e of French birth.
In every case where foreign foes have invaded Spain, sooner or later
they have been driven out. _Santiago! y Cierra Espana!_ was the war-cry
which roused every child of Spain to close his beloved country to alien
domination.

Unfortunately, the yoke of the foreigner came in more invidious guise.
From the death of Ferdinand and Isabella to the year 1800, the sons of
Spain were immolated to serve causes which were of no account to her, to
protect the interests of sovereigns who had nothing in common with her
provinces, to add to the power of the Austrian Hapsburgs and the French
Bourbons. We have seen how the people whom Napoleon had believed to be
sunk in fanaticism, dead to all national aspiration, the mere slaves of
a despicable King, and the sport of his debauched Queen and her lover,
sprang to arms and drove the invader from their land. So would it be
to-day if the country were even threatened by foreign invasion. "The
dogs of Spain," as Granville called them, know well how to protect their
soil.

Within comparatively recent years the campaign in Morocco, and the
expeditionary force sent to Cochin-China, showed that the Spanish army
was not to be despised. It has been the misfortune of Spain that her
soldiers have too often had the melancholy task of fighting against
their own people, or those of their colonies, both of whom have been
excited and aided in insurrection for years by foreign contributions of
arms and money. In these unhappy fratricidal struggles the fighting has
never been more than half-hearted, and during the numerous military
_pronunciamientos_ it has often been necessary to keep the troops from
meeting, as they could never be trusted not to fraternise; and after the
first abortive attempt by Prim to effect the revolution which later
freed the country, the curious spectacle was afforded of Prim and his
soldiers marching quietly out of one end of a village, while the troops
of the Queen, sent in pursuit, were being purposely kept back from
marching too quickly in at the other.

The army of Spain would seem to suffer from a plethora of officers,
especially those of the highest rank. In the time of Alfonso XII., there
were ten marshals, fifty-five generals, sixty-six _mariscales de
campo_, and one hundred and ninety-seven brigadiers; adding those on the
retired list liable for service, there were in all five hundred and
twenty generals, four hundred and seventy-two colonels, eight