internal haemorrhage; +not a drop of blood has distilled from his mouth. Bravo, Cucharra! + +This death at the first thrust--death without drip of the crimson fluid +from the mouth--is the artistic death. When the sword pierces at the +wrong spot, is displaced by the shaking of the bull, and sent flying, +gore-wet, through the air, it is awkward workmanship. + +But Toro showed "mucho fuego" before he was so neatly pierced in the +medulla. Bravo, Toro! And now the cachetero stoops over him, and, with +one dig of his sharp knife in the neck, makes assurance doubly sure. The +team of mules trot in, and trot out again with the dead champion at +their heels; and the urchins outside are dancing on his carcase as the +drums and tymbals give prelude to the entrance of a second champion +into the enthusiastic circle. + +The slimy pools in the arena are promptly strewn with sand, and the +fresh bull is ushered into the lists, either against the same quadrille, +or against another espada with his special troop of assistants. Some of +the brutes are self-possessed, as that "proud and stately steer" Harpado +of Xarama, who was matched with Ganzul the Moor. + + "Dark is his hide on either side, but the blood within doth boil, + And the dun hide glows, as if on fire, as he paws to the turmoil, + His eyes are jet, and they are set in crystal rings of snow; + But now they stare with one red glare of brass upon the foe." + +All in vain, Toro. Thy fate is sealed. Useless to prance round with +defiance, to bellow with unsatisfied wrath, to churn the sand with +furious hoof and flash hither and thither the flaming arrows of thy +glance. Thou art foredoomed, and wilt fall as surely after brave +struggle as thy mate, less eager for the strife, who has to be pricked +up to anger, and drops at last bewildered amid the derision of the +crowd. That is where I find fault with the sport. Toro who shows good +fight should get his respite, like the Roman gladiator who pleased the +multitude. + +Still, is his fate to be deplored? Confess, is it not rather to be +envied? He gives up his vital principle in the rapture of battle; he +feels no wound but the grievous one to the combatant that he can beat +down no more foes; he yields breath with a bold front; there is threat +in his agony as he sinks, still with challenge in his port, amid the +applause of admiring thousands. There is something of martyr-heroism in +this ending. It is grander, nobler, happier than to fall by the +butcher's plebeian mallet in the slaughter-house, or to succumb to the +slow miseries of rinderpest. Whoso denies it will downface me next that +it is fitter for the warrior to die of podagra in a four-post bed than +to perish on the field with harness on his back--that dropsy at St. +Helena was more to be coveted than a bullet at Waterloo! + +Tauromachy, I repeat, will last as long as Spain lasts. It will have its +school and its dialect, its canons of skill expatiated upon in +elaborate treatises; its honoured exponents; its impassioned amateurs +and its munificent patrons; its historiographers and poets. In my +devotedness to it I have sacrificed the favour of a comely English +maiden, for Emmeline, who has seen through my hypocrisy in the hall, +averts the light of her countenance as we sit down to dinner. I am sorry +for it, for I had inclinings towards that lady, she was so attentive to +her father, and she had confided to me with such a pretty frankness that +she sighed for the days when Mohammad-al-Hamar was throned in Granada. + + * * * * * + +NOTE BY THE WRITER'S DAUGHTER.--The conceit of you. Emmeline, I think, +was quite right to cut you, after your brutishness. No doubt you think +the glorification of bull-butchery a piece of fine writing, and so +original, you know. I'm up to the games of you authors; but if I were +the printers I would not print one single line of it. I should just like +to put a pen in the bull's hand and read _his_ description of the +fight. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + The Shamrock of Erin and Olive of Spain--Hispano-Hibernian + Regiments--The Spanish Soldier--An Unpopular Hidalgo--Flaw in the + Harness--The Organization of the Army--The Guardia Civil--The + Cavalry, Engineers, and Infantry--General Cordova--The + Disorganization of the Army--Mutiny in Pampeluna--Officers Out of + Work--Turbulent Barcelona--Irresolute Contreras--Pistolet + Discharges Himself--The Madrid Garrison. + + +In Moore's "Melodies" crops up a martial lyric, in which there is a +jingling reference at the end of every verse to the shamrock of Erin and +olive of Spain. Here is about the pith of its sentiment: + + "May his tomb want a tear and a name, + Who would ask for a nobler, a holier death, + Than to turn his last sigh into victory's breath, + For the Shamrock of Erin and Olive of Spain!" + +The Blakes and O'Donnells are apostrophized; but as well as I can make +out what the bard is driving at, he had Wellington and his companions +in his mind's eye. + +There had been closer and earlier and longer ties than those of the +campaigns against the French between Spain and Ireland. According to the +annals of the Four Masters (translated by the father of the late Edmond +O'Donovan), the Clanna-Milidh set sail from Galicia and invaded the +Emerald Isle in the year 1698 before the Christian era. They established +the Milesian dynasty, which lasted two thousand eight hundred and +seventy years--rather a better record than we meet in Bulgaria, modern +Greece, and sometimes even in Spain itself. Galway, _teste_ Kohl, +carries the imagination to Granada and Valencia. At the beginning of the +eighteenth century there were six Irish regiments at least in the +Spanish service, namely, those of Hibernia, Irlanda, Limerick, Ultonia, +and Waterford (all infantry), and the Dragoons of Dublin. There was also +an infantry regiment called Conacia, or Wauchop, after its commander, +one of a fighting family well known in the Lothians. There were officers +of my name in the Limerick and Ultonia corps, as there are in the +Spanish army still.[B] Most of these Irish organizations were disbanded +at the close of the last century, and all had lost their purely Irish +character, although the titles, Hibernia, Ultonia, and Irlanda, were +retained on the list till 1833. + +Naturally, and because of profession and certain associations, I took an +interest in soldiers, and, at the risk of offending the lady-reader who +is waiting for the romantic part of this book, I intend to devote a +chapter to the Spanish army. Such judgment as I have to offer is formed +not alone upon what I saw at Madrid, but afterwards, when I had +opportunity of watching the troops at work. Before going any further, I +may unreservedly confess that I hold a high opinion of the Spanish +soldier. He is sober, enduring, brave, and an indefatigable marcher. +Better raw material for warfare, I am sure, could not readily be come +at, and I am equally sure that if more attention were paid to drill, and +if the curse of morbid aspirations for promotion amongst the lower +grades were more rigidly repressed, the Spanish army would regain its +ancient renown. This restless and diseased ambition is not to be traced +to the rank and file, but to those immediately above them, the men with +a puffed-up idea of themselves, and a smattering of education, and is +often developed by the connivance of their immediate superiors. Let us +take an example. In 1866 there was an uprising in favour of Prim, headed +by the sergeants of artillery at the San Gil barracks, in Madrid. +Captain Hidalgo was privy to the plot, which eventuated in a fiasco, but +not before sundry officers of the regiment had lost their lives. A large +number of the sergeants were summarily shot a few days afterwards. +Hidalgo escaped. In the November of 1872, Hidalgo, then a General, was +appointed Master-General of the Ordnance by Amadeus. Amongst the +artillery there is a strong _esprit de corps_, and the officers in a +body declared they would resign unless the appointment were cancelled. +They did not object to Hidalgo on account of his implication in mutiny, +which is a recognised institution in the Spanish army, but because they +believed he had previous knowledge that some of his brother-officers +would be sacrificed, and never gave them a word of warning or raised a +plea in their behalf. The want of comradeship was his crime, and the +resignations of those who protested against it were accepted in a bulk. + +At the time I was in Madrid the artillery was in a state of +demoralisation. The captains of the scientific force were all promoted +sergeants, and the old officers were idly parading the streets in plain +clothes. Amadeus had certainly committed a foolish act, although he may +have justified himself to himself by the reflection that in approving an +appointment made by his Ministers he was behaving loyally, and that by a +wholesale rejection of the demand of the discontented officers he would +set up an iron precedent against insubordination. He never paused to +think that he was stripping Spain of a vital portion of its harness. A +sergeant may be an excellent practical gunner, and be able to lay a +piece accurately; but that does not qualify him to command a battery. +Scientific acquirements and training are necessary, a mastery of +technique and tactics, quickness of resource, and the habit of +authority. The promoted sergeants were wanting in these essentials, and +the Carlists soon found out the weak spot in the armour. + +The strength of the permanent army is fixed annually by the Cortes, and +every Spaniard above the age of twenty is liable to be drawn, and has to +serve four years under the flag. The nation is divided for military +purposes into five captain-generalcies, the commandant of each of which +holds a rank corresponding to a British field-marshal. The nominal +strength of the infantry in round numbers is about 60,000; artillery, +9,500; engineers, 2,300; and cavalry, 11,500. Then there are the +provincial militia, some 44,000 strong; the carabineros, or revenue +police, 12,000; and the Guardia Civil, 10,000. These Civil Guards are +picked men, robust, strapping, seasoned fellows, and are distributed +over the country like the French gendarmery, to whose duties theirs are +similar. They form a _corps d'elite_, and are the very mainstay of +order. In fact, without them life and property during times of political +commotion would very often be at the mercy of any horde of ragamuffins +with weapons in their hands and the courage to use them. They are +handsomely uniformed, wearing cocked-hats of the pattern of those to be +seen in the prints of the First Napoleon, fine cloth tunics of dark +blue, with epaulettes of white cord, and yellow side and cross-belts, +and present a manful, soldierly appearance. From their valour and +topographical knowledge they have been very serviceable in carrying on +the guerrilla warfare with the Carlists, and are the terror of brigands +and evil-doers. If all the troops were as orderly and well disciplined +as these, Government would be easy, and those at its head might afford +to be firm, regardless of mob clamour. In short, these magnificent Civil +Guards are the best military force the country possesses. Some of them +are mounted (and capitally mounted too), and all have an elevated notion +of duty. A mutiny is never inaugurated by the Civil Guards. They stick +to each other like wax, and are faithful to the powers that be, +regardless of their political colour, so long as those powers are +accepted by the nation. Dynasties may change and depart, as Ministries +do; but the Guardia Civil is an organization immutable and goes on for +ever. The one charge made against them has its warrant in necessity. +When a prisoner is sent to gaol in some remote town under escort of the +Civil Guards, he often makes an attempt to run away, and is invariably +shot between the shoulders. No strict inquiry into the circumstances is +made--it is an understood practice--a rascal is got rid of, to the +relief of the community, by a quick and economic method, which is a +desirable improvement on the laggard processes of law. + +The cavalry is controlled by a director-general, who has a respectable +staff of subordinates at his disposal. There are only two regiments of +cuirassiers--the 1st, or King's; and the 2nd, or Queen's. There are two +regiments of carabineers