I have not a sou, and for want of a few crowns I shall be
garroted within a month unless I can escape, though, as I told you
before, I have done nothing, a mere bagatelle; but the worst crimes
in Spain are poverty and misery."
"I have heard you speak Basque, are you from French Biscay?"
"I am from Bordeaux, Monsieur; but I have lived much on the Landes
and in Biscay, travaillant a mon metier. I see by your look that
you wish to know my history. I shall not tell it you. It contains
nothing that is remarkable. See, I have smoked out your cigar; you
may give me another, and add a dollar if you please, nous sommes
creves ici de faim. I would not say as much to a Spaniard, but I
have a respect for your countrymen; I know much of them; I have met
them at Maida and the other place." {18}
"Nothing remarkable in his history!" Why, or I greatly err, one
chapter of his life, had it been written, would have unfolded more
of the wild and wonderful than fifty volumes of what are in general
called adventures and hairbreadth escapes by land and sea. A
soldier! what a tale could that man have told of marches and
retreats, of battles lost and won, towns sacked, convents
plundered; perhaps he had seen the flames of Moscow ascending to
the clouds, and had "tried his strength with nature in the wintry
desert," pelted by the snow-storm, and bitten by the tremendous
cold of Russia:
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