CHAPTER VI.
A LOOK AT BARCELONA.
The sudden disappearance of Raimundo produced the greatest astonishment on board of the Tritonia, and not less among those who knew him best in the other vessels of the squadron. His character had been excellent since he first joined the academy squadron. No one believed he had run away for the mere sake of escaping the study and discipline of his vessel, or for the sake of “a time” on shore. The abogado’s business was explained to Mr. Pelham on board of the Tritonia, but to no others. Raimundo was gone without a doubt; but when, where, or how he had disappeared, was a profound mystery.
The excellent character of Raimundo, and the fact that he was a universal favorite, were strongly in his favor; and no one was disposed to render a harsh judgment in regard to his singular conduct. The officers talked it over in the cabin, the seamen talked it over in the steerage. The students could make nothing of the matter; and it looked to them very much like the usual cases of running away, strange as it seemed to them that a fellow like Raimundo, who had been a model of good conduct on board, should take such a step.
Of course Scott was an exception to the general rule. Though he knew not where his friend had gone, he understood why he had disappeared; for Raimundo had told him what he had heard on board of the American Prince, and he was fully satisfied that the stranger had come for him.
“I think the matter is fully explained,” said Professor Crumples, in the state-room. “A demand has been made on the principal for Raimundo; and straightway Raimundo disappears. It is plain enough to me that the young man knew the lawyer was after him.”
“But how could he know it?” demanded Professor Primback.
“That I cannot explain; but I am satisfied that a student like Raimundo would not run away. He has not gone for a frolic, or to escape his duty: he is not one of that sort,” persisted Professor Crumples.
“I think you are right, Mr. Crumples,” added the vice-principal. “Raimundo was a bad boy, or at least full of mischief and given to a lark, before he joined the institution; but for more than a year his deportment has been perfectly exemplary. He has been a model since I have had charge of this vessel. I have found that those who have really reformed are often stiffer and more determined in their zeal to do right than many who have never left the straight path of duty. I may say that I know this fact from experience. I am satisfied that Raimundo had some very strong motive for the step he has taken. But what you say, Mr. Crumples, suggests a little further inquiry into the matter.”
The vice-principal spoke Spanish, and he immediately sent for the alguacil to join the trio in the state-room.
“Had the boats belonging to this vessel left the steamer when Don Francisco went on board of her?” asked Mr. Pelham as the Spanish officer entered the room.
“No, sir: not a boat had left the steamer when Don Francisco was permitted to go on the deck of the steamer,” replied the alguacil promptly. “He waited on the steps, at the head of which the big officer stood, for more than an hour; and I was in the boat at the foot of the steps all the time. I counted eight boats made fast to the boom; and I am sure that no one left the steamer till after Don Francisco had been admitted on board. I saw all the boys get into these boats, and pull away to this vessel and the other.”
“Then Don Francisco was on the deck of the steamer at the same time that our ship’s company were there,” added Mr. Pelham.
“No doubt of that,” replied the alguacil, who appeared to desire that no suspicion of foul play on the part of the officers or the principal should be encouraged.
“Now, if I could find any one who noticed the conduct of Raimundo on board of the steamer, we might get at something,” continued the vice-principal.
“I think you can easily find such a one,” suggested Professor Crumples. “Lieutenant Scott and Raimundo are fast friends; they are in the same quarter-watch, and appear to be great cronies.”
“I was thinking of him when you spoke.—Mr. Scott,” called the vice-principal, when he had opened the door of the state-room.
Scott was in the cabin, and presented himself at the door. He was requested to come in, and the door was closed behind him.
“Were you with Raimundo on board of the steamer?” asked Mr. Pelham.
Scott was fully determined not to do or say any thing that would injure his friend, even if he were sent to the brig for his fidelity to the absent shipmate; and he hesitated long enough to consider the effect of any thing he might say.
“We are all friends of Raimundo, and do not wish to harm him,” added the vice-principal. “You have already said you did not know where Raimundo was.”
“I do not.”
“Do you object to answering the question I asked?”
“I do not,” replied Scott, who had by this time made up his mind that the truth could not harm his friend. “I was with Raimundo all the time he was on board of the steamer. We went in the same boat, and returned together.”
“Did you notice the gentleman that came on board of the Tritonia with Mr. Lowington?”
“I did. He was on deck here half an hour, or more.”
“Did you see him on board of the American Prince?”
“I did. He spoke to the principal just as Raimundo and I passed behind him.”
“Behind whom?”