known as Calatrava and Bailen. There are eight +regiments of lancers, viz., Farnesio, Villaviciosa, Espana, Sagunto, +Santiago, Montesa, Numancia, and Lusitania. The hussar regiments are but +two, Pavia and the Princess's. Prim's son, a boy of fifteen, was captain +in the former, and the veteran Espartero honorary colonel of the latter. +The name of a former colonel, Don Pedro Elio, "who died gloriously on +the field of honour," like Latour d'Auvergne, first grenadier of France, +is also borne on the rolls of the Princess's. There are six regiments of +mounted chasseurs--namely, Almansa, Alcantara, Talavera, Albuera, +Tetuan, and Castillejos, and two squadrons of Galicia and Mallorca +respectively. These men, as far as I have seen, are well horsed, +Andalusia furnishing some capital chargers, well-made and well-paced, +and up to decent weights. There is nothing peculiar in the cavalry +uniform, which is formed upon the French model. In fact, it would be +difficult to distinguish the dragoons from the French dragoons, but that +they have a seat and know how to keep it, and that their helmets are of +a round Roman style, with a rising sun in a circuit of rays right in +front. + +The remount depots are at Granada and Cordoba, and there are four +establishments where sires for cavalry purposes are maintained at the +expense of the State--namely, Cordoba, Baeza, Llerena, and Alcala de +Henares (the latter exclusively for the use of the mounted artillery). +There is also a military school for the cavalry, maintained on the same +system as that of the French at Saumur. + +The Engineers are quite as tall but not so sturdy as our Grenadiers, and +look up to their work. This was the favourite force of Prim, and it is +only second to the Guardia Civil in its obedience to constituted +authorities. From what I hear the men are carefully trained in sapping +and mining, though of them, as of Spanish soldiers universally, one is +compelled to say that they have too much leisure, and when soldiers have +too much leisure the Devil invariably finds them occupation. The value +of the artillery, which had been one of the best organizations of its +class in Europe, as I have already said, at that precise epoch ranked at +_nil_. Reports were circulated every day that the difficulties in this +branch of the service had been arranged, but the wheels want such a +dose of oil in Spain that one can never be certain that the machine is +in order till it moves. The artillery is denuded of officers, and the +infantry and cavalry have officers too often that are valueless; and in +that lies the secret of the deterioration of an army which was once, and +still might be made, capable of great things. + +There are forty regiments of infantry, numbered as ours were, but known +also by distinctive names, generally those of the locality in which each +was originally raised. Thus the 1st Regiment is Rey, or the King's; the +2nd, Reina, or the Queen's; the 3rd, the Prince's; the 4th, the +Princess's; the 5th, the Infante's; the 6th, the Regiment of Saboya; the +7th, of Africa; and then come those with territorial titles--the +Regiments of Zamora, Soria, Cordoba, San Fernando, and so on, until we +reach the 40th, which is called the Regiment of Malaga. The 14th, 29th, +and 30th are respectively known as the Regiments of America, of the +Constitucion, and of Iberia. + +Each regiment consists of three battalions, except the 20th (the +Guadalajara) and the 34th (the Granada), which have but two; and in +each battalion there are six companies. Nominally, each company numbers +about 80 rank and file, but he would be a wise man who could say how +many answer to the roll-call in the existing state of disorganization. +There are twenty-four battalions of handy light troops, who are equal to +almost anything human in the way of marching. Agile and untiring, sound +in wind and limb, they can get over an extraordinary length of ground +with a speed that would not discredit professional walkers in England. +The French foot-chasseur, who can put on an astonishing spurt now and +again, is no rival to the Spanish cazador. + +The infantry uniform is almost exactly that of the French--long grey +capote, blue tunic with the number of the regiment on the collar, and +red trousers. Instead of a shako the head is protected by a projecting +cap of cloth and glaze, something like a stiffened Glengarry without +ribbons. Those absurd white gaiters which gather dirt so quickly when it +is wet under foot, and give the French soldier incessant bother to look +after their pipe-claying, are replaced in the Spanish service by +calfskin buskins and black cloth spatterdashes. Few more sensible +uniforms are to be met with in Europe. Properly officered, there is +nothing to prevent the Spanish infantry from regaining the prestige it +once held. The men have the right stuff in them, are temperate and +frugal, cheerful under privation, and hardy as wild ducks. They do not +want pluck either; they have the reputation of showing a good deal of +dash in their pursuit of the Carlists; but that is no fair criterion of +what they could do when pitted against the troops of some great Power in +ordered line of battle. Good lungs are indispensable in Carlist warfare, +as an officer who was hunting them for six weeks in Catalonia, and never +caught one, begged me to recollect. "You want men who can breast hills," +he said. But good lungs are valuable in a campaign anywhere, and looking +at these lively, well-set Spaniards as they trot along under their +packs, I must say they favourably compare with those weakly men of the +French line I saw staggering to the Eastern Railway Terminus at Paris, +on their way to Metz, in 1870, or with some of the lank striplings I +saw defiling before Victor Emmanuel at Somma in the autumn of 1872. + +The Minister of War (Cordova) and the Minister of Marine (Beranger) are +good. The general and the admiral had really no politics; but they knew +their respective departments better than any men in Spain. Cordova comes +of a fighting family, and "ran the army," to use an expressive +Americanism, under Isabella, under the Serrano-Prim Administration, +under Amadeus, and would, I dare say, under Don Carlos, if he came +to-morrow. In fact, the general is a military Vicar of Bray, but for the +less egotistical motive that he loves his profession, and does not care +to see it and Spain go to the bad, which Spain would if the army did. +But he is not a Republican, neither is Beranger; and the sovereign +people will only be governed by Republicans. They will not permit men of +another party even to do them a service. Therefore the general and the +admiral, and their colleagues of the Finance, Public Works, and the +Colonies, have patriotically made up their minds to retire. Thus, for +the moment, stands Spain, ruled by an Assembly divided against itself +and an Executive in a state of dissolution. + +Meanwhile the army is hurrying to the devil at the double-quick. The +troops which fell back on Pampeluna, after the affair at Monreal, broke +into open mutiny a few days afterwards. Some of them raised cries in +favour of Don Carlos, others in favour of Don Alfonso; and the majority +threw up their caps and shouted enthusiastically for the Republic, +meaning always that Federal Republic which they did not understand, and +which had not yet been created. The latter demonstration was quite as +much a breach of discipline in its way as the others. It was stated that +agents of the Carlist party, which was strong in Pampeluna, provoked +these disturbances in the first instance, plying the men with liquor, +and supplying them with money. At all events, that is how the Government +accounts for the outbreak. In their turn the Republicans got excited, +and instigated the soldiers to demand that the thirteen Carlist +prisoners they had taken should be shot without trial or benefit of +clergy, in defiance of the laws of honourable warfare. These +Republicans are not scrupulous. They talked of massacring all the +Carlist sympathizers in Pampeluna--in short, of commencing a sort of +Sicilian Vespers on a smaller scale; and so threatening did their +attitude become at one period, that the priests in the town had to +disguise themselves as peasants and fly to the mountains, and the laymen +who were suspected of a love for Royalty had to block up their doors and +windows. This was what one of the few trustworthy journals of Madrid, +_El Imparcial_, related, and may account for the inactivity of the +gallant General Nouvilas quite as much as that sore throat which +confined him to his room. + +In Catalonia the disorganization was worse. The battalion of Chasseurs +of Manila separated into several parties, which were wandering over the +province, spreading terror wherever they went. The patriotism of the +volunteers of the Republic had been invoked to try and bring them back +to discipline. Such an attempt might lead to combats that would have the +result of embittering still more the spirit of the freebooters, which +those soldiers were in the fullest sense of the word. Persuasion by +gunpowder, when employed by irregulars, seldom pacifies regulars. Either +of two events was possible--those soldiers would get the better of the +volunteers, or might turn over to the side of Don Carlos. Meantime the +Carlist bands in the province are increasing, and have the field pretty +much to themselves. Four hundred officers of the army came to Madrid the +other day, and are now walking about the capital _en pekin_. Like the +frozen-out gardeners who parade London suburbs in the depth of a hard +winter, they've "got no work to do," but, unlike those impostors, they +are really anxious for a job. I have chatted with some of those +officers, and I know several of them would not be averse to flashing a +sword for the son of their former Queen. They had to leave their +regiments because they could no longer command them. The bonds of +discipline were completely smashed. The men were unmanageable. In some +barracks Phrygian caps were as common as the regulation head-gear. The +sergeants of the line, jealous of the promotion of the sergeants of the +artillery, thought they should have their turn; and the privates did not +see the justice of volunteers being offered two pesetas, or about 1s. +7d. a day, while they, who did more and better work, encountered more +risks, and suffered more hardships, received but a miserable pittance of +a few pence. The general in command was recalled, and Contreras sent +down in his place. He has a reputation as an unimpeachable Republican, +one of old standing, and not "for this occasion only;" and much faith +was reposed in the influence of his name. But Contreras failed to charm; +and, indeed, he appears to have gone the wrong way about his business. +An officer whom he put under reprimand went to two barracks and tried to +rouse the men to mutiny. He failed; but the men were so little careful +of discipline that they let him depart in peace. At last two adjutants +on the personal staff of Contreras arrested him and brought him before +the General. What course did the General, whose authority had been thus +grossly set at defiance, adopt? Order the offender to be shot? No. That +would be the mode in a serious army. But Contreras is not Suwarrow. He +dismissed the mutineer in epaulettes with a fatherly admonition--appealed +to his better feelings. In all likelihood, General Contreras felt that +he could not afford to be justly severe. The army was too restive. + +Private letters from Barcelona do not mince the matter. The few columns +which went out against the Carlists refused to march unless they were +headed by detachments of Republican volunteers. The officers ran serious +personal risks in their quarters. One of them was condemned to death by +a mock court-martial of his own men, and was actually put on his knees +preliminary to being shot, when a sergeant interposed, and harangued his +comrades into moderation. But all the sergeants have not the good sense +and courage of that worthy fellow. Some privates in Barcelona have been +trying to have their own profit out of the Republic, by discharging +themselves from further service without as much as asking leave; they +have sold their uniforms to the dealers in old clo', and are going about +the streets in peasant dress, making no secret of their intention to +give up the trade of