greed and excess. He was _demasiado honesto_ for the
crew he had been called to command, and he left the country to tumble
about in its so-called "republican" anarchy until another military
_pronunciamiento_ set Alfonso XII. on the throne. And that has been,
fortunately, the last performance of a kind once so common in Spain.

All military men admire the effective corps of light mountain artillery.
The small guns are carried on the backs of the splendid mules for which
the Spanish army is famous, and can be taken up any mountain path which
these singular animals can climb. Mules are also used to drag the
heavier guns, and must be invaluable in a mountainous country. The
animals are quite as large as ordinary horses, are lithe, active, and
literally unhurtable. I have myself seen a mule, harnessed to a cart
which was discharging stones over the edge of a deep pit, when levelling
the ground at the end of the Fuente Castellana in Madrid, over-balanced
by the weight behind him, fall over, turn a somersault in mid-air, cart
and all, and, alighting thirty feet below, shake himself, ponder for a
few seconds on the unexpected event in his day's labour, and then
proceed to draw the cart, by this time satisfactorily emptied, out of
the pit by the sloping track at the farther side, and continue his task
absolutely unhurt and undisturbed.

Until the final overthrow of the Carlists by Alfonso XII., the Basque
Provinces, amongst their most cherished _fueros_, were exempted from the
hated conscription; but the victorious King made short work of that and
of all other special rights and privileges--which, in truth, had been
abused--and now all the country is subject to conscription. Every man
from nineteen to twenty years of age is liable to serve in the ranks,
except those who are studying as officers. A payment of L60 frees them
from service during peace; but if the country is at war there is no
exemption. The conscripts are bound for twelve years--three with the
colours, three in the first reserve, three in the second, and three in
the third.

Navy? Alas! Spain has none. Two battle-ships alone remain--_El Pelayo_
and _Carlos V._ (the former about nine thousand five hundred tons, the
latter not more than seven thousand)--and some destroyers and torpedoes.
How a nation that once ruled the sea, and whose sailors traversed and
conquered the New World, has allowed her navy to become practically
extinct at the moment when nations which h