第83章 29th April,1837(2)

The translation was corrected by that unfortunate man Nicanoff,who,though he lived and died a drunkard,was an excellent Russian scholar;therefore I think that no objection can reasonably be made in respect to style,though indeed the original is very plain and homely,being adapted to the most common understanding.I offer no apology for giving you all this trouble,as I am fully aware that you are at all times eagerly ready to perform anything which I may consider as a service rendered to myself.

Spain at present,I am sorry to say,is in a more distracted and convulsed situation than at any former period,and the prospect is gloomy in the extreme.The Queen's troops have sustained of late grievous defeats in the Basque provinces and Valencia,and a Carlist expedition of 18,000men,whose object is to ravage Castile and to carry the war to the gates of Madrid,is shortly expected to pass the Ebro.From what I have seen and heard of the demoralised state of the Cristinos forces,I believe they will meet with no effectual resistance,and that Cristina and her daughter will be compelled to flee from the capital to Cadiz,or to some strong frontier town.Nevertheless,such is the nature of the Spanish people,that it is impossible to say whether the liberal cause (as it is called)be desperate or not,as neither one party nor the other knows how to improve an advantage.Twice might Don Carlos have marched to Madrid and seized the crown;and more than once his army has been at the mercy of the Cristinos;yet still is the affair undecided,and will perhaps continue so for years.The country is,as you may well conceive,in a most distracted state;robbery and murder are practised with impunity,and the roads are in such an insecure state that almost all communication has ceased between one town and another;yet I am going forth without the slightest fear,trusting in God;for if He is with me,who shall stand against me?

I have a servant,a person who has been a soldier for fifteen years,who will go with me for the purpose of attending to the horses and otherwise assisting me in my labours.His conduct on the journey is the only thing to which I look forward with uneasiness;for though he has some good points,yet in many respects a more atrocious fellow never existed.He is inordinately given to drink,and of so quarrelsome a disposition that he is almost constantly involved in some broil.Like most of his countrymen,he carries an exceedingly long knife,which he frequently unsheaths and brandishes in the faces of those who are unfortunate enough to awaken his choler.It is only a few days since that I rescued the maid-servant of the house from his grasp,whom otherwise he would undoubtedly have killed,and all because she too much burnt a red herring which he had given her to cook.

You perhaps wonder that I retain a person of this description,but,bad as he is,he is the best servant I can obtain;he is very honest,a virtue which is rarely to be found in a Spanish servant,and I have no fear of his running away with the horses during the journey,after having perhaps knocked me on the head in some lone POSADA.He is moreover acquainted with every road,cross-road,river,and mountain in Spain,and is therefore a very suitable squire for an errant knight,like myself.On my arrival in Biscay I shall perhaps engage one of the uncorrupted Basque peasants,who has never left his native mountains and is utterly ignorant of the Spanish language,for I am told that they are exceedingly faithful and laborious.The best servant I ever had was the Tartar Mahmoud at St.Petersburg,and I have frequently repented that I did not bring him with me on my leaving Russia;but I was not then aware that I was about to visit this unfortunate country,where goodness of every description is so difficult to find.