[25] Mountaineers.
[26] “We are all corrupt.” Such were the words of Merino Guerra, at his parting interview with the late Sir George Don at Gibraltar, on proceeding—an exile—to South America.
[27] Napoleon certainly succeeded in making his Satraps honest. In his latter days, Massena would not have dared to repeat the witty reply made to the First Consul before all the Republican Generals, on his accusing him of being “un voleur.” “Oui, mon General, je suis un voleur, tu es un voleur, il est un voleur—nous sommes des voleurs, vous êtes des voleurs, ils sont tous des voleurs.”
[28] “El Presidente e Individuos de la Junta de Sanidad de la Ciudad de Gibraltar, que por la material pérdida de su plaza reside en esta de San Roque de su Campo, &c.”—Such was the heading of the Bill of health, with which I travelled when last in Spain.
[29] The punishment of death by strangulation is so called, from the short stick, by turning which an iron collar, that goes round the criminal’s neck, is brought so tight as to cause instant death.
[30] The usual complimentary mode of expression amongst Spaniards, which has no more meaning than the “Obedient humble Servant” at the bottom of an English letter.
[31] He had fallen in with Capt. Tupper of the 23d Fuzileers (with whom he was well acquainted) on his way to Algeciras, who had accompanied him to San Roque. Poor Tupper! led away by a somewhat quixotic love of strife, he was persuaded in an unlucky moment to throw up his company in one of the first regiments in the British service, to become the Colonel of a regiment of adventurers, and was killed whilst gallantly leading on his men at the first attack on Hernani of fatal memory.
[32] A Spanish pillared dollar.
[33] Blue blood.
[34] The term Tertulia was originally applied to an assembly of Literati, which met to discuss the opinions held by Tertulian, and even to this day those who attend these, now festive, meetings, are called Tertulianos.