fighting. The great anxiety of the Republican +man-at-arms in Spain is to turn his sword-bayonet into a sickle, and his +rifle into a mattock. That is what he pretends; I hope he has not a sly +hope of vegetating for the rest of his days in lazy vagabondage, with +occasional spasms of brigandage just to keep his hand in at shooting. A +training in the Spanish army is not exactly the thing to fit for the +peaceful and toilsome monotony of industrial occupations. + +The battalions of cazadores of Merida and Barcelona, in garrison at +Valencia, exhibited symptoms of discontent; but the officers were on the +alert, and checked them on the spot. That is the only plan--nip the evil +in the bud. It is the custom in Spain to confine troops to barracks +during times of popular commotion. The artillery quartered at Valladolid +caught the contagion of mutiny, and would have broken their bounds but +for the prompt arrival of the captain-general and military governor, who +succeeded with some trouble in pacifying them. These unpleasant tokens +are not confined to the land forces; they are said to have spread to +the sailors and marines. A steamer was under orders to leave the port of +Barcelona the other night, but the crew emphatically refused to go; they +argued that they were entitled to be paid off, and enjoy liberty on +shore, under the benign regulations of the Republic. To be brutally +candid, the army has taken the bit between its teeth and bolted. I fear +I am repeating a twice-told tale, but it is well that it should be +impressed on the reader, that he may know what the cuckoo-cry of "No +army" signifies. One of the leading points of the programme of the +Spanish Republicans out of office was that a soldier was a machine, and +that no soldier should exist in a free nation. Now that the Republicans +are in office the soldiers take them at their word, and claim their +discharges. The machinery is out of gear. The Republicans never +contemplated that they would require soldiers to put down a civil war. +Senor Figueras, in spite of all his eloquence and honesty, can hardly be +more successful in pacifying turbulent Barcelona than General Contreras. +Catalonia is as great a stickler for its usages as the Basque provinces +are for their fueros. One of the fueros of the Basque provinces is +exemption from the quinta, or conscription; their only soldiers are the +Miqueletes, a body of men somewhat like the Irish constabulary, who are +not bound to act beyond their own provinces. Thus the army which is +serving against the Carlists in Biscay, Alava, and Guipuzcoa, is in the +provinces, but not of them. Catalonia cries out against the +conscription, too, and Barcelona--hot-blooded, troublesome Barcelona, +which never loses a chance of standing up for independent +opinions--encouraged her garrison in the demand for its discharge. + +The regular troops were to be replaced by the highly-paid volunteers. +That was the proposition. But how is the increased call on the Financial +Ministry to be met? Where is the money to pay these volunteers to come +from? And without regular troops, what was to become of Cuba? The gold +that is brought back from the Pearl of the Antilles is dearly bought +with Spanish blood. People in England little dream what a drain that +everlasting little-thought-of Cuban insurrection was upon the Spanish +army. Thousands of men perished in the island every year, not from the +bullets of the insurgents, but from privations, fatigue, the torrid +clime, and the deadly swamp fever. + +In sum, the army has been petted; the army is spoiled; the army, like a +wanton child, is naughty. Ministers have shown indecision in shifting +generals, generals have set the example of indiscipline in tolerating +mutinous officers, officers have thrown off their uniforms in dudgeon +and despair, sergeants have waylaid the War Office, so to speak, with +the cry of "Promotion or your life!" Can poor Pistolet of the rank and +file be blamed if he sighs for freedom, his sweetheart, and his native +village? The Republic promised him all these, and now he is wicked +enough to ask for them. There is one way of bringing naughty children to +their senses, but Pistolet is too big a boy to submit to the rod from a +weakly master. + +In the capital we were comparatively safe. Unless the garrison divided +against itself or the ordinary troops and the Guardia Civil fell out, +there was no danger of bloodshed in any quantity. The population is not +singularly ferocious. The privates move quietly in the streets in pairs, +and are particular to salute their officers, though there is one +officer, on an average, to every fifteen men, and most of these officers +lack the thoroughbred air of gentlemen, and apparently have risen from a +low social level. The sergeants are self-controlled, and brighten the +promenades with their green worsted gloves and the great laced V's on +their sleeves. I never miss a chance of admiring the garrison at parade. +Physically the men are up to a high standard--superior to those of most +European armies; morally they have the name of being patient and +well-conducted; in formation they are steady, in dressing precise, and +in movement they have a step as quick, but more _degage_ than the +Prussians. Were I a Spaniard, I would, every time I bent in prayer, +offer up a supplication for the conversion--or perhaps the something +else--of the bedizened culprits who are sending the soldiers to rack and +ruin. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + Luring the Reader into a Stony Desert--A Duel on the + Carpet--Disappointment of the Special Correspondents--The People + Amuses Itself--How the Ballot Works--A Historic Sitting of the + Congress--Castelar's Great Oration--The Glory of Spain--About Negro + Manumission--Distrust of "Uncle Sam"--Return of Figueras--The + Permanent Committee--A Love-Feast of Politicians--The Writer Orders + Wings. + + +It may be urged with some show of truth that under the mirage of the +adventurous, I have lured the reader, anxious for the sensational, into +exhausting deviations in the stony desert of politics. I am guilty, and +I am sorry that I shall have to sin again--politics are so ultimately +interwoven with life in Spain. But it must not be imagined that these +accounts of what happened more than a decade ago are no more useful or +interesting than the stale report of the death of Queen Anne. In Spain +history has the trick of literally repeating itself. The country is +split into the same camps still, and occurrences similar to those of +which I treat are certain to be presented to the world anew. The drama +will be the same; the company only will be strange. And the information, +such as it is, which I give now, may furnish the key to much that would +otherwise be hard to unlock when the curtain rings up again. + +Before one more error of political errantry, I must tell of a duel which +did not come off, for the sake of its moral. This was how the affair +arose. There was a discussion in the Assembly in reference to an alleged +insurrection in Porto Rico. Senor Padial asked, was it true that the +insurgents had raised cries of "Death to Spain," and demanded the +independence of Porto Rico, and the massacre of the local volunteers? +Several members got up to speak, and one of them, for what reason I +cannot fathom, characterized the question as "a farce unworthy of the +Conservative party." After a little while Senor Ardanay proceeded to +read some documents proving the reality of the disturbances. He was +interrupted by a torrent of voices, and Senor Padial shouted that the +Civil Guards and volunteers of the island had got up the whole row, and +that General Sanz was the author of the farce. General Sanz politely +retorted, "Your worship is wanting in truth." Several honourable +gentlemen sprang to their feet, and asked that Senor Padial's words +should be taken down in writing. And then the Assembly became a +bear-garden. Senor Olavarrieta claimed "la palabra," but the President +would not give him the privilege of speaking. He spoke all the same, and +said, "We shall not allow ourselves to be insulted by those senores," +pointing to the Porto Rico deputies. The confusion became worse +confounded. The President rang his bell, called "Order," and threatened +to suspend the sitting. General Sanz then rose, looking wicked, and +asked that the words offensive to the Civil Guards and the volunteers +should be taken down in writing. As for what had been said offensive to +himself, he asked nothing; he knew what course to take. In England this +might have meant that the soldier would treat Senor Padial with silent +contempt; in Spain, with my preconceived notions of the pride of blue +blood and the fire of Castile, and all the rest, I took it that it could +only mean "pistols for two and coffee for one." The confession is sad; +but the truth at any price, the truth is so rare under this sky. Sundry +Special Correspondents who had come out to describe the revolution that +would not come off, were cudgelling their brains to discover how they +could assist at this passage of arms, in order that they might render a +full, true, and particular account to the public. The encounter would +have been more diverting than a bull-fight. Opinions were divided as to +whether it was better to go disguised as a hackney coachman or an +apothecary's assistant. I hurried, after dinner, to the Cafe Fornos, the +great rendezvous of Madrid politicians, to hear the latest details of +the pending affair of honour. It was to come off--no doubt of it; but +when and where, I could not hear. Next morning I read that the +difficulty had been arranged. It may be a satisfaction that the +barbarous "code of honour" has fallen out of fashion in Spain; but it +would be a still greater satisfaction if the practice of gentlemen +giving each other the lie in public were to fall out of fashion also. +The scene was disgraceful, and I am glad to be able to add that most of +the deputies were thoroughly ashamed of it; and in places of public +resort some went so far as to say that they would take their seats no +more in the Assembly. But they were in their places all the same on the +following afternoon. The Congress of Spain is no more mannerly on +occasions than legislatures elsewhere; but the occasions are rare. + +My visit to the Cafe Fornos was not for nothing, after all. There was a +scene there too. A group of low fellows, overheated with wine, entered +about eight o'clock, while the immense hall on the ground-floor was +crowded with Radical deputies, officers, and quiet Madrilenos who +frequent it nightly, and commenced bellowing for the Republic after +their hearts--that is to say, the Republic, Federal, Social, and +Uncompromising. The shout was taken up by another group outside, which +blocked up the entrance in the Calle de Alcala. It was evidently a +premeditated manifestation. A Republican deputy who was present tried to +calm the disorderly crew, but to no purpose. They had come to shout, +and they would have their shout out. Senor Estevanez, the civil +governor, was dining in a room upstairs, but Senor Estevanez did not +leave his repast. When the thirsty and uncompromising federal social +citizens were hoarse they retired. They had effectually succeeded in +annoying the coffee-drinking tyrants who had the impudence to wear +broadcloth, and they withdrew to drain bumpers to their tremendous +exploit elsewhere. + +These individuals were all in favour of the "social liquidation." This +cry of the drones had partisans in every citizen with an empty pocket +and a patch on his garments, for it means that the provident shall be +robbed to satisfy the improvident. But nathless these agitators, Spain, +I was told, was likely to be quiet for five or six weeks--that is, quiet +in the Spanish sense, with an insurrection in one stage of heat or +another, smouldering or flaming, in half a dozen provinces. The +elections would be tranquil, with "scrimmages" here and there; they +would not be elections without. The voting is by ballot. Theoretically +the system is faultless, but in practice jugglery is possible, and does +habitually occur. The alcalde has some influence in the matter, so has +the parish priest, so has the nearest large landed proprietor, so has +the local police functionary, and so has the mob. Ballot-boxes have been +broken open or have disappeared