^J3i3DNYso\^ "^aaAiNamv^ AWEUNIVEW/a ^lOSANCEl^. ^J'il]3NV-S01^ %a3AINrt-3WV^ ^ ^UIBRARYOc •3 *! i i^^ ?^ aWEUNIVER% .^lO^i \^my\^ %ojnvjjo^ :lOSANCEl% o "^/jaaAiNa-Jwv ^OFCALIF0«)!g "f , J ^HIBRARY ^.JOJITYD ^0FCAIIF(M If: >&Aava8n-3 -^tUBRARYQc. so .^OfCAllFO;?;^, ^llIBRARYQc. ^ofCAllFOff^ ^&AHv?igni"^ ^'"^omm. ^^\l-UliKAll: MiMi i^ ! ^lOSANCEU O SPAIN AND THE SrANlARDS. N. L. THIEBLIN. " AZAMAT-BATUK." IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. L LON DON : HUK8T AND liLACKETT. ITl'.LlSll HRS, 13, QRE.VT M.VHLBOROUOII STRKKT. 1874. All nyhti rtjerceU. CONTENTS THE FIRST VOLUME. lll*rT>« PA(.K I. BAYONNE AND BIARRITZ, WHERE Sl'AIN BEGINS . . . • • 1 II. FIRST VISIT TO THE CARLIST CAMPS . M III. DIGS, PATRIA, Y REY ''1 IV. DON CARLOS, HIS WIFE, AND HIS VIEWS . 107 V. FROM BAYONNE TO MADRID . 1-i VI. THE FEDERALIST COUP D'eTAT 150 VII. THE COUNTESS OF MONTIJO ON SPANISH MOB-RULE ..... 108 Vm. FEDERALIST ELECTIONS AND FEDEKAI.IST FESTIVITIES .... l*5l IX. ON THE TOP OF THE SILVER .MOUNTAIN . JU? X. SANTA CRUZ ..... -•'>- XI. FOREIGN CARLISTS .... -71 Xll. THE ARMY AND STAFF OF DON CARLOS . 2H2 Mil. SPANISH CLERICAL MATTERS :iO0 4 7;uGo SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. CHAPTER I. BAYOXXE AND BIARRITZ, WHERE SPAIN BEGINS. IET US start a la Disnieli, witli a sentence of J nice, impiident, ])ln"enetic bluster, sonietliin(.'li;ian frontier is not picturesque, but at all events you see a sort of manufacturing^ animation there ; while in the country south of liordeaux the eye meets nothing but pine forests, patches of sand, and greyish-looking helds, som*.-- times without a trace of any other vegetation than fern. Miles and miles are passed without the sight of a hill or a living being, except an occasional cow wringing her mehxncholy bull, or a grunting pig rushing out of a ditch on the approach of the train. Now and then, you come across a lot of horses let loose; their shaggy coat, their awkward, shy sort of look, make you forget that you are south of the French vine- yards— y(tu believe yourself in the steppes of Russia. Of human beings, you see literally no- thing, except when the train stops at the station ; and only by-and-by, when vaguely dis- cerning on the distant horizon the blue clouded chain of the I'yivnees, do you feel relieved from the seediness that oppressed you, and begin to believe that you will really have something better to see presently. The fresh smiling vales and hills around I'or- 6 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. deaiix, the sprightly, enervating activity of the city itself, make you feel the sadness of the Landes still stronger ; and when you reach Bayonne, you wonder by what sort of misunder- standing or forgetfulness Nature allowed the large plot of land between the Gironde and the Adour to remain in that rough and unfinished condition. Bayonne gains immensely if you enter it by the river. The bar of the Adour is in itself quite a sight for the stranger. First of all, it cannot be always passed ; and that is already something. \'ery frequently ships have to remain several days outside, waiting till a favourable tide turns up. The sea may be like a mirror, but on the bar itself there is always a havoc ; while, when the sea is rough, the mouth of the Adour assumes the aspect of some infernal caldron. A man fresh to the sea would never believe any vessel could pass through it. The white boiling waves dash up high in the air, with all the rage and cries of a thousand infuriated witches. Caught by one of these waves, the ship is immediately pitched up and down in such a way that no efforts will make anybody or anything on board remain in its place. Every fresh wave coming from behind looks as if it would wash oflf funnel, paddle- BAYONNE AN'D BIARRITZ. ( boxes and cwrvthiii;^^ else; yet tlie steamer boiiiuls iij) a,i,Miii, and in three or lour minutes slips quietly down on the smooth surface of thu river. J>ut one can only get a chance to enjoy this si^i^ht when the naval bulletins posted on the wall of the ('ustom House at Bayonne announce: " Passage de la barre praticable." ^^'lu■Il they declaie it "dinicile," nobody makes even an attempt to cross it ; and it is quite a common thing to see English and Spanish crews knocking about at Bayonne, sometimes for a week, without being able to get out into the gulf. Last Spring when the general lliglit from Madrid had set in, and the Northern railway was cut, there remained no other road to France but that via Santander or Bilbao, and thence on by steamer to l:{ayonne. I low many senoras had then to laiiit and cry on the mere ajiproach of that bar! Bui tin- Adour speedily rccomforted them. The large and handsome river, with its rich vegetation on either side, reminded them of their own Rio Nervion and the entrance to the capital oi' Biscaya. The sight heri> is even much more grand, for, though I']nglish mining industry and connnercial activity have rendered the ap- proaches to liilbao much more animated, the approaches to Bayonne are more i)icturesque, tlie 8 SPAIN AXD THE SPANIARDS. river is larger, and the groves and woods bordering it are incomparaLly more beautiful and profuse. It is not an exaggeration to say that Spain begins at Bayonne and Biarritz. It is here that you first see mantillas going to church ; that you read sign- boards written in French and Spanish ; that you hear the Castilian tongue— and often the purest. During the Summer months you meet certainly more Spanish than French faces at Bayonne, and in the AlUes Marines, the beautiful promenade along the river, you are first puzzled by the bullocks dragging the carts, being, in the Spanish fashion, dressed in a kind of linen dressing-gowns and having elaborate red nets on their heads. Lifting up their wet nostrils, they look at you as if anxious to ascertain whether you are a countryman of theirs ; but the driver soon makes them feel, by the use of his long stick and his swearing, that a countryman is at all events close at hand. In the market-place and in the leading street you meet very frequently nudes with their heavily loaded alforjas ; and the genuine muleteers, dressed in their picturesque costumes, leave you in no doubt of your being in close BAYONXE AND BIARRITZ. » vicinity to the luiid of I>()ii Quixi.fe. 'IMi.- huge liiiiKhiii; which loclges the Mimicipul ('i)iincil, the M;iiiie, the theatre, the Custom House, and iv good n)iiiiy other tilings, has hirge arcades through the basement, quite in tlic Spanish style, and one of the streets of Bayonne consists almost entirely of arcades. On the whole, Bayonne woidd be a ])leasaiit- hioking town if it were not for a very mournful, since immemorable times, unfinished cathedral, and some very ugly looking old fortifications. The Vauban bastions outside the town, being covered Avith grass, do not much olb'iid the eye, but the old castle and the citadel have a ruined and mouldy look which affects the aspect of ihe town very unfavourably. Ik'ing a place forle de premiere clusse, I'ayonne garrisons a whole military division ami no rud of siege and fortress artillery, a circumstance which also adds very little to the j)leasantness of the town, except through the supply of some military bands, which play twice a week during the afternoon on the J*lace (I'Arnirs, and assciiil'le in that way the fashionable belles of IWanil/. as well as the in- digenous I'asquese girls. The former come to make a show of their toilettes in all imaginable carriages and pony chaises, while the latter walk 10 SPAIX AND THE SPANIARDS. quaintly about, to let people have a look at their graceful bearing, and at their plain but coquettish head-gear. What is here to be seen of England is most venerable, and to a certain extent even glorious. In the first place there is a vast number of invalid and elderl}' ladies and gentlemen, naturally suggesting the idea of usefully-spent lives, of over-work, of large fortunes made by business- like habits and all that sort of thing. Then there is the English cemetery, which contains the bodies of the officers and soldiers of the 2nd Life Guards who fell under the walls of Bayoune in 1814. Then again there is the little frontier town of Hendaye within a few miles of Bayonne — a town which was intimately connected with Great Britain through the strong brandy it produced. Opposite that place, on the left bank of the Bidassoa, lies the old picturesque Spanish town of Fuentarabia, close to which the Duke of Wellington crossed the fords, and surprised and defeated Marshal Soult. In a word, wherever one looks, one finds something to remind one of dear Old England. Almost throughout the whole of the Departement des Basses-Pyrenees one finds a immber of English families of limited means, who look pretty much as if tliey had settled down BAYOXNK AND niAURITZ. 11 there, and some of tlicin, at IWanit/,. even don hit of business in iiddition to llicir livini:: ])k'iisaMtly, cheaply, and in a ^^ood climate. They take a house by the year, stdilct it durinj; the three months' season for the same rent they have to pay for twelve months, and retire meanwhile to places like Ascaiii, r>i''h(>liie, or ('aiiibi>, where provisions are at half the IWarritz season prices; while the loveliest walks, excellent lishing, and occa- sionally a good day's shooting can be had for nothing. A serious objection against Bayonne could be raised by those who don't like dews. The town swarms with them. The whole trade of the place is in thuir hands, and that is the best proof of its being i)risk and profitable; though if you sj)eak to those worthies, you hear, as a matter ot course, nothing but complaints. On the other hand, a thing the severest critic could not find fault with, are the conveyance arrangements. Scarcely anywhere, except in very large cities and at very high jaiees, can one get such carriages, horses and i-lrL;aiitly dressfil postilions as at the I'oste in the Iviie du ( Jouvernement. The excellent four-in-hand coaches which start every half hour to and from liiarritz, carrying passengers at sixpence a head, a distance of 12 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. about five miles, are also something quite mi- known in a certaiu land where four-in-hands are in great fashion, but cheapness quite out of fashion. This elegance of Bayonne carriages explains itself, however, in the first place, by the rich English and, still more, the rich Spanish fiimilies spending no end of money in hiring them during the season ; and in the second, by the fact that Bayonne is chiefly a town of human transit. People come here, not to make a stay, but with a view to excursions, or else simply pass here, on their way to Biarritz, Spain, or the Pyrenean watering places. All of them want carriages, and in the height of the season only old customers can be sure to get one when wanted. Bayonne was always the great Carlist centre, but during these last two years it has become so more than ever. Under the government of M. Thiers everything was done, if not to prevent, at all events to render the Carlist movement more difficult. The gendarmerie was reinforced by some men specially sent from Versailles. Troops were echelonned all along the frontier, and the greatest watchfulness seemed to be exer- BAYOXXE AND BIARRITZ. 13 cisod ill ISayoiine itself. Spaiiianls wIki were uiiiilile to pruve their heiiig" leailiiig iiieiiibers of the Alphoiiso or Isabella luirty were, without (listiiietion of cither sex or age, arrested and interned by the dozen. All this, however, did not nnich alfect Carlism, for its ehief su])port in the Uasses Pyrenees conies not from the Spaniards, but iVoni the French landed pro- prietors, who, in that province;, are nearly all Legitimists, and from the mass of the population, who make a good deal of money out ofCarlism in every possible way : by smuggling arms across the fniiiticr, by the supply of horses, uniforms, and otln.'r war requisites, as well as through the general affluence of peojde this side of the Pyrcnean frontier — an inevitable result of all Carlist risings on the otlicr side of it. M. Thiers was too cautious to ])rovoke any strong feeling against himself on the i)art of the French Basques, and still more so on the part of the rich nobility of the Province ; but he did all he coidd in an underluuitl manner. Yet his best elbuis proved a failure. He was legally unable either to arrest or to interne the wealthy southern landlords, nor could he invade their houses for the pur- pose of searching them. (Consequently, though strangers of all nations were greatly molested by 14 SPAIN AXD THE SPANIARDS. tlie gendarmes and the police, in the streets, on the high-roads, and in the hotels, Carlism pro- gressed all the same, for it was carried on much more within the quiet residences of the landed nobility and gentr}^ than anywhere else. Even the much persecuted Spaniards managed, some- how or other, to establish a regular Committee, which styled itself "La Real Junta Auxiliar de la Frontera," delivered passes, concluded contracts, etc., and was holding its sittings in a Spanish hotel in the principal street of Bayonne. Another Committee, consisting of Frenchmen, concealed its occupation still less than the Spaniards did, and the leading member of it, M. J. D , probably one of the wealthiest men, and certainly one of the most amiable men, of Bayonne, proved always an invaluable aid both to those who wished to make a bit of Carlism, as well as to those who wished to study it a bit. Tlie most curious thing, however, is that M. J. D (I do not give his name lest it should bring upon him some police inquiry), as far as Spanish legitimacy and Popery are concerned, is cer- tainly not more of a Carlist than the most red-hot contributor to the " Repuhlique Francaise" or the " Rappeir He is all day joking, sneering, and sometimes even swearing at Carlism and BAYONNr. AN1> BIARRITZ. 15 Carlists, cspociiiUy at tlii." Iraders of the party,— yet he works all day for tliciii. I often wondered wliat could he his iiiduccmeiit, and came to the conclusion that he is doing so simply hecause his family did so formerly, and because he wants to have some occujiatioii. lie is CarlismiMi,^ in the same way as nu'ii are I'ouiid sporting or hunting, without feeling any interest in horse ortield ; or as others buy pictures, without having the slightest taste for art. And 1 have reason to believe that there are a good many men like him iu the Carlist camp, even amongst the Spanianls themselves, more especially among the young generation of Carlists. When arrived at Bayonne, I was soon brought into contact with some of the leading rej)resentatives of these Committees, and, as my duties implied, trieil to ascertain in what way the Carlists had managed U) organize themselves, and where they got money and arms iroiu. I knew that there had been a Committee in London, and another in Paris; but the London (Jonnnittee did not send out any money at all, while the Paris (.'ommittee collected only a little over a thousand pounds, which could not go a long way. From all that 1 have learned subsequently, it appears that the present Carlist luovenjent Ik^'MH with al>out .iJl, 000 which 1 »on 16 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. Carlos' father-in-law supplied to the young pre- tender. If, at the outset, the nobility and the population of the south of France had not helped Don Carlos as they did, he would not have had any chance at all of arriving where he now is. It was the FrenchLegitimists who served him as volunteer ministers, benevolent contractors, and hospitable hosts. A few instances will show by what practical contrivances they managed to help him. Some 3,000 uniforms of the Mobiles, a souvenir of the Franco-German war, were — for example — to be sold at Bordeaux, and at once a gentleman was instructed to buy them; while a couple of landed proprietors of Bayonne stored them until a party of reliable contrabandists could be secured to smuggle the stock across the frontier. In a few weeks, six or seven battalions of the Carlist army, did not, except through their Boi/na (Basque cap,) differ in any way, in their outward ap- pearance, from the mohlots the Prussians used to capture and slaughter so freely. Another similar affair took place at Bayonne itself. The Muni- cipality possessed there another souvenir of the last war, in the shape of a stock of some ten thousand cartridge-pouches and sword-belts. One of the councillors, a gentleman of a Carlist turn of mind, suggested that time had arrived to realize the BAYONXE A\D lUARRITZ. 17 juililic inoiH'y so unprofitultly iiivrstcil, and jiro- |ioscil that tlu> stock sliould lie sold by aiictiun ; hutanotiier moinber, of a iiiore Rcpultlican sluulc, opposed the motion as likely to serve the in- surgents of a country which was on friendly terms with France. A rather sharp discussion ensued, without apparently leading to any result. But the Carlists found out a leather merchant from so distant a province as Burgundy, and caused him to write and make a private offer to the ]\Iunici- jtality, and the whole stock was sold for about a franc per complete accoutrement. As a matter of course, neither the pouches nor the belts went to I'urgundy, but were sent directly to Navarre, Gui- I)iizcoa, and Biscaya, where they have been doing- some capital service upto the present day. Per- haps a still belter illustration of the manner in which I>on Carlos was served by his faithful and ingenious allies, is furnished by the supply of two camions which I happened to see myself first stored in a little chateau near Biarritz, and subse- quently in lull operation on the Carlist battle- li'l'U. 1 shall have even to tell, by-aiiil-by, how 1 was compelled to smuggle one of these lannons. At present, however, it will be enough to say that two brass four-pounders, cast at a foundry near Nantes, were, it seems, declared to Vol. I. C 18 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. be defective on inspection, and doomed to be turned into metal again. Of course that was but a manoeuvre for getting them out of the French Government's hands. In a few days they were packed, and a French priest booked them at the railway-station to some village close by Bayonne, as marble statues of a Virgin and some saint for his church. He travelled all the way himself with the awkward luggage, and recom- mended every raihvay guard to be most careful in dealing with his cases, containing, according to his story, very fine works of art. In this and similar ways the whole of the existing Carlist army was organised at the outset, and what we have since heard of the Deerhoimcrs and other large landings of arms, began only when Don Carlos became sufficiently master of the North of Spain to impose contributions and to raise little local so-called loans, so as to be able to send out money to England in larger quantities than he had had at his disposal some ten months previous. During the present year, the department of the Basses Pyrenees turned more Spanish than ever, for in addition to swarms of Spanish Carlists, and to all those Spanish families who came every year on pleasure trips to the Pyrenees, everybody whose BAYOXXE AXD niAIililTZ. ID fiii;uu'i;il position permitted him to e.-icapc from plaees where tliere were disturbances — and dis- turbances were everywhere in tliat sad country — sought ref'u;j;e on the French C(Kvst of the Gulf of Biscaya. Consequently, every phice, down to the smallest village on that coast, was literally crammed with genuine blue-blooded cahallevos and senoras. Now it was only natural that in so large a number of representatives of one country there should be all imaginable varieties, gener.i, and species : Carlists, Alphonsists, Isabellists, Aniadeists, Serranists, Plsparterists, Cabrerists, and no end of other " ists," all conspiring, all gesticulating, all talking at the same time, tliough somewhat difTerent nonsense ; but almost all charming men, accompanied very often by still more charming women. Bayonne, being above all anxious to make money, did not catch any particular co- lour from these rej)resentatives of the various Spanish parties, though Carlism was predomin- ant in it. Still, next door to a Spanish hotel I'rom top to bottom filletl with Carlists, stands the "lintel du Commerce," as a ruh; just as much crowded with Ali)honsists. Biarritz, on the other hand, was almost thoroughly Alphonsist; Carlists were there to be met with only in the way of C 2 20 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. exception ; and during the height of the season you could see on the celebrated plage almost every member of the endless cabinets which have governed, or rather misgoverned, Spain from the time of Isabella the " Innocent's " mar- riage. The fashionable Imperialist watering-place differs greatly from anything that the traveller meets on his approaching the Spanish frontier. The little town, or more correctly the little village, is built on an exceedingly ugly spot, without al- most any vestige of gardens or shady grove. It is evidently a place predestined to serve as a re- sort for people rather fonder of parasols than of leafy canopies. The houses are small and irre- gularly-shaped, without any reference either to the comfortable or the picturesque ; and the few large mansions which have been erected by Napoleon and some of his counsellors and friends are cal- culated only to exhibit still more strongly the general ugliness of the place. The largest build- ing in that way, the Villa Eugenie, looks more like a reformatory or some cavalry barracks than like a villa. One wonders now what could have ever induced the late Emperor to select this spot for BAYONXE AND BURRITZ. 21 (.■mbellisliinont, except that it was near Spain — which he had all reasons fur dislikinj]^— and that it offered excellent sea-bathing, wliicli he seldom if ever indulged in. Sitting on the shore, and looking at what Napoleon contrived to call into existence at I'iarritz, one feels more than ever inclined to give a sad smile at the memory of the Empire. What a vast amount of money spent to create a summer residence for the Empress " when she becomes a widow " (and not able to live in France) ! What an amount of artifice conceived in preparing friendly arm-in-arm walks with Bismarck, during which, under the softening influence of the blue sea and the blue mountains, the fate of Europe was supposed to be decided, though in reality nothing was decided, except the catastrophe to the creator of Biarritz and the nation which paid for this creation ! All this, however, does not prevent Biarritz from being an excellent place to take a sea-bath, for the two establishments ofTer every imaginable comfort in that way, and thf beach in front of the Casino is of a description which can hardly be found anywhere else, tiie bottom of the sea being as smooth as the best polished marble, and the rollers all that can be wished for. The coast itself is also capable of affording no end of 22 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. enjoyment to people endowed with a little taste for the picturesque. Seldom do you find a place where, within the same limited space, the waves break in so great variety of beautiful modes. On one spot you see them rolling softly, harmoniously, as though kissing the shore, and whispering to it sweet words of love ; while close b}^ they dash furiousl}^ like so man}^ gigantic white-robed mad women. Here they break abruptly against a cliff, and are thrown back in silver spray ; there they quietly spread themselves in a rich carpet, whiter than snow itself. The Spanish coast is seen from Biarritz to the best advantage, the sharp lines of the mountains being all softened down, and the perpetual play of light and shade, and the variety of colour, giving the whole picture quite a fairy touch. If Biarritz had not been transformed into a countr}'' branch of "the vast cafe-restaurant called Paris" it would certainly have soon become a favourite resort of true lovers of good bathing and fine sea- side views. But it is a place at which you should never avert your eye from the sea. As soon as you cast your glance across the landscape, you are at once oppressed with the utter dreariness of the scene; the town itself is unbearable, and the neighbouring country as near an approach to the BAYOXNE AND BIARRITZ. 23 Landes as can he foniid in the wliol? of that uthtTwisf ]»i('tuivs()iR' t-onior of France. The vcai-ly invasion ul" distiniruislied foreiirnors and of Paris fashionables has also fijiven quite a pecnliar character to the ]io|)nlation of Biarritz. Men and beasts, women and children, seem all to look (lilVi'reiit from what they are in otlu-r i)arts of the Basses Pyrenees. The national ]')as(]ne costume is almost ,i2:iven up, as is also tlie Basque lanj^uage. The nndeteer, though a thorough Spaniard, niARIUTZ, 31 I give hero ii wrsc of a jxijuilar song, which may at least sshow how the huigiiage looks in |iriiil. and a French translation to it, Idtrrowcd from a local writer, as 1 have never been able to catch, luyseli", a single word of Basque except "'Urre,' or " Urra," which means, I think, water. TfliorriltoiiJi, iiDurat lioua, Hi liegiilt'z, airiuii ? Espngnalnt jouaiteko, Klliurra duk bortian : Algiirreki joiiaiiongutuk Ellmrra liourtzcn deuiaii. Petit oiseau, blanche nacelle, Qui fait en I'air voguer son ailc, D'Espagne gagnes-tu lea moats ? Dans les ports que I'liivor assiege, Laisse, crois-moi, fonilre la neigo : Ensemble nous les passerons. Although ncighbonrs, as a ride, seldom live on friendly terms, the Basijues manage to keep quite as profound a peace on the Spanish frontier as that which reigns on the l)iitch-l>elgian. An explanation of this may be found in the fact that it is not actually Frenchmen and Spaniaids who meet on that frontier, but the Bascjues of France ami the Basques of Spain ; and as all the Bascpies of 8pain are Carlisls, they turned the French 32 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. Basques into Carlists too. At all events, the personal support which Carlism obtains in the frontier villages is quite as efficient as the mate- rial support which its leaders receive at Bayonne. Ever}^ Carlist that has, for some reason or other, to enter France, is sure to find a safe and hos- pitable home ; and the cure Santa Cruz has lived at St.-Jean-de-Luz for months and months, both before entering Spain and after having fled thence, and though the police and the gendarmes were daily and nightly on foot to discover him, they had never any chance of success. As with every other place on the shores of the Gulf of Biscaya, St.-Jean-de-Luz was full of Spaniards this year, but the Carlists who were predominant among them were not of that pure royalist type which distinguished Bayonne. They belonged here to the Cabrera faction, and fo- mented in the quiet town of St.-Jean a good deal of the dissension which occurred in the Campo del Honor. The Carlists actually working in the field do not, however, take particular notice of what the Carlists residing in France are doing. They speak of those French residents as of gen- tlenjen engaged in the peaceful and harmless process of rascar la barriga, a not sufficiently proper sort of occupation to be denominated BAYOXXE AND BIARRITZ. 33 ill Kiiglisli. for it means to nil) one's belly. Xevortheless, some of these ra.u-ar la harrifja uentleiiu'ii are men of means, and mii^lit have been well turned to account by Don Carlos if he had been an individual capable of better man- ai^'ement of his partizans. Since the advent of Marshal MacMahon. they certainly might have been all put to work, as they were no longer molested in France, ami the iini)ortation of arms and other war material had been greatly fi'nlan rifles of the Kei>ul)lic. Y(»u must not lorget that the cotnitry will supply us with everything, while the Rej)ublic must pay and bribe everywhere, and they have not got more money than we have. 'J'he proceeds of the Rio Tinto mines, sold to an English firm, have been sjtent to the last penny, and a new loan of five millions has been made under the mortgage of the Porto Rico mines. That will last them exactly five days." As I pointed out to him some little inaccuracy in this statement, he turned the conversation to what he called his own, the political field, and exclaimed : " Has any iMiropean nation, except Switzerland, whiih is no Power, acknowledged the Republic? You must not think the fact of the Euro- pean (Jovernments not having done so to be with- out significance. They are all equally interested in the re-establishment of the monarchy in Spain, and will eertaiidy take the first o]»itortunity for helping it. The legitimist movement in l*'ran<'e is now in fidl swing. England, (lerinany, and Russia are getting more monarchical than ever, under the in- fluence of the dread which the international has 42 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. spread throughout the orderly classes of those countries. And even Victor Emmanuel, though a revolutionary king, is exerting his best efforts to rank himself among the legitimate representa- tives of royalty. So, vous voyez cCici, what Europe is to be in a few years, and no one can entertain any doubt as to the success of monarchy in Spain, where the mass of the people are more devoted to the cause of their religion and their legitimate sovereign than in any other country." "America only — oh! I am very sorry for America," exclaimed the Count. " She has made a great mistake in having so hurriedly recognised the Republic. The American Government was utterly misinformed as to the real state of affairs in Spain, and I am surprised that a country carrying on such a large trade with, and having such considerable interests engaged in Spain, should have taken so hasty a step. Look what a position the United States Government has been placed in with reference to our country. They were friends of Christina, friends of Isabella, friends of Prim, friends of Serrano, admirers of Amadeo; they are now the only supporters of men like Figueras and Castelar, and all that within a very short time indeed. Such an atti- tude towards Spain will hardly be approved by FIRST VISIT TO THE C.VRLIST CAMPS, 43 any impartial jii(l,^i', ami will, in the long run, certainly nut improve' the relations of the two countries." Apprehending that this lecture on the political resurrection of the world might tire the Count and take too much of the limited time I had to spend in Paris, I delicately pointed to the amial)le lecturer the original ])urposc of my call uj>on him, and the necessity I was j)laced in to leave in a few hours for Bayoinie. lie took up the hint most kindly, sat down to a heautifidly carved ancient oak writing-table, and within a very few minutes supplied me with several letters to all sorts of Excelentisimos Sei'wres. And after having, in the evening, duly digested the distinguished gentleman's eloquent argumentation to the tune of Madame Angot's daughter : C n'etait pus la peine, assureiiient, De clianger dc gouveriiemoiit, I whistled merrily oil' to JJordeatix. Never would I have thought on leaving London that I shoidd have to take to smuggling, and bo transformed into a mysterious Spanish contra- bandista. Yet such was the case. To be able 44 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. to get on a sure footinp; among the partisans of Charles VIL, I wanted to see, first of all, General Elio, and get from him the necessar_y permission and safe-conduct. But the General being in the mountains, I had to depend upon Carlist repre- sentatives at Bayonne for finding out his where- abouts. One of them, a most accomplished gen- tleman, said he would do everything in his power, provided I would not object to going somewhat out of the usual way of travelling, and would for a few hours submit to certain restrictions of my free-will. It was impossible to go straight by the high road to the frontier, for M. Thiers' gendarmes and soldiers, posted at all the frontier custom-houses, had strict instructions to let no one pass into such portions of Spain as were occupied by the Carlists. Those who wished to go to the Peninsula had to go either via Irun, the only frontier town still in Republican hands, or to take a steamer at Marseilles to Barcelona, or at Bayonne to San Sebastian, Bilbao, or San- tander. But, as I have already said, it was only in theory, not in actual practice, that com- munication with Carlist territory was cut off, for both arms and men did cross the frontier, only they did not cross it by the high roads, on which watch was kept. FIRST VISIT TO THE CARLIST CA:sIPS. 45 Tlieiv arc two railway lines from France to Si)ain : the one runs nd Bayounc, the other via Perpipian. Between these two lines, on the whole lent^th of the Pyrcnean chain, are several roails, with post coaches, oUl-fashioned inns, little custom-houses, stupid dojumiers, most clever coiitrabojulistas, and all the rest of it. These roads are excellent and most picturesque, and the horses and mules of tiie locality think nothing of ei;;ht or even ten miles an hour, notwithstanding the road running all the time sharply up and down hill. It was on these roads that the close watch on Carlists had been established by M. Thiers. Every cart was searched, every carriage examined, every rider and pedestrian asked to give a full account of his intentions and his des- tination, liut right and left of everyone of these high roads are forest and mountain i>aths trodden out by shepherds and smugglers since times immemorial, and, as to their nund)er and directions, defying all calculation. A few of them arc comlortable enough for a clever mule to pass with its burden ; but no gi'mianne or douatiier, however sharp he may be, has ever vi'U- tin*ed to enter them c.k ojicio. He would be lost if he did not meet any smuggler to show him the way, and would be murdered if ho attempted to 46 SPAIN AXD THE SPANIARDS. interfere with the man's avocation. These rocky, lonely tracks were now the leading thoroughfares of Carlism. On the day fixed for my starting, at about five o'clock in the afternoon, an elegant carriage and pair drove to my hotel at Bayonne, and the waiter came to inform me that a gentleman was waiting for me. It was agreed beforehand that I should have nothing in the way of luggage except an umbrella, a plaid, and a pocket revolver, upon the carrying of which I insisted, and which proved perfectly useless. I took good care not to make my friend wait, and found him in the carriage, in company with something very similar to a coffin. It occupied the whole width of the front seat of the carriage, and was covered with a black cloth. Some passers-by began already to as- semble as we drove away, and my companion said that he was not sure that inquiries would not be made at his house as to whether any of his children had died. " If I had not to fetch you, I would have avoided the leading street," said he ; and on my inquiring what the coffin- like box contained, answered witli the heartiest laugh, " One of the two cannons you have seen the other day at L 's country-house. But duu't be uneasy about that. We shall get through FIRST VISIT TO THE CAULIST CAMPS. 47 all right. Ik-sides, I told you you liud to siibuiit to my orders if you wished to pass." Of course, I answered I was not uneasy, thouj^li 1 li.id lull reason to feel that, if the French authorities caught us, we should have no end of police troubles, while the Spanish would bo almost jus- tified in shooting us at sight. But, somehow or other, as soon as we were out of the walls of I'ayonne. on the long and beautiful road of Don- charinea, I forgot all about the uncomfortable article we were carrying, and the purpose for which we carried it. The weather had sjx'edily changed on that afternoon. Towards six o'clock (Ik- sky was (luite covered, and tcnvards eight so heavy a rain and so perfect a darkness set in that we both began to slumber. All at once the carriage stopj)ed, and a number of suspicious- looking j^ersons ajtpeared at both the doors. 1 was just about to ask my companion whether I should be permitted to get •• uneasy" now, when 1 heard, "Ah, here arc our men," and was asked to alight. I had .--I ill Mill made (lilt what we were ;d>iiul, when the ci)tlin-like box was taken out of the carriage and carried olV like a bundle of band)oos into an apparently (piite imi>racticable wood bordering the road. It wu.s done in the twinkling; of un 48 SPAIX AND THE SPAXIARDS. eye, and the six men avIio carried away the heavy case looked, inider the light which the carriage lanterns threw upon them, like so many gigantic highwaymen of some sensational English novel. " It is their business now to carry that piece across, and we have nothing nK)re to care about," said my friend. " A couple of miles more drive and we shall have a good supper and a first- rate guide, and I am only sorry that the night is so shockingly bad, else I am sure you would have enjoyed the trip." About a mile this side of the Doncliarinea bridge, in the middle of which passes the actual frontier line between France and Spain, and on which any person fond of majestic positions can easily have the treat of trampling with one foot anarchical Spain, and with the other disreputable France, is a little village of the name of Ainhoue, the last French village on that road. The large village inn here, is kept by four exceedingly tall, ex- ceedingly dark, and exceedingly sharp sisters. The eldest, a spinster about 45, is the manageress of the concern, and should I ever know a man in want of a heroine for a romance, I shall send him to the auberge of Marie Osacar, to study that remarkable specimen of womankind. French, Spanish, and Basquese tongues are not only at FIRST VISIT TO THE CARLIST CAMPS. 49 lier comniiiiul, but are each used with something of a chissical eh'gance. There is, besides, scareely iiuy patois in whicli she does not feel as eonifort- able as a fish in the water. On my expressing my astonishment at her versatility, she merely remarked that her line of business required it. And what this "line of business" is, would be by no means easy to describe in a word or two, as it is done when one speaks of commonplace human creatures. Besides being an inn-keeper, this worthy spinster is a money-lender, a political agent for Don Carlos, a police agent for thr French prefect, a ('ommission-merciiant, the head of a band of smugglers, and a perfect master of all the gendarmes, custom-house officers, and every other local authority, Sj)anish as well as French. ^Vh('n we arrived at her inn, she shook hands with my com})anion in a manner that showed that they were old and intimate friends. Some significant twinkles of the eye were ex- changeil, some unintelligible Basque sentences uttiicd in an undertone voice, and all seemed to have been settled immediately. An excellent rural suj)per was served to us, with a bottle ol Bordeaux wine of very fair cpiality, and as there were other people in the dining-room, we were ollicialiy informed by ihe amiable landlady. Vol. I. E 50 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. about ten o'clock, that our beds were ready. But that was simply a stroke of strategy calculated to make local customers retire, so as to enable her to put out the lights. The gendarmes were getting very particular, she said, and would not give up watching the house as long as they saw lights. So we had to lie down in bed for a while, and at about midnight she gently knocked at the door, informing us that " everything was ready." This " everything " consisted of a mj^sterious and by no means attractive in- dividual, wrapped in a nondescript rug, and armed with a heavy stick. " Pray don't make the slightest noise, gentle- men," recommended the clever spinster. " Your very steps should not be heard, else the dogs are sure to raise an infernal barking all over the village, and you will at once have the gendarmes rushing at you. Don't open your umbrellas either, for the fall of rain upon them would certainly be heard." Such and similar was the experienced female's advice, all of which we duly complied with, and passed the village as successfully as any escaping robber ever did. Our guide, in his soundless sandals, was, while marching ahead of us, no more audible than our shadow would have been, and FIRST ^^SIT TO TIIE CARLIST CAJIPS. 51 we really did all that was in our power to imitate him, and began to breathe freely only when we were quite out of the village, and away from the high road. It would be quite idle on my part to attempt to describe this pedestrian night tour. We were thoroughly wet in a few minutes, and had some seven miles to scramble over forest and mountain paths, in themselves probably very picturesque. But I saw nothing but darkness, and felt no- thing but rain and most slippery mud. Now and tlk-n our guide stopped and seemed to listen to something, but nothing was to be heard except the heavy fall of rain on the trees and the distant roll of mountain streams. It took us two monotonous and tirt-some hours to reach the actual frontier, and to bring ourselves out of the jurisdiction of the French gendarmes, and an- other hour's quite as fatiguing walk put us face to face with the lirst Carlist outpost. Of course, there came the usual " Halt !" " Who are youf '' I will shoot you I" and similar exclamations, more or less justified by the pro- found darkness we were j)lunged in. By-and-by. however, everything was satisfactorily explained, uid we Wire escorted to the old deserted monastery of the lirst Spanish village, called E 2 52 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. Urdax, where a couple of rooms were provisionally fitted up for General Elio, the actual commander- in-chief of the whole Carlist army, but nominally " the Minister of War and Head of the General Staff of His Majesty Charles VH., King of the Spains." It was nearly four o'clock in the morning, and as one may easily imagine the old gentleman we wanted was sound asleep. But a Carlist colonel, quite as old as the general himself, a companion in arms of his in the Seven Years' War, and now his temporary aid-de-camp, said that he had orders to awaken El Excelentisimo Sefior General when- ever anyone arrived or any news was brought ; and with a tallow candle, without even a sub- stitute for a candle-stick, in his hand, he showed us the way to the general's bedroom. On an immense old-fashioned bed, with discoloured chintz curtains, was lying an old man with a full grey beard, and a coloured silk handkerchief tied on his head. There Avas not the slightest vestige of any military attribute in the room, and looking at the old man in his night garment, one would have taken him for a retired lawyer, retired medical man, retired tradesman— for any- thing retired, but never for a general in active service at the head of an incoherent mass of FIRST ■^^SIT TO THE CARLIST CAMPS. 53 volunteers, bearing, to the common belief of the outside world, a very close similarity to brigands. The old gentleman gave me full leisure to examine him and his entourage^ for he did not take the slightest notice of me till he had put on his spectacles, lighted a cigar, and looked through a large bundle of letters which my companion had brought him. Now and then he put him a question, or asked him to read something he could not make out himself, and it was only when he had gone through the whole correspondence, that he asked my fellow-traveller who I was, and what he brought me for. I was then introduced, handed him my letters, and explained the object of ray visit. " Oh, I shall be very glad," answered he, with the kindest smile, " to give you any information I can, and, if I were a quarter of a century younger, I should have at once got up and had a talk with you. But I am too old for that. Besides, I suppose you want something more tiian to have a mere talk. You want to see some- thing. So we will arrange things differently. Your friend will return to Bayonne, wiiile you had better stay here over night, and we shall see to-morrow what we have to do. Meanwiiile, I advise you both to dry your clothes, and to have 54 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. a glass of aguardiente with some hot water, if there is any to be had. That M-ill answer for punch." And thereupon the old pro tempo aid- de-camp was ordered to take care of us, the general wishing all of us huenas noches. In the next room a stout old priest, in a rather greasy cassock and a little black cap, his house- keeper just as stout and greasy as himself, and wrapped in an old-fashioned shawl, and a couple of old Carlist officers, were already assembled. The news of the arrival of strangers had evidently spread amongst the inhabitants of the deserted cloister, and they all got up, anxious to hear whether there were any tioticias. Some chocolate, aguardiente, sugar, water, and cigarettes were in readiness on the table, and a bright w^ood fire was pleasantly crackling in the huge, ancient-looking firegrate. The reception was most friendly and homely. An apology was made for the absence of any fresh socks, but two pairs of new hempen sandals were brought forward, to enable us to get rid of our wet boots, and the cure insisted even upon our rubbing our feet with some salt and vinegar, as a cosa muy huena. And wdiile we were thus drying, cleaning, and restoring ourselves, all sorts of questions poured upon us like another shower. " Where was S. M. El Rey ? FIRST yj^lT TO THE CARLIST CAMPS. 5) "What was said in KiiroiH' .' Hid many jieopU* in France, P^ngland, and Aincrira turn inter ('arlists? AVcre there any iirins goin<; to he sent? Was any money forthcoming in snpport of tlie great causa ? Would Henri V. soon ascend the tiirone of France?" and so on. We Avere anxious to satisfy our liospitable hosts to the hest of our ability, but still more anxious to ascertain Avhether there was any chance of pro- curing a rideable beast for my companion and a bed for myself. The old housekeeper was the first to perceive our cravings, and, thanks to her, after about an hour and a half of gossip, I was lying in a hard but clean bed, and my friend carried off as far as the frontier by the old yet still sure- footed mule of the fat Seuoi' cura. My bed was in tlie same room where we were drying ourselves. It was looking very unattract- ive when we came in, but as I noticed that the sheets and ])i How-cases were changed by the stout housekeeper, whilst our conversation was going on, I lie down in fidl confidence, and slept as sweetly as if I had been in some friend's country- house in Kent or Derbyshire. Early next morning — or rather in a couple of hours, for 1 went to bed after five A.M. — I was awakened by some noise in the room, and saw, mueli to my 56 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. astonishment, the old colonel busily engaged in instructing a muchacho, or volunteer lad, how, if not exactly to polish, at least to clean my boots. I jumped out of the bed as quickly as I could, and tried to persuade the colonel that there was no occasion for his taking any trouble of that sort; but my exhortation made the matter only worse, for he took the brush and boots out of the lad's hands and began violently to brush them himself. A regular struggle ensued between us, and though I managed finally to get the boots out of his possession, things did not much improve on that account ; for in a few minutes he appeared with a basin of water, wherewith I had to wash myself, and a little later with my coat, plaid, and umbrella perfectly dried and cleaned, and I learned also that the bed I had slept in was his bed. It was evident that he mistook me for some important person, and wishing to render himself generally useful, overdid the hospitality which one is always sure to meet on the part of the simple-minded country folk in Spain. That our colonel was very simple-minded indeed, will probably be clear without my pointing it out. He entered the ranks of the Carlists as simple volunteer in 1833, and rose to a colonelcy through sheer courage. He retired to his native village FIRST VISIT TO THE CARLIST CAMPS. 57 when the war was over, and had now reappeared, again to take part in the struggle. His occupations at home were, prrhaps, of a nature which caused him to look at boot-cleaning as quite a pleasant sort of work for a change, since boots are a thing almost unknown in tlie liasque provinces, scarcely anything being used but hemi)en samlals. Still I must avow that the sight of a boot-cleaning colonel, when one first visits a foreign army, produces a rather queer impression. Yet I saw that man frequently afterwards, tried to study him, and never found in his nature anything but profound self-esteem, unlimited courage, and quite an un-Spanish sense of duty. Only, good gracious ! what a thick skull that old fellow had! Scarcely had I time to dress, when the colonel appeared again, saying that El Excelentisimo Sefior General asked for nie. I went into the next room, and found the old gentleman seated at a table, answering the letters brought to him during the night. He was dressccl in juivate clothes, and a casual visitor, on seeing his vene- rable face and })eaceful spectacles, would have probably taken him for a medical man writ- ing prescri|)tions. Two little cuj)s of thick chocolate, with bits of dry toast, and two 58 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. glasses of water, were brought in by the old aid- de-camp, and the General invited me to take breakfast. " I am glad you have arrived so timely," said he to me ; "I am going to have an inspection tour this morning, and, if you like, I can offer you a seat in a little carriage which they have provided for me. We may remain on the tour for several days, and may have sometimes hard fare, and perhaps hard lodging, certainly rain ; but that, I suppose, will not frighten you, else you would not have come here." I thanked the General, and gladly accepted his invitation, but, being then fresh to Carlist work, wondered only how I should proceed on an expedition of several days, having not even a shirt or a tooth-brush with me. As he said, however, that he had some more letters to write, and that I had time to take a walk about the village, I thought I might get a chance of send- ing a note to Bayonne, and receive some of my things, if not the same day, at least at some future date, Urdax is a miserable little village, situated in a kind of loophole, and within about a mile from the French frontier. It consists of scarcely a hundred houses, but the village must have FIRST VISIT TO THE CARLIST CAMPS. .V.t been a prosperous one formerly, for sonic of the houses are of a very substantial appearance, with coats of arms on the entrance-doors, and with everything to denote that the proprietors were enjoying a comfortable income. As a matter of course, the chief occupation of its inhabitants was smuggling. But, at the time I was at Urdax, no business of any sort was transacted, nor was tliere anyone to carry it on, the whole village being occupied by Carlist volunteers, only a few of whom were armed, the majority being all day long engaged in the village square either in being (h-illcd with sticks in theii' hands as substitutes for rifles, or else in playing ball. The upper floor of the deserted convent, in a room of which the General was lodged, served as barracks for those volunteers who could not find lodging elsewhere, while the basement, evi- dently containing formerly the monks' refectories and conversation-hall, was transferred into stables for the few horses and nndes which the Urdax force had in its [)ossession. A\'h('n I came down into the square, I found the old colonel engaged in looking after an old four-wlieeler inscribed Servicio Particrdar, and which was probably a renniant of some postal establishment. Five mules were beinir iuirnessed 60 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. to it, and three volunteers were to form the General's guard on the journey. I wondered in what way the colonel meant to make them escort us, but I soon found that the problem was very plainly solved. One volunteer got on the box by the side of the driver, and two inside the carriage together with us, and when the General was ready with his letters, away we rattled with a cer- tain serious gaiety, for there is always some sort of pleasurable excitement in getting off, no matter under what circumstances. Our cheerfulness was, however, justified by the fact that the cannon which I and mj^ companion had left in the wood on the previous night, was now lying on the ground in the middle of the square, and some five hundred volunteers assembled around it were getting quite mad, crying Viva Carlos Setimo ! Viva El General Elio I Viva el cai'ion I and viva a good many things else. The six contra- bandistas got two hundred and fifty francs, plenty of wine, plenty of cheers, and started back with fresh instructions to be carried out on another point on the next day. " The cannon has not yet either a gun-carriage or any ammunition," said to me the General, " but still it is something that we have got this much. Don't they look happy, the chicos ! " (little ones) added he, with a smile FIRST VISIT TO THE CARLIST CAMPS. 61 of satisfiiction, and leaving them in their martial exhilaration wo entered the carriage, the old boot- cleaning colonel, who did not go with us, pro- mising once more to forward my note to Bayonne, and thus giving me the prospect that, at least on my return to Urdax, I should get a clean shirt. General Elio is the oldest leading member of the (jarlist party, and is, at the same time, re- garded as their ablest man. Constant personal intercourse during our joiuiicy, and the frequent opportunities I had subsequently both of seeing the General at work and of talking to him, entitle me to say that I found him to be a most accom- plished and able man — I was almost going to say a genius in his way — and, strange as it may sound, one of the most liberal Royalists I know either in France or Spain. He has lived many years an exile in France, Italy, and England, and has thus acquired a thorough knowledge of the institutions of those countries. It is iiu- iHjssible for anyone to look more like an old Fnglishuian than the General does, when travelling with his English passport, and with his umbrella, gaiters, ft-lt hat, and siniihir articles, nearly all marked with the names of London makers. 62 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. This old soldier began life under Ferdinand VII., as an officer of the Royal Guards. He was a colonel at the time of the death of that King (1833), and was among the first who formed the Carlist party upon the abrogation of the Salic law, by which abrogation Carlos V. was deprived of his rights to the inheritance of the throne of Spain after the death of his brother. During the war for the rights of the aspirant thus put aside — known in Carlist history as the Seven Years' AVar — Elio commanded a brigade, and driving now lip and down the hills of Navarre he con- stantly pointed to me villages and other places where there were combats in the old time, evi- dently regretting that he no longer possessed the physical vigour of forty years ago. In 1839, through the treacherous capitulation of Rafael Maroto, the Carlist struggle came to an end. Elio then went abroad with Charles V., and had but few opportunities to take any part in politics imtil 1860, when he joined Ortega's attempt to bring upon the throne Count de Montemolin (Charles VI), which was made at San Carlos de la Rapita, near Tortosa. Ortega was Governor- General of the Balearic Islands, and conceived the idea of raising the garrison under his com- mand in favour of Charles VI. He landed with FIRST \1SIT TO THE CARLIST CAMP. r,3 his adherents on the Catalonian coast, near Tor- tosa; but the attempt i)roved a failin-e, and both Ortega and Klio wore captured and condemned to be shot. During his long residence in France Elio had, however, formed many friendly relations in that country; his sister was married to the Count de Ikrraute, a wealthy l:in!l-i>r()i»rietor in the French Pyrenees, and there were, therefore, ])lenty of iniluential persons anxious to exert their best efforts to save the life of the General. ^Means were also taken to enlist the sympathies of the Empress Eugenie in his favour, and her mother, the Countess of Montijo, though by no means a partisan of the Carlists, lost no time in exerting all her influence in i\Iadrid, to save the life of one who both there and in Paris had gained the reputa- tion of being one of the most charming and amiable of men. These efforts proved so successful that Queen Isabella was ready to par(l("»n Elio on the condition that he should swear allegiance to her. liut when the decision of the Queen was announced to the General, \n\ said he would not purchase his life at the prici; of an oath which his honoin- pre- vented him from kcejjing, and Isabella seems to have found the answer so honourable that she ordered the innuediate release of Elio, but upon the condition of absolute banishment from Spain. 64 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. Ortega, however, who was the chief leader of the whole rising, and against whom O'Donnell had many personal grievances, was not allowed to escape, and had to pay with his life for the un- successful attempt he had made. General Elio still remembered warmly the clemenc}^ of Isabella, and spoke of her as a much better woman and a much better Queen than Spaniards generally admit her to have been. " She was ruined politically," he said, " by people like Louis Philippe, Montpensier, and Narvaez, and morally by Serrano. It is possible she would always have had a favorite ; that is question of temperament, and with her it was also a question of conjugal unhappiness; but in the hands of Serrano she became de- moralized to the heart's core. And this des- picable person had the effrontery not only to overthrow his mistress and his benefactress, but to sign a declaration in which it was stated that Spaniards were obliged to conceal from their •wives and daughters what was going on in the Koyal Palace." Since the days of Ortega's attempt, the Gene- ral has had again nearly twelve years of exile to endure, and it is only now, when he is quite seventy years of age, that he has again the chance FIRST VISIT TO THE CARLIST CAMPS. G5 of serving the cause he had— rightly or wrongly — once embraced and never since deserted. At the jiresent moment he is the leading spirit iA' Carlism, for nothing is done either by Dun Carlos, or by any of the Carlist leaders except under the advice — sometimes under the very j)eremptory orders of old Elio. The latest years of his exile the General spent almost wholly iu Florence and Paris, but his capacity of dis- guising himself as an old Englishman has not deserted him, and it is highly amusing to see with what a hearty laugh he speaks of the necessity of this masquerading. One day last Summer he had some important busi- ness to transact at Bayonne, and, notwith- standing his advanced age, he thought nothing of travelling on foot, at night, some eight miles of mountain paths in order to cross the frontier, and then of driving twenty miles to Bayonne, and walking all day long about the town under the eyes of all imaginable sub-prefects, gen- darmes, and detectives, by all of whom he was Very much " wanteil,"* for the ])urpose ot" being at once locked up in the eitatlel of some distant fortress. So little indeed does the CJeneral look like a military man, and so un-Si»anish are his appearance and manners, that, if we had not VOL. I. F 6Q SPAIX AND THE SPANIARDS. been escorted on our journey by the three vohm- teers, we should certainly have been several times stopped by his own forces. Later on, when I saw him in the field with Don Carlos, his civilian habits and manners had become quite proverbial on the Staff. He never wore either spurs, sabre, or any other military weapon or ornament. His costume consisted of a dark blue, rather long buttoned-up surtout, the few copper buttons of which were the only glittering or military-looking appendage about him. His red trousers, always very large ^.nd Avithout any vestige of riding straps, got so rucked up, when he was on horseback, as to show the very tops of his soft, heelless lialf- AVellington boots. His white national beret has not even the customary golden tassel on it. AVhen there were processions or other ceremonies at the time of the reception of Don Carlos in the various villages, and the General, much to his dislike, had'to be present, he had always to borrow froui some of his aid-dc-camps, sabre, scarf, tassel, and everything that was necessary to make him assume an official and military appearance. Under the enemy's fire old Elio is in- imitable. The greater the danger the more he smokes ; and the more he smokes the more se- FIRST VISIT TO THE CARLIST CAMPS. 07 renc lie becomes, quietly smiling as lie looks over his spectacles, aiul slowly and distinctly, without the slightest hurry or appearance of excitement, giviiiL;- his orders to the members of his start'. Invariably mounted on a little white pony, under which his legs would easily meet, he frequently exposes himself to quite an unneces- sary amount of danger, and when his attention is called to such a fact, he gives a soft, spnrless kick to his little beast, makes a demi-tour, and, as a rule, comes back to the same place again. By-and-by, as the Carlist war was progressing, the General received no end of applications from old friends who wished to send him thi-ir sons and nephews to be attached to his person ; and in this way he has around himself, and, much to his displeasure, an endless staff of officers, some of whom are not j)artictdarly fond of going too much inidiM' lire. It hajjpened several times that, out of something like twenty aid-de-camps and ordnance ollieers, the General, when under fire, had by his side but three or four men. Yet I never saw him ni.ikc any re]iroach to those who were absent. Without ever turning his eyes from the battle-lield he calls out the name ol" the olliccr to whom he wishes to give an order, and if he is not there, he calls another, and, should he not be F 2 68 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. present, a third. If none answer, you are sure to liear " Juan !" which is the name of his son, in- variably to be found by his side, and who, with a cure of the name of Don Ramon, serving him as a private secretary, is, I believe, the only per- son initiated into the plans of the General. This Don Ramon is also a most curious sort of individual. Sharp as a needle, indefatigable at work, and thoroughly conversant with all the details of Carlist military administration, he is certainly more fit to be a cahecilla than a priest. He rides on horseback quite as well as any Spanish cavalry officer, and if he is seldom visible in a cassock, he may, on the other hand, not unfrequently be seen officiating in the presence of Don Carlos and the whole staff in big top-boots and spurs, and despatching what is called a grand mass in the short time of twelve or fifteen minutes. The military abilities of General Elio are, as far as I am able to judge, of a very high class, indeed. To do what he has done in less than six months, with the little means he had at his com- mand, is something incredible. Small bands of fifty miserably-armed men, which I saw in April, were transformed by the beginning of September into well-armed battalions, about eight hundred men stron"; each. Out of a nucleus of a few thou- FIRST "VISIT TO THE CARLIST CAMPS. 09 saml men, scattered in small kinds over the country, something looking like an army of over thirty thonsaiid men was furmeil and under tin- orders of the General a few months later. Al- though there was not much discipline, in the strictest sense of the Avord, there was unlimited obedience to the orders of the leaders; and although there was very little regular drill, volunteers were somehow or other brought to pretty fairly under- stand what the orders of their commanders im- plied. But the mere organisation of the troops did not 80 much puzzle an observer, as the manner in which they were provided for. "When the raw fighting material was obtained, and arms for their use provided, it was not difficult to form batta- lions ; but to feed them, in a country which, though rich, was already affected by a protracted war, was a problem of a very (lilTerent sort. I believe that no partisan warfare has ever pre- sented facts like those which were to be seen amongst the Carlists. In Mexico, the celebrated flying squadron of Count de Clary, oidy almni fmir Imiidred strong, was not unfrequeiitly without food for several days, in a country incomparably more abundant in natural food products; while here a column of six, seven, and sometimes upwards of ten thousand men, marches out in 70 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. the morning without the General knowing where he will be compelled to spend the night, and yet his troops never miss their rations. How Elio managed his commissariat department is quite a puzzle to me. True, that the popula- tion of the country is very favourably disposed towards the Carlists ; but there still remains the emergency of a General who, intending to move towards a certain point, has ordered his supplies accordingly, and is suddenly compelled by circumstances to change his march to an opposite direction, and to trust to chance and good fortune to find the necessary provisions for his men. II the Carlists experienced any difficulty at all it was only for cartridges, but that was not Elio's fault. The force was to be armed quickly and anyhow; consequently, it had rifles of all ima- ginable patterns, to which cartridges could not be made on the spot. Some occasional unpunc- tualities in the supply from abroad naturally arose too. Besides, after the entry of Don Carlos into Spain, the affluence of the volunteers became so great that, the Carlist chiefs not being disposed to allow the popular enthusiasm to cool down, all moneys had to be invested in the purchase of guns, and but little was thus left FIRST VISIT TO THE CARLIST CAMPS. 