I am comfortably settled here, after much painting and whitewashing, and, if you can steal away from Madrid, can give you a tidy bedroom and sitting-room, with a view out of the windows quite unequalled. The difference in the thermometer here and in the town below is some 6 or 8 degrees; then we have always such a delicious breeze, and such a constant trickling and splashing of fountains. I am sorry to say that the Lions are all adry, and the flowers in the courtyard past dying; a wall fell down the other day, which supported the aqueduct, which used to supply these cool courts. They are fast repairing it, but it is a work of great extent, and the Spaniards do not do things in an offhand style here any more than at Madrid. We have had a rare party of English Tigers, looking at the Lions; they flock out from Gibraltar, now the communication is again open, and astonish the natives in their red jackets, redder faces, and the quantity of undiluted wine they consume. Captain Pascoe, a gentlemanlike man, aide-de-camp to General Don, has been here.
We are going to be regaled with more executions—two officers who were found tampering with their troops. (They deserve it; but poor Mariana! who might have been spared.)
It is impossible to describe, either by pen or pencil, the extraordinary freshness and beauty of this spot, so take time by the forelock, and, as Ovid says:
Nil mihi rescribas, attamen, ipse veni.
Alhambra, Sunday, 14th June, /31.
I am delighted to hear that you are really coming here; you will find at least a clean bed, and a clean dinner, with no oil or garlic.
You must put up with the unfurnished, whitewashed sort of way we are living in, which is unlike the gorgeous mansion in Alcala Street.
Everything is arranged, and you will find a coche at Andujar, and a sufficient number of Miquelites. They have lately taken so many robbers, executed some, banished others, that the road is quite safe. I should recommend your buying some cigars at Andujar, which, being duly distributed to the men, majorals, and innkeepers, will act like magic. I expended a dollar in them on my journey, and am celebrated in los cuatro reinos as the greatest and most affable milor ever seen since the ‘grand Lord’ commanded in Spain.
I have written to Downie, to get the inn ready for you, and to provide, if possible, some partridges, and not have you bothered with ceremony, guards, or visits,—all which he nevertheless will doubtless inflict on you, calculating by the Rule of 3 principle. If he did such and such things for a simple milor, what will he do for an embajador?
I have duly instructed O’Lawlor on your being left quiet, which I think you will be, at least in the Alhambra, as no Spaniard has courage to face the hill, or any wish to see anything of their much superior predecessors, the Moors.