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ROMANTIC SPAIN:

A Record of Personal Experiences.

BY
JOHN AUGUSTUS O'SHEA,

AUTHOR OF

"LEAVES FROM THE LIFE or A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,"
"AN IRON-BOUND CITY," ETC.

"Oh, lovely Spain! renowned, romantic land!"

CHILDE HAROLD.

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.

LONDON:
WARD AND DOWNEY,
12, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C.
1887.
[_All Rights Reserved._]


TO
WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT, ESQ.,
IN TOKEN OF ESTEEM FOR
HIS BOLD AND TRUTHFUL CHARACTER,
AND OF
GLADNESS THAT WE HAVE SO MANY KINDRED SYMPATHIES,

This Book is Enscribed

BY THE WRITER.




PREFACE.


This simple recital of personal haps and mishaps in perturbed Spain from
the abdication of Amadeus to the entry of Don Carlos, puts forward no
claim to the didactic or dogmatic. Its chief aim is to amuse. Of course,
if I succeed in conveying knowledge and dispelling illusions--in Tasso's
words, if I administer a pill under a coating of jam--I shall be
cock-a-hoop with delight. But I warn the reader I am not an unprejudiced
witness. I am passionately fond of Spain and her people. Although years
have elapsed since the events dealt with occurred, I fancy the narrative
will not be hackneyed, for in Spain public life repeats itself with a
fidelity which is never monotonous. I do not pretend to cast the
horoscope of the poor little monarch who is in the nurse's arms, but
Heaven guard him! 'Twere better for him that he had been born in a
Highland shieling.

Should there be much individualism in these pages, it is intentional,
and to be ascribed to the instance of friends. They said, "Bother
history; give us plenty of your own experiences." It is to be hoped they
have not led me astray by their well-meant advice.




CONTENTS OF VOL. I.


CHAPTER I.

PAGE

Which, being non-essential, treats partly of Spain,
but principally of the Writer                               1-23

CHAPTER II.

The Old-Fashioned Invocation--"Them 'ere Spanish
Kings!"--Candidates for a Throne--_En Voyage_--Bordeaux
and the Back-ache--An Unmannerly
Alsatian--The Patriot gets a Roland for his Oliver--Small
Change for a Hot Bath--Plan for Universal
Coinage--Daughters of Israel--The Jews Diagnosed--Across
the Border--The Writer is Saluted "Caballero"--Bugaboo
Santa Cruz--Over a Brasero                                 24-42

CHAPTER III.

A Make-Believe Spain--The Mountain Convoy--A
Tough Road to Travel--Spanish Superiority in
Blasphemy--Short Essay on Oaths--The Basque
Peasants--Carlism under a Cloak--How Guerilla-Fighting
is Conducted--A Hyperborean Landscape--A
Mysterious Grandee--An Adventurous Frenchman--The
Shebeen on the Summit--Armed Alsasua--Base
Coin                                                       43-60

CHAPTER IV.

Madrid--The Fonda and its Porter--The Puerta del
Sol--Postal Irregularities--Tribute to the Madrilenos--The
Barber's Pronunciamiento--Anecdotes of King
Amadeus--Checkmating the Grand Dames--Queen
Isabella--The Embarrassed Mr. Layard of Nineveh--The
Great Powers Hesitate--America Goes Ahead--General
Sickles--Mahomet and the Mountain--Republicanism
among the Troops--A Peculiar Pennsylvanian
Dentist--Castelar under Torture--The
Writer meets one of his Sept--Politicians by Trade--Honour
among Insurgents--Alonso the Reckless                      61-91

CHAPTER V.

A Late Capital--The Gambling Mania--A French
Rendezvous--The Duke de Fitzpepper--The Morality
of Passing Bad Money--Spanish Compliments--Men
in Pickle--A Licentious Ballet--Federal Manners--Prim's
Artifice--Nouvilas Goes North--A Carlist
Proclamation--Don Alfonso--Midnight Oil--Castelar's
Circular                                                  92-112

CHAPTER VI.

Warning to Ladies--The Hotel Parliament--An Anglo-Spanish
Mentor--The Evil Genii of the Monarchy--The
Curses of Spain--Government and Religion
Affairs of Climate--The Carlists, Norwegians, and
English, all Republicans!--Notions on Heredity--The
Five Spanish Parties--The Army the Lever of
Power--The Student-Caesar--Order _versus_ Republic--The
Chained Colours--Dorregaray's Appeal to the
Soldiers--Influence of the Church--Wanted: a
Benevolent Despot                                        113-131

CHAPTER VII.

The Carnival--About Kissing Feet--Mummers and
Masquers--The Paseo de Recoletos--The Writer is
taken for Cluseret--Incongruity in Costume--Shrove
Tuesday--Panic on the Prado--A Fancy Ball--The
"Entierro de la Sardina"--Lenten Amusements--A
Spanish Mystery--"Pasion y Muerte de Jesus"--Of
the Stage Stagey--Critical Remarks                       132-160

CHAPTER VIII.

Another Chat with Mentor--A Startling Solution of
the Spanish Question--The Penalties of Popularity--The
Republic another Saturn--The New Civil
Governor--The Government Bill--Outside the Palace
of the Congress--Providential Rain--Wild Rumours--Federal
Threats--The Five Civil Guards--Inside
the Chamber--The Great Debate--The Two Reports--Compromise--Minor
Speechmakers--A Pickwickian
Contention--The Division--Victory for the
Ministry--The Five Civil Guards Trot to Stables          161-182

CHAPTER IX.