71 for tlie pnrcliase of cartridges. There can be no doubt tliat, with ten or liflecn thousand men well jirovidc'd with auiniuniti to rise so speedily in numbers, and have employed the money collected in a different way. However, except on this point I have never seen any deficiency. Though our little voyage was exclusively limited to the province of Navarre, it lasted for fully fivo days, for we had to stop in nearly every village where troops were to be inspected, the nnmicipal authorities conferred with, and all sorts of orders and instructions issued, which hindered a more speedy progress. But when the business was transacted, ami we were eitlu'r driving on the high road or quietly sitting at the fireside of our night's lodging, the General would now and then willingly talk on Carlism, as well as on the general state of Sjjanish afi'airs, and I nuist avow that I still remember with delight the hours I spent 72 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. with the old gentleman, and still imagine I hear the low and slow voice in which he gave vent to his thoughts and observations, always moderate, always intelligent, and always full of that quaint sort of scepticism which is all the more attrac- tive because the man himself is not conscious of it. We spoke, of course, of all sorts of things, and it would be utterly impossible to reproduce here all the General said ; but some of his ideas and observations impressed me forcibly enough to admit of my reproducing them. The organization of the Carlist forces was naturally the first subject touched upon, and as we had two lads sitting with us, the General, not wishing to initiate them into all the conversation, took care to speak in French, a language which he possesses in perfection. " Some eager partisans," said he, " talk every- where of our having thirty thousand men at pre- sent. That is not correct. We shall undoubtedly have even more than that number, but by-and- by only, when we shall have arms. As far as the present number of properly armed men is concerned, I could not estimate it beyond ten thousand ; but I do not know it exactly. We do not keep, as you may easily imagine, any of FIRST MSIT TO TIIF. CARLIST CAMPS. 73 tlioso lists, or registers, wliich are kejtt in r(-'>,MiIar, wi-ll organised armies, ami wliicli have been shown so often and so greatly to differ from the reality. We may perhaps begin to keep them some day, but I am not particularly anxious aliout that at present, and have no officers for carrying on that sort of business. Onv armament comes in the way that camion came last night: and nntil we have more money, and can afford to charter vessels, we shall have to limit our- selves to the expensive and risky procedure of smuggling. Smuggling is, however, not so very dinieult on the Fn-nch IVontifr, for the bordering population in both countries are smugglers by " birtii and education," as the J^nglish phrase goes. In addition to the natural proclivity of all borderers towards unrestricted libre echange, some special causes are at work here to produce more smuggling than would be apparently justifiable. There exists a considerable dilVerence in the duties levied in Spain and France on certain articles. Since the last war was concluded, and France has had to jiay a heavy iiidfninity, French duties have been raised, wiiile on the northern frontier of Si)ain, where they were lower, we gave instruc- tions to lowt-r them still at all points when^ the custom-houses are in Carlist possession, for 74 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. we do not make any secret that we want money, and I know that the lower the duties are, the more in the long run will they return. Conse- quently, many articles are now sent by foreign merchants to Spain by sea, or in transit across France, in which case they have nothing to pay in the latter country. On reaching Spanish soil, they pay the import duties either to the Repub- cans or to us, and then in a couple of days are smuggled back again into France. The differ- ences between the French and Spanish duties having existed since time immemorial, and having even formed part of the Spanish fiscal policy, it is quite natural that the frontier population in both countries should have made a regular pro- fession of smuggling. The same thing is, or was, though in a reverse form, going on about Gibral- tar, where the English were playing with re- ference to Spain the same trick W' e play here with reference to France. To prevent this traffic is almost utterly impossible, as long as the difference between the duties exists. Nothing short of a line of officers posted along the whole length of the frontier, and almost close enough to touch each other, could prevent this smuggling. The goods marked "transit" go into Spain by the high roads, and return to France by the innumer- FIRST VISIT TO THE CARLIST CA^rPS, < i) able mountain ]>atli.s, of wliicli you saw one wlieii you canic, and npon tlicse the French douanievH are hy no means disposed to enter. M. Thiers lias done all in his power to stop our movement, but without any success whatever. What he has stopped, is the ref::;ular intercourse between the two countries. From the Atlantic across to the Mediterranean all ordinary traffic between France and Spain has been paralyzed, yet you see that we pass freely, and when the weather is not so bad, even comfortably. However, M. Thiers gives us much trouble, and I am most anxiously waiting for the time when he will be overthrown ; I'or I suppose he has not much longer to rule France; and any change that may come will bo to our advantage, for French Conservatives are all Li'gitimists, and therefore all in our favour, while the Gambettists, should they come to power, would only exasperate the population in the South of France, and dispose it still more to help us." The General's allusion to France turned the conversation to what was said abroad about Carlism, and the rrputatiou for cruelty, which had been gained by the Spanish Legitimists, caused the old gentleman to speak rather vehemently on that subject. He simjdy called " miserable lies" everything tiiat has 76 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. been said about the atrocities committed by the Carlists. " Our policy," said he, " is just the reverse of this, and I have been already over and over again reproached by old Carlists for being too lenient towards the Republicans, and even to- wards spies. What we want is to attract people, not to frighten them. I have given strict orders that whenever prisoners are taken they should be disarmed and released, as we neither want to keep them, nor desire to shoot them. The more Republicans we release, the more will their ranks get demoralized. A man fights quite dif- ferently when he knows that, if captured, he will be executed. He prefers then to die on the battle-field, while now, by releasing prisoners, I induce them to fight less steadily and to sur- render more easily. What does it matter to me that the same man will appear three or four times in the ranks against my troops 1 The more times he appears, the more I am sure of his being a bad soldier." These w^ords of the General often came to my memory subsequently, when I saw Carlists fight- ing, and when I witnessed, as in the case of Estella for instance, over six hundred prisoners disarmed and sent under escort to Pampelona, so FIRST VISIT TO THE CARLLST CAMPS. 77 that the iiiriiriatcd Xavarrc pt-asaiits shoiiM not attack tla-iii on their journry. Ami the policy of, in tliis way, (lemoraliziiii^ the enoniy's ranks lias — wiiatever its moral merit may be — certainly been one of the most successful measures the General has adopted. "Of course," continued he, coming to this subject over and over again, '* I cannot be an- swerable for occasional accidents which may occur now and then. A chief of a pai'tida rolante might capture sometimes a few militiamen {Migneletes) against whom the Carlists are par- ticularly angry because they are voluntary, not per force soldiers. Such men might be some- times killed, without or with the sanction of the commander of the band, but these things cannot be helped in war. Then again, where is justice when people speak of us being murderers and assassins when we shoot a spy, while the Re- publicans, when they torture and massacre men whom they suspect of Carlism, are sim])ly said to be using just measures of severity. My own brother, the \'icar of l'anij)el()na, has now been lor several months im[)risoh(iI in an underground cell of the citadel of that town, and as he is almost as old a man as myself, he is pretty sure to see his life's end there. Dorreguray's mother 78 SPAIX AND THE SPANIARDS. and sister are also in prison at Santander, and when in the skirmishes any Carlists are taken prisoners, they are not only shot but their bodies are mutilated. People talk also about our en- listing men forcibly. Well, you will see yourself, if you remain here some time, that we have more men than we can possibly make use of. Why should we take men by force when we have not arms enough to give to those who come willingly ? All the miserable calumnies spread about us will cool down bj-and-by, I am perfectly sure of that. The}'' are remnants of the impressions left by the old Seven Years' War, which was really a very fierce one. Zumalacarregui would not, and could not, give quarter, and he achieved all his successes chiefly by inspiring the Christinos with terror. The Generals of Christina treated the Carlists in such a way that retaliation was a matter of absolute necessity. We had also, as you know, a foreign intervention upon our hands. The English Legion, the Portuguese Legion, and the so-called French Foreign Legion had been sent here to fight us, and we were com- pelled to have recourse to greater severity just to warn foreign adventurers not to come to this country. They had no business to interfere with ug. But as nowadays no interference is probable, FIRST VISIT TO TIIE CARLIST CAMPS. 7'.) or cvtm possible, for Frunc<3 has too much to do at lionic, while Eiii)ii the condition that no troops or war material should be carried by rail. If Pereira and his agents cannot arrange that matter with the ^ladrid Governiuent, we, on our part, cannot i)ermit the enemy to turn against us the advantage which Would be drriveil from railway rouniiunieatiou. As to our attacking aud robbing j)eac«'fid tra- vellers, and especially wouien, Lliat is pure non- sense. 1 don't believe that any man, and cer- tainly no woman, 1ms ever been molested or 80 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. robbed, except by bandits, who may, on a lonely road, attack a travelling party and give them- selves out as Carlists, All I could do was to give orders to shoot off-hand every man who could be proved to have been guilty of anything of that sort. The cure Santa Cruz himself is now under sentence of death for having disobeyed the commander of his province, General Lizarraga. Several reports had been circulating that Santa Cruz's men, who formed at the outbreak of the war a very useful flying party, had lately com- mitted many acts of violence. How far this was correct, I have not yet been able to ascertain. I believe the reports to have been greatly exag- gerated. However, I directed Lizarraga to in- corporate Santa Cruz's men into his own force, and to put Santa Cruz himself under more strin- gent control. The cure refused to obey this order, and I have, without the slightest hesitation, confirmed Lizarraga's sentence, by which Santa Cruz is to be shot as soon as he is caught." While we were thus talking about the now sadly celebrated cure, our carriage was driving close to Elizondo, and on the right hand side of the road, the General pointed out to me a little village high up in the mountains. "Do you see those little houses'?' asked he; FIRST VISIT TO TUE CARLIST CAMPS. 8 1 "Well, that village is called Lecaroz ; I iiarl often to stay tlii-re diirini:; the Seven Years' AVar. and for the fact of my having been there, and its in- habitants not having coniiniinicated to the Chris- tinos information of my whereabouts, and of the number of men and the quantity of arras I pos sessed, the whole of the village was ])urned to the ground; and the male population were ranged in a line, and every tenth man of them shot b}' !Mina. Now, we have never done anything of that sort That was the work of the Liberals, supported by the English, the Portuguese, and the French."" Several times, also, did the conversation turn to- wards the present Pretender to the Spanish throne, and mentioning the severe criticisms passedon him. I asked the General how it was that Don Carlos did not put himself at the head of his troops. "Ah!" said he, "we have had great trouble in keeping the King quiet, and preventing his rushing precii)itately across the frontier, as he did last year when we were defeated, and he had to retrace his steps. Should I bt; defeated or captured, or shonM the same events happen to Dorregary, you can j)erceive that matters would not be beyond remedy. But suppose either to happen to the King, what then ? And both defeat and capture are clearly possible to any of us, no VOL. I. U 82 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. better armed nor stronger than we now are. True, neither is very likoly with the disorganised enemy we have, but we must not trust our cause to unnecessary possibilities. It is true that the King's arrival here would greatly increase the movement in his favour; but an untimely en- thusiasm may waste the grandest opportunity. We should have the peasants by tens of thou- sands thronging to us and demanding arms. And as we have no arms to give them, discouragement would follow delay in such a matter, and our young fellows would go off to their homes dis- heartened and reluctant to rally to our colours again. All that we must avoid. No, no; in a few weeks more we shall have arms— arms, our great necessity! — and munitions of all kinds. There will be plenty of men whenever we make the signal, and then we will occupy what points we need ; and I will ask you to come and see us at w^ork." On my expressing some curiosity as to what sort of person "the King" was. General Elio spoke, as nearly as T can remember, something to this purpose : — " He is intelligent, very kind-hearted, and of undoubted personal courage, but I am unable to say whether he will be distinguished as a states- FIRST VISIT TO THE CARLIST CAMPS. 83 man ; for this is a subjV'ct upon which a fair opinion can only he loniicd a posf.erio7'i, ami not otherwise; we must jiulge of it from the facts only. Many intelligent men have failed as states- men, while many persons of inferior intelligence have ])roved quite equal to the little statesmanship recpiired in a sovereign. Several countries, we know,'' added he, with his good-natured smile, *' could, I believe, supply illustrations of this." I agreed with him, but remarked that he was not quite justified in referring to constitutional governments, when Don Carlos was commonly recognised as the representative of absolutist theories, and his answer was: — '• You are greatly mistaken if yon think that the King ever dreamed of absolute power. He knows, and his counsellors know still better, that absolutism is impossible in our age. He under- stands also the bad policy of giving now-a-days any secular power to the clergy. The legitimate monarchy in Spain will not only rule with the advice of the Cortes, but will restore all the anci(.'nl franchises — ilw /iirros, as we call them — which have been violated in turn by all the pro- gressive parties. It will supjiort religion, of course, but will not go a step beyond what tin- religious feeling of the people requires in that u 2 84 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. respect. Our enemies say ice will overrun the country with monks and priests. This is simply nonsense. If any person is disposed to a monas- tic life, government, it seems to me, has as little business to oppose it as to encourage it. There is — or rather was— among our peasantry, and even among our educated classes, a religious fervour that may be deemed fanatical ; and if our monks were fanatics it was not because they were monks, but because they were Spaniards. If I should call a good Carlist in the next village, and tell him my- self that one of our detachments had been beaten somewhere, he would not believe me. He would answer that God would not permit Carlistas to be beaten. You cannot make such people less fana- tical or less religious by closing the monasteries, as the Progresistas did. A foolish and unjust measure like that could never have had any other consequence than what we see— that is, the in- crease of the very fanaticism it strove to stamp out. And, say what you may against the monks, if you studied the Basque provinces, where priests and monks have always been powerful, you would see much in their favour. There is not a single peasant in these provinces — man or woman — who does not write grammatically and in a clear hand the Basque language, and many write equally FIRST ^^SIT TO THE CARLIST CAMPS. 85 well the Spanish language too. Their good health is the result of their morality. Not only are there no hei^^i^ars here, Imt distressing poverty is almost unknown. Much of this is due to the priesthood, and the remainder to what the priests help them to maintain — the ancient privileges of the Basque provinces and Navarre. We enjoyed here, up till Christina's time, perfect self-govern- ment, and never knew what conscription meant. Over and over again have I voted here as a land- lord of Navarre on a footing of perfect equality with the poorest of my farmers. You are sur- prised at the strength and courage of our young volunteers, some of whom, as you have seen, are scarcely sixteen years old. It is the result only of their pure lives and the absence of that source of ruin to the young men of other countries — the conscription, with its barrack life and all the vices of large cities. It is not amidst the fresh air and rocky soil of these mountains that people can ever get demoralised. Some of thuse lads have never been evt-n as far as l'ani]il()na or Viloria, ami all they know of the world at laru''' is wliat the cura and the muleteer tell them. 1 can assure you that every one who has lived here feels as certain as I do, that neither the intense religious feelings, nor loyalty to the ancient monarchical institutions, 8G SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. can ever be eradicated from the minds of the people in the Vasco-Navarre provinces, unless the very face of the country is changed, and these mountains are levelled to the ground. I believe that all the rest of Spain can be easily enough made monarchical, but never will the mountaineers be made republicans. And we have mountains and mountaineers everywhere over the Peninsula." As a matter of course, a journalist representing an American paper could not leave the question of Cuba untouched, and I had naturally enough to bring the General on the subject. " Well," replied he, " it is difficult to say any- thing positive on that subject at present. Slavery, of course, will be abolished, and a special con- stitution will be granted to the colony. But you are probably anxious to know whether the King could be induced to part with any portion of the Spanish dominion in the New World. To this I must say that no government could safely venture such a policy. Its declaration to that effect would be its own death-warrant. It would give effective ground to every element of opposition, for it would appear to balance meaner considerations against national feeling. My own opinion is — and I believe that, to a certain extent, this is also the King's opinion — that colonial policy is simply FIRST \1SIT TO THE CARLIST CAMPS. 87 a consideration of debtor and creditor accounts. If a colony pays, keep it; if it is a loss and a burden, cut it adrift. The English colonial dis- integration party is rational. But the subject is entangled with sentiments of nationality and pride ; and yon see that even the English govern- ment, so strong and powerl'ul, dare not declare plainly the Colonial policy in which they seem to believe. IIow, then, can any Spanish govern- ment be asked to do so? If we could sell Cuba, we should, by a stroke of the pen, restore our national finances. But to make such a sale a most powerful hand is needed, and no hand can be powerful — and in Spain less than anywhere — unless it holds plenty of money. Thus there is a vicious circle: we could not sell Cuba, save in a condition that would make its sale superfluous. This is a vital topic with us. It will come up often, and we must only endeavour to prevent by all proper good-will and courtesy toward the American government the arising of any pretext for their occupying the island." Though when we started the (Jeneral threatened me with the prospect of bad lodging and bad fare, we never saw either on the whole of our 88 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. journey. He was ever3^where received with open arms by the population, and either at the houses of the cures, or at those of some leading inha- bitant, comfortable meals were invariably waiting for us — so far comfortable, at least, as Spanish cooking allows. At the house of a rich proprietor at Elizondo, among others, we had a bottle of sherry, the taste of which I still remember, and which cannot be obtained anywhere except in those cathedral-like vaults called Bodegas, which arc the great attraction of every English traveller at Jerez. At night we almost invariably returned to the little palacio of Bertiz, the property of General Elio's sister-in-law, wdiich is situated on the junc- tion of the San Estevan and Pamplona roads. The capital of Navarre was within a few miles of the place where we thus took our night's lodging, and half-a-dozen of German Uhlans would certainly have captured us there most easily. But, in the first place, there were no German Uhlans at Pamplona, and, in the second, the population around Bertiz would never have even inadvertently betrayed the temporary residence of the General. " We are quite safe here," said the old gentle- man to me, on the first evening we went there to bed, " I have drawn some curtains on the FIRST VISIT TO TIIE CARLIST CAMPS. 89 road from P;uii})luiia. Two little flying parties, nuiubering about tweiitv-fivL' men altogether, but commanded by two very old and experienced offi- cers, arc watching the road at a distance of a few miles from here, and should any suspicious move be made from Pamplona, they are sure to awake-u us in time. For the little risk run here we have the advantage of good beds, and of suppers without oil and garlic, which you seem to dislike so much." And really our beds were excellent, and garlic and oil wi-re banished from the bill of fare, except in that kind cjf thick bread soup, which is quite a national supper dish in Spain, and which the old gentleman seemed to be exceedingly fond of. But it was quite easy for me to dispense with it, since the supper was always so copious and the vegetables so delicious, that the most voracious appetite might have been contented. Never in my life shall I forget the little artichokes, nut larger than a middle-sized fig, and melting in one's mouth, outer leaves, brush-like core, and all else included. One could scarcely believe it to be the same vegetable that gives so much trouble to cook and consumer in other countries. During the day when the General was trans- 90 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. acting his various business affairs, I walked about the villages, watching the country life of Navarre people, and the first efforts of the Carlists to organise themselves into something like an army. I must frankly say that the pic- tures I saw in these and subsequent wanderings contained much of ugliness, dirt, ignorance, and superstition ; but they contained also many ele- ments of that sort of primitive virtue, self-denial, and courage, which always offer the most refreshing sight to a mind intoxicated aud bewildered by the contemplation of all the blessings of our much extolled civilization. 91 CILVrTER III. DIGS, PATRIA, Y REY. nVIE heading of this chapter — (lod, Fatherland, _L and KitKj — is the great Carlist motto, and the watcliwonl to wliicli every peasant of the northern provinces of Spain answers by rushing to take up arms. Patria phays, indeed, a much less important part in it than Dios and Rey, for, whenever joyous shoutings are heard among Carlists, Fatherhind is sehh)m mentioned. It is always " M.va Carlos Setimo,'' " Mva la Religion,'' " Viva los Carlistas," or Viva this or that special Carlist leader. Patria, means among the Carlist volunteers, as a rule, their own particular pro- vince, often even their village only. Of Spain, as a whole, they don't know much, and care less still altout it. Half of these men, being pure Basques, do not even understand Spanish at all. " Carlos Setimo " sounds well enough when 92 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. cried out by the enthusiastic and strong-voiced lads, but it looks rather queer when represented by the Pretender's crest figuring on the buttons, arms, and colours. It assumes then more the aspect of some chemical formula than of any- thing else, for it is written in the plain way of Cy., not in the form of a C more or less pictur- esquely intertwined with a VII, as one would expect it to be. That the shouting and enthusiasm are sincere in the Northern provinces of Spain scarcely any- one will doubt, when Carlism has risen to the power it holds at present ; and we must always bear in mind that it has so risen in de- fiance of every sort of Spanish as well as inter- national law, and with almost no money to support it. Of the present Pretender, the Navarre and Basque people know but very little. It is quite enough for them tliat he is El Rey, and that his name is Carlos. They venerate in him the old tradition. And I am almost sure that the great majority of them firmly believe him to be the son of Charles V. under whom their fathers— in some cases even themselves— fought forty years ago. Thus to general causes which make these mountain tribes rise against any government DIGS, PATRIA, Y REY. 93 established in Madiid, is now uddeil the intense feeling fd" haired ajj^iiinst those who inflicte(l iijinn the Basque ])riivinres tiie calamities which these provinces had to bear during the ^even Years' War. So strong indeed is this feeling, that I have constantly heard the Republicans called by the name (d" C/iristinofi, whicii means soldiers of (^)iieen ('hristina. a denoiniiiatioii evidently preserved from the ibrmer war. It is only the more civilized portion of the Carlist Volunteers which understands that the present Government of Madrid has nothing whatever to do with Chris- tina, and accordingly calls the Republican forces by the nicknames of " Negros," " Liberales," " Progresistas," and the like. The mutual hatred and jealousy amongst all the Spaidsh provinces lias assumed in the Vasco-Navarre parts of the Peidnsula such an intense ftirm that nothing short of some Madrid dictator accepting the American principle, " Good Indians are only dead Indians," can put a stop to Garlism. Zumalacarregui, whatever might be thought of his humaiMty, was ci-rtainiy not very wrong when he mad(? up his mind to give no quarter to the enemy, a resolution to which the " Kliot Convention " put a stop. lie seemed to have accepted the rather jdausible, 94 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. theory that the more enemies he killed, the fewer would remain. Such a principle, barbarous as it may look, was at all events sure, if acted upon on both sides, to lead to a speedy conclusion of the war, and probably to the final settlement of a pending question ; while as long as the war is con- tinued in the manner it has been carried on since Zumalacarregui's death, peace will pro- bably remain an unknown thing in the unhappy Peninsula. In the Spring of this year matters might yet have been mended, and the war put a stop to, by some "military genius" taking the reins of the Government of Madrid. But, at the point which the Carlist organisation has reached now, every hope of this must be given up for a considerable time to come. The Carlists are perfect masters of the whole of the North. They are well organised into something very similar to several distinct army corps. They are in the course of establishing cartridge manu- factories, and they are manufocturiiig arms at Eibar and Placencia, the two establishments being capable of supplying over six hundred guns a week, a number more than sufficient for keeping them in a perfect state of readiness to meet any eflbrt on the part of the Republicans. DIGS, PATRIA, Y KEY. 95 Tlie sufiiciency of the natural resources of tlio country for the deiiiaiRls upon tlieni presents tho only somewhat questionable point, since it is now quite a year that ^va^ has been carried on, with the products of a comparatively small district, and without reckoning that it had also lasted for a couple of months in the preceding year. But, in the first place, agriculture has not suffered much as yet. Bread, wine, and cattle are still l)lentiful both in Navarre and in Guipuzcoa, and the only difference is that, instead of selling what the ptHisant can spare from the quantity requisite for his own use, he is now compelled to give it to the Carlists. He has consequently become short of cash, but he is a man who does not want nnich of it, and who will probably endure without grund)ling the privations which the want of ready money entails, when it is for a cause to whiih he is so much attached, lie is, besides, constantly encouraged in this sentiment by the priests, by the leaders of the Carlists, who are chiefly landed proi)rietors of his own province, anil by all the lads of his village, who have entered the (.'arlist ranks, and who are now often coming on visits to their homes to tell long stories about the great battles they have fought and the glorious [irogrcss the great causa has made. 96 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. But suppose, even, that the resources of Navarre and Guipuzcoa should soon get exhausted, Biscaya and the country along the Ebro can easily support the Carlist army for twice as long a time as the two other provinces. And the risings in Lower Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia will always give to the Navarre and Basque forces the possibility of changing their field of operation whenever the want of supplies begins to make itself felt in the districts now supporting them. No one could form anything like an exact idea of the extent to which Carlism is rampant all over the Northern provinces, unless one has tra- velled through them both with the Carlist column, and by himself alone. When you pass with troops, a suspicion may always arise within you that fear makes the population welcome them. But din-ing my six months wanderings through the North of Spain I had to pass over and over again through almost every village of the four provinces with no other escort than a little Navarre servant boy, fifteen years old, and nowhere did I meet with anything but hospitality, to which all sorts of vivas were immediately added, when it became known that I had friends among Carlists, and could thus be fairly supposed to be a Carlist myself. Naturally enough, the DIGS, PATRIA, Y REY. i»7 innkeepers may have occasionally cheated mc, or robbed the food out of the manger of my horses. l>iit this iuid nothing to do with hospitality — it was purely matter of business, transacted in a way which is not necessarily peculiar to Basques or Navarrese. It was not the innkeeper's fault that I had money, for if I had had none he would have given me the same fare without asking me a penny. It was also not liis fault that maize and barley had risen in price, and that his mules' food was thus rendered almost dearer than his own. If I had been disposed to go to the alcalde to ask him for rations, and to draw for them upon Don Carlos' future exchequer, I should have had the horses feed for nothing, and then the innkeeper would not have touched their food, for he would have considered it Carlist property, which is, of course, a more or less sacred thing. The enthusiasm for the Carlist cause is still more em]»hatically shown by the women and children of these backward regions. Whenever a Republican corps passes through a village, scarcely a child is to be seen in the streets. They all hide themselves in the stables, in the garret, or in one of tho.se uninhabited rooms of the first floor where Indian corn is habitually stored in these countries. It is evident that, somehow or VOL. I. 11 98 SPA.IN AND THE SPANIARDS. other, these little things have been frightened away from the Republican soldiers ; and they know them, for sometimes the notice of the approach of such a column to the village is first brought by little boys and girls of six or seven years, out watching their pigs and sheep some- where on the hills. But when the Carlists ap- proach, all the children rush out to the entrance of the village with cries of welcome, dancing and springing in their delight, and meeting them with all sorts of joyful manifestations. At the outbreak of the movement, when so many Carlist volunteers were armed with no more deadly weapons than sticks, there was to be seen in every village an auxiliary force of little boys and girls playing all day long at Carlists. And when a band passes some isolated farmhouse in the mountain, the whole of the family is sure to be found at the entrance-door ready with jugs of Iresh water, or sometimes even glasses of wine, for the wearied soldiers. Yet none of them would ever dream of accepting anj'^ payment, the very proposal of which would be taken as an offence. The women, both in Navarre and the Basque provinces, do not possess much in the way of carpets, or coloured tissues of any kind, but they DIGS, PATRIA, Y REY. 99 liiive a good deal of liucn, aud whenever some popu- lar Carlist chief is known to pass through a village, all the balconies and windows are decorated with sheets and fringed towels. If a woman has any- thing like chintz curtains, or such a luxury as light red or blue woollen drapery of some sort, they are sure to be displayed on the balconies aud I not unfrequently saw portraits of Don Carlos aud pictures of various saints hung out as additional embellishments. If the entry is made at night time, the whole village, old and young, rush out with torches, or at least with what serve as torches — bunches of lighted straw; and the village stock of candles is sure to be ex- hausted on that night, for in every window there are as many as the family's purse will admit the purchase of. If a cahallero be thirsty and ask for a glass of water, it is never served in its pure and simple state. There is always in it an azucariflo, or bolao, a kind of sweetmeat made of the white of eggs and sugar. It costs no more than a farthing perhaps, but a I'artliiug is a consideration for people in these countries, and as every woman serves a good many acucarillos in a day, the whole must cost her quite a little fortune. Yet you feel at once you dare not propose to give her ii 2 100 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. anything in return ; you shake hands with her, and that is the only acknowledgment she will accept. If you happen to be belated and cannot reach the posada (inn), you had in view, and are, for some reason or another, compelled to stop on your way, you can safely knock at the door of any house on your road, and explain to its owner your case, when you are certain to be made as welcome as if you were an old friend. The wife will be set at once to prepare whatever supper she may have provisions for; your bed, if often rough, is sure to have clean sheets and pillow-cases ; and when, the next day, you ask what you owe, it is seldom more than six or seven reals, which is about fifteen or sixteen pence. The hospitality which any Carlist jefe (officer), or any cabaUero, who can be fairly supposed to sympathise with Carlism, finds in the cure's house is quite a matter of course, for cures are greatly interested in the movement, and it is only natural that they should welcome the men who are avowedly supporting the Church ; but then there is a limit to everything. At the house of a Basque or a Navarre priest, Carlist officers and chiefs find not only a cordial welcome, but a substan- DIGS, PATRIA, Y REY. 101 tial meul, lodgings, food for their liorses, and everything else they may want. If a Carlist coltnnn or even a small band passes, all the cure's of the village are immediately on foot arranging with the alcalde for quarters, rations, stables, and all that is so anxiously looked for by men wlio have had a march of some twenty or thirty miles. Very frequently diil it lia])pen on my journeys that, within five or six minutes of my alighting at an inn, a cure, and sometimes three or four of tliem, informed that a stranger had come, would arrive at the inn, when they would seldom allow me to remain there. I had to go to tlie house of the senior of them, if there were many, and give all the news I had to im- part, receiving in return a dinner, includ- ing not unfrequently trout, spring chickens, ducklings, and even English biscuits, though as a matter of course the best provisions were in- variably spoiled in cooking with rancid oil and garlic. A stout cure at Aranatz was particu- larly amiable, and he had greatly improved his cuisine under the influence of a Frenchwoman his brother had married. I think I had to pass that village about half a dozen times, and on each occasion lie caught me, and would not not let me go unless I not only had a dinner or a supper, 102 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. but stopped over night with him. He had always some good reason why I should not proceed any further on the day of my visit. And what struck me as particularly remarkable in the Navarre and Basque cures, and somewhat different from the customs of a good many other priests and clergy- men, was that, while giving you their best hos- pitality, they did not at all expect you to go to church with them. If you happened to turn up at a time when the priest had to officiate, he would do his best to make you comfortable, would beg you most eagerly to excuse his being compelled to leave you, and would hurry off to his church, where on such occasions he was pretty sure to despatch his mass or his vespers with a somewhat increased speed. Twice, or three times, I may even say, these cures saved me from great unpleasantness. Pre- ferring, as a rule, high-roads to mountain paths, so utterly ruinous to the horses, I used to bring myself frequently within a short distance from a moving Republican column. I knew, of course, that, being a stranger, I had no particular danger to apprehend, except, perhaps, a few days im- prisonment until m.atters could he cleared up. But the cures in the village thought that on being captured I was certain to be shot, like any DIGS, PATRIA, Y REY. 103 Ciirlist, ami oucli time when I IVII into any dan^^er of this sort, some ciir^ was sure to turn up and give mo instructions liow to escape from the encounter. On one of such journeys, I had to pass the Barranca by the liigh-road from Pam- jtlona to Vitoria, and fell between two columns which were in the course of operating to effect a junction. As I was not alone, but with three or four Carlist officers in full uniform, the position was not a particularly pleasant one. We turned off from the high-road to the mountains, but were still under the dread that the skirmishers, or some cavalry patrol, might catch hold of us, and it was to old Don Juan Lopez, the cure of Zuaz, that we all owed on that day our escape. Watching from the top of a hill the movement of the columns, and seeing us turning off from the high-road, he at once rushed down and ran over a mile to catch us — a task which must have been all the more difficult to the old man as we were already beginning to trot sharply. But still he managed, somehow or other, to join us, though in a state of indescribable iK-rspiration, and quite out of breath. Without saying a word, ho seized the bridle of the little luggage horse which was jogging behind us, jumi)ed on it, took the lead of us all, and by paths which we would 104 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. otherwise never have entered, not only carried us quite out of danger, but enabled us to reach the place at which we wished to arrive about a couple of hours earlier than we should have been able to reach it otherwise. What I saw of the Carlist forces, properly so speaking, on my first and short visit to their camps, was not much, and scarcely worth while relating now. Little bands of forty and fifty men scattered here and there were all that was to be seen in the way of armed men. Of discipline, as understood in regular armies, there was next to none. Soldiers and oSicers seemed to stand very much on a footing of perfect equality and familiarity. Volunteers, sitting in the inns, did not always rise even when General Elio entered, and some of them appeared not to know him at all. If a Carlist Volunteer knows an officer, whatever his rank may be, he shakes hands with him, without any further salute. The guards we had on our journey, talked and smoked their cigarettes all the time, not unfrequently asking the General for lights, or dozed as if they were returning from a pleasure trip. The Yet unarmed Volunteers were still less DIOS, PATRIA, Y REY. 105 iiiilitarv-lookiiif;^. Fur uii hour or two during tlio day tliey were under .o:oing sucli little drill as their officer had knowledge enough to impart to them ; while the rest of their time was, as a rule, divided between work- ing in the field, chopping wood for their land- ladies, nursing children, or playing at ball. Some of them went to mass every morning, and, as it was just then Palm week, the amount of church attending was rather larger than usual. In a word, it soon became evident to me that I had come too early, and that fully five or six weeks more would pass before anything serious could take place. True that Dorregaray, with something like 2,500 pretty well organised Navarre men, was operating in the neighbour- hood of Estella, and had already fought a couple of more or less successful little battles, lint I was not yet properly fitted out to undertake a dis- tant journey of this sort, and, on the other hand, news was s})read far and near that the Communo was going to be established at Madrid, that the Intransitjentcs were mure and more rising in power, that, in a word, the capital of Spain was just then the only pr()j)er ])lace for a " special " to be at. General Klio had also promised to give me an opportunity of seeing Don Carlos as soon 106 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS as I should return to Bayonne. The personality of the Spanish Pretender was then still a myth for almost everybody, and the prospect of seeing within a few days the fine fieur of Sj)anish Legitimacy, and the fine fieur of Spanish Com- munism, and of being able to study and compare them, was really so tempting that I could not but seize the opportunity at once. 107 CHAPTER IV. DON' CARLOS, HIS WIFE, AND HIS VIEWS. rpIIK present prcteiuler to the throne of Spain, JL styled by liis followers Charles VII., and by the world at large Don Carlos de Bourbon, Duke of Madrid, is twenty-five years of age, having been born in Austria in March, 1848. lie is a powerful-looking man, about six feet one. and in his frank but somewhat curt manner reminds one of the Emperor Alexander of Russia, when he was some twenty-five years younger. His face, since he began to wear a full beard, has become quite handsome, though a slightly slob- bering aspect of his mouth, and the dtfi- ciency of teeth, hereditary in tiie Spanish Bourbon house, not being in harmony with his manly physical appearance, spoils the first pleasing impression. He is easy of access, and without any trace of haughtiness. When seen 108 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. on horseback at some distance, especially when saluting people and frankl}'- taking off his Basque cap, he has something picturesque about him. His bearing in private life resembles that of the younger sons of the English nobility who have entered the professions. Like them, he seems to have the capacity of enduring, for a while, any amount of hardship with great serenity of temper. Of the sovereign, the statesman, or the warrior, there is absolutely nothing in him. But he is very fond of playing the part of a King — that is to say, of thoii-ing everybody in the old fashion of Spanish Kings, not excluding even his councillors, some of whom are thrice his age, and of surrounding himself with a large number of chamberlains, aid-de-camps, secre- taries, and similar people, all of whom have no other merit or duty than that of flattering his pride. I saw, myself, genuine Spanish noblemen carrying away slops after Don Carlos had washed himself, and busily engaged in seeing that his top-boots and spurs were properly polished. He is undoubtedly a religious man ; but there is much less bigotry about him than is generally supposed, and, for all I could observe, the Spanish clergy do not seem to exercise any undue influence on his mind. In fact, I have seen him marching for DON CARLOS, HIS WIFE, AND HIS VIEWS. 109 weeks without haviii;; a single cure on his stiilV; l)ut, in every viUage ho comes to, lie goes first of all to chtireh, and ])ays a visit to the local priest. Like the majority of Spaniards, he is a bad horseman, and in about a month's time I saw him ruin three excellent horses. At the'sametime, he evidently imagines that he looks a fine cavalier with his glistening black beard, his dark blue hussar uniform, his stars on the l)reast, his red trousers, his high circus boots, and his red cap with the gold tassel. His political notions seem to be of a very unsettled character. At all events, each time I happened to talk to him. i)r listen when he talked to some one else on political subjects, I was never able to make out what was the substance of his views. Sometimes he seemed quite a common-place liberal of our own day; at other times his utterances appeared to be the ])roduce of tin; old-fashioned tra- ditions of Si)anish absolutism. On the whole, I think, he would make a pretty fair consti- tutional king, if properly restricted by law; for having been educated in l-Jiin]!,-. and having lived constantly under European influence, he has unconsciously imbibed the political ideas of our age. But, on the other hand, being in his private 110 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. life under the influence of his family traditions, and basing his rights upon worn out ideas, he has naturall}^ along with modern notions, others which would much better suit the seventeenth than the nineteenth century. In the etiquette he likes to observe at his wandering court, and in the titles and court appointments he distributes, these weaknesses come very clearly to light. As an individual, he is brave and kind-hearted ; he is an excellent father, and is polite and amiable to everybody. He sleeps much, and smokes much, and is rather "henpecked" by Doiia Margarita, Princess of Parma, whom he married in February, 1867, and by whom he has two daughters and a son, the eldest, Infanta Blanca, being five years old, and the youngest, Infanta Elvira, two years. His son, Infante Jaime-Charles, who, according to his parents' belief, will have some day to play the role of Charles VIIL, was born on the 27th of June, 1870. Dona Margarita has the reputation of being a very clever woman. Handsome she is cer- tainly not, although in her stature, fair hair, and blue eyes, there is, on the whole, something rather attractive. But surely no one would take her for a Queen of Spain. She looks much more like a German or an English middle-class DON CARLOS, HIS WIFE, AND HIS VIEWS. 1 1 1 huly, oltlKit slim iuuKlcliciite appearance so often met with in Northern countries amongst women who marry at an early ix^c, and have more children tluin they ought to have. Being a year older and nuich richer than her husband, and of a more decided cast of mind, she exercises, undoubtedly, great influence over Don Carlos, and, if she had not iiei-self been at times uiidcr the influence of a number of Jesuits and pett}^ courtiers, her counsels and views would probably have had upon Don Carlos a salutary influence. At all events, she reads much more than her husband, and is far mure accomplished. Up to about a year ago, she was almost invariably living near Geneva, in the chateau called liocage ; but some of the over-zealous Carlists having compromised her by the storing of arms in her residence, she was ordered by the Swiss authorities to leave the country, and had to seek refuge in France. When Don Carlos entered into Spain, she took up her present residence at liordeaux, and the rej)orts as to her having crossed the frontier were utterly destitute of iounchition. She tried lately to remove to Pan, and took a house there, but the French Government intimated to her that she eoidd not be allowed to reside in the vicinity of the Pyrenees. 112 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. It was in the isolated chateau of St. Lon, in the Landes, that I iirst saw Don Carlos in April of the present year. He was then hiding himself from the French police, and changing his abode almost every week, under the protection of the hospitable landed proprietors of the South of France. To get at Don Carlos was a very difficult task; for, if not alarmed him- self, his councillors and courtiers were always afraid of some act of treacher}^ ; but the " inter- viewing" instructions of my paper were too stringent for me to let hira off without an ordeal of this sort ; and I spent nearly a month at Bayonne and about the frontier trying to meet with people who could manage to procure me this interview. Yet all my efforts were vain, until I became acquainted with General Elio, and proved lucky enough to inspire him with the confidence that I had no intention either to as- sassinate or even to betray Don Cai-los. On the Bayonne-Pau railway line is a station called Peyrehorade, and about two hours' drive from that station is situated the chateau of M. de Pontonx, where the interview was to take place on the 11th of April, at eleven o'clock at night. The arrangement was that I should start DON' CARLOS, HIS WIKK, AND HIS VIEWS. llij from Bayouiie b}" the last train to PcyrcliuraJe, and call there upon the cure who would serve me as a guide, the name of the residence not having been disclosed to me at that time. On my reaching Peyrehorade I found the cure at chin-ch, it being Good Friday ; but a comfortable carriage was in readiness to drive me to a place, of which I should not even now have known the name if the young M. de Pontonx had not told me, a few months later, that it was at his chateau that I paid the visit. The precautions were evidently well taken for my not betraying the residence of the Prince, for I could not even see the road through which I drove, the carriage having no lanterns, the coachman having recommended me not to pull ditwn the windows, and the night being so dark that I wondered all the time how he could find his way. In about two hours we stopped before a gate, which was opened only after some parley- ing, and then drove through a jtark to the en- trance of the residence. Brigadier Iparraguirre, military secretary of the Piiiicc, was waiting on the doorsteps when the carriage drew into the courtyard. He was evidently watching lest some ])olice agent or any other unasked for person should appear; but seeing the familiar carriage and coachman, and hearing VOL. 1. I 114 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. that I was the person to whom the audience had been granted, he showed me at once through several rooms to the chamber occupied by Don Carlos. A cheerful fire burned in an old-fashioned grate, and the apartment was upholstered with quaint-looking antique furniture. Don Carlos entered the room almost immediately, accompanied by General Elio, shook my hand cordiall}^ and paid some compliments to the journal I repre- sented. Some preliminary conversation of a general character then ensued, but as soon as the Prince sat down and lighted a cigarette, offer- ing me one, both Elio and Iparraguirre retired from the room. " What impression has been made on you during your journey through the Carlist camps! ' was his first question. I answered that my im- pressions were on the whole favourable, but re-; ferred to the imperfect armament of some of the partidas (bands), and the conversation at once assumed a practical relation to the Carlist pros- pects in general. " Ah ! you must keep in view the almost in- superable difficulties which we have had to con- tend with," said the Prince. " The movement began only in the month of December. General Olio crossed the frontier to Spain about Christmas DON CARLOS, HIS WIFE, AND HIS VIEWS. 11') last with twenty-tlirce unanned men. He dis- iiitorred three hundred old muskets, which h;id lioen buried in the neighbourhuod, and, with these, armed his first detachment. In Catahmia the movement began earlier, and there the progress was more raj)id. You have no conception of the obstacles whieli are put in the way of our trans- ])orting arms across the frontier. The cost of conveyance causes a great increase of expense, and but for the hearty assistance which was given to us by the nobility of the South of France, we could never have achieved what we have done. And then, what has not been said of us '? We have been called 'brigands,' 'assassins,' 'plun- derers of the peasantry,' ' kidnappers,' and what not ; but you have yourself seen how false such reports are. You have seen how thoroughly the population of the villages is with us. If I had a hundred thousand rifles, I could have a hmidred thousand men in a iVw days. It is liitter to me, l)crsonally, to be restrained as I am ; comj)elled idly to sit here, while my followers are enduring so many hardships and risking their lives for my cause; but my advisers keep me like a prisoner of State. They say my entering Spain would do harm only, as they are not yet ready fur active operations on my behalf." I 2 116 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. The conversation then turning to politics, Don Carlos said : — " The political feature of the case is as little known in Europe and America as is the other, the military part of the Legitimist movement. No lawyer, Spanish or foreign, has ever disproved my right to the throne of Spain. The act by which the throne was given to Isabella, was simply a violation of the organic laws of the kingdom. My grandfather defended his right, sword in hand. He was not vanquished, but was betrayed by the infamous Maroto. When the right to the throne devolved on me, I did all in my power to confine the contest within the walls of the Parliament house. I succeeded in obtaining the support of not less than eighty-three deputies, but during the last elections Carlist voters and Carlist de- puties were shot at and stabbed, and nothing re- mained for us but a resort to arms. Any American or English party placed in the same position would have acted in the same way. I know that the Anglo- Saxon race, in the New World as well as in the Old, is so great because it never hesitates to take up the sword when right is invaded. They do not fear civil war when they believe they are in the right. Why should we fear I" On my observing that the cause of the hostile DON CARLOS, IHS WIFE, AND HIS \TEWS. 117 criticism of the world on Carlism was not because Carlism fought, but because people were afraid lest its victory should re-establish fading abso- lutist theories in government and ultramontanism in religion. " I have never given any reason to believe that after my accession to the throne," said Don Carlos, "religion would be permitted to interfere with politics, or politics witli rcli^Mon. I greatly value the influence of the priesthood. I admire many men who are priests ; but I admire them in the Church, and I would be the first to oppose their interference in matters out of their sphere. No country in the world is less susceptible of government by absolutism than Spain. It never was so governed ; it will never be. The Basque provinces and Navarre have, from time immemorial, possessed the privileges of the most free countries. I have always emphatically de- clared that I will leave the framing of a Si)anish constitution to the action of a freely elected Cortes. I wonder there can still exist a doubt of my in- tention in this respect. My jirogramme of govern- ment can be set forth in a very few words. Kvcry- thing shall be done througli a free Cortes. There shall be com])lete decentralisation in everything but general politics." 118 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. Here the Prince spoke somewhat in detail of his several manifestoes addressed to the Spaniards, as well as to the foreign courts, appearing to as- sume that every man w^as hound to know these documents, a circumstance which made me feel rather uneasy, as I had no idea of them. Conse- quently, I took good care to change the conversation by reference to the interruption of travel in Spain and the Carlist action of firing on railway trains. Don Carlos replied : — " War is war. You can- not make an omelet w*ithout breaking some eggs. Interruption of travel, under such circumstances, is not peculiar to Spain. I did my utmost to prevent it. I proposed to the Northern Company to neutralize the rails and telegraph, and said that we would respect and protect the trains and wires if they were not used for military purposes. The directors said, in reply, that the Govern- ment at Madrid w^ould not allow them to treat with us, and that it would rather have public traffic stopped than do so. We cannot permit the Republican troops to advance and retreat by railway, whilst our men are on foot. Hence the destruction of the railroads. I am ready to renew negotiations on the subject any time ; but I am afraid we shall have to wait till the Madrid Government comes to its senses." DON CARLOS, HIS WIFE, AND HIS VIKWS. IT.* The conversation then naturally tuniLMl to the arts, not even such curious ones as Iruii jiossesses. it is now simply a lashionabh- watering- i)laee, antl a great resort for smuggling business, in which it would seem re})rcseutatives VOL. I. K 130 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. of British commerce are interested to a very considerable extent. It serves also as a safe and not altogether unpleasant residence for British subjects who get into "trouble," and prefer a quiet life on the shores of the Bay of Biscay to legal proceedings in England. All these circumstances make of San Sebastian quite an English colony. English faces are to be seen, and the English tongue to be heard at almost every step. But the well-regulated habits of the Anglo-Saxon race do not seem to influence much the indolent and unbusiness-like nature of the Spanish portion of the population. At all events, it would not appear from the way in which " the regular diligence communication " of the aforesaid Senor Marcelino Ugalde was carried on. We arrived at four p.m., and were advised to secure our tickets at once, but could not make out until midnight what time we were to start. At mid- night we were told we had better go to bed, as care would be taken to call upon each of us at our respective hotels Avhen the diligence was to start. So we did go to bed, and at three in the morning, some violent knocks at my door, gave me to understand that I was "wanted," either for the purpose of having my throat cut, or for that of being conveyed to FROM BAYONXE TO MADRID. 131 Ziiminarru^^iv. To my satisfiiction, it turned out that it was for the latter purpose. Ilunu-r's or George Augustus Sala's wouM ^><- ilio only pen fit to (k-scrilic our noeturnal pilgrimage. Fancy a pitcli-dark niglit in a l»lacc you have never been in before, among jieople who talk Bascpie to you and are supposed to be a set of brigands, with thr prospeet, in addition to all that, of ferocious Carlists falling upon you as soon as you are on the high road. A wretched lantern stuck up on the top of what seemed at first sight to be a little mountain, did not contribute much light for the discernment of tilings. 15y-and-bye, however, I perceived that this moimtain was the diligence, an old nonde- script vehicle of an immensurable height, with a monstrous heap of luggage on it, and witli seven mules to it. My first impression was that the mules would never be able to set it in motion at all, and that, should they manage to do so, the monster would no doubt upset at once. Mr. riimsoll and his overloadeil ships innnediately crossed my mind, l)ut 1 felt at once that there was not the slightest use in meditating about legislative projects or drawing foreign analogies, and that I had better secure a seat, and looked for my luggage. i; -2 132 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. The seats were, of course, not numbered, and I was told I could take whichever I liked best ; as to my luggage, it was already loaded, and all I had to do was to pay another 70 reals for it, in addition to the 80 reals already paid for my ticket. The man who told me that, assumed that I ought to have been quite delighted, and that no more satisfactory position than mine could be well imagined. Giving up, therefore, all hopes of being permitted to inquire whether my portmanteaux, instead of being loaded, were not stolen, I proceeded to secure a seat, and found the atmosphere inside the immense vehicle so full of garlic and other attractive perfumes, and the vehicle itself so thickly packed with objects and subjects of which 1 was unable to discern the nature, that I did not hesitate a moment to decide that I would rather ran all the way alongside the mules than go in such a pan- demonium. But the perspiring priest with whom we had become friends on the previous day, was already on the look-out for me, to say he had secured me a seat outside. Great were my thanks for his attention ; but if I escaped asphyxia inside the diligence, 1 certainl}^ did not escape mediaeval torture. A little portable bench had been placed on the top of the vehicle FROM BAYONNE TO MADRID. 133 in front of the mountain of lu^^gagc, and a cou[)le of square inches of space on it were allotted to each of us. The bench was thus made to accommodate four persons, my two other companions being the French .Jews from Bayonne, and as I had on the previous day had some clerical conversation with the reverend father, and did not quite meet his views, I began to think now he had jiin-posuly ])ut me and the Jews to this trial. All the horrors of the Inquisition crept one by one into ray head under the influence of the physical pain I was subjected to. and by-and-by the priest became to my mind thoroughly identified with the image of a Tor- quemada on a small scale. The journey lasted over fourteen hours, and all the time our legs were hanging down without any vestige of a support of any sort, quite as if we were sitting on the edge of a roof. The coachman, whose box was down below us, was all the way howling horribly, and whipping us right across the face with the interminable whip, the reaction of which he said he was unable to control. Each stroke he gave to one of his seven mules was a stroke to souk' one of us too; and these lashes were not to be reckoned by the dozen, but by the hundred. The momitain of luggage behind us pushed us violently 134 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. down, together with our bench, each time the diligence was going down hill, and superhuman efforts were required on our part not to fall on the mules, and thence under the wheels. To im- prove our position in any way whatever was utterly impossible. To argue with the coachman was perfectly useless ; he knew his business, and would not risk the peril of the heavy coche publico crushing his mules, for a few lashes he might spare us. The only moments of rest we had from these tortures were at the villages where mules were changed, or when too rapid ascents presented themselves, and several pairs of oxen had to be substituted for mules. We could then get down and walk for a while alongside the coach, thus restoring vitality to our benumbed limbs. In this comfortable way did we travel from four in the morning till eleven, when an hour's time was granted to us at Zummarraga for lunch and payment of another eighty reals to Yitoria. Of danger, properly so called, there was yet not the slightest trace. Much to our astonishment we had not even been upset. And except the torture inflicted upon us, and the infamous Spanish cook- ing, we had to complain of absolutely nothing. It was at Zummarraga that we were for the FROM BAYONXE TO MADRID. 135 first time positively tuld we shuiilJ meet Carlist bauds within a few miles. But at the same time we were assured that if we had neither oflieial despatches nor escort, we had nothing to fear. We should have a slight toll to pay, and would perhaps be searched for arms — that was all. I need scarcely say that, as we were still travelling through the provinces of Guipuzcoa and Alava, every town and village was thoroughly Carlist in its sympathies, and although all had " fortified '" balconies and windows, the population obviously never intended to defend itself. These fortifica- tions were constructed by Republican orders and for Republican troops, and, had we travelled with an escort, we should certainly have been exposed to the chance of being fired at from the mountains. Our coachman a Carlist to the back-bone, gave us by his mere presence among us the best imaginable protection. When we entered the first village occupied by the champions of Dio.