CHAPTER II.
WAITING FOR EMPLOYMENT—JOSÉ MARIA. 1834.
In 1834, I travelled through Andalusia with my tutor, and visited, amongst other towns, Seville, where I had been requested by my father to rent a furnished house for three months, as he had obtained leave of absence and intended to spend it there with his family. Mr. Ford, the author of the Handbook on Spain, and father of Sir Francis Clare Ford, afterwards Ambassador at Madrid, then resided at Seville; and, as he was about to leave, I hired his house.
Ford had made the acquaintance of José Maria, the famous brigand—the ‘Little John’ of Spain—who had been pardoned by the Queen on condition of his acting as chief of a body of ‘guardia civil’ and devoting himself to suppressing brigandage. He asked me if I would like to see this notorious ex-robber and hear, from his own lips, anecdotes of his life as a brigand. I readily assented, so José Maria was invited to a luncheon at which I was present.
José Maria told us that all the robbers and thieves in the Southern provinces of Spain had been for some years under his control—he could collect when required a body of about forty well-mounted and armed men—and related how his pardon and present appointment had been obtained.
Hearing that Queen Christina, attended by an escort of cavalry, was about to pass, on her return to Madrid from a visit to Granada, through a wooded country known to be infested by banditti, José Maria collected his well-mounted brigands, armed and dressed in handsome ‘majo’ costume, and placed them at the entrance of the forest through which Her Majesty would pass.
On the approach of the royal cortège, José Maria, observing a trooper posted as vedette in advance of Her Majesty’s escort, accosted the man and informed him that, as a loyal subject of the Queen, he had brought a body of well-armed and mounted inhabitants of the neighbourhood to escort Her Majesty through the woods in safety.
The trooper rode back and reported this language to the officer in command of the escort, adding that he suspected from the appearance of their chief that the men were banditti.
This was repeated to the Queen by the officer, who also informed Her Majesty that he was prepared to attack the supposed banditti.
Queen Christina, however, ordered him not to attack, but, after taking the necessary precautions against treachery, to bring the chief of the band to her carriage.