mysteriously. And thus it happens that a +Spanish constituency sends in a buff man as its representative by a +crushing majority at one election, and a blue man or a red man by a +crushing majority at the next. The constituency has not changed in the +interval, but the Minister in the Gobernacion, or, as we should call it, +the Home Office, has. There lies the secret. + +I pass over small squabbles, which were of daily occurrence at the +Palace of the Congress, to come to the sitting of the 21st March, 1873, +which deserves to be handed down to history. On that day the Bill for +the Abolition of Slavery in Porto Rico was introduced by Castelar, in a +speech over which all Madrid went into raptures. The "inimitable +tribune," as his admirers call him, surpassed himself. He led off in the +usual oratorical style by pretending that he was not going to be +oratorical--"the bench on which he sat was one for actions, not +words"--and then, in the usual oratorical style, he contrived to say so +many words that the official paper next morning was full of them. + +His first speech, made when he was but twenty-one, in the year 1854, was +on the very same subject, as he reminded his hearers. The Christian +religion, he said in the course of his remarks, was the religion of the +slave, and the Apocalypse the poem of the slave. Christ was the +descendant of enslaved kings, a bondsman of Roman conquerors. But I must +give up the attempt to follow the "inimitable tribune;" his lengthened +and dazzling chain of eloquence was too elaborate to be picked up link +by link. He was historical, passionate, and poetical by turns, but +always intensely rhetorical, keeping a close watchfulness for effect, +for Senor Castelar does not argue so much as declaim. He had the good +taste to defend the Radical Ministry from the charge of having acted in +favour of emancipation because the influence of the United States was +brought to bear upon it. Such a course, he asserted, would be unworthy +of the dignity and independence of the country. + +I must tell you that the way to make Spain recoil from doing an act she +admits to be good and needful is to counsel her to do it--she will not +be advised by others. It would not be Spanish. If a Spaniard has a +notion of getting himself re-vaccinated, take care, if you are a friend +of his, how you talk to him on the subject. If you recommend him to have +the operation performed, he will change his mind at once. He will not be +bidden, he will risk small-pox in preference. It may happen that he will +die, but at all events he will have the satisfaction of having had his +own way. + +Senor Castelar flattered the self-love of his countrymen by assuring +them that they were magnanimous of their own free will, and not because +foreigners had advised them to be magnanimous. He next delivered himself +of some tuneful periods about humanity, and then wandered off into a +spoken essay on the behaviour of the great European Powers on this +question of serfdom. He alluded to England as "the least democratic, but +most liberal of nations," and praised Russia for having set Spain the +example of unriveting the shackles of the slave. He apostrophized the +opponents of abolition, telling them that on their heads would fall the +responsibility if the law were not passed, but that he and his +colleagues would be answerable for the consequences if the law were +passed. Then the speaker waxed patriotic, and spoke the stereotyped +sentences on the glory and grandeur of Spain. Why should there be +rivalries between Creoles and Peninsulars--those who were born in the +colonies and those who were born in the mother-country? It was +deplorable. Were they not all of the same race? Was not the blood of the +Cid and of Pelayo careering in all their noble veins, and the spirit of +Spain living in all their generous souls? His peroration was +grandiloquent; he appealed to them to cease their bickerings, to close +up their ranks, and to labour unitedly for the maintenance of order, +authority, and the integrity of the territory, and they would earn the +benediction of history and of conscience, which was much more, for it +was the benediction of God. + +At the close of his discourse, which was incontrovertibly a masterpiece, +Senor Castelar was surrounded by numerous colleagues, and warmly +congratulated. His speech established among other welcome things that +the orator-minister was no atheist. His remarks breathed the truest +Christianity. Next it was manifest that Spain, Republican as +Monarchical, would not, without a bitter struggle, cede one inch of +territory over which the national flag floated. Those who were +interested in the retention of slavery in the colonies were the holders +of slave property, and the deputies who had lived there and shaken the +pagoda-tree to some purpose, and who, now that they were back in Spain, +had a grateful recollection of what they owed to slavery. Those +gentlemen predicted that the immediate emancipation of the negro would +be the ruin of the colonies, and would inevitably lead to their loss by +the mother-country. The Ministry of King Amadeus originally brought in +the measure for the abolition of slavery in Porto Rico, preliminary to +the introduction of another to get rid of the system in Cuba. The chief +argument against the measure was that it was due to intriguing on the +part of American politicians, whose object was to smooth the way to the +ultimate incorporation of the Antilles with the United States. The +sincerity of American friendship is suspected by Spaniards. They know +that Uncle Sam has a longing eye on the islands in the Caribbean Sea; +and has already tried to negotiate Spain out of her American +possessions. Spain, recollecting this keenly, mistrusts him. And Senor +Castelar, whilst acquitting his predecessors in office of having acted +at the suggestion of the United States, let it be very plainly +understood that this Republic would fight that other and greater and +aggrandizing Republic to her last man and last dollar, before she would +consent to the abandonment of one square foot of soil. The vested rights +of slave-owners would not suffer completely, for the bill embraced a +proposition to pay them an indemnity equivalent to eighty per cent. of +the value of their live chattels. Forty per cent. of this was to be +guaranteed by the mother-country, and forty by the enfranchised colony, +so that twenty per cent. was the comparatively small pecuniary +sacrifice the inheritors of an odious system would have to make to +conscience. + +Whether the manumission of the bondsman in Cuba, which was bound to +come, would hasten the independence of that island--or, what was more +likely, its annexation to the United States--I am not competent to +pronounce. Ultimately, it is the conviction of the wise and experienced +that the Queen of the Antilles must achieve her independence; but it +will be less on account of abolition than for reasons geographical, +climatic, and military. The ocean rolls between Spain and the sunny +cluster of isles, the climate is deadly to the Spanish soldier, and the +Spanish army cannot afford a perpetual depletion. + +Nobody in Spain dares to defend slavery as moral, or protest against its +abolition on grounds higher than those of political expediency. The +adversaries of the bill affirmed that gradual abolition would be safer +than immediate abolition, and that the matter could well afford to wait. +The newly-proclaimed Republic had interests of far greater present +importance to attend to, they said; but the philo-negrists retorted that +it was a shame not to free the negro under the Republic, which was based +on the broad principle of freedom to all, without distinction of colour, +and that a beneficent and noble act could not be done too soon. If the +Monarchy had lasted, there could be no denying it, this project of +abolition would have been enacted without fail. + +Late in the night, after Castelar had delivered his oration, Senor +Figueras returned from his trip to the provinces. He was met at the +railway-station by groups of friends, personal and political, and +escorted to his residence, where he was serenaded by the band of a +regiment of foot artillery. The night was dark and rainy, which was an +ingratitude to the patriotism of the musicians. If it did not savour of +ill-nature one might be permitted to remark that speeches, however +splendid as specimens of composition from a bench, which the speaker +admits should be one for acts, not words, and midnight clangours of a +brass band under the dripping window-sills of a tired Minister, were +hardly what was needed most and first in the country. But Spain is not +like any place else. + +On the 22nd the Assembly sat until seven, when there was a break-up of +two hours for refreshments; after which was held a night sitting (a most +unusual thing), prolonged until half-past one the next morning. This was +the last of that Assembly. The powers of the Cortes, save and excepting +such as were purely legislative, were delegated to a Permanent Committee +of twenty, which was to aid Ministers in their task, until the meeting +of the Constituent Cortes. In the interval between the two sittings this +committee was chosen by the nominating sections of the Radical and +Republican parties respectively, all shades of opinion being represented +upon it. The President of the Assembly, the four Vice-Presidents, and +the four Secretaries, held _ex-officio_ seats on the board. An analysis +of the names of the twenty-nine shows that there were fourteen Radicals, +eight Federals, four Conciliadores (who may be counted with the +Federals), two Conservatives, and an Alfonsist. + +This moribund sitting was unique in its unanimity and enthusiasm. The +Bill for the Abolition of Slavery in Porto Rico was passed without a +dissentient voice. There was kissing and clasping of hands, and friendly +hugging all round. Senor Padial and General Sanz, who were anxious to +fight a duel to the death a few days before, met in the Salon de +Conferencias and made up their quarrel. They cemented their +reconciliation with an embrace, and one sentimental Deputy who was +looking on, cried, "May this be an auspicious omen of the union between +Spain and the Antilles!" Senor Figueras promised that the Executive +Power would faithfully see to the maintenance of order during the +elections. Another senor proposed that the act they had accomplished on +the date of the 23rd should be recorded on a marble tablet, to be +erected in the chamber. The proposition was received with cheers; and +truly the act which knocked the chains off the limbs of 35,000 slaves +merited record. The Marquis of Sardoal, who occupied the presidential +throne, prayed God to enlighten the minds of the Government and the +Permanent Committee, and then declared the Assembly dissolved. There +were loud shouts for the "Federal Republic," and just one weak voice for +the "Spanish Republic." + +The clouds had blown over. Now was the hour for congratulations. Many +persons who were preparing to send away their families resolved to let +them remain. I had no further occupation in Madrid. A Deputy who had +thirty years' experience of life in the capital told me that this was +the last place in Spain where there was likely to be a disturbance for +the present; but he added, "If you think of going elsewhere, be sure to +give me an address where I can telegraph to you, for something may +always turn up." I had waited nigh five weeks in the expectation of that +something turning up, and at length I began to think I had better seek +fresh fields and take a look at real Spain. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + The Writer Turns Churlish and Quits Madrid--Sleep under + Difficulties--A Bad Dream--Santa Cruz again--Off St. + Helena!