“Behind the principal. I looked the gentleman in the face while he was speaking to Mr. Lowington.”
“I can walk Spanish, but I can’t talk Spanish; and so I couldn’t understand him.”
“You don’t know what he said, then?”
Scott hesitated again.
“I don’t say that.”
“But you intimated that you did not understand Spanish.”
“I do know what the gentleman said as I passed him,” replied Scott.
“How could you know, without understanding the language he spoke?”
“Raimundo told me what he said; and he could understand Spanish if I could not.”
“Ah, indeed! Raimundo told you! Well, what did he tell you the gentleman said?” asked the vice-principal earnestly.
“He told me he heard the gentleman ask the principal if he had a student under his care by the name of Enrique Raimundo: that’s all he heard, and that’s all he told me about the gentleman,” replied Scott, who had said so much because he believed that this information would do his absent shipmate more good than harm.
“That explains it all,” added Mr. Pelham; and he informed the alguacil what Scott had said.
This was all the vice-principal had expected to show by Scott; and he was entirely satisfied with the information he had obtained, not suspecting that the third lieutenant knew any thing more about the matter. Mr. Pelham and the rest of the party asked Scott some more questions in regard to the conduct of the absentee after he came on board of the Tritonia; but Raimundo had taken care that his friend should know nothing at all about his intended movements, and the lieutenant was as ignorant of them as any other person on board. To his intense relief he was dismissed without having betrayed the confidence of his friend in the slightest degree.
Scott knew the whole story of the young Spaniard; and he was confident that the principal and the vice-principal, if not the professors, had learned at least Don Alejandro’s side of it from the stranger; and he felt that he was relieving his friend from the charge of being a runaway, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, by showing that Raimundo knew that some one was after him.
The exciting topic was discussed by all hands till the anchor-watch was set, and the rest of the ship’s company had turned in. Even Bill Stout and Bark Lingall in the brig had heard the news, for Ben Pardee had contrived to communicate it to them on the sly; and they discussed it in whispers, as well as another more exciting question to them, after all hands below were asleep. Bill was fully determined to repeat the wicked experiment which had so providentially failed that day.
“Bark is willin’,” added that worthy, when the plan had been fully considered.
The alguacil visited every part of the vessel, attended by the vice-principal, before he retired for the night. The next morning, all hands were mustered on deck, and the search was repeated. This time the hold was visited; but no sign of the fugitive could be found. The alguacil protested that he was sure no attempt had been made by any person on board to conceal the absentee; for every facility had been afforded him to see for himself.
Breakfast had been ordered at an early hour; for it was understood that all hands were to go on shore, and see what little there was to be seen in Barcelona. Before the meal was finished, the principal came on board with Don Francisco. The alguacil reported to his employer what he had done, and described the thorough search which had been made for the missing ward. The principal offered to do any thing the lawyer would suggest in order to find Raimundo. No one could imagine how he had left the vessel, though it seemed to be a settled conviction with all that he had left. Don Francisco could suggest nothing; but he insisted that the alguacil should remain on the vessel, to which the principal gladly assented.
Don Francisco was sent on shore in good style in the first cutter of the Prince; and, as soon as breakfast was over in the Tritonia, the principal directed that all hands should be mustered in the waist.
“Young gentlemen,” said Mr. Lowington, as soon as the students had assembled, “I spent last evening, and the greater part of last night, in devising a plan by which all hands in the fleet may see the most interesting portions of Spain and Portugal.”
This announcement was received with a demonstration of applause, which was permitted and even enjoyed by the faculty; for it had long before been proved that the boys were honest and sincere in their expressions of approbation, and that they withheld their tribute when they were not satisfied with the announcement, or the programme, whatever it was. The principal bowed in acknowledgment of the applause.
“I am well aware that some of the interior towns of Spain possess more interest than any on the seacoast; and therefore I have decided that you shall see both. You will spend to-morrow in seeing Barcelona, which may easily be seen in one day by those who do not wish to make a critical survey of the country. To-night the ship’s company of the American Prince will depart for Saragossa; and will visit Burgos, Valladolid, the Escurial, Madrid, Toledo, Badajos, and thence through Portugal to Lisbon, from which they may go to Cintra and other places. They will reach Lisbon in about two weeks. To-morrow morning the ship’s company of the Tritonia and that of the Josephine will be sent in the steamer direct to Lisbon, from which place they will make the tour, reversed, back to Barcelona. The ship’s company of the American Prince will return to Barcelona in their own vessel, which will wait for them at Lisbon. When all hands are on board again, the squadron will sail along the coast, visiting Valencia, Alicante, Carthagena, Malaga, Gibraltar, and Cadiz; and another interior trip will be made to Granada, Cordova, and Seville. This plan will enable you to see about the whole of Spain. Then we shall have visited nearly every country in Europe. To-day will be used in coaling the steamer, and you will go on shore as soon as you are ready.”
