"I Find No Fault With The House," Replied The Genoese, "It Is The
People Who Keep It Of Whom I Complain.
About an hour since, I went
down to get my breakfast, and there, in the kitchen, I found the
master and all his family:
Well, I sat down and called for
chocolate, which they brought me, but ere I could dispatch it, the
master fell to talking politics. He commenced by telling me that
he held with neither side, but he is as rank a Carlist as Carlos
Quinto: for no sooner did he find that I was of the other opinion,
than he glared at me like a wild beast. You must know, Signore,
that in the time of the old constitution I kept a coffee-house at
Seville, which was frequented by all the principal liberals, and
was, indeed, the cause of my ruin: for as I admired their
opinions, I gave my customers whatever credit they required, both
with regard to coffee and liqueurs, so that by the time the
constitution was put down and despotism re-established, I had
trusted them with all I had. It is possible that many of them
would have paid me, for I believe they harboured no evil intention;
but the persecution came, the liberals took to flight, and, as was
natural enough, thought more of providing for their own safety than
of paying me for my coffee and liqueurs; nevertheless, I am a
friend to their system, and never hesitate to say so. So the
landlord, as I told your worship before, when he found that I was
of this opinion, glared at me like a wild beast: 'Get out of my
house,' said he, 'for I will have no spies here,' and thereupon he
spoke disrespectfully of the young Queen Isabel and of Christina,
who, notwithstanding she is a Neapolitan, I consider as my
countrywoman. Hearing this, your worship, I confess that I lost my
temper and returned the compliment, by saying that Carlos was a
knave and the Princess of Beira no better than she should be. I
then prepared to swallow the chocolate, but ere I could bring it to
my lips, the woman of the house, who is a still ranker Carlist than
her husband, if that be possible, coming up to me struck the cup
into the air as high as the ceiling, exclaiming, 'Begone, dog of a
negro, you shall taste nothing more in my house; may you be hanged
even as a swine is hanged.' So your worship sees that it is
impossible for me to remain here any longer. I forgot to say that
the knave of a landlord told me that you had confessed yourself to
be of the same politics as himself, or he would not have harboured
you."
"My good man," said I, "I am invariably of the politics of the
people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep, at
least I never say anything which can lead them to suspect the
contrary; by pursuing which system I have more than once escaped a
bloody pillow, and having the wine I drank spiced with sublimate."
CHAPTER XVII
Cordova - Moors of Barbary - The English - An Old Priest - The Roman
Breviary - The Dovecote - The Holy Office - Judaism - Desecration of
Dovecotes - The Innkeeper's Proposal.
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