d upon every woman as lawful prey
and hesitated at neither perjury nor violence to gain his ends; despair
and tears left him indifferent. Love for him was purely carnal, with
nothing of the timid flame of pastoral romance, nor of the chivalrous
and metaphysic passion of Provence; it was a fierce, consuming fire
which quickly burnt itself out. He was a vulgar and unoriginal seducer
who stole favours in the dark by pretending to be the lady's chosen
lover, or induced guileless maids to trust him under promise of
marriage, then rode away as fast as his horse could carry him. The
monotony of his methods and their success are an outrage to the
intelligence of the sex. But for all his scoffing he remained a true
Catholic, devoutly believing that the day would come when he must
account for his acts; and he proposed, when too old to commit more sins,
to repent and make his peace with the Almighty.

It is significant that the Andalusians have thus chosen Don Juan
Tenorio, for he is an abstract, with the lines somewhat subdued by the
advance of civilisation, of the national character. For them his vices,
his treachery, his heartlessness, have nothing repellent; nor does his
inconstancy rob him of feminine sympathy. He is, indeed, a far greater
favourite with the ladies than John Bull. The Englishman they respect,
they know he will make a good husband and a model father; but he is too
monogamous to arouse enthusiasm.

XVI

[Sidenote: Women of Andalusia]

It is meet and just that the traveller who desires a closer acquaintance
with the country wherein he sojourns than is obtained by the Cockney
tripper, should fall in love. The advantages of this proceeding are
manifold and obvious. He will acquire the language with a more rapid
facility; he will look upon the land with greater sympathy and hence
with sharper insight; and little particularities of life will become
known to him, which to the dreary creature who surveys a strange world
from the portico of an expensive hotel, must necessarily lie hid. If I
personally did not arrive at that delectable condition the fault is with
the immortal gods rather than with myself; for in my eagerness to learn
the gorgeous tongue of Calderon and of Cervantes, I placed myself
purposely in circumstances where I thought the darts of young Cupid
could never fail to miss me. But finally I was reduced to Ollendorf's
Grammar. However, these are biographical details of interest to none but
m