EDINBURGH JOURNAL CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,''CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c. No. 267. NEW SERIES. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1849. THE SLAVE MARKETS OF EGYPT. THERE is no longer, properly speaking, any 'SlaveBazaar' in Egypt: the building described by travellers under that name is now devoted to other purposes; but the traffic in slaves is pursued with undiminished vigour. A native family, whether Mohammedan or Christian, scarcely considers itself complete without a purchased attendant, male or female; and there is consequently a regular demand, principally, it is true, for blacks-whites being an expensive luxury, in which only a few can indulge. I do not at present intend to enter upon the question of the treatment of slaves in the East; but I will observe, in passing, that there appears to me to be too great a disposition in some writers to palliate the institution of slavery, by expatiating on the kindness and benignity of Turkish masters. It is true that in many cases the slaves are incorporated in the family, and, though now and then beaten, are often well fed and well clothed. But if we insist too much on these facts, we shall produce an erroneous impression. Frequently the position of the slaves, male and female, is one of unspeakable degradation and misery. It is needless to enter into details that would shock and disgust; but I may mention by the way that I have seen a respectable-looking old man in a public bazaar bite the ear of a newly-purchased boy until the blood came, for some slight cause of displeasure. The only suicides, moreover, I ever heard of in Egypt were those of slaves; and a striking instance occurred last spring, when a young Memlook, belonging to Said Pacha, son of the viceroy, shot himself to avoid the barbarous punishment he apprehended would follow a very trifling transgression. It is, however, with slaves as an article of traffic that we have at present to do. The blacks are principally brought down the valley of the Nile, from Abyssinia, Sennaar, Kordofan, Darfur, &c. The commoner sort are derived indiscriminately from the numerous male tribes that inhabit the confines of those regions; but the most esteemed are the Gallas, who inhabit the southern borders of Abyssinia. It is not true that the majority of them are prisoners made in the intestine struggles of these people; for the commerce in slaves is too lucrative to be allowed to depend on such casual Regular man-hunts are periodically set on foot by the princes and chieftains of these regions; and Mohammed Ali himself, in spite of his repeated promises to the contrary, used, until very late years, to despatch expeditions to Kordofan from time to time in order to make a battue-the product of which was distributed to the officers and men in lieu of pay. His conquests, therefore, in that direction were made to cover their own expenses; and he derived another advantage in the shape of revenue, by the tax of about sources. PRICE 14d. two pounds sterling per head levied on all slaves imported into Egypt across its southern frontier. The horrors of the march of the slave caravans have frequently been described. Even considerations of selfinterest seem to have little effect in softening the native brutality of the jellabis, as the dealers are called. The wretched victims are driven along generally on foot; their numbers decreasing on the way by hunger, thirst, fatigue, and ill-treatment, and the value of the remainder proportionately increasing. A certain number are left at Syout and Girgeh, and the remainder are hurried on to Cairo. The latter portion of the journey is in some instances performed by water; and you may constantly see whole gangs of wild-looking half-naked savages landed at Boulac from the grain - boats, in which they have been shipped as part of the cargo, and sometimes also cabinfuls of the more valuable female slaves. In all times, the greater part of the trade has been conducted in a private way, although, as I have intimated, there was at one period a large wakâlah especially devoted to the sale of slaves. Now-a-days, especially since the hatti sherif of Sultan Abd-el-Mejid, abolishing the public traffic in human beings, the jellabís take their property to a variety of depôts, generally situated in the little suburbs that have collected outside the walls, especially near the Bab-en-Nair. I have often seen thirty or forty boys and girls in the courtyards of these buildings, but the better class of females are generally exhibited by twos and threes. Strangers who wish to visit the depôts generally provide themselves with a supply of small coins to distribute in presents. As soon as you pass the