fin, who appears to have made their
acquaintance through a Spanish gentleman, named Valentine Llanos, writes,
in February, 1824,--

"I was introduced the other day to poor Madame Riego, the relict of
the unfortunate general. I was surprised to see her look much better
than I was prepared to expect, as she is in a confirmed consumption."

Mental grief, which death only could terminate, had at that moment
"marked" Madame Riego "for his own;" yet her look, like that of all
high-minded Spaniards, to a stranger was calm--"much better than he was
prepared to expect."

On the 18th of May, exactly one month and a day before the termination of
her sufferings, Griffin says,--

"The canon Riego, brother to the poor martyr, sent me, the other day,
a Spanish poem of many cantos, having for its subject the career of
the unhappy general, and expressed a wish that I might find material
for an English one in it, if I felt disposed to make anything of the
subject. _Apropos_, Madame Riego is almost dead. The fire is in her
eye, and the flush on her cheek, which are, I believe, no beacons of
hope to the consumptive. She is an interesting woman, and I pity her
from my soul. This Mr. Mathews, who was confined with her husband,
and arrived lately in London, and who, moreover, is a countryman of
mine, brought her from her dying husband a little favourite dog and a
parrot, which were his companions in his dungeon. He very
indiscreetly came before her with the remembrances without any
preparation, and she received a shock from it, from which she has not
yet, nor ever will recover. What affecting little circumstances
these are, and how interesting to one who has the least mingling of
enthusiasm in his character!"

Madame Riego died in the arms of her attached sister, attended by the
estimable canon. In her will she directed her executor, the canon, to
assure the British people of the gratitude she felt towards them for the
sympathy and support which they extended to her in the hours of her
adversity. But what makes the will peculiarly affecting is her solemn
attestation to the purity and sincerity of the political life of General
Riego. She states that she esteems it to be the last act of justice and
duty to the memory of her beloved husband, solemnly to declare, in the
awful presence of her God, before whose judgment-seat she feels she must
soon appear, th