This speech was finished with another demonstration of applause; and the principal immediately returned to the Prince, alongside of which several coal-barges had already taken their places. The students had put on their go-ashore uniforms, and were in readiness to take a nearer view of the city. The officers and crew of the Prince had packed their bags for the two weeks’ trip through Spain, and her boats were now pulling to the landing-place near the foot of the Rambla. Those of the Josephine and Tritonia soon followed them.
The alguacil remained on board of the Tritonia. He had a recent photograph of Raimundo, obtained in New York by Don Alejandro’s agent; and he was confident that the fugitive had not left the vessel with the rest of the students. As it was necessary for the adult boatswain and carpenter, Marline and Rimmer, to go on shore with the boats in order to take charge of them, the two prisoners in the brig were left in care of the head steward. When the vessel was deserted by all but the cooks and stewards, the alguacil made another diligent search for the ward of his employer, but with no better success than before. He tried to talk with Salter, the chief steward; but that individual did not know a word of Spanish, and he did not get ahead very fast. In the course of an hour, he seemed to be disgusted with his occupation, and, calling a shore boat, he left the Tritonia. Probably Don Francisco had directed him to use his own judgment as to the time he was to remain on board.
Mr. Salter was the chief steward of the Tritonia, and he had a great deal of business of his own to attend to, so that he could not occupy himself very closely in looking after the marines in the brig. He was obliged to make up his accounts, which were required to be as accurately and methodically kept as though the vessel were a man-of-war. His desk was in the cabin, for he was an officer of no little consequence on board. Though the passage-way between the cabin and the steerage was open, he could not see, from the place where he was seated, what the prisoners were about, or hear their conversation. They had their books in the brig, though they did not study their neglected lessons. But what they said and what they did must be reserved till a later time in the day; for it would not be fair to leave all the good students to wander about Barcelona without any attention.
The boats landed, and for the first time the young voyagers stood on the soil of Spain. Captain Wainwright, Scott, and O’Hara were among those who were permitted to take care of themselves, while not a few were in charge of the vice-principals and the professors. Those who were privileged to go where they pleased without any supervision chose their own companions. Scott and O’Hara were inclined to train in the same company; and Captain Sheridan and Lieutenant Murray of the steamer, with whom both of them had been formerly very intimate, hailed them as they came on shore. The four formed a party for the day. It was a very desirable party too, for the reason that Dr. Winstock, an old traveller in Spain, as indeed he was in all the countries of Europe, was as great a crony of Sheridan as he once had been of Paul Kendall, the first captain of the Josephine, and a commander of the Young America. The surgeon shook hands with Scott and O’Hara, and then led the way to the Rambla, which is the broad avenue extending through the centre of the city.
“Barcelona, I suppose you know, young gentlemen, is the second city in Spain in population, and has nearly or quite two hundred thousand inhabitants,” said the doctor, as the party entered the Rambla. “It is by far the most important commercial city, and is quite a manufacturing place besides. There are several cotton, silk, and woollen mills outside of the walls; and ten years ago the imports of cotton from the United States were worth nearly five millions of dollars.”
“What do you call our country in Spanish, doctor?” asked Sheridan.
“Los Estados Unidos de America,” replied Dr. Winstock. “By the way, O’Hara, do you speak Spanish?”
“No, sir: I spake only Oyrish and Oytalian,” laughed the fourth lieutenant of the Tritonia.
“Though Spanish and Italian are very much alike, each of them seems to be at war with the other. Ford, in Murray’s Hand-book for Spain, says that a knowledge of Italian will prove a constant stumbling-block in learning Spanish. I found it so myself. Before I came to Spain the first time I could speak the language very well, and talked it whole evenings with my professor. Then I took lessons in Italian; but I soon found my Spanish so confused and confounded that I could not speak it at all.”
“Then I won’t try to learn Spanish,” added O’Hara.
“Here is the post-office on your right, and the Teatro Principal on the left; but it is not the principal theatre at the present time.”
“This street—I suppose they would call it a boulevard in Paris—is not unlike ‘Unter den Linden’ in Berlin,” said Murray. “It has the rows of trees in the middle.”