gates, you are sure to see a number of idle jellabís hanging about: they understand at once what is your object, and you have no farther necessity for a guide. The jellabís are, I believe, generally Nubians, and seemed to me to be all of one family. Their countenances are invariably truculent, and their insolence is proverbial. They wear white turbans, twisted in a peculiar way, and raised up to an enormous height. I went one day with some English friends to see a small batch of superior Galla girls. A very narrow lane, formed by half-ruined deadwalls, led to a large sinister-looking building, round the doorway of which a number of jellabís were squatting. After some parley, we were allowed to go up stairs, preceded, as well as followed, by a noisy crowd, who stopped almost at every step to thrust out their hands and ask for a present. On the second floor there was a long narrow passage, on each side of which were dark rooms, in which we could just dimly discover groups of human figures huddled together in corners. As we passed, they raised their heads and looked at us with curiosity, rolling about their white eyeballs in a curious fashion. Many attempted to come out to us, and several thin hands were thrust forth through barred windows for a bucksheesh (present). At length we reached a large apartment, divided into two by a screen of mats. We were here told to wait a minute by the chief jellabí, who went inside, whilst the rest continued their vociferations for money. After some delay, two wretched-looking girls, with scarcely a rag of clothing, came out, and stood shivering before us. This was the usual piece of imposition. The object was to make us at once give the present we had originally intended, and then to produce the better class of slaves, and claim a larger amount. After some altercation, however, the jellabí again retired, and presently the matting was pushed aside, and out came three elegantlyformed young women-black, it is true, as jet, but evidently of a superior race. These were the Gallas. Their features were regular and pleasing, the expressions soft and melancholy. Their hair, as is indeed universally the case with negro slaves exposed for sale, was arranged in an immense mass of curls, about the thickness of a tobacco pipe, lying close together. One had a necklace of brass wire; the others wore beads. Their dress was so scanty, that we had ample opportunity of witnessing the perfection of their forms. The poor creatures seemed anxious to be bought; and we could detect an expression of disappointment when they understood that we had only come actuated by a motive of curiosity. They murmured something in their own tongue, and were evidently very glad that we did not long abuse the advantage of our position, but allowed them soon to retire behind their mat with their present; which no doubt was snatched from them by their masters as soon as our backs were turned. noon and sunset, a large wooden bowl of beans or lentils is placed in the centre of the yard, and the greater number of the hungry inmates crowd round this, pushing and shoving in order to get into the first rank; some making good their station, and others carrying off a handful to devour in a corner. The whole disappears in a few seconds. Some of the more valuable females are fed apart in the cells. I remember seeing a magnificent Abyssinian woman eating alone from a bowl of rice in a sombre room, with the doorway half closed by a mat. She stopped when we looked in, and turned her olive face and fiery eyes towards us. We offered her the few piastres which remained to us after the furious begging of the other poor creatures; but she would not trouble herself to take them. Put them down by her side,' said the huge ruffian of a jellabí who owned her. We did so she remained immovable, glaring at us like a tigress; but he swept them with a chuckle into his hand, saying he would take care of them for her. This was an instance of a not uncommon character among slaves. She was revenging herself for the ill-treatment inflicted on her by frightening every purchaser that presented himself. I saw her some months afterwards, when her spirit was broken, and she wished to be sold; but no buyer was to be found. It is not customary for Egyptians in want of slaves to visit the wakalahs. Sometimes a few are taken to the bazaars, where they are put up to auction; but generally a servant is sent to a jellabí, with orders for him to bring a proper assortment to the house. Slaves just brought down from the upper country are preferred to such as have been in a family previously, as the latter are supposed not only to have been sold for some fault, but to have learned cunning tricks and bad habits, It is much easier