A second time we were destined to encounter disappointment and a wetting: for as on the previous day, the sun kindly put forth his glorious rays to cheer us on our road at morn, so did he likewise towards evening withdraw his genial influence, and, by way of contrast, the rain poured down instead.

Another edition of cold, darkness, and hunger, was by no means exhilirating in prospect; yet how could the threatening evil be averted? To attempt reaching Granada ere nightfall was on all sides acknowledged to be vain. To mend the matter, both mules and muleteers evinced most visible and impressive demonstrations of a fixed determination to proceed no further, and as their present disapprobation by much exceeded even their previous dissatisfaction, it was but too plain we were wholly at their mercy and sooth to say, the men deserved but little blame in having jumped at so uncompromising a resolve, since every effort made to urge their jaded mules onwards proved productive of considerable exertion at their expense, without the smallest benefit accruing to any of the party. A prolonged detention on the road being much more probable than a forward movement, a council of war was speedily summoned.

The night had by this time become perfectly dark-the roads, broken by the incessant rains, were scarcely passable even by day-the ladies were of course dispirited and fatigued, and to crown the whole, our guide, whose declarations had hitherto been sanguine, now declared it was worse than madness to proceed.

That veto issued, hopes of further progress were annihilated; to remain where we were was impossible, and accordingly a retrograde movement was unavoidably agreed on, in hopes of regaining a small hamlet called "El Hacha," which having passed through some two miles back, offered the only chance of accommodation for leagues around.

After much toil, and many doubts as to the practicability of ever reaching the miserable shelter we were in quest of, we eventually gained the anxiously sought for hovel-for little better was the building wherein the choicest flowers in the bouquet of our aristocracy were destined to pass the night. As for repose or sleep, both were incompatible with the appurtenances to the lodging, for the new comers had momentary proof afforded that their presence was not a matter of indifference to all living creatures.

Complex and manifold as our miseries were, starvation formed no item among our sorrows, for Monsieur Perrin, that most enlightened of artistes, who accompanied the expedition,

taxed his abilities to the utmost, and not only succeeded in pandering to the sharpened apetite of his legitimate master, but also ameliorated the hunger endured by his less aristocratic admirers.

Singular likewise was it that this same promoter of gastronomy was, when in the service of Marshal Soult, compelled to halt, together with his general, in the very hamlet we then occupied. On the former occasion, the French commander lost two aides-de-camp by assassination, while the restaurateur escaped the knife of the murderers to attend to the ordinary wants of the sworn enemies of his country, on the same distant and unfrequented spot, at an interval of twenty-six years.

The room, or more properly speaking, the barn which the ladies honoured with their presence possessed not the most remote appearance of anything approximating to comfort. The floor was a wet soft clay; the walls old, broken, and disgustingly filthy; fowls roosted wherever they could find space; and the small fire which dimly burnt at one corner of the hut sent up volumes of dense smoke to the ceiling, where, finding it impossible to escape, it descended to struggle for egress through the low and narrow door-way.

From the roof long strings of garlic and onions were suspended in anything but fantastic festoons, while grapes and melons in abundance lent their aid in diffusing a sickly perfume around. Beds there were none; neither, had such necessary adjuncts towards rest been there located, would any of the party have been tempted to trust themselves to their downy influence.

Barren of all interesting objects as "El Hacha" appeared, there was a figure seated in the furthermost corner of the hovel who, rising at our entrance, betrayed by his soiled and saturated apparel that he likewise had sought shelter but a few minutes prior to our arrival.

So engrossed were we at first in attending to the comforts of the ladies, that the presence of the stranger passed unheeded; but when at length every available disposition had been effected towards a semblance of comfort, we could not fail in being struck with the remarkable figure of the Spaniard. He was beyond the common height, and to a countenance even then extremely handsome was added that touching pensiveness, so irresistibly attractive, and which, as a true indication of deep though silent grief, never fails to interest the beholder.

In this man, the lineaments of his intellectual countenance were too deeply stamped with the insignia of long borne anguish, to admit a doubt but that the cavalier formed one of the many thousands on whom the blighting influence of dissension in their distracted country had not passed by unscathed.

His manner towards ourselves was unobtrusively polite, and the alacrity with which the humble peasants flew in obedience to his bidding proclaimed the possession of no small share of influence among those by whom we were surrounded. The orders which the stranger issued referred not to himself, while the many small alleviations to the misery endured by the ladies, and which previously we had frequently asked for, were now readily tendered; and by this seasonable, though unexpected interference, their position was somewhat improved. Common civility, were it nothing more, urged us to advance some few words of courtesy in return for the substantial benefits received: but all attempts at conversation proved abortive. Our remarks were listened and replied to with that easy air of seeming interest which the well-bred gentleman can at all times summon to his aid. The attention of the stranger was visibly directed towards ameliorating the uncomfortable position in which the fair travellers were placed, but beyond that he appeared determined not to step.

Whether he understood the English language, or merely guessed at the meaning of the words unguardedly dropped by some of the party, I cannot say; but on an observation being made, the reverse of uncomplimentary to his noble carriage and graceful bearing, a slight smile stole across his features, more it seemed to me in scorn than from a feeling of gratified vanity, and bowing slightly to the fairer portion of our party, he cast his huge manta across his arm, and instantly departed from the hut.

