ABSTRACT
The worthy old Commandant, who really seemed to be a Spanish gentleman (than which there is no character more respectable), was as good as his word: we were the next day set at liberty, and allowed to hire mules, which were to convey us in a very wretched vehicle to the foot of the rock of Gibraltar; the magistrate giving us a passport and two guards. When I found myself released, I thought I might venture to expostulate with Don Manuel on the injustice there appeared to be in my being thus deprived of the accommodation of the Count de Villanova’s carriages; and added, that it was singular I was not entrusted with the execution of his will, and with the care of delivering his effects to his friends in Portugal. Don Manuel allowed that it did seem hard; but that such were the laws, with which he could not interfere. – I insisted, however, with some warmth on my right to take an inventory of these things, which were altogether of considerable value, and of seeing the Count’s servants, who were undoubtedly visible, since he had told me that they were the preceding evening to attend the funeral of their master. Don Manuel replied, that all this was very true; but that the usage in such cases must not be broken through; that he himself indeed had nothing to do with it; and that, so far from wishing to take any advantage of my situation, which was certainly a very awkward one, he had strained a point to release me, and might perhaps be called upon for having done so. He hinted to me, that, though his power went so far now, and that he was willing to exert it because he believed me innocent, yet that there was an appeal from his decision, which might be attended with long imprisonment, or perhaps more serious consequences. – He might as well have said that the honest men who had got possession of the effects did not choose to part with them. I was willing, in favour of his martial air and gentleman-like demeanour, to hope he had no part in this plunder, which I now found was without redress: but I was compelled to depart with such part of my own baggage as I could obtain, for much of it was lost; and I now found myself and my family travelling towards Gibraltar, almost as poor as I had ever been in my life. Isabella and I had between us something above the value of twenty pounds in Spanish money: it was fortunate we had even so much, and that we were not searched on being imprisoned, and what we had taken from us; for there would have been as little remedy 91for that as for the other robbery. I am persuaded that my poor friend had left in his port-folio a will, in which he had not only given me what he carried with him, but had bequeathed me a considerable legacy, and left it to me to send home his servants, and arrange his affairs together with his agents in Portugal. Many circumstances I now recollected would have put this beyond a doubt, even if his character and his attachment to me had allowed me to doubt it: but, whatever were his intentions, they were completely frustrated; since I was not even allowed to see his servants. I was told that they were in the village where he died, but the morning before. I hoped we might pass through that village; but we were carried round by another road, and the questions I asked my guards would not understand. When I murmured, however, at all this, Isabella, who had entertained the most horrible notions of a Spanish prison, and thought we had escaped almost by miracle, entreated me to be content; and to rejoice that on any terms I had escaped out of the hands of the Spanish courts of justice. I was therefore forced to console myself as well as I could, in cursing lawyers of every description, which I did very heartily, convinced that the esprit de corps among them is the same in all countries, and that a lawyer must be a rogue par metier*.48 Our journey of upwards of an hundred and seventy-five miles, though we made it very slowly, was so fatiguing that I trembled for the health of Isabella and my children; and it is impossible to describe what I suffered from the apprehension of their falling ill, now that my finances were so low that I could not have obtained necessaries for their relief, even in a country where medical skill is more frequent than in Spain. Isabella, fatigued and exhausted as she was, supported herself with great courage and fortitude; and children bear difficulties better than adults, because their minds are little affected by local circumstances. They think not of the time that is past, and dread not that which is to come: a little fruit, a little milk and bread, with which we took care to provide ourselves wherever we found it good, was enough for my two little boys, who were born wanderers, and seemed only the more healthy and lovely for the hardy way in which they had been nursed.