to get into one of these places than which every one hopes to guard against in those whose education has not begun. to get out. The jellabís make a practice of endeavour-this, and almost invariably dress up all the slaves comThe jellabís, however, know ing to intimidate their visitors into giving them more mitted to their care as if they had just been caught and bucksheesh. Whether you be liberal or otherwise, you brought down; that is to say, they curl their hair in are always compelled to leave them dissatisfied. On the manner above described, and give them a single rag the present occasion they closed the doors of the house, to fasten round their middles. Thus accoutred, the poor and surrounded us with loud vociferations. A dozen things are driven along the streets in troops to the hands were thrust towards us, over shoulders, under house of the intended purchaser. arms, in the narrow dark passage-most of them signi- quaintance in Alexandria, and found her in conversation I called one morning on a Levantin lady of my acficantly opened, but one holding a knife, and others with a tall, handsome, black girl, wrapped in a white heavy Nubian clubs of carved wood. We knew, how-melayah, or mantle. The lady reclined in the corner of ever, what these demonstrations were worth; and after a slight scuffle, succeeded in extricating ourselves from this den of iniquity, and rode off, pursued for some distance along the streets by the clamorous rabble, who vowed and protested we had given them nothing, and denounced us to the bystanders as dogs and infidels. The foremost of them, however, used always to claim acquaintance with me afterwards, on the score, perhaps, of a blow with a koorbash (whip of hippopotamus hide) which I dealt upon his shoulders. On another occasion he took me and a French gentleman, who, like all newcomers, was curious about these sights, to a different place, where we saw a larger number of slaves at a much smaller expense. He had grown wiser by experience, and was but moderately importunate. her divan, smoking a shisheh, or water pipe, whilst the girl stood at a little distance, with her hands meekly crossed. After the usual compliments, I was told that this was a slave belonging to a Turkish lady just arrived with her suite from Algiers, to meet her husband, that she was to follow. As he had not left money who, however, had gone on to Stamboul, leaving word enough to defray the expenses of the journey, it seemed quite natural to the lady to dispose of one of her bought handmaidens, and accordingly this one had been selected. Fatmeh herself was telling the story as I entered; and although it did not seem to occur to her that she was the victim of a most unjust system, yet she could not help expressing her regret at being thus suddenly thrown out of the bosom of one family to seek for a place in another, or rather to take the place which chance might assign her. I elicited the fact, that although her mistress sometimes beat her, even for talking in her sleep, and for being frightened on board the vessel in which they had coasted the whole north of Africa, although she was frightened herself—yet, considering all things, she had been happy with her. Here, then, was an instance in which the much vaunted kindness with which the Orientals treat their slaves was turned into a weapon of torture to them. The stronger they are bound by ties of affection to their owners, the more cruelly are their feelings wounded when the vicisAtsitudes of their servile life throw them into the market. The treatment of slaves in the wakalahs is necessarily a great deal better than that which they experience during the journey down from the upper country. It very much resembles, however, that of pigs and poultry in a farmyard. The generality of the slave wakalahs are small in some cases the centre courtyard is not more than twenty feet square, and there is Little cells without doors may be seen on all sides, each appropriated to five or six slaves, males and females often indiscriminately mixed. no upper storey. Struck by this circumstance, I afterwards made in- repeat. The domestic history of Christian families in quiries, and found that the instances in which slaves the East is a curious one. The plague of polygamy has remain attached to one family throughout their exist-practically penetrated them all. I never knew a couple ence are comparatively few. If misfortune overtakes a who had not periodical outbreaks on this subject. The man, of course the slaves are sold; they go as part of Christian women will not tamely put up with the insult; the property in the case of a failure, for example; and and no occurrence is more common than that of wives how many Egyptian merchants have