ve, unprecedented for the
plainness of its enquiries and replies. It was perfectly Lacedaemonian.

"What regular force can Spain bring into the field?"

"None."

"What force has Napoleon in Spain at this moment?"

"At least two hundred and fifty thousand men, and those in the highest
state of equipment and discipline."

"And yet you venture to resist?"

"We have resisted, we shall resist, and we shall beat them."

"In what state are your fortresses?"

"One half of them in the hands of the French, and the other half, without
garrisons, provisions, or even guns; still, we shall beat them."

"Are not the French troops in possession of all the provinces?"

"Yes."

"Are they not in fact masters of the country?"

"No."

"How am I to reconcile those statements?"

"The French are masters by day; the Spaniards are masters by night."

"But you have none of the elements of national government. You have lost
your king."

"So much the better."

"Your princes, nobles, and court."

"So much the better."

"Even your prime minister and whole administration are in the hands of the
enemy."

"Best of all!" said the respondent, with a frown like a thunder-cloud.

"What resource, then, have you?"

"The people!" exclaimed the Spaniard, in a tone of superb defiance.

"Still--powerful as a united people are--before you can call upon a
British government to embark in such a contest, it must be shown that the
people are capable of acting together; that they are not separated by the
jealousies which proverbially divide your country."

"Senor Inglese," said the Don, with a Cervantic curl of the lip, "I see,
that Spain has not been neglected among the studies of your high station.
But Spain is _not_ to be studied in books. She is not to be sketched, like
a fragment of a Moorish castle, and carried off in a portfolio. Europe
knows nothing of her. You must pass the Pyrenees to conceive her
existence. She lives on principles totally distinct from those of all
other nations; and France will shortly find, that she never made a greater
mistake than when she thought, that even the southern slope of the
Pyrenees was like the northern."

"But," said I, "the disunion of your provinces, the extinction of your
army, and the capture of your executive government, must leave the country
naked to invasion. The contest may be gallant, but the hazard must be
formidable. To sustain a war against the disciplined troops of France, and
th