% Fatria, ij Rerj, the leading street was of course full of j)eople, attracted by the noise of our heavy vehicle, and of endless numbers of little bells hanging and ringing on the mules' necks. Women, children, Carlists in arms, rushing pigs, barking dugs fiocked around us ; but wo did not seem to call forth any feeling 136 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. except slieer curiosity, even in the fiercest- looking Carlist. The diligence stopped at the fonda. The coachman alighted, went into the inn with the head of the Carlist band, handed him several newspapers and letters he had for him, talked about five or ten minutes, and after pay- ment of thirty shillings, which made less than half-a-crown a head on every traveller, once more took the reins, and we were off again without having been asked a single question. Of course, we all had an intense consciousness that we were practically at the mercy of a band of armed rufiians, and this by no means made us feel comfortable. But as I have to record here facts, and not individual feeUngs, I have no reason to dwell on the various manifestations of nervousness shown by our fellow-tra- vellers. Three times were we stopped in that way before we reached Vitoria, and each time we had to under- go the same midangerous process of paying half- a-crown a head, and of waiting till the coachman had delivered his secret correspondence and given all the information the Carlist jefe may have wanted. That murders were committed on the high roads of Spain years and years ago, can be little doubted, for one can scarcely travel a few FROM BAYONNE TO MADRID. 1;>7 miles without seeing by the roadside a lonely stone with a cross on it, and an inscription telling one that on tliis place Don So-and-so had found his life's end. l>ut it can be as little doubted that now-a-days, even in districts where Carlist war is supposed to rage, an unarmed man can travel quite safely, notwithstanding all the dread- ful stories spread abroad about" this curious and good-natured nation. The high-road to Vitoria offered also an ex- cellent illustration of the manner in which the Spaniards were then carrying on their civil war. On leaving a village occupied by Carlists, we in- variably reached, after a few miles' drive, one occupied by Republican troops. This alternate, or rather intermittent, position of the respective forces puzzleri- soners were lodged in the town gaol, and their arms in some other safe place; but as Koon as the cercmoniul part of the business was over, and the 144 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. soldiers had retired to their barracks, the gaol was surrounded by a mass of people, and there was no end of greeting and cheering, the fellows looking quite as jolly through the rail- ings of the prison windows as if they were at- tending a wedding party. To start from Vitoria was almost as difficult as it had been from San Sebastian. Up till four P M. no one knew at the station, or anywhere else, wdiether there would be a train at all. Some said all the rails were taken off near Miranda; others that all the stations were on fire ; the telegraph was cut ; and no exact information could be received unless a train from Madrid should turn up. The platform of the station was all day long crowded with people looking out for such an event, and, after several hours' waiting, they were gratified witli the sight of a locomotive at a distance, and with the sound of its whistle. The joy became exceedingly demon- strative, and the news of a Madrid train having arrived safe spread over the town with electric celerity. Much to our astonishment, when the train reached the platform, the doors of several luggage vans at both ends of it opened of them- selves, and poured out no end of cazadores (rifle- men) and carabineros (fusiliers). It was the FIIOM I5AYONNE TO MADRID. UT) ■ scort. The Carlists liaviii.i; dechired ovlt uikI i>V(.'r a^aiii that tliey woiiKl file at ami upsijt any train that carried troojjs, the escort was now almost hermetically shut up in the luggage vans. lint notwithstanding the sale arrival of the train at Vitoria, it took the railway authorities a gooil deal of time to decide whether a rctuni-traiu could be started, after all the rumours which were current in the town. It was only under the heavy pressure of the travellers, and on the reiterated assurance of the officers command- ing the escort that there Avere no Carlists on the road, and on their official request to send the escort hack to Miranda, that the railway authorities made up tiieir mind to order the engine to be placed the other way, ami began to distribute tickets. In aiiutiier half hour we were olf amidst the blessings and good wishes of a crowded platform. The escort was, of course, again thickly packed, and locked up in the luggage-vans, while most of the few travellers had each a whole lirst-class carriage to hiiiistlf. The majority, on entering the carriages, began at once to barricaile the win- dows with cushions and hand luggage, so as tu hssen the chance of any (.'arlist balls reaching them. The train went forward with great cau- VOL. I. L 146 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. tion, and an additional couple of men were placed on the engine to look out for places where rails might have been cut. We did not progress more than at the rate of ten miles an hour ; but neither received Carlist balls, nor un- derwent any smash. Still, I must avow that such slow travelling, with the constant idea of the possibility of an immediate accident in your mind, is by no means a pleasant thing. After a while, one gets positively desirous that something should happen, and thus put an end to the un- certainty. On arriving at ]\Iiranda, about ten o'clock at night, the escort left us, but it turned out that, to all appearance, the really dangerous portion of the line was beyond that town. The Carlists were at the second station from Miranda on the previous day, and had set it on fire, consequent on some " misunderstanding" between the leader of a Carlist inxrtida, the priest Alaya, and the station-master ; but the band — we were in- formed — was now being pursued by the troops in the mountains and the line clear. So off we were to Burgos, and when we had passed the still burning station — which, by the way, presented a very fine sight amidst the darkness of a southern night— and the driver felt FROM BAYON'NE TO MADRID. 147 quite out of daii<;er, he iiiiule tlie tniin run at a rate wlik'li was by no means comforting to those who know tlic carelessness of Spanish guards and pointsmen. But " Tired Nature's sweet restorer, balmj sleep," rendered us ratlier unconcerned with either the hehaviour of the engine-driver and the guards, or the night aspects of glorious cities like Burgos and Valladolid, through which we had to pass. I awoke early next morning with the sight of the snow-covered heights of Sierra Guadarrama on my right, and that of the monkish and mourn fid giant, Escorial, on my left. The guard entered the carriage to say we had reached the Escorial station, and had to wait there, as a telegram was expected from Madrid to say whether we could proct'C'd further, for tlie capital was, according to the news received during the night, in full revo- lution. The Federals had taken possession of all the imj)ortant jtuhlic buildings, including the railway station, and general fighting was ex- l)r(t.(l to begin at dayimak. Although I had already some ide.i ol" tlie Sjianish tendency to exaggeration, I thought this news looked serious. But in an hour's time "permission" to proceed arrived, and about ten A.M. we L -2 148 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. reached the northern station of Madrid, which was really in full possession of an armed and ragged mob, but not a drop of blood seemed to have been shed. Gendarmes and soldiers of the late monarchy were noisily fraternising with armed "gentlemen of the pavement." It was clear that there might have been a conflict, but that it had been settled by the very peaceful process of one of the conflicting parties retiring from the struggle. There is no need to repeat here all the rumours which comforted us at Escorial. The Federals were shooting everybody who did not join them ; the array had partly mutinied, partly fled ; Ser- rano had fought a duel with Pi y Margall, and so on. But on reaching the unlucky capital we were satisfied that, though the streets were crowded with a vociferous and gesticulating mob, the greater portion of which bore arms, there were no shots to be heard, nor anything to be seen suggestive of the probability of any at that moment. The omnibuses and carriages which took up the passengers at the station had considerable diflaculty in passing through the streets, but managed to deposit all of us safely at our respective hotels ; and the absence of any Custom-house officers, and the consequent non- FROM BAYOXNE TO MADRID. llO ransacking of our luggage, rather prc-disposed some of us in favour of the regime of mob- rule. 150 CHAPTER VI. THE FEDERALIST COUP d'eTAT. niHE events which will be probably described JL in Spanish history as the Federalist coup d'etat of April 23, were very simple in their nature. When King Amadeo abdicated and re- tired from Spain he left behind him a "Na- tional Assembly " which, amalgamated from two houses of Parliament elected under a Monarchy, was of course composed mainly of Monarchists, though of a liberal shade, known in Spanish political nomenclature as radicals. They constituted a majority of nearly three-fourths. But some of the seats on the Opposition benches were occupied by gentlemen of great attainments and very high reputation for integrity, yet strongly inclined towards republican theories. Among them Seiior Estanislao Figueras and Seiior Emilio Castelar were the best known THE FEDERALIST COUP d'kTAT. I'll abroad, especially tlie latter, wlio used, without kuowiuij: a word of Enjxlisli, to write a ^ood deal ill the Fi>vtiii(ilitl>i licrit'ir, and iu some of the American periodicals, chiclly on (piestions con- nected with the Republican movement in Europe. The Monarchists of this Assembly were, as they invariably are in Spain, very much out of tune with each other; ever3'one of them wanted some- thini; diflV-rent from what his next neighbour wanted, and so no sort of agreement or common action could ever have been expected from them in a critical moment. When Amadeo, annoyed by the open hostility shown to him, by violent jnirty struggles, and by the heavy expenses of Royalty, deposited his crown, the sundry factions of ^lonarchists were utterly unable to agree as to any line of action. They were, as usual, hesitating and quarreling, and thus gave the Re- publican fraction ample opportunity to jump at the tribune, and proclaim the Republic, which, as it turned out, did not find any actual opposition in the mass of peoph; outside the Assend)ly, and was therefore naturally considered as established. A Republican Ministry was at once formed, and Senor Figueras appointed president of the Executive Power. The new Spanish Republic had a luck which 152 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. few republics ever had— that of being able, after one or two readjustments during the month of February, to compose a Government, against the members of which absolutely nothing detrimental could be said. Everyone of the men called to power was known as a man of high integrity and irreproachable morals, and some were, besides, known as very able men, especially so Senor Figueras (the President), Sefior Nicolas Salmeron (Minister of Justice), Serior Francisco Pi y Mar- gall (Home Minister), and Senor Eduardo Chao (Minister of the Fomento, or Progress, which includes commerce, public instruction, &c.) The remainder were men who had still to show whether they had the abilities of statesmen, but Avho had, one way or the other, obtained consider- able popularity. Sefior Emilio Castelar (Foreign Affairs) was a fine writer and poet, and Sefior J uan Tutau (Finances), was supposed to be an excellent authority in political economy. The War and ]\Iarine Ministers were the only ones still ob- jected to by the majority of the Eepublicans on account of their Monarchical connection. But it was impossible to find all at once experienced officers beyond the sphere of those who had served nnder the Monarchy. In this way, whatever suc- cess the Spanish Republic has had at the outset. TFIE FEDERALIST COUP D'kTAT. 153 was entirely duo to tliu personal character of the men coniposini:: the new Cabinet, and I have never lieard in Mailrid or in the jtrovinccs, a single person, however hostile to the Kepiihlic, say any- thing detrimental against any of the Ministers as individuals. The high reputation of these gentle- men was a fact of almost incalculable importance in a country where governmental circles are most corrupt, where scandalous gossip is very much liked, and personal life very open to observation, and very much inquired into. The new Ministry had also another and rare advantage — that of being very homogeneous. The Ministers seemed never to quarrel with each other, and on the whole, I believe, selilom had any members of a Cabinet been more united in their views than those who had to work unril tliat the establish- ment of the Kepublic ought to be reckoned ; for as long as the Monarchical factions were still in the field, and at liberty not only to conspire, but to M 2 3 64 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. brinf^ an armed force into the streets of Madrid, the Spanish Republic stood on a most shaky basis. Thus as far as the Republicans were then con- cerned, I could easily make out both the meaning of the memorable Wednesday and the manner in which they carried the day. But I was anxious to ascertain what were the exact intentions of their opponents, and whose guilt it was that the Conservative attempt proved a failure. The officers had then not yet lost all control over the army, and a great feeling of discontent seemed to prevail in the regular troops, consequent on the indiscrimi- nate armament of the National Guards. It seemed rather strange that the opponents of the Govern- ment had not taken advantage of it, mustered the regiments, and upset so eminently an un- military lot of men as Seuor Figueras, Seiior Castelar, and Seiior Pi y Margall. Marshal Serrano was the most likely man to know everything, and I soon made off in search of him. On the eve of my starting for Madrid I had the pleasure of presenting my compliments to the Duchess de la Torre — for such is the title by which both the Marshal and his lady prefer to be called— at her villa Rue Silhouette, Biarritz. THE FEDERALIST COUP d'eTAT. ir,5 "I shoiilil like very mucli your calling upon my liusKuul if you have time," said the Duchess, about ^vh()m so many wicked rumours had been spread, and who is still one of the most fascinat- ing and amiable ladies I know. " He would be so glad to know that both the children and I are getting well, and to see some one that has so recently seen us. I will just drop you a line for him," and slowly, in a supine and lazy sort of way, the Duchess began to scrawl something on a miniature bit of Marion paper, still talking, without lifting her eyes from the lines her little hand was tracing. But I was unable to listen to her ; she gave me too good a chance, unnoticed, to enjoy the charming features against which both age and the anxietiesof revolutions seem to haveproved equally powerless. "I am, however, afraid," said she, folding her little epistle, "that my poor Duke will not be of any use to you at Madrid. What is he now ? Nothing. And he has done so much for Spain ! (^>uite recently, he tried again to render the country a service by settling the Artillery question. The gentlemen who call themselves Ministers at Mailrid gave him lull powers, saying that they accepted beforehand all his stipulations. Yet yesterday I received a letter from him showinir that all his cfTorts had been 166 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. in vain, and that these gentlemen behaved towards him like men without honour. You know how moderate the Duke is in his language, and there- fore you will believe that the case must have been a very hard one, indeed, if he speaks in that way. At the same time, everyone feels that he is the only man that could help our poor coun- try out of the chaos. I have received from Mon- sieur Thiers several telegrams within these last days. He not only offers, with his usual courtesy, to place himself at my and my husband's dis- posal, but assures me that, should the Duke come to power, the Republic would be immediately acknowledged by France, and he believed by other Powers too." And while narrating me this underhand escapade of the shrewd little ruler of France, she handed me her almost microscopical note bearing the address : " Exce- lentisimo Seiior Dxique de la Torre" written in so fine and small a handwriting as only a Spanish lady is capable of. Yet notwithstanding my being armed with this little but highly effective pass, I had to give up all hopes of discovering the whereabouts of the Marshal when I reached Madrid. His most intimate friends seemed to have no idea where he could be. "If anyone knows anything positive," said THE FEDER.VLIST COUP D'kTAT. IC>7 one of tliein, " it can only he the old Countess 'le Montijo. But lie is not with her, for her house was ransacked yesterday hy an armed band." A lew days later everyone knew that, with the aid of the P^nglish Minister, Mr. Layard, and of an Knglish razor that shaved off the Marshal's mous- tachios, he had safely escaped to France. But in the first turmoil the fact was not generally known, and as the Countess de Montijo had favoured me with an invitation to come and see her when 1 visited Madrid, I resolved to call without any further delay at the well-known mansion of the Plaza del Angel, so plain-looking from the outside and so intensely comfortable within. 168 CHAPTER VII. THE COUNTESS OF MONTIJO ON SPANISH MOB-RULE. niHE mother of the ex-Empress of the French JL is ahnost blind now, but her mind is as fresh and bright as ever, and her house remains still the centre where all influential notabilities congregate in Madrid. I called on the Countess early in the afternoon, and found her alone, seated in her favourite artificially darkened corner of a vast hall, transformed into a winter garden. The conversation fell quite naturally on the events of the day, and the old lady, at all times a capital talker, was more animated than ever. " Serrano was not here," said she, " and I sin- cerely regret that he did not ask for my hos- pitality. I should have been most happy to be of any assistance to him. He is a man of eminent capacities and great energy, though I don't be- lieve him to be fit for an actual leader. He must THE COUNTESS OF MOXTIJO ON MOB-RULE. KV.I work uiulor some one — or nt least, in the name of some one — then he is worth any priee. l»ut when he is to be the man he is inclined to hesi- tate, and I know that this time my estimate of him has perfectly jnstified itself. If they did not succeed on Wednesday, it was his fault. Every- one came to him for positive orders, and he did not give any. He permitted himself to be out- done by Estevanez. That is a man ! a brigand ! but really a man. Without hini, the literati ruling to-day over our destinies would have lost a day or two more, and Serrano might perhaps have taken some resolution. But Estevanez spied out everything, caused all the commanding officers to be changed at a few minutes' notice, and not only defeated Serrano, but nearly cut off all his chances of escape. If we were a revengeful people, the poor Marshal might have been shot already. But happily enough we are not so ; we always help each other out of difficulties, and I am sure that Serrano was protected by the very men against whom he fought, and that every one of the vanquished jxirty has escaped with the full knowledge of the (Jovernment. I know that Senor Castelar did his best to I'lace all the leaders of the movement under the protection of some foreign embassy. We are 170 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. don't you see, so accustomed to revolutions, and are so little sure of not wanting some one's help to-morrow, that we instinctively protect everybody to-day. This personal kindness, joined with ap- parent great political harshness, is quite charac- teristic of the Spaniards of all classes. It has got into their blood. Look how the Carlists are protected everywhere. Look at the mob itself, that is now complete master of every one of us. Do they do any harm to anyone? Personal safety was never greater in Madrid than it is now. All the ruffians got a gun, suppose themselves to be something, and are quite satisfied. They watch over that ver}^ property they might have otherwise destroyed, and protect those lives they might have otherwise taken. I begin to like Republican arrangements. Turn all the thieves and brigands into guardians of peace and order, and all the difficulties of the so-called largo agglomerations of modern cities are got over. Is it not nice "? And I can assure you that in fortnight — unless something new happens — Serrano may drive daily on the Prado as com- fortably as if nothing had happened. But what do I say — a fortnight ? To-morrow every danger will be over, especially if there is a bull-fight. You will see it yourself. But you might see also THE COUNTESS OF MOXTIJO ON MOB-Rll^E. 1 7 1 many new rows, and jjcrliajis actual bloodshed, should the weather get hot, and our Mood begin to boil a little. As long as the weather remains so cold, I do not apprehend any serious dis- turbances." I could not help laughing at the picture the Countess drew here of the temperament and peculiarities of her countrymen. " You laugh," said she, " but I am really telling you the truth, although I may seem as if I was joking. We are a strange people, not like every- body else. But all j^laisanteries aside, I must avow I am amazed at the conduct of what we call our canaille. I begin deeply to respect this semi-savage mob. They behave themselves really wonderfully, and I believe nowhere could a similar sight be seen — certainly not in our be- loved France, ^liiid you, that they are absolute masters to do what they i)lease, and what have they done ? I will give you one instance. On an estate of mine in the province of Valladolid, the peasants got the notion that the ' Republic' meant the breaking up (.»f large estates and the distribution of land among them. And so they came to my steward to inquire when and how the partition was to be eflected. They said they knew for certain that the Republic meant such a 172 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. partition. The steward, who is a clever old man, and knows his people w^ell, did not make any noise, and did not contradict them, but said he was quite sure they were right, and was very glad their position would be so much better now ; but added that, before proceeding with any new arrangement, both himself and the peasants ought to receive orders from Madrid, so as to avoid any chance of getting into legal troubles. They quite agreed with him that such was the wisest course to take, and though the explanation was given them three months ago, they have never raised the question again since that time. Even here in Madrid, where the mob is supposed to be much more dangerous than in the provinces, it seems to me to be just as good-natured. You know that a band invaded my house yesterday in search of Serrano. I was at dinner with a few friends, and on the footman's announcement of the unexpected visit, I ordered him to say to the man in command of the band, that as I had no material force to oppose him, he was at liberty to do what he pleased, but I would not disturb myself from my dinner. And I gave orders to throw everything open. Well, what was the result '? Five men only came up- stairs, the body of them remaining outside. They THE COUNTESS OF MOXTIJO OX MOB-RULE. 173 searched every corner of the house, but in a niuinier as proper and orderl}' as the best police would have done. And when they reached the dining-room, and I ofl'ered them, according to our natit)nal custom, to partake of my meal, they all blushed like school-girls, and were only anxious to get away as quickly as possible." The Countess spoke often and much on the inofl'ensiveness of the Spanish character; and I l)urposely give here her opinion, as that of a person whom none will accuse of being a partizan of mob-rule or democratic theories, and who, being now (piite aloof from any political party, has lived lung enough to form a just esti- mate of the political peculiarities of her country- men Even in the worst days of the revolutionary outbreaks, the Countess never left Spain if she happened to be there, and never showed anything like distrust towards any class of her fellow- countrymen. So great, consequently, seems to bo the regard which all S})aniards j)ay to the old lady, that her nejjhew, notwitlistanding his being in no way connected with the Itepublic, is still in otlice at the Ministry vi' F()Ivi^Ml AlVairs. Every day at half-past seven some half-a-dozen friends sit down at the Countess's table, from which 174 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. the national ^^ocA^ro is never missing, and which is always so delicious that it compensates one for all the miserable Spanish dishes which one may have been compelled to swallow in the most out of the way corners of Estremadura or La Mancha. A little after nine the doors of her drawing-room are opened, and some more guests belonging to all shades of political opinions come to salute the old lady, to listen to what she has to say on the topics of the day, and now and then to afford her the opportunity of having a talk of the olden days when her eldest daughter, the Duchess of Alba, before whose beautiful full-sized portrait she is always sitting, was still alive; or of those nearer days when her other daughter had not to mourn the loss either of a husband or an imperial crown. The Countess watches with great interest the state of English popular opinion with reference to Spain. Her English lady's companion reads to her every day some London newspaper, and next to such paragraphs as may happen to be in it from Chislchurst, comes invariably the Spanish special correspondence column. "I am glad to see," said she once to me, when I found her at one of these daily readings, " that the English journalists have given up THE COUNTESS OF MONTIJO ON MOB-RULE. 11') describing us as brigands and assassins. They still sneer at us, and sometimes in a very nasty way, but that wo I'orgivc tlieui ; we know that all they want is to carry on trade with this country, and that, whenever there is any dis- turbance in the regular business traflic, England becomes at once discontented. But I hope tlie day will come when Englishmen will know us better and like us better. At all events those of them I see here, and who are residents in our country, have often repeated to me that, whatever may have been the political disturb- ances, they always found that both property and life were quite as secure in Spain as in England, and that in Madrid they were even more so than in London." I did, of course, my best to per- suade the old lady that the notions about Spanish savagery and brigandage had almost disappeared in England, and that, even in so old a book about Spain as that of Mr. Ford, complaints were already uiade that, n(itwithstanding the constant de- mand for brigand adventures in the home market, great ingenuity must now bu evinced by travellers to get up bond fide nuiterials for anything in the shape of ;i story of a nice Spanish nnu'der, or robbery. On the Sunday which followed the Federalist 176 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. coup (tetat, I took advantage of tlie old lady's advice, and went to the bull-ring to see whether really the population of Madrid would have for- gotten all that had passed during the week. The ring is said to be capable of accommodating about thirteen thousand people, and it was crowded to excess on that day. Even all the approaches to the Plaza de Toros were thronged with a gaily dressed crowd. The National Guards, having apparently forgotten that they were now guardians of peace and order, left their guns at home and were the first to create a quite undescribable noise. Royalists and Federalists were joining in the common excitement, and the young Duchess of Alba, by her anxious watching of the bull-fight from her box, evidently showed that she was just as sure that peace and order were not threatened in Madrid, as her old grandmother. When I next saw the Countess, and complimented her on the perspicacity she had evinced in foretelling that everything would be settled by Sunday, afternoon when the fight was to take place, she answered me with a quiet sort of smile which is scarcely ever absent from her lips : — " I should have been very sony if I had not been right, for it would have proved that I had lived for about seventy years among the people of my THE COUNTESS OF MOXTIJO ON MOB-RULE. 177 country without ever learning to know them. I can give you, however, another proof that I know my Spaniards well. I told you the other day tliat Serrano was most likely to escape by the aid of the very men who are now in power, and wlio, to judge by the surface of things, must be most angry against him. And it turns out that he did really escape quite safely, and nut only with the knowledge, but by the direct aiil of the members of the Republican Government, and more especially by that of Castelar. The eloquent orator had a debt of honour to pay, for Serrano once facilitated his escape; and it was uidy fair that he should return the service. As I told you, we live in this country on the principle of a mutual escape insurance. No one knows wiiat may bi-fall him next day or next week; and by aiding other people to escape, he secures his own safety in a like moment of danger. IJesides, what would t he (iovernment have done, had all the leaders of the Plaza dc Toros movement been captured. Why, it would have been the greatest calamity that could have happened to the Ministry. The *' sovereign people " would have at once demamlevl the life of those men, while Castelar and Com- pany have all their life long written and speechified against capital punishment. The European Go- VOL. I. N 178 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. vernments would also have risen against tlie wholesome execution of men of such high posi- tion, and the Republican Cabinet is above all other things anxious to appear as a respect- able body in the eyes of European Powers, so as to get some chance of being ofiicially recognised abroad. All this must naturally have led to their helping the escape of everyone of their oppo- nents and enemies. Castelar and Figueras were for two days conferring with the foreign ambassa- dors in Madrid on the subject of how better to protect the valuable lives of the very men who had conspired to upset them. They were all distri- buted among the sundry Legations ; and it seems it was Mr. and Mrs. Layard who undertook tO' protect the leading spirit of the abortive attempt. After having for about twenty-four hours rushed in disguise about the residences of some of his most intimate friends, the man who had so often ruled Spain was safely brought to the Call© Torija, where his moustaches were shaved off, some English looking whiskers pasted on his cheeks, and an old travelling suit of Mr. Layard's put on him, a big and ugly felt hat serving as a com- plement to the whole. Being shown in this masquerade attire to some of his friends, and they having declared him to be utterly meconnaissable. THE COUNTESS OF MONTIJO ON MOB-RULK. 1 70 ho was despatched under the kind escort of Mr. and Mrs. La\ anl tliemselves to the railway station, and thence to ISantander, The English ambas- sador and his lady were travelling all the way down, and taking advantage of their position prevented any search in their carriage, or the identification of any ])ersons therein, though on many stations the National Guards showed a great desire to ascertain the personality of the passengers. At Santander, I hear, a little steam- tug has already been hired by the British Legation to proceed on a special mission to St.-Jean-de- Luz, and unless the boat be very bad and the arts of Madrid daily meetings of the adherents of their party for the purpose of duly preparing public opinion for the forthcoming elections. Not only were these elections to be general elections, but they were to take place for the purpose of giving the country a Constituent Assembly, which was to remodel the whole governmental machinery, to abolish everything tiiat reminded Si)ain of centralized monarchies, and to present her with a chalice overflowing with those liberties and franchises which have been dreamed of by the theoreticians of all the Kepubliean schools since the great days of Athens and Rome, and which they have as yet laboured in vain to achieve. For weeks past the walls of Madrid had ln-en placarded with all sorts of manifestoes and 184 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. declarations of the various committees, and in all of them the Government, which had scarcely established itself, was attacked as not being sufficiently Republican, and suggestions were thrown out that, unless certain reforms, indis- pensable from the point of view of the In- transigentes, were granted, the Government should be immediately overthrown. Among these re- forms, the most prominent were the immediate proclamation of a Federal Republic ; the aboli- tion of the Council of State and the reduction of the number of Ministries and Boards forming the Central Government and incompatible with the Federal principle; the separation of Church and State; the readjustment of the Budget (what was to be the nature of this readjustment was not explained) ; and the abolition of lotteries and of the penalty of death. Such were the starting points of the Intransigentes and the topics upon which they dwelt in all cafes, tertulias, and popu- lar meetings, the largest of which, and that to which all the others were to serve as mere pre- liminaries, was to take place on the Sunday follow- ing that on which the bull-fight caused the popu- lation of Madrid to forget all about the coup d'etat. It was the 4th of May, if I am not mis- taken, and at two o'clock I was in the square FEDERAL ELECTIONS AND FESTIVITIES. 185 or rather in the courty into small grouj>s, merging, in the Puerta del Sol ami the Callo de Alcahi, into the innnense ami motley stream of quite a Derby-like excited multitude, aniit with all that, the procession was not only thoroughly harmless, from a political ]>oint of view, but had lost even all the dangers which it some time ago presented to such French lookers-on as may have ventmvd into the street. 1 saw myself vi-ry many of thcni itn the I 'ratio the last time that ceremony took ])lace ; I heanl them talking French ; I talked French myself, and there wus not a single instance of any hostile demonstration on the part either of the peoj>le 192 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. at large, or of the force taking part in the proceedings. The Republican authorities did not seem much disposed to join the procession. At all events, except Senor Castelar, I did not see any member of the Government. Senor Figueras was still mourning the death of his wife, while Senor Pi y Margall and Senor Salmeron seemed to have in- timated that their philosophical views and prin- ciples did not permit them to take part in any religious ceremony. But there were quite enough of all sorts of municipal authorities and generals to form a tolerably brilliant head to the pro- cession. Another feature which gave it a rather impressive character was the presence of a large number of invalids, children, and old men and women, all of them relatives or representatives of those massacred by Murat, and now ranged in marching order at the head of the troops. The regiments attending were not numerous, as the garrison of Madrid consisted just then of very few troops ; but the National Guards turned out in strong battalions, all the more characteristic as every man in them was dressed according to his personal taste, \hQ uniform consisting exclusively of a little red cap. Being arranged in position alternately with the regular battalions, they FEDERAL ELECTIONS AXD FESTIVITIES. r.*3 jLi^ri'titly eiilivciied the picture as the procession inarclied iVoiii the l*la/,a Mayor through thi- I'ucrtu del >>ol and tlie Calle do Alcala to the Salon del Prado. The Salon, which is but little shorter than the popular part of Rotten J{ow, and rather wider, was covered with one gigantic awning which, so to speak, con- centrated the various elements of the immense picture, and made it really grand to look at. The numerous bands playing funeral marches added solemnity to the spectacle. The majority of the bands of the regular regiments restricted themselves to the Kiego march, but one or two of them seemed to know some- thing about Chopin's and Beethoven's funeral marches, and if the musical part of the ceremony had bcru limited to bands of the regulars only, the effect would have been very imposing indeed, especially to those who preserved the conscious- ness that these thousands and thousands of ragged volunteers had the i)Ower to do any mischief they pleased. liut a smile unwillingly ajipcared on the faces of a good niaiiy of tin' un- concerned observers, when Vobmtcer battalions jiassed with their bands furiously blustering the Miirseillaise. And as the Volunteers were in- comparably mure numerously represented than Vol. I. 194 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. the regular troops, the Marseillaise— HTp-psiYGntly the only niarcli their bands were capable of playing — became quite predominant throughout the proceedings of the day, and the Spaniards did not seem to be cognisant of the incongruity of their thus conducting such an essentially anti- French ceremony to the tune of that immortal song of Rouget de L'Isle, to which, to a great extent, was owing everything they had to com- plain of on the part of France, including Murat himself. The ceremony did not last long. Some sort of short religious service having been celebrated, the regiments and the National Guards marched past, and in about a couple of hours Madrid as- sumed again its usual aspect, without the oc- currence of the slightest disturbance. The more I saw of Spanish popular meetings, the more I became convinced that these people have a peculiar capacity for sticking to the special purpose for which they congregate. It is not as in France, Italy, Germany, or even sometimes in England, where a popular gathering, assembled for some more or less inoffensive purpose, finishes up with a row. The Spaniards, as a mass, are possessed of a self-command that would make it quite unnatural for them to depart, FEDERAL ELECTIONS AND FESTIVITIES. 105 in any degree, from the object for which they hud assembled. If they join in a religious or luitiunal procession, they do so in the same stern and serious manner in which they would attend an execution. Tiie bull-fight is the only festivity to which, since time innnemorial, they have been accustomed to proceed in a jnyous, noisy sort of way. With that exception, all their processions have always had a religious, frequently a mournful character, which they still invariably retain. I have been told over and over again of instances in which people, having decided upon the advisability of putting an end to some one's life, have marched quietly and solemnly to the house of the man, nmrdcred him in perfectly cold blood, and returned just as quietly and solemnly to their respective homes, without any of the excitement which is to be seen on the occurrence of much less sanguinary popular proceedings in other countries. Yet ]>eople still persist in calling Spain le jmys de Fimprevn. On returning by the Carrera San (leronimo I im-t an oM Kiiglish resident, sup- jtosed to know all about Spain, and who had been getting rather feverish on the previous night, anticipating some considemble mischief in con- nection with the Dos de Minjo. \Vhen I now called his attention to the peaceful way in which 2 196 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. the ceremony had been brought to a close, he said : " Oh, well, you were right, but don't you see my apprehension was inspired by what I had seen of the Madrid mob formerly, when it did not feel itself so completely master of the situation. Now they have no reason for raising any disturb- ance, for they know that they are at liberty to deal wdth everyone of us as they please, and there is a natural chivalry in the Spanish rogue which prevents him from being harsh, or even uncivil, as soon as he sees that he is standing on a footing of perfect equality with you." Anyhow, people who apprehended great dangers in Madrid, both from the Intransigentes and from the gathering of the National Guards, had to transfer their apprehensions to the general elec- tions, which were to last during four days, begin- ning on the 10th of May, and which, I am per- fectly certain, will remain among the dullest experiences of my life. Madrid was divided into ten electoral districts, each of them containing upwards of ten or twelve polling-places, and in every one of them the same monotonous proceedings were going on during all the four days. In some large building — FEDERAL ELECTIONS AND FESTIVITIES. 197 a concert-room, or an empty shop, behinil a table covered with red or green cloth, with a wooden urn placed on it — sat a returning officer with two secretaries, two civil guards posted at the door completing the official arrangement. Lazily, one by one, dropped in the electors, apparently quite disgusted at the bother imposed upon them. There were polling-places in which during the whole day not more than a dozen electors ap- peared, and the returning officer, his secretaries, and his sentries were reduced to passing the time by dozing at their posts durhig the whole of the four days. Of election struggles, as carried on in England or America, Spaniards seem to have no idea, and elections could hardly ever take in that country the character they have assumed with tlie Anglo- Saxon race. Of electioneering bribery and cor- ruption there is not the slightest trace in the \vholo of the Peninsula, except when the Govern- ment interferes, in which case the elections are distinguished by the same features which disgrace them in France. But, on the other hand, Spanish elections present peculiarities of their own. First vi' all, in a good many cases, the jiarty whicli feels itself to be in the minority abstains from voting altogether; and this abstention, with the 198 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. Spaniard, is meant to convey a kind of silent protest against the order of things which may be established by the newly-elected body. They seem to have arrived at the conclusion that it is both dangerous and useless to carry on political struggles by means of elections— useless, because the overthrow of their opponents might be made much more easy by out-of-door movements than by Parliamentary struggles, and dangerous be- cause election struggles in Spain, when a reality, have been, as a rule, carried on at the point of the knife. Consequently, the Spaniard much more prefers sitting in his cafe, smoking his cigarette, and talking politics with his friends until his opponents are in power, when he can combine with all those out of power, and who have, therefore, in the nature of things, chronic cause for discontent. On the 14th of May, at six P.M., these unbear- ably dull elections throughout Spain were closed, and their result was another victory for the Republican Government. Out of three hun- dred and eighty-seven newly-elected deputies, fully three hundred were in favour of the state of things established by the Republican leaders on the morrow of Amadeo's abdication. The Conservatives abstained from voting almost FEDERAL ELECTIONS AND FESTIVITIES. 199 everywhere, and in I^Iadrid itself only one-fom-tli of the electors exercised their ri^ht. In many of these cases, where the electors did not take advantaii^e of their right, the retnrning officers, annoyed at having sat for several days for no better purpose than that of seeing one or two dozen men throw their bulk'tins into the nrn, invented a rather curious way of making the thing look more decent. They put into the urns several hundred bulletins of their own, without, however, affecting in any way the result of the election, the supplementary bulletins being equally divided between the various candidates. Since the great bulk of the ]\I()uarchists of all shades had resolved to abstain from voting, it was evident that none but Republicans could be elected: out of the three hundred and eighty-seven votes, there were returned some thirty-five Con- servatives sent by distant Conservative localities, not sufficiently influenced by the jjarty-leaders of .Madrid, and some fifty Intransigentes, elected cliiedy in the large towns where tlie working man element was predominant. This last point was very important in numy resj)ects. It was, in the first place, a defeat of the Intransigentes, and, in the second, it partly reconciled the politicians of Kurope, and, amongst others, of England, with the 200 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. idea of a Federal Republic. When the Avord Federalism was first uttered in Spain, all the foreign dealers in politics were greatly alarmed. They did not quite understand the meaning of the term, but it did not suit them. They did not wish even to listen to the argument, that Spanish Federalism is founded upon exactly the same principle as that on which the Swiss and American Republics are based. It simply ap- peared to them as a new ism, and they thought they had had quite enough of isms already. But when the elections were concluded, and they clearly saw that very respectable men were amongst the Federalist Deputies, the British and Continental politicians concluded that the devil must, after all, not be so black as he is painted. In this way, the idea of a Federal Republic began to rise in credit in the European political market. The Intransigentes, defeated in these elections, and apparently conscious of their inability to manage anyything in Madrid, got up small pro- vincial risings, every one of which ended in more or less sanguinary fights (Alcoy, Malaga, Carta- gena, &c.) ; but the Republican Government of Madrid, though recasting itself almost every month, managed still to subsist, notwithstanding FKDERAL ELECTIONS AND FESTRITIES. 201 ii perfect national baiikniptcy, tlic utter break- iluwn of the whole administrative machinery, the constantly increasing progress of the Carlist rising, and little comfortable incidents like that of the ' Virginius.' But for us, all this is a matter for further consideration. The last chance left to me of discovering any actual disturbance at Madrid, could evidently present itself only in connection with the popular festival of San Isidro, which was to take place on the morrow of the conclusion of the election, the 15th of May. But even this gathering turned out to be a failure. Formerly, when religious feeling was more intense in Spain, and superstition more generally rampant, San Isidro was a very much reverenced individual. A vast number of Madri- lefios and Madrilenas of all classes used to turn out to the hill beyond the Manzanares river, where his hermitage is situated. But, now-a-days, when the male population of Madrid has become moro atheistic than that of any other capital, only a very small gathering could be expected on the occasion of such an exclusively religious festivity. True that the electoral urns were not yet closed when a considerable number of vehicles, thickly packed with representatives of the fairer sex, 202 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. drove along the Calle Mayor to the Toledo bridge, to attend what is called the Vispera, and that early next morning there were also a number of carriages driving that way; but this movement was made by the female population chiefly with a view to indulge in mutual contemplation of their costumes and head-dresses. They re- turned to Madrid without alighting from their carriages, and the festivity does not seem to have presented even the usual attraction to artists and sight-seeking foreigners, who formerly flocked to it in numbers, to look at the costumes and dances of the peasantry, and to listen to their songs. All that I saw this year was a number of booths, in which clumsy clay images of the saint were sold at high prices, and a number of eating houses, which spread pestilential smells for a mile around. The commemorative service going on all day long in the hermitage was almost unattended, and the beggars exhibiting their deformities at the entrance of the chapel seemed to do very little business. The story of San Isidro is pretty much like all the stories of Spanish saints, with the only dif- ference, perhaps, that he was not a general dealer in divine and miraculous things, but restricted his activity chiefly to the sphere of agriculture and FEDEILVL ELECTIONS AND FESTIVITIES. 203 medicine. He was a labourer ])y profession, and used, instead of working at his plough, to remain sitting in the fields in contemplative ecstasy. Tho angels seemed to appreciate very much such a liighly intellectual disposition in a labourer, and so they came down to him, conversed with him, and did his work lor him. It was in this way that tho environs of Madrid were made fertile, notwith- standing their otherwise very inconvenient cha- racter, lie used also, with the aid of the same angels, to render a good many services to his lei low-labourers. He caused, for instance, springs of water to rise wherever there was need of them, like Sir Richard Wallace in Paris, and the Cattle Trough Association in London. He also managed to restore dead animals to life, avert plagues, and render all sorts of such acceptable services. On one occasion he seems even to have most bcno- ficially interfered with the military afl'airs of his country, but that was about two hundred years after his death, when Alonzo VHI. was very much annoyed by an arrangement the Moors had mado somewhere near Toledo, to prevent his passing with his army by a road he wished to take. San Isidro, noticing the state of alVairs from above, came down and showed Alonzo a by-path by which he was enabled to proceed, and, subsc- 204 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. quently, to slaughter a vast number of the infidels. All this taken together, has naturally- elevated the lazy plough boy to the capacity of a great saint, and to the responsible position of patron of Madrid. Since then he has given up agricultural pursuits, and havingtaken to medicine, has now for something like eight hundred years- been performing all sorts of most remarkable cures, having had among his patients a large number of the highest nobility and several royal persons. Upon the whole, San Isidro seems to be a very accommodating and useful kind of saint ; but it appears that occasionally he shows a disposition to get rather angry. For instance, a lady-in- waiting of one of the Queens of Spain, in an access of kissing ecstas}^, bit off one of his toes, and was immediately deprived of the natural use of her tongue. I thought the punishment a rather hard one, since it was more than a tooth for a tooth; but the English friend who told me this story seemed to have taken another view of the matter, saying it was a great pity the body of San Isidro could not be brought over to London, where it could be turned to great advantage by making some of the English statesmen and M.P.'s lunch upon suitably disguised toes of the saint. FEDERAL ELECTIONS AND FESTIVITIES. 205 Priiluihly on the j)rinci[)Ie that les extremes se touchent, San Isidro just reminds me of Mr. I'.rad- Uiugh. I hud ahuost forgotten that that gentle- man was also, so to say, a May event in ^ladrid. He arrived there as the " representative of the English peoi)le " to congratulate Spain on the establishment of the Republic — !Mr. Layard, "the represfMitative of the English nation," not having, it would seem, properly performed his task. By whom Mr. Bradlaugh was actually sent, on whose behalf and at whose expense he came, did not transpire. But here he was. and the Ministers received him : the Federalists feasted and eulo- gised him, and got up a banquet in his honour at fifteen shillings a-head, with speeches during its continuance, and a serenade after it. About a hundred ultra-red Republicans assembled to jnirticipate in the meal and the speeches, while a considerably larger number enjoyed the serenade outside till a very late hour. The proceedings were throughout just as in- olTensive as the rest of the May festivities, though perhaj)s a little more amusing, lor Mr. llrad- laugh sat nearly all the lime listening to Spanish speeches of which he could not understand a word, while his entertainers listened to a couple of his orations with e(pi;d benefit. His speeches 206 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. having been, however, subsequently translated, the convives of the banquet, and the Spanish public at large, may have become acquainted with Mr. Bradlaugh's view^s and expectations. Without taking any particular interest in what the different speakers uttered on that occasion, I was nevertheless struck by one or two rather happy thoughts of Mr. Bradlaugh's. The one — particularly interesting to Englishmen — was that twenty years hence the Republic of England would be receiving the congratulations of the Spanish Republic. The other — particularly in- teresting to Spaniards— was that the Republicans of Spain must not expect that their English brethren would help them with arms, but only with ideas. 2o; CHAPTER IX. ON THE TOP OF THE SHjVER MOUXTAIX. MEDITATING on the iincertainity of all Iminaii arrangements, I often thought that' should people at large ever give up fighting and making revolutions, and generally begin to behave themselves as citizens of orderly connnunities, the first result of such a change would be the abolition of that beautiful Anglo-Saxon institution known under the name of " our special," and " our own." 'JMicse indefatigable animals would then bcujuie quitu as useless as post-horses are now in countries well provided with railways. 1 am aiVaid that an iinitrovement in the general condition of the worlil's political aiVairs would even greatly reduce the large size of English and American news})apL'rs. For what on earth wouM then fdl up tlic cnlinuns which are now occupied by reports of terrific slaughters, 208 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. upsetting of governments, wholesale executions, and kindred matters? Except the prices of various articles of commerce, and the rise and fall of public funds, there would be absolutely nothing to communicate from a well regulated country. Fancy, for instance, an Italian or a Spanish correspondent writing from Edinburgh or Glasgow. Why, he would not have material for half a column in a whole year. Even in London the correspondents for continental journals seldom find oftener than once a month a subject which is likely to have any interest at all in a distant foreign country. So intense indeed is the consciousness of the correspondent of the present day that his place is exclusively where people are cutting each other's throats, that whenever he hap- pens to have a fortnight's quiet time he feels at once that he is out of his element, and begins to expect a telegram ordering him to find out some less monotonous place, or else to return to the London office to be placed on the half-pay list. I had scarcely spent a few weeks at Madrid wdien I began to have an uneasy consciousness that it was not the proper place to stop at. The bull-fights, the Dos de Mayo, San Isidro, and especially the utterly peaceful character of the elections suggested that the Intransigentes were ox THE SILVER MOUNTAIN'. 209 losing ground, ami that until at least a coui>k' of months were over nothing j)articularly interesting;- could be expected. At the same time news arrived from the North that the Carlists under Dorregaray had achieved a great victory at Eraoul, and that Don Carlos himself was about to enter the land he claims the right to reign over. It became at once clear that I should soon have to bid farewell to the Prado, and to all the other attractions of Madrid, and to go back again to the mountains. And my apprehensions were fully justified, f(.)r within a few hours a telegram to that purpose was placed in my hands. Carlist bands, however, had advanced so far into the country since I left them, that to return viii Vitoria was a thing no more to be thought of, all connnunication that way being completely cut ofl'. The next nearest route was to go to San- tander, and thence by steamer to Bayonne. This journey, though a longer one, could at all events be made without any interruption, except that caused by the scarcity of steamers ruiniiiiL'^ be- tween the Spanish and {''rench ports. At San- tander, for instance, 1 luul to wait for twi) liays to go by a tug, U)aded with gunpowder for the Spanish troops, uud with a (piantity of petroleum for some Bilbao merchant's. And after a journey VOL. I. P 210 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. of about six hours, in company Avith a volcano of that description, I had to ^vait another three days before I could get at Bilbao a steam-boat bound to Bayonue. This time the ship had, much to the satisfaction of the passengers, neither petroleum nor gunpowder in its cargo, but it had a captain and a crew with a great proclivity for sleeping, and as the journey was to be made at night, all of them naturally went to bed with the exception of the man at the wheel, who dozed at his post, and was only kept awake by the rather clever expedient resorted to by two Andalusian cahalleros, who were all the way either talking or singing Anda- lusian ballads to him, or else treating him to cigarettes. But as the night was a beautiful one, our journey was performed in a way suffi- ciently pleasant to leave behind nothing but very bright reminiscences. Arriving at Bayonne, I learned that the battle of Eraoul was a real fight, not an in- vention of the over - sanguine Carlists, or of those opponents of the Eepublicans who were always anxious to spread abroad in Madrid false news of Carlist victories, for the purpose of showing that the Republican Government was not able to manage the army. I learned also that Don Carlos really intended to enter Spain, and that his horses were all in readiness at ON THE SILVER MOUNTAIN. iM 1 BayoiHie, and his ordnance oflicers gathered antund him. The ihiy of his entry was, how- ever, not yet determined. All that I could ascer- tain from the best-informed persons was, that " the great event" would take jilaee very soon, and that I should kc(.'\) myself in readiness to witness it. I was also informed that the staff would be a very brilliant one, and the horses magnificent. Knowing that a Spaniard's weak- ness lor what is called keeping up appearances is scarcely exceeded even by the same foible in certain classes of Englishmen, I took every care to ascertain what was the proper way to fit oneself out for the occasion, and was made to understand that a gentleman on the staff of >'Su J[agestad, the King of all the Spains, should have at least two horses. One should be a strong and showy animal, fit for hard marches and triumithal entries. The other should be a light horse, no matter of what api)earance, but thoroughly fit for securing the escape of its master when neces- sary. The laster such a horse is, the more in- valuable may it prove under special circum- stances. ( I rasping the hint, I set out at once in search of a couple of animals t)f that description, and during four or five days frequently lamented the absence at Bayonne of anything like those V -2 212 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. useful columns of advertisements in which one can make known to the world any want one may have — to begin with, that of obtaining a kind- hearted wife, and to end with anything within the range of ascertained objects. Ultimately I found, however, what I wanted, notwithstanding the scarcity of ridable animals at that time in Ba- yonne. The fact is that the Carlists had bought up everything, and wretched hacks for which eight or ten pounds at some village fair would have been thought a high price, were now im- pudently valued at five times that amount. Happily enough, a remnant of the old Moro- Iberian love for ostentation causes Spaniards greatly to prefer stallions to either horses or mares for riding. They ride a horse only when a stallion is not to be obtained, and seem to prefer riding a donkey to riding a mare. Con- sequently, mares were to be had more easily at Tarbes and in the Landes markets, and I dis- covered two which answered the requirements of the case in a very fair way. The one was a big chestnut mare, strong as the Evil One him- self, and incomparably more showy than any of the animals which took part in the celebrated cavalcade of aldermen and sheriffs organized on the occasion of the Prince of Wales's recovery. ON THE SILVER MOUNTAIN. 213 Nature had certainly predestined her to be an oniiiibiis liorso, but she was a great Conservative, and seemed to hold the opinion that anything given by the Creator, including strength, should not be used, but preserved. Accordingly, when she was first harnessed to a light carriage she smashed it to pieces, and when an attempt was made to put her to a more heavy vehicle, she kicked it until she bruised herself all over and fell exhausted to the ground. A Bayonnc horse- dealer then bought her, thinking she was exactly the sort of animal to be sent out to the Carlists, who, with mountain marches of twenty and thirty miles a day, would soon bring her to the sense of duty, or else make short work of her existence. Of course, he assured me it was the best imaginable beast for my requirements, and charged about four times the sum he h;ul paid himself for her. But still, with the exception that she frequently objected to crossing bridgi-s, that her carriage reminiscences caused her to kick at everybody and everything that came too near to lier from bchiml, and that Iilt Conservative tendencies prompted her to bite every horse that indicated an intention of progressing ahead of her, she renderetl me excellent services, especially in the way of making a show ; for, thanks to 214 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. her powerful appearance and lier kicking habits, she called everybody's attention, and became thoroughly well known wherever she had once passed. Quite different was the other mare. A little half-bred animal, from one of the studs Napoleon III. had called into existence in the Landes, she was all fire and nerve, and her walking pace alone was worth any amount of money to a man intent on escaping. True that she was not fit to carry regularly a grown-up person of average weight. But that w^as not a matter of great consequence, as my little Navarre servant, who had usually to mount her, weighed hardly five stone, and it was quite a treat to see the pride of the little fellow when he was parading through the villages of his native country. Though he had never mounted anything but a donkey, he managed to become an excellent rider within a very few days, and I firmly believe that the fidelity and attachment he always showed to me were, to a not inconsider- able extent, to be attributed to the opportunity I gave him of mounting una yegua francesa. Having harnessed the two animals in the best way I could at a place likeBayonne, and equipped myself as comfortably as my purse allowed, I started once more for the little village of Urdax, ox TIIK SrL\T:R MOUNTAIN. 21') wliorc preparations lor tlie reception of Dun Carlos were going on. Someliow or other, the police watch on the IVontier was considerably slackened during my absence, and, it' not Spaniards, at all events Frenchmen and foreigners were allowed to cross the frontier pretty freely on the simple exhibition of their passes, and a categorical declaration that they did not wish to make any detour either by the Atlantic or the Mediterranean. So no ob- stacle was put to my crossing the Doncharinea bridge, and the French patrol on it, wishing me boji voyage, looked quite jocularly at me as I stepped on to Spanish soil, and the Carlist out- posts surrounded me and carried me oft' to a little inn occupied by their commander. The officer, on seeing the Carlist passport I had secured, received me in a most friendly manner, and on reading my name seemed struck by it, and exclaimed, " Oh, I have a parcel for you !'' "A parcel?'' said I. " Where from ?" "I don't know," he answered. And I'rom a heap of all sorts of luggage and odds and ends, lying in a corner of his room, lie picked up a little leather bag with a couple of shirts, some other articles of toilette, and lots of London letters and newspapers, which had been sent out to me some 216 SPAIN AXD THE SPANIARDS. six weeks previous, when I gave the old boot- cleaning colonel a note for Bayonne. The bag was not locked, and as a good many of the Carlists who were around us had scarcely any shirts at all on them, I was very agreeably astonished to find that neither of mine was missing, and expressed my satisfaction to the officer. "Do you find anything to surprise you in that ?" was his retort. " I hope. Sir, you never believed that any property, however valuable, could be lost if was entrusted to a good Carlist f It was clear that a stern denial of any thought of this sort was, on my part, the only possible answer under such circumstances. Urdax looked now quite different from what it was when I first visited it. It was still the same little loophole, so surrounded on all sides by mountains as to be almost hidden from the eyes of any traveller who enters the picturesque valley of Bastan. But it was peopled now with no end of fashionable Carlist warriors awaiting the entry of "the King" into his dominions. From a military point of view, Urdax is quite an impos- sible place, for no force could defend itself there from the attack of an enemy holding the surround- ON TUE SILVER MOUNTAIN'. 