not failed once, leaving their husbands on this account, and taking retwice, thrice! A man who has compounded with his fuge with their relations. It is curious to remark, by the creditors only once is esteemed a remarkably safe per- way, that in spite of the great number of intermarriages son to deal with; although, in almost every instance, among different coloured races, there are no mulattoes there is a dishonest concealment of property. But this in Egypt. The climate is so deadly to foreigners at is by the by: on the first pressure of pecuniary diffi- the second degree, that the children, except in rare culties, one at least of the slaves of the house is got rid instances, do not live. This is one of the strongest of. I have so much in my shop,' you may often hear proofs of the descent of the present fellahs from the it said; 'I have built so and so; and I have the donkey ancient Egyptians. Foreign families never survive beand Zara' (a common name to give to slaves). yond the third generation; and every mixed race has a feeble and uncertain existence. : Fatmeh tried hard, poor thing, to persuade my friend to buy her she walked about to show that she was active; arranged the cushions of the divan, and trimmed the shisheh, to exhibit her familiarity with a genteel house; and laughed with forced gaiety to prove that she was of a good temper. There was a ground of objection, however, which Sitt Miriam, as my friend was called, suspected, and the truth of which she endeavoured to ascertain by a series of sudden questions and artful cross-examinations. The chief difficulty, however, remained. Would a couple of days of trial be allowed? Unless they are,' said Miriam to Fatmeh, 'I shall not buy you. How do I know what bad habits you may have? You have acknowledged you talk in your sleep. I don't care for that, as you would be shut up at night; but you may be a liar, you may be a thief, you may'- And here followed a list of vices incident to female slaves, during the utterance of which I scarcely knew whether to look at the ceiling or the floor, but which poor Fatmeh listened to most patiently, firmly denying that she possessed such habits and imperfections. One of her observations was sensible enough; for she said that a trial of two days would be of no avail, since any person in her position would be able to put on a fair outside for so short a time. Altogether, it was observable that she had been brought up in a good family, and knew something of the world; and it was easy to see that Sitt Miriam rather feared she was far too clever and knowing. I had no doubt of her being something of a politician; for she endeavoured throughout to appear in the character of an innocent simple girl, whereas she was, in the Eastern style, a refined and well-educated woman. However, such was her fascination, that my friend would certainly have bought her, but that her mistress sent an old duenna with a message from the wakâlah where she was living, to the effect that an offer had been made, and that, unless the money was immediately forthcoming, Fatmeh must return to her. The girl accordingly departed, not without expressions of sorrow; but she had scarcely been gone half an hour, when Sitt Miriam, who had sat reflective during that time, clapped her hands, and calling her servant, ordered him to go instantly and say that she would pay the price. It was too late: Fatmeh had already passed into the harem of an old Turk, who made up his mind at once on seeing her. 'God is merciful!' said my friend, consoling herself. 'Perhaps that girl had some grievous fault, and I may be well delivered.' Her evanescent affection for Fatmeh was here wafted away on a long sigh, and she added, smiling, 'I shall send to-morrow morning for half-adozen girls from the jellabís. If you like to come and see me buy them you may.' I confess that, in spite of the reflection that I was giving a sanction to a very bad system by my presence, I made an appointment for the next day, and punctually kept it. I found the Lady Miriam alone; and whilst waiting the return of the servant, who had gone to the nearest wakalah for a jellabí, had to listen to a history of all the slaves the good lady had ever possessed, interluded with a good many scandalous stories I cannot I suggested these considerations to my fair friend, who kindly told me I was a fool for troubling my head on such subjects; but confirmed my observation that very few half-castes ever reached man's estate. While we were talking, we heard the hoarse voice of a jellabí in the court; and presently up came a dark bevy of half-clothed damsels for inspection, the owner sitting down on a bench in the courtyard below quietly smoking, ready to answer any questions. A rapid glance of Sitt Miriam's practised eye sufficed to detect those between whom she was likely to hesitate, and the others were at once sent away. I asked her the grounds on which she decided. 