Yes, all in form.
Truly it was very ridiculous that they should have arrested you as
a Carlist.
Myself. - Not only as a Carlist, but as Don Carlos himself.
Alcalde. - Oh! most ridiculous; mistake a countryman of the grand
Baintham for such a Goth!
Myself. - Excuse me, Sir, you speak of the grand somebody.
Alcalde. - The grand Baintham. He who has invented laws for all the
world. I hope shortly to see them adopted in this unhappy country
of ours.
Myself. - Oh! you mean Jeremy Bentham. Yes! a very remarkable man
in his way.
Alcalde. - In his way! In all ways. The most universal genius
which the world ever produced:- a Solon, a Plato, and a Lope de
Vega.
Myself. - I have never read his writings. I have no doubt that he
was a Solon; and as you say, a Plato. I should scarcely have
thought, however, that he could be ranked as a poet with Lope de
Vega.
Alcalde. - How surprising! I see, indeed, that you know nothing of
his writings, though an Englishman. Now, here am I, a simple
alcalde of Galicia, yet I possess all the writings of Baintham on
that shelf, and I study them day and night.
Myself. - You doubtless, Sir, possess the English Language.
Alcalde. - I do. I mean that part of it which is contained in the
writings of Baintham. I am most truly glad to see a countryman of
his in these Gothic wildernesses.