"Then was conjecture instantly busied with his name:" the gentler portion of the group of course came to the conclusion that the handsome Spaniard must be a brigand in disguise, and from his melancholy cast of countenance, of course desperately in love with some beautiful senorita, who was yet unacquainted with her admirer's lawless mode of life; while the men, far less sentimental, gave it as their decided opinion that he was some confounded rascal, sent to spy out the strength of the party and probable amount of booty to be gained, should his companions deem it worth while to risk a chance shot or two, in hope of appropriating to themselves what hitherto we had looked on as our own.

But on this occasion neither suppositions were correct, for the handsome though unhappy looking cavalier, we were afterwards informed, was no other than the celebrated Soto Mayor, the betrothed husband of the beautiful though most unfortunate Mariana Peineda, who, for a political offence, as it was then termed, suffered the Garrote in 1832, at Granada, on the very spot where the inhabitants are now busied in erecting a

monument in commemoration of her unshrinking magnanimity and courage. On the following day, I stood upon the place where that fair creature died; it is exactly in front of the theatre, and close to the hotel where the generality of English sojourn the ground is still shewn where the scaffold was erected, and the site is the same where the intended statue will be placed.

A few days subsequent to our meeting Soto Mayor, as I was gazing on the work in progress, my fancy led me back to the awful hour when, exposed to the insulting gaze of a brutal mob, a woman-aye! and one of Granada's choicest daughters -stood, calmly and unflinchingly resigned, to undergo the torments of a painful and dishonourable death, rather than utter the one brief word that would instantly have restored her to liberty and life. But no; that word so anxiously sought for by the authorities would have consigned to capital punishment him whom the devoted girl loved far better than herself, and therefore was it that, in preference to yielding up the knowledge so ardently pressed for, Mariana Pieneda stood prepared to testify, by the sacrifice of her life, the fervour of woman's devotion, when called into action by the wand of that powerful enchanter-Love.

It is a sad tale, and many have been the versions circulated throughout Spain, but in the generality of narratives blame has been attached to her betrothed: yet, if the story as it reached me—and with every assertion and possible evidence of truth was it given-be correct, the reader will coincide with many in acquitting the wretched man, still living, of any participation in the crime, or as frequently was asserted, of shielding himself from danger by the sacrifice of a young and beautiful woman, who loved him, as it proved, even to the death.

Soto Mayor was, as is the case with most Spaniards of family, brought up in indolence and ease. His father, and again, his ancestors, had all been noble, and the blood that flowed through the veins of the young Soto Mayor claimed equality in purity with majesty itself. Unless called into action through some powerful excitement, the tenor of a Spaniard's life is passed in apathy and listlessness; they regard exertion as a nuisance most religiously to be shunned, and thus, with music and cigars, they sing and smoke away the best hours of that existence allotted for other than those all-engrossing pursuits.

Like his countrymen, Soto Mayor would indisputably have drivelled away his life as ingloriously as the greatest admirer of indolence could desire, had it not been his lot to exist in times

when that most baneful of all curses, civil war, stalked forth in all its bloodstained strength and power.

Divided, as for years past Spain has been, it were difficult to surmise at what period a happier and more peaceful dynasty may rise up to bless that beautiful but unfortunate country. Even at the very instant we are writing, father is opposed to son, the nephew to the uncle, and scarcely a family can be named throughout Spain that does not reckon in the ranks of each opposing faction, friends, connections, and frequently near relatives themselves.

For a long and painful period, the attention of all Europe has been directed to the fierce struggles yet unappeased, but all intervention has hitherto proved unproductive of good, while the blood and treasure lavished on the cause by other powers, seem to have produced no effect beyond that of fanning into a brighter flame the embers which it was hoped would, long ere now, have been extinguished.

It is not in the gayer and more happy days of youth, when influenced by a generous desire of siding with the oppressed, that we pause on the threshold of our career to commune as to which may prove the more fitting path we should choose whereon to run our course, and to the unthinking there is ever something so much more attractive in the very sound of "liberal views," that we need not wonder at the many advocates who readily embrace the plausible misnomer in preference to working in the old and tried principles which for ages past have carried us so safely through danger.

In such a temperament was Soto Mayor when the fast increasing dissensions in his native land, compelled all who could boast of nobility or lay claim to notice, zealously to embrace one or other of those parties whose factious proceedings were rapidly hurling down the few tottering supports by which the remaining advantages of their constitution were upheld. Yet was all done in perfect secrecy, for the government was not at that period so sunk in imbecility and supineness but they retained sufficient strength to meet, with some show of defence, the machinations, when discovered, of their opponents.

That an extensive and powerful combination was on foot, having for its ulterior object the total overthrow of the reigning dynasty, was well known, but as its movements were cautiously hidden, and the mystery which enveloped the proceedings difficult to draw aside, so were the punishments consequent on detection severe and cruel in the extreme.

Political rancour, like religious fanaticism, when at its height, spares neither sex nor friends; and, in the civil war which then desolated Spain, women-and women, moreover, of the highest