217 iiig heights. But the Ciirli.sts, always relying upon their good legs anil sharp eyes, have from the outset selected that little village as one of their favourite resorts. It was within easy reach of the smugglers carrying arms and ammunition across the frontier, and this alone was quite sullicient to render the otherwise unsuitable village one of the most important starting points of Carlist operations. Whenever the enemy approached, the Voluntanos de Carlos VIl. stationed at the village climbed the hills and took up their position on them, if they felt strong enough ; otherwise they ran away along the French frontier to Pena de Plata and other inaccessible mountain refuges. Towards the end of May, some Legitimists at Paris got up a party of about a dozen young noblemen to form the nucleus of a squadron of body-guards for Don Carlos. The squadron was to be formed on the spot, and the organisation and command of it was placed into the hands of Count d'Alcantara, a Ji^lgian gentleman of Spanish extraction, as amiable and valiant a man as one could wish to meet. There was scarcely any oflicer under his orders who did not bear some sort of title, from Chevalier to Marquis inclusive, and every one of them was 218 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. dressed and equipped with all the luxury Parisian outfitters were capable of suggesting. But it was evident that these gentlemen could not remain waiting for Don Carlos at Bayonne, as even if they concealed their uniforms, their glittering arms and splendid chargers would soon betray their presence and intentions to the French police. Consequently they were as quickly as possible despatched, with arms and baggage, over the frontier to Urdax, where they were to await the " great event." Their dark green Hussar uniform, richly trimmed with gold lace, their white Bedouin bournouses, their Astrakhan shakos with a kind of Hun- garian plume on them, were all very attractive, and w^ould have been probably very imposing at the head-quarters of some well-organised and victorious army. But, amid the wilderness of the Navarre mountains and the rags of Navarre volunteers, they had something very incongruous about them, and suggested, I don't know why, the idea of Paris or Boulevard cavalry lost in these wild regions. Still they relieved the dul- ness and loneliness of Urdax, as did also the presence of a number of other Carlist officers assembled here on the occasion of the consecra- tion of the fort Peua de Plata. Just in front of the French village Sare rises a ON THE SILVER MOUNTAIN'. 2\\^ Steep mouiitiiin, some two tliousaiul live hundred feet liigli, called Pefuide I'lata (Silver Mountain), on account of tlu- fsilvcry reflection produced by its rocky top \uu\vr the play of the rays of the sun. The line of the Franco-Spanish frontier passes through the very sununit of that height, cutting it, like a pear, into two equal parts, and giving one moiety of it to each of the neighbours. The Carlists conceived the j)lan of erecting a fort right on the to}) of the Peua, and to build it close to the very line of demarcation between the two countries, so that no attack on the fort would be possible without projectiles being thrown on Freucli soil. At the same time the garrison of the fort could, of course, fire into Spain as much as it pleased without exi)Osing itself to any breach of international law. The scheme, as far as it went, was can-ied out with full success. A strong ibrt has i)ecn iiuilt, armed witli three cannons, and provided with plenty of ammunition. It is capable of holding a garrison of three hundred men, and of sheltering, in case of necessity, cer- tainly twice that number; and, unless the supjtly of provisions were to be cut olf iVttm the French side, the fort could hold out for an indelinite jieriod of time. It was natural that a stronghold of this descriptiou should be made a great fuss 220 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. about, and that some sort of festivity should take place at the conclusion of the works. And so it occurred. The ceremony of the consecration of the fort, and of hoisting the flag on their first fortress, was quite an event among the Carlists at Urdax, Zugarramurdy, and the environs. High mass was celebrated, speeches were delivered, cannons fired all day long, and a banquet given, for which wine and provisions were brought over from Bayonne and St.-Jean-de-Luz, and so freely did the ofiicers indulge in these luxuries, that traces of the festivity were to be seen, even on the next day, in the features of some of them. But another day passed, and all joy had vanished, a heavy gloom being now visible on every face. Some bad news reached Urdax on that day. In the first place, several thousand English-made cartridges had somehow been seized on the fron- tier, and in the second, the Republican Colonel Tejada had fortified San Estevan, and showing the apparent intention of marching on Urdax, had already reached Elizoado, with fifteen hundred men and two cannons, and could easily begin to shell our miserable loop-hole in two or three hours. " What shall we do f was a question that might be read on everyone's face, for the five hundred ON' THE SILVER MOUNTAIN. 221 raw recruits, who were to j)roteet us under the orders of the ^larquis de Las Honnazas, nepliew of General Klio, h;ul in all only throe hinidred cartridges. Very few questioned the bravery of the Marquis, but the position was too critical to ancli frontier, and an order had been issued to arrest them as soon as they appeared on French soil. The only recreation to them was, therefore, to take, now and then, a ride along such bits of the Pamplona high-road as were free from Repulv licaii ]K)stR, or down to the bridge of Doncharinea. half of wliicii is Spanish, the other half French, and on which the French and Spanish sentries can be still seen amiably conversing, or at least trying to converse, as far as the difference of their languages permits. Every afternoon members of this elegant corps could be seen talking to the French gendarmes on the bridge, joking at their being not able to arrest them, although they were quite close enough, and passing letters which the gendarmes and custom-house ollicers posted to the friends of those very men whom they had the order to capture. A life of that sort could, of course, present no attraction to men, some of whom had left Paris because, as they said, it turned dull to them and they wanted amusement and good living before everything. From what 1 learned subsequently, I tiiink that tu many ol" thciu Legitinuicy was • piite a sei-ondary, if any, consideration. But. be that as ii may, here they were, and could not. Q2 228 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. apparently, make up their minds to wait till Don Carlos came over, and the operations of the royalist forces had taken a more decisive turn. Yet, as Dorregaray and Elio were operating much further down in the country, and as I did not see the fun of sharing the Paris cavalry's idle and tiresome captivity in a miserable village, I re- solved, if possible, to make a move, explaining to the amiable Count d'Alcantara and his followers that though, as military men, they were subjected to the Marquis of Valdespinas, as senior officer in the place, and to the Marquis Las Hormazas> as commander of the Urdax force, they were not officially placed under the orders of either, and had, if they chose, the right to go to Elio's head- quarters, which were then in Las Amescoas. I pointed out also that a little excursion in that direction would probably present the attraction of novelty, and, to say the least, of a very pleasant military picnic. The Count d'Alcantara seemed at first to have some objections to my plan, knowing, as he did, that the old Marquis of Valde- spinas, now Grand Marshal and Grand Cross, was anxious to keep around himself the fashion- able escort; but, the officers of the squadron having sided with me, he resolved to announce to the Marquis our intention of leaving Urdax. ox THE SILVER MOUXTAIX. 229 Yet as, in a little village like that, everything is speedily known, old Valdespinas learned of our I)l;ui, and of niy having proposed it, long before Count d'Alcantara had made up his mind to sub- mit the question to him. " Go and fetch me that journalist with the curtain on his hat," cried out the infuriated Marquis to his aid-de-camp, meaning me and the puggaree I wore. In a very few minutes I was caught and brought into the presence of the gallant and excitable ]\rarquis, and a really thunder-like scolding fell upon my poor head. I was rendering him ridiculous ; I was taking away his troops ; I was showing an example of insubordination, and I don't know what else. I had the greatest difliculty in making the brave but perfectly deaf Marquis understand, through the aid of his gutta percha tube, that if anyone rendered him ridiculous it was himself, in making all that noise about a foreign journalist having wished to go on a trip to the head-quarters, and having asked a few foreign oilicers, who had abso- lutely nothing to do, whether they would not join him, — tliat I never meant to take away any of his troops at all, and that, if he was discontented either with my presence or with my conduct, the only thing he had to do was to order me to be escorted 230 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. to the frontier. I added, at the same time, that, as I liad nothing to do at Urdax, and was now not permitted to go forward, I had nothing left to me but to go back to France and wait until Don Carlos, who had invited me to follow the operations of his army, should come across him- self. About a fortnight later, when I again met the good old man, he had of course forgotten all about our comical squabble, and treated me quite as an old friend ; but at the moment of the first explosion of his Castilian fury, he seemed so angry, that I considered my re- tirement from under his jurisdiction as the only course left. But where shall I go now "? was my next thought. I must find something to write upon, as they won't stand in New York any falling off of communication from a quarter where blood is supposed to be daily poured out in streams. Yet, in reality, weeks and weeks passed without a single drop of human blood being shed, except in the barbers' shops of the Penin- sula. There were, indeed, some rows going on in a few towns on the Southern and Eastern coasts. But by going so far away I was pretty sure to miss the entry of the Pretender, and the beginning of what was spoken of as the " Great ox THE SILVER MorxTArN'. 2;U ( 'ainpai^ii." On a ride ol' nearly six hours from llrdax to Bayonnc, I was the whole time turning the matter n\crjn my mind, till all at onee the genius of "enterprise" whispered to me : "And how about Santa Cruz?" Everyone then spoke of the man as about the worst brigand and assassin that ever existed. Every newspaper liad daily some new exploit of his to relate. Yet, even among the Carlists, few knew him per- sonally, and no one seemed to have ever seen him. To find out a man of this description, and to "interview" him, appeared to me as the very thing to be done, and without any further delay, oif was I to St.-Jean-de-Luz, and thence to Vera, the famous cure's head-quarters. 232 CHAPTER X. SANTA CRUZ. IT is all very well now, my chaffing and laugh- ing about this Vera " interviewing " expe- dition, as the reminiscences of it are pleasant enough ; but I am sure that when I undertook it, it did not look like a joke at all. Except that Santa Cruz was shooting and bastinadoing everj'^- body he could lay his hands on, nothing was known of him, and I should certainly not like to experience once more the kind of uncertainty I felt, when, after a lonely ride of a few hours across the mountains, I reached the outskirts of the little town of Vera, and was caught by the famous cure's patrols, who proved utterly unable to understand a single word of what I tried to impress upon their minds. As often happens in cases of an unpleasant nature, the man wanted was not to be found. SANTA cnvz. 233 He \v;is iR'ithcr at \'ura, nor at Echalar, where I was tiild at St.-.Toan-de-Luz I was sure to liml him. lie had ah-eady marched oil' towards Ih'niaiii with soine six hundred of his crack men and two cannons. I had consequently to present myself to a rough-looking chap of barely twenty years, armed to the teeth, and bearing the sonorous name of Don Estevan Indart, and the important rank of the Commander of the ])lace and forces of Vera. He was asleep when, after having been taken at the outskirt of tho town, I was brought into his room. Lying across the bed, with a whole arsenal of arms upon him. his lu'ad hanging down and his legs u)t on the wall, he was snoring most fcjrmidably. Jiut after a few calls, accompanied by some pokes from the sergeant, the worthy warrior woke up and began to examine my papers without changing in the least his ])i('turesque topsy-turvy attitude. From the tone of his voice, if not from the words ho uttered, I perceived at once that he swore at the documents, being just as unable to under- stand them as his jtafrols were. Not oidy were the foreign documents iniintelligible to him, but even the Carlist passport, by which the Ministers of Don Carlos granted mo free circulu- 234 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS tion amid " the armies of S. M. El Rey, Niiestro Senor," and which was worded in Spanish, was a dead letter to Don Estevan Indart. Being a pm-e Basque of Guipnzcoa, as well as the majority of his soldiers, he did not know Spanish, and did not seem to care for it. Without even looking at me, or attempting to arrive at any sort of under- standing, he gave some orders to the sergeant, and I was marched out of the room. A crowd of armed men and of ragged children had already assembled around my horse, and began now to examine me as closely as they had examined my tired " escaping " animal, its saddle, and the bags strapped to it, which carried my scanty luggage ; for I had taken good care to leave, this time, servant, " showy " horse, and every other valuable at St.-Jean-de-Luz, as I did not see any use of losing them too, if I had to get lost myself, and also did not wish unnecessarily to give any temptation to a band which had such a high repute for being easily tempted. To all my attempts to inquire whether I could see Senor Santa Cruz, I had only the short and abrupt answer of " Salida' (apparently the only Spanish word these men knew, and which meant that the cure had gone). And here I stood with- out knowing what was to become of me, when SAXTA CRUZ. 235 presently the patrol sergeant appeared with a cleanly ilressed young girl, Avho, after addressing to Mie a lew questions in intelligible French and ex- cellent Spanish, went up to the Commander's room with my pajiers. Within a few minutes she was hack again, and said that Don Estevan had ordered her to take me to her house, where I should have to wait till the return of Senor Santa Cruz. To my iuipiiry whether I should have to wait long, she said no one knew, or was able to tell me anything; while to the question whether I could l)roceed further should the cure not return soon, I got the short hut explicit answer of " No." In this way, I found myself practically the prisoner of Don Estcvan Indart and of my little inter- preter. Happily enough, my hostess was, or rather my hostesses were quite charming persons. Their father, the only and consequently the leading tailor of the town, seemed to have saved money enough to send his two girls to Bayonne to study millinery. Together with this trade, the girls had learned there French and Spanish, and h;ioor man carried on a stretcher towards the I'reneii frontier, on the other side of which ho hoped to liiid the necessary care and medical assistance. Santa Cruz left Echalar the same VOL. I. R 242 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. afternoon, and, from the whispering tone in which the affair was spoken of, I must conclude that its effect was all the wild cure could have desired. No one, either at Echalar or at Vera, has ever since attempted to betraj^ the Carlist cause or speak against the brutal authority of the cure. Another fact characteristic of the nature of this man is his dealing with the only prisoner he had taken at Enderlaza. The whole number of cara- hineros which took part in that affair amounted to forty-one men. Five of them got off in safety, two were drowned in attempting to escape by swimming across the Bidassoa, nine were killed during the action, twenty-three were massacred because they liad fired after they had hoisted the white flag, and one was, somehow or other, taken prisoner. Santa Cruz carried that man for several days with him, but when he learned that, notwithstanding the letters he had sent to the Bayonne papers giving the particulars of the affair, public opinion in Spain and France still persisted in accusing him of having shot prisoners, he sent word to his captive saying he thought it his duty to justify the accu- sations of the Liberals, and therefore to shoot liim. Ten minutes were allowed the poor man for confession, and four balls put an end to his life. SANTA CRUZ. 243 It may be mentioned here, by-tlie-by, tliat this economieal phin of shooting with lour balls instead of the customary twelve is an established rule in the Carlist army. They say they cannot afford the luxury of twelve cartridges for a single man. And the fact that the twenty-three cam- bineros who were found lying in one heap near the Enderlaza Bridge were all shot with one ball, not with four, and mostly through the head, was adducL'd by Santa Cruz and his men as addi- tional proof that they were not shot after being taken prisoners, but killed in a hand-to-hand fight by the Carlists, enraged by the treachery to which they had been exposed through the firing at them after the white flag had been hoisted. Yet it must be said that, however savage the fighting may have been, it could not have lasted long, for of the two dead bodies I saw picked out of the IJidassoa. the one had twenty-two cart- ridges in his pouch, the other fifty. Keeping in view that a cartridge j)ouch contains sixty cart- ridges, and that it is seldom quite full, it becomes evident that the two men who threw themselves iiit<» the Uiilassoa had scarcely fought more than a lew minutes. There is no need to say that the famous cun- K 2 244- SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. is a man of a quite peculiar type. His organising faculties seemed to be just as considerable as his despotism was violent. He has never received a single penny or a single cartridge from the Ministers of Don Carlos. Notwithstanding that, he armed and equipped nearly a thousand men, established a cartridge manufactory, and was about to open in a secure spot of the mountains, called " The Three Crowns," a regular gun and cannon manufactory when he had to fly to France. He had also managed to make a few hundred rifles with the means he found at Vera, Echalar, and Arachulegui. One became perfectly puzzled when one saw all that man had done almost without any means whatever, and certainly with- out anything like scientific notions as to how such things should be done. The drill of Santa Cruz's band was just as peculiar as all the rest of his arrangements. There was something quite strange and perfectly original in the kind of dancing movements of his men ; but still they marched remarkably well, with marvellous speed, and for an unusual number of miles in a single journey. None of the men wearing boots, but soft Basque sandals, one scarcely heard when they passed and, for a considerable period of time, both Santa Cruz and SANTA CRUZ. 245 his oflicors went always on foot with the men. It was only when his force was provided in every otlier respect that he took to riding, and gave a horse to every commander of a company. Still more primitive perhaps, was the care Santa Crnz took of the bodily cleanliness of his men. Whenever he got to a stream with a suffi- cient quantity of water in it — which is not often the case in Spain — he ordered all his men to take a bath ; and regularly twice a week they had all to change their shirts. As they were not allowed to carry any luggage, and hardly had any shirt beyond that which they wore, the cure invented the simple mode of requisitioning clean shirts against the dirty ones, which he left to the inhabitants of such villages as he had to pass. As the practice had been continued for several months, quite a regular stock of this kind of garment was ready in every village of the province of Guipuzcoa, which was his great centre of operations. The men arrived, received the clean shirts from the alcalde of the village, returned him the dirty ones, and the next day all the village women were engaged in washing for the next arrival of the band. Santa C.ruz seemed to be quite proud of this arrangement. At all events, I saw a letter written by him to his friend, and 246 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. ammunition agent in France, in whicii he boasted of having brought his men to such a state of cleanliness that he was prepared to pay a real (2^c/.) for every louse that would be found on any of them. But if the cure thus showed great ability and energy in organising his own force, he was far from showing the same care about the general progress of Carlist affairs. I have mentioned already what was his answer to a demand for assistance sent to him from Fort Peiia de Plata. The conditions which he put to his " Lord and King's" request to submit to the military autho- rities was not much better. He said he would do so when his sentence of death was revoked, his enemy and immediate superior. General Lizarraga, removed, and full liberty left to him to operate with the bands he had organised. None of these conditions having been fulfilled, Santa Cruz did not yield an iota. Don Carlos, enraged at such conduct on the part of an obscure cura, wrote to him, through his secretary, ordering Santa Cruz to come at once to France, to which Santa Cruz answered in most respectful terms that he would not do so. If the King chose to come him- self to the frontier, or to send anyone, Santa Cruz said he would find a secure spot where he SAXTA CRUZ. m Would i^ive verbally every explanation that mii^ht l»e wanted ; but he thought it most injurious to the Kin;:;*s cause that he should leave his coiu- luand, for he was sure he sliould never be able to return to his post, the French gendarmes knowing him now too well from the portraits published everywhere, and being most likely to arrest him as soon as he had ])ut his foot on Frencli soil. Something similar, though much more rudely ex- pressed, was his answer to the proposal for the opening of the railway traffic on the Northern line. I saw myself the project of the treaty the Company had agreed to conclude with Don Carlos. Every point was approved by both parties. The Company were to pay two thousand francs a-day to the Carlists, and undertook not to carry either troops or ammunition. For these con- siderations the Carlists bound themselves to protect the trains, the telegraphs, the travellers, and the goods transported between Iriui and Vitoria. The only thing that aj)parently re- mained was to sign the agreement, when it became known that Santa Cruz, on learning of the arrangement, had said : — " The line goes partly through the province of Ouipuzcoa, occupied by my forces. As I have never been consulted with reference to thi-s arrange- 248 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. arrangement, I shall never submit to it, and shall upset the first train that comes." On hearing this. General Elio, who, whatever may be said of his political opinions, is above all a thorough gentleman, wrote to Don Carlos that he would never sign an agreement which he was not quite sure of being able to carry out, and requested the King first to settle the matter wath Santa Cruz, and then to send him the document for sig- nature. When I had spent fully two days in the custody of the two young milliners and the old tailor, and w^as just beginning to speculate how long my detention at Vera might last, my little humpbacked custodian rushed into my room and announced that Senor Santa Cruz Avas coming, hurriedly lisping " Here, here," and pushing me into the front room, which served the family as a workshop. Within a few yards of the house I saw, through the window, the ferocious ciira marching in with a band of his best men. His orderly was walking by his side, leading his mountain hack. Santa Cruz had no arms about him, except a revolver stuck in his faja^ and a long stick, similar to those used in the Alps SAXTA CRUZ. 249 I'V Englislimen of climbing dispositions. lie was dressed in a rough grayish jacket witli green pij)ings, sometliing like the Bavarian Jiiger coat, and ratlier short light cotton trousers of tlie same colour as the jacket ; some hempen Basque sandals and a dark blue heret completed the cos- tume. There \vas not a brass button, or any- thing military-like, about him ; but nothing either denoted the priest, lie marched with long steps, now and then muttering the usual '•'• adios" to people bowing to him, and went straight to his house, some twenty doors higher than that I was lodged in. My hostesses advised me not to go to him until called, as Don Estevan was sure to report to him my presence in the place. More than an hour passed without my hearing any news from the man in whose power I was. rresentl}- I noticed, however, some movement round his residence, and by-and-by the Cabecilla appeared at his door, lie walked down the street with eight men of his body-guard, armed a la Don Estevan, to their very teeth. " Is it to me that he is coming? Is it to shoot me that those men are with him .' Thank Heaven they do not seem to have any sticks, so that there is at all events little probability of my getting the bastinado." These and 250 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. similar thoughts crossed my mind with the rapidity of lightning. But the master of my destiny passed our door and turned round the corner. "There must be something going on in the town square," said the old tailor; and all four of us, as by common accord, w^ent down stairs with the intention of following Santa Cruz, but a sentry posted at the corner stopped us, saying that we had better wait a bit if w^e had any busi- ness that way. Soon some vague noise reached our ears, and by-and-by very distinct cries of a suffering man. " Some one is being punished again," whis- pered my humpbacked friend, and n^ade a sign to all of us to return home. A few moments later, we learned that the gunsmith of the band, to whom Santa Cruz had given some work to do, had not fulfilled his task, but gone away during the cure's absence for a couple of days to a neighbouring village and got drunk. His reward was fifty hastones, and very hard must they have been ; for, passing by his house more than twenty-four hours after the punishment was inflicted, I heard the poor man still groan- ing. It did not take, however, much time for Santa Cruz to give this new " lesson." SANTA CRUZ. 251 In less than a quarter of an hour he was \valkin<^ back again from the town square with tiie same body-guards, and as he readied our house, I saw Don Estevan receiving some order, and rushing up tlie staircase. There was no hunger any mistake that nay turn had come to be attended to. " Come along," would be the literal translation of tlie short but expressive speech Don Estevan delivered to me on entering the room. Down we went at once, and found the cure waiting with his staff at the door, and talking to a short and stoutish man in the costume of a private. I learned subsequently that the man was Don Cruz Ochoa, late Carlist Deputy in the Cortes, and now a private soldier in ISanta CJruz's bands, and a secretary to his leader. Don Cruz Ochoa is a well-educated man, speaking very fair French, of which he was anxious to make a show each time an occasion presented itself. But he had not much opportunity that way, for the meeting, besides lasting a very short time, was by no means a verbose one. In fact, I do not remember of having had so busi- ness-like an interview for a long time past with any njan, big or little. The greater portion of it was occujtied by tlie cure examining my papers. Of the Carlist passport and my letters of 252 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. introduction he did not seem to take any notice at all. But he examined very closely my other papers, which, being worded in French, gave him, it seemed, a good deal of trouble, but he went through them without the help of his French speaking secretary ; and becoming apparently persuaded that I was not an agent of the Eepublicans or of his enemies at head- quarters, he put to me the simple and short question : — " What is it that you want ?" which in Spanish is even shorter than in English. " Qice quiere Ustedr I answered that a great deal having been writ- ten and told of his and him troops' activity in the present war, it was my duty, as a journalist sent out to the Carlists, to ascertain what was really true in the reports circulated, and what were the operations of the various Carlist corps ; that I had been sent not to him alone, but to the whole of the Carlist Army, as my Carlist pass- port showed, and that my account would not have been complete if I had not visited his corps and witnessed its operations. " Of my corps you can see but a small portion now," answered the cure ; " Our men are all gone in different directions, and I myself am start- SANTA CRUZ. 253 ing at once for a place to which I cannot take you. But on some future occasion I would not mind your being present at any engagement we may have, provided you can stand fire and great fatigue. But before allowing you to join us I must make some inquiries about you and the paper you represent. If we are treated by the Heraldo de Nueva York as the miserable French and Spanish papers treat us, I shall never allow you to come here again ; and if you are not pre- pared to serve the cause of Monarchy and the Catholic Religion, you had better not come at all." I don't know why the gloomy, bearded head of the cure, deeply sunken in his shoulders, ap- peared to me at this moment as the head of some big bull that was going to charge me. " With whom are you acquainted of our Carlist people 1" continued Santa Cruz, walking at a slpw pace abreast with me towards his house, the guards following us. I named several persons. " Very well ; I will make inquiries, and will let you know when you may come here again, if you wish it. I must start now, but I hope I shall be soon back to Vera. If you like, you can wait here." 254 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. Being of course by no means anxious to lose any more time at this miserable place, and to run the risk of his receiving information that Nueva York was under Republican Government, and El Heraldo not a Catholic paper, for both of which circumstances he might have prescribed me a more or less strong dose of bastinado, I answered, with many thanks for the proposal, that a previous invitation from General Elio did not allow me to postpone my journey to head-quarters ; but that I hoped to receive soon a permission from him, and to come then once more to Vera. " Very well ; go to the head-quarters. But do you know where the}^ are ? I don't." I said that I knew them to have been a few days since in the neighbourhood of Pefiacerrada, and that I hoped to find them if I could get a guide knowing well the mountain passes. "I don't think you can get one here ; at all events, not before to- morrow, for we have but very few men disengaged. I will give you a man who will take you either to the next Carlist post or to the frontier, as you prefer, and you must then make out the w^ay yourself. This is all I can do for you at present." And the fierce cure added the usual Spanish Vaya listed con Dios (God help you on your journey), and entered his house, to the door SANTA CRUZ. 255 of which W(.' liud by that time Wiilkcd. Don Ouz Ochou, ])n)hal)ly anxious to put in a few Fronch wimls and to jii.stily the somewhat dry reception liis leader had given me, re- mained behind the cure, and began to asKure me tiiat Senor Santa Cruz had really not a moment to spare just then. I answered, of course, that 1 was very much obliged for the favour shown to me, notwithstanding the pressing occupations, and that the promise of a further admission was, above all, very encouraging. In less than half an hour they were all off in the direction of Tolosa. and 1 towards the frontier, feeling a considerable desire to get rid as soon as possible of the guardsman they gave me, whose look suited me just as little as his utter inability to comprehend a single syllable that was not of the purest Guipuzcoa Basque. Hut I had also some t)ther reasons pushing me more in the direction of St.-Jean-de-Lu/. than in that of Elio's head-quarters. In the lirst place, I had promised some friends to return at once to tell them what I had seen ; and, in the second, 1 knew at St.-Jean a Soutii American 256 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. gentleman who had become quite mad in his ad- miration of Santa Cruz's genius, was his most fervent protector and friend, and had supplied him, to a great extent at his own and the vicar of Tolosa's expense, with nearly everything the fierce Cahecilla wanted when he first started. This gentleman was not in town when I started to Vera, and I thought now to avail myself of his assistance for further studies of the curious type I had just seen. Don Isidoro — for such was the name of the enthusiastic South American who is not to be confounded with San Isidro — on hearing the re- cord of my visit to his protege, began to laugh, saying that he was sure the rather rude im- pression Santa Cruz had produced upon me would vanish the next time I saw him. " He is a most charming man," assured Don Isidoro. "You shall see yourself.. I have just got a note from him, saying that he will be back at Vera on Sunday next, and we shall go and have dinner with him." And so we went and had dinner, and a pretty good one, for there was salmon fresh out of the Bidassoa, and chicken, and a bottle of sherry, and even some dessert. Don Isidoro was too well known by Santa Cruz's men for us to be in any way SANTA CRUZ. 257 molested on our journey. \\'(' went strait^lit to tlie town .S(]nar(', and met the etire rcliirnini,^ IVoni mass witli his usual escort of ui^ht crack men. Whether it was that he had put on ii clean shirt, or that he had cut his hair, 1 catniot say, but there was certainly a great improvement in his appearance. He looked much youngi-r, and when he smiled on seeing Don Isidoro, and kissed him, his face brightened up considerably, and he looked almost handsome. By the way, none of the j)ortraits published of Santa Cruz have the slightest likeness to him. lie is everywhere represented as a very dark man, while in reality he is quite fair; certainly not fair in the sense of Scotch or German fair- ness, but what is called blond in France, which is equally as lar iVom dark brown or black as from />lu)id cendre. His blue eyes are rather deeply seated, but that does not prevent them from looking quite bright when the face becomes otherwise enlivened. His teeth are irreproachable, and though the full beard he wears gn-atly conceals the expression of his mouth, what is to be seen of it when he smiles is rather attractive than otherwise. He is under the middle height, but built like an athlete. I rememi)er him once sitting cross-legged and ar- V(»L. I. S 258 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. ranging liis stockings, (he wears long stockings not socks, and ties them with a garter), I was puzzled at the strength and form of his calves. He is now thirty-one 3'ears of age, and it would seem that it is within the last two years, since he has been leading the mountain guerilla life, that he has so improved in health. But though he might have been thinner formerly, he must always have been strong, for even as a student of the seminary of Tolosa he was reputed for his agility and his taste for bodily exercise. When Don Isidoro told him that he brought me for the purpose of showing me that, when Santa Cruz knew people and could rely upon them, he was not so fierce-looking as he appeared at first sight, the cure laughed, shook hands with me, and asked me at once to come to his house. During nearly the whole of our visit the conversation ran upon the illegality of the beha- viour of Lizarraga and other generals of Don Carlos towards Santa Cruz. The cure was evidently quite furious against them. He said all the accusations of cruelty brought against him were false ; he never shot anyone except spies, and in this case he did not make any difference whether they were women or SANTA CRUZ. 250 men. IIo also never shot prisoners, but his men were sufficiently ^ood soldiers not to allow themselves to be taken ])risoners, and seldom captured any. When they foni^dit they fought. As a matter of course, there was no end of talk about the hidden reasons which, in Hanta Cruz's opinion, caused the Carlist generals to op]>ose him. lie was not a military man, and he had accomplished more than all ni' them put to- gether. He armed nearly a thousand men without having a penny, while they squandered the money of Carlists right and left. They pretended to be, or aimed at being at some future day, grandees of Spain while he was a poor cure. And so on, with a repetition of the petty and uninteresting details which characterise every personal struggle. The real facts are, however, that Santa Cruz having entered first into Spain in December last when the movement began, and having rendered great services to the cause, made ])erhaps some- what unreasonable demands, which the generals of Don Carlos were not disposed to accede to, simply because they knew that a leader capable of commanding a guerilla party of a couple of Inui- dred men was not on that account necessarily tit for the command of large forces, and Santa Cruz is the sort of mau who thinks himself capable of s 2 260 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. everything. He wanted not only to be made commander-in-chief of the province of Guipuzcoa, but to have also the whole of the civil adminis- tration of it in his own hands, and the counsellors of Don Carlos, knowing the temper of the man, thought that, notwithstanding his popularity in certain districts, he was sure in the long run to spread discontent, and to estrange the whole pro- vince through the stubbornness and savagery of his proceedings. Santa Cruz, on the other hand, thought himself inspired by the " great models " which he desired to imitate. Soldiering was never considered incompatible with theology in Spain. Not to speak of more olden times, Loyola was a soldier before he became a monk. Espartero was preparing himself to be- come a monk when the War of Independence made him a soldier instead. During the Seven Years' War, an obscure cure of Villaviado, of the name of Geronimo Merino, began like Santa Cruz, and soon became quite a legendary figure among the Carlists. Cabrera, though he never managed to become a cure, was a student in a seminary, and became a soldier only when expelled from it. He rose to the celebrity he possesses now among the Carlists, chiefly through his violence. Santa Cruz wished to imitate all of these, and SANTA CRUZ. 261 to unite in liinisi'ir a coiiiliiiuitidn of the most salient traits of eacli of llifiii, with a strong achhtion of the terrorist tendencies ul Mina and Zuniahiearregni. The chnnsy and wild manner in which he set to work was simply tlic result of his utter ignorance. And this Avas KO great that— to give only one instance — he delivered once a pound of conunon gunpowder to a mining engineer he had captured somewhere among the numerous mines of the neighbourhood, and ordered him to blow up with it the big iron bridge of Endelaza. And when the man told him it was impossible, he threatened to shoot him. But notwithstanding all that, I firmly believe, from what I have seen of that man, that had he had the leisure to devote a couple of years to reading something besides his prayer-book, he would certainly have acquired a very different notoriety from that he possesses now. His life is in itself a little epic, sufficiently interesting to warrant my giving the princijial incidents of it here, especially as it was narrated to me by Cruz Ochoa in the presence of Santa Cruz himself, during the dinner. iSeuor Cruz Ochoa, always anxious to extol the merits of his chief, thought it very convenient to make the cure's 262 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. life the suLject of dinner talk with a man he supposed likely to put a good deal of what he heard into print, and Santa Cruz did not seem to object to it, for he listened the whole time, and frequently corrected his secretary. Don Manuel Santa Cruz was born in 1842, at Elduayen, an obscure mountain village in Guipuzcoa. Having early lost his parents, he was, together with his only sister, brought up in the almshouse of Tolosa. A cure, who afterwards became the vicar of that town, and one of the chief supporters of Santa Cruz, discovered some intelligence in the almshouse boy, and placed him in the seminary. On the conclusion of his studies, Santa Cruz was appointed cure of Her- nialde, a village within a gun-shot of Tolosa, and a place he has often frequented since in his new capacity of a cahacilla. The young cure quickly made himself a high reputa- tion for the purity of his life, and for the indo- mitable zeal with which he performed his duty among the peasants scattered in the isolated farms around his parish village. In 1870 a small Carlist rising broke out, and was soon sup- pressed ; but one of its leaders managed to save SANTA CRUZ. 2<'.:5 some arms from caiitiirt', and eiitniste'il tliciii tn tlie care of Santa Cni/,, Tlif ( i()vcrimicnt becaiiK- awaru of it in about a year's time, and sent some Civil fJnanls to arrest the cure just as lie was leaving the church after having celebrated mass. On the guards showing to him tlio order they had, he answerrd that he was perfectly ready to give himself up, — tiiough he did not know the reason for which he was arrested, — but asked a few minutes to take his meal and to put oil" his gown ; ami while the men were waiting for iiim at the entrance of his house, lie slij)ped out in disguise and was never seen more. That was his first trick, and since then begins the epic of his life. After having wan- dered for several months in Spain, constantly chased by the troops, he escaped to France ; but as he had neither papers nor any knowledge of the French language, he was soon tracked by the gendarmes, and had once a regular run with them througli tlu' whole town of St.-Jean-de-Luz. yet managed to get oil", and to escape across the frontier. This was not long before the Carlist rising of 1872, and Santa Cruz had consequently no great difficulty in finding a safe abode in his native land, until he entered in April of that year as chai)lain into the band of Kecondo. He soon 264 ' SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. became the favourite of the Volunteers, and even a dangerous rival of his commander, if not in any official capacit}^, at all events through the influence he exercised over the men. When Don Carlos was surprised at Oroquieta, and when afterwards the Amorovieta Convention was signed, and Recondo surrendered his arms, Santa Cruz treated him in the way I have already mentioned when speaking of Amilibia, and declared that at all events he would not surrender, and with eleven men, upon whom he could firmly rely, he took to the mountains, A few days later, a party of Amadeo's soldiers was passing from Mondragon to Onate. They were about forty in number, and had a small quantity of arms which they were carrying to the latter to\vn. Santa Cruz, having learned this, attacked them in a narrow gorge, took all the arms away, buried them in a secure spot, and I found them all doing service when I was at Vera. During this skirmish he had a man wounded, and while he was carrying him one day to some isolated farm, a detachment sent in pursuit captured him together with the wounded man. Santa Cruz was now to be shot as soon as he should be brought to Tolosa. But during the march to that town the escorting party had to pass a night in some village on the road. Santa SANTA CllUZ. 265 Cniz, with his liaiuls aiid legs tied, was locked Dp on the thir(l lldor of (he house for ;zreuler security. Yet, uu the next morning, when the party was to start, no Santu Cruz was to be seen ; at the back window were only to be found two sheets tied together. l>y means of which he had descended from his temi)orary prison. The Carlists having everywhere surrendered and been dispersed, he could not remain long in Spain, and had again to fly to France. But the Government of Aniadeo had eommuiiicated with the French authorities about the presence of the man, who began already to become a notoriety, and the police of St.-Jean-de-Luz captured him, and sent him for internment to Xantes. Yet the city of jihims (lid not seem to have taken his fancy, for he disappeared about six hours alter his internment, and returned once more to !St.-Jean-de-Luz, where, with the aid of Don Isidoro, who enjoys certain consular ])rivileges, he safely resided up till last winter, when the vicar of Tolosa and the hospitable host of Santa Cruz, supplied him not only with money, but with arms, ammunition, and everything necessary for the new attempt to raise the Carlist banner in the Guipuzcoa. On the 1st of l)eceudier, 1-^72, when 1 >on Carlos had not yet (juite made up his mind wlielher he sliuuld 266 RPAIX AND THE SPANIARDS. embark upon a new campaign, Santa Cruz crossed at Biriatou with thirty-seven men, marched straight off towards St. Sebastian, upset a mail train bound to Madrid, and began thus both his now flimous career, and at the same time gave the signal for the present Carlist rising. Up till last Spring, everything went right enough. Santa Cruz spread terror all along the French frontier and throughout the province of Guipuzcoa. Whenever he encountered large Re- publican forces, which were more than a match for him, he took to flight ; but whenever he saw himself strong enough, he fought desperately, and, as a rule, came out victorious, and slaughtered every enemy who did not escape in quick time. But in the Spring, when Lizarraga was appointed Com- mander-General of Guipuzcoa, the quarrel broke out between him and Santa Cruz, and both had then, practically, two wars to carry on, the one with the enemy, and the other between them- selves. When Lizarraga issued the sentence of death against Santa Cruz, the Cure answered by a similar sentence against Lizarraga, and for a considerable time got the best of the struggle, for, being nearer to the frontier and to the sea, it was always in his power to capture the arms and ammunition which were intended for his General. SANTA CUfZ. 207 Don Curios, Klio, NaMcspiiias, cvcryboily Iricil ill eviTV way to settk' tlir (iiian-rl, Iml all llic e-lVurts i'ailfil. Santa (\-\\7. not Ix-iii;; (lisi»o.se(l to listi-n to anything boforo Liziirrtiga was rcinovcd, and the whole of fJiiipnzcoa given into his hands. This state of alfairs lasted for about two months; till Elio, seeing that the matter caused (juite a split in the party, ordered Valdesjjinas to march with something like fifteen hundred men against Santa Cruz, to capture him, to carry out the sentence, if it was necessary, or to release him, on the con- dition that he should leave for France, if the Mar- (piis thought that the former services he rendered to the cause justified such a course of clemency. Old Valdespinas opened this campaign on the 24th of June, and had to work for fully a fortnight be- fore he was cafjable of surprising Santa Cruz at Vera, surrounding his house, and making him sur- render. On the 9th of July, a Convention was signed between the Marquis and the Cure, accord- ing to which Santa Cruz was to give up all his men, anununition, arms, and provisions, to be himself escorted to France, and never to return more unless called by the King. His bands were taken down to the Bastan valley, where they were dis- tributed between the variiius other battalions, and ISanta Cruz, with three ur four ui his fulluwers, 268 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. passed the P^^rences. Yet, notwithstanding the Convention, he managed to surrender only one cannon out of the two he had, concealing the other somewhere in the mountains, together with a considerable number of rifles, both of which he expects some day to serve him again. But, in consequence of the reckless way in which every- thing is done in Spain, the hict of his having still retained some arms was discovered only when he was beyoud the frontier. Santa Cruz was now sufficiently experienced in the manner in which things are managed in France, not to fall again into the hands of the French police. Himself, his secretary, Cruz Ochoa, his lieutenant, Estevan Indart, whom we saw lying on his bed in a topsy-turvy position, the fierce Francisco, commander of Arachulegui, and the personal servants of Santa Cruz, were the men who passed with him into France, lived for some time in a small village near Bordeaux, and subsequentl3\ when the sensation caused by Santa Cruz's exploits had a little cooled down, returned again to St.-Jeau-de-Luz. It might, perhaps, be worth mentioning here, as a cnrious characteristic of the fierce Cure, that the whole time of his residence in France he entirely devoted to military studies. He sur- SANTA CRUZ. 209 roiintlt'd liiiuself with various military works, and with Freiidi-Spaiiisli Dictionaries, and wlien I saw him auMiii in September hist, at Don Isidoro's house, he spoke a very fair French, and his reading; of military books has also evidently influenced his mind, for he no longer criticised the chiefs from any personal [)oint of view, but Irom the con- sideration of their strategic operations, which of course he did not approve. In talking on these matters he used military terms, of the mean- ing of which, 1 am perfectly sure, he had no idea of three or four months previous. But while he was thus storing military know- ledge, the adherents he had with him, and who were regular l*asqnes, incapable of anything except hard lighting, or hard Held work, got sick of their idle leisure in France, and wanted to get back at any ]»rice into Spain again. According to the terms of the Convention, none of them had the right to return, but this was disregarded ; and in August last, all, with the exception of Cruz Ochoa, who disappeared from the stage altogether, passed the frontier, and were atlem|iting once more to reunite the dispersed men of Santa Cruz's band. The Marquis of Las Ilormazas. on learn- ing of their being near Vera, marched out one day with a couple of dozen reliable men, captured the 270 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. three Santa Cruz's fellows, disarmed them, tied their hands and legs, carried them to Lizarraga's head-quarters, where they were shot off-hand for the breach of the Convention, upon the strength of which they were released. Santa Cruz is con- sequently so far quite alone in France at present ; but he has probably a sufficient number of adherents to be able to reappear again some day, and to judge from his nature, he is not a man who would withhold from any attempt of that sort on account of being afraid to provoke internal discords in the party he pretends to serve. The man is decidedly bent on mischief, and he is endowed with all the capacities necessary for doing a good deal of it. No one, knowing the man, could be astonished at hearing of his being actively at work again, and one may safely pre- dict that, unless he be captured and shot at the very outset, his next onslaught will be fiercer than ever. 271 CHAPTER XI. FOREIGN C A R L I S T S. HAVING mentioned the French Legit unist Squadron in one of the precedinj^ chapters, I think I ought not, for the sake of completeness, to omit showing to what extent other countries were represented in the Carlist camp. And it must be stated at the outset that tlie foreign element was neither very strong, nor did it })rove particularly successful in the defence of Spanish Legitimacy. Except the few French noblemen of the provinces bordering on Spain, to whom Legitimist opinions come as an inheritance, whose families, one way or another, had been connected with the (Jarlists for tlie last forty years, and whose principal supi)ort to Don Carlos was rendered outside Sjiain, nearly all the foreigners I met among the Carlists seemed, with very few exceptions, to be mere petty mili- 272 SPAIN AXD THE SPAXIARDS. tary adventurers. As a matter of course, I exclude from these my confreres, the journalists, who were present independent of their own wish, and all those whom I have to mention here by name. The most promising body of foreigners, who entered the service of Don Carlos, seemed un- doubtedly to be the already mentioned squadron of Paris cavalry, but unhappily it lived but the short life of a rose. It made its brilliant appear- ance towards the beginning of June, and in a ] month's time nothing more was to be seen of it, and what was to be heard was not pleasant to listen to. Count d'Alcantara became ill and had to go back to France, while the majority of his officers discovered, it seems, ^at the battle j of Udave (Lecumberry) that to take actual part ' in Carlist fighting was not a particularly jolly pastime. In fact, Count d'Alcantara and Baron Barbier were the only two officers of the little squadron that went bravely into fire on that occasion, the remainder having retired to the village in the rear of the force, and retreated to France the ver}^ next day. The brilliant escort came thus to grief before Don Carlos had ever , seen it, and the horses, saddles, and the rest j of its splendid equipment were sold by retail to i FOREIGN CARLISTS. '^~i'o the highest bieldtT. 01" course every one of the ofliccrs hud u reason of his own lor withdraw ini;, liiit one, I rcniendier. struck nie as particularly cluiructeristic. It was that of a Monsieur le Marquis packing up his luggage, and pre- ])ariiig to cross back into France. On my in- quiring why he had resolved ne)t to continue any longer with the (Jarlists, he saiil : " Ce.st inn- vie de chien. Vepuis nn niois je )i\ii pas seulement pit ohtenir un lerjume.'^ (It is a dog's life. For a whole month I could not get any vegetables.") Some more Frenchmen had engaged in the rank and file of the Carlist battalions, but not knowing either Spanish or , Basque, and con- sequently not being able to explain themselves, felt all the more intensely the hardships which were so easily endured by the Navarre and the Guipuzcoa men, and which were so ofteusive to the French sense of importance. Two or three of them fared even worse, for they were shot by Lizarraga for petty thefts. The (lermans were less numerously but more happily and much more romantically represented in the Carlist army. An Austrian and a I'russian olKcer, whom I knew there, were amongst the most valiant men. They managed also to pick VOL. I. T 274 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. lip Spanish very promptly, and to make friends with everybody, The Prussian, a lieutenant in the German Army, had had a duel with his captain, shot him dead, and was to have been judged by a court-martial. To escape this, he v.'ent into Spain, entered the ranks of the Carlists, and when I last saw him he was on the point of being made aid-de-camp to Lizarraga. The Austrian was a member of a very high and Avealtliy family, and had been connected for years with the Diplomatic service. He had been Secretary to the Embassy in Paris, and for some time, I think, charge cCaffaires in Portugal. He seems to have fallen into a love affair which did not quite answer his wishes, and took to Carlism out of despair. With plenty of money at his command and with no end of courage, that man became at once one of the most dis- tinguished Carlist officers. At Eraoul, at Udave, at Cirauqui, at Dicastillo, he was always in the hottest of the fight : and the rank of major, the Star of the order of "Military Merit," and the position of ordnance officer to the King were the rewards bestowed upon him. When I last saw him at Durango he spoke Spanish like a Spaniard, and everyone of the Volunteers, none of whom would even attempt to pronounce the name of Baron FOREIGN CARLISTS. 2 i .') Von Walterskirclu'ii and who seldom cared to know the iiaiiie ol" even their own ullict-rs, knew perlectly well, and were always anxious to salute " Don Carlos, el Austriaco." The Anglo-Saxon and the Celtic races were almost as numerously represented as the Gauls. Not to speak ot" the i;entleiiicn connected witli the Carlist Connnittee of London, the various other bodies of Irish and English Catholics which were working at home for the cause of Don Carlos at the risk of legal prosecution, and those gentle- men who, on board the Ih'erhoinid and other ves- sels, exposed themselves to be captured and dealt with as pirates, England, and es])ecially Ireland, have, from the very outbreak of the movement sup- plied the Carlist army with a number of gentlemen anxious to get a bit of fighting, and to win some military rank or order they had no chance of obtaining in their own country. Some of them had already tried to do so in the Papal army, in the French army, and in that of the Southern States. They came as a rule with more or less considerable pretentions, and as none of them knew the language of the country, and but few Iwul Huilicient means to purchase ahorse or equipment, I do not believe they had any great success in Spain. One of these gentlemen, however, left T 2 276 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. an excellent name behind him. Mr. John Scannel Taylor, an Irish law-student, I believe, entered a battalion as a private, never asked for any favour, and was the first to fall, under the walls of fort Ibero, near Pamplona. It was the first and last action that young gentleman ever took part in. America and Italy had each a couple of repre- sentatives in the Spanish camp. I have mentioned elsewhere Colonel Butler, the United States Consul-General in Egypt, and his secretary, Major Wadleigh. They were both attached, in the capacity of military amateurs, to the stafi" of Dorregaray, and stood a good deal of fire at the battle of Eraoul. At Penacerrada they narrowly escaped being captured by Republicans when the Carlist forces were surprised. They lost every bit of their luggage, but did not seem to be discouraged by their first experiment, and went home promising soon to return again. A couple of young American doctors were also trying to join the army, but the knowledge of Spanish being quite as indispensable to a surgeon as to an officer, and the Carlist medical arrange- ments being so poor that they were not able to suppl}'^ the surgeons with the barest requisites of an ambulance service, the American doctors did not even cross the frontier. The nephew of a well FOREIGN CARLISTS. 2 t i known Sontli Aincrican CJonenil, a smart and niilitarv-lookingyonnj;^ ^entlenian, was also about to enter the ranks of the Carlists at tlie time I left Spain, and — let us hope — will have fared better than the majority of foreigners. Italy sent, as far as I know, only two persons — a captain of engineers, who was doing some actual service with the Navarre battalions, and a priest (supposed to be a Jesuit father) one of the most curious specimens of priesthood I ever met with. He spoke very bad Italian and quite unin- telligible French, a mixture of which imperfectly spoken languages with some Latin — which I sup- pose must have been better — was intended to do service as Sjianish. No one knew where he came from, and what he came for. He was attached to no military body or person, constantly changed his abode, and had consequently no regular corps to draw his rations fi-oiii. Of UKMicy he had, apparently, none at all, and lived upon any- thing he could find. But, wherever there was fire, the father was sure to be in the field with a gigantic siher cnicitix in his hands, administering the last consolations to the wounded, some of whom I am perfectly sure he frightened to death by the abrupt and hurried way in which he jumped at them with the heavy crucifix in his hands. One of the wounded actually conqilained 278 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. to me that a wound the worthy priest had in- flicted on his eye with the crucifix, was much more painful tlian that caused by the enemy's bullet, which entered his calf. The behaviour of the reve- rend father on the battle-field, his attire, which was by no means attractive or clean, and the general mystery as to his personality made him soon known everywhere, and the kindness of the various officers in inviting him to share their meals more than once, I believe, saved him from the danger of starvation. On learning one day that I was a newspaper correspondent, the worthy priest got hold of me, saying that, being very well ac- quainted with everything concerning Carlism, he was anxious to place in my hands some notes he had, and that although he knew my journal was published in the English language, he thought I could easily translate them from the Latin, the language in which he preferred to write. As such exercises in translation frightened me very much, I thanked him oft-hand, saying that I thought my position as a mere looker-on much better fitted for the observation of facts and details, and that his incessant and beneficial activity would make it very difficult for me to get these notes from him in proper time for the couriers. "But," retorted the mysterious father, "that FOREIGN CAULISTS. 271) is L'XiVCtly what I want to koo|) yon aloof from — the coiiiiiiiinicatioii of what is c-alh.'d iirws. 1 want yon to si)cak of those eternal trnths and principles to which so little attention is paid nowadays, and which it should be the dnty of every honest paper to revive amongst the erring masses of the people." I need not say that, after a suggestion of this sort, I did my best to avoid meeting the reverend gentleman again ; and as the (Jarlist forces soon after divided into three distinct corps, operating in diflerent provinces, my object was very easily attained. The foreign journalists were, almost exclusively, all representatives of English and American papers : Times, Standard, Daily News, New Yorh World, Illustrated London iVeivs. The Paris Figaro had sent out M. Farcy, but he remained only a short time in the camp, and returned to Paris. As to my English colleagues, they fared as they always do in such cases — that is to say, worki-il much harder than soldiers, for they underwent the same privations, and exposed themselves to the same danger dm-ing the day, and wrote at night when soldiers were at rest, b or some months I was quite alone wuth the Carlists, the English papers not having '' gone in" yet fur Carlisim, and for all 280 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS.' that time I was more or less exposed to " in- spirations" on the part of the Carlist leaders. They all wanted to explain to me, as they said, the philosophical and political importance of the movement. Some of the cures were particularl}'- zealous in that way, and a good many of them did not much differ from my Italian friend, except that they talked in intelligible Spanish, and did not propose to favour me with any Latin notes to translate. But when Don Carlos had crossed the frontier, several more correspondents ar- rived, and the burden of those Carlist "inspira- tions," which I had previously to bear alone, was, of course, henceforth divided between us. The Times representative, whose sympathies the Carlists were particularly anxious to secure, was naturally the most courted man, and there was no sort of compliment that Don Carlos and his- Generals did not pay to the correspondent of the leading English journal, in the vain hope to make him and his paper serve their cause. The arrival of that gentleman produced quite a sen- sation in the Carlist camp. He came with seve- ral horses and a couple of English servants. That was already something to astonish the Carlists. But the pink envelopes, with the printed address of the Times on them, produced FOREIGN CARLISTS. 2H1 a still stroii.L^iT iiii|»r(.'ssii)ii ii|)()ii Hoii Carlos, when one (if tliut joiiniars leUcrs liaiipeiietl to lie handed to him lor the purpose of sendini;" it over to France witli his courier. It seemed us if the pink envelope, containing the record of his deeds, made him ai)i)ear greater in his own eyes. By-and-by, however, as the campaign Avent on, anil the Carlists got accustomed to the presence of the " gentlemen of the press," much less fuss was made about us. In fiict the Carlist chiefs began to take so little notice of us as to leave us sometimes without a shelter at night. But during the whole time we were present in their corps, none of us had the slightest unpleasantness or difficulty with the authorities, the population, or the volunteers. And this strikingly contrasted with the experiences of some of us during the Franco-German war, when every correspondent, however devoted to the French cause, was several times locked up by the French military com- manders, and some very narrowly escaped being shot. Yet, if you speak with Fivnchmen about Spaniards, you are sure to hear all sorts of sar- castic remarks, amongst which some allusions to their abrutissonent are sure to occur. But then it is well known that the Freneh an' le peuple le plus spiritxiel de la tcrre. 