"I am glad to make your acquaintance, senor nacional," said I to
him, after his mother had departed, and Baltasar had taken his
seat, and of course lighted a paper cigar at the brasero. "I am
glad to have made your acquaintance, more especially as your lady
mother has informed me that you have great influence with the
nationals. I am a stranger in Spain, and may want a friend;
fortune has been kind to me in procuring me one who is a member of
so powerful a body."
Baltasar. - Yes, I have a great deal to say with the other
nationals; there is none in Madrid better known than Baltasar, or
more dreaded by the Carlists. You say you may stand in need of a
friend; there is no fear of my failing you in any emergency. Both
myself and any of the other nationals will be proud to go out with
you as padrinos, should you have any affair of honour on your
hands. But why do you not become one of us? We would gladly
receive you into our body.
Myself. - Is the duty of a national particularly hard?
Baltasar. - By no means; we have to do duty about once every fifteen
days, and then there is occasionally a review, which does not last
long. No! the duties of a national are by no means onerous, and
the privileges are great. I have seen three of my brother
nationals walk up and down the Prado of a Sunday, with sticks in
their hands, cudgelling all the suspicious characters, and it is
our common practice to scour the streets at night, and then if we
meet any person who is obnoxious to us, we fall upon him, and with
a knife or a bayonet generally leave him wallowing in his blood on
the pavement: no one but a national would be permitted to do that.
Myself. - Of course none but persons of liberal opinions are to be
found amongst the nationals?
Baltasar. - Would it were so! There are some amongst us, Don Jorge,
who are no better than they should be; they are few, however, and
for the most part well known. Theirs is no pleasant life, for when
they mount guard with the rest they are scouted, and not
unfrequently cudgelled. The law compels all of a certain age
either to serve in the army or to become national soldiers on which
account some of these Godos are to be found amongst us.
Myself. - Are there many in Madrid of the Carlist opinion?
Baltasar. - Not among the young people; the greater part of the
Madrilenian Carlists capable of bearing arms departed long ago to
join the ranks of the factious in the Basque provinces. Those who
remain are for the most part grey-beards and priests, good for
nothing but to assemble in private coffee-houses, and to prate
treason together.
