aking Torrijos, and he went back. The account
Mr. Trench gives of their proceedings is much as I imagined them to
have been. They hired a house which they denominated Constitution
Hall, where they passed their time smoking and drinking ale, John
holding forth upon German metaphysics, which grew dense in
proportion as the tobacco fumes grew thick and his glass grew
empty. You know we had an alarm about their being taken prisoners,
which story originated thus: they had agreed with the
constitutionalists in Algeciras that on a certain day the latter
were to _get rid_ of their officers (murder them civilly, I
suppose), and then light beacons on the heights, at which signal
Torrijos and his companions, among them our party who were lying
armed on board a schooner in the bay, were to make good their
landing. The English authorities at Gibraltar, however, had note of
this, and while they lay watching for the signal they were boarded
by one of the Government ships and taken prisoners. The number of
English soldiers in whose custody they found themselves being,
however, inferior to their own, they agreed that if the beacons
made their appearance they would turn upon their guards and either
imprison or kill them. But the beacons were never lighted; their
Spanish fellow-revolutionists broke faith with them, and they
remained ingloriously on board until next day, when they were
ignominiously suffered to go quietly on shore again.

CHAPTER XX.

GREAT RUSSELL STREET, March 8, 1831.

I am going to be very busy signing my name; my benefit is fixed for
the 21st; I do not yet know what the play is to be. Our young,
unsuccessful playwright, Mr. Wade, whom I like very much (he took
his damnation as bravely as Capaneo), and Macdonald, the sculptor,
dined with us on Sunday. On Monday I went to the library of the
British Museum to consult Du Bellay's history for my new version of
the last scene of "Francis I." I looked at some delightful books,
and among others, a very old and fine MS. of the "Roman de la
Rose," beautifully illuminated; also all the armorial bearings,
shields, banners, etc., of the barons of King John's time, the
barons of Runnymede and the Charter, most exquisitely and minutely
copied from monuments, stained glass,