282 CHAPTER XII. THE ARMY AND STAFF OF DON CARLOS. rN September last (1873) the Carlist forces X were composed as follows.* In the province of Navarre were eight battalions, consisting of about nine hundred men each, and four mountain four-pounders : the whole under the command of General Olio. The eighth battalion was then only just in course of formation, and they were arming it with rifles taken from the enemy when Estella was captured. I still remember the joy of the population of that town, when the bugle sounded to call the men of the eighth battalion to receive their arms. After the usual signal for marching, distributing rations, or anything of that sort, the Carlist trumpeter always gives a number * To judge from the reports, the Carlist forces have greatly mcreased since. But the author speaks only of what he saw himself. THE ARMY AND STAFF UF DON CARLOS. 283 of al'nii)t hiiglu kouikIs, a kind of tu ! tu I tii I tlie iiuiiiIkt of wliicli corrcsjioiids to the iniml)L'r of tliL- iMltHlioii coiiciTiifil, iuitl when on that occiisioii the cii^dith tu ! was soiMnh'd, tlu-rcwas no end to the ajiphiuse and hurrahs on the part (d" the citizens and vohniteers congregated in the town square. The province of Guipuzcoa hail six battalions of ahout eight hundred each, and i'our fmir- pounders, the coniinanding general being Lizar- raga. The province of Biscaya had ten battalions, of which eight were composed of liiscaya volun- teers and two of Castilians; they had. also, two cannons, and were under the coniinaml of General Velasco. They were the best equii)i)ed and the best disciplined ; but the Navarros and the Guipuz- coanos said that the Biscayinos were not fit to tight. The triilh of this accusation 1 have not been able to ascertain, as I never saw the Biscaya men nnder fire, but 1 think that the general looseness and carelessness of the ^^'avarre and Guij)UZcoa men had a good deal to do with their dislike to the clean and snian-looking volunteers of Biscaya. Besides this, there were three battalions in the province of Alava, under (General Larramendi and two in that of Kioja under Llorente. The enrol- 284 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. raent of troops was also to be begun in Aragon nnder General Ceballos and Gamundi, in Valencia, in Murcia, in the province of Burgos, and in a couple of other districts, but in all of these the movement was quite in an incipient state. In Catalonia, where the Carlist movement began first of all, Don Alphonso, youngest brother of Don Carlos, and his wife Doiia j\Iaria de Las Nieves, who were commander and commandress- in-chief respectively, had under their orders some ten thousand men, with the Generals Savalls, Galceran, Tristany, and Torres, commanding in the provinces of Gerona, Barcelona, Taragona, and Lerida. The whole strength of the Carlist force might thus be estimated to consist in the Vasco-Navarre provinces and Catalonia of about thirty-five thousand, all well armed and pretty fairly equipped men, without reckoning the bands spread in other provinces.* Don Carlos was sup- * General Kirkpatrick, the military representative of Don Carlos in London, gives the following data concerning the strength of the Carlist forces in districts vehich I have not been able to visit myself. PrincipaUti/ of Catalonia. Province of Gerona. — General Saballs had under his command 1,850 men— Barrancot, 350 — Isern, 250— Chico, 500— Farriugol, 200— Iluguet, 250. Bar- celona. — General Galceran bad 1,400 men— Muxi, 150 — Eodereda, 150— Nasratal, 100— Campo, 200— Malo, 325— THR ARMY AXD STAFF OF DON CARLOS. 285 j)Osc'cl to liL' tla' f Jciirialissiiiio of the whole fortx', but tho real coiiiiiiainlci-iii-rliit'l" was, as I liavo all ready saiti, (Joiicral Klio. 'J'hc young Don Al- pliouso occupk-d ill Catalonia the saiiiu j)o.sitiou as Gopcral I )orrcgaray occuj)icd in tliu Basque proviiKX'S. Ill tlitj lirgjniiiiii;' of tlic raiiii)a gii CJciieral Don Antonio Dorivgaray, eoiiniiaiKler ol" the Carlist Vergas, 200 — Gieu, 850. Tarragona. — General Triataiiy bad 900 men— Espolet, 300— Mirot, 250— Quico, toO— Valles, 2,100 — Peqiiuj'i, 500. ZerjV/a.— Command of Torres, 750 men — Vallfi, lOO — Tallada, 350 — Sans, 580. Lower Aragon and I'alentia. — Pifiol, 'JOO men — Masaclio, 500 — Molinc, tlOO, Pujol, 350— Duocastello, 300— Tidal, 250. Upper Aragon — Camaclio, 500 men — Xassarre, 400 — Barris, 250. Castellon. — Cucalla, 700 men — Firrar, 150 — Martinez, 200 — Gimeno, 260. Granada. — Jiientar, 300 men — Torres, 350. Huesca. — Camats, 525 men — Rufo, 125 — Cadirere, 100. Maestrazgo. — Coquetaa, 250 men— Villalonga, 200 — Poto, 200— Pauls, 150 — Talaras, 275 — Barrera, 200 men — Merino, 225 — Ferrar, 250. Andalucla. — Sanchez, 450 men — Utego, 250 — three other bauds, 050. Teruel. — Poto, 400 men — six new bands, com- manders not reported, 600. Leon. — Tlnve bands, about 500 men. Malaga. — Lara, 450 — Gerasco, 300 men. The figures are those of February, 1S7;{, since which time General Kirkpatrick became President of the London Carlist Committee, after liaving commanded a brigade in Catalonia at tho outbrc.ik of the present Carli^.t rising. For further infor- motion on tliis subject, see his pamphlet, ".''itain ami Cliarlcs VIL" (London : Bums, Gates and Co. 1873.) 286 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. forces in the Basque provinees and Navarre, had some real business to do, and seems to have accom- plished a pretty fair amount of work ; but the farther the Carlist movement progressed, the more did Dorregaray lose both prestige and power. His nick- name amongst the staff officers became " General Boom," on account of his fierce appearance, and his being rather fond of hanging about the balco- nies with such ladies as could be found willing to have a chat on non-political matters. As the forces of each of the provinces increased, the various commanders became more independent in their action; they often received orders direct from Elio, and the post of Dorregaray became quite a sinecure. In fact, for the last three or four months I saw him, he was doing nothing but riding with his staff behind Don Carlos, and looking at battles and skirmishes from a more or less safe point of view. His previous career, however, indicates that he was an officer of some merit. He is a Navarre man by origin, but he was born in Africa, and enlisted as a cadet in the troops of Charles V,, at the early age of twelve. In 1839, at the conclusion of the Seven Years' War, he was a lieutenant, and passed, on the strength of the Vergara Convention, into the regular army of Isabella. He was a Colonel TIIK ARMY AND STAFF OF DON CARLOS. 287 durini;- the Morocco canipaifi:n, ami k-l't the Qiieoirs service at the lime of lin- fall. In the Spriii;^ of 1872, when the m-w Civrlist movement first begiui, he was coiiimaiuliiig some baiuls in Valeiieia, and the bepiiiiiiig of 18713, was a})i)uiiite tell; but what I know is that, in a few weeks after the corps had been formed, there remained but twe hundred horses, all the rest of them having been so miserably fed and badly eared 294 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. for that they had either to be shot or let loose. During the present Carlist war, there has been only one cavalry charge worth mentioning — the charge of Eraoul. It was a very thorough one, and decided the victory ; but few horses were lost then. Ferula's cavalry came to grief almost without fighting, and the brave commander has now but a very small force under him, and from what I have heard on Don Carlos' staff, even that would have been taken from him had it not been that the services he rendered to the cause at the outbreak of the war call for more than usual con- sideration. There are two other celebrities amongst the Navarre men, one of whom is Colonel Rada, or Radica, as he is called, in order that he may not be confounded with the other Rada, who managed Carlist affairs so badly in 1872, and exposed Don Carlos to the hazard of being captured at Oroquieta. Radica is commander of the second battalion of Navarre, a corps that, through its valour, would do honour to any regular army. There was scarcely any important Carlist battle in which the bayonet charge of the second battalion of Navarre did not play a prominent part, and the popularity of Radica is so much increasing all through the Carlist army, that, if the war is THE ARMY AND STAFF OF DON' CARLOS. 20.'» tlestiiK'd to last, lie is sure sonic tlay to becoim' one of tliccliii'f coiiiiiiaiKlcrsor the Un-vv. Next tit liiiii, ami almost c(|nal to liiiii in jiojmlarity, stumls Major Carlos C'alderon, a y(»ung, handsome, and j)o\vorlid-lookinf; fellow, in whom there is certainly moreof theP^nglishman than of the Spaniard. ( al- deron is the son of a rieii i>anker; he was educated in England, and used, but a short time back, to spend nearly the whole of the shooting season in this country, lie has friends in all classes of English society, and from that circumstance alone I do not believe him to be much of a ( arlist, as Carlism is at present generally understood — 1 mean to say that he will never side either with Popery or absolutism. liut, being very rich, and not belonging to the celebrated family of Calderon de la Barca, he was probably anxious to associate himself with the Spanish nobility, and to ac- quire a name of his own in defending the Spanish legitimist cause. At all events, I know that his mother, who is now a widow. but still a comparatively young ami energetic woman, taking great interest in politics, was formerly very closely associated with a good many of the Alphonsist families. Now, how- ever, both iiiotlier and son are tridy Carlists, and leading Carlists, too. Madame Calderon 296 SPATX AND THE SPANIARDS. and her dangiiter, married to the Duke of the Union de Cuba, are at tlie liead of the Carlist ambulances, and are frequently to be seen in the Carlist camp ; while yoinig Calderon, avoid- ing all court charges, or aid-de-camp-ships, serves the cause at the head of his battalion, almost constantly under fire ; and, when there is a prospect of a few days' relaxation, he rushes to London to buy arms, or to arrange for the shipment of those which are bought already. The commander-in-chief of the province of Guipuzcoa is a man of quite a different type from any of the Navarre chiefs. Don Antonio Lizar- raga was lieutenant-colonel in the Spanish army, a comrade of his present enemy, the well-known General Loma, and had always the reputation of being an excellent officer. When I saw him in April at Lesaca he had scarcel}^ four hundred men ; in September he had nearly five thousand, and his task both of forming the battalion and of organis- ing the general management of the provinces was a much more difficult one than that of Olio ; for Guipuzcoa, or, at least, a certain portion of it, is much less Carlist than Navarre. The popula- tion of that part of the province which borders on the sea and on France lives chiefly by means of trade and smuggling, and does not care much about TIIK ARMY AND STAFF OF DON CARLOS. 297 Dins, l\itris ;i little more husiuess-like than Sj)aniards j^eiierally are; l»nt, on the other hand. he had lust every vesti;j;e of tiiat gentlemanliness which is so characteristic of his countrymen, even of the lowest class. Ha])|»ily enou,i,di, all serious matters were transacted without any particularly strong in- fluence on the part of the personal stalf of the Pretender, General Klio not being a man inclined to yield to any sort of camarilla. The unfavour- able influence which some of the members of the staff might have had on Don Carlos, was also at all times fairly balanced by the better portion of his orderly ollicers and his chamberlains. At the moment these lines are being written, matters may have imj)roved, lor when the author left Don Carlos at iJuraugo, the Duke de la Koca (a converted Alphonsist, by-the-by) was about to be a[)i)ointcd grand-master of the Royal house- hold, and may i)erhaps have greatly altered the state of affairs. At all events, IVom news which has since appeared in the newspapers, there is reason to believe that some of the most objectionable persons surrounding Don Carlos have already left fur France. 302 SPAIN AND THE SPANL\RDS. The clerical element was, as we have already seen, not particularly strongly represented on the staff of the Prince, who is supposed to be the chief supporter of the Spanish priesthood. As far as I know, only three or four priests were more or less intimately connected with it, and only one of them formed, so to say, an integral part of the Royal Staff, and that was probably on account of his being a person of very high standing among the clergy. Monseigneur Jose Taixal, Bishop of the Seo de Urgel, and Prince (!) of the Republic (!) ofAndorre, was in some way or other officially com- missioned by the Pope to proceed to Don Carlos' army as head of the Churcli in the State which may some day be established. The earnest- ness of the Roman Catholic tendencies of that prelate must be of course beyond any doubt, and *are, perhaps, most strikingly illustrated by the fact that he assured both the Correspondent of the Times and myself, that Queen Victoria had long ago passed over to Catholicism, but was afraid of making it known to her people. Two other cures having free access to Don Carlos were Don Ramon, the private secretary of Elio, whom I have already had occasion to men- tion, and Don Francisco Aspiroza, chaplain of Dorregaray's staff, the man to whom Don Carlos THE ARMY AND STAFF OF DON CARLOS. 303 owes his lilo, since it was ho who assisted the Pretender to escape in i\hiy, 1872, after the defeat at Oroquieta. Ik-sidcs that, I)i>n l-'niiicisro and Don Kanion are about the cleverest represen- tatives of the Spanisii clergy 1 have met with, ex- cepting only a little priest, Don Manuel Barrena. late professor of philosophy in the seminary of Pamplona, a young man of barely thirty years of age, of quite an un-Spanish amount of knowledge, and an nnpriestly liberalism of mind. Don Manuel is a kind of diplomatic courier of Don Carlos. He is constantly on the move between the head-quarters and 15ayonne, Bordeaux, Paris, or any place where something important is to be transacted. At« the outbreak of the war he put his clerical garment aside, took to private clothes, and scarcely anyone would take him now for what he really is, a man of the most rigid habits, of indefatigable energy in the cause he serves, of really remarkable attainments in every department of knowledge, and, above all, of most pleasant and charming presence. 1 had travelled several times with Don Manuel in the mountains before 1 knew that he was a priest, but it hapi)ened that, on the day 1 learned it. we had to make together a little journey in France. and he asked me not to call him by his real name 304 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. as long as we were on that journey, as he had some suspicion that the police were watching him. Chaffingly I said to him. " Then I will call you Don Alonso, maestro di musica." "Oh," answered Don Manuel, "that is very kind on your part. Why not Don Basilio, then 1 Though I don't believe either Don Alonso or Don Basilio to be prototypes of mine, I don't mind your calling me by either of these names. It won't be the first calumny Spaniards, and especially Spanish priests, have had to put up with, nor will it be the last." But one uf the most curious persons on the Pretender's staff was a squint-eyed captain of the regidar army, who had deserted the Re- publican ranks, joined the Carlists, and was, on the strength of a literary reputation he had somewhere and somehow acquired, appointed Cronista de S. M. El Rey, or chronicler of the royal staff. I think I never saw in my life a man less capable of putting two sensible thoughts together. What he wrote, he wrote always in the most bombastic style, and frequently in verse. On one occasion, when 1 left Don Carlos' staff for a short time to go to witness the siege of Tolosa, the Pretender, on my return, told me that, being anxious that I should have a systematic account THE ARMY AVD STAFF OF DON CARLOS. 305 of every day's pl•oeecllin^^s of iiis army, orders liad been given to the chronicler to coinnninicate to me the notes he had taken diiriii^^ my absence. The captain accordingly came to my hxlgings, and began reading the clironicle of tlie ten or twelve days during which I was absent, and as I soon perceived that there was very little except quite unbearable " poetry," 1 said to him that what 1 wanted was merely a record of facts— that is to say, where the head-quarters had been, and what they had been doing while I was away. "Oh," answered the captain, " I have nothing of that sort; I don't put it down. ^Vhat chiefly occupies me is to take note of the sentiments and feelings wliich the events provoke within me.'' And it would seem that the expression of those sentiments and feelings must be very attractive in some cases, for not unfrequently on our marches I have noticed Don Carlos call that captain, make him ride by his side, and read what he had written down. And in this manner the Carlist troubadour enlivened the monotonous hours his Spanish would-be Majesty had to spend on the endless marches. vc»L. I. 306 CHAPTER XIII. SPANISH CLERICAL MATTERS. IN the course of this narrative, the present position of the Spanish clergy has been already touched upon. Old Elio told us what part the priests played in the Vasco-Navarre provinces, while some half a dozen curas, whom I had occasion to introduce, showed what sort of men the average contemporary repre- sentatives of the Spanish Church are. There can be no doubt whatever, that had they still pos- sessed the power and wealth they held but a com- paratively short time back, they would have been a very different set of men, and would have shown quite different proclivities. But we all know that any body of men — Protestant parsons certainly included — when invested with undue power and wealth, are about as naturally apt to turn voracious, wicked, and violent as any set of SPAVISn CLERICAL MATTERS. 307 unsociaMc aiiimals whose tcclli have not yet hcu siiwn ami chius not cut. As we are, however, eiiga;;ecl here ehielly in ascertaining how things stand in the nnha])j»y I'eiiinsula, nc^t liow tliey viiijlit have stood, it is no business of ours to dwell upon topics which various reverend persons never miss an occasion for more than amply dis- cussing. 1 will even leave to one of them the task of describing the physical appearance of the Spanish priests, being perfectly conscious that I should never have been able to approach him on this subject either in smartness of writing or in truly Christian p)ity for the defor- mities of our fellow-creatures. The reverend gentleman — an LL.D., and author of several books on the subject of Popery— depicts in the following manner the priests he saw at Burgos some four years ago : "They seemed to be of the sons of Anak. Their long robes had no patches ; their limbs were not thrust into untanned cow-hide, nor did they in features or form bear any marks of ])inching hunger, or vigils unduly prolonged. Portly their form, tall their stature, slow and majestic their gait; conscious they seemed that they were the priests of 'the grand old town' of Burgos, and ministered in a temple than which X -2, 308 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. are few grander on earth. Their legs were as massy and round ahnost as the pillars of their own church, and yet, strong as thej^ were, they seemed to bend and totter under the superincum- bent edifice of bone and muscle and fat which they had to carry. Their neck was of a girth which would have done no dishonour to the trunk of one of their own chestnut trees. Their head it would have delighted a phrenologist to con- template ; it was bulky and vast, like some of those which, chiseled out of granite, lie embedded in the sands of Egypt. Their face was about as stony; and then what a magnificent sombrero! It ran out in front in a long line of glossy beaver ; behind it extended in a line of equal length, and it gracefully curled up at the sides. It was truly worthy of the majestic figure which it topped and crowned." Now, that the Spanish curas sombrero (hat) is very ridiculous, is perfectly true. It is frequently more extravagant than that we see on Don Basilio's head on the Covent Garden stage. That many cuoxis are fat is also correct, though I have seen some who looked — if it be possible — more angular and bony than Signer Tagliafico ever did in the days when his impersonation of Don Basilio was most successful. Whether the Spanish SPANISH CLERICAL MATTERS. 309 priest's Ici^^s ;ire always "as massy and round" as the pillars of the Cathedral of Jiurgos, I am unable to tull, having never unrobed any of tiicm either at IJurgos or elsewhere. But what I know for certain is that, in olden as well as in modern days, in the Catholic as well as in the Protestant (Jhurch, the most dangerous and objectionable representatives of clericalism seldom were the fat, but always the slim ones. Stout people are, as a rule, more or less good-natured, or, at all events, easily bamboozled. They are too fond of eating, drinking, and sleeping to take much trouble about the consciences and thoughts of other men. The great masters in all branches of art have often embodied in mastodon-like representatives of humanity all kinds of roguery and brutality, but seldom any of those qualities which are emblemati- cally represented by the serpent and the witch. The real plagues society has not yet discovered the means to get finally rid of, are not the i)riests or parsons with legs as massy and round as the |)illars of their own churches, but those with toothpick-like legs, tlie thin, bilious, nervous, restless guardians of " ecclesiastical rubbish," individuals in whom and from whom, in the proper as well as in the figin*ative sense, one never hears anything but what Mr. Bright so graphically 310 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. describes as " the rattle of the dry bones of theology/' Coi#rary to the views of the dis- tinguished aforesaid LL.D., one Avoidd be led to think that a universal law prohibiting admission to ordination of any person under twenty stone weight, wonld. perhaps, present the best guarantee for the tranquillity of the world at large as well as of the individual conscience. Ami the usually slim figure of Jesuits on the one hand, and of the most turbulent and intolerant Protestant parsons on the other, would be the best justification of such a measure. However, whether the reader's sympathies may lie with the fat or the flat representative of the clergy, the fact remains nevertheless undeniable, that the power of both fat and flat priests is gone in Spain, and gone for ever. And future historians will speak of the change which has been effected in this respect in the bigoted and superstitious Peninsula as one of the greatest revolutions that has taken place in our century of great revolutions. Spaniards have been at all times greatly abused by other nations for their religious fanaticism. But any people similarly situated would have developed itself exactly as the Spaniards have done, and acted in precisely SPANISH CLERICAL >L\TTKRS. .'HI the same wiiy. To bci^iii wiili, tlicir Koil uiul cliiiKile are of sucli a iiatiin; as to k-ad iin-n iu an early plwise of civilisation to l)c on the lonk- out for the help of Kiipernatiiral agencies rather thau try to take care of themselves. With earth- quakes, with high mountains, with almost no water — consequently with frequent famines and pesti- lences — and with tropical heat cliarring the soil, notions of "■ self-help" and " go-a-headism'' do not easily occur to the human mind. All forms of super- stition had, therefore, more opportunity to take root here than in other, more connnou-place countries. The sixth and seventh centuries the inhabitants of the Peninsula spent in religious wars with the Franks; Latinism, in its tendency to spread it- self, invaded Spain and fought Arianism. In the next century the Moors came across, soon conquered almost the whole of the country, and the contest had to be maintained with them for nearly eight hundred years (invasion 711, recapture of Granada 1492). In this way, for fully ti.'n centuries, the defence of the native soil was at the same time a religious war. 'J'he crusades, which were for the rest of Europe a mere incident, became here the permanent, all-absorbing work of body, sold, and mind of the nation, the more so as it 312 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. was carried on in their own country, not in a distant land called Palestine. The warrior and the priest had to go hand in hand, the latter frequently assuming both functions. That he should thus have immensely grown in importance was only legitimate ; that he should have taken advantage of his position was quite natural. Kings bowed and kneeled to the monk, and the common man threw himself prostrate at his feet. Proud though we may be of the mighty grasp of our intelligence and imderstanding, we cannot realise anything like a faint approach to the idea of what it really means for a people to spend some thirty-five or forty generations in the defence of their faith and their soil. That a nation who had passed through such a trial may have been brought to the sincere belief that every man differing from their religious opinions was a mere piece of combustible can be easily imagined, and that, on the other hand, the flames of some thirty odd thousand burning heretics warmed np the Spaniards — as indeed they would have any mortal— to the highest pitch of devotion and submission to their priests is perfectly intelligible too. It was in Aragon in the middle of the thirteenth century, that these national Spanish spectacles SPANISH CLERICAL MATTKRS. 313 of the (lostnictidu of In'ivlics l»y fire are s.-iiil to have been first iiitnxhicrd. I'.y-aiid-lty, as the Spiiiiianis ji'lvaiiceil southwards, the dulo-de-j): went with them, and it heeaino a very easy thiiij^ for the |)nesthi)0ly Tribunal. And so, the historian assures us, that the very moment the new light— obtained from the combustion of the heretics— shone over the C(juntry, Spain had new forces infused into her, which renderril her capable of routing- the Moors. But this conqu(!st of the gallant and ingenious African invaders had results which neither the Spanish clergy nor the Spanish people could have ever anticipated. Up till the })resL'nt day, the traveller in Spain can easily distinguish the places where the Moors ruled and the Christians obeyed, from those where the Christians ruled and the Moors obeyed. Without going any deeper into these matters, it will be (piit<; suili- cient to point out the i)resence or absence of arrangements for irrigation, and the prepon- derance of Gothic over ^loresque, or of Moresque over Gothic ornamentations in architecture. The fact is that along with those Moors who invaded 314 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. Spain for the sake of fighting and conquest, a large number of sunburnt sons of Africa came over for business purposes. A good many of these, seeing that the country " answered very well," and that the Spanish women were very " nice-looking," did not take much notice of the defeat of their countrymen. They formed connections in the country, and had no desire to leave it. And it was their continued presence in the Peninsula that enabled Ferdinand, Isabella, Charles V., and Philip II, to accomplish all they did. Intelligent and skilful though these sovereigns may have been, they would have been utterly unable to achieve what they did, had the Moorish colonists not w^orked properly, and pro- duced the means required for the important operations undertaken by these most Catholic Majesties. The conquest by and annexation to Spain of a considerable portion of Europe and America was thus more the work of the Moors than of these sovereigns, still less of the Spaniards themselves. But the clergy, who were then, just as they are now, intent ordy on their own interests, could not endure these Moorish settlers, for, though they had been all baptised, and were thus supposed to have turned Christians, the wolf was, to the priest's mental eye, still visible SPANISH CLERICAL MATTERS. 315 under the slieej)'s skin. Tlic liai)tiseil Moors— or Moriscoes— did not seem willing; to give np their fortunes to the monks ; they washed themselves frequently, us all Eastern infidels do ; they read l\Ioorish books, and showed a general disposition to do a good many other just as oitjection- ahlc things, as it would be considered now-a- days— in Scotland, for instance— to whistle or to smile on a Sabbath-day. The sharp scent which characterises all clergy, caused the Spanish monks and jn'iests to discover that the converted floors bore within themselves the seeds of a kind of progress which might prove very antagonistic to the power of the Church, and they watched with great anxiety for an opportunity of getting rid of them. As early as the reign of diaries V. the clergy succeeded in subjecting the Moorish settlers to persecution all over the country, with- out, however, any more substantial result than that of provoking a desperate revolt on the jiart of that valiant population. It was reserved to the idiotic Philip 111. and his servile and i>ricst- ridden Minister Lcniia to bring to a final close the period of Mooro-lberian glory and greatness. In lOO'.t a decree commanding the merciless banishment of all the^Ioorish settlers was issued; aud about a million of men, forming the most 316 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. • useful part of the population of the Peninsula, were driven by means of sword and fire towards the shores of Africa. Nearly the whole of them perished on their way ; the priesthood was triumphant; but they soon perceived that the banishment of the Moors was the first blow they inflicted upon their own power and wealth. In a very few years after the departure of the African colonists, the King, as well as his Minis- ters, discovered that there was no more money to be got out of the nation. Everything had gone to ruin, the monks alone remaining in a flourish- ing condition. There were at that time about nine thousand convents for monks alone in Spain, without reckoning the nunneries for females, and all of them were immensely rich. Whatever might have been then the abstract views concern- ing the sacredness of ecclesiastical property, they proved powerless against the action of the natural law, according to which, in periods of distress, those who have something are invariably made to pay for those who have nothing, and it was in 1626 that the Cortes of Madrid, for the first time, timorously suggested that there existed some available resources in the hands of the clergy. The hint was not of a nature to be easily taken advantage of, but the first blow was SPANISH CLERICAL MATTERS. ?,\1 given, and some eij^hty years later a "loan" was obtained from the clergy, wliile nnder Allicrniii we see them paying regular taxes, and a hundred years hiter everything that was still left in the convents and churches after the French plunder, was, without further ceremony, confiscated. Along with the ecclesiastical wealth disappeared also the Jesuits (lUiT), and the IiKiiii.sitioii (1808). True that attempts were subsetpiently made to return to the old state of affairs. Ferdinand VII. tried to re-establish the monstrous tribunal of the Inquisition; Isabella "the Innocent" decreed twice or three times the return of ecclesiastical property ; but such incidents were the last dying flames of a burned-out torch. The best proof that the old hold of the clergy upon the ])opular mind was gone was in tiie fact that Pro- testants Were allowed to be buried, to establish cemeteries and churches of their own, while Scotch and English missionaries began to per- ambulate the country without any particular molestation. The progress whieli anti-clerical and anti- religious tendencies have made in Spain wiihin the last ten years is something amazing. The reverend author whom I mentioned above, states that there were hlill no fewer than three thousanil 318 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. priests in Burgos, in 1869. I suppose he must have added a too much by mistake, or taken his information from a very ancient guide- book. Reduced to a merely nominal pay, which is, into the bargain, nearly all over Spain two years in arrears, utterly disregarded by the Government, frequently insulted by the people they have so long oppressed, and with nearly no congregation to attend to, the Spanish priests decrease in numbers every day. Where they disappear I am unable to tell ; some of them have taken to trade and professions in the country — if what exists in that line in the provinces of Spain can be so denominated. A large number took refuge on the territory occupied by the Carlists. Churches in large towns which had, perhaps, fifty priests each under Isabella, have three or four now. There are first-rate Casus de Misericordia (alms-houses) with not a single priest residing in them, and when sacrament is to be administered to a dying person it must be fetched from the neighbouring church. Even the largest cathedrals are seldom frequented. Over and over again, and at all hours, did I enter churches in Madrid as well as in the provinces, without ever seeing in them more than half a dozen old women weeping out their grief in the SPANISH CLERICAL ^LVTTERS. .il'.) ilcirk coriK^rs of" llic temples, lonin-rly so over- crowdoil, and now (luiti- dcsrrlnl. Except in the Carlist regions, tlie scarcity of men attending mass even on Sumiaysand Feast Days is striking. The women Hock still in numhers, but it is quite perce])til)le that the majority of them come rather through liahil — many, perhaps, only to show themselves and to see other peojilc — tlian from any religious motive. The incomparably larger attendance at out-door religious processions is the best proof in support of this supposition : women and men congregate there equally readily. But the devotion shown in former days on such occasions is speedily vanishing. A writer, pub- lishing in Mucmillan s Maijazine some notes on his residence in the interior of Spain, during the sunnner of 1873, tells in the January issue a lact very nnich to this point: — " A few nights since I stood witli ruisied hat as the ' hobt ' piuiscd by, lieralded by its many hiinps oi" niiiuy culoura ; the viulicuni was being curried to some Christian dying treat. Sud- denly a drove of pigs eunie squeaking down a street close by ; women in mute adoration were on their knees on the pavement, sightly and devoutly enough ; men were divided into hats-on and hats-oH", but the majority was of the latter class. The pigs charged the proccd.sion, and, to n>y horroi", a loud and audible titter ran through the luiitern-bearers, which became a Ihjuimi laugh iu the mouths of the pig-drivers.' 320 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. A sliort time back, the poor unconcerned pigs Avould have been beaten to death, and the pig- drivers and lantern-bearers, (who, be it remem- bered, are amateur members of such processions) would not only have forborne from laughing, but would have paid an extra visit to church to repent their having been witnesses of such an occurrence. The same writer says, that but a few years back, in the reign of Isabella : — " An Englishman who, ignorantly, merely took off his hat, and did not dismount also from his horse as the ' host ' passed him in tlie street, was in this town dragged from his horse by order of the priests, and fined or imprisoned, for the offence." But when T venture to state that bigotry and even a good deal of sensible religious feeling is departing from Spain, I by no means mean to assert that superstition is seriously decreasing. Among the Latin race especially, bigotr}^ and superstition are perfectly distinct things. There are plenty of people all over the world who never believed in anything, but would not enter a business on Monday, start on a journey on Friday, or cut their nails on Sunday. It would, therefore, be quite absurd to expect that ancient, deeply inveterate superstitions should be soon abandoned by the utterly ignorant mass of a people living in SPANISH CLERICAL MATTERS. 321 a country so iniu-h j)re(lis|)osing tli*^ mind to sujierstitiona, and preserving Ruch an iiinm-nso stock of niiraclcs and saints in its national memory, as well as in its national monuments. A good many earnest Protestants may exclaim, on reading this, " But what is, then, to become of a country where religion is gone and super- stition remains? It must finally collapse into a horrible chaos!" Nothing of the kind. The same thing has been going on for a long time ])ast in France and Italy, and the business of life runs on in its usual way. Superstitions will dis- appear, poco a poco, under pressure of the spread of knowledge ; while indifferentism in religious matters does not necessarily turn men into savages — at least it did not produce any such effect on that portion of the Latin race which has already fallen off from the Church. The reyiine of civil baptisms and civil burials, in which the ultra- Republicans in Spain delight just now, and under which a man is welcomed into the world or ushered out of it by a band of local Volunteers blustering the Marseillaise under his windows, or on his way to the cemetery, will probably soon be abandoned. As long as baptism, religious burial, and religious marriagi' arc regarded with respect VOL. I. Y 322 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. by any considerable portion of society, every | sensible man, however indifferent to religion he ! may be himself, will always submit to them, j What does it matter to him that a cura reads I some prayers over his body when he is dead, and j when he knows that any objection on his part to j such a harmless ceremony would cause grief to.; people who may be dear to him, and whom he leaves behind ? Upon what sort of ground can ^ he withhold his child from baptism, when he does not know whether, wdien grown up, the child will j not become so religious as to feel quite unhappy i because he has not been christened in the usual i manner? What sort of justification can he plead | for withholding from the marriage ceremony, as long as he is not quite sure that some fool may not turn up some day and insult his wife by call- j ing her a mere concubine, or a law may not be passed depriving her children from inheriting their father's property ? For a long time past in Catholic countries, this way of dealing with the practical side of religion has been, and is, daily acted upon by thousands of men ; only not all of! them are disposed to avow it. How far the same! principles are at work among Protestants, is not' here to be discussed. But it is certain that: indifferent Protestants are still more reluctant! SPANISH CLKRICAL MATTKUS. '.Vl'.i to avow tlioir iiidinVruntism than iiiililV<-i-i'iit ('atliollc'8. It may lie naturally asked, how do snrli families manage to live where the wile is hi^'-oted or even simply religions, while the hnsband hecomex, hy-and-by, an indillerent i To this 1 am not able to answer. All I know is, that iliey do manage it. and that, in the majority oi' cases, they never think of quarreling about any religions question, except when the religious zeal of the wife begins to interfere with the home comfort of the family ; when through her too long and frequent visits to church children break their noses, tir dinner is neglected, or anything similar occurs. Many men prefer a religious wife, as oflering a greater guarantee of conjugal fidelity, and as being less likely to be fond of expensive l)leasures. Others sec in religion a check against a woman's becoming dull in doing nothing Avhen they are engaged. 1 knew some medical men and professors of natural sciences, who said that a wife constantly soaring into ideals was a relief to them wlien they come hoiiif after a hard day's dealing in organic matters, l>ut the great majority. I believe, think nothing, except that it is ipiite a matter t)f course V 2 324 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. i that women should be religious, while men should be left to think as they please. For a good many people in England such a state of affairs may seem quite impossible, and they may perhaps be inclined to suspect the vera- city of my statements. I feel, therefore, almost delighted to be able to adduce here an authority which they will probably be less dispose to ques- tion. Just as I was writing these pages, a copy of the Times containing a letter from that journal's special correspondent at Rome, on the subject of " Religious iVpathy in Italy," was laid upon my table. The letter is so outspoken, and contains so few common-place remarks that I am surprised how the Times printed it at all. Some hesitation must, however, have arisen in Printing-house Square, for the letter was dated Rome, January 5th, and appeared only on the 12th. This is what the able correspondent said on the subject we have been considering here : — " The religious movement wliich is now convulsing Germany and Switzerland, and wliicli is followed with eager attention by England and America, is looked upon with the most perfect indiiference in Italy. . . . They will, as they say, not only have no religious squabbles, but even no religious differences among themselves ; no heresy, no schism. They aspu-e to that re- ligious liberty which is, in their opinion, perfectly compatible with religious unity. There may be in their country unlimited SPANISH CLKUICAL MATTERS. :;2") dissent, but it must ho individual ; as many peraunsions as there are lieuds, but no distinct confessions or denominationtt 5 III) liabel of Churches or sects. It must be quite possible, as it lias indeed always been, oven under the most nnconjpromising I'apal tyranny, for husband and wife, for brother and si>ter, to live together in love and unity under the same roof, tiiou^ii the male members of the " happy iamily," are, or think them- selves, thorough atheists or materialists, while those of the other sex are plunged into the most abject and silly superstition. . . . What tlie Italians did in the days of Luther and Calvin they ill) now in those of Dullinger and Loyson ; they receive the news of a religious squabble with curiosity, but dismiss it with a sneer. . . .The Italian will carry superstition to any extent, but there is no bigotry in his composition. It was oidy against the Dominican inquisitors in ililan and Naples that the populaee frequently rose in open rebellion, and it is only against their Jesuit teachers that the Italian youths throughout the country always harboured and evinced violent hatred, because tliey imagined that both those Monastic orders, eiuih in its way, attempted to interfere with the right of private judgment in religious matters. So long as a man confessed and took the Sacrament, christened his children, and paid his marriage fees, what business was it of priest, monk, or Pope to pry into his thought or probe his heart? . . . For those who want a Church there should bo a Church of some sort or other. What nuitters it how many new dogmas are proclaimed or how nniny new Saints are canonized if no one compels you to belierc in them .' Why should you distress yourself about the Pope's Infallibility, if you arc allowed to laugh at it in your sleeve? Therti have been Prelates , and there have been Cardinals, and even Poj)es whose religion, if inquired into, would have been as complete a blank as your own, but these went througli life, and rose 326 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. from rank to rank in the hierarchy, with a mere semblance and mockery of behef Why should it not be so ? Let it be fi"ee to every man to be a Christian, a sceptic and even a hypocrite. ' Dieii connait ceux qui sont a lid.' Let there be peace on earth, and let every man go to heaven, or elsewhere, his own way." This is exactly the state of affairs speedily becoming prevalent all through Spain, and which has been reigning throughout the educated classes in France during the whole of the present century. It will only assume a more rough form in the Peninsula, for the Spanish character is more frank than either the Italian or the French. In Italy tlie presence of the Pope, the existence of the convents and the wealth still hold by the ecclesiastical corporations necessarily mitigate the aspect of things on the surfece. Still more so is this the case with France, which but a short time ago supported the Holy Father by means of " thinking bayonets " and " Chassepots,'' which never cared a brass farthing for His Holi- . ness. The worship of political, religious, and every other form of decorum in the great mass of the population of the latter country will probably considerably retard there the progress of avoioed religious indifferentism ; but anyone who knows these countries can entertain no doubt that ulti- SPANISH CLKIUCAL MATTERS. :V21 inately Spain. Italy, ami France will standi un tho footing; of j)eiTei-t eqality in this respect. One must be brought u|) within the jiah' nf the I^atin Church to be able fully to realise how natural unJ unavoidable all this is, and how thoroughly sincere and conscientious men can be brought to feel perfectly indilVcrciit with regard to religion, yet be deeply convinced that on that account they are neither savages nor criminals. If the most zealous and intolerant of the Protestants knew only a few stories of the internal struggles, the hesitation, the grief, and the despair through which a man brought up as a Catholic — unless he becomes a student of natural sciences, and con- sequently be turned at once into a pure materialist — has to pass in his transition from bigotry to indifferentism, they would not have a single word of censure to utter against such men. But I feel afraid that in saying all this I may cause some Protestant readers to suppose that, since matters had come to such a pass in Catholic countries, the best thing would be to introduce some form of Protestant worship among them. Nothing could be more erroneous than such a conclusion. Protestant missionaries have not been wanting in any of those countries, and the result of their efl'orts has invariably been zero, or 328 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. little better. Bibles printed in the languages of the natives have been distributed ; chapels and preachers established as soon as the civil code of the countries permitted them. But if the French- man, the Spaniard, and the Italian entered these chapels it was by sheer curiosity ; if he read the Bible it was (even in the happiest cases) merely as a sublime and new book, but never as one calculated to make him accept the religious views of the nation which has " only one sauce, and a thousand religions." The cold form of Protes- tant worship, with its long discourses, will never suit the Latin race, especially the more southern representatives of it. I again quote the above Times letter in support of my assertions. " A religion all of pomp and ceremony and grovelling asceti- cism, suited the Southern temperament, and down almost to the present day the Opera and Ballet in Rome were always worse than third rate, and poorly attended, because the theatre could not compete with the Church in the pomp and circum- stance of mere scenic effects. . .Italians do not see the advantage of raising many churches on the ruins of one. It would be, in their opinion, like ' marrying the Pope, and begetting a whole brood of Infallibles.' . . • There are now Waldensian, Methodist, and other Evangelical churches and schools in Rome as in other Italian cities, but their success is not very encom-aging even in the opinion of their candid promoters." The same is the case with Spain. There are SPANISH CLERICAI. M.V ITERS. 329 c'liiipels ill M.uliiil, Sc\illc', Alicante, and a few otliLT towns, lull they iicviT had and ncv, Poland Street. SL»AL\ AMj TIIK SL'AMAUDS. VOL. II. SPAIN AND THE SPANIAIfDS. BY N. L. Till K li LIN. "AZAMAT-BATUK.- IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. IL LONDON: IIIIKST AND BLA(;KETT. I'lMUJSli KHS, 13. GRKAT M.VHLnoKorUll STKKKl. LsTL Jll riyhls rfxrttJ. CONTEXTS THE SECOND VOLUME. CUAPTtK I. CAMPO DEL HONOR II. THE SEVEN YEARS* WAR III. SPANISH FIGHTING . IV, ALFONSISM VCVSUi CARLISM V. PEIM AND AMADEO . VI. SPANISH REPUBLICANISM VII. CASTELAR AND FIGUERAS VIII. MARSHAL SERRANO, DUQTJE DE LE TORRE 246 IX. ADIOS ! ..... 261 PACK 1 60 114 15:; 177 202 224 E R R A T A. Pa(je 120 line 26 for " not Scotcli, and therefore exiratijero, till- ))l;ii(lwas" read " Scotch, and therefore fx/ran^ero, tlif plaid was not" Paffe 141 line 18 for " charges" read " cliargcrs" Paje 160 //;ie 2-4 /or "taenk" read "taken" Paffe I'JO fine 18 /or " votes" read " deputies" VOL. II. Pa/je 'io /<«e 15 /ur " liattv" read " chatty." SPAIN AND THE SrAXIARDS. CHAPTER I. CA.MPO DEL HONOR. rilHE Field of Honour is nowhere in par- JL ticnliir. It may sometimes be ou the l)al(l top uf a hill, sometimes in a wayside hut, sometimes at the bottom of a God-forsaken valley, or rather of a loophole amidst the moun- tains. It always reminded me of those Con- tinental hats, watches and umbrellas upon whirh the rather vague stamp of "Lundon" is marked, but a mere look at which tells you at once that tht-y have issued from the back workshop of some iialf- starvcd Gernuin working-man. The Carlists in- vented this Campo del Honor, in the first j)late, because tiiey thought they were really doing an honourable work ; and, in the second, because VOL. IL II 2 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. they had reasons for not wishuig to give their exact address. Orders, or manifestoes issued by Don Carlos, or any of his Generals, being dated from the " Field of Honour," no clue is given the enemy as to the whereabouts of the Carlist forces. Up till July last there was no end of Campos del Honor, for every small cahecilla had the right of dating his communications from that indefinite locality. But when Don Carlos entered Spain, the Field of Honour, j:>ar excellence, became his head-quarters. We have already seen that the Carlist generals were greatly opposed to the entry of the Pre- tender into Spain, before they had quite organised the troops with which they intended to carry on the struggle. But Don Carlos seems to have become sick of his retreat, and, acting upon his own responsibility, entered Spain without informing any of his generals ; and it must be said that the moment he selected for his entry denoted, on his part, a larger amount of intelli- t>-ence than is usually jiitributed to him. On the 9th of July his partisans obtained a very important victory over the Republican troops near Ripoll, in Catalonia. They captured something over six hundred prisoners, killed CAMPO DEL IIOXOR. 3 Brigadier Cabrinetty, took a couple of (Mil- lions and a large quantity of arms and animuni- tion. A partial Carlist rising broke out abuiit the same time in the prDvince of Leon and iu (xalicia; while, on the other hand, the news was spread tiiat Malaga, JMurcia, Seville, Alcoy, (Iranada, and Cadiz were in the hands of the fniransigentea, and that a sort of Commune had been established at Carthagena. Don Carlos received also information that Valdespinas had captured Santa Cruz, and signed a Convention, according to which all internal Carlist dift'erences seemed to have been settled. At the same time a considerable landing of anns and ammimition for the ("ar- lists had taken place at Lequeitio, and enabled the Carlist chiefs to arm at least six or seven thousand fresh volunteers. The moment really seemed most fovourable to the Pretender for tlu- commencement of his campaign, and without saying a word to even his most intimate coun- cillors, Don Carlos left the chatean of St. Lon on the loth of July for Bayonne, on his way through which town to the village of Ustariz, he gave orders for his horses and eipiipment to be for- warded to Zugarramurdy. The next morning, at five o'clock, the gates ol B 2 4 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. a chateau, situated within a mile of Ustariz, were opened in order to allow a riding party of five gentlemen in private clothes to pass out, apparently for the purpose of enjoying the fresh morning air of the mountains. Three of the five gentlemen were Frenchmen, well known in the neighbourhood, and the two others were guests of theirs. They took the direction of the hills and forests of St. Pee and Sare, and soon disappeared in the mountain paths. The morning was most lovely, and the company seemed greatly to enjoy their ride. Neither gendarmes nor Custom House ofiicers were encountered ; but, even had the case been otherwise, the three French gentlemen could not have been stopped, and as to their foreign guests, they were provided with all the papers necessary for proving that they were neither Carlists nor even Spaniards.* As soon as the party turned off the high road and entered the forest paths, every chance of annoyance was gone, and one of the two foreign- * How far Don Carlos and his Fi'encli friends set M. Thiers and his poKce at defiance, may be seen from the subjoined de- cree issued on the 27th of October, 1872 : — " Le ministre de I'interieur, " Vu r article 7 de la loi des 13 at 21 noyembre et 3 decembre 1849, ainsi con9u : CA>n?0 DEL HONOR. 5 lookini; gentlemen, riding an excellent bay Irish hunter, urged his horso ahead of the party, Avho evidently treated liiin with the respect due t(3 a personage of some importance. The other foreigner, a young and fair-looking man, followed "Yn rarticle S do la nii'mc loi, ninsi coin^u : " Vu Ics rapports de MM. Ics profets Acs Basses-Pyrenees et do la Girondo, ctablissant que le prince don Carlos de Bourbon, due do Matlrid, se serait livrc dans ces deux departemenfs i\ des manoeuvres ayant pour but de fomcnter la guerre civile dans un pays allie de la France ; " Cousidenint que la presence do IV'tranger sus-designo sur lo territoire franijais est do natiu-e i compromettre la sArcte pub- lique : Arrt^tc : " Art. 1'C. " Pour ampliation : " Le direcieur de la mlrete generate , " DE NEIlVAnX." The Spanish Pretender has resided and carried on his afTairs on the French soil till the 16th of July, 1873, tliat is to say for fully nine months after his expulsion was thus ordered. 6 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. close behind him. The former was Don Carlos de Bourbon, the latter his orderly officer, Ponce de Leon, grandee of Spain. After having ridden for a couple of hours, the party reached the frontier, crossed it at the foot of Pena de Plata, and alighted at a small smuggler's inn close by the border line. Marquis de Valdes- pinas and General Lizarraga, to whom word had been sent during the night, were already waiting with the members of their staff and an escort. These officers having saluted Don Carlos as their King, and kissed his hand, the Prince proceeded to change his travelling costume for a brilliant uni- form that had been brought over beforehand, and then continued his journey to Zugarramurdy, where some three thousand volunteers were as- sembled to greet hira. A Te Deum was sung in the village church, after which the villagers and the volunteers pressed forward to kiss the hand of him whom they acknowledged as their Sove- reign ; and, whatever might have been the poli- tical opinions of the spectator, he could hardly fail to be impressed by the spontaneous enthu- siasm which prevailed in the mass of the people assembled. For fully an hour Don Carlos stood on the door-step of the church, unable to proceed forward. The cries were really deafening, and CAMPO DEL nOXOR. 7 overpowered llie sound of the c:iimons firiiii; at Pena de Plata, and the desperate riiigin.i; of th<' chiircli bells. As soon as the Pretenlicans eonfnied in it, pive each of them half a sovereign, and ordered them to be escorted to France. Afterwards, he visited the few wounded who were in the village, and went to lunch at the house of the village priest, whilst the volunteers outside the house were entertained with the reading of the follow- ing Proclamation : " Volunlarios ! Invoking tlie God of armies and listening to tlie voice of agoni/ed Spain, I present myself amongst you fully confident of your courage and jour loyalty. " Poor in resources, but rich in faith and heroism, you have gloriously maintained an almost incredible, fabulous campaign, and in tlie midst of unceaaing privations and fatigues you have asked only for one thing — arms. " My efforts for satisfying this want will not have been quite fruitless. And having, as far as it was in my power, fulfilled that duty, I come now to perform another, and one much more pleasant to my heart. I como to combat, like yourselves, for our fatherland, and for our Ood. No sort of political consider- ation shall compel me longer to luuk on, my arms folded, at this heroic struggle. " I doploro the blindness of the army which fights again:*t us, 8 SPAIN AND' THE SPANIARDS because it does uot know you, and does not know me. Both you and myself would have receiyed it with open arms if in an hour of inspiration it coidd have perceived that the Monarchical flag had been for fifteen centuries the ilag of all the glories and honoiirs of the Spanish army, and if it had understood that the only truly Monarchical ilag is my banner — the banner of Legitimacy and Right. " But as, unhappily, this is not yet clear to them, we are compelled to subdue by force a ruinous and impious revolution which maintains itself only by violence. " It is with irrepressible emotion that I receive the sincere homage of your enthusiastic loyalty, and that I put my feet on the noble Vasco-Navarre soil, whence I address now the ex- pression of my gratitude to the generous defenders of the just cause, and speak my friendly welcome to all the Spaniards. " Spain asks us with loud cries to come to her rescue ! " Volunteers ! forward ! " Volunteers, Spain says that she is dying ! " Volunteers, let us save her ! " Caelos. " Zugarramurdy, 16th JiUy, 1873." Then followed a review of troops, a visit to Pena de Plata, receptions of officers, who began immediately to pour in from all sides, until at last Don Carlos started with some two thousand five hundred men and two cannons for the celebrated Bastan valley. Here began for me a kind of life I shall not soon forget. Marching, reviews, popular demonstrations, and- hunting for quarters and food, took me during CAMPO DEL IIOXOR. 9 six weeks fully eighteen hours daily, leiiviii<^ barely six hours a day lor writing, rest, and refreshment. As every one expected that Don Carlos would be anxious to begin his new campaign by some brilliant engagement, and as we knew that Eli- zondo, the first lar^e })lace on the road we took, had been fortified by the Republicans, and was guarded by a garrison of some six hundred men under Colonel Tejada, we all hoped to have a nice little fight in a coujde of days. The village of Arizcun was the place at which we were to pass the night of the 18th, and whence, as we supposed, we were to move on the next morning for an attack. But it turned out that, except some manoeuvres upon the surrounding heights, we liad to witness no military spectacle of any sort. The troops commanded by General Lizar- raga manoeuvred very well, satisfied Don Carlos thoroughly, and showed the column of Tejada that the Carlists were already in sufficient Dumbers to protect their master. That was appa- rently all the Carlist generals wanted for the moment. They did not care about attacking Elizondo, for they were sure to lose a great number of men, and to be unable to hold the place should the forces of Pamplona attempt to 10 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. take it back again, for no support could be ex- pected Elio's troops being then far away in the Amezcoas. But the General himself, leaving his command to Dorregaray, came to salute his King as soon as he heard of his having entered Spain. The old gentleman rode on horseback, with two aid-de-camps and a small escort, through nearly the whole of Navarre to meet the Prince at Arizcun. It was probably owing to Elio's advice that we had no fight at Elizondo, and marched next morning off the high road to those abominable rocky paths which I had never been able to re- concile myself with. Narvarte, Labaen, Erasun, and Leisa were the little mountain villages which had successively to provide with food and night shelter some two thousand five hundred soldiers, a King, his brilliant staff of marquises and counts, and two or three hundred horses and mules. How they managed it one would be puzzled to say, but everybody had some shelter, and every stomach some sort of nourishment. That both were abominably bad can be easily imagined, but in nearly all cases the bad quality of the supply was fully compensated by the heartiness with which it was offered. Of the manner in which Don Carlos was CAMPO DEL nOXOR. 11 receivfd liy the siiiipK-nrmdc"! villa^^crs, no one cMii make oneself an idea, unless one knows the temperament and notions of the Basque people. It was not only that houses were deco- rated in every village he passed through, that green stulV and (lowers covered the streets, that cries of *' \'ica el Rey T '"''Vuia Doha Marr/arita!" and " I7c« la RcVkjIoh T gave everybody a headache, and that every man, woman, and child got perfectly mad in attempting to kiss anything belonging to Carlos Setimo, from his hand down to the tail of his horse. The real degree of de- votion of these people was best to be seen in the manner in which the wants of the Carlist columns were attended to. "When the Republicans passed, all that still existed in the way of horses, cattle, sheep, and pigs were high up in the mountains, and no rations could be got by any human force under several hours' time; while when the Carlists passed everything was at hand. When the Ivcpublicans passed tlie men were all away from the villages, so were the alcalde and the priest too, and the democratic commander had to get his information about the enemy from old women and children ; while the smallest Royalist band was inl'ormed in every jiossible way by the members of the ui/uiitumiento (municii)al 12 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. council), who were the first to welcome it, and every man of the village was quite ready to risk his life for the sake of getting the band out of danger. Don Carlos had already been four days in Spain before the commander of the Pamplona troops learned it, and was enabled to make a move ; while we learned at Navarte of this commander's intention to move within about three or four hours after his trumpet had called out the regiments. Don Carlos was quietly taking an afternoon walk through the village of Narvarte, when a confideyite, or spy, came with the news that four thousand men with six cannons were leaving Pamplona, some six hours' march distant from our village. A council of war was at once called, consisting of the Elio, Lizarraga and Marquis Valdespinas, and the question whether a battle was to be accepted or not was brought before them. Don Carlos appears to have been in favour of a fight, but as the Carlist forces were considerably smaller than those of their enemy, the generals insisted upon not accepting a battle, and continuing the march for a junction with Dorregaray. Consequently, in a couple of hours, off we march very much as if we were flying, for we scarcely stopped anywhere for more than CAMPO DEL HONOR. 13 a couple of lioiirs from Sunday the 20th, to Tuesday tlio 22iid, and this our first iiian-li may be considered a very fair specimen of Carlist marches. To be<;in with, we left Narvartc about six P.M., and had to march all night, and the rocky foot- path we liad to follow jjassed within a gun shot of San Estevan, another strongly furtified and well guarded Reiniblican place. A company of good shooters could have completely routed our column, spread in an endless line over two or three miles of a most impracticable mountain track. No- thing was, however, attempted by the Republican troops shut up behind their fortifications, and ap- parently only too glad that we did not attack them. But the consciousness that one is marching under such unfavourable conditions is by no means com- forting. Fancy a pitch dark night, a most horrible Abyssinian causeway, which makes man and horse stumble on every step, and is constantly and most abruptly going up and down hill; add to that the effect produced on one's ner- vous system by orders of a general Jesjuon- tadiira (or getting off the horses), and silencio, a strict prohibition of anything like a cigarette or a match being lighted, and you will have a fair idea of this little promenade. We 14 SEAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. knew, of course, that the Pamplona column was unable to reach us, but the proximity of the San Estevan garrison, actually full masters of our lives, was by no means refreshing. Our appre- hensions of danger calmed down only after mid- night, when the village of Labaen was reached, where at all events some rest was allowed to our exhausted limbs and nerves. It should be added here, however, that Don Carlos and his generals fully shared the fatigue of the men. All of them walked throughout at the head of the column, leading their horses by the bridles and having but a small vanguard before them. At Labaen a rather original sight presented itself. The place, which is so small that it could not even be called a village, was all at once crammed as it has certainly never been before. It was utterly impossible even for Don Carlos and his staff to move a single step forward before the vanguard was marched to its quarters, consisting of a couple of little huts outside the village. The loud talk of some two thousand men, for several hours kept silent and now set at liberty, the neighing of horses, the roar of donkeys and mules, the barking of dogs— everything had its place in this picture of indescribable confu- sion, lit by means of straw torches and such CAMPO DEL HONOR. 