'All those I have dismissed,' said she,' have been in families before: I knew it at once by their way of standing, in spite of their being dressed like wild beasts. They have been sold by their masters in Cairo, and shipped to Alexandria. All the bad slaves and lame donkeys are sent down here. I know the tricks of these slave-dealers: may misfortune come to them!' She went on in this style for some time; and then suddenly turning to the younger of the two girls, who stood huddled together in a corner, ordered her, in an insulting manner, to come forward, at the same time abusing her race. It is impossible to describe the expression of rage and hatred which shot, like a lightning flash, athwart the face of the girl, who thus, in an unguarded moment, betrayed that she still possessed all the wild untamed feelings of her native woods. I looked at once with interest upon her; for that glance revealed that not all the ill-treatment and suffering to which she had been subjected during a journey of thousands of miles, over deserts which we should consider it a mighty triumph to traverse, had broken her spirit, and rendered her insensible to injury. To my mind, such a character would recommend itself. The readiest to resent ill-usage are often the most susceptible of kindly impressions. But this young savage was at once judged by my prudent friend, who dismissed her to join her companions below, and applauded her own keen appreciation of character on beholding the look of scorn and defiance, that would have become a princess, with which she walked away. Now come you here,' said Sitt Miriam to the remaining girl, who with a stupified yet anxious gaze had watched the scene I have described. She approached, or rather crept forward, keeping her eyes on those of the Sitt, who was a good soul at bottom, and expressed to me, in broken Italian, her sorrow at being obliged to put on an appearance of harshness. I know she was an excellent mistress, and certainly never beat her slaves. I need not repeat the conversation that ensued; suffice it to say, that it was satisfactory. The girl was very ignorant, and apparently good-natured. But my fair friend would not trust to appearances; she had a whole host of little expedients for diving into the recesses of the human heart. 'Give me your hand, Zara,' choosing one of the halfdozen names commonly bestowed on slaves. The girl obeyed. Sitt Miriam took the thin hand held out to her, looked rather awkwardly at me for a moment, and then spat in it! I started, and uttered an exclamation. · Stato tranquillo !' quoth she to me aside in her lingua França. Be quiet; it is the custom. What do you call that in your country, Zara?' The girl looked perplexed; but if she was offended, she kept down her resentment in the very lowest recesses of her heart. Her reply was in a tone of angelic meekness: I know the name of it in Arabic, oh, lady!' Sitt Miriam blushed scarlet: the rebuke told. She let fall the slave's hand, and said, 'You are a good girl, and very learned. I shall pay your price. Don't look angry; oh Frank,' she added, turning to me with some confusion; you know I mean to be kind to her. Anybody else would have struck her on the mouth with a slipper, but I am not so cruel. Let us now go and speak to the jellabí.' A fierce volley of words was exchanged for some time between the slave-dealer and Lady Miriam; he beginning by asking about eighteen pounds, and she offering eight. It was exactly like a bargain for a yard of cloth. 'I will give so much.' Jefta Allah! God will open' that is, another door for sale, was the customary evasive reply. This went on for half an hour, during which my fair friend stood screaming from the gallery, whilst the jellabí sat quietly below smoking, giving occasionally an answer in the words I have mentioned, and sometimes, when vexed by a ridiculously low offer pertinaciously repeated, putting in that he would give the girl as a present. At length they gradually approached one another in price, the altercation becoming hotter and hotter, however, as they did so; until at length, when the difference was only a few piastres, the bargain was several times broken off, and Zara ordered to go. This, in fact, was the serious part of the discussion, the previous exorbitant demand and consequent low offer being mere skirmishing. Terms were, however, at last come to; and the price of 1350 piastres (not quite L.14) was agreed upon, to be paid in two or three days, in case the girl discovered no hidden bad qualities. Ordinary black slaves, male