--Dissertation on Stomach Matters--A Hint to British Railway + Directors--"Odds, Hilts and Blades"--A Delicate Little Gentleman is + Curious--The "Tierra Deleitosa"--That Butcher again. + + +"If you want to see real Spain," said the British Minister to me, "don't +stop here longer than you can help. Go south." That fixed me. With a +natural impulsiveness I pronounced "the imperial and crowned, very noble +and very loyal and very heroic town"--all which titles it bears--a fraud +and a failure as far as my calling was concerned. There had been great +cry and little wool. I was as churlish as a hangman cheated of his +client. That terrible thing which was perpetually on the eve of coming +to pass had not come to pass. After all, I reflected, it was for the +better; for if there had been stupendous tidings to wire, the +Government telegraphic system would have broken down under the +operation. A message more than twenty lines long was a shock to the +clerks, and set them discussing so excitedly that they let the fire of +their cigarettes die out. The "only court" grew hateful to my mind. It +had produced no men to charm by, save Frey Lope de Vega Carpio, Don +Pedro Calderon de la Barca, and the Maestro Tirso de Molina--and they +were dead. It was a nest of political hornets, and head-quarters of +hyperbole; flimsy feathers of lying gossip floated thick as midges in +midsummer air; as in Athens, the populace spent its leisure, which was +the best part of its life, in nothing but hearing or telling new +stories. I would shake the dust of the Prado off my feet, in testimony +against the unsatisfying capital. Architecturally, it was a +higgledy-piggledy of houses on a high bare site; climatically, it was a +mixture of furnace and hall of winds; socially, it was slow, and a +disappointment; intellectually, it was below zero. My parting words--I +cannot say my farewell--will be framed on those of Jugurtha to Rome: +"_Urbem venalem et mature perituram, si emtorem invenerit._" + +I paid a good-bye visit, with thoughts of a stirrup-cup, to Maceehan, at +the Fornos, and discovered him listening to Bret Harte's poem of "Table +Mountain," recited by Russell Young, who was lolling on a sofa in an +upstairs cabinet. The dentist did not seem to "take much stock in it." +An appreciation of the horrors of Chinese cheap labour requires a +liberal antecedent education on the Pacific slope. Dr. Maceehan was, for +his own sake, sincerely sorry I was going away; but for my sake he was +glad, as I had been overworking myself, and was badly in want of a kick +in the liver. + +It is an error to speak of any city or people when you are under the +influence of sluggish bile, for you are liable to do them injustice. It +is a sin not to withdraw the unjust words. I am tempted to sin; but on +consideration I follow the example familiar in a certain legislature, +and take back the unparliamentary language into which I have been +betrayed by jecoral derangement. Honour to the manes of Uxem-Ali-Beck, +Ambassador from the Shah of Persia, who came to Madrid in 1601, and fell +in love there. He liked it. I fell in love ten times a day, but nobody +would fall in love with me. + +On a Sunday night at nine o'clock, I quitted the city, and on Tuesday +morning I had my hair trimmed by a barber of Seville. The journey, like +most long railway journeys, is one of infinite weariness to the flesh. +The first-class carriages are roomy and well-padded, so that short +travelling, except for invalids, is comfortable enough. The correo, or +mail train--that which I took--leaves but once in twenty-four hours, +and, in consequence of carrying the mails, has to stop at every station, +so that its progress is slow, albeit the quickest to be had for money. +There were nine sociable young Spaniards in the compartment with me. The +gauge of the road is wide, admitting of five broad seats at each side, +and the motion of the train is easy and nurses to sleep, without that +violent rocking which one sometimes experiences while rattling +northwards from London in the Flying Scotchman. But the backs of the +seats are stiff and straight as a Prussian drill-sergeant, and do not +nurse, but "murder sleep," as I speedily found to my sorrow. However, +they do nurse a crick in the neck. I was woke out of a wayward doze just +as I was about to undergo the punishment of death by the garrote. I had +been dreaming a fearsome dream. In a weak moment I had accepted the +crown of Spain. I had granted my subjects every conceivable privilege, +pandered to all their crazes, gone so far as to give them a bull-fight +every day in the week and two on Sundays and festivals, paying all +expenses out of my own royal pockets. But they were not to be satisfied, +unless I would go into the bull-ring myself. That was the straw that +breaks the camel's back. I flatly refused. They rebelled, kicked me off +the throne, led me in a felon's yellow coat on a wretched donkey to the +place of execution, and planted me in the fatal chair. Most poignant +humiliation yet, all the crowned heads of Europe, led by the Czar of +Russia, were invited to the spectacle and joined in a howling chorus of +"Serve him right." I looked my last around, and woke up with a toss of +my noddle against the back of the seat. We were at Alcazar. A +fellow-traveller kindly offered to let me lay my head between his legs +if I would give him my carpet-bag for a pillow. There is nothing like +reciprocal accommodation on a journey. I agreed, the train started +again, and I lost myself in the land of Nod. This time I was following +the campaign against the Carlists. Suddenly I was roused by a cry-- + +"Santa Cruz!" + +I knuckled my eyes, the carriage was motionless, and I distinctly heard +the name of the dreaded priest Santa Cruz repeated. This was no dream. +Had I mistaken the terminus? Had I been speeding northwards all this +time? I was in a most perplexed tangle of mind, half pleased at the +prospect of meeting the redoubtable Cura in person, half apprehensive +lest I might give lodging to a chance bullet, and miss the opportunity +of describing him. As I was preparing to jump out, the tram moved on +anew. I turned to the railway guide and discovered the explanation of +the mystery. Santa Cruz is a station on the Andalusian line between Val +de Penas and Almuradiel. A third time I fell asleep, to be roused by +another cry-- + +"St. Helena!" + +Taught by former experience, I was not to be discomposed now. We had +pierced the bowels of the Sierra Morena, and Santa Elena was but the +name of a station on its southern side. The next time I fell off I +enjoyed a genuine sleep. I do not think it would have roused me if "Salt +Lake" or "Skibbereen" had been shouted in my ear through a +speaking-trumpet. + +At Menjibar, where we arrived about ten in the morning, there was a +delay of twenty minutes for breakfast. By way of whet, I presume, my +fellow-travellers all lit cigarettes as we were gliding up by the +platform. This Spanish railway restaurant was a reproach to Mugby +Junction. It was scrupulously clean, the fare was excellent, and the +tariff moderate. The price of every article was legibly painted in +distemper on the walls. Premising that a real is, roundly speaking, +twopence halfpenny of our money, a list of some of the viands and +liquids to be had and their cost will be interesting--only the reader is +requested not to open the book previous to bolting his food at the +hurry-up and grab-all refreshment-room at Amiens, or when he is about to +confront scalding soup and monumental sandwiches at some of our British +buffets. It might ruffle his temper and jeopardize his digestion. A +breakfast consisting of a couple of eggs, two plates of meat or fish, +dessert, bread and wine, can be had for twelve reals. The wine is the +common wine of the country, and pleasant and healthy tipple it is when +you get used to it. You can procure a baby bottle full for one real, and +if you like to be extravagant you can pay twenty-four for a bottle of +Bordeaux, or forty for a bottle of champagne. The Bordeaux is too dear. +As for champagne, nobody drinks that habitually except kings of the +Bonanza dynasty; but myriads of men, especially at race-meetings, drink +a beverage which they take for the bubbling, roseate, kindling nectar +with inspiration in every wavering pearlet. "Fizz," I think they call +it. I hope they enjoy it. "Compound of crime at a sovereign a quart" +(see James Smith's poems somewhere), I call it. He who quaffs champagne +at dinner, save on a foggy day, is unworthy of God's gifts. The proper +hour for the absorption of that delicious exhilarant is at eleven in the +forenoon, and then but two glasses at the most should be taken. These +glasses should not be the absurd shallow lapping-glasses, nor yet the +slender stork-glasses, but the goodly tumbler. If it be summer, there +should be a lump of ice in the crystal goblet; and the connoisseur will +always hold it between him and the sunlight before imbibition, and +ejaculate, "There's a picture!" For these hints I am indebted to that +princely gourmet of palate most exquisite, John Kavanagh, of the Inman +ocean-ferry line, Founder and President of the Cocktail Club, of which I +am the Laureate. Returning from our divagation, the amateur of beer may +have a big bottle at these Spanish railway hotels for four reals, but I +counsel him abstention. It is never advisable to drink beer in a +wine-growing country. The soul of Sir Wilfrid Lawson would be elevated +to the height of successful joke-making at the catalogue of the +teetotal drinks, which range from sugared water to milk and orangeade. +My weakness is egg-flip. For dinner, which is to be partaken of at +fourteen reals, one has a soup, a fry, an _entree_, a roast, a salad, +two sweets or fruits, bread and wine. The _entrees_ are usually rib of +mutton, veal or a beefsteak, which sometimes makes you think there is +something like leather. A hen, which is a luxury, rates at fourteen +reals, but a tortilla of the hen's eggs is to be preferred. If any +complaints are felt to be necessary as to attendance or provand, the +station-master has a volume wherein to write them down at the disposal +of travellers. + +From Menjibar we steamed along through a beautiful landscape of this +beautiful province of Andalusia. The fields were emerald green and ought +to be fertile, but they seemed to lack cultivation. Very few persons +were to be seen working in them. In proportion as nature had been +prodigal, man appeared to be lazy. Still, viewed as the painter, not the +agriculturist would view it, the landscape was delicious in its quiet +loveliness. Patches of silvery grey--that dreamy neutral silvery grey +which is to be caught in perfection on willows played upon by +moonlight--here and there lightened the mellow masses of verdure. Those +were olive groves. The hills on the horizon, seen through an odd curtain +of rain, for the day was showery, had the vaporous hazy outline of some +of Murillo's pictures. Anon we passed by the bridge of Alcolea, the +scene of the defeat of Queen Isabella's forces under Nouvaliches by +Serrano in 1868. The field is altogether too pretty to have been defiled +by a sanguinary episode of civil war. A gently winding stream courses +'mid rich undulating meadows at the base of a ridge of hills covered +with cottages enbowered in plantations and orchards. As if inflamed by +the warlike associations of the locality, my companions produced +sword-canes, dirks and poniards, and began comparing them with the air +of experts. Not one of these sociable young Spaniards was unprovided +with a lethal weapon. I was devoutly thankful that they had not got to +talking politics on the road, or I might have had to deplore the absence +of a bye-law applying to passengers carrying edged tools from that code +which so carefully shuts out the drunkard, and insists that nobody with +a loaded gun or pistol shall enter a carriage. + +At Cordoba the train stopped, and we changed carriages for the +Andalusian capital. During my short stay I was invited to take my choice +of a varied assortment of daggers, navajas, skeens, and stylets, which a +sturdy hawker, who looked as if he knew how to handle them, had strung +round his waist. + +The fellow was a perfect walking arsenal, or rather a peripatetic bit of +Sheffield, and expatiated affectionately on the temper and cutting +qualities of his wares. I declined to buy. He showed his teeth, and told +me I might go farther and fare worse. I was very happy to take him at +his word, and get into a carriage that was going as far as Seville, +which was occupied by only one person, a delicate little gentleman with +a bright, keen, kindly face. To him came a courier as he leant out of +the carriage-window. + +"Why does one see so many Scotch caps about?" asked the little +gentleman, in English. + +"Because Gibraltar is near, and there are smugglers there," answered the +courier. + +"Why does one see so many dogs about?" asked the little