I Had Scarcely Been There A Minute When My Servant
Francisco Rushed In, Much Out Of Breath, And In Violent Agitation,
Exclaiming In Basque, "Niri Jauna (Master Mine), The Alguaziloac
And The Corchetoac, And All The Other Lapurrac (Thieves) Are Again
At The House.
They seem half mad, and not being able to find you,
are searching your papers, thinking, I suppose, that you are hid
among them." Mr. Southern here interrupting him, inquired of me
what all this meant.
Whereupon I told him, saying at the same
time, that it was my intention to proceed at once to my lodgings.
"But perhaps these fellows will arrest you," said Mr. S., "before
we can interfere." "I must take my chance as to that," I replied,
and presently afterwards departed.
Ere, however, I had reached the middle of the street of Alcala, two
fellows came up to me, and telling me that I was their prisoner,
commanded me to follow them to the office of the corregidor. They
were in fact alguazils, who, suspecting that I might enter or come
out of the embassy, had stationed themselves in the neighbourhood.
I instantly turned round to Francisco, and told him in Basque to
return to the embassy and to relate there to the secretary what had
just occurred. The poor fellow set off like lightning, turning
half round, however, to shake his fist, and to vent a Basque
execration at the two lapurrac, as he called the alguazils.
They conducted me to the gefatura or office of the corregidor,
where they ushered me into a large room, and motioned me to sit
down on a wooden bench. They then stationed themselves on each
side of me: there were at least twenty people in the apartment
beside ourselves, evidently from their appearance officials of the
establishment. They were all well dressed, for the most part in
the French fashion, in round hats, coats, and pantaloons, and yet
they looked what in reality they were, Spanish alguazils, spies,
and informers, and Gil Blas, could he have waked from his sleep of
two centuries, would, notwithstanding the change of fashion, have
had no difficulty in recognizing them. They glanced at me as they
stood lounging about the room; they gathered themselves together in
a circle and began conversing in whispers. I heard one of them
say, "he understands the seven Gypsy jargons." Then presently
another, evidently from his language an Andalusian, said, "Es muy
diestro (he is very skilful), and can ride a horse and dart a knife
full as well as if he came from my own country." Thereupon they
all turned round and regarded me with a species of interest,
evidently mingled with respect, which most assuredly they would not
have exhibited had they conceived that I was merely an honest man
bearing witness in a righteous cause.
I waited patiently on the bench at least one hour, expecting every
moment to be summoned before my lord the corregidor. I suppose,
however, that I was not deemed worthy of being permitted to see so
exalted a personage, for at the end of that time, an elderly man,
one however evidently of the alguazil genus, came into the room and
advanced directly towards me. "Stand up," said he. I obeyed.
"What is your name?" he demanded. I told him. "Then," he replied,
exhibiting a paper which he held in his hand, "Senor, it is the
will of his excellency the corregidor that you be forthwith sent to
prison."
He looked at me steadfastly as he spoke, perhaps expecting that I
should sink into the earth at the formidable name of prison; I
however only smiled. He then delivered the paper, which I suppose
was the warrant for my committal, into the hand of one of my two
captors, and obeying a sign which they made, I followed them.
I subsequently learned that the secretary of legation, Mr.
Southern, had been dispatched by Sir George, as soon as the latter
had obtained information of my arrest, and had been waiting at the
office during the greater part of the time that I was there. He
had demanded an audience of the corregidor, in which he had
intended to have remonstrated with him, and pointed out to him the
danger to which he was subjecting himself by the rash step which he
was taking. The sullen functionary, however, had refused to see
him, thinking, perhaps, that to listen to reason would be a
dereliction of dignity: by this conduct, however, he most
effectually served me, as no person, after such a specimen of
uncalled-for insolence, felt disposed to question the violence and
injustice which had been practised towards me.
The alguazils conducted me across the Plaza Mayor to the Carcel de
la Corte, or prison of the court, as it is called. Whilst going
across the square, I remembered that this was the place where, in
"the good old times," the Inquisition of Spain was in the habit of
holding its solemn Autos da fe, and I cast my eye to the balcony of
the city hall, where at the most solemn of them all, the last of
the Austrian line in Spain sat, and after some thirty heretics, of
both sexes, had been burnt by fours and by fives, wiped his face,
perspiring with heat, and black with smoke, and calmly inquired,
"No hay mas?" for which exemplary proof of patience he was much
applauded by his priests and confessors, who subsequently poisoned
him. "And here am I," thought I, "who have done more to wound
Popery, than all the poor Christian martyrs that ever suffered in
this accursed square, merely sent to prison, from which I am sure
to be liberated in a few days, with credit and applause. Pope of
Rome! I believe you to be as malicious as ever, but you are sadly
deficient in power. You are become paralytic, Batuschca, and your
club has degenerated to a crutch."
We arrived at the prison, which stands in a narrow street not far
from the great square.
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