and female, generally fetch from ten to twenty pounds; but thirty, and even forty or fifty, are paid for fine Abyssinian women. I ought to add that it is important to ascertain, if possible, the temper of household slaves before buying them. They are sometimes very troublesome; and have been known to murder their masters and mistresses. I once saw a horrid sight-a black woman paraded on an ass about the streets of Alexandria with her face turned to the tail: a man went before proclaiming that she was a poisoner. For several hours the wretched creature was paraded in this manner, after which the executioners put her into a sack, and taking her out in a boat some distance to sea, threw her overboard. THE CAPTAIN'S STORY-A PENINSULAR ADVENTURE. and experience. He is, however, a real captain, and I fancy something of a hero too, in the conventional use of the term, as he seems to have very different, and, I believe, much truer notions of war and glory, than gentlemen who shout about 'bright swords,' and dilate with periphrastic unction of red battle-fields.' A lithe active man is he; and stiff as a ramrod withal. His harsh stubbly hair is brushed in one particular direction with parade precision; and his high bald forehead, when in convivial mood, glistens as brightly as his sharp gray eyes; which one can see with half a one, have been wide open all his life. He rose, it is understood, though he never mentions it himself-perhaps from a feeling of modesty, a quality, albeit, in which, like most field heroes, he is somewhat deficient-from the ranks. From his perfect knowledge of the Spanish tongue (he passed his youth at Gibraltar, with occasional trips to the Spanish coast with his father, who turned an honest penny in the smuggling line), he was frequently employed during the Peninsular war by the British commanders in the very necessary, but extremely ticklish, duty of making himself personally acquainted with the state of the French camps and fortresses-in other words, as a spy: an exceedingly uncomfortable office for any gentleman troubled with nerves.' Captain Smith frequently thanks God he never had any, to his knowledge, in his life: no more, he sometimes says, after reading the debates-no more than a member of parliament. Thus much premised, suppose we step in for a minute, and make his acquaintance. That is the captain with his back to the fire. The gentleman who has just handed him a cigar, and is addressing such martial queries to the old campaigner, is a neighbouring haberdasher. Just before we entered, he inquired, as is his nightly wont, if the waiter was sure the clock was quite right. He is always a little nervous about the time, as his spouse is apt to be unpleasantly lively for a lady of her colloquial and other prowess, if he is not at home at half-past ten at home,' as much as he precisely. He loves peace seems to delight in war abroad,' and is consequently extremely punctual. But see, Tape is tapping the captain again. The veteran cannot fail to flow forth presently at first, perhaps, a little jerkingly-glug, glug, glug-but after a little coaxing, in the freest, easiest style imaginable. A splendid march, Captain Smith, that of Wellington upon Cuidad Rodrigo ?' 'Sloppy, Mr Tape, sloppy: nothing but mud, and snow, and slush. Winter-time: I remember it well,' replied Captain Smith. Beautiful account Napier gives of it,' rejoined the martial Tape. Wellington,' he says, 'jumped on the devoted fortress with both his feet!' Does Napier say that?' demanded the veteran, knocking the consumed ashes off the end of his cigar on the mantelpiece.Does Napier say that?' 'Yes indeed he does.' duke. The duke's short in the legs-sits high in the saddle, though-long body, dumpy legs. Could no more do it than he could fly: didn't try either. All a flam!' Mr Tape explained that the jumping was metaphorical; and after a time, Captain Smith seemed to have acquired a misty notion of what was meant. Still, it was, he said, a very bad way of writing history;' which species of composition should, he emphatically observed, be all facts, and no mistakes. Then Napier tells what is -,' replied the matterof-fact captain. The lightest, longest-legged of the In the neighbourhood of the Haymarket, London, there" Light Bobs" couldn't have done it, much less the are several minor chess, whist, and gossip clubs, held principally at cafés, in an apartment which, for club evenings, is sacred to the members, consisting chiefly of superannuated clerks, actors, and other professional mediocrities, with a sprinkling of substantial, steady tradesmen. In one of these modest gatherings Captain Smith, an extremely communicative and anecdotical gentleman, may occasionally be met with, surrounded by an