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TRAFALGAR

A Tale

by

B. PEREZ GALDOS

Author of "Gloria," etc.

From the Spanish by Clara Bell

Revised and Corrected in the United States







New York
William S. Gottsberger, Publisher
11 Murray Street
1884

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1884
by William S. Gottsberger
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington

This Translation Was Made Expressly for the Publisher

Press of
William S. Gottsberger
New York




CONTENTS.


                              PAGE
    CHAPTER I.                   1

    CHAPTER II.                 14

    CHAPTER III.                22

    CHAPTER IV.                 29

    CHAPTER V.                  50

    CHAPTER VI.                 63

    CHAPTER VII.                77

    CHAPTER VIII.               88

    CHAPTER IX.                111

    CHAPTER X.                 126

    CHAPTER XI.                137

    CHAPTER XII.               154

    CHAPTER XIII.              174

    CHAPTER XIV.               192

    CHAPTER XV.                207

    CHAPTER XVI.               231

    CHAPTER XVII.              244




TRAFALGAR.




CHAPTER I.


I trust that, before relating the important events of which I have
been an eye-witness, I may be allowed to say a few words about my
early life and to explain the singular accidents and circumstances
which resulted in my being present at our great naval catastrophe.

In speaking of my birth I cannot follow the example of most writers
who narrate the facts of their own lives, and who begin by naming
their ancestry--usually of noble rank, _hidalgos_ at the very least,
if not actually descended from some royal or imperial progenitor. I
cannot grace my opening page with high-sounding names, for, excepting
my mother whom I remember for some few years, I know nothing of any of
my forefathers, unless it be Adam from whom my descent would seem to
be indisputable. In short, my history began in much the same way as
that of Pablos, the brigand of Segovia; happily it pleased God that it
should resemble it in no other particular.

I was born at Cadiz in the notorious quarter "de la Viña," which was
not then, any more than at the present day, a good school of either
morals or manners. My memory does not throw any light on the events of
my infancy till I was six years old, and I remember that, only because
I associate the idea of being six with an event I heard much talked
about, the battle of Cape St. Vincent, which took place in 1797.

Endeavoring to see myself as I was at that time, with the curiosity
and interest which must attach to self-contemplation, I am aware of a
dim and hazy little figure in the picture of past events, playing in
the creek with other small boys of the same age, more or less. This
was to me the whole of life--as it was, at any rate, to our privileged
class; those who did not live as I did appeared to me exceptional
beings. In my childish ignorance of the world I firmly believed that
man was made for the sea, Providence having created him to swim as
being the noblest exercise of his limbs and body, and to dive for
crabs as the highest use of his intelligence--and especially to fish
up and sell the highly-esteemed crustacean known as _Bocas de la
Isla_--as well as for his personal delectation and enjoyment, thus
combining pleasure with profit.

The society into which I was born was indeed of the roughest, as
ignorant and squalid as can well be imagined; so much so that the boys
of our quarter of the town were regarded as even lower than those of
the adjoining suburb of Puntales, whose occupations were the same and
who defied the elements with equal devilry; the result of this
invidious distinction was that each party looked upon the other as
rivals, and the opposing forces would meet from time to time for a
pitched battle with stones, when the earth was stained with heroic
blood.

When I was old enough to begin to think that I might go into business
on my own account, with a view to turning an honest penny, I remember
that my sharpness stood me in good stead on the quay where I acted as
_valet de place_ to the numerous English who then, as now, disembarked
there. The quay was a free academy peculiarly fitted to sharpen the
wits and make the learner wide-awake, and I was not one of the least
apt of its disciples in that wide branch of human experience; nor did
I fail to distinguish myself in petty thefts,