gentleman. + +"Because they find more food here than at home," answered the courier. + +"Why does not one see the train start to time?" asked the little +gentleman. + +"Because this is Spain," answered the courier. + +That was conclusive, and the little gentleman drew in his head and sat +down opposite me. He was a charming companion, a young American of +culture and courtly manners, who was travelling in Spain for his health. +He loved the country and the people, and told me many anecdotes of acts +of kindness of which, being sickly, he had been the object from this +strange, tender, passionate race, as ready with generous help as with +the stiletto-point. Poor little gentleman! I fear he has made a void in +some fond household long since, for he was sore stricken with decline. + +"The Spaniard," he said, "in fine, is the most courteous of men; he +never sits down to eat in your presence without offering you a share of +his meal." And it is true. + +From Cordoba to Seville the way lies through a land of delights--the +"tierra deleitosa" of Andalusia. Again we swept by green fields and +silvery grey olive groves; anon we skirted vivid clusters of +orange-trees laden with the great luscious fruit, which is ever in +season. On we passed by plains bristling with huge spiky clumps of aloes +alternating with growths of Barbary figs, until, towards twilight, we +came in sight of the Guadalquivir with its boats, and on the farther +side, near a copse of cypress, the walls of the Cartuja Convent, now +turned into a porcelain factory by an enterprising Englishman, who makes +imitation Moorish tiles where the hooded friars sang matins and lauds. + +It was seven o'clock when we drove into "proud Seville," too late to +look at any of her marvels, but not too late to enjoy a good dinner in +the Fonda de Paris, a namesake and branch of the hotel where I had been +stopping at Madrid. My _vis-a-vis_ at the dinner-table was the Saragossa +butcher--I began to think now he was a political agent--who had been my +_vis-a-vis_ on my tedious ride over the mountains from Beasain to +Alsasua. Was this varlet on my track? I began to entertain serious +apprehensions on the score. It has been my lot for years to have been +shadowed by _mouchards_, gendarmes, detectives, and policemen. + +My goings-out and my comings-in have been noted; my house has been +watched by hulking louts in uniform whom their foolish superiors pitched +upon as accomplished pryers; nay, even a female with _pince-nez_, +sealskin jacket, long purse, and an Ollendorffian intimacy with most +Continental tongues, has been cunningly slipped at my heels. I have +been, thank the Lord, misunderstood by fools, belied by knaves, avoided +by the timorous, tabooed by the contemptibly "respectable" (odious +word), and slandered by scoundrels whom I had befriended. Heads have +been wagged, and I have been adjudged a deep card and a dangerous +character. Nothing could be got out of _me_. + +The explanation is simple. I had nothing to conceal. You cannot squeeze +aqua tofana out of a stone. I was suspected, I take it now, because, in +the exercise of my vocation, I had been thrown into the society of +Communists, Nihilists, Fenians, and Carbonari. Had I confined myself to +card-sharpers, prize-fighters, copper captains, hypocrites, libertines, +and ladies of the Loosened Cincture, all would have been well. And yet, +'fore Heaven, I can assure the Powers, great and small, I have never +meditated wrong to a State or a potentate, never harboured an unkind +thought for a dog, and never joined a secret society but the Order of +Antediluvian Buffaloes, and they expelled me from the lodge for +unbuffalo-like behaviour. + +If I was sure that Saragossa butcher was a spy, I would not put prussic +acid in his chocolate, but I almost think I would sprinkle cowhage +between his sheets. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + Delectable Seville--Don Juan Scapegrace--The Women in Black--In the + Triana Suburb--The City of the Seven Sleepers--Guide-Book + Boredom--Romance and Reality--The Prosaic Manchester Man--King + Ferdinand Puzzling the Judges--Mortification by Proxy--Some Notable + Treasures--Papers and Politics--The Porcelain Factory--"The Lazy + Andalusiennes"--About Cigars--The Gipsy Dance. + + +There are but three spots in the world of which I had formed mental +pictures from my reading, that rose to the level of anticipation when I +came to visit them. Venice was one of these, Naples another, and +Seville, delectable Seville, the third. There is a Spanish proverb which +declares, "Who hath not seen Seville hath not seen a marvel," and I am +prepared to own that who doth not believe that proverb is an unenviable +sceptic. At first sight the city is a disappointment. Glance at it from +the railway and you will have no wish to stop. But alight and remain +there a few days, and you will find it hard to drag yourself away. The +place grows upon you. Each hour reveals new charms; there is a +fascination in the very atmosphere; and in the end you will catch +yourself exclaiming that the pearl of Andalusia is the fairest gem in +the Spanish crown--would be a priceless ornament to any crown. + +The setting of the jewel is not worthy of it--a great plain covered with +greyish grass; clumps of tall, brown-blossomed agave; a sky metallic in +its lustre, blazing and intense; a dim streak of azure on the horizon +indicating the far sierra, and, creeping lazily through the flat, a +dull, yellow river. But the city itself! Verily, it is a marvel--a +grotto of serene mysteries in a granary of plenty, the true city to +cultivate the gay science and savour the delicate relishes of bliss. + +Don Juan--I mean the Don Juan of the Tenorio family, linked to fame by +Tirso de Molina, Glueck, and Mozart, not the hero of Byron's poem--was +born here, lived here, and lies under an ivy-clad sarcophagus in the +gardens attached to the Duke de Monpensier's palace. No sweeter nook of +earth could he have chosen for life's dreary pilgrimage, which he made +as little dreary as he well could, if one-half that is said and sung of +him be true. He was a sad scapegrace, and no pattern to the rising +generation; his back knew no sackcloth, and his shoes no peas; but he +died penitent. His tomb, a chaste thing in marble and brass, ought to be +as attractive for pilgrims of the Wertherian school as the monument to +Abelard in the Pere-la-Chaise. + +Threading the puzzling maze of Seville streets, one might fancy that all +the ladies here had been in love with the wanton rascal, and were still +in mourning for him. The dress of womankind of the better class is +invariably black; their tiny feet, coffined in dainty shoes, peep from +under a pall of black skirts; black mantillas float over billows of inky +hair, while black eyes flash with the melancholy fire of funeral torches +over the tremulous tips of black fans. Why they patronize black (which +is a conductor of heat) in this hot climate I cannot for the life of me +make out. Certainly it is not because of sympathies solemn or +lugubrious; for the character of these lissom damsels of Seville is the +reverse of gloomy. There is no taint of Inquisitorial days in their +souls. They are grave only externally, and all that is coquettish, +winning, and womanly within. If they hang out the undertaker's emblems +it can only be through love of the rule of contraries, for they are arch +in every step and glance, and bring sunshine with them into shady +places. They are fond of seeing and being seen; they cannot be looked on +as mutes, for they carry a fan, which in Spain is equivalent to a +semaphore; why then will they persevere in wearing this sepulchral +raiment? I flatter myself I have discovered two reasons, either of which +will answer--first, to typify their remorse for all the hearts they have +broken; and, next, because it is very becoming. + +The women of the lower classes do not confine themselves to the same +severity of taste. They are as amorous of glaring colours as negresses. +Cross the iron bridge over the Guadalquivir, here a slow current of +chocolate and milk, and go into the Triana suburb where Tatterdemalion +holds court. There you will meet gowns of printed cotton of the +liveliest hue--gowns that flaunt violent pinks and gamboges, but never a +violet or a pearl-grey, much less a black. These daughters of the people +generally adorn their braided dark hair, which is thick and silky enough +to drive a Parisian belle into agonies of jealousy, with a few bright +natural flowers, and sport cheap trinkets and ear-rings, and fling gay +kerchiefs over their shoulders. The men are as true to the native +costume as the women. That abomination, the stove-pipe hat, seldom +shocks the aesthetic mind. The head-gear is the wide round hat with low +crown and inward-turned brim. The large blue or brown cloak, with +parti-coloured lining, is almost universally worn as in Madrid, but with +this difference: in Madrid the tail of it is held before the mouth as if +there was an epidemic of toothache; in Seville, it drapes full and free. +The Andalusian jacket--broidered with tags, and short so as to show the +scarlet waist-sash--tight trousers, and shoes of untanned leather, are +likewise common. A tidy active working-suit this Andalusian suit is, but +it must no more be argued that the men who wear it are tidy and active +and addicted to hard work than that the women who wear black are going +to a burial-service. No; Seville is the most deliciously idle place in +creation, and the Sevillanos are the most deliciously idle people. + +The _vis inertiae_ is cultivated here as a science; the Castle of +Indolence is somewhere in the vicinity; the central offices of the Lazy +Society are situated in the Calle de las Sierpes. The natives take to +lotus-eating naturally. Pure effect of climate. The Seven Sleepers were +born in Seville, and their descendants still have their torpid being in +the city. It was never meant for the bustle of trade or the whirr of +machinery. It is the place of all others to read Theocritus, 'mid bowers +dipping their leaves into plashing fountains, to eat fruit, listen to +distant music, blow languid wreaths of perfumed smoke, and shut one's +eyes to have visions of fair women. It is the veritable opium-eater's +Paradise. + +Of deliberate design, I abstain from writing of the public buildings and +monumental curiosities of Seville. All that can be had by those who +choose in the exhaustive guide-books of Richard Ford and Henry O'Shea. +To my thinking, nothing can be more insufferable than the statistics of +architecture, the bald jargon of styles plateresque and ornaments +charrigueresque, the raptures over chancels and transepts and ogee +windows, the precise accounts of such a bell, which would turn the scale +at so many hundredweight, and such a spire, which is three yards and a +quarter taller than the York Column, with the everlasting scraps of +poetry from the treasury of ready-made quotations interlarded between. +It is worse even than the cant of criticism which Laurence Sterne +castigated with honest pen. Hugo was a genius, and even Hugo was almost +unequal to saving "Notre Dame de Paris" from the dead weight of +architectural detail which cumbered its spirit. + +Let us look at Seville without the guide-book or guide, walk through its +labyrinth of narrow paved streets with mind open to receive, and mark +the features of the East side by side with those of the West. Those +flat-roofed buildings with greeneries on the summit, those jealous +balconies and windows with their iron trellis-work, those cool inner +spaces with tesselated floors and surrounding of marble pillars of which +we catch glimpses through the metal fret-work of the private doors--how +Moorish they are! The sights and sounds, the ragged and bronzed beggar +urchins, the hawkers of lemons and water, the strings of donkeys and +mules in fringed blinkers pattering along under huge net or straw +panniers, crammed with fruit, or charcoal, or tiles, or cork-wood--how +characteristic, how utterly un-Frankish! That lolling clown, with legs +dangling over the tawny sheared sides of a diminutive donkey, is a study +in himself. Then the melodious street-cries, the lively braying and +whinnying, and the perpetual tinkling of the collar-bells worn by all +four-footed beasts that pass, except nobody's dog and the rich man's +horse--what a pleasant