15 bits of \v;ix cumllc us could he fdiiiiil in tlio village cliiircli. It toitU us two hours hofore every one of the oHicers, men, ami horses liaJ shelter. Of food there coidd, of course, he no question at such an hour ; but a sound sleep and a little cup of everlasting chocolate, wliich you find wliL'U nothing else can be fouinl, rendered us quite fresh and bright next morning. Don Carlos, who is invariably entertained at the priests' houses, which, as a rule, are the best in the villages, IkuI here an oppurtuiiity quite unexpectedly, to show his courtesy to the foir sex. The ^larchioness of Vinialet, whose son liad been severely wounded at the battle of Udave, and for a time left as dead on the field, came to see him at the ambulance of Lccumberri, and was on her way back to I>iarritz when we met her at Labaen. The brave lady had travelled on horseback, with a couple of guides, all the way from the fashionable seaside place to the frontier of Guipuzcoa, and the best bed in the priest's house was, of course, given to lier. On the next morning when the troops inarched oft' again and' passed her wimlow, she was made the object of an ovation which, I am sure, few women have ever received. I)Ut no fatigues or i»rivations seemed to in- 16 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. fluence in any way the Carlist volunteers. When- ever there was no prohibition, singing and laugh- ing were going on all day long, and when there was an hour to spare after dinner, or before night- fall, the fandango was sure to be seen danced somewhere in the village square, and ball playing everywhere. At Erasun, halfway between Labaen and Leisa, where we dined, or at least were supposed to dine, the mounted body-guards of Don Carlos gave us quite a performance in that way. A brass band, which usually played not only on en- tering and leaving the villages, but took advantage of every halt, began to play a national dancing melody, and nearly the whole of the horsemen of the escort set at once to dance the fan- dango, with tumblers half full of wine on their heads. The great thing is to dance so as not to lose a single drop out of the tumbler, which result was attained with full success on this occasion, to the perfect delight of the population of Erasun and to the apparent satisfaction of the Pretender himself, who was looking out of the window, throwing now and then a duro (five-franc piece) to the most clever of the dancers. To march twenty miles over mountains and to dance and sing as soon as an hour's rest is given, seem quite natural to the Carlist Volunteers and the CAMPO DEL IION'OR. 17 Republican iiriny, recruited chiefly outside of tin- Vasco-Navivrre provinces, will liave ti loni; time to wait before it equals the Carlist voluiitrcrs in agility, endurance, and gaiety. On reaching Lei-sa, the largest of the villages on our way, we had a regular triunijihal entry. The place was brightly decorated, and the viliag-- square being a rather large one, a march past had been got up of all the troops we possessed, with the band playing, church bell ringing, and all the rest of it. U'he iniprefssion jiroduced on the inhabitants of Leisa nnist have been very strong indeed, for the landlady at whose house I had my quarters ,cut the throats of two Spring chickens and presented me with them, supposing, probably, that 1 liad something to do with the grand sight she had just witnessed. But, alas! though I had for several days not tasted any- thing beyond stale ammunition bread and ndserable ration mutton. I was too exhausted to be able even to look at the chickens. 'J'hey went straight into my saddle-bags and were on the next morning regularly devoured by a number of my companions in misfortune, stalV- ofllcers of the Pretender. All I saw of them (I mean of the chickens, not of the oflicers) was a rather dried up leg. V(.»L. II. C 18 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. But these triumphal entries and marches past occupied rather more time than we could safely afford, for when we reached Lecumberri the Pamplona column turned out to be only two hours behind lis, "chastising" the Lesaca inha- bitants for the reception they gave us. Matters began to look quite unpleasant, and we pushed off more smartly than ever with the view of effecting our object, which was to make a junc- tion with Dorregaray, It was only on the 24th of July, fully six days after his entry into Spain, that Don Carlos was out of danger of capture. There was an expres- sion of relief to be seen on everyone's face when, on approaching Salinas de Oro, Dorre- garay's forces, some four thousand five hundred strong, with two additional cannon appeared drawn up in order of battle on the surrounding hills. The Republican Commander-in-Chief, General Sanchez Bregua, having missed his chance, had nothing left but quietly to retire, ordering a general concentration of troops to be made at Vitoria, in the direction of which Don Carlos had evidently to move. Knowing, however, how slow the Republicans are in effecting all their movements, General Elio did not seem to take much notice of the enemy's prospective arrangements. The CAMPO DEL IION'OR. 10 (.^irllsts marched now ;is quietly forward as it" there was no enemy at all, enjoying anew no end of enthusiastic receptions inevery village and town, and having solemn military masses and Te Deum^t whenever a suitable occasion presented itself, that is to say, wherever any miracle has been formerly performed or some hermitage still preserved. lu this manner it was only on the 2i)th that we reached the neighbourhood of Vitoria, leaving thus the enemy fully Kve days to effectuate his con- centration. But no enemy was to be seen outside the walls of the city, in sight of which we then passed with all the smartness of a British army corps marching towards the field of its autunni exploits. Oidy at a place called Tres Puentes did we see some traces of the Republican cavalry ; but as no attack was made upon us wc pushed on, cut the railroad between Vitoria and i\Iiranda, stopped a train, took out of it eleven ofiicers going to reinforce the garrison of Vitoria, had them sent as prisoners to Las Amezcoas and marched off to Orduna, the ancient Basque city, from which our journey through Biscay was to begin. If Don Carlos could have had any doubts about his popularity in the Basque provinces, his journey through the rich i)rovince extending from the plains of Vitoria to the walls of Bilbao would have 2 20 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. finally dissipated tliera. British loyalty itself has never produced anything similar to the re- ceptions Don Carlos, his staff and the several thousand men marching with him had to enjoy at Ordufia, Durango, and Zornoza, not to speak of the numberless little villages situated between these towns. Besides the province being throughout Carlist, the "Biscayinos" knew that "His Majesty Charles VII.'s " object was to revive the old custom of the Kings of Spains giving their oath to the fueros under the traditional oak-tree at Guernica. True that the old oak under which Ferdinand and Isabella swore, in 1476, to uphold the Basque fueros had been long ago cut down and burned by the French, and that another planted in its place underwent the same treatment from the hands of Queen Christina's generals. But, some- how or other, there is still a big oak on the tra- ditional spot, with two young reserve trees by its side. On the 2nd of August an altar was dressed with the image of Nuestra Senora de la Antigua on it, and Don Carlos de Bourbon, in full uniform and surrounded by a numerous staff, rode down from Zornoza, not exactly to swear loyalty to the fueros, but to swear that he would come again and give his oath to uphold them when he had CAMPO DEL UONOR. 21 succeedod in conquering; the tlirduc of his rin- cestors, and when his coronation as Kin;; oi' Spains will have actually made him " Senor" of Biscay a. The ceremony was in every way a success, and the road from Zornoza to Guernica, a distance of about eight miles, was almost as thronged with people as Fleet-street on a Lord Mayor's show. Peasants and gentry from all parts of the country assembled to witness the cere- mony ; but, as only a few thousand people could possibly find access to Guernica itself, the great majority had to content themselves with a mere glance at the passing King, his staff and escort, only the most lucky of them succeeding in kissing the hand or the leg of Don Carlos, or perhaps even not more than the tail of his horse. Some of the old women got quite mad, cried bitterly, and one of them, in screaming out her " LhraruJo hablo r fell senseless under his white Andalusian stallion. Purposeless and unbusiness-like as all these military promenades of the Pretemler may look, I must confess my belief that Don Carlos has done more for his cause by this tiresome journey through Navarre, Alava, and Biscaya, than he could have done by half a dozen of those moun- tain "battles" in which several thousand cartridges 22 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. are used on both sides for the purpose of killing two and wounding three men. By showing him- self to the Vasco-Navarre population, he stimulated their enthusiasm, and revived the courage with which they have to bear the burden of the war.* He also put a stop to the very unfavourable stories which began to circulate with reference to the reasons of his absence. I was asked myself, by some of the peasants, whether it was true that Don Carlos was dead, and an Italian cobbler sub- stituted in his place, and by others whether it was true that he was living in Paris in debauchery. It was the least Don Carlos could have done, to come over and give the simple-minded highlanders at least the satisfaction of having a steady look at him for whom they sacrificed so readily their lives and their hard-earned pesetas. There was another point also in which his appearance on the Spanish soil and his promenade through the provinces had a favourable effect. * As far as a Spanish alcalde's statistics can be relied upon, OTer 70 per cent, of the yearly produce of the country was, in less tlian a year, swallowed up by the rations alone, both Carlist and Eepublican. At all events such was the statement made to me by the alcalde of Leisa ; and he added, that that was nothing when compared with the hardships imposed upon the peasants bj heavy money contributions. CAMPO DEL HONOR. 23 On the news of his arrival, Vchisco was not only able to brinix liis Bisc-aya hands to eight strong battalions, hut to get up a couple of CaBtilian battalions in aiKlition to tlieni. These two battalions formed iminediately the nucleus of a separate Castilian force, and before such a force has been got up there can be little thought of crossing the Ebro, for the provinces of Castile would not stand an invasion of Vasco-Navarre men. They will rise only in so ft\r as Carlism shall be represented to them by their own volun- teers, not by those of other provinces. The English press was constantly urging upon Don Carlos to cross the Ebro if he desired to be regarded with proper deference by London leader writers ; and in this the press showed an utter ignorance of Spanish affairs and Spanish character. In the first place, very few of the Vasco-Navarre volun- teers would care to march beyond the Ebro. They fight well and willingly at home, but they are neither fit nor disposed to carry on war in the plain. In the second, if Don Carlos entered Castile with three or four Castilian battalions and plenty of tire-arms, he could, within a few days, have quite an army there, which his Navarre and Basque troops would reinforce, and serve as a reserve to. But if he attempted to enter 24 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. The provinces of Castile only with the troops he has now, he would appear as a conqueror entering by the help of strangers, and would be received accordingly. By forming the two Castilian battalions, Velasco has built the first arch of the bridge by which Don Carlos may some day cross the Ebro. But if the entry of Don Carlos presented some real advantages, it had also a good many most comical sides. First of all, the attention which the Pretender and his courtiers paid to all the popular demonstrations of the peasants, which, after all, ought to be greatly attributed to the delight with which the simple-minded highlanders witnessed pageants, which they have, as a rule, so few chances of seeing, was perfectly ridiculous. Over and over again Don Carlos and his courtiers called my attention to petty demonstrations of loyalty and to the patriotic acclamations with which he was received by the population of the little mountain villages. There can be no doubt what- ever that these villagers are Carlistsat heart, and the best proof of it is in the willingness with which they sacrifice their life and property for the cause. But having had occasion to talk to the peasants after witnessing the shows, I became perfectly satisfied, from the rather pessimist view CAMPO DEL IIOKOIl. 25 wliicli tlicy took of things in general, that as f;ir lis royul pageants are concerned, they would ho just as niurh interested in a circus cortege, with camel and elephant, passing through their pro- vinces. They wanted simply a spectacle, and that is what Don Carlos presented to them — mounted as he was on a handsome horse, and surrounded by a hrilliant stall', njion the fornia- tiou and arrangements of which he has, 1 believe, bestowed more thought than on any other subject in the whole of his life. The Times correspon- dent sketches Don Carlos in the following terms : — " The Republican journals of Madrid iiave described Don Carlos as being a mere tool in tlic hands of designing agents. This is an absurd fabriciition. There arc few men less easily led, either in politics or military matters, for, to sound com- mon sense, and a keen knowledge of cliaracter, he adds a cer- tain amount of Teutonic obstinacy and perseverance, qualities which make him either a friend to bo admired, or a foo who cannot be trilled with. Very liberal in his opinions, and far from being a bigot in religious matters, his favourite maxim is, that with Spaniards ' two and two do not make four,' and ho eays the nation must be tauglit its mistakes by degrees, ami not be pulled up too soon." {Times, September 15th, Letter from tho Royalist hcad-quartors ) The impression which the Pretender produced upon myself, and which 1 tried to describe in 2Q SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. another chapter, somewhat diflfers from that pro- duced on the able representative of the great journal, and I am almost sure that had he seen the Pretender for a longer period, and not when he was addressing the Times, but while he stood " at ease," or was exhibiting himself in his military- promenades, he would perhaps have looked at him from a different point of view. But what- ever may be the correct opinion on the individual character of Don Carlos, he seems to have in himself some stuff of which a fair Constitutional Sovereign could be made, but he requires to be taught a good many serious lessons before he gets to power; for, in the present condition of his ideas and views, he is no more fit to govern a people than the author of these pages is fit to be Archbishop of Canterbury. Besides having lost six weeks of the most precious time in the best season of the year, when his troops, by taking advantage of the critical position of the Republican Government, might have captured all the large towns in the north of Spain, Don Carlos, by his pushing towards the front, has considerably paralyzed the movements of the Carlist army, for the value which is attached CAMPO DKL HONOR. 27 to the safety of his person causes his p;enerals constantly to clctach consi(h'ral)h' forces to protect him. lie is seldom left with so few as two or three thousand men ; sometimes seven, ei^^ht, and even ten thousand troops were marching with him, and whenever a Republican column was en- countered, unless it was very weak, battles were almost invariably declined, on account of the danger of His Majesty's capture. Sometimes even worse things occurred. One fine morning, early in September, Don Carlos had the fancy to take a sea-bath, and olT was his column marched to Lequeitio. Meanwhile Lizarraga, who was then near Tolosa, gets a chance of striking a good blow at the enemy. But he wants more forces, and so he despatches a request to His Majesty to send them up, and occupies the position. But the despatches do not find either the bathing Don Carlos or his force, and so Lizarraga not only misses the opportunity of licking the enemy, but gets licked himself. Practically speaking, Don Carlos became an ob- struction, standing in the way of the Legitimist army, and if the Republicans had only had one good general, they might, within the first six weeks after the Pretender's entry into Spain, have put an end to the whole Carlist insurrec- 28 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. tion. But, iinliappily for the young Republic, they have neither commanders nor money to pay the troops, who marched well and obeyed orders only when liberally paid. I shall never forget an episode which oc- curred with us during our journey through Biscay a. Thanks to Renter's telegrams, all Europe be- lieved, in the first days of August last, that Don Carlos was marching with the whole of his force on Bilbao, which was then besieged by six batta- lions of Velasco's troops. The truth was that we never approached Bilbao nearer than within ten or twelve miles, and that none of the Carlist generals would have allowed the Pretender to throw himself, with nearly the whole of his army, into a venture which, if unsuccessful, would not have left him any other chance of escape but that of throwing himself into the sea, since all the Republican forces were concentrated at Vitoria, and could come to the rescue of Bilboa within something like twenty-four hours. Still the news, spread in London and Paris that we were march- ing that way, was transmitted to Sanchez Bregua, and caused him to move with something like eleven thousand men and a considerable number of cannons from Vitoria on the same day we were CAMPO DEL HONOR. 29 wituessing the Cliicriiica ccreinony. Every one at the head-quarters of Don Curios thouglit at first the news to be a false rumour, and .so we started next morning quietly back to Alava and Navarre. All at once, as we were half way to Durango, the confirmation of the previous day's report arrived to us, and though -.vc could muster nearly ten thousand men, the presence of Don Carlos caused General Elio, instead of accepting battle, to return back to Zornoza. in order to watch from a little village behind the town what the enemy's intentions were. The comical point, however, was that the Republicans learned of our march almost at the same time as we learned of theirs, and that they did exactly the same thing that we did — that is to say, that they turned their backs to us, and marched oft' to Vergara, leaving us to do what we ])leased. In this way the two armies presented the curious sight of apparently marching on each other, and making a " right- about face" as soon as it became evident that they must meet. The fact was, however, that Sanchez Bregua, believing from the London telegrams re-telegraphed to him that the Car- lists were going to attack Bilbao, wanted to rush at them from the rear, when they woukl 30 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. be likely to be engaged in street fighting. But as soon as he learned that they had no intention of exposing themselves to such an emer- gency, he began to suspect that their plan was to draw him out of Vitoria and meet him on the road, a thing which he objected to on account of the advantageous positions on the heights which the Carlists might have taken. Having in this way got rid of the Republican commander-in-chief and his eleven thousand men, we quietly marched through Alava and the whole of Navarre towards Pamplona, within sight of which we passed, turned off north-east, took, almost without a shot, a couple of forts close to the Aragon frontier, and after having pro- menaded for about a fortnight more, marched towards Estella, where some real business was to be begun, and were Don Carlos took, for the first time, part in active war- fare. " So that, after all, you must have had rather a quiet and pleasant time of it," might remark the reader " after having been initiated into the operations of Don Carlos during the Summer months." CAMPO DEL HONOR. 31 "Well, that is a matter of opinion," would he my answer. To purposelessly march day and nights, frequently as much as thirty or forty miles a day ; never to know where you will have to stop, or at what time you will have to start; frequently without a shelter till very late at night, and still more frequently devoured by vermin when under a shelter; exposed all day to a burning sun, with little to eat except stale am- munition bread, and a piece of mutton which your servant chars under the pretence of cooking; all that, and a good many things be- sides, do not constitute exactly a pleasant sort of life. For men of good health the experi- ment niight have proved very hurtful ; at all events, I saw a good many who, although they came in perfectly good health, became sickly in a fortnight. But to used-up indi- viduals of the journalistic and literary class, locked up, as a rule, the greater part of their life in their rooms, at tiresome and dull work, sometimes for twelve and fourteen hours a day, with an accompaniment of sleepless nights and all the rest of it, a Carlist campaign may prove quite a beneficial change. At all events, Buch was my experience, for when I started from London 1 could not read without glasses, and 32 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. through my not having seen a single book during six months, the improvement in my sight alone was quite a blessing, not to speak of the in- fluence which the fresh air of the mountains, and the constant riding produced on an exhausted frame. I often thought that with reference to health Carlist campaigning very much resem- bled gambling. Those who entered into it with anything to lose, were pretty sure to be the worse oif for the venture, while those who risked but little might possibly be gainers. The only element of which our Campo del Honor life was perfectly devoid, was dulness. Idleness was, of course, quite an unknown thing amidst a state of aftairs in which five or six con- secutive hours' rest was all a man could have a chance of getting. If it happened now and then that a whole day's repose from marching was given, there were plenty of things to be attended to. Saddles and bags arranged ; bits, stirrups, and spurs polished (a work of which your Na- varre servant would obstinately refuse to see the necessity) ; horses shod, or their sore backs dressed ; some old woman to be hunted up suffi- ciently indifferent to gossiping with the vohai- tarios to undertake the washing of your linen; CAMPO UKL HON'on. \V.\ jK'rliaps a liatli to l»c taken in sonic (Irit'd-np stream, or a shave at the shop of a vilhige Figaro, lint the getting up of " fine dinners" was tlu- prevailing occupation on siicli occasions, and look always the greater ])ortion of the day. 11" the halt happened to lie in a t(jwii, various delicacies in the shape of fruit, vegetables, or eggs coidd he sometimes discovered; while, if it was as usual, at some miscrahle but pretty safe mountain village, excursions iiiti) the valley had U) be made to get something more inviting than the ordinary rations. The details of one or two of such ex- cursions will be suiliciently characteristic to give a general idea of the rest. I messeil with 15aroii T.arbier, the French gen- tleman I iiH'iitioned before. The wretched diet we were living upon made us at times quite de- sponding; we, however, managed to iniprovt- things by buying, for the considerable sum of twenty-two duros (.£4 !>.•<. 10(/.), a little Navarre animal, which was neither a horse, nor a mule, nor an ass, but something of each of them to harness it with alfuvjas, and to load it with our luiTiraiie and such ])rovisions as we could occii- sionally get from France. As a ride, the latter consisted of a few pots of " Liebig's Extract," a few boxes of sardines, a ball of Dutch cheese, VOL. II. D 34 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. and similar not very perisliable articles. The great chemist's meat extract proved quite in- valuable. About half a spoonful of it put into the liquid of boiled potatoes and onions, with a good deal of salt and pepper, gave always an excellent soup, and thus with the aid of our perambulating pantry, we sometimes managed to get up quite comfortable meals. One day, how- ever, when we were at a village about three or four miles from Lecumberri, our provisions be- came exhausted, and nothing was to be obtained except some goat's milk, which Barbier's servant succeeded in extorting from the supjDlies of our landlady by making desperate love to her. The important question arose now in what shape the inilk should be served, and, after due considera- tion, we decided to convert it, with the aid of some /ideos (vermicelli), or some rice, into milk soup. Neither of these ingredients was, however, to be found nearer than Lecumberri, and so off Ave started at once. It was late in the afternoon, rain and darkness set in before we reached the place. My companion had, into the bargain, a savage stallion, always walking on his hind legs, as if objecting to his being considered a quad- ruped. The beast was altogether a match to my unbroken " showy" mare, so that there was be- CAMPO DEL HONOR. 35 tween them, as usual, a scries of violent attempts to fight iluring the journey. l*>ut on arriviiif^ at Lecumln-rri we were i'ully ivpaiil for our trouble, for after a couple of hours' search we found not only vermicelli, but potatoes, coffee, sugar, and a coui)le of bottles of Muscat wine, and a pound or so of nuiiiteca, a semi-liloits of the London police, they have cer- tainly done little in the way of running persons in. Even the Royal household itself did not present an aspect to much solemnity or seriousness. Though it comprised a bishop, a military secre- tary to the King, two chamberlains, lour orderly officers, and half a dozen of old generals com- manding the force protecting ns, all of them, including the King himself, were too frequently seen in deshabille to ])reserve, even in the eyes of Spanish Royalists, the prestige they might have otherwise secured. Truly speaking, the majority of stafl-officers disliked to follow Don Carlos, for they were much better lodged, and had moreo[iportuni- 40 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. ties of procuring provisions when they were follow- ing some less brilliant detachment. It frequently happened during our marches, that, for the sake of placing the Pretender in a position of safety, our head-quarters were established somewhere on the top of a mountain, in a village consisting, perhaps, of only a couple of dozen houses, in which accom- modation had to be found for a staff of some fifty or sixty persons, with several horses each, and two or three thousand rank and file. And as Don Carlos is a man who does not particularly interest himself in the comfort of others, provided his own wants are attended to, the members of the staff had frequently to content themselves with accommodation at the best only fit for pigs. Yet it must be admitted at the same time that the Pretender's own comfort was not always of a high class. I frequently found, when calling on him, that he had to sleep on the floor on account of the chinches (an annoying insect known to the J\largate lodging-house keepers, under the musical denomination of B flat). Nor was his table always luxuriantly supplied, for, except in large towns, where a Avealthy cure, a merchant, or landed pro- prietor offered his hospitality, it was conducted on the mess principle. The members of the CAMPO OKL Honor. 41 Koviil liousfhoUl had their usuul Dflicors' rations* served out U) thciii, Don Curios' cook and the posi'ntdiliir, or (iiiartcr-master, wlio were always sent on in advance, securing; what addi- tional provisions could be Tound. But, in many cases, the resources of the villages were so i>oor that not much could be obtained even I'or I'd Key, Xuestro Seiior. Don • Carli-st rations consisted of 1 Jibs, of breiid, Jib. of incut, and a pint of wine. OUicers of all ranks received double rations, and a quantity (very insulUcicut) of grain for one horse. The otlicers' allowance was also granted to newspaper correspondents, who would have starved otherwise ; but of course they had to pay for their rations. Here is a copy of a pass and ration order, which I still preserve as a souceuir of uiy past tribula- tions : — " Hecrelaria de Campana de S. M. " Permitase circular librcmcnte en el tcrritorio ocupado por las fuerzas del Key N. S. al Sr D" N. L T , corrcsponsal especial del ' Heraldo de Nueva York,' facilitandole las autori- dades alojamiento y racioncs que el S"" D" N. L. T t^atis- fan'i al precio de coutrata. " Cimrtel ileal de Zubiri. Doco do Agosto de 1873. " El Brigadier, Secretario de S. M. " I. DE IrAUKAGVIKBE." Stamp of tlie Kcal { J unta Gubemativa I del Kejno de 1 Kavarra. 42 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. Carlos, however, ver}^ frequently enjoj^ed pre- serves and pasUy, which were amply supplied to him from the nunneries we had to pass, and which he was most generous in sharing with the staff attaches. Justice requires me to state here that the amiable Spanish nuns excel in these preparations, and more especially in the confec- tion of a kind of thick quince marmalade, which excels in delicacy anything I have ever before tasted in the same line. In a life of this sort, entertainment or change is seldom looked for, as every hour is a change in some way, and every minute is entertainment, though by no means always of a pleasant nature. But even those who might have looked for entertainment in the usual sense of the word, could not feel disap- pointed. In the first place, if battles were not to be witnessed every day, skirmishes were never wanting, and one could always, if he felt disposed, get up a little expedition on his own ac- count. One of Elio's aid-de-camps and nephews. Captain Tristan Barraute, frequently made an opportunity for some such pastime when he began to feel dull at head-quarters. On one occasion he CAMPO DEL IIOXOR. 43 crossi'd (lie Kliro, and |»iisli('(l towards r^D.^^'raao with a liaiidrni (if ci-ack iiilaiitrv and ravalrv, equally smart in atta<-k and in lli^lit ; ainl (lie dash with which they crossed the river was equalled oidy hy (he celerity with which they recrossed it on the next day. Very l'n'(|iu'ntly that pdlant oflicer disappeared from head- quarters, no one knowing' whitlu'r he had ii:one, and in a few days it would turn out that he had had news of an enemy's column about to pass throUL::h some {ijorj^e, where he at once i>roeeedey midnight, every one of the party was raised to the highest pitch of gaiety and had ilis- covered singing capacities in himself. Choruses were struck up, and off marched the coni- l)any to the town square in wdiich Don (Jarlos's house was situated, A popular chant, with a kind of thumlering ir/ntut, •• Viva rl Key," awoke everybody in the neigh- bourhood. Doll Carlos, who was occupied with some of his generals, came out on the balcony, and the windows of every house on the jjIuzu 46 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. soon showed a numberless array of liuman beings in the most varied night garments, illu- mined by a splendid moonshine. In a few minutes everyone of these spectators joined in the chorus. The effect of this mass of voices resounding amidst the soft calm of a Southern Summer night, and alternating with the solo melody and the guitar notes of our Andalusian minstrel, really baffles all attempts at description. Don Carlos seemed so charmed that, anxious to prolong the pleasure as long as he could, he allowed a considerable time to pass before he sent the serenaders the usual invitation to step up to his house, where liqueurs, sweets, and cigars were prepared for them, and the whole of the Royal household assembled. As there was a piano in the drawing-room, and one of the chamberlains appeared to be an excellent musician, not only was the singing continued, but dancing was added to it, and it may, perhaps, be of some interest to the British public to know that the palm for national Spanish dancing was on that night carried off by an Englishman. A stout, powerful man, of fully forty years of age, my worthy colleague, had succeeded in mastering the fandango as few Spaniards ever did. And this was not the only point which rendered him quite CAMPO DKL IIuNuU. -17 a notoriety amoiij^ tlio Carlists. As soon as lio arrived in tlieir canjp, he entered so thoroughly into their ways and manners as to dress, live, and inarch like the connnon V(diniteers, He was frequently to be seen on iot)t, marchin;^ with the cohniuis, in lK'iii|K'n sandals, Carlistcap, and a red woollen scarl", worn as a waist-band (joja). Twenty and thirty miles a day, under a burning sun, were nothing to him, and garlic and rancid oil seemed to have become his greatest luxuries. His natural serenity never abandoned him in the midst of all these fatigues and privations, excei)t, perhaps, when there was a day's rest, which he always intended to spend in the enjoyment of a sound sleep, which, however, was ell'ectually distiu'bed by the constant ringing of the church bells. His invariable remark, on being awakened on such occasions, was: "I wish people were not so con- foundedly religious in this country." Sometimes we had also entertainments of a somewhat dilleivnt nature, as, for instance, a whohisale couimunion of the Carlist army at the Convent of Loyola. A visit to the Casa Solar, where the founder of the Jesuits was born, and to the si>lendid cathedral, which has been built on the spot, is by itself interesting. To see the old Manjuis Valdespinas rushing about the convent to 48 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. show every one the pLice where himself and a few other Carlist leaders were educated, the dormitory they slept in, the garden in which they took their recreation, and the room where they were punished by the holy brothers of the Order of Jesus, is very curious. But to witness battalion after battalion, headed by a numerous staff, kneeling down to partake of the Holy Sacrament, is quite a sight, to which the spectator's con- viction of the profound religious devotion with which every one of these men was animated, gave quite a touch of solemnity. Now and then we had also festivities like those by which the arrival in camp of Don Juan, father of the Pretender, and of Don Alphonso and Dona Maria de las Nieves, was celebrated. The recep- tion of Don Carlos' father, who has the reputation of being an old liberal could not, of course, be compared for heartiness with the welcome given to the brother of the Pretender, and especially to his sister-in-la\v. And sure it is that Doila Maria, who has shared now for more than a year her husband's camp life in Catalonia, has fully earned the rather violent demonstrations of sympathy with which she was greeted on her arrival at Estella. How far her campaigning in the moun- CAMPO DEL HONOR. 4^.) tains of Ciitiiloiiia is lulviintiij^eous or (It'sirublf, is another quest ion. l>iit the fact thai tiie Trincess has shared all the luinlships of iier husbiiml. in winter as in summer, and that even in the most critieal moments she was always cheering and eneouraj^ing the Volunteers by a smile or a kiml word, was quite enough to render her the idol ol every Carlist, young or old, soldier or general. By her appearance alone she would produce a sensation in any large popular gathering. About twenty-one years of age, a fair little blonde with slightly ciu-Jed hair, dressed in a kind of hussar blue and black riding habit, trimmed with fur. and a gold tasselled white Carlist cap which she coquettishly wears on one side — she looked on her coal black charger quite like one of those little fancy amazons printed on sweatmeat-boxes. And the sight of a little picture of that sort riding out of its frame into real life is certainly one that would make any one stop 'to look at it. So it is not to be wondered at that, not only the Carlist Volunteers, but all the inhabitants of Estella and its neighbourhood, poured out en jnasse on the road to Abarzuza to meet the Princess and Prince, whose presence at the Koyalist head-tjuarters was for two or tlu'ee days the cjiuse of the wildest excitement. Masses, VOL. IL K 50 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. music, dancing, fireworks, did not cease until everybody was perfectly exhausted. Yet what seemed on all such occasions really quite surprising to any man with British notions of popular festivities, Avas the unnatural absence of policemen, drunken people, and fights. This peculiarity did not even escape the attention of the Times correspondent, who, describing similar rejoicings which took place on the occasion of the Carlist victory at Dicastillo, wrote on the 28th of August to his journal :— " Our last day at Estella was a gala one for the inhabitants. Carlist bands played national tunes in the squares until a late hour, fireworks were let off in honour of the occasion, and every arailable spot was occupied by hundreds of men and women, slowly gyrating to Provincial au's, jotas, and other popular Basque dances. A very good-humoiu'ed crowd it was, too. Nowhere could I hear any sounds of discord, and, notwithstand- ing the unlimited supply of wine freely lavished by the good folks of Dicastillo on the soldiery, not a symptom of drunken- ness displayed itself." Another kind of amusement at the Campo del Honor, consisted in the opening of the mails — not of ours, of course, for we had never any regular communication with the outer world, but of those of the Republicans. To capture these mails and forward them to the head-quarters was the duty of flying parties. CAMPO DEL HOXOR. '>^ Somotiines two or three liirj^e trunks were seized on their Wiiy to Pamplona or Franco, and wliile the otlicial correspondence was •^t)ne throiij^h by some of the generals, private letters were distri- buted among the officers of the staff. The reading of the missives on a long tiresome march was quite a treat in its way; some of the letters being so comical as to raise roars of laughter as they passed from hand to hand through the whole of the staff. As a matter of course, the Carlists had frequently to read very unpleasant things that were said about themselves. Military com- munications forwarded by the (lovernnient of Madrid, for safety's sake, in ladies' handwriting and in fashionable little envelopes were also often discovered. Now and then an officer was called out and presented with an order for his arrest issued by the Ministry of War, wliich had been informed of his Carlist tendencies ; but as a matter of course the information had not reached the Minister until the officer had had time to leave his regiment and join the army of Don Carlos, when he could ]»ockrt the order as a jtleasant souvenir. Sometimes gentk-nu-n on the staff re- ceived in that way tradesmen's bills, which, having been sent for payment to their houses at Madritl. were thence forwarded to Bayonue and captured E 2 52 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. on their way. The handing of such bills to their proper recipient was always a treat to the whole company, who were always intensely amused at the bewildered look with which the bill-running officers contemplated the trick which fate had played on them. More than once, I believe, the secrets of ladies, friends and relatives of one or other of the officers, were thus disclosed to the very persons from whom the ladies were probably most anxious to conceal them. Traces of such reading entertainments were always to be seen for several days on the road we passed, by the bits of torn papers scattered along the ground for two or three miles. Foreign letters were, how- ever, as far as I know, always forwarded to Bayonne, unless they looked particularly suspi- cious. Once, at all events, I remember, on my going for a couple of days to France, being handed a considerable number of them addressed chiefly to London, with a request to post them at St.- Jean-de-Luz. I fancy some of the recipients must have become quite wild on being asked to pay double postage from France for letters apparently prepaid in Spain, and probably bombarded the Postmaster-General with complaints of the shame- ful extortions to which they were subjected. Some of them, perhaps, niyy even have written CAMPO DEL HONOR. 53 indignant protests to the 'D'lncs, iiistc:irro DEL HONOR. f)? tervcniii^i^ coiijile of hours of (li.it twiliglit men si'iMii always so to dt-liLrlit in. Tliere is Kcarcely any interval here between the lila/.ing day and the pitch-black night. In tiie harvest season you frequently see the slopes of the hills and the valleys illuminated : work is going on under torchlight. 'J'lie heat of the day reiuh'rs field labour slow, and sometimes quite impracticable. Besides, the ajiprehension of a change in the weather, or a raid of the enemy — of a column of los Xe(j)'Os, los JAhendefi — compels the Navarre annnna Maria II. Upon the strength of the (Jnadrni)le Allianee, coneluded between England, Franee, Portugal, and the new Madrid Government, as soon as Christina acquired power in her ca])aeity of Regent. l>on Carlos began to be rather sharply jnirsued bv bnth Portuguese and Christina's trooj)S under Kodil, and after having passed through all sorts of tribulations, and having lost everything that he jiossesscd, even to the linen of his wife and ehildren, he had ti» fly to England. It was (juite in aceordance with the views of the English (iovernnient to help Don Carlos in his escape, lor what the Quadruple Alliance chiefly aimed at, was that the Peninsula should get rid of both Dom Miguel and Don Carlos. Consequently as soon as the latter expressed his desire to go, Admiral Parker, and Mr. (Irant. Secretary to the English Legation at Portugal, readily arranged everything for the safe escape of the Pretender. The English shij), ' Donegal,' Captain F;insl:awe, took the whole of the Pretender's familv on loard 62 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. at Aldea Gallega, on the 1st of June, 1834, and sailed for Portsmouth. On reaching the English shore, Don Carlos was met by some local authorities, and by Mr. Back- house, Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, who handed him a letter from Lord Palmerston, in which it was stated that any- thing the Under-Secretary should propose, might be considered as emanating from him, Lord Palmerston himself. The proposal made was a thoroughly British one : Don Carlos should give up his claims to the crown, take a round sum in cash, and a handsome life pension from the Spanish Government, guaranteed by England. Don Carlos had always refused proposals of this nature and could certainly not accept it now when risings in his favour had already broken out all over the North of Spain. Zumalacarregui, having taken the command of the forces, was making rapid pro- gress with the organisation of the Carlist army which proved afterwards capable of resisting the united forces of all the allies, and to carry on a desperate war for more than seven years. On the 22nd of June the family of Don Carlos reached London, and took apparently permanent quarters at Gloucester Lodge, the former resi- THE SEVEN YEARb' WAK. G3 deuce of Mr. Caiiiiiii^. A niinour was soon juir- j)Osely spread that Don ( !:irli)s was daiigorously ill, and no one was allowed to sue hiui. ^J'liis was, however, but a uianceuvre to enable hiui more easily to leave England, to enter Spain, and to |iiit liiniselt'at the head ol" his tro()i)s. M. Xavier Auguet de St. Sylvaiu (Baron de los Vales) was the only gentleman attending him during this adventurous journey. They provided them- selves with passj)orts in the name of Alphonse Saez and Thomas Saiibot, merchants from Trinidad, and, as in the case of the more recent flight of Serrano, the Prince's moustache was shaved, bis hair was dyed, and be started from a friend's bouse in Wei beck Street to Brighton, I)ieppe, Paris, Bordeaux, and Bayonne, bis wife and family remaining in England. Dona Maria Francisca never saw her husband again, as she soon died at Alverstock, near Portsmouth, while Don Carlos reached Elizondo on the 8tb of July, 1834, not to leave Spain again before the close of the war in Decend»er, lH'MK In going over these old stories, one is puzzled at the sameness of the manner in which the whole of the Carlist business is carrieil on. Some one is invariably escaping to England, there obtaining 64 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. means to carry on tlie enterprise, and returning to Spain again; there is always an English party that objects to and interferes with the movement, and another that supports it. Even the roads by which communications are kept up are the same: it is always by Bordeaux, Ba- yonne, Doncharinea, Urdax, and Elizondo. The very fields upon which the battles are fought are exactly the same, as are also frequently the posi- tions occupied by the troops of the two con- tending parties. Before leaving Portugal, Don Carlos wrote to Zumalacarregui that he would be with him on the 9th of June, and so he was. Fully ten months had thus passed between the first out- break of Carlism and the arrival of the Pretender on Spanish territory. The Legitimist move- ments which took place in Madrid itself and in the province of Castile immediately after the death of Ferdinand were soon subdued, the Volunteers having been disarmed and partly shot, partly deported. It was only in Biscaya, Alava, and Navarre, that the Carlists proved capable of making a stand. The ftither of the Marquis "Valdespinas, whom we have often mentioned, and Brigadiers Zavala and Uranga were at the THE SKVF.N years" WAR. G.5 head of tln^ inovcinoiit in llie two forim r jiro- viuces, while General Santos-Lad roii took com- mand of the first bands that began to form tln-m- selves in Navarre. On the 11th of October, l^'.V/), not fully a fortnight after the death of Ferdi- nand, and when Santos-Ladmn had but eight hundred badly armed volunteers under his com- mand, he was attacked near Estella by lirigadier Lorenzo, was defeated, captured, carried to Pam- plona, and shot in the ravine of the citadel of that town. That was the signal for a war to the death all tliroiigh the North of Spain. ^lajor Ittu'ralde took the temporary command of the bands until Colonel Erase, who was to succeed Santos-Ladron, had returned from France, where he had to ily from the pm'.suits of the Christinos. But Iturralde, for some reason or other, did not suit the Navarrese volunteers, and Colonel Don Tomas Zumalacarregui soon becauM; the man towards whom the Carlists turned their eyes. He had been with Eraso a colonul in th(; regular army ; both enjoyed the reputation of being excellent otficers ; and both were i)laced on the retired list during the last year of Ferdinand's reign on account of their Carlist proclivities. Zumalacarregui had also the advantage of VOL. u. F 6Q SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. being a man de nosotros (of ourselves) to the Volunteers, having- been born in the village of Ormaistegui in the Gnipuzcoa, in 1788. An officer of comniancling appearance and one who knew both how to speak to the Volunteers, and to inspire them with the belief that he could do something, he soon was acclaimed as commander- in-chief, notwithstanding the protestation of Iturralde, who in a few months of his leadership displeased almost everybody, and had not fought a single fight. Scarcely had Zumalacarregui taken his command, when Eraso succeeded in escaping from France and reached the Carlist camps ; but seeing the new chief already at work, and knowing his abilities, he at once agreed to accept a post under him^ and the two men went on to labour together at the organisation of their army. Their first en- gagement with Brigadier Lorenzo took place in the last days of December, 1833, and was a failure, as were also several more of the subsequent fights. But Zumalacarregui did not despair. In fact, he seems to have rather liked to be partially beaten, for little defeats trained his troops into more thorough guerillas, and, on the other hand, rendered the enemy care- less and conceited, and thus assured the subse- THE SEVEN YEARS' WMl. 07 quent successes of the Ciirlists. Ileliad on liaiitl an excellent raw li^htinj; material in the si-nii-savage huls of the Northern ]>rovinces, while retin-il soldiers of 1812 and 1S28 fi^ave him an oppor- tunity of forming excellent cadres. What he wanted was arms, and these he could get almost exclusively from the enemy. Consequently he couceivccl the ])lan of allowing himself to he beaten by large forces, provided at the same time some partida volante (Hying party) of his was likely to capture somewhere in the rear of the victorious enemy a transport of guns or annnuni- tion. These partidas volantes wliirh have since been so useful to the Carlists, the raids of which had spread such terror all over Spain and became the source of all the " dreadful Carlist stories '' told abroad, were Zumalaearregui's invention. lie found ready material for them in the pro- vincial aduaneros and contrabiuidhtas* each of * Here b anotlier rather curious peculiarity to be noticed as cliaraeteristic of the Vasco-NavaiTc provinces. Eacli of these pro- vinces has, in accordance with iXiefueros, its own independent system of custom-house duties. Navarre wine, for instance, is not allowed to pass free into Guipuzcoa or Alava. Tobacco or e/V/a/-- ritoa manufactured at Vitoria have to pay heavy duties before they reach Pamplona, and so on. Consequently, besides the foreign custom-houses on the frontiers of ispaiu, there are pro- vincial ones all along the borders of every province. The F 2 68 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. whom knew every ambush throughout the country, and who, not being able to carry on their avocation in the provinces where war was going on, will- ingly joined his ranks; while every child and every woman was a natural spy supplying Zuma- lacarregui with the necessary Information. In this wise, while he exposed himself with two or three battalions to an apparently certain defeat, and while the Christines generals sent to Madrid despatch after despatch announcing the complete route of the Carlists, a couple of Zumalacarregui's partidas volantes attacked somewhere in a narrow gorge a small detachment or captured a military train, and supplied him with means for arming fresh troops. By the Spring of the following year he had thus formed quite a little army, and one which former are in charge of tlie caralineros, the latter of the aduaneros, the distinction being here about the same as that between officers of the douane and those of the octroi in France. But as all custom-houses produce smugglers, the pro- vincial custom-house gave birth to provincial smugglers, inde- pendent of smugglers in foreign wars. In time of peace the aduaneros and the contrahandistas are sworn enemies, carrying sometimes furious war upon each other ; but as soon as a Carhst rising breaks out, and they have to give up their re- spective businesses, they immediately fraternize, enter the same bands and turn into the most desperate sort of guerillas that can be met with. TIIE SEVEN tears' WAR. 69 was all the iiioro vjiluablo as it not only luol experience of fire, but experience of defeat. It is said that the two battalions of guides lie had formed were practically renewed every four months, all the ollicers and men being usually killed within that period. And these battalions, with their black flags, each with a death's head on it, and their merciless custom of never either making prisoners or surrendering themselves to the enemy, soon obtained them such a reputation that often columns four or times their strength took to flight at the mere news of their ap- proach. While thus engaged in the work of preliminary organisation, Zumalacarregui managed to obtain twice some little success over the enemy, and to capture the foundry at Orbaiceta, which supi»licd him with a considerable quantity of ammunition, and the village of Zubiri, where he made fifty horsemen prisoners, the majority * of whom he incorporated with his force and shot the rest, at the same time appropriating their horses of which he was just then greatly in want His troops not exceeding at the outset one thousand five hundred men were now nearly doubled, and he was able to begin some more important operations, not abandouing, however, 70 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. his practice of tiring his enemy by long marches and petty skirmishes, of cutting off his provisions, and attacking his rear and flanks when he least expected it. General Valdez, who was then Commander-in-Chief of the Christinos, having been chiefly engaged in pursuing the Carlist bands of Biscaya and Alava, then more numerous than those of Navarre, did not take much notice of Zumalacarregui ; but the Madrid Government soon perceived that the new Carlist chief in Navarre was more dangerous than all the others put together, and consequently, accusing Valdez for his inactivity, dismissed him, and ap- pointed in his place the famous Quesada with some very stringent orders for the extermination of the rebels. The new Commander-in-Chief, by no means a man to whom there was any necessity of repeating twice an order of that sort, inaugurated his campaign in the Vasco- Navarre provinces by a series of most abomin- able massacres, mercilessly putting to death all whom he suspected of Carlist sympathies. Zumala- carregui, on learning that, sent him several mes- sages to say that he would be compelled to deal with the Christinos in the same manner, and from that time the practice of wholesale shooting of prisoners became the general rule in both camps. THE SEVEN 'iT.ARS' WAR. 71 nnriiii,^ the Sprini; of ls;M, Ziiinal;icrirro;i;ni, while still ^^oiii<; on with the arniaineiit of his forces, was ahle to fi.i^ht several hat ties with Qiicsada ; once, at all events, inflicting npon him a serious defeat, capturing his aid-de-camp, O'Donnell (Count of La Bisbal), and shooting him with the rest of tlie prisoners.* Towards June, however, when the war in I^)rtugal was brought to a close, and Rodll's corps became thus disengaged, the Government of Christina ordered it to march at once against the Carlists, and Zumalacarregui had thus one more army to struggle against. But he had then already fifteen thousand men under arms, and besides that, the arrival of Don Carlos provoked such an enthusiasm throughout the North of Spain that Zimialacarregui had much more means given him for carrying on the contest. The presence of Don Carlos gave also another advantage to the • Tlioro were not less than five O'Donnells in the field at tlmt time. Tliej were all of Irish origin, and near relations. Two were serving on Christina's side, and three on the Carlist side. All of them, with the exeoption of Leopoldo, subsequent Iv Dulio of Tetuan, were eillior killed in or shot after battle. Even the surviving member of that warlike family, the well- known ifinistor of Isabella, was sliort of one leg, lost at the battle of Argnijas. 72 SPATN AND THE SPANIARDS. skilful guerilla chief. The Pretender became an excellent dodge for dividing the forces of the enemy and deceiving the generals of Christina. It be- came now the tactics of Zumalacarregui to send Don Carlos with the main bod}^ of the troops in a certain direction, and when the Christinos had rushed after him, to attack them in the rear or flank with a less numerous, but more select force. The terror he thus spread among the Christinos seems to have gone beyond any human control. So important indeed became now the losses of the Christinos, and so great was the number of generals and superior officers — among them several grandees of Spain — killed on the battle-field, or captured and shot, that the Madrid Government was quite alarmed and sent out the famous Mina to replace Rodil in the command of the army. But things did not improve much on that account. One day Vitoria having been left badly protected, Zumalacarregui took advantage of this, attacked, almost under the walls of the town, a column of Brigadier O'Doyle; two thousand five hun- dred men were slaughtered on that occasion, all the cannons and colours falling into the hands of the Carlists. O'Doyle himself, with the whole of his staff", including a younger THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR. 73 brother of liis, were captured and executed on tlio spot. TIic two brothers O'Doylc stood einbraciug each other when the balls struck tliem. In this way Zunialacarregui defeated one by one the columns of Amor, Osma, Cordova, Espartero, Iriarte, Quintana, and Jauregui. The cruelty of this warfare by the beginning of 1835 reached its climax, Mina getting more and more enraged through the successes which the skilful Carlist chieftain obtained over him, notwithstanding all the sui)eriority of numbers and the more com- plete armaments of Christina's army. Mina had so completely lost heart that, instead of continuing war against the Carlist volunteers, he simply carried on raids on the country, burning whole villages, and massacring and torturing every man he suspected of being in any way favourable to the Carlists. The, (Jovennnent of ^ladritl, seeing that things did not improve, recalled Mina, and appointed once more (leneral Valdi'Z. It was about this time (Spring, 183.')), that Lord Mliot came over to Spain to try, if it was possible, to put a stop to the cruelties perpetrated by Spaniards on both sides, which provoked a deep feeling of horror throughout Europe. After 74 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. a good deal of negotiation, Lord Eliot succeeded in making both Valdez and Zumalacarregui sign, in April, 1835, a convention by which a periodical exchange of prisoners was agreed upon, religious respect promised to the sick and wounded, and a declaration made by both parties, who were now recognised as belligerents, that no man should be executed for his opinions without being first tried. But for the intervention of foreign troops, which followed almost immediately the conclusion of this convention, the efforts of Lord Eliot would probably have had most beneficial results ; but as soon as the Carlists learned that English, French, and Portuguese troops were to be brought against them, Don Carlos issued his Durango decree, by which he declared that the convention referring only to Spaniards, no foreigners cap- tured with arms should be considered as coming within its scope. The good work of Lord Eliot was thus practically annihilated, for, besides shooting foreigners, the Carlists refused to extend the convention to newly-invaded provinces, and even in the North itself frequently disregarded it under the pretence that the English and the Christinos were the first to violate good faith by concluding their alliance. THE SEVEN YEAHS WAR. i ■) Whilo the foreign legions were thus luivaiicing towiinls SjKvnisli territory, and before they reiiehetl it, Zuiniihicarregui managed to defeat Vaklez at Las Amezcoas, his suhordinatos, lirigadiers Erase and Elio, beating at the same time Espartero and Onia. These new faihn-es of Christina's troops compelled Valdez to concentrate his forces by withdrawing the garrisons of the small fortiBed places establisheil all over the northern provinces. Zlete rout of the troops of Christina, including the French foreign legion, the commanding officer of wliich. Colonel Conrad, was killeil, and the men completely dispersed. On the Gth of June, Ciiarles V. penetrated into Catalonia, where the organization of the Carlist forces was then very impt-rfect, and where he ex])erienced some reverses, but managed to or- ganize a local corps under the orders of Urbis- toiido, and marched them across the Ebro to effect a junction with Cabrera. The river was crossed near Flix and ^lora on the 28th and 2'.Uh of June, the passage of the troops being protected by the forces of Cabrera. Charles V. remained then for a consitlerable time in the Lower Aragon and the province of Valencia, being short of ammuiiition. awaiting a sujjjily of it from Cantavieja. In the meantime. General Uranga, who was left in the liasijue |)ro- vinces, prepared another expedition into ('astile 88 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. consisting of ten battalions of infantry and three squadrons of cavaby, under the orders of Zaria- tiegui and Elio. Close to the banks of the Ebro that column was attacked by the Portuguese auxiliary forces, but defeated them and crossed the river near Hircio on the 21st of July. Uranga, at the same time, with a view^ to divert the enemy, began the siege of Penacerrada. Zariatiegui and Elio were thus left at full liberty to march upon Segovia, which they entered, capturing in that ancient city a great booty in money, arms, ammunition, and what not. Then, after having repulsed General Mendez Vigo, who attempted to come to the rescue of Segovia, they marched straight to the royal residence of La Granja (San Ildefonso), the garrison of which incorporated itself with the Carlist division. The approach of the Carlists to the capital plunged it into perfect consternation ; every one was crying out for Espartero, and the 12th of August, the commander-in-chief of the Christinos, leaving Charles V. to himself, entered Madrid at the head of 13,000 men. But he merely passed through the capital on his way north-east to meet Zariatiegui and Elio. Meanwhile, Charles V.'s forces, united to those of Cabrera, being now left almost unopposed, began to move on again, and TIIK SF.Vr.N YKAKS' WAK. -^^O on the ".Uli of Sc'iiteiultLT, Don Gulns iii(;uii|h.h1 in sight t)f Miuhitl. Why hu did not enter the city, ^^•hy he did not take iidvanta-e of the ab- sence ot" Kspartero and his troops, why lie h»st several days in perfect inactivity, no one could ever projterly explain ; all that is known is that the capital was j^-rfectly panic-stricken, and the Qneen's househohl had all the liigj^agc packed ready for lli-ht. The time thus lost by the Carl- ists enabled Ksjtartent to return to the defence of Madrid, and, though his army began to be per- fectly disorganised, it presented still a sutliciently strong force to prevent the Carlists from attacking the city now. ()n the lath of September they began to retreat. A few days later, Cabrera was dispatched with his division back to Aragon, while Charles V. marched towards Valladolid, the head-quarters of Zariatiegui and Klio. The Junc- tion with thest' generals was ellVcted at Aranda d(! Duero. While this fruitless and blundering cxiieditioQ was going on in the central ]»rovinees of Spain, some important events took placi- in the north. The troops of the (iovcrnment of .Madrid revolted at Miranda, Vitoria, and Pamplona, murdered their (Jenerals, (Jel»allos-Kscalera, Saarslicld, and ^leiidivil. under the jtretenei' of tluir briuLr traitors. 90 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. while the English legion, exhausted, unpaid, and unfed, seeing the turn matters were generally beginning to take, embarked for England again, Don" Leopoldo O'Donnell taking General Evans's place as commander-in-chief at San Sebastian. General Guergue, head of Uranga's staff, taking advantage of this confusion, captured, one after another, several forts in Navarre, and rendered himself master of the whole so-called Zubiri line leading from Pamplona to the French frontier. Though withdrawing from Madrid, Charles V. did not, however, seem to abandon the project ot resuming his operations against the capital. He pleaded only the necessity of concentrating the war in old Castile until that province was more completely mastered, and with this view he formed two corps, the one consisting exclusively of Castilians, of which he took the command himself, and the other of Navarre and Basque men, which was entrusted to the Infante Don Sebastian. On the 5th of October, these two corps were repulsed in an attack which they made on Espartero, and a few days later they expe- rienced another defeat near Huerta del Rey, Don Carlos himself having narrowly escaped being made prisoner. These defeats must be, to a great THE SEVEN years' WAR. 01 extent, attributed to the unwillingness of the l?as(iue ani.1 Navarre men to light anywhere ex- cept at home. After a few months of tlnir en- campment in Castile, tluy began to ilesert the ranks, under the pretence that they were volmi- teers enlisted for the purpose of fighting in their own province, not ahroatl ; they would resume arms, they said, as soon as war was brought again to their own j)rovinces. but declined to carry it south of the Ebro. Consequent on that, the Infante Don Sebastian, had very soon to re-cross the river from fear of losing the whole of his forces, and Don Carlos, being left to himself, and with considerable forces employed against him, was once more in the most imminent danger of being captured, and owed his escape solely to the zeal and presence of mind of an old cure of the name of Merino, who managed to disentangle the King and his army out of the trap into wliich they had fallen, and to enable them to reach Arciniega in safety on the 21st of October. Soon after his reaching the l^ascpie territory, Charles v., anxious to lay the blame of his failure on some one, but not daring to accuse the desert- ing volunteers, and not wishing to avow his own incayKicity, piddished a manifesto, in which lie declared that the failures and misfortunes of the 92 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. campaign were to be accounted for b}" the insub- ordination and treason of some of the generals of his army, against whom proceedings would be taken. This manifesto was the beginning of dis- sensions among the Carlist leaders, and led to the arrest, and trial of a considerable number of them. At the same time, a faction had formed itself in the northern part of Navarre, under the leader- ship of a notar}^ of the name of Muuagorri, who hoisted the banner of " Paz y Fueros " (peace and provincial charters). Under these complicated cir- cumstances, Charles V. appointed General Guergue to the command in chief, as the onl}' general who had lately obtained success, and become sufficiently popular to inspire the troops with confidence. One of the first acts of Guergue was to resume expeditions into the interior of the country (Sep- tember, 1837), and three columns were formed, with a view to proceed to La Mancha, Castile, and Galicia respectively. Guergue himself ob- tained, during the first months of 1838, some considerable successes in Biscaya, but the decom- position of Carlism had already made too great pro- gress to be stopped. New dissensions and symp- toms of insubordination showed themselves more and more frequently, and a strong party began to TIIE SEVEN years' WAR. 