attentive circle of admiring friends, listening, with all their ears, to one of the many marvellous adventures it has been his lot to encounter during a wandering and varied life. He is not a frequent visitor; his tastes inclining him to scenes of more boisterous conviviality than cigars and coffee, with a seasoning of theatrical and political gossip, can afford or supply; and he accordingly uses these, to him hum-drum assemblies, only as resting or halting-places between more exciting orgies; valuable chiefly for affording him listeners, much more easily amused and astonished than men of larger life-adventure The retreat from Burgos was a masterly affair,' persisted warrior Tape: masterly indeed-uncommon !" 'I daresay it was; and as you seem to admire it so much, I wish you had been one of the 'prentices under the master, just to see how it was done, and how agreeable and pleasant such a masterly job is to the people that do the work. I was one of them; and I declare to you I had much rather have been in this café, smoking this abominable cigar, which wont smoke'-and the captain threw the unsatisfactory weed into the fire; immediately, however, accepting another from the ready hand of the obsequious Tape. That, fortunately, drew uncommonly well the spiral columns ascended with the fulness and freedom in which the veteran loved to luxuriate. He swallowed his demi-tasse at a gulp; and his sharp gray eyes, twinkling with fresh lustre, said-It was in coming from Burgos that I got into one of the miserablest scrapes I ever experienced in my life; and all owing to my tenderheartedness, the very worst thing for a campaign a man can carry about him.' Tell us, captain! What was it? How was it?' cried half-a-dozen voices. Two elderly gentlemen, who had been playing draughts for the previous four or five hours, finding it impossible, amidst so much clamour, to bestow the requisite attention on their extremely intellectual game, also drew near to listen, as the very best thing, after draughts, they could do. Captain Smith smiled graciously, seated himself, indulged in a few prefatory whiffs, and proceeded. During the many journeys I at different times made through the province of Leon in Spain, I fell in with a very worthy couple, whom I took a great liking to. Pedro Davila was by trade a cooper: he made all the casks and tubs for miles round the little town near which he lived; which was situated, I should tell you, a good deal out of the direct road, or rather the nearest road for there is nothing very direct in that country-from Burgos to Astorga. For my part I preferred round-about ways at that time to straight ones; I found them safer. Pedro had a nice garden too, beautifully cultivated, and the prettiest little black-eyed Andalusian wife-Pedro was also a native of the south of Spain-a man's eyes ever lighted upon. Pedro in his youth had taken service with a Spanish grandee, who, being compelled to fly his country-a common, every-day thing abroad1-took up his abode in Paris; and there Pedro got rid of his fine old constitutional prejudices against foreigners, and obtained in exchange some modern universal philanthrophy-about the most dangerous article to go to market with in Spain it is possible to imagine. And sure I am that if Pedro had known what a dreadful mess his turning philosopher would get me into, to say nothing of his wife, he was far too good a fellow to have done anything of the sort.' But what on earth, Captain Smith,' interrupted Tape, 'could philosophy, Pedro's, or any one's else, have to do with you?' You will hear, Tape: it was his liberal-mindedness and my tender-heartedness joined together that played the mischief with us both. An excellent fellow, notwithstanding,' continued the captain, after a brief pause,' was Pedro Davila; too good for a Spaniard, much: one could hardly believe it of him. I was going to say he was equal to an Englishman, but that perhaps would be pushing it too far. Many a skin of wine have we emptied together: none of the sloe stuff you get here, but the genuine juice of the grape itself.' The captain smacked his lips at the pleasing reminiscence, and then, to reward them for the exercise, imbibed a portion of another demi-tasse, craftily qualified to his taste. At the time I speak of, it was highly dangerous to harbour, succour, or conceal any Frenchman, woman, or child. Death, or worse punishment, was pretty sure to be the doom of any one offending against that law of vengeance; and it happened that one of the most ferocious of minor guerilla leaders, a relentless hunter and slayer of miserable fugitives, was Ramez, a native of the village or town near which Pedro lived. He was seldom long absent from home; and was, in fact, the real governor of the place. 