“But the time to visit the Rambla is just before night on a pleasant day, when it is crowded with people. Barcelona is not so thoroughly Spanish as some other cities of Spain—Madrid and Seville, for instance. The people are quite different from the traditional Spaniard, who is too dignified and proud to engage in commerce or to work at any honest business; while the Catalans are an industrious and thriving people, first-rate sailors, quick, impulsive, and revolutionary in their character. They are more like Frenchmen than Spaniards.”
“There is a square up that narrow street,” said Sheridan.
“That’s the Plaza Real,—Royal Square,—surrounded by houses with arcades, like the Palais Royal in Paris. In the centre of it is a fine monument, dedicated to the Catholic kings, as distinguished from the Moorish sovereigns, and dedicated to Ferdinand and Isabella; and you remember that Catalonia became a part of Aragon, and was annexed to Castile by the marriage of their respective sovereigns. This is the Rambla del Centro, for this broad avenue has six names in its length of three-quarters of a mile. Here is the Calle Fernando on our right, which is the next street in importance to the Rambla, and, like it, has several names for its different parts. Now we have the Teatro del Lico on our left, which is built on the plan of La Scala at Milan, and is said to be the largest theatre in Europe, seating comfortably four thousand people.”
Dr. Winstock continued to point out the various objects of interest on the way; but most of them were more worthy to be looked at than to be written about. The party walked the entire length of the Rambla to the Plaza de Cataluña, which is a small park, with a fountain in the centre. Taking another street, they reached a point near the centre of the city, where the cathedral is located. It is a Gothic structure, built in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In 1519 Charles V. presided in the choir of this church over a general assembly of the Knights of the Golden Fleece. Under the high altar is the crypt or tomb of St. Eulalia, the patron saint of the city. She suffered martyrdom in the fourth century; and it is said that her remains were discovered five hundred years after her death, by the sweet odor they emitted. Her soul ascended to heaven in the visible form of a dove.
Near the cathedral, on the Plaza de la Constitucion, or Constitution Square, are the Town Hall and the Parliament House, in which the commons of Catalonia met before it became a part of the kingdom of Aragon. Between this square and the Rambla is the church of Santa Maria del Pino, Gothic, built a little later than the cathedral. Its name is derived from a tradition that the image of the Virgin was found in the trunk of a pine-tree, and because this tree is the emblem of the Catholic faith, ever green and ever pointing to heaven. On the altars of two of its chapels, Jews were allowed to take an oath in any suit with a Christian, or to establish the validity of a will, and for similar purposes. In another church Hebrews are permitted to take oath on the Ten Commandments, placed on an altar.
The party visited several other churches, and finally reached the great square near the head of the port, on which are located the Royal Palace, the Exchange, and the Custom House; but there is nothing remarkable about them. There are fifty fountains in the city, the principal of which is in the palace square. It is an allegorical representation of the four provinces of Catalonia.
“There is not much to see in Barcelona,” said Dr. Winstock, as they walked along the sea-wall, in the resort called the Muralla del Mar. “This is a commercial city, and you do not see much that is distinctively Spanish. Commerce with other nations is very apt to wear away the peculiarities of any people.”
“But where are the Spaniards? I don’t think I have seen any of them,” added Sheridan.
“Probably most of the people you have met in our walk were Spaniards,” replied the doctor.
“Don’t we see the national costume?”
“You will have to go to a bull-fight to see that,” laughed the surgeon; “and then only the men who take part in the spectacle will wear the costume. The audience will be dressed in about the same fashion you have seen all over Europe. Perhaps if you go over into Barceloneta you will find some men clothed in the garb of the Catalans.”
“Shall we see a bull-fight?” asked Scott.
“Not in Barcelona. I suppose, if there should be an opportunity, the principal would allow all who wished to see it to do so; for it is a Spanish institution, and the traveller ought not to leave Spain without seeing one. But it is a sickening sight; and, after you have seen one or two poor old horses gored to death by the bull, you will not care to have any more of it. The people of this city are not very fond of the sport; and the affair is tame here compared with the bull-fights of Madrid and Seville.”
At three o’clock those of the party who belonged to the steamer departed for Saragossa. Scott and O’Hara wandered about the city the rest of the day, visiting Barceloneta, and taking an outside view of the bull-ring, or Plaza de Toros, which is about the same thing as in all the other large cities of the country. They dined at a French restaurant in the Rambla, where they did not go hungry for the want of a language. At an early hour they returned to the Tritonia, where they were to spend another night before their departure in the American Prince.