'X\ give (.•X|iix's.si()ii to (lie iili.';i of ;i 1r;uis;ictioii with the Government of Madrid. Abroad, tliat jiarty was so active, and its inliiicncc so great, that it ]ii-()\c(l strong enongli to induce the Nortliern sovereigns from whom Charles V. received subsidies to stop their allowances. The Carlists began thus to be badly paid, badly clothed, and badly fed, and they fought accordingly. During the month of May, in several ])laces in Navarre, battalions revolted, asking for their pay ; while at Estella, they in- vaded the house of the Junta, who took to flight, leaving the treasurer dead on the floor of the council chand>er. Kspartero, taking advantage of all those internal dissensions in the Carlist camps, soon entered the Northern ]irovinces, and inflicted several defeats on the Carlists, comidetely routing Guergue and his troops at Peuacerrada on the 22nd of .IiHie. The ''transaction*' part}', meanwhile, was bringing forth the name of ^laroto as the most suitable person for a commander-in-chief. Charles v., who had every reason for distrusting that man, and who had already had a j)ersonal (piarrel with him in the beginning of the campaign in Biscaya, declined for a long time to accept the suggestions of the" transaction" party ; but when Guergue had been defeated, Don Carlos had no 94 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. thing left to him but to appoint Maroto, especially as he was given to understand that, with the appointment of that General, the foreign subsidies and loans would at once flow in again. And so it was in fact. Money, which had been stopped at Bayonne for a long time past, began to come in ; the soldiers began to receive their pay, and Maroto's friends assured the volunteers that it was to the personal wealth and liberalit}'' of the commander-in-chief that the improvement of their condition was due. Maroto had long served in the American colonies, where he distinguished himself by most sanguinary acts. On his return to the Peninsula, he was without occupation, and went to Portugal, where he offered his services to Don Carlos. When subsequently arrested in France and subjected to a long interrogatory by the French authorities, he made statements which proved that as far back as 1836 (the interrogatory was published in that year at Bayonne) he had meditated already the betrayal of the man whom he pretended to support. The first object of Maroto, on assuming com- mand, was to put aside all the officers whom he knew to be faithful to the cause of Carl ism, and to appoint men upon whom he could rely. TEE SEVEN YEARS* WAR. 95 (Jeiirrals Tallin Saiiz ami (Jarcia wx-re IImj first wlujiii lie attacUcd in that way. Al tlio sauKj tiiiu' il l»t.'caiiiu evident, iVom the relaxation of activity on the part of Espurtero, that an nnder- standincj had already bej^un between the two coniniandrrs-iii-cjiii't'. 'i'hcy |troiiienadc7 could nut long struggle against the nuicli stronger forces of Esj)artero. On the very same clay that Maroto surn'mli'ri'd at Vergara, they dlitainetl, under Elio's coniinand, a victory over the Chris- tinos, but were soon compelled to retreat to the Bastan, and to enter France on the 14th of September, together with Don Carlos. The Carlists were disarmed by the French authorities, encamped for some time near Bayonne, and afterwards interned in various towns of France, the Government of Loiiis Philippe appointing Bourges as a residence for the Pretender himself. Cabrera alone remained still struggling till the following year, but had finally also to retire. The career of that chieftain was watched with comparatively greater interest in England. Ills mother having been shot by order of Mina, the fact was mentioned in Parliament, and he had a good deal of popular sympathy at once enlisted on his side, his having shot in retaliation some two dozen women of Christina's party, remaining probably unknown to the general public. His subsequent marriage wilh a rich English hidv rendered him still more known in this countrv. The circumstances of his generally operating VOL. II. H 98 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. far away from the influence of the idiotic Don Carlos and his " Court,"' gave Don Ramon Cabrera great facilities for showing his guerilla abilities. His name is still a terror to the Liberals of Aragon, Valencia and Catalonia, and an object of worship to the Carlists of these regions. Closely pressed by the greater part of Christina's army, which became disengaged after the surrender of Maroto, Cabrera could, however, not hold out more than for another year, and entered France on the eastern end of the Pyrenees, in June 1840. As a matter of course, Espartero, who hap- pened to sign the Vergera convention, had all the credit of having brought the Seven Years' War to a close. He was for a couple of years the idol of Spanish Liberals, upset Christina, became Regent, and was subsequently upset in his turn. It was, I believe, under the unconcerned Amadeo that he was rather retrospectively created Prince of Vergara. Maroto, finding that it was not a pleasant thing to be frequently called " the Infamous," went to Chile, and died there. A column, in conmiemoration of the Vergara con- vention, which was erected in that town, embel- lished it for about thirt^'-three years, and was, with some religious solemnities, smashed to THE SEVEN' years' WAR. 99 pieces on the l;')tli of Aii^Mist List, hy tlie Carlists under Liziirni'M. Readers who were I'oity years a;;o in tlieir cradles, or had. j)t'rluij)s, not i-vcn so far advaneud ill life, may he iiit< restiMl to kn^w what sort of part England played in this Peninsular struggle. To give iinything like a detailed account of England's jxditical and military doings on that occasion, would l»e a very heavy and unpleasant sort of task ; but to sum up the few leading Aicts is a labour that may probably prove not to exceed the author's very limited powers. Some of the European Courts acknowledged the new state of things created by Ferdinand's changing the law of succession, and^some did not. The Emperor Nicholas of Russia, for instance, de- clined to recognise Isabella, even when she became of age, was married, and had occu])ied the throne for nearly twenty years. With Hnghind it was dilTerent. King William IV., on ojx-ning Par- liament on February 4ih, 1^;)!, said : — " Upon till" (Iciilli of the Ititc King of Spain I did not licsi- tnU^ to ri'cognise tlte succe.osion of lii.s infant diuiglitor ; and I Bball watch witli the grcutcst solicitude the progivsti of evtaits n 2 100 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. which may affect a Government, the peaceable settlement of which is of the first importance to this country, as well as to the general tranquillity of Europe." And a couple of months later (April 23rd) the English Government signed the so-called Quad- ruple Alliance, to which some additional articles were signed on the 1st of August, and which involved Great Britain in a very useless, expen- sive, and by no means successful war. Yet Lord Pahnerston declared at that time in Parliament that he was "greatly satisfied" with the negotia- tion of this Treaty, and " as far as he had any share in it," was proud of it. The alliance was concluded between England, France, Portugal, and the new Spanish Government, and had for its aim to put down the Legitimist Pretenders — Dom ]\Iiguel of Portugal, and Don Carlos of Spain. The first aim was achieved easily enough, while the second, caused besides an expenditure of several millions, some five thousand English- men to lose their lives in the Basque pro- vinces. Now, as to the reasons which prompted the Eng- lish Government to entangle the country in the so strictly internal aff'airs of a foreign nation, they were said to be the great desire of the English nation to support a liberal and constitutional TlIK SFATA' years' WAU. T>1 reijime against the nyiine of absolute and priest- ridden Monarciiy. That Don Carlos represented the latter, there can he no doubt whatever. But there can be as little doubt that the regime whieh England's Government tried to establish in Spain by means of English blood and English money, proved to be neither liberal nor constitutional, and became ultimately the greatest curse of Spain. Truly speaking, however, this apparently platonic love for Liberalism was a mere pretext on the part of the English Government. The real object of the 'Treaty was to get up an alliance which would at least to some extent balance the then growing strength of the Northern Powers, more especially of Russia, to oppose which was an integral part of Lord Palmerston's policy. The fact of the Northern Powers showing preference to Don Carlos was sufficient to make the English Government side with Isabella. Some twenty years later, England sided in the same way with the Turks, though with much greater military success. But none of these efforts arrested the growth of the Northern Colossus. On the con- trary, they rather helped him, for the Crimean defeat showed him his weak points, and caused hira to reorganize his army and administration. and to emancipate his serfs. 102 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. Consequent upon the Quadruple Alliance, British ships were fitted out for the little Isabella ; arms and military stores sent out ; and an Order in Council having suspended the Foreign Enlist- ment Act, on June 9th, 1835, an expedition was formed, and embarked under the orders of Colonel (subsequently General) de Lacy Evans. The whole force enlisted amounted to fifteen thousand men, but there were scarcely ever more than eight thousand infantry, and four hundred cavalry actually in the field at one time. A most awk- ward point of the undertaking was, however, as mentioned on p. 74, that the "Eliot convention" had been concluded without any reference to the possibility of English troops joining the field. As may well be imagined, the British soldiers engaged in the expedition were all the less pleased with the prospects to which they were ex- posed by the Durango decree, as on their enlist- ment they were given to understand that they were included in the cartel. The Duke of Wellington's opinion, expressed with reference to this subject in March, 1836, was that. Viscount Melbourne, then Prime Minister, " placed him- self and his Government in an awkward position, when he sent to Spain the body of English troops who are at present in that country. By that act the noble Viscount com- THE SEVF.X years' WAR. ]^K\ monrcd putting nn t-nd to tlio C'omonfinn witli Don Ciirloi wliidi liiid so rofcrilly been ooncliKifd. It was evident that tlio consoqucncc of tliiit net must bo to weaken tliat inlluence which liad with so much dilliculty been ao(juirod over tlie minds of tlmt prince and his councillors. The troops in question were nof inchi(U'd in tlie cartel, &ni\ it is also clear that inconsequence the cartel cannot now bo executed. If any clemency has been offered, then, to any of these troops, they are indebted for it soleltf to the htimanitif of that prince, because they do not belong to the contracting aruiies." The Marquis of Lontlonderry speaking on Spiinish atrairs in the House of Lords, on June lUth, 18^8, said:- " We plunged into the contest witliout stopping to inquire into the justice of our conduct, or the probable results of our interference Previous to this period Don Carlos had acted up to the Eliot convention, and strictly fulfilled his stipu- lations. Both ho and his generals were in fact desirous that the benefits of this liumane arrangement should extend to the other provinces, in which they were opposed to the Christinus .... But, my Lords, let us take a wider range. Let us see what Ministers have gained by persevering for more than four years in their general ."Spanish policy, during which period four or five thousand British lives have been lost and some million'* of money expended. Our deluded countrymen expected to make short work of Don Carlos ; they thought thoy were going on a summer's camjiaign, and would have lots of profit .... Why, actually he fares better now than wlien our auxiliaries landed to co-operate with tlie l^ueen of Spain's army. . . . 104 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. Your Lordships will recollect tliat when tlie Spanish question was first agitated in this House the greatest total force then allowed to Don Carlos was about thirty or thirty-five thousand men. Some noble Lords would not grant him so many, and yet, besides defeating three armies sent against him, he has made an end of two foreign legions, and a third one thought it expedient to withdraw." AVith reference to the purely militar}^ operations of the Legion, the Marquis of Londonderry said that though he had endeavoured to master every- thing that had been published on that subject, he did not meet witli any document or statement that placed " the military proceedings of the Legion in a favourable light," and he imploringly exclaimed to their lordships: "In God's name let us withdraw from the contest and involve ourselves no farther in disgrace. The whole history of our intervention, whether we trace it in the deeds of the Legion, or in our diplomatic transactions, exhibits weakness, ignorance, and I must add, wickedness." Tn fact things seem to have gone so far that soldiers of the British Legion frequently de- serted their ranks, some of them passing even over to the Carlists, and this not one by one, but in numbers. I had been often told of that by Don Carlos and his Generals, but suspected the TIIK SKVKX YKARS' WAR. 10.5 statomowt to l»e iiincre ial>rio;itiun wliicli, tliroiigli l»ein^ repeated lor ii consiilerable time, began to he believed in. Yet wiu-n I became acquainted with some materials piiblisiied on this subjc.'rt in Eni^dand, I saw that there was a good deal of truth in what I had been told by the contem- porary Carlist chieftains. An order of the day of General Kvans*, issued on June iSth, 18i5G, at St. Sebastian says for instance : "Having learnt tli:it at tlio oiitix)st8, conversations, ratlicr frequent, were kept up witli tleserters from the Britisli auxiliary force anJ tlie Portuguc!aliclla, thus actually |iuttin;4 an <-nil to Carlism. lint all at once, a lew days alter tiic overthrow of the Qneeii in 1808, Don Jniiii j)nl»- llshed a new alulicatiun of his already abdicated pretentions. This time it was in laxour of his son, the ]ireseiit I >un Carlos, who at the same time issued a manilt^to, and the whole (jarlist I)arty at once assembletl around the yoinij^ man. in June of the next year (ISi)!)) (Jar- list risings were organised in several jiro- vhices of Spain, the one led by General Polo in La Mancha giving about the most trouble to Marshal Trim. I>ut for a year or two Prim managed to keep them down, occasionally shoot- ing some of the Carlists and sending others, in- cluding General Polo, to the Philij)pine Islands. The Pretender was then a youth of barely twenty years, and as the councillors assembled around him were constantly quarrelling about prece- dency, things could not be expected to go better, es})ecially as long as Prim was in power. It was, consequently, only in Ajiril, 1^72, that a more serious " general rising " was decided upon. The Pretender who had in the meantime become more of a man, entered Navarre and put himself at the head of the new bands, the 112 SPAIX AND THE SPANIARDS. armament of which consisted chiefly of home- made hmces and even pkiin sticks. Being fresh to work and without any prudent councilor by his side, Don Carlos advanced so far into the country that he was surprised at Oro- quieta by General Moriones (the same who is now operating against the Carlists), and very nearly captured. It was only thanks to an obscure village cure, Don Francisco Aspiroza, that the Pretender succeeded in escaping to France. Soon afterwards the remainder of the Carlist volunteers sustained another defeat at Lumbier, and the Junta of Biscay a saw itself compelled to con- clude at Amorovieta a treaty with Marshal Ser- rano, by which about ten thousand Carlists laid down their arms. The Basque provinces were thus pacified for a while; but in Catalonia the struggle went on till the close of 1872, when the Carlist chiefs of that province communicated it as their opinion to Don Carlos that unless he organised another rising in the Vasco-Navarre dis- tricts they should be unable to resist the pressure of Amadeo's troops. This declaration forced Don Carlos to try his luck once more, and early in December, 1872, Soroeta and Santa Cruz entered Spain, into which they were soon followed by THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR. 113 Olio and Iladica. This was tliu bcginniiif; of tlio campaign which has now histed lor fidly lii'teni months, and ot" which it is not very likely wc shall soon sec the end. VOL. 11. 114 CHAPTER HI. SPANISH FIGHTING. AS soldiers, Spaniards have a veiy bad repu- tation in Europe, and to defend them in this respect would probably prove a very un- grateful task. Truly speaking, it would even be difficult to maintain that they are good soldiers, in the sense in which the word is generally under- stood in European armies. But what is quite fair to say— though, perhaps, it may also not be easy to convince people who have made up their mind to the contrary — is that Spaniards are by no means the cowards they are not unfre- quently represented to be. The bad military reputation of Spaniards arose in England, and has been spread through Europe since the time of the Peninsular War, when they were brought side by side with the staunch, thoroughly dis- ciplined British rank and file. Lord Wellington SPANISH FIOIITIXG. 1 1 •'> was, from his ])()iiit of viow, pcrfuclly right in constantly coiii])hiinliig of the Spanish troops'.' lie was too much accustomed t<» the English fasliidn of military training to put \\\) with the loose, guerilla nature of the Spaniards. The stern business-like English commander-in-chief could not stand their being always too late, al- ways wanting in something. Describing some ill-success he would, in utter disgust, but as nsual in very homely language, remark in his despatch: "All this would have been avoided, had the Spaniards been anything but Spaniards," or " They have not done anything that they were ordered to do, and have done exactly that against which they werii warned ;" or " I am afraid that the utmost we can hope for is to teach them how to avoid being beaten ; if we can cflVct that object, I hope we may do the rest." Such and similar testimonies against the Spaniards coming from a man of the Duke of Wellington's authority, have naturally caused everyone in this country rashly to conclude that Spaniards were not Avorth anylliing at all as soldiers. Noone re- membered any longer that their armies had con- (juered kingdoms in all parts of the globe, and that their infantry was once the terror and ad- miration of the whole world. Even the Duke's 1 2 116 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. own testimonies made on other occasions, stating "that their conduct was equal to that of any troops I had ever seen engaged" were over- looked. The bad name had been once given, and there was an end to it ; no one would inquire what was the reason that sometimes they fought so well, while in other cases and at other times so badly. No one would take the trouble to look into the Spanish character for the explanation of these evidently contradictory phenomena ; nor was any Englishman disposed to believe that, though England was the ally of Spain, Spaniards on the whole detested the Eng- lish just as much as they detested the French. Only the Duke of Wellington's remarks that " they oppose and render fruitless every mea- sure to set them right or save them " would now and then betray that he, at all events, had some idea of the real feelings of the Spaniards. In fact, one would be inclined to believe that an essentially common-sense man like the Duke must have perceived the whole truth on this subject, for though Spaniards were courteous and polite, as they always are, the manner in which they opposed the English whenever they possibly could do so, and the fact of Spanish soldiers pillaging English baggage-trains just as uncere- SPAXISII Fir;lTTIXn. 1 1 7 monionsly as lliry did French ones, sliowod plainly cnoii^di tlio real state of aflairs \vllli re- ference to '* fcelinrjs." The Moro-Iberian pridu. the Espanolismo, has always caused, and is still causing the Spaniards equally to detest every foreigner, whether ho be supposed friend or declared foe, as soon as he conies into Spain with anything like power in his hands. Let a foreigner come as a guest, and he is received with open arms, and more hospitably than in any other coun- try. But as soon as he comes for a business pur- pose — be it to fight for a Spanish cause, or simply to work mines or railways " for the benefit of Spaniards," he is sure to be equally detested all over the country. What the Spaniards always wanted, and what they could never obtain, was to be left alone. In the whole of their existence as a nation, scarcely a century passed in which foreigners, either black or white, did not come to interfere with Spanish affairs one way or the other. It must be said also that Spanianls were never so stupid as to believe that the English had come to the Peninsula for the purpose of " saving " them. They understood pretty well that the British interference was sinqdy the result of a strong desire on the part of Englishmen to defend themselves against any possible attack of Napo- 118 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. Icon. It was much cheaper and much more con- venient for England to make war upon the " IMonster " abroad than at home, and it was therefore only natural on the part of the Spaniards that the}' should not be much affected by any feeling of gratitude. By-and-by when English- men begin to look at their past political dealings in an impartial and less ultra-patriotic light, they will perceive the harm they have done Spain. Candid and honest Englishmen acknowledge it already, and the other day I saw in the December Number of Frazers Magazine, an article on the Spanish struggle for liberty in which it was said frankly enough that, " whatever we may think of our Peninsular campaigns, our presence in Spain at that crisis of her history was almost an un- mitigated curse." Had the Spaniards been left alone to deal with Napoleon, they might perhaps have suffered much more, but it would have done them good ; for a spirit of national unity would have been ultimately aroused, the enemy expelled, and Spain rendered much more homogeneous than it now is. As things went, however, for the whole of this century the Peninsula was inundated by foreign troops in whom the oppressed and igno- rant, but intensely proud Spaniard refused to SPANISH FKillTING. U'J dlstiii;L;iiish frioiid from foe, whom lie taxeub- lican Volunteer Contingent evidently considered that he Lad done his duty when he had indueeil his fellow -citizens to come on the ground, and he had suspended further active ojjemtions until it shoidd be time to march them home aj^'ain. In point of fact he had got behind a big liunp of rock, where he sat 128 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. serenely smoking a cigarette. Tlie captain commanding the regulars seemed a curious mixture of absolute incompetency and personal intrepidity. He never sought cover, but walked to and fro between the lurking places of his men in the most reckless but most serious way. It is my belief that three parts of the Cai'lists' chiefs shots were fired at this living target, and at it alone. He came down and stood on the road fully exposed, talking with us, who were a little to one side, and naturally in a safer place. When I asked him why he did not advance, he said that in the effort he would inevitably lose a few men, that the Carlists were intangible and would melt away before him, while the loss to his party would be exaggerated, would bring him down a wigging, and would encourage the Carhsts. " This purposeless popping went on for about an hour. I saw no man touched on either side. One casualty there did occur. A volunteer had come out from his cover on to the rail- way, and was standing near the edge of the containing wall, in rather an exposed position. All at once he seemed to start and stagger, just as if a bullet had gone into him, and then he dropped off the embankment down into the shallow water in the bed of the stream — a fall of some twelve feet. He splashed about considerably, and, making sure that here at last was a wounded man, my companion and myself went down and fished him out. He groaned badly as we carried him up to our place of shelter, and we discussed as we bore him, the wisdom of putting him into the ' teelbury,' and taking him back to the reserve. But fu-st it would be as well to discover where the wound was, and if need be apply a handkerchief as a temporary bandage. We laid him down, still groaning, and proceeded to overhaul him, but could find no wound in him anywhere. He was un- pleasantly damp, there was a big bump on the back of his head SPANISH FlfJIITINO. 12it and till' skin was pcoleil oil" one clljow, hut tlioso iiijuric!* wi-ru obviously tlio result of tlio fall. Otiiorwiso ho was, if cxtrcmclv dirtT, yet quite sound. A suck from my llask brought him bark to full consciousness, when it became a difficult matter to per- suade him that ho was not a dead man. I imagine a bullet striking near him, or whistling by him, had scared him, that he had involuntarily recoiled, and so tumbled off tho containing wall into the water. No doubt he will figure in tho despatch as a 'contusion,' and probably will obtain tho cross." That such comical .skirmishes may have taken place last Sprinj::, when tlie Carlists were just be^innin.ij: to organize themselves, and the Repub- licans had only a lew half- revolted regiments at their command in the North, may be perfectly true. But it is equally true that this description gives a very erroneous idea of Spanish warfare, and that to anyone who knows anything of the manner in which the Seven Years' War was carried on, or saw any actual Carlist engagement last Summer, such letters must naturally appeal- as having been written for the purpose of amusing, rather than of informing the reader. Another correspondent of the same journal, evidently betii-r acquainted with Spain, speaking its language, and one who had followed both Republican and (.arlist operations for .several months, conveys to the reader quite a dillerent idea of tho manner in which civil war is carried on in that coimtry. VOL. II. K 130 SPAIX AND THE SPANIARDS. Writi]]g from Tolosa on November the 9tli, lie said : — " This morning the general quietness of the town of San Sebastian was disturbed before daybreak by bugle sounds in all directions, and General Loma's column of three thousand men with four guns made ready to march to Tolosa, some sixteen miles distant, to convoy thirty bullock waggons of provisions to that beleaguered town. The route taken was by Hernaui and Andoain, places but too well known to the British Legion, and where its heaviest losses were suffered during the Carlist and Christina war. At the latter place we found that the high road to Tolosa had been cut by the Carlists near Villabona. After breakfast the column left the convoy at Andoain, and marched up the movmtains on our left, parallel with the main road, in order to reconnoitre the country, previous to bringing the convoy. First went the Migvielites, then several companies of the regiment of Leon, and then a company of that of Luchana, some three hundred and fifty men who formed the advanced guard. Owing to the steepness of the gromid, their progress was slow ; but on arriving at the top of a plateau, perfectly free from cover excepting a few tufts of vmeven ground, a most teiTible fire was opened upon them from the Carlist rifles, which caused severe loss. The Republicans, nevertheless, succeeded in advancing to the base of the position occupied by their ad- versaries, in which they had entrenched themselves by breast- works of turf hastily thrown up. Although somewhat less exposed for the moment than on the plateau, there was no choice between certain death from the storm of bullets or scrambling up the mountain to the earthworks. The latter alternative a]Tpeared the least hopeless, and up the brave fellows rushed. The Carlists, not a whit behindhand, leaped over the SPANISH FIGHTING. l?>\ panipet to meet tliem, and for a moment tlie duy was doubtful. A few of tho Kcpublk-aus did not like tholook of tho affair, and bi'gan to turn back ; but their ollicers sot them a good example b}- plaeing themselves in the most dangerous points, and even firing their rifles for them. A few opportune shells helped matters most considerably, causing tlio Curlists to return to tiieir entrenchment. Encourugod by this, the officers shouted, ' Com la batfoneta .'' — words which appcored to operate with magical efloct on botli sides ; or porliaps the fact of the shells being very well aimed, and the Curlitc ucKIlhI here that I did not select these extracts. I took tlie first sheets tliat fell under my hand in a pile of newspapers. 1 know the ju^cntienien who wrote these letters, I was frequently with them in the field, saw how careful they were ahout their statements, and have not the slightest hesitation in endorsing every word they say here. With reference to Catalonia, much less infor- mation has been pul dished, and I had myself no opportunity of visiting that part of the country ; but the battles of Vich, Rii)oll, Berga, Alpens, c*cc., in ahiiost all of which there were several hundred men killed and made prisoners, show that in that province, too, "the sanguinary com- bats of Centellas" were rather the exception than the rule. Since I liavc adduced otlu'r jieople's de- scriptions of Spanish fighting, 1 may as well have recourse to their opinion with reference to the moral condition and the state of organiza- tion of the Legitimist Volimteers. The corres- ])ondfiit of the Stinnlind, with whom 1 had more than once the pleasinv of sharing the laligues 138 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. and privations of campaigning, stated tliat — " Great things have been accomplished in the teeth of great difficulties ; and I question if there is any instance on record of an insurrectionary force having been got together and trained to present a martial appearance and stand firm in a period so brief." The Daily Neios correspondent (not the smart, but the business-like one), in a letter dated Sep- tember 1st, expressed the opinion that: — " It is wonderful how such an army as the Carlist leaders have gathered together can present even such an appearance of disciphne as it does in the face of every possible difficulty, and more especially how, now that it consists of such a formidable body, funds can be found for its payment. Possibly the men may be contented with rations, and live in hopes of receiving tlieir pay aU in a lump after the fall of some large town shall have yielded its coffers as a prize of war. A more cheerful or better behaved set of men I have never seen, and, marvel of marvels, not a single instance of anything like drunlcenness can I recall, notwithstanding that the victory at Dicastillo and the fall of Estella were dovible events which might well have led any member of Tattersall's to bet on the contrary." While the distinguished officer who represented the leading English journal, wrote, on August 19th and 28th— " Undoubtedly the Eoyalists are each day becoming more formidable, and, if they had rifles enough, could arm fifty SPANISH FIOnTINO. 139 thousand men in ii week. Tlio latter seem plentiful enough, and each day the authorities arc pestered by liundreda of volun- teers, eagerly asking permission to enroll themselves "The Carlist troops do not require much time to turn out in marching order. A man is considered equipped when ho is provided with arms, sixty rounds of ball cartridge, his food for the day, and a spare shirt. As for marching, I have never seen their superiors, four miles an hour in six continuous hours being frequently accomplished by them, the men looking as fresh at the end of their journey as when they started. The rations are good and ample ; in fact, a Carlist receives a quarter of a pound more meat than the British soldier. There is one great drawback, speaking of the RoyaUst soldiery ; for although they are all volunteers, who love fighting for fighting's sake, and are at brave and Jine-Iooking a bodi/ of men as a Oencral could wish to command, they hate the idea of drill, and very little instruction is given them." As to the Royalist officers, lie makes them the compliment of saying that they " are not the bears they are represented by their enemies to be ; on the contrary, they studiously try to avoid giving offence, and are as gentlemanly a set of men as it has ever been my good fortune to associate wilh." Though the IJasque and Navarre Provinces are considered to present sometiiing homogeneous, there is a considerable diU'erence in the tempera- 140 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. ment and character of the population of these provinces. I mentioned already that up to the time I left the Carlist camps, the Biscaya men had taken part in scarcely any engagements, and consequently I am not able to judge of their behaviour in the field ; but I saw the Navarre, the Guipuzcoa, and the Alava men fighting on several occasions, and the opinion I formed of their respective merits as soldiers is this. All of them are men of unlimited courage, to all appearance perfectly indifferent to life, and amongst them the Alava men must have the palm given to them. The reputation which they acquired under Zu- malacarregui, who always preferred them to any other men in the North of Spain, is certainly not unmerited. They will stand any amount of fire with the steadiness of the best regular troops of any country, while their dash would, I believe, exceed that of a good many of the latter, on account of the Alaveses being, as a rule, very short and very light men. They came late into the field at the present rising, yet in about a fortnight after three of their battalions had been formed, I saw the men of one of them quietly sitting and smoking their cigarettes under a fire that would be considered, even by very ex- perienced troops, as an unpleasantly heavy one. SPANISH FIOnTIXG. 1 1 1 They are still more sober tluiii tlie (Juipuzcoa or the Navjirrc men, and remarkalily obedient and true to tluir eliicfs, Tlie-ir jirovince Itciiig com- paratively a small and poor one, they have neither the han^i^htiness of the Navarrcses, nor the exelii- siveness of the Guipuzcoanos. After the Alava men, the best soldiers seem to be the Guipuzcoa lads ; at least they stand fire better than the Navarre men, and are the most capable of enduring fatigue ; but they are not so plucky as their neighbours, and rather heavy for guerilla warfare. Besides, many of them have the disadvantage of not knowing a single word of Spanish— a circumstance wjiich estranges them to a certain extent from the rest of the Carlist army. Their exclusiveness is, in fact, so great that uj) to the present day they still celebrate the ainiual anniversary of a battle which they fought Avith the Navarre men in 1;j21, when it would appear they beat their neighbours with sticks; and so on the 24th of June of every year, processions are organised in the Guipuzcoa, men, Women, and chiliireii ((iiudiy tukiiig part in them, all ariiii-'d with the lionirly weapon which served their ancestors nearly six centin-ies ago to beat a neighbouring tribe with which they ought 142 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. to be, to judge by the surfece of things, on the best possible terms at present. If the Guipnzcoanos could be taught to speak English, they would probably become most sym- pathetic to old-fashioned Englishmen, as there is scarcely any other people in the whole of Europe so inclined to stick to their national customs and usages, as the Guipuzcoamen are. They are also remarkably hard-working people, thoroughly vir- tuous, and extravagantly bigoted. A great number of such of them as succeed in picking up Spanish, and feel the want of a larger field for their activity, emigrate to South America, make- fortunes there, and return back to their native villages, with their Guipuzcoanism as intact as is the Scottism of the Scotchman who, after having travelled twenty years all over the world, returns to his native lochs and hills. Contrary to their neighbours, the Navarre men who have once gone to South America, if they return home at all, re- nounce all their old sentiments relating to " Dios, Patria, y Rey," and become the fiercest Liberals and Radicals. A considerable number of those enriched Navarrese peasants, known in their own country under the designation of " Americanos,'' were living last Summer on the French side of SPANISH ricHTING. 143 the Pyrenees, on account of tlieir opinions chisli- ing with thohc of their anned hindsineii. As far as military (hish ^oas, the Navarre Vohniteers are ininiitalile. Their bayonet charge is soniethin,^ really worth lookinj^ at, and sur- passes anylliiug the Zouaves were evrr caiiaiilc of performing in the days of their greatest savagery and glory. Truly speaking, the Navarre men do not understand any fighting but that with the bayonet. 'J'he rifle seems to them quite a useless arm, and. being very careless, they frequently lose or forget their pouches, or tear them through neglect, and drop all the cartridges. There is even a belief that sometimes they purposely throw them away, as being too cumbersome an article to be carried. When one has to take a mountain path by which a Navarre battalion has just passed, one is sure to pick up cartridges at almost every step, and when a Navarrese battalion is ordered to fire, it does it so hurriedly and with such an utter disregard to aim, that the spectator becomes con- vinced that all these lads wish is simply to get rid of their annnunition, and to hasten the moment of a bayonet attack. To stand lire they are utterly unable, and as soon as it becomes some- what hot, no human force will retain them: they must either go forward or run away. And this 144 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. runnuig away does not appear to them as any- thing objectionable. You cannot make them under- stand that it is a flight ; in their eyes it is simply an escape, by means of which they get the best of their enemy : " for the enemy's evident intention was to slaughter a number of us," would argue the Navarrese, " and through our escape he got snubbed." This view seems to be implied in their very language, for the process of withdrawing from under the enemy's fire is described neither as huir (to fly), nor as correr (to run), but as escaparse (to escape, a verb neuter). The general brutality of the Navarre men is beyond anything that can be well imagined in more civilized countries, and the manner in which they treat their horses will be an eternal check upon any attempt to introduce cavalry service amongst them. But this brutality is by no means wicked ; it is purely animal, and does not prevent them in any degree from being, upon the whole, a very good-natured, honest, and even exquisitely polite people, as long as you are polite with them. The disgust which all the Vasco-Navarre men have for regular military service, from which their fueros (provincial charters) always kept them aloof, is so inveterate that I doubt whe- SPANISH FIGIITIXG. M') Iher they will ever be iiidnccd, nn> in the Hrst volume, I had already occasion to mention that this was part of the general Carlist policy; and during the whole of my stay amongst them, 1 knew of only one instance of wholesale extermination viz., a small detachment taken at Cirauqui. Sonie \'oluntarios de la Lihi-rtad were defending that place. The Carlists took it after a couple of hours lighting, and the garrison, reduced to sometliing like thirty-live or forty men, had to surremler. They were all locked up in the village church, and a jnutida cohtnti' was lett in the place to guard them, as the colinun which captured the fort had immediately to nuirch. It would appear, L 2 148 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. however, that the prisoners who were all ultra- Republicans, had been ver}^ violent with the popu- lation of the place when it Avas in their hands ; consequently, as soon as the first excitement of the fight was over, and the villagers began to return to their homes, they all congregated round the church and demanded the death of the pri- soners. Things went on so far that the peasant men and women assailed the doors of. the church, and the commander of the partida volante lost all control over his force, who joined, of course, the villagers. Finally, the doors and windows were broken open, the church invaded, and all the prisoners slaughtered, except two or three who nianaged to escape more or less severely wounded. I must mention here that Baron von Walters- kirchen, the Austrian gentleman whom I have already frequently mentioned, and who remained on that occasion, somehow or other, behind the departed column, exerted his best efforts to save these fellows ; but his exertions were almost in vain ; all he was able to obtain was that the commander of the partida volante was dis- missed. But if such moiistrosities are on the whole but rarely perpetrated by Carlists, they are of more frequent occurrence on the Republican side. The SPANISH rUJHTIXd. H'> description of the fight near Tolosa, p;ivcn above, sliows how the}' burn farms anil peasants' dwell in-xs for miles around wherever they pass on Carlist territory, ami in Citalonia things seemed to be still worse. At all events, after the battle of Alpens, both in that town and in the village of 8an Quirce there took place a pillage, slaughter, and rapine of a nature to pre- clude description. Old men and woinen were tied by the hands and legs, their daughters violated by the Republicans under the parents* very eyes, and afterwards the ^vhole family sliot or pierced with bayonets, and their houses with the (k'ad bodies in tlicni burnt to the ground. But justice requires to add here that the regular Republican troops are not by any means so bad in this respect as the so-called Miijuelites, Volun- tarios de la Libertad, and similar militia bodies. As a matter of course, a good dual of uinieces- sary suffering is inflicted here on both sides through ignorance and through want of material means ; but that is not cruelty, properly speaking. I saw, for instance, both Republicans and Carlists severely wounded, lying more tiiaii twenty-fotn- hours in the liild without being attended to. But there were, then, neither ambulances nor sur- geons, and when there were surgeons, some of 150 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. • thein dressed the wounds, as it were, on the sahxd principle, with salt and vinegar.* The manner in which the bodies of the dead are buried is perfectly revolting to a man accustomed to see this duty performed with a certain amount of reverence ; but it is well known that nothing is so much disregarded in Spain as a dead man, consequently the custom of a perfectly naked body, being, without further ceremony, shot into a ditch out of coffin which has served the same purpose on a good many occasions, and Avill probably do so on many more, must be looked upon rather as a national custom than anything else. A good deal has also been wa-itten about the objectionable use which the Carlists make of petroleum, but in a low stage of " scientific war- fare," to set fire to the enemy's camps and en- trenchments was at all times a customary practice. Had the Carlists possessed big guns, they would * Quite lately matters have improved through the establish- ment of several large ambulances. Tlie Legitimist members of the Paris Ked Cross sent out a couple of gentlemen with about a £1,000 of money and some medical stores, while several rich Spanish ladies began to exert their efforts in organizing the interior service of the two or three hospitals which had thus been brought into existence. SPANISH FIGHTING ;. 151 ))i-(ilialily iKit lia\(' iiiiidc use of (lie Miifj;li.sli "[urden I)innj)s ami llic l)arrfls of i»ftrolciiiii, of uliicli the)' now .soiuetimcs avail tlieinsclvcs ; for, aft(!r all, tin; use of petroloum, as a means of destruction, is neither |iartic'nlarly convenient nor eflicacious. In the wholi' (if my rx|>crieiice with the ( 'arlists, I had an opportunity of seeing the use of petroleum only once, at the siege of Viana. On the 30th of August, two battalions with four cannons, under the coni- inand of General Olio, entered the village situated abt)ut three miles north of the bridges across the Ebro near LogroHo, and began the siege of two churches and an ohi tower, which were fortified and garrisoned by some thirty Hussars of Pavia, and about a hundred and twenty National Guards. For nearly thirty-six hours, four cannons and fifteen hundred rifles were desperately firing upon the thick walls of these ancient edifices, without producing any eff'ect whatever. A Re- publican colunui at last showing itself from across the river, the Carlists saw that the loss of any more time or cartridges would be utterly fatal to them, and, consecpiently, brought up a little pump and a few barrels of petroleum, the Rcpiirting of which had scarcely begini when the garrison hoisted the white flag and expressed 152 SPAIX AND THE SPANIARDS. its preference to surrender, to the prospect of being burnt alive. Upon the whole, an unconcerned observer can- not exactly see in what way the use of petroleum is more objectionable in such a case than the use of mines or torpedoes, universally admitted to be a legitimate means of attack and defence. The result of the combat on that occasion was not the worse on account of the use of petroleum, for the garrison was, as usual, disarmed and sent across the Ebro to Logrono, all the fortifications of the churches and the tower destroyed, and the village of Viana transformed into a place garrisoned by a small flying column of Carlists, instead of a similar column of Republicans. 15'6 CHAPTER IV. ALFOXSISM versus CARLISM, n^IIE abdiciitiou of Anuulco, \vliHtu\Li' may JL have beeij the view of European politicians upon it, had one great advantage for Spain, be- sides that t>f freeinir the throne from a sovereign about whom people did not care : it reduced the number of persons who thought themselves entitled to govern Spain, and consequently destroyed a cor- responding number of political parties. As long as Amadeo was king, there were, besides him, Don Al- fonso,* the Duke of Montpensier, and Don Carlos, • The fact of tliiTC buing two Don Alfonsos in the political field of Spain —the one, son of Queen Isabella, the other tlio brother of Don Carlos — seems to confuse a pood many English- men. At all events, the two distinet persons have been mistaken OS one and the some, even in public journals. Wo will, therefore, for the sake of convenience, spell the reactionary Don Aljjhonso 154 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. each of them having a party, and entertaining the hope of coming some day to power. When he abdicated, Montpensier, whose chxims were never based upon any legal right to the throne, saw too clearly how little chance there was for a foreigner to govern Spain, and he wisely gave np all further idea of changing his position of a wealth}^ Seville naranjero (orange-merchant, as he is called), for that of a crowned target for Re- publican marksmen. In February, 1873, Spain got thus at the same time rid of Amadeo and of Montpensier, of the Amadeists and the Montpensierists, and has now to deal only with the young Alfonso and Don Carlos. Let us see here what are the respective rights of the two remaining pretenders to the throne. In ancient times, the legislation upon the suc- cession to the throne in Spain was as confused as all legislation in an early stage of civilisation must necessarily be, and such laws as existed then remained in the glorious state of non-codi- fication prevailing up to the present time in the (brotlier of Don Carlos, and commander-in-chief of the Carhst army in Catalonia) with the old-fashioned ph, and the other one (son of Isabella, now a mere school-boy, but expected to be some day a very liberal prince), with the more modern^. ALFONSISM versus CARLISM. \')'j otlicrwisc Iti'mitifiil ;iiul \vtll-iv^iilat.caples, and consequently bod no right to reign in Spain ; aiul if ho had no right to reign, so neither Ferdinand VII., nor any of his brothers, nor Isubella. nor the young Alfouao, have ever had any right either. M 2 164 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. throne. If he were called to his country now, it would in no way improve matters, as a Regency or a Council would be necessary, and the miserable interinidad would thus remain actually prolonged. Besides, his mother is not a woman likely to let him go to Spain without trying to go there herself; and her arrival would be a signal for a new revolution. She persisted in not surrendering her crown for nearly two years after she had been overthrown, and events, as well as friends or foes, were equally clearly demonstrating to her every day that her reign was no longer possible. She yielded only to the advice and remonstrances of Napoleon, and this not before she had seen that Spaniards had made up their minds rather to have a foreign Prince than to run the risk of seeing her and her camarilla back again at Madrid. But her abdication came too late. In June, 1870, the young Alfonso had lost all his chances. And a good job it was both for the Prince and the country, for his subsequent fall would not have been as peaceful as that of Amadeo. It would have been almost impossible to tear away a young Prince of twelve years of age from his mother. If he had been called to the country, his family would have had to be admitted too, and in a few ALFOXSISM versus CARLISM. 165 days after tlie ceremonies and festivities of a coronation, Madrid would have had the King and his friends ; a Regent, or a Council of Re- gency, with a party to it; Doua Isabel and her party ; Doua Christina and her party ; the Duke of Montpensier and his party; and so on, with the Republicans of various shades in the back- ground. And we know only too well what that would have meant. When Montpensier, but a short time since a deadly enemy of Isabella, saw that he too had not only no chance of seizing the crown, but that he could not get even as a deputy into the Cortes, having been beaten at the elections in Asturias, he began to try a reconciliation with Isabella with a view to a prospective Regency. The negotiations were painful and difficult. Had they been carried out more successfully, and peace between the two parties concluded sooner, the Republic would have had much greater difhculty to establish itself, for the Conservatives would have been able to seize the power when Amadeo gave it up. Keeping in view that money can do any- thing in Spanish politics, and that the Conserva- tives arc the only party that have plenty of it, the occasion may be considered as having been a very favourable one at that moment, and if it 166 SPAIN A^D THE SPANIARDS. was missed, it was so on account of nothing having been agreed upon then between Mont- pensier and Isabella at the right time. It was only just before Amadeo's departure from Spain that they concluded an alliance on the basis of a prospective marriage between Don Alfonso and the youngest daughter of Montpensier. The ex- Queen was to give up all political interference, and the Duke to become the Regent till the ma- jority of his nephew. Measures were at once taken to work the country in this direction ; large amounts of money were prepared for emergencies ; the foreign Courts were influenced through the Orleans Princes and their party, many of the members of which were among the French Am- bassadors in various countries. M. Thiers was worked in the same direction, and apparently secured to the Alfonso cause, while Duke d'Aumale and the Count of Paris showed their disposition to accomplish in the London money-market what their credit was able to do. The postponement of the recognition of the Spanish Republic by the European Powers was to a considerable extent credited by the members of the party to the work they had been doing. But presently new difficulties arose between Isabella and her brother-in-law. It was under- ALFOXSISM versus CAULISM. 1^" Stood, it appears, in the original arraiigenR-iit, that Marfori and all the rest of the entvnraijc of the ex-Qnecn would be put aside. Christina was quite on .Muntpe-nsicr's side in this case; but the bed-chamber annnrHhi <>f Isabrlhi had so in- fluenced her within a few weeks, that this con- dition was completely disregarded. And as Montpensier greatly insisted upon it, and showed a disposition to inquire closely into the ])rivate lite of his sistcr-in-hiw, tlu^ compact was broken be- fore it had time to bear any fruit whatsoever. While these negotiations went on I happened to be in Paris, and to have now and then some information of what was going on in the Bazilef- sky Hotel, and from what I lieani then, I must con- clude that notwithstanding all the accusations that had been always brought against Queen Christina, she is, upon the whole, a nnich more reasonable and probably a better woman than her daughter. She undoubtedly liked power and money. But who does not? She was at all events sufli- ciently affectionate to sometimes sacrifice ambi- tion to love, and whenever something was de- monstrated to her, she proved capable of under- Standing it and of acting accordingly. In Isabella, little was to be seen of anything of the sort. "While she was said to change her lovers as IVe- 168 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. quently as she changed ministers, and during the whole of her reign certainly never thought of anything hut her purse and her confessor, Christina, even in the Avorst days of her despotism, was sometimes able to forget everything except the feelings of her woman's heart. When the revolt of La Granja broke out, she valiantly resisted all the insults and violence of her own body-guards when, breaking into her bedroom, with arms in their hands, they asked her to sign the Constitution. It w^as only when Sergeant Garcia dragged her out in a chemise into the courtyard, and showed her the man she loved kneeling close to the wall and about to be shot, that she cried out, " Stop ! I sign." At home as well as abroad Christina was constantly abused for her private life, and "/>wto" was the abominable name by which she was called by her own soldiers. But what did she in reality? She was married at twenty-three to a disgusting man of forty-five, Avho had already had three wives.* She lived friendly with him, bore him two children, and * The three former wires of Ferdinand VII. were a Princess of Sicily, a Princess of Portugal, and a Princess of Saxony. The latter died under circumstances which created some sensa- tion. He had children by none of them, and married Princess ALFONSISM v>'rsus CAIlLlhJM. 109 was left a widow at twcnty-scveii. Sliu w;is a Neapolitan woman, with the blood of lier country in her veins, and lell in love with Ferdinand Munoz, one of the most handsome of her guards- men. It has not been j)roved that she ever com- mitted adultery, and her husband would probably not have left her in possession of power after his death if he had had reason to believe that she had done so. A couple of months after Ferdinand's death Christina secretly married Mufioz, and the shortness of the interval between the death of the first husband and the second marriage is the only thing that can be justly objected to. Some ten years later the marriage was publicly sanc- tioned by a royal decree, Munoz became Duke of Kianzares ; the couple had several children, and lived, and live still, as friendly as any married people do. The old lady is now sixty-eight years of age, and is certainly as active, intelligent, ami energetic as her daughter, who is not fully forty- five; and the mother is surely less priest-ridden. It woidd be absurd to say that Christina made a proper use of power when she held it ; but sure it is Maria Christina, (laughter of tlio King of the Two Sicilies, with- out ever having seen her, simply because tlio Neapolitan houso was reputed to bo very prolific. The marriage took place in Kovember, 1829, and eleven inontlis later Isabollu wua born. 170 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. that had Isabella better listened to her advice after she attained maturity, she might have preserved her crown, and had she followed her mother's counsel during their exile together in Paris, she might at all events have given a better chance to her son, the Prince of Asturias. But to return to our subject. The difiiculties standing in the way of Don Alfonso's accession to the throne are not restricted to his family affairs onl^^ His chief drawback is that he has no popular party to support him, though he un- doubtedly possesses a powerful political party. Among the people, properly speaking, he has partisans only in the shopkeeping class of some of the large cities, people who will not either move for him, or sacrifice a peseta. The country folks at large are either Kepublicans or Carlists, or perfect indifferents. There is no end to small boroughs of ten and twenty thousand inhabitants, chiefly of the agricultural class, in which all your efforts to ascertain the political colour of the place are met with the invariable reply, " In esta pob- lacion no tenemos opinion ninguna ;" that is to say, that the people there don't care about any- body or any form of government provided they are left in peace, and taxes — especially the con- trihucion de saiigre, the blood-tax or conscription ALFONSISM versus CARLIf^M. 171 — arc not increased. In this way, Don Alfonso can really reckon only upon a group of poli- ticians (some of them, it must be said, very in- iluential and experienced), and upon a floating mass of enipleados (government ollicials) out or employ. And it remains to be seen whether the |>rogress which Republican ideas have made all throughout the Peninsula will not prove by fiir to exceed all the influence his party possess. To impose him upon the country by forces must be out of the question, for there is no one to fight for him, and any number of Republicans and Carlists to fight against him. The only chance he seems, therefore, to have lies in Serrano's becoming a Mac^Iahon lor five or seven years, and devoting himself to working up the indif- ferents into Alfonsists, a hard task, and one which the Duke dc la Torre is not likely to undertake, knowing as he does that his past relations to Isabella render it almost impossible for him to have anything to do with her son as long as she lives. Don Carlos, on the other hand, wliilc he has undoubtedly the popular support of at least one million of men in the various provinces, has no political party to back him. lie has also neither the support of the European Courts, nor the 172 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. monej'' which Alfonso could command ; and the men who surround him are not at all likely to possess the statesmanlike abilities the Alfonso party is credited with. The political and religious theories Don Carlos is supposed to represent — though they are somewhat exag- gerated — are certainly not of a nature to win the sympathies either of the majority of the Spaniards or of the world outside. There must, therefore, evidently be a deadly struggle between Alfonsisra and Carlisra before anything is settled in Spain. The most likely result of this struggle is, in my opinion, that both parties will ultimately succumb, making room for a firmly established republic. But I prefer giving on this point the opinion of more competent judges than myself. Here is, as nearly as possible, what Seiior Figueras — undoubtedly one of the most acute and enlightened judges of Spanish politics — told me during one of the conversations I had with him at Madrid. " For me," said Seiior Figueras, " there is only one Conservative party in Spain — that of Don Alfonso. It is the only one which has some real root in the country and which counts in its ranks really able men. The Carlists look, of course, more active and more dangerous, and so they are, ALFOXSISM versus CAULISM. 173 perhaps. lUit we know, if straii;:;crs do not, tluit Ciirlisni means in reality Don Alfonso niiicli moro than it iK)es Don Carlos. I slioiiUl not be asto- nislu'il at all if liy-and-liy the leadin^^ Alfousists — almost all of whom are now at and ahoiit liayonnc — would begin to tender aetual help to the C'arlists; and I know for certain that the leadini; men of the Carlist party, if they had been asked to express their innermost thoughts, would all declare themselves for Don Alfonso. Old Elio, for instance, knows better than anyone how far l)(in Carlos is unfit for the throne, and if he still serves the Carlist cause it is simply out of chivalry and old-fashioned loyalty. He served Ferdinand VI 1. and Charles V. and he considers himself bound to serve Charles VII. l)Ut had you asked him frankly to say whom he l)referred to see on the throne of Spain, from the jtoint of view of the country's welfare, he would certainly say Don Alfonso. About the same thing could be said of Dorrcgaray, Lizarraga, Olio, and other Carlist leaders. All of them were ollieers in Dona Isabella's army. All of them joined tlie Carlist party, not because they objected to her as their Queen, but because they did not wish either to serve the Republic or the stranger, Amadeo. They would never have fought against 174 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. Isabella, and would gladly accept her son. In fact, Carlism of our days, is strong with the populations of the Northern provinces, but by no means with its leaders, who know only too well how little the weak-minded Don Carlos is lit to rule Spain, or even likely to be accepted by any portion of the population as soon as he becomes more known. You said Don Carlos spoke kindly of me and my colleagues when you saw him. I am, therefore, sorry to say such rude things of him, but I believe I am saying only what is true." On my then asking Seiior Figueras whether he meant to say that Carlist generals were purposely concealing their ft^elings at present, and were fighting apparently in the cause of Don Carlos, but in reality for the restoration of Don Alfonso, " No, that I do not mean to say," he answered. " They probably believe they fight for Don Carlos, but in reality they are simply fighting for a Spanish King against a Republic now, as they fought against an Italian King a few months ago. But as they have no objection whatever to the young Don Alfonso, I should not be asto- nished at all if — should they be successful and the Republic overthrown — they were to find them- ALFONSISM versus CARLISM. 175 selves at tlie head of tn)oii Alfonso instead of Don Carlos." "So that, practically, you admit the possibility of the Kepiiblio being overthrown r asked 1. "As things are going on now," answered Senor Figneras, "1 must say that I would not deny the jiossibility of such a thing, though I hope it will not happen. At all events there is this much achieved already, that only two forms of govern- ment have lienGoforth become possible in this country — either a Federal Republic or a Con- stitutional monarchy with Don Alfonso. This is a great gain. A short time ago we had about a dozen combinations considered as equally pos- sible. Yet Don Alfonso, though his chances of coming to power are great, cannot last long. Ilis reign wouhl be merely a short adjournment of the Republic. In holding this opinion, I do not lay stress alone on the progress which Republican ideas are daily making in this country, but also on some of the unavoidable consequences of the I'rince's coming to the throne." ^I'he late J'le.sulente del Poilcr Kjecutlvo began hero to exi)lain to me the various com- binations of political parties whicii would necessarily take place in such a case — combina- tions the description of which here would, I auj 176 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. afraid, unnecessarily tire the English reader, so perplexed by the doings of his own parties, as to take little interest in those of foreign countries. As a counterpoise to this thoroughly Repub- lican view of the subject, I may be allowed to give here the opinion of another gentleman — perhaps the ablest and most experienced member of the Alfonso party, Seuor Comyn, the Spanish Minister in London. In a conversation I had lately with His Excellency, he said : " The Republic is Impossible with us. Our people are not educated for it, and that is the chief reason why I always sided with Don Alfonso. Castelar and Carvajal, who sent me to represent Spain at the Court of Queen Victoria, know my views. I never made a.nj secret of them, and I firmly believe that, whatever may be our immediate future, a day will come when Don Alfonso will as freely enter the Palace of Madrid, and be as heartily welcomed there, as my son will be in this house when he returns home after having finished his studies. But Don Alfonso must have a moustache w^hen he comes to Spain. Before that, his entry would be very undesirable, and if our party begin to hurry they will spoil everything." 