'Well, it chanced one unfortunate day that a wounded French officer, who had been chased for several days by Ramez and his fellows, crawled into Pedro's cottage, and implored shelter and succour. His request was, as you may anticipate, after what I have told you of Pedro's notions of philosophy, granted; and the hunted man was successfully concealed, carefully tended, and restored to health. The day of his departure had arrived; he was carefully disguised, mounted on Pedro's mule, and was just bidding his benefactor good-by at the garden gate (Marietta, fortunately, as it turned out, was not at home), when who should poke up his diabolical snout from the other side of the hedge but Ramez! The ugliest rascal, gentlemen,' continued Captain Smith with violent emphasis, the most ill-favoured scoundrel I ever saw in my life was Ramez; and that from a man who has been twenty years in the army, and who has lived upwards of twenty in London, is saying a great deal.' This was quite cheerfully assented to. The ugliness that after such a lengthened and first-rate experience bore off the palm, was pronounced necessarily incomparable by the entire auditory. one He gave poor Pedro, continued the captain, most diabolical look (I'll be bound the streaks from his eyes-he always squinted both sides inwards when he was in a passion-crossed each other within an inch of his nose), then rushed forward, and bawled lustily for help. The Frenchman spurred furiously into the adjoining forest, and escaped. Pedro was seized, and the alpha and the omega of it, as the chaplain of the old halfhundredth used to say, was, that he was lugged to prison, tried a few hours afterwards, and condemned to death as a traitor. It was a wild time in Spain then: most places managed their own affairs in their own way, and this was Master Ramez and the alcalde's way. Pedro was to have been strangled, gavotted they call it, but there was no apparatus handy, and nobody that particularly liked the job; so, as a particular heavenly grace to him, the alcalde said, it was determined he should be shot on the third day after his arrest.' 'It happened,' resumed the captain, after again refreshing himself, that I was, on the very day after Pedro's arrest and condemnation, returning from Burgos to General Picton's head-quarters, a good way beyond Astorga; and being near, and in no very particular hurry, I turned out of my road to visit Pedro. When I arrived at the cottage, I found things, as you may suppose, in a very different state from what I had been imagining for the last hour or so. Instead of wine, there was hysterics; and for an omelette and salad, shrieks and faintings. Marietta clung round my neck with tremendous energy I should not have thought, if I had not experienced it, that a pretty woman's embrace could have been so very unpleasant-frantically beseeching me to send for the British army to liberate her Pedro. Extricating myself from her grasp as speedily as possible, I began to cast about in my mind as to what could be done; but I could not at all clear up my ideas. Remembering that I never had been able to do so on a lean stomach, I suggested that we should first dine, and then perhaps I might hit upon something for poor Pedro's benefit. Marietta agreed with me; and we had, considering that her husband and my dearest friend was to be shot the day after the next, a very nice comfortable dinner indeed-very-and some capital wine afterwards; and then, gentlemen, the father of mischief, or the wine, or Marietta's black eyes, I don't know which, perhaps altogether, induced me to make as spoony a proposal as ever fell from the lips of a green Cockney.' 'There are clever, sensible men in the city,' interjected Tape, as the captain paused an instant to supply himself with a fresh cigar. 'Perhaps so, Mr Tape, but those gentlemen seldom volunteer into the army, I believe. I knew,' said the veteran, continuing his narrative, that I might as well whistle jigs to a milestone, and expect it to get up and turn partners, as ask the general in command of the division about forty miles off to rescue Pedro from the grasp of the Spanish authorities. The British generals never meddled with the administration of Spanish justice under any pretence whatever; but I also knew that if he received a message stating that I was in danger, he was bound by general orders to afford me every assistance in his power. Marietta," said I at last-the wine must have been unusually strong-"I have hit upon it. We'll save Pedro yet, in spite of them all!" The pretty creature jumped up, clapped her hands, and sobbing, laughing, and talking all in a breath, exclaimed, "Dear Inglese, I knew you would!" You, Marietta," said I, |