law. The _ruse_ of hoisting the British flag was
legitimate if the _Buenaventura_ substituted her own flag before
proceeding to board them. The _San Margarita_ had the flags of more
than one nation in her lockers; but the gun-brig had no power to act the
policeman in neutral waters. There was the point. Travers was in a
separate lodging; they had been accommodated at first in the one cell,
but they could not agree--ashore as afloat the old feud existed.
However, both assented to a truce in order to have a talk with me. They
were cheerful, had cigars _ad libitum_ (at their own expense, of
course), and were permitted to get their rations from the Hotel de
Londres in the city. The cells they occupied were bare, white-washed,
low-ceiled rooms, some eight paces by six. They were not so clean or
well-ventilated as Newgate cells, and the beds were spread on the floor.
The captives had access to newspapers and writing materials, and it is
but the due of the officers in charge to testify that they were
extremely affable and disposed to make their prisoners as comfortable as
possible. Still, in the close, stifling weather, to be locked up within
the narrow circuit of a dungeon was limbo. The pair wore their own
clothes, Travers still retaining a navy-jacket with brass buttons
engraved with the initials of some yacht club, and did not complain of
having been subjected to indignities. While I was with them the shadow
of a face darkened the window; it was a Carlist prisoner who had hoisted
himself up on the shoulders of a comrade from a yard below; he had a
letter in his mouth. I took it, and slipped him a bundle of cigars for
distribution among his fellow cage-birds. From this it may be deduced
that the gaol regulations were not very stringent. The Carlists were
treated as forfeit of war, not felons, and had no honest chance of
illuminating their brows with the martyr halo of Baron von Trenck or
Silvio Pellico.

San Sebastian is the most modern town in the Peninsula, having been
re-built in 1816, three years after its destruction by the incensed
allied troops. It is a great summer resort of wealthy Spanish idlers--a
sort of Madrid-super-Mare. The attractions of the capital are to be had
there, with the supplementary advantages of pure air, mountain scenery,
and luxurious sea-bathing on a level sandy beach. There is a public
casino, and a score of clandestine hells where a fortune can be lost in
a night at monte--in short, every in