Spain was ready to fight for you so
long as she could increase her own glory by doing so; but she took
no pleasure in losing battle after battle on your account.
She had
no objection to pay money into your coffers in the shape of alms,
expecting, however, that the same would be received with the
gratitude and humility which becomes those who accept charity.
Finding, however, that you were neither humble nor grateful;
suspecting, moreover, that you held Austria in higher esteem than
herself, even as a banker, she shrugged up her shoulders, and
uttered a sentence somewhat similar to that which I have already
put into the mouth of one of her children, "These four bushels of
barley," etc.
It is truly surprising what little interest the great body of the
Spanish nation took in the late struggle, and yet it has been
called, by some who ought to know better, a war of religion and
principle. It was generally supposed that Biscay was the
stronghold of Carlism, and that the inhabitants were fanatically
attached to their religion, which they apprehended was in danger.
The truth is, that the Basques cared nothing for Carlos or Rome,
and merely took up arms to defend certain rights and privileges of
their own. For the dwarfish brother of Ferdinand they always
exhibited supreme contempt, which his character, a compound of
imbecility, cowardice, and cruelty, well merited. If they made use
of his name, it was merely as a cri de guerre. Much the same may
be said with respect to his Spanish partisans, at least those who
appeared in the field for him. These, however, were of a widely
different character from the Basques, who were brave soldiers and
honest men. The Spanish armies of Don Carlos were composed
entirely of thieves and assassins, chiefly Valencians and
Manchegans, who, marshalled under two cut-throats, Cabrera and
Palillos, took advantage of the distracted state of the country to
plunder and massacre the honest part of the community. With
respect to the Queen Regent Christina, of whom the less said the
better, the reins of government fell into her hands on the decease
of her husband, and with them the command of the soldiery. The
respectable part of the Spanish nation, and more especially the
honourable and toilworn peasantry, loathed and execrated both
factions. Oft when I was sharing at nightfall the frugal fare of
the villager of Old or New Castile, on hearing the distant shot of
the Christino soldier or Carlist bandit, he would invoke curses on
the heads of the two pretenders, not forgetting the holy father and
the goddess of Rome, Maria Santissima. Then, with the tiger energy
of the Spaniard when roused, he would start up and exclaim:
"Vamos, Don Jorge, to the plain, to the plain! I wish to enlist
with you, and to learn the law of the English. To the plain,
therefore, to the plain to-morrow, to circulate the gospel of
Ingalaterra."
Amongst the peasantry of Spain I found my sturdiest supporters:
and yet the holy father supposes that the Spanish labourers are
friends and lovers of his.
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