177 CIIAPTKll V. PRIM A\D AMADEO. rpIlERE is a Spanish story wliich tells us that _L when Fcrdinaml III. — who turned out to be a saint — reached Paradise, and was introduced to the Virgin Mary, she proposed to him to demand any favour he liked ibr his country. The good Sovereign, always anxious about the welfiire of his loyal subjects, asked for oil, garlic, wine, and corn. " Granted," said the Virgin, "what else ?" •* Handsome women, valiant men, and strong mules." "Certainly; what more?" " Jiright skies, bulls, relics, and cigarritos." " By all means ; anything else ?" " A good government." " Oh, no !" exclaimed the Virgin, " never ! For were it granted to Spain, no angel wutdd any longer remain with us in heaven." The Si)aniard's boast of his country as well as his complaint of his government, embodied in VOL. II. N 178 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. this story, are only too well justified. If the first nionarchs of the Austrian dynasty were cruel, they had at all events the merit of being intelligent ; but since the days of Felipe IT. Spain has never seen on her throne anything but idiot- ism, bigotry, prostitution, and corruption. When Isabella started off for Hendaye and Pan with Father Claret, ]\Iarfori, and a heavy load of trea- sures, including jewels and pictures, which were generally considered as belonging to the Crown, the nation breathed freely. The men who came then to power were all popular; they were all supposed to have more or less suffered for the cause of national liberty ; they had certainly fought against oppression and corruption. Prim, Avho was -virtually, though not nominally, at the head of them, was a self-made man of obscure extraction, and could therefore be fairly supposed to know the real wants of the people. He was, besides, a native of Catalonia, and Catalans are, as a rule, supposed to be at least as shrewd and business-like a set of men as the Scotch or the Gascons. But the chief merit of Don Juan Prim seemed to be that he was an excellent political soldijr, exactly the thing wanted just then for the reconstruction of the Spanish Government, and for the defence of Spain i'rom the attack of TRIM A\D AMADEO. 179 ai)y Prt'tcinler. Tlic revolution liacnRier, Espartero. I'riin. and even some ehildrcn of Prim and Serrano, whom it was proposed to wed first and to crown afterwards. After aconple of years' siMrch, the Monarchists found at last a Prince amiable enough to consent to come to Spain, and to give a trial to the prin- ciple of really ('unstitntioiial Monarchy in that misgovernetl coinitry. But Prim had to pay with his life the apparent success of his long and sad ettorts to satisly the Monarchists of Spain and the diplomatists of Euroj)e. And it will always remain the glory of the IJcpuMican party of Spain that Prim's assassination was not the work of any fanatic belonging to their ranks, but the fruir of the corruption and villainy of the very same men for whose sake he threw the lupiiblicans overboard. His death has thus assumed some- thing of the character of a pimishment from the hand of inexorable fate. The declaration that the Uukc d'Aosta had consented to ascend the Spanish throne did not in the least set matters right. The RejMib- 186 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. licaris, the Alfonsists, the Montpensierists, the Carlists, all were equally dissatisfied, and the deputation which was to fetch the new soverei^^ii from Florence had to start under the shelter of night lest it should be captured and prevented from going. On Araadeo and his family leaving Genoa, a fearful storm— a bad presage for any man that might be superstitious — caught him, and compelled him to seek shelter upon the Spanish coast. And the first news which reached him here was that Prim, the man who made a king of him, was just assassinated. Those who knew the Prince, who were aware of his having been an admirer of patriots like Garibaldi and Mazzini, could never make out how the Duke d'Aosta could have ever accepted a crown so uncomfortably shaped, and so heavily stained with blood and mud. But the principle of " I do not understand the conduct of that man, show me his woman," holds equally good in the analysis of a prince's actions as well as of those of a pickpocket. At the bottom of the Duke d'Aosta's apparent incon- sistency was his spouse, Maria-Victoria. When quite a child at the Convent of the Sacre Ccenr, her dreams were a crown ; and when a nun told her one day that Mademoiselle de Montijo had *' la plies belle couronne die nionde" put on her head rUIM AND AMADEO. 187 as a reward for her liavinf:^ been always a ck-vout worsliippor of our Lady tlic Vir^nn, the youn^ rriiicc'ss Pozzo (k'Ua ('istenia adorned her breast with ;i little medal in honour of Notre Dame des Victoires, and be^an daily and nightly jiraying her holy patroness to give a crown to the little Maria-Victoria. There can be little doubt that when the Duke d'Aosta found himself the hus- band of the namesake of Notre Dame des Vic- toires, he must have become aware of the aspira- tion of his young wife, and, a chance to obtain a crown havino: presented itself, ]\Iaria-Victoria pro- bably used all her inlluence that it should not be lost. The proposal once accepted, Amadeo was too noble and brave to retreat- He saw well that in the reception the land of Figaros and Don JJasilios was suj)posed to have prepared for him, nothing but ofHcial faces came to salute him, nothing but freezing congratulations came to greet him. The country he passed through, the capital he came to live in, looked dumb and stony, and he must have felt at once that the best lie could say of himself was that he was going to be the King of only that portioi] of Madrid which he might assist in making money, eitlier in trade or in oilice; but by no means of the whole of ^ladrid, 188 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. still less of Spain, and less still of todas las Espanas. In the eyes of the religious-minded folk of the country he was not only an intruder, but the son of the blasphemous and excom- municated Italian who trampled under foot the dazzling crown of the holy Peter. He thought a journey through his new dominions would perhaps improve his position. The peasantry would perhaps like him after having seen him, and so he started on a kind of exhibition tour, spending a lot of his private money, and followed by Spanish and English journalists, who were to tell the world that everything was getting right in Spain, and that the Carlists, Isabelinos, Repub- licans, and Internationalists, would be all turning by-and-by into steady, business-like subjects of a Constitutional monarchy. He returned to Madrid perfectly conscious that he had not achieved much by his journey, but still he did not finally lose his hopes. He had done his duty, he had shown himself, and he was now willing to do his best to win the sympathies of the population of Madrid. He was a capital horseman, and he showed himself every day on horseback. His wife and himself drove daily on the Prado, His box at the Opera was seldom empty, and he did all that was in his power to laugh at the national zarzuela as heartily IMII.M AND AMADi:0. 181' as any true Casliliiui. Once a week, at loast, there was also a Itanquot. ami a l)allat the Palace. \'>u\ initwithstaiidiii,^ all these elVorts ol" Ik-Iiil^ and looking amiable, the young King iliil not see, except his Ministers, any Spaniard of political iidliieiice showing a desire to approach him, and a 3 and a rei^iiuc'iit of inlantry escorted Their Majes- ties and tlioir three children to the frontier of Portugal, and the vast nuijority <>t" the so-called respectable classes throtighont Europe read with feelings of sincere sorrow the declaration of the young monarch : "My good wishes have deceived me, for kSj)ain lives in the midst of a perpetual conflict. If my enemies had been foreigners I would not abandon the task, but they are Spaniards. I wish neither to be King of a party nor to act illegally ; but believing all my efforts to be sterile, I renounce the crown for myself, my sons and heirs." On the 13th the Royal Family reached Lisbon, where they remained till the complete restoration of the Queen's health, anil proceeded then quietly home, and nothing was ever heard more of them in Spain. They hail not yet left the palace ere a Republic was pro- claimed, the Senate and the Congress amalga- mated under the title of "National Assembly," presided over by Seuor Martos, and a new ministry was seated on the blue velvet bench of the Congreso de los Diputado.t. In fact, abroad the abdication of the King of Spain produced by far a stronger impression than in the country itself. In England, every old maid was lamenting the dangers to which the wretched VOL. II. 194 SPAIN AXD THE SPANIARDS. Spaniards had exposed the young Queen " in such a position" — although Spaniards had of course nothing to do either with the " position" or the exposure. The newspapers and politicians could not find words strong enough to express their indignation at a nation that had proved unable to appreciate the merits of a truly liberal and chivalrous Sovereign, and the chances it had of enjoying the blessing of Constitutional govern- ment. In Germany there was no end of nebulous speculations about the old bugbear of a Latin Republican federation as opposed to the Imperial Teutonic and Sclavonic federations. The King of Italy began to be courted still more, " a HohenzoUern Prince" began again to be talked of, and a couple of men-of-war had secret in- structions sent to them. In Paris, where I hap- pened to be at that time, the excitement was still greater. M. Thiers repeated several times that he " deplored" Amadeo's abdication as one of the greatest calamities that could have occurred. He predicted even grave European complications. When the news of the abdication reached the Assembly at Versailles, the efl'ect it produced upon that excitable body was so great that French business with its Committee of Thirty seemed to be quite forgotten for the moment. The Right riilM AND AMADEO. 1'.'.") seemed just as (Iclightcd as the Left, for tin- former saw at once a chance of making the (»1a.seos and the theatres were not to be seen. But in about a week's time Madrid life took its habitual course, and the Carnival fnlluw- ing close upon the pacific revolution was as jolly as ever. The land which had taught Europe so many excellent lessons in olden times, and which stood once at the head of civilisation, seemed to revive once more, to try and do again something that was worth while imitating. Smoothly, gently, without shedding a drop of blood, it changed the whole of its governmental fabric, and people who had never heard speak of Spain otherwise than as a land uf brigands and assassins, stood amazed at the sight oflered to them. Yet two Governments only — the United States and the Swiss — recognised the new Hepublic, and encou- raged the efi'orts of its leaders and of its people. All the others remained sulk\-, and sent out men- of-war to the coast of the enchanted land, of the ruin of which thev alone had been iruiltv. 202 CHAPTER VI. SPANISH REPUBLICANISM. rp HOUGH everybody knows the proverb X "There's nothing new under the sun," people are still inclined to take very old things for quite new ones. When the European public heard of the Federal Republic having been pro- claimed in Spain, they considered it as quite a new calamity brought upon the political world, immediately declared it to be subversive of every vestige of order, and attributed its origin to the propaganda of the International Society. The truth was, however, that Spanish Federalism was neither a new thing, nor had it any connection whatever with the International. First of all, the International Society is essen- tially a working man's association, and there are hardly any working men at all in Spain, Catalonia SPANISH REin'DLICANISM. 203 excepted. Spain is totally an agricultural coun- try, and it is well known that the International has not yet had any influence on the agricultural labourers, having been strictly confined to the manufacturing and working classes. On the other hand, any one that knows anything about Spanish history, is well aware that what the Federalists now call the " saving formula of little republics within a great nation" was the original form of government which prevailed all over the Peninsula, up to the time when foreign kings, adventurers, and armies came, under various pretexts, to invade the Peninsula, to rob it of its treasures, and its people of their liberties. If the various kingdoms which constituted Spain became united, it was chiefly because the country was in need of leaders, and of great unity of effort for getting rid of the invaders. The intermarri- age between the sovereigns, and the nominal union of various kingdoms, did in no way affect their constitution and privileges, and as soon as the Moors were expelled, the separate provinces began at once to claim their ancient rights and the privilege of independent existence. Karly in the sixteenth century, the provincial procuradorcs, or representatives of the people, rose 204 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. all over the country to oppose the foreign yoke of the young Charles V. and his Flemish councillors, and refused to swear allegiance to him until he himself had sworn to maintain the liberties and privileges of the Spanish provinces and munici- palities. The researches which had been made by the late Mr. Bergenroth, in the Simancas Archives, are sure soon to revive the interest in the sanguinary civil war known as the war of Comunidades, which offers quite an inexhaustible material for romances, dramas, and tragedies, though at present the great struggle and its heroes— Padilla, Maria Pacheco, Vega, Quinta- nilla, Zapata, and Juan Bravo, — are almost for- gotten. The Comuneros were vanquished and their leaders executed, but the idea which they repre- sented, and for which they struggled, was on that account not eradicated from the minds of the people whom we know under the general de- nomination of Spaniards, and who are in reality Castilians, Aragonese, Catalans, Andalusians, Basques, &c., between all of whom there is cer- tainly more difference in every possible respect than has ever existed between an Irishman and an Englishman, or a Bavarian and a Prussian. To the great majority of the public in this SPAXISn REPUBLICANISM. 205 country it serins that, since all iSpiiniards profess the Catholic religion and live on the same ])enin- sula, tiiev must be, if not truly homogeneous, at all events very similar people. No nution can he more false than this. Except in cases where religion is purposely brought into connection with politics, so as more to excite popular passions, it has, in the natural course of human affairs, absolutely nothing to do with it. Men have constantly proved to be able to profess the same creed, and pray to the same God, and yet be deadly enemies. The most flourishing time of Italy was that of its municipal organization, and we know that in the hatred which existed at that time between Genoa, Venice, Milan, Florence, «$cc., there was something far exceeding the ani- mosity that ever animated any two different races. The same thing is still to be seen between the various provinces of the now United Germany, and between the various nationalities composing the Austrian and the Russian Empire. If Italy looks now more united, it is simply because there was, for a long time, a general idea animating the people. Vnity became, for the Italians, synonymous with the overthrow of foreign do- minion and of the secular power of the Pope. If, at the time of Napoleon's invasion, Spain had 206 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. been left to herself, she might also, perhaps, have softened down her provincial rivalries, and be- come, at least as far as appearance goes, a more consolidated State. That the spirit of localism and provincialism does not in any way prevent common action amongst the various component parts of a State, is sufficiently clear to anyone who reads and under- stands the most glorious pages of the history of England, America, and Switzerland, or is able to penetrate the real meaning of the last German success, in which fierce rivals and deadly enemies were cemented into one invincible body. Provided the idea of which the defence is to be undertaken is common to all their provinces and munici- palities, federal States have almost invariably proved to be superior in efficiency of action to centralized States. Seiior (Jastelar points out, with reference to this subject, that "Asturias alone made a treaty with Great Britain, and the treaty was religiously observed by the whole nation. The Alcalde of Mostoles, an insignificant village, first declared war against Napoleon, and his declaration was the declaration of all Spain. The village bell rang with clamour, and awoke in the hearts of the peasantry indignation against the invader ; the defiles were changed into Ther- SPANISH REPUBLICANISM. 207 mopylius, the hniiter became a guerilla, and the guerilla a general." The fact that Italy and Germany have been quite lately consolidated, makes the reading classes of the public throughout Europe believe that we have entered an age of Uirge Phnj)ires; but this opinion is very erroneous. Bold as the assertion njight seem, one would be strongly inclined to say that the consolidation of Italy and Clcrmany is a raere historical incident, one great step more to wards a Republican and Federal union of various nationalities, more or less belonging to the same race and speaking the same tongue. To make any progress at all, as great States, Italy and Germany had first of all to get rid of a number of petty sovereigns, all of whom were equally famous for extortions, selfishness, corrup- tion, and utter imbecility. Now that these petty princes have been set aside, the central power, by means of which they w^re overthrown, will naturally hold its sway for some tin)e. but Ity- and-by the period of natural disintegration is sure to set in; and all fiie misapprehensions which exist on that puint arc simply the result of people not quite realizing the dilTerence between disintegration and decom{)Osition in State matters 208 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. — two perfectly different things. Disintegra- tion by no means implies a decrease of strength of the central power, in cases where the activity of that power is needful, as is clearly shewn by the examples of America, England, and even little Switzerland ; while decomposition is the in- variable and inevitable result of nnlimited cen- tralization. With the execution of the Girondists, those intrepid though partly unconscious ad- vocates of Federalism, the French Kepublic itself was executed ; while the principle of self- government embodied in the otherwise very narrow-minded Anglo-Saxon parish and munici- pality has saved the liberties of the nation. The English Georges were in no way preferable to the sundry French Louis, or the Spanish Ferdinands and Charles. At the same time the worship of royalty and aristocracy was always incom- parably stronger in this country than either in France or Spain. Yet, while Great Britain was steadily growing into a free community of free citizens, France and Spain were invariably plunging from savage despotism into savage anarchy, or vice versa. The explanation of this fact is that the history of the progress of national liberty is simply the history of the SPANISH RKPUBLICAXISM. 2()lt proj^rcss of municipal ;iml ])riit I am afraiil I am writing hen.' the kind ol' generalities to which the l^n,L;lisli mind lias an invincible abhorrence. Ik'sides, tiki subject of federalism requires volumes of space and numbers of pens, much more able than my poor one. Consequently I had, perhaps, better simply sum up here what I consider to be the chief im- pediments in the way of Spain ever getting constituted as an orderly centralized state, whether Monarchical or Republican. Foremost of all stand the natural causes. The I'liur kiiiu'doms of Andalusia, the two Castiles. the Vasco-Navarre provinces, ]\Iurcia, Valencia. Catalonia, Aragon, Oalicia, Leon. Estremadura, Asturias, are each and all vastly diflerent in every possible respect— in climate, soil, natural pro- ductions, character of the population, and their habits and pursuits. No uniform legislation is con- ceivable for them, and the cry for home-ride must unavoiilably arise in everyone of these provinces, as soon as the l*eninsula is out nf danger of foreign invasion. Except those of Madrid, all the revo- lutions and revolts, since the last invaders had been got rid of, were — whatever may have been their immediate pretexts — in substance provincial VOL. II. P 210 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. and municipal risings against the central power. Thus, from natural causes alone, it would be utterly impossible to make a centralized state of the Peninsula. A sort of patriarchal despotism a la Russe would be the only means of keeping the various provinces under a central yoke. But this sort of government is possible only for a limited time, and had the Russian Czars of the present centuries, made themselves as much detested and despised by their subjects as the Spanish Sovereigns did, the Russian Empire would have been by this time engaged in a most ferocious civil war for Federalism, Poles, Germans, Fins, Asiatic tribes, &c., all claiming inde- pendent existence. The general corruption and demoralization of Madrid, is another obstacle standing in the way of Spanish centralization. The population of the capital consists chiefly of professional politicians, empleados (civil service functionaries), in and out of office, a number of troops accustomed to pro- nuncimnientos, stock exchange and other gamblers, and jobbers, and similar dangerous classes. The provinces justly hold Madrid in utter abhorrence, and know that, whether the form of government be a Monarchy or a Unitarian Republic, the power will practically be in the hands of these SPANISH IlEPL-nLICANISM. 211 classes, and this is what they won't stand under any consideration. Tiie prestige which I'aris has for every Frenchman, of even the most distant jtrovince, is here unknown. Consequently, whilr the F'rench capital was constantly able to settle or disturb the affairs of the whole of France, in Spain we almost invariably find the provinces satisfied oidy when Madrid is disturbed, and see them rising again as soon as things seem to settle in the capital. The most striking proof of this dilference between the two countries is to be found in the fact that the capture of Paris was invariably an actual conquest of the whole of France, while the entry of the enemy into the Spani.sh caj)ital was a mere incident of the war, the capture of a large town. Thus the general character of the relations between the capital and the provinces of Spain renders the establishment of a stvotKj central government impossible, and as no centralised state has ever been endurable, or even preserved its equilibrium, unless its central power was un- usually strong, one would be justified in assuming that only two forms of government are possible in the Peninsula, either a Federal Republic or a Federative Monarchy, something similar to what Austria has been tending to for these last few years. V 2 212 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. Now, the establishment of a Monarchy of even such a decentralised form will still meet all the difficulties we have already mentioned : the minority of Don Alfonso, the popular hatred for his mother, grandmother, and their parties, the wretched yet unavoidable influence of the pro- fessional politicians of Madrid, and the fact of the young Prince not having any popular party to back him. And along with these obstacles will come the constantly growing spread of Re- publican ideas all over the country. But as I have endeavoured all through these volumes to give at least some sort of support to the opinions I have ventured to express, I will quote here a better authority on this subject than any foreign writer on Spain could ever pretend to be. Here is, in substance, what Don Emilio Castelar wrote in 1872, when Araadeo sat on the throne of Spain, when Europe fully believed in the pos- sibility of establishing a Constitutional Monarchy in the Peninsula, and when the idea of " Spanish Federalism" was quite unknown to the European public at large, and considered a silly dream by the few who had heard of its being advocated. At this day one of the nations most fitted for the federation is our Spain. We do not have the same republican traditions as those possessed by Italy and France. Our people, always SPAXISn RKITBLICANISM. iMii at war, hnvc iilwnvs ni'i'dcil a cliiff, and tliis fliiof required iird« d 218 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. all throughout the siege although the correspond- ents of the leading English journal were cer- tainly no sympathisers with either the Intran- sigentes or the released convicts. That the abstract, theoretical notions of pro- perty will ever reach, among any branch of the Latin race, the extreme point they have reached in this country is more than doubtful. That the idea of " vested interests," for instance, could ever be entertained in any but an Anglo-Saxon head is not very probable. But the respect for individual property Avill, on that account, not be lessened. There are not a few acute judges of human affairs who believe that, if anything subversive of the present theories of property is ever to be brought to bear upon the world, it is sure to come from England, where the blind worship of wealth may finally exasperate millions of suffering and disregarded individuals, and not from the Continent, where property is more safe, simply because it is more largely spread among all classes of society. What concerns us here, however, is, not the prospects of property in Europe, but the plain fact that throughout the whole of the endless civil wars in Spain no reason was ever given to the world for appre- hending that any attempt would be made in that SrAXIRII REPUBLTCAMSM. 210 country to upset the basis of the ])rcsent social arrangeuionts. This is a very important point, for if Eurt»pe at large becomes convinced of it, she may, y)erhaps, be intluccd not to interfere any longer with tlic form of the guveriiiiieiit S]tain may ultimately select for itself, and Inr diplomats to give up writing threatening despatches to the Government of Madrid, thus increasing its already almost insurmountable difTieulties. It would be quite useless on my part to give here the theoretical arguments against the Fede- ral form of government. They are too well known, and there are too many people always anxious to repeat them in and out of season, though the majority of such people know nothing at all about Sj)ain, and have hardly ever inquired what sort of thing Federalism really is. Here is a Spanish— conse(piently, a somewhat verbose — definition of it : Relations bctwocH iiKlividuals create the family, relations between families the miiiiicipality, relations between muniei- palities the state, and between states the nation; and the nation sliould establi.-ih itself in constitutional compacts which should recognise and proclaim the autonomy of the citizens, of the states, andoftlie nation. Tliis is the federal repubUcan 220 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. form. This is the form which leaves all entities in their re- spective centres of gravity, and associates them in harmonious spheres. And when hiiman relations become more intimate, not only through those miracles of industry which annihilate distance, but also by a closer sense of the solidarity which exists among all men, the federation of states, which we call nations, will be succeeded by the federation of nations, which we may call the organism of humanity. This is the form of government proposed by the republican deputies in the Constituent Assembly, and defended with great tenacity in daily struggles ; and when this form of government is dispassionately examined it must be admitted that it is not possible to invent another more adapted to our national character." It is quite evident that neitlier life, nor pro- perty, nor order is in any way threatened by this programme. It is just as evident that it is per- fectly immaterial whether on the summit of such a Federal state there be placed a throne or a pre- sidential chair. If the people like to have a royalty at the top of their social fabric, let them have it ; if not, don't impose it upon them. Whether it be Alfonso, or Serrano, or Castelar, or any other person that is going to take np his abode at the Palace of Madrid, it is, after all, quite immaterial, and presents for the country merely a question of a balance between a civil list and a President's salary. But what every well-wisher of Spain should desire for that lovely SPANISH REPUBLICANISM. 221 l»nt ill-fated ronntry is, that it should p^i't rid as soon as possible of its hurcaucratic and central- isation fetters. Even from the bitterest cneniiea (if Federalism, I never heard in Sjiain itself any valid />mf/tV«/ argument against a Federal con- stitution, except that Castile and Catalonia nnist be ruined and Cuba lost under a Federation. Castile— not Old, but New only— lives upon Madrid, and Mailrid lives upon people in office, the court, the foreigners, and similar non-working bodies ; that province has neither trade, nor manu- factures, nor agriculture, and must, it is said, become a desert as soon as it is no longer a governmental centre. To this the answer is plain. The advantage of getting rid of the Madrid i)arasites is too great for the country at large not to be bought at the price of New Castile's ruin. Besides, if neither Castile nor Madrid work now, the feeling of self-preservation will compel them to work when they have no other resources. Catalonia is expected to be ruined because, being the only nianul'acturing province, she has always been strongly*protected by the general tarllV to which a Federal constitution would put an end. The nund)erless ports of the Peninsula would be at once opened to I'ree trade, and the factories of 222 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. Catalonia would have to be shut up. But this is evidently the old question of free trade versus pro- tectionism, and the old answer must be given to it. Catalonia may suffer for a while, but will finally rise to the European standard of workmanship. If she proves unable to do so, it will be only because she is not fit for the work she has undertaken, and in that case it would be unjust to make the whole Peninsula indefinitely pay for the inca- pacity of Catalonia. As to Cuba, the chances of her getting adrift could by no means be increased by a Federal constitution. On the contrary, many people believe that Cuba is lost already, and that the only means of saving the isle is to emancipate her slaves, and grant her all the privileges she could enjoy either as an independent republic or as a member of the United States. In addition to these arguments against the establishments of a Federal Republic in Spain, I have never heard any worth while listening to. People who point out the constant disturbances and insurrections, obviously forget that these were more numerous and niore sanguinary under the centralised Monarchy. The political dis- turbances in the Peninsula, are, as everywhere else, the result of bad government on the one SPANISH REPUBLICANISM. 22:J hiuicl, luul ol' ;ui undue iulvjincc of " ideas" over " kiiowledi^e" in the mass of tlie people on the other. Provided the form of i^oveniuient suits a nation, peojile remain (he ([uieter the h-ss they "think," and the more they "know." It was always by '* ideas*' and '"generalities" that the (Continent was disturbed, and it was by the utter absence of anythiiii: like " thouglits" that the population of the IJritish Isles was kei)t in peace. The P^nglishman who thinks, is just as turbulent a person as tiie iSpaniard or the Frenchman, while the Spaniard or Frenchman who possesses the knowledge of the average Briton, is generally Just as orderly and jteace-loving an individual as the most respectable of Her Majesty's subjects. If the mass of Spaniards and Frenchmen could be by some sort of contrivance made to think less and to know more, we should never hear of any revolutions in those countries, and, to my mind. the greatest danger for Spain is the utter igno- rance of her population, and its obstinate dislike to acquire any knowledge, whether it be of a theoretical or of a praelieal nature. 224 CHAPTER VII. CASTELAR AND FIGUERAS. DON EMILIO CASTELAR will probably remain, for a long time to come, the central figure in the history of Spanish Republicanism. The courage and earnestness with which he served the cause, his unblemished personal repu- tation, and his brilliant eloquence, have rendered him immensely popular in his country, while the comparative moderation of his views gained for him abroad the sympathies of even the political men and parties opposed to Republican principles. They abused him and sneered at his " florid dia- lectics," as long as they still preserved a hope of seeing Monarchy re-established in Spain ; but the moment they became convinced that the chances of Spanish Monarchy were gone, they began to speak of him as of a great man, evidently believ- ing that their compliments will not only flatter CASTELAR AND FIGIT-RAS. '2'2') Sefior Castelar and increase the general nioilcra- tion of his views, but cause liini to give up some of tlie principles he lias formerly advocated — the abolition of standing armiL'S, lor instance, of capital punishment, of the separation of State and Church, &c. And it must be said that the hopes entertained by these gentlemen were not deceived. Speaking of socialistic Utopias, Sefior Castelar wrote once: '* But I object to embracing wit hill the programme of the Federation and of the Republic all these vague aspirations, some of them contrary to jirogress, and others to indivi- dual rights, and all dangerous to the peace of democracy; becanftc, if we jwonise the 'uiipo.le and the absurd^ the daii of the Bepublic, instead of beincj the day of rcdeniption, will be the day of disenchantment f* and the last words of this sen- tence look now as if they had been written with special reference to himself. Almost everything he had fought for din'ing something like tiiirty years he had to disregard, nay, to tramjile unik-r his feet, when he made himself a Dictator in Se}itendier last. No one will ever think of ac- cusing him of liaving bi-fu moved, in that i-ase, by personal consideration, or by ambition. A noble patriotism, and an intense desire of helping his country out of the chaos, were the only motives VOL. U. V 226 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. that prompted him in advocating and enforcing measures which he had formerly attacked as most iniquitous, and from the adoption of which his former colleagues and brothers in arms shrunk. Yet, though his motives were most honourable, the fact, which histor}^ will have to record, will, nevertheless, remain unmitigated : — Castelar had recourse to violent, reactionary measures which he had always condemned, while Figueras, Salmeron, and Pi y Margall resigned power rather than act in disaccordance with the political opinions they professed. This inconsistency of Sefior Castelar was, how- ever, inevitable. There is a division of labour in the business of the State as in any other. The duties of a leading member of the opposition are quite different from those of a leading statesman in office, not to speak of the truism that the most brilliant orator is not necessarily a good minister or dictator. Senor Castelar was always a theorist, and, as such, had naturally to aim at the ideal, at the impossible, to make people obtain the pos- sible. When he took office, he became at once a sort of dissonant note, something like Mr. Bright sitting in the Cabinet ; only as his official posi- tion was incomparably higher than that of Mr. Bright, and as he had arbitrarily to rule the country, instead of simply giving his opinion in CASTELAR AND FIOUERAS. 227 Council, the dissonance was also a more loud and screaming one. He had now to defeml and enforce the possible against the claims of the impossible he advocated formerly. The position of his colleagues was incomparably more ad- vantageous ; they were more practical men, had never assumed the standpoint of theorists, and, consequently, the more moderate of them (Figueras and Salmeron), as well as the more violent (Pi y Mari;all), have an e(iiially Hiir chance of escaping at least theoretical criticism, in adili- tion to the practical, for the tiuie they held ofli(;e, while Seiior Castclar will necessarily be open to both. The names of Castelar and Figueras bear something like a close association in my mind. I saw the two gentlemen at work together, and they always seemed to me to throw light upon each other. They became connected very early in life, having worked hand in hand in Aivour of the Republic since 1840. The only difference was that Figueras, being a Catalan, was doing his work chiclly in (Jatalonia, while (.'astelar was in Madrid, as Professor of History and Rhetoric at the University. The political notoriety of the W 2 228 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. fallen Dictator began, however, if I am not mis- taken, only in 1856, when he was editor of a paper called La Democracia, a jomnial fiercely at war with another democratic paper, La Discusion, edited by Don Nicolas Rivero. In April, 1856, Castelar published in his journal a violent article against Isabella, under the heading of "■ LI Easgo" (the Gift), and the Government, not satisfied by bringing the author before the tribunals, insisted upon his being dismissed from his professorship. Sefior Montalvan, the Rector of the University, replied that the offences for which the professors could be dismissed were enumerated in the code, and that Seiior Castelar's offence could not be brought under au}^ of the paragraphs. The Government, growing savage, dismissed Mon- talvan himself; the students got up a serenade in his honour, the police interfered, troops were brought out, a general row ensued in Madrid, and several unconcerned people were killed in the streets. To Englishmen and Americans, Don Emilio Castelar became known chiefly through his writing in the Fortnightly Revieio, and some of the American periodicals, on subjects connected with the Republican movement in Europe. These articles, which I have already largely quoted CASTELAR AND FIGUERAS. 220 here were written in Spanisli, and translated into English Ity some gentlemen at the American Legation. As a poet of considerable iii)ility, Sefior Castelar was early knuwn throughout his country. In their physical appearance and habits of life, the two leaders of the Madrid Federalist party are quite different. Castelar is a man of middle height, with broad shoulders and a powerful chest, with a perfectly bald head, somewhat narrow forehead, and a very thick, long, dark moustache. Upon the whole, I think he would look remarkably well in the uniform of a cavalry general. His attitudes are, T am afraid, always studied. He seems always ready to deliver an oration, and I never remember having seen him assuming a " stand-at-ease" attitude. He is in- describably amiable with everybody, and espe- cially so with literary men ; and Senor Figueras, who has much in himself of the critic and satirist, laughed immensely while describing to me an interview himself and Senor Castelar had with an American and an English journalist, who could not speak a single word either of Spanish or even French, while neither Senor Castelar nor Senor Figueras knew English; so that the mu- tual paying of compliments and the "interview- 230 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. iiig " business proceeded through the instrumen- tality of an American dentist, who has long lived in Madrid, and is quite a popular character there. And Seiior Figueras added that Don Emilio was quite delighted with the meeting, during which he (Figueras) had, it appears, the greatest diffi- culty to restrain himself from bursting into a fit of laughter. Castelar, notwithstanding his numerous occu- pations, finds leisure and disposition to go out into society — at least, he did so when he was Minister for Foreign Affairs — while Figueras goes to bed at nine p.m., and rises at five a.m. The first time I was introduced to him was at half-past six in the morning, at his private resi- dence in Calle de la Salud, At seven a.m. he invariably left his home to go to the Presidency. The simplicity of his manners, as compared with those of Senor Castelar, is quite striking. He is also much taller than his friend, and must have been a very handsome man formerly, but now he looks pale and thin, and his hair is turning grey. Contrary to the general belief spread in Eng- land that Castelar was the man of the Republican party, I have every reason to believe that he was frequently but the mouth-piece of his friend, Don CASTELAR AND FIGUERAS. 231 Estanislao Figueras, a man of inooinparahly iiioro kiiowk-dirc more statesmaiiliko cai)acitii!S, and a more practical tiu'ii of mind. I)iit Scfior Kigueras was pcrlcctly aware of the great oratorical gifts of his friend, Don Emilio, and consequently when they sat together as deputies, whenever there was a necessity for mastering the Assembly by means of impassioned eloquence, Figueras pushed Cas- telar forward, tlic speeches often having been prepared in concert on the previous day ; but the extempore retorts of a business-like nature, not necessarily implying much rhetoric, Seiior Fi- gueras as a rule reserved to himself. Unhappily, the late President of the Gohierno de la Republica is a man of weak health; he frequently spits blood when hard pressed by work, and is, besides, a man of that cast of character to which the late Mr. J. S. Mill belonged: personal grief intensely aftects the whole (jf his being, and absorbs, for a long time, all other feelings and thoughts. In April last, a few days before the coup iFetat of the 23rd, Senor Figueras lost his wife, and his grief was so intense that when I saw him about three weeks later he spoke as a man who had perfectly made up his mind to leave his post as soon as it was in any way [>ossil)le, and even to leave the country, lie was quite ill then, and departed 232 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. soon afterwards to a Pyrenean watering-place ; a circumstance which caused his enemies to spread the absurd rumour that he had taken to flight. The intimate friendship which seems, at all times, to have existed between Seiior Castelar and Senor Figueras, was not in any way affected by the latter withdrawing from power and the former becoming a Dictator. At all events, during the celebrated sitting of September 18th, Seiior Castelar still spoke in the warmest possible terms of his "illustrious and beloved friend, Senor Figueras ;" and, as far as I know, the political opinions of the two friends are — or, at all events w^ere, a short time back — almost iden- tical. There is this difference, however, between the two men, that Senor Figueras was always possessed of considerably greater self-command, while the eloquent Don Emilio was rather apt to whip himself into passion by means of his own rhetoric, as a lion is supposed to do with his own tail. But, strange to say, though Senor Castelar was always a theorist, had spent the greater portion of his life as professor at the Madrid University, and must naturally have thought himself, and has been thought by other people, to be, at least to a certain extent, a philosopher, CASTELAU AND FKJUERAS. 2:V.i he never showed any great respect to j»hilosoj»hy as a science. This is, for instance, ^vllat he said of Hegel and his fuHowcrs : '* Wlion I contcmpliito tlicsc scientific systems, life in them appears to me a river without source und without issue, roUinj^ its waves etcrnaUj through a purposeless channel. Tlie world of the future needs an ideal. An ideal cannot be willmut ideas, and ideas can only be found in the unconditional, tlie ab- solute." In fact, the piety of Senor Castelar strongly distinguished him from the vast majority of his colleagues, and ^L-nor Pi y ^largall, among others, went so far as to ])ul»licly sneer at him in the Cortes for having invoked God's help in favour of the Republic. There was nothing new, however, in this display of religious feeling on the part of the Dictator, for long before he asked the Almighty to interfere in fSpani.sh j)olilics, he wrote : " I have never believed that to dctlirono the kings of tho earth it was necessary to destroy tho idea of God in the con- science, nor the hope of immortality in the soul. 1 have always believed tho contrary — that souls, deprived of these great prin- ciples, fall collapsed in tho luire of the earth to be trudiK-n by the beasts that perish. Give to man a great idea of himself, toll him that ho bears God in his conscience and immortality in his life, and you will see him rise by this fortified soutimout 234 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS of his dignity to reclaim tliose rights which assure him the noblest independence of his being in society and iu nature." Of the nature of Sefior Castelar's eloquence, it would be by no means easy to convey here an idea. It is incomparably more bewildering and verbose than anything we know in England or France. Fancy, for instance, a passage like this uttered in a thundering voice and at one breath, as if there had not been in the whole of it neither a stop nor a comma : " The French democracy has a glorious lineage of ideas — the science of Descartes, the criticisms of Voltaire, the pen of Rousseau, the monumental Encyclopaedia ; and the Anglo-Saxon democracy has for its only lineage a book of a primitive society — the Bible. The French democracy is the product of all modern philosophy, is the brilliaut crystal condensed in the alembic of science ; and the Anglo-Saxon democracy is the product of a severe theology learned by the few Christian fugitives in the gloomy cities of Holland and of Switzerland, where the morose shade of Calvin still wanders. The French democracy comes with its cohort of illustrious tribunes and artists, that bring to mind the days of Grreece and the days of the Renaissance — M irabeau, the tempest of ideas ; Vergniaud, the melody of speech ; Danton, the burning lava of the spirit ; Camille Desmoulins, the immortal Camille, brilliant truant of Athens, with a chisel in place of the pen, a species of animated bas-relief of the Parthenon. And the Anglo-Saxon democracy comes with an array of modest talent — Otis, the unassuming publicist : Jefferson, the practical orator ; Franklin, common CASTELAU AND FIGUERAS. 235 sense incarnutf — all simple as niituro, patienl ami u ii^uinui ua labour. Tlio Freudi deiiiocnicy iinprovisos fourU-cn amiiesi, gauis epic battles, creates generals like Dumuuriez, the hero uf Jemmapes ; like Massena, the hero of Zurich ; like Bonaparte, general of generals, the liero of heroes. TIio Anglo-Saxon* democracy sustains a war of various fortunes, brings together little armies, makes campaigns of little brilliancy, and has for its only general Washington, wlioso glory is more in the council than in the field, whose name will be enrolled ratlicr among great citizens than among great heroes. Nevertheless, the French democracy, that legion of immortals, has passed like an orgie of the human spirit drunken with ideas, like a Uomeric battle, where all the combatants, crowned with laurel, have died on their chiselled sliields ; while the Anglo-Saxon democracy, that legion of workers, remains serenely in its grandeur. A parallel wliieh reveals the brilliant means and scanty results of the one, and the scanty means and brilliant results of the other — an instructive parallel written in history with indelible cha- racters, to teach us that the French democracy was lost by its worship of the state, by its centralization, by its neglect of the municipality, of the rights of districts, and even the rights of individuals ; while the Anglo-Saxon democracy was saved by having in the first place founded the riglits of man, and after- ward the organised and self-governing municipality, and finally, a scries of counties and states also self-governing, powerfid in- struments by whicli authority was united to liberty, giving us the model of the modern |)ijlity." This tirade is, pcfhaps, all the more a fair speciiiit'ii of SL-nor CastL-lar's eloquence as ho is evidently himself in love with it, for he delivered it in the Constituent Cortes in 1870, and intro- 236 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. diiced it, subsequently in 1872, in his Fort- nightly Revieiv articles. Two years experience have apparently not been sufficient to show him • the vagueness and inaccuracy of the statements contained in the passage. Although a professor of history, he seems never to have known what impartial, critical, or even simply accurate history was. Events and names of the past seem to interest him only inasmuch as they can serve him in his exquisite but very fantastical work of illustration. Like some of the pictures of Gustave Dore, which are beautiful and full of life, without ever being lifelike in the sense of resembling anything we know in actuality, so is Senor Castelar's history. And he seems to consider such a use of historical materials quite a legitimate one. " Tlie revolution of 1854 (writes he) had the result of organising the Republican party throughout the Peninsula. The spread of the new ideas at this time was enormous. Journals inspired with the purest faith, written with convuacing eloquence, fighting against the reactionary parties with a tena- cious and skilful propaganda, excited extraordinary interest. Learned,* polished, popular, and literary, they were at once the focus of light and the nucleus of organisation. The chau's in * To those who know what Spanish journalism is like in matter of learning, this passage must seem j)articularly na'ive. CASTELAR AND riGlTUAS. 237 the universities, gained hy disciples of the in-w uii-u-i, cuntri- butcd poweiTiilij tu tlie diil'usiun of liglit. Thanks to tlieni, historj oiisunied ii progressive and humanitarian tondenoyi Thoy redeemed the tniditions of the country from their monarchical character, and reinvested them in the light of now sciouco with the democratic cliuracter." Quite recently, Avhen ropriinandiii^; the iiltni- Republiciins in the Cortes for tiieir want of moderation, he exehiinieil, \vith vehemeuce : " ' All, gentlemen, how sad tlio spectacle we have presented as a party in Europe ! All that we have initiated, the Con- servatives have realised! Who- struggled for the self-govern- ment of the Hungarian nation? A Republican, Eossuth. Who realised it? A Conservutivo, Dcak. Wiio sustained the idea of the abolition of serfdom in Russia? A Ropublicjin, Hertzen. Who realised it ? An Emperor, Alexander. Wiio sustained the idea of the unity of Italy ? A Republican, Mozzini. Who realised it ? A Conservative, Cavour. Wlio promoted the idea of the Unity of Germany ? The Republicans of Frankfort. Who realised it? An Imperialist, Bismarck. Wlio aroused the thrice-suffocated Republican idea in France, after the first Republic being a tempest, the second a tlream, and the third but a name? A poet, Victor Hugo, a great orator, Jules Favre, and another great orator, Gambetta. Who consolidated il ? A Conservative, Thiers. And wIid.so sharp sword now protects it ? That of a Genenil of tlic Ciesars, ilac- Mabon.' " It never occm-rcd to liim that the thing lie coni[)lained here of was merely the natural course 238 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. of hnraan affairs. Historical studies liad not taught him that it was invariably, throughout all ages, the duty of the advanced party to " initiate" progress, to spread new notions, as it was the duty of the Conservative party to " realize" inno- vations, when the people became sufficiently pre- pared to receive them. If Kossuth, Hertzen, Mazzini, or Victor Hugo had ever had to put into practice the objects of their advocacy, they would have certainly experienced the same failures Sefior Castelar had so patriotically ex- posed himself to. How very different from his illustrious friend is the quiet, practical, non-generalizing Figueras ! Not a word w^ould you ever hear from him that is not to the point ; not a statement that has not a direct bearing on the actual condition of his country. Willingly though he speaks, you in- variably feel you are conversing, not listening to a prepared speech. In the beginning of May, he foretold me, for instance, in one of those conver- sations I shall always remember with the greatest pleasure, almost everything that has happened since, through the obstinacy of men like Serrano and those who sided with him. He foresaw then CASTp:LAIt AND FIUUEUAS. 239 tliat tlic Inlnm.si^entos would rise all over the country, and that a new couj)-i['etat, and a fierce reaction, W(»idd he the conclusion of several months' bloodshed. " The representatives of Conservative opinions," said he, "are acting in the most foolish ami unpatriotic njanner. They seem to have learned nothing from ]nist experience. It was at all times the strategy of the Conservative opposition in this country to create a vacuum around the existing Liberal power, and the invariable result was, that when this power fell it was not to make room for those who created the vacuum, but for the party still more advanced than that which ■was overthrown. By creating, now, a vacuum around us they will not open a road to them- selves, but first to the demagogues only ; wlnle, by accepting the existing fact of a Spanish Republic, and by setting at work on the oppt»- sition benches, they would have balanced the forces, and have done certainly more good to the country than they could, perhaps, theujselves believe. The}' are almost sure to cause blood to be shell now, while tlaii they would have been almost as sure to lead the country to order and national regeneration, had they courageously accepted the Uepublic."" 240 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. On my asking hira whether he considered that the anti-Republican party had many members whose services could be rendered available by the Republic? " Certainly," answered he, "though it is not particularly pleasant for a Republican to make such an avowal ; but I cannot deny the- fact that the ablest statesmen Spain possesses are in the ranks of the Conservatives and Mon- archists. Our party has still to try its forces and to show its abilities. We have not been as yet organized, nor have we even known each other. I know, for instance, the Republicans of my province, Catalonia, and they know me, for we were the first to begin the Republican agita- tion some thirty years ago : but we know scarcely anything about the Republicans of other pro- vinces, nor they about us. Consequently, we have to make each other's acquaintance yet, and to try each other's abilities, for scarcely any one of us had occasion to show them— practically, I mean, for in the sphere of theory our party has done something already. The best contemporary Spanish writers belong to our party, but the most experienced and skilful statesmen must be as yet acknowledged to be in the opposite camp. " The Conservatives call me a demagogue ; CASTELAR ANlJ FIOUERAS. J 1 I but I can asrsiiiv voti thiit 1 am no more a di-iiia- gogue tluui iM. Thiers or i'\Ir. (Iladstdiic, I differ from them only in my lirni belief that a Federal Republic is the best form of ;^^i>verrimfiii for Spain, lint I believe just as firmly that a Federal Republic can be established without any wild socialistic theories being brought forward. So far, indeed, am 1 ami my colleagues from being demagogues, that it was our sincere wish to bring a hundred or so Conservative Deputies into the Assend)ly, to form a sensible and power- ful opposition. The question was deliberateil in the Council of ]\Iinisters whether we should be right in encouraging some of the Conservatives to come forward, and in giving them such sup- port as we could. And if we resolved not to ilo so, it was onlv because of the unmanai^eablv hostile attitude of the Conservatives. '* The foreign Powers are ncjw exchanging diplo- matic despatches in reference to the Republic. They are, of course, anxious to see a Monarchy re-established in this country, because they don't know anything about the real state of our parties and the condition of iSjiain. Insisting still on a Monarchy, they do not, however, object as strongly as they did formerly to a Republic, pro- vided this Republic is called " Conservativf."' VOL. 11. H 242 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. and is copied from what M. Thiers has estab- lished on the other side of the Pyrenees. The old gentleman has managed to reconcile the European potentates with this form of govern- ment, and has made them understand that a Republic is not necessarily anarchy, and that an uncrowned chief of the Executive can be as despotic as any crowned monarch has ever been. But what they cannot make up their minds about is the word ' Federal.' They think it must mean something very unde- sirable. They don't take the slightest notice when they are told that America and Switzerland are Republican Federations. They simply an- swer you, ' The cases are quite different there,' and they think they have said everything and refuted all the arguments you may adduce. " The other day the two Emperors paying each other compliments at St. Petersburg, did our Minister at that Court the honour of talking to him. They said they greatly desired that safety and order should be restored in Spain, and bloodshed ended. The Minister answered them that the Spanish Government was doing its best to achieve these ends. But I said to my friend, Sonor Castelar, on receiving the report of this conversation, that if I had been in the place of CASTELAR AND FIOUERAS. 213 the Spanish Ambassador, I would have answered their Majesties that we had as much safety and order as ever, and tliat till now we have had no bloodshed at all, even not so uineh as there was the other d;iy in Frankfort in connection with some beer, or as there is always in Russia, whenever a dozen j)eoi)le assemble to discuss any public grievance, and whole regiments are sent out to ' restore order.' "My poor iVieiid Sefior Castelar. who is very impressionable, as yon know, is getting quite nervous under the inlluence of the information he gets from our ^linisters abroad. It looks as if we were going to receive some strong worded notes one of these days on the subject of the word ' Fetleral' as compared with * Conserva- tive,' and I am very glad that the Assembly will probably meet by the time we receive these documents/' Truly speaking, 1 seldom saw a man less subject to illusions than the late President of the Executive power, notwithstaning his having spent the whole of his life in the delence of a cause which at times seemed very illusory indeed. To him, for instance, belongs the lionimr of liaving first published the Spanish Budget, disregarding the advice of a good many of his friends not to do li2 244 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. SO until the Republic had been more firml}'' esta- blished. " What is the use of deceiving our- selves and other people f was his answer, and a few days later the Gaceta de Madrid con- tained the avowal of a debt of something like ^350,000,000. He said to me that he became quite frightened for the life of the Republic Avhen he first saw the true accounts of the Treasury. " This is," said he, " our weakest point ; and, assuming that I speak to you, not as the President of the Spanish Republic, but simply as Senor Figueras, I would say that, though our financial position can certainly be improved by ourselves, a complete financial regeneration of Spain is possible only with the aid of America. But do not suppose that, when I say that American enterprise and American gold can alone regene- rate the finances of Spain, I mean in any way to allude to Cuba. That island must be left quite out of the question at the present moment. As both Carlist and Alfonsist leaders told you, so must I tell you too, that no Government will dare, at the present moment, to propose any arrangement affecting in any way the extent of the Spanish dominions; and this was one of the reasons for my having put so much ' territorial integrity,' as you said, in my official answer to CASTELAR AND FIGUERAS. "2 la the congratulations of General Sickles the other day. Our enemies were spreading rumours that we were arranging the sale of Cuba in an under- hand manner, and I had to answer them. My private conviction is that Cuba is lost for us, and that in a quarter of a century every Spaniard will believe that Cuba's joining the States was quite a natural thing, as he now believes it to be the most unpatriotic and criminal idea ever con- ceived." If the Spanish Republic is to last, Castelar and Figueras are sure to be restored to power, the public may thus again become interested in them, and, perhaps, excuse me then for my having allotted so much space to men who are at present only two fallen stars. 246 CHAPTER VIII. MARSHAL SERRANO, DUQUE DE LA TORRE. THE kindness with which I was received by the Duke and Duchess de la Torre at their Biarritz villa, almost precludes me from the possibility of speaking of the present ruler of Spain. His political opinions and the whole of his early career were such as to deserve but little sympathy, yet the charms of his personal inter- course are so great as to captivate even his bit- terest enemies when they approach him. Hand- some, exquisitely elegant, and of an ease of manners almost bordering on plainness, he bribes you in his favour from the very first words you exchange with him. His habit of unceremo- niously receiving the stranger in the family drawing-room, with his fascinating lady painting or embroidering, and his children playing and rushing in and out, makes the visitor not only MAIiSlIAL SKIIKANO. 247 forget, but iilinost disbelicvo all that is Biiid oi' tlie Miirsliars past. k5i)ai)isli jiulitical careers are, as a rule, rather excitiiij^, and that of the Marslial was ({iiite a roiiiaiiee, which is still to be written. The j»olitical and jicrsdiial eirennistances of the hero of this romance will no doubt justify his past conduct, but at present too little is known of them, and consequently the less is said of the subject the better. Marshal Serrano is now nearly sixty-five years of age, having been born near Cadiz in 1810. His father was a distinguished general, and held a high command during the War of Independence. The young Don Francisco Serrano entered mili- tary service as a cadet at the early age of twelve, soon became a lieutenant, and at the death of Ferdimmd VII, declared himself for the regency of Queen Christina, and joined the army ope- rating against Don Carlos in Aragon. lie went all through that campaign, occupying various ]tositions on the staff, and gaining rank and dis- tinction with quite an amazing celerity. lie was colonel before he reached his twenty-fifth year, and when the Carlist war was brought to a close and he returned to Madrid, his handsome face, the elegance of his manners, anil his reputation tor bravery made him soon the beau iJt'ul of all the 248 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. Madrid ladies, whose favours he freely enjoyed for about a year, and turned up in 1840 at Bar- celona as Brigadier-General and Commander-in- Chief of the troops of Catalonia. He was then supposed to he an intimate friend of Espartero, declared himself in favour of his Regencj^ and thus greatly contributed to the overthrow of Christina. Three years later, however, we see him taking flight in disguise to the same Bar- celona, seizing there the command and overthrow- ing Espartero. That was his first great and unceremonious step towards power. He became now a lieutenant-general, and soon gained the heart of the young lady who was sitting upon the throne, and married, thanks to Anglo- French rivalries, to the only man she could never stand. The young and brilliant general, it is said, readily undertook the task of consoling his Sovereign for her matrimonial unhappiness, and distinction and wealth began to pour npon him more amply than ever. He had received from the hand of Isabella everything it was in her power to give. He was General of Division at thirty-two years of age. A couple of years later he was Senator. When his personal relations with the young Queen had been broken off, he was gently sent as Captain- :^r\RS[I.VL SERRAN'O. 240 General to riniiiaila, iiistujvl of being simply niunlcrt'd di- I mi li. shed, hotli of which woiiM iiavc been extreiiicly easy thiii,i;s to do. Siibsc(ineiitly, every year brought upon him some new dis- tinctions. He was Captain-General of the Ar- tillery, Caiitaiii-( !rii( lal of Castile. Ambassador at Paris, Captain-Cicncral of Cid)a ; in 1862 he was created Dn