concert they make! + +If you wish to change the scene, roam through the plazas, with their +marble water-basins and orange-trees; go to the Duke de Montpensier's +garden, with its wealth of myrtles and fern palms; wander to the +river-side and look at the ships lading or unlading; or ascend the +Giralda, the old mosque steeple from which the muezzin called the +faithful to prayer, and take in the comely mass of colour beneath in one +broad sweep. Then the changing sky that canopies this "fragment of +heaven let fall upon earth!" The riot of clouds when the elements war, +and after the midday heats the genial rain pours down as if the blue +expanse overheard were a lake--how fervent and cordial! At night, when +the city streets are crowded with groups in conversation; when the +fragrant, flower-garlanded patios are visible by mystic lights pendent +from gilt chandeliers, like votive lamps before a shrine; when +caballeros pay court to their lady-loves through gratings as caballeros +are licensed only to pay court in Spain; when plaintive songs, with a +reminiscence of the desert about them, are chanted in monotonous cadence +to the accompaniment of a guitar--how grateful it all is to him who is +not lost to the sense of poetry! Imperceptibly one yields himself to the +associations of the bygone, and imagination takes wing. As the night +ages and silence enwraps the scene--a silence only broken by the deep +boom from a clock-tower or the voice of the sereno, the Spanish +watchman, hobbling along with his lantern swinging from his pike and his +bunch of keys from his girdle, singing out the hours--the effect is +stronger; and I confess, while roaming in such a frame once, I so lost +myself to the present that I should not have been surprised if I had met +the Knight of La Mancha and the three gallants of the _Canard a Trois +Becs_ in mocking whispers at his heels, or Figaro himself on a +serenading excursion; but with the last puff of my cigar died out the +ideal and returned the real. I hastened back to my hotel, which might +once have been a Moorish palace, and there, to make the assurance doubly +sure that this was the nineteenth century, sat in an American +rocking-chair a gentleman in a tweed suit, reading _Galignani's +Messenger_ and drinking pale ale. + +That gentleman was not a poet; he was an English tourist. It was the +period before the Holy Week, with its world-renowned solemnities, +celebrated with a pomp second only to that of Rome in her heyday, and +drawing strangers in swarms from every point of the compass. If I +expected to enjoy an intellectual chat with that gentleman I was +mistaken. + +"Only fancy!" he began; "the landlord has been here, and the beggar says +we'll have to pay double for board and lodging if we don't clear out +before the 5th of April." + +To my explanation that a time of deep interest was at hand, and that +accommodation would be at a premium, Manchester (I felt instinctively he +must be a commercial traveller and in the dry-goods line) continued: +"Yes, I know: bull-fights, Italian opera at the San Fernando, races, fat +women, talking seals, peep-shows, whirligigs--all the fun of the fair. +By Jove! I've half a mind to hang on." + +He had not heard of the grand open-air religious processions from Palm +Sunday to Good Friday, nor of the uniquely pathetic service of the +_Tenebrae_, nor of the gorgeous jubilance of Easter Sunday. Some enemy to +Seville spread the rumour that the Republic had set its face against +such ceremonies as mere gauds and vanities, customs more honoured in +the breach than the observance, and that this year they would not be +held. But Seville would not have it so; she would not relinquish her +chance of enjoying a religious raree-show and fleecing the foreigner for +any Republicans. The civil governor issued a proclamation comforting the +lieges by the pledge that now, as ever, the Holy Week would be grandly +kept, kept in a way worthy of cultured Seville, and cultured Seville +rubbed her hands with glee. Crowds were expected to flock in, and the +master of the hotel intended to act royally by them--that is, exact +tribute from them whilst they were at his mercy. Seville meant to be +awfully devout during Passion Week, and awfully jolly the week after. On +Easter Sunday there was to be a bull-fight, one of the finest in Spain, +between the greatest of living toreadores and some bulls of choicely +savage breed. The annual fair, which was represented to me as a revel of +glowing and changing tints in dress--a treat not to be missed by the +artist on any account--was to be held in the middle of April, and +speculative committees were busy over the details of race-meetings, +balls, fireworks, and merry-making generally. + +I pressed the representative of the mart of cotton not to depart. But he +was obdurate to arguments touching on the aesthetic. For him the sacred +Biblico-traditional drama of "The Seven Dolours of the Virgin Mary" had +no attraction. He preferred fireworks and the learned pig. + +"No," he added, as if musing; "on second thought, I shan't. Bull-fights +I can see at Madrid; and the only race-meeting worth attending, I'm +told, is that at the place where the sherry is manufactured." + +"Surely," I ventured, with artless good-nature, "you will wait to +patronize Mr. Spiller, who is advertised as skater-in-ordinary to the +Duke of Edinburgh. It will be something to boast of, that you saw him +gliding and gyrating before the astonished natives, whose only idea of +ice is in the shape of creams, dyed a delicate amber, and tinctured with +essence of lemon. Then, again, your countryman, old Tom Price, the Batty +of the Peninsula, has pitched his tent on the Alameda of Hercules. He's +not to be missed." + +"Tom Price--bah! You should go to Astley's, in the Westminster Bridge +Road, my boy. That fairly takes the cake. I'm off!" + +He went, and I was not sorry; but the spell was broken. I was guest of +an inn. My elysian train of reverie had been smashed up; the genius of +dry-goods had evicted poetry under circumstances of aggravated +harshness; before the stamp of the elastic-sided boot of Manchester, +Pedro the Cruel and Alonso the Wise, Murillo and Luca Giordano, Maria de +Padilla and Leonora de Guzman, "el Rey Chiquito" Boabdil and the heir of +Columbus--all had melted into thinnest of air. + +Inexorable duty called me elsewhere before the Holy Week solemnities, so +that I have no opportunity of describing them _de proprio visu_, and I +do not care to rehearse twice-told tales. But whilst I was in Seville I +wandered to and fro and made good use of my leisure, hearing and seeing +as much as most visitors. Of those things which remain imprinted on my +memory I may repeat some without incurring--at least so I trust--the +imputation of boring the reader. There was a basin in the gardens of the +Alcazar, where I was wont to sit beneath the shade of the foliage in +the strong heats of noon. There is an anecdote concerning it which +impressed me mightily. King Ferdinand was here one day, and was sore +perplexed by an affair of state. He required a just and astute judge to +decide some vexed question of the first importance. Walking up and down +he unconsciously picked an orange, cut it in twain, and flung one half +into the water, the cut side downwards. Suddenly an idea struck him. The +monarch sent for a judge, and asked what was that floating before him. + +"An orange," was the answer. + +Irritated, he dismissed him, summoned another, put the same question, +and received the same reply. This went on until at length one authority, +before answering, drew the fruit towards him with the branch of a tree, +picked it out of the water, and gave the true reply: + +"Half an orange!" + +There is a sound moral at the core of this orange. + +There are five-and-twenty parish churches in Seville and two thousand +priests; but, as too often happens on the Continent, the women were +vastly more attentive than the men to observances of devotion. I made +the acquaintance of a wealthy burgess, a dealer in curiosities, who +asked me round to his shop to inspect some of the charming peasant +costumes of Murcia, now fast falling into disuse--and a grievous pity it +is. It was Friday when I visited him, and he was gobbling pork-chops. + +"What! you a Christian, you a son of the Church!" I exclaimed. + +"Ah! senor," he apologized; "forgive me! I am very frail, but my wife is +_so_ good a Christian. I reverence that woman. She has gone to Mass +without breaking her fast, and when she returns she will only take one +small cup of chocolate." + +But all the burgesses of Seville are not like to him who practised +mortification by proxy. The gentlefolk are pious, and the commonalty are +not irreligious. Cheerfulness and sobriety are the rule; gambling and an +idleness excused by the enervating influences of the too generous sun +are the predominating vices, as elsewhere in Southern Spain. + +I saw few ebullitions of temper, much hospitality among the poor, no +downright thievishness, but the irresistible tendency to pass bad +money--which is accounted a venial failing in the Peninsula. + +The Cathedral is a superb pile, and occupies the site of an ancient +mosque. The stained-glass windows are so many captive rainbows. +Pretermitting talk about dimensions and the like, I may note some few of +the remarkable features which are most apt to be recalled by the +stranger. Foremost among these are the stone pulpit from which St. +Vincent de Ferrer preached; the slab over the remains of Ferdinand, son +of Christopher Columbus, whereon are inscribed the words (referring to +his illustrious father), "A Castilla y a Leon Mundo Nuevo Dio Colon," +and a Crucifixion by a Mexican negro, who was never known to paint any +other subject. It is a peculiarity of artists of the Spanish school, in +representations of the Sacrifice on Calvary, to use three nails and +place the wound on the right side; Italians use four, and place it on +the left. In the Capilla Real is the figure of the "Virgen de los +Reyes," the patron of Seville, a gift from St. Louis of France, +surmounted by the identical crown with which the brow of the canonized +monarch was pressed, and enclasped as to the throat by a diamond +necklace valued at ninety thousand duros, presented by Dona Berenguela, +the mother of St. Ferdinand. Among the treasures in the relicario of the +sacristy is a massive gold group made of ore brought by Columbus from +America, consisting of two figures sustaining a globe, the globe alone +weighing fifteen pounds. Passing under a horseshoe arch, in a dusty +corridor beside which is preserved the shrivelled mummy of an ungainly +alligator sent by the Sultan of Egypt to Alonso the Wise when seeking +his daughter's hand, the Chapter Library is reached. The prizes of this +collection are the manuscripts of the discoverer of the New World and +the book, "_Tractatus de Imagine Mundi_," which he took with him on the +caravel when he first crossed the Atlantic. There are marginal notes to +it in his own minute and legible handwriting, in one of which he lays +down this apothegm of sad wisdom: "No one is secure from adversity." +There are no especially beautiful pictures by Murillo--especially, I +say, for all of his are beautiful--in the Cathedral, but the church of +La Caridad contains two masterpieces: the "Miracle of our Lord feeding +the Multitude," and that of "Moses bringing the Living Water from the +Rock of Horeb." The latter is full of diversity of expression underlain +by a thrill of mad eagerness brought out with a terrible truth. Another +famous picture is the "Descent from the Cross" of Campana. This was +painted in 1548, and was so natural that Murillo was never weary of +resting in rapt contemplation before it, and on his death-bed asked to +be buried at its feet in the church of Santa Cruz. He had his wish. But +the dogs of war came panting that way. Soult entered Seville, pulled +down the church, desecrated the master's grave, and stole all of his +canvas he could lay his sacrilegious paws upon to grace the Louvre. The +Spaniards do not love the French, nor is it astonishing. + +Among the delights of Seville one of the chief must not fail to be +enumerated--no shrieking newsboys shove latest editions into the face of +the lounger. This is not a reading people; for a woman to know how to +read was accounted immoral so late as the beginning of this