oposal--The "Ojaladeros" of Biarritz--A Friend
in Need--Buying a Horse--Gilpin Outdone--"Fred
Burnaby" 300-317

FOOTNOTES

NOTES OF THE TRANSCRIBER

ROMANTIC SPAIN.

CHAPTER I.

A Tidy City--A Sacred Corpse--Remarkable Features of Puerto--A
Calesa--Lady Blanche's Castle--A Typical English Engineer--British
Enterprise--"Success to the Cadiz Waterworks!"--Visit to a
Bodega--Wine and Women--The Coming Man--A Strike.

PUERTO de Santa Maria has the name of being the neatest and tidiest city
in Spain, and neatness and tidiness are such dear homely virtues, I
thought I could not do better than hie me thither to see if the tale
were true. With a wrench I tore myself from the soft capital of
Andalusia, delightful but demoralizing. I was growing lazier every day I
spent there; I felt energy oozing out of every pore of my body; and in
the end I began to get afraid that if I stopped much longer I should
only be fit to sing the song of the sluggard:--"You have waked me too
soon, let me slumber again." Seville is a dangerous place; it is worse
than Capua; it would enervate Cromwell's Ironsides. Happily for me the
mosquitoes found out my bedroom, and pricked me into activity, or I
might not have summoned the courage to leave it for weeks, the more
especially as I had a sort of excuse for staying. The Cardinal
Archbishop had promised a friend of mine to let him inspect the body of
St. Fernando, and my friend had promised to take me with him. Now, this
was a great favour. St. Fernando is one of the patrons of Seville; he
has been dead a long time, but his corpse refuses to putrefy, like those
of ordinary mortals; it is a sacred corpse, and in a beatific state of
preservation. Three times a year the remains of the holy man are
uncovered, and the faithful are admitted to gaze on his incorruptible
features. This was not one of the regular occasions; the Cardinal
Archbishop had made an exception in compliment to my friend, who is a
rising young diplomat, so that the favour was really a favour. I
declined it with thanks--very much obliged, indeed--pressure of
business called me elsewhere--the cut-and-dry form of excuse; but I
never mentioned a word about the mosquitoes. I told my friend to thank
the prelate for his graciousness; the prelate expressed his sorrow that
my engagements did not permit me to wait, and begged that I would oblige
him by letting th