The Inventions of Don Fulano de Tal--Stopping a
Train--"A Ver Fine Blaggar"--The Legend of Santa
Cruz--Dodging a Warrant--Outlawed--Chased by
Gendarmes--A Jack Sheppard Escape--The Cura
becomes Cabecilla--Sleeping with an Eye Open--Exploits
and Atrocities--Dilettante Carlists in
London--The Combat of Monreal--Ibarreta's Relics--A
Tale for the Marines--The Carlists Looking-up            183-200

CHAPTER X.

Barbarism of Tauromachy--A Surreptitious Ticket--The
Novillos--Islington _not_ Madrid--Apology for
Cock-Fighting--Maudlin Humanity--The Espada a
Popular Idol--In the Bull-Ring--A Precious "Ster-oh"--The
Trumpets Speak--The Procession--Play of
the Quadrille--The Defiance--"Bravo, Cucharra!"--"Bravo,
Toro!"--The Blemish of the Sport--An
Indignant English Lassie                                 201-224

CHAPTER XI.

The Shamrock of Erin and Olive of Spain--Hispano-Hibernian
Regiments--The Spanish Soldier--An
Unpopular Hidalgo--Flaw in the Harness--The
Organization of the Army--The Guardia Civil--The
Cavalry, Engineers, and Infantry--General Cordova--The
Disorganization of the Army--Mutiny in
Pampeluna--Officers Out of Work--Turbulent Barcelona--Irresolute
Contreras--Pistolet Discharges
Himself--The Madrid Garrison                             225-248

CHAPTER XII.

Luring the Reader into a Stony Desert--A Duel on the
Carpet--Disappointment of the Special Correspondents--The
People Amuses Itself--How the Ballot
Works--A Historic Sitting of the Congress--Castelar's
Great Oration--The Glory of Spain--About
<DW64> Manumission--Distrust of "Uncle Sam"--Return
of Figueras--The Permanent Committee--A
Love-Feast of Politicians--The Writer Orders
Wings                                                    249-265

CHAPTER XIII.

The Writer Turns Churlish and Quits Madrid--Sleep
under Difficulties--A Bad Dream--Santa Cruz again--Off
St. Helena!--Dissertation on Stomach Matters--A
Hint to British Railway Directors--"Odds, Hilts
and Blades"--A Delicate Little Gentleman is Curious--The
"Tierra Deleitosa"--That Butcher again                   266-281

CHAPTER XIV.

Delectable Seville--Don Juan Scapegrace--The Women
in Black--In the Triana Suburb--The City of the
Seven Sleepers--Guide-Book Boredom--Romance
and Reality--The Prosaic Manchester Man--King
Ferdinand Puzzling the Judges--Mortification by
Proxy--Some Notable Treasures--Papers and Politics--The
Porcelain Factory--"The Lazy Andalusiennes"--About
Cigars--The Gipsy Dance                                  282-311




ROMANTIC SPAIN.




CHAPTER I.

     Which, being non-essential, treats partly of Spain, but principally
     of the Writer.


The sun was shining with a Spanish lustre--a lustre as of glowing
sarcasm--seeing that on that very day a Fire-Worshipper, Dadabhai
Naoroji, was over-shadowed in his attempt to become a Member of
Parliament for Holborn. The sun, I repeat, was shining with a Spanish
lustre while the inquisition was being held. The tribunal was in the
open air, under the mid plane-tree in Camberwell Green, the trimmest
public garden in London. Conscience was the inquisitor, and the charge I
had brought against myself was that of harbouring a vagrom spirit. I
should have been born in a gipsy caravan or under a Bedaween's tent.
Nature intended me to have become a traveller, a showman, or a
knight-errant; and had Nature been properly seconded, I should have been
doing something Burnabyish, Barnumesque, or Quixotic this afternoon,
instead of sitting down on a bench between a tremulous old man in
almshouse livery and a small boy fanning himself with a cap. Yes; I fear
I must plead guilty. I am possessed by a demon of unrest; my soul chafes
at inaction, calls aloud for excitement. Had I the ordering of my own
fortune I should spread the white wings of a yacht to woo the faint wind
(but it may be blowing freshly off the Foreland), or should vault on the
back of a neighing barb with bushy mane and tail. But I am Ixion-lashed
to the wheel of duty, leg-hampered by the log of necessity.

What is a gentle-born vagabond to do?

The law will not permit him to pink with his sword-stick the first smug
fellow he meets on the side-path, self-respect debars him from
highway-robbery which can be perpetrated without fear of the law, and it
is idle to expect a revolution in this humdrum country within any
reasonable period. A General Election which is going on, with its paltry
show of  strips of calico, its printed appeals to the gullible,
its occasional bits of ribbon and bursts of cheering, its egotisms, its
stupidities, its self-seekings, its shabby intrigues and simulated fire,
its dull, dreary, drivelling floods of witless substance in
ungrammatical form--that, surely, is no satisfying substitute for the
tumult of real political strife.

Motion is the sovereign remedy for the vagabond's disease, and lo!
through the leafy barrier of the pollarded limes bordering the Green,
jingle the bells of the tram-car with its trotting team of three
abreast. Three mules, which bring my thoughts to Spain, and to a