century. +There are some papers at Seville, nevertheless; among others, _El +Oriente_, devoted to Carlism, and _La Legitimidad_, which advocated the +interests of the ex-Queen Isabella's son and heir; but they have little +to say. In the lack of suicides, stabs in the dark, and +pronunciamientos, they are driven to fill up their space with extracts +from the almanac and lists of letters thrown into the Post Office +without prepayment. Some countryman must have caught the local disease, +for in one list given in _La Legitimidad_ it was notified that two +envelopes had been indolently committed to the box without stamps, one +addressed to "Miss Mary, Hyde Park," and the other to "Monsieur" (an +evident misprint for "Mister") "Francis O'Mahony, Shankerhill." + +It may be a surprise to some that Carlism had its adherents, but +wherever the Church is powerful there Carlism exists, and as the Church +is particularly powerful amongst the weaker sex, the Spanish women are +almost universally Carlists. Many a ferocious Intransigente, who spouts +fire and brimstone, and death to kings and priests in the clubs, has to +sing very small when he comes home, for the Senora dotes on Don Carlos +and works slippers for the father confessor. In Seville I should say the +Intransigente element is feeble; it is strongest, perhaps, in the +municipality (which, by the way, issued an edict secularizing the +cemetery of San Fernando), because this party of action is always on the +watch and pushes itself into office; but the immense majority of the +business folk are monarchical, only they wish to have the Prince of the +Asturias, not Don Carlos, for their monarch, and all the gentlefolk, +without exception, are anti-Republican. I had proof of this at the +theatre, where "La Marsellesa," a comedy intended to glorify the advent +of the Republic, was played. The speeches in favour of Federalism very +often fell flat, and occasionally were hissed, while the satirical hits +at "social liquidation" and the like were uncommonly relished. + +I have dwelt on indolent Seville. Surely there must be some industries +pursued in this metropolis of the _dolce far niente_. They are not many. + +There is a cannon-foundry and a copper-foundry, but more in keeping with +the associations of the radiant district is the porcelain factory. An +Englishman, Mr. Charles Pickman, bought one of the convents sequestered +in 1836, and has transformed it into a factory, where he turns out some +capital imitations of the ancient glazed tiles. Seldom has a hive of +industry been reared in nobler building or on more lovely site, nestling +in gardens enamelled with flowers, wealthy in fruit-trees, and on the +banks of a river. Some may consider it profanity that potters' wheels +spin and buzz in an edifice once consecrated to religion; but labour is +prayer, and sanctifies of itself. A number of healthy, handsome girls +are busily engaged colouring and burnishing the ceramic ware which is +fashioned in the old cloisters; and their joyous songs over their work +cannot be very displeasing to the spirits of the pious brethren who +preceded them in the locality, if there be any ground for the belief +that the shades of the dead are permitted to haunt the spots they +tenanted in the flesh. There are in those songs reminiscences of Bizet's +_Carmen_. These Andalusian lasses have to thank the Englishman for +giving them the opportunity of earning their bread and olives honestly, +and they have the happy look of independence. Their full-blooded +complexions would shame our pale Lancashire factory hands. They can +hardly realize how lucky they are to ply such a neat trade in an +atmosphere of freshness and sweet odour, under a dome of sapphire. + +Another institution to go over is the great Government tobacco-factory, +close by the Cathedral, where no less than five thousand women are +employed. The sight is the workwomen. The process of cigar-making is as +uninteresting as that of diamond-polishing, and yet one goes to witness +both with far more anxious anticipation than to inspect what is far more +remarkable--the making of a pin. The building in which the manufactory +is carried on is a world in itself--an imposing oblong block, with a +railed enclosure in front. Being Government property, it is guarded by +soldiers, and the stranger is apt to take it, at first sight, for a +gigantic barrack. The name of the king in whose reign it was erected +(one of the Ferdinands) is still outside. The Republic has not ordered +it to be erased, as a French Republic would have done before this. At +Madrid I noticed the same delicacy, or forgetfulness, if you prefer it; +the monogram and crown of Isabella were untouched on the lamp-posts in +the most revolutionary quarters. The interior of the building consists +of long whitewashed halls, divided into colonnades by rows of pillars, +from which spring vaulted ceilings. The women are seated at low tables +about two feet from the ground, in parties of half-dozens. They were +there of every age, from the tawny hussy of sixteen to the fully +developed matron with her infant tumbling in a cradle beside her, and +the wrinkled hag with her iron-grey locks bound with a gay bandana. +Poor, but merry and impudent withal, they were; and some of the +sprightly hoydens, with sprays of lilac and rosebuds in their +magnificent ebon hair, were a little too ready with a wink. There is a +tradition that they smoke, not dainty cigarettes, but full-flavoured +cigars; in any case, they are carefully searched before leaving to see +that they do not smuggle out any trabucos for personal consumption or as +gifts to their favoured swains. They were dressed invariably in lively +cotton prints, with short shawls of red, or crimson, or saffron, or +other hue outvying the tulip in garishness. To be shockingly frank, not +one of them was conspicuously pretty; they had brilliant eyes and teeth, +but all had an ill-fed, dried-up appearance, even those who were +inclined to flesh. The Spanish woman, after a certain age, has a +tendency to get fat without passing through the buxom stage; +connoisseurs pretend that this is the combined effect of rancid oil and +sweetstuff. But it is not gallant to dive into the secrets of female +nature. Very assiduously these "lazy Andalusiennes" bent to their tasks, +picked and sorted the leaves, rolled the cigars into shape, clipped +them, gummed the ends, and packed them into bundles tied with smart +ribands of silk; for they are paid by the piece, and the bull-fighting +season is near, and they must save the price of a seat at the corrida on +Easter Sunday, come what will. The cigars are assorted in boxes +according to their shape and size, their brand and their strength, the +latter being indicated by the words "claro," "claro colorado," +"colorado" (which is the medium flavour), "colorado maduro" and "maduro" +as they advance in five gradations from mild to strong. Leaving the +cigar-hall, I was shown into the cigarette-hall, where a number of +quieter girls, with shallow boxes of tobacco-dust almost as fine as +snuff before them, were rolling the paper cylinders exactly as it is +done by smokers, but with fingers surer and nimbler. In another hall the +cartuchos, or packages to hold cigarettes and tobacco, were made. They +were ready printed and cut, waiting to be put on a wooden frame, turned +over, and pasted. One child of ten was pointed out to me as the quickest +in the lot. Her small hands flew over her work with a rapidity that +dazzled. She had need to be expeditious, poor wean, for she received +just one farthing for every hundred packages she made! + +There are others besides the tantalizing tile-makers and the saucy +cigarreras who are rebellious to the drowsy influences of clime, and +profanely work--the gipsies and the beggars. There are some of the +former here, though not so many as in the pages of Murray. The +excessively dirty and extremely picturesque race, with parchment skins +and high cheek-bones, is dying out. A few stray members of the tribe +remain in the remotest and raggedest part of the transpontine suburb, +and shear mules, cope horses, and do tinkering jobs generally, filling +in their spare time with petty larceny. Their women shuffle cards and +tell fortunes. A splendid people they are, those gipsies--in Borrow's +book and on canvas. In private life their society is not to be courted. +If you do not want to see them, they are sure to turn up; if you do, as +I did, you must look for them, and not always with success. I came +across but one during my stay in Spain--a yellow girl who was eager to +exhibit her palmistry at my expense in the immense coffee-house under +the Fonda de Paris at Madrid--and she left a strong impression on my +mind of having been own sister to a persuasive prophetess who once +cozened me of half-a-crown on the towing-path at Putney at the 'Varsity +boat-race on the Thames. Your hopes of assisting at a gipsy dance at +Seville will be disappointed. If you give a courier two pounds sterling, +he may be able to improvise you one; a pack of filthy, bony men and +women will execute epileptic saltatory movements before you--not the +Esmeralda dance, but lewd swaying of the body from the hips, and +vehement contortions; and finally one creature will throw her +handkerchief at your feet. A well-bred caballero will fill the +handkerchief with shining dollars, and hand it back to her with a bow. +This dance is work, downright hard work; but it is a dance for money. +Mammon, not Terpsichore, is the genius to whom worship is paid. The +mendicants toil as hard at their trade as those dancing gipsies. I +counted fifty-seven in a short morning walk--some robust and some +well-dressed, with the well-acted meekness of genteel poverty. The +cripples, the deformed, the adults with baby arms and the jumping +Billy-the-Bowls could not be paralleled out of South Italy. From the +assortment could be furnished Burns's "Holy Fair" and the Pattern in +"Peep o' Day" twice over, with something to leave. They are all +past-masters and mistresses in the art of petitioning; they are +professors of physiognomy like Lavater, and can tell at a glance a face +which ought to belong to a charitable mortal; and then, what a command +they have of the gamut of lungs, from the whine, the wheedle, and the +snuffle, to the unctuous, droning prayer or the fierce malediction! + +Still--beggars, gipsies, heat, and laziness to the contrary +notwithstanding--Seville is delectable, and a marvel in its gardens and +groves, its flowers and fruit, its fountains and fish-pools, its soft +climate and soft people, its languorous repose and silvery tinkles to +prayer. Seville is romance. Shall it ever be mine again to lie beneath +the shade of its secular orange-trees, and blink at clustering shafts +of marble tipped with silver sun-rays, and dream dreams? As I write, +methinks to my ear rises the cry of the guardian of the night, the last +I heard as I left, half warning, half supplication: "Ave Maria +Purissima, las diez han dado." + + +END OF VOL. 1. + +BILLING & SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[A] In fair play to Santa Cruz, it is right to state that he believed +this female to be a spy, who, under the pretence of Carlism, was willing +to "betray the volunteers of God and the King, and carried despatches to +the enemy sewn up in her dress." Still, the idea of a minister of +religion ordering a woman to be shot does not recommend itself, although +the woman may have justly deserved her fate. + +[B] The Duke de Sanlucar is an O'Shea. I hope he is a relative of mine; +for kinship with a grandee, however distant, is something to brag about. +We always speak of our exalted connections. One never hears me dropping +a syllable of a cousin of mine who was a bounty-jumper in the United +States, agent-in-advance to a nigger-minstrel troop, and subsequently +drove a butcher's cart in Brooklyn. He was a fearful, but most +fascinating ruffian. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Romantic Spain, by John Augustus O'Shea + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROMANTIC SPAIN *** + +***** This file should be named 34753.txt or 34753.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/7/5/34753/ + +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.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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