We Soon
Reached The Quay, Where My Name Was Noted Down By A Person Who
Demanded My Passport, And I Was Then Permitted To Advance.
It was now dusk, and I lost no time in crossing the drawbridge and
entering the long low archway which, passing under the rampart,
communicates with the town.
Beneath this archway paced with
measured tread, tall red-coated sentinels with shouldered guns.
There was no stopping, no sauntering in these men. There was no
laughter, no exchange of light conversation with the passers by,
but their bearing was that of British soldiers, conscious of the
duties of their station. What a difference between them and the
listless loiterers who stand at guard at the gate of a Spanish
garrisoned town.
I now proceeded up the principal street, which runs with a gentle
ascent along the base of the hill. Accustomed for some months past
to the melancholy silence of Seville, I was almost deafened by the
noise and bustle which reigned around. It was Sunday night, and of
course no business was going on, but there were throngs of people
passing up and down. Here was a military guard proceeding along;
here walked a group of officers, there a knot of soldiers stood
talking and laughing. The greater part of the civilians appeared
to be Spaniards, but there was a large sprinkling of Jews in the
dress of those of Barbary, and here and there a turbaned Moor.
There were gangs of sailors likewise, Genoese, judging from the
patois which they were speaking, though I occasionally
distinguished the sound of "tou logou sas," by which I knew there
were Greeks at hand, and twice or thrice caught a glimpse of the
red cap and blue silken petticoats of the mariner from the Romaic
isles. On still I hurried, till I arrived at a well known
hostelry, close by a kind of square, in which stands the little
exchange of Gibraltar. Into this I ran and demanded lodging,
receiving a cheerful welcome from the genius of the place, who
stood behind the bar, and whom I shall perhaps have occasion
subsequently to describe. All the lower rooms were filled with men
of the rock, burly men in general, with swarthy complexions and
English features, with white hats, white jean jerkins, and white
jean pantaloons. They were smoking pipes and cigars, and drinking
porter, wine and various other fluids, and conversing in the rock
Spanish, or rock English as the fit took them. Dense was the smoke
of tobacco, and great the din of voices, and I was glad to hasten
up stairs to an unoccupied apartment, where I was served with some
refreshment, of which I stood much in need.
I was soon disturbed by the sound of martial music close below my
windows. I went down and stood at the door. A military band was
marshalled upon the little square before the exchange. It was
preparing to beat the retreat. After the prelude, which was
admirably executed, the tall leader gave a flourish with his stick,
and strode forward up the street, followed by the whole company of
noble looking fellows and a crowd of admiring listeners. The
cymbals clashed, the horns screamed, and the kettle-drum emitted
its deep awful note, till the old rock echoed again, and the
hanging terraces of the town rang with the stirring noise:
"Dub-a-dub, dub-a-dub - thus go the drums,
Tantara, tantara, the Englishman comes."
O England! long, long may it be ere the sun of thy glory sink
beneath the wave of darkness! Though gloomy and portentous clouds
are now gathering rapidly around thee, still, still may it please
the Almighty to disperse them, and to grant thee a futurity longer
in duration and still brighter in renown than thy past! Or if thy
doom be at hand, may that doom be a noble one, and worthy of her
who has been styled the Old Queen of the waters! May thou sink, if
thou dost sink, amidst blood and flame, with a mighty noise,
causing more than one nation to participate in thy downfall! Of
all fates, may it please the Lord to preserve thee from a
disgraceful and a slow decay; becoming, ere extinct, a scorn and a
mockery for those selfsame foes who now, though they envy and abhor
thee, still fear thee, nay, even against their will, honour and
respect thee.
Arouse thee, whilst yet there is time, and prepare thee for the
combat of life and death! Cast from thee the foul scurf which now
encrusts thy robust limbs, which deadens their force, and makes
them heavy and powerless! Cast from thee thy false philosophers,
who would fain decry what, next to the love of God, has hitherto
been deemed most sacred, the love of the mother land! Cast from
thee thy false patriots, who, under the. pretext of redressing the
wrongs of the poor and weak, seek to promote internal discord, so
that thou mayest become only terrible to thyself! And remove from
thee the false prophets, who have seen vanity and divined lies; who
have daubed thy wall with untempered mortar, that it may fall; who
see visions of peace where there is no peace; who have strengthened
the hands of the wicked, and made the heart of the righteous sad.
O, do this, and fear not the result, for either shall thy end be a
majestic and an enviable one, or God shall perpetuate thy reign
upon the waters, thou old Queen!
The above was part of a broken prayer for my native land, which,
after my usual thanksgiving, I breathed to the Almighty ere
retiring to rest that Sunday night at Gibraltar.
CHAPTER LII
The Jolly Hosteler - Aspirants for Glory - A Portrait - Hamalos -
Solomons - An Expedition - The Yeoman Soldier - The Excavations - The
Pull by the Skirt - Judah and his Father - Judah's Pilgrimage - The
Bushy Beard - The False Moors - Judah and the King's Son - Premature
Old Age.
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