Cabrera, Moreover, Was A Dastardly Wretch, Whose Limited
Mind Was Incapable Of Harbouring A Single Conception Approaching To
Grandeur; Whose
Heroic deeds were confined to cutting down
defenceless men, and to forcing and disembowelling unhappy women;
and yet I have
Seen this wretched fellow termed by French journals
(Carlist of course) the young, the heroic general. Infamy on the
cowardly assassin! The shabbiest corporal of Napoleon would have
laughed at his generalship, and half a battalion of Austrian
grenadiers would have driven him and his rabble army headlong into
the Ebro.
I now made preparations for my journey into the north. I was
already provided with horses well calculated to support the
fatigues of the road and the burdens which I might deem necessary
to impose upon them. One thing, however, was still lacking,
indispensable to a person about to engage on an expedition of this
description; I mean a servant to attend me. Perhaps there is no
place in the world where servants more abound than at Madrid, or at
least fellows eager to proffer their services in the expectation of
receiving food and wages, though, with respect to the actual
service which they are capable of performing, not much can be said;
but I was in want of a servant of no common description, a shrewd
active fellow, of whose advice, in cases of emergency, I could
occasionally avail myself; courageous withal, for it certainly
required some degree of courage to follow a master bent on
exploring the greater part of Spain, and who intended to travel,
not under the protection of muleteers and carmen, but on his own
cabalgaduras.
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