a family near Cadiz. He accompanies his master on board the huge
Santissima Trinidad, the largest ship of her age, and is able to
describe in detail the action of Trafalgar, the description being the
more interesting for us as coming from the Spanish point of view. In
'La Corte de Carlos IV.' (The Court of Charles IV.: 1873), we find him
page to a leading actress, and an eye-witness to the degeneracy of
that monarch and his favorite Godoy, which resulted in the seizure of
the country by Napoleon for his brother Joseph. In 'La Batalla de los
Arapiles' (translated by Rollo Ogden as 'The Battle of Salamanca':
1875), the last of the series, the same Gabriel is a major, and
performs an important commission for Wellington. He has risen to this
level step by step, and on the way has had as many adventures as one
of Dumas's guardsmen, and has carried them off as gallantly. In the
second series of 'Episodios,' Salvador Monsalud is the principal
character. He is a young fellow who is led by dire want--and also by
sharing the liberalized French view of the decadence and
worthlessness of the Spanish form of rule--to take service in the
body-guard of Joseph Bonaparte. A chapter full of strength and pathos,
in 'King Joseph's Baggage,' shows him disowned by his mother and cast
off by his village sweetheart on account of such service, both of them
frantic with a spirit of independence like that which animated the
Maid of Saragossa. A feature of this book that gives it originality is
that the action turns not upon the usual principal features of battle,
but upon the fate of the rich baggage train of booty with which Joseph
Bonaparte had hoped to escape to France after his brief, disastrous
reign.

The 'Episodios' have had an extensive influence, and have been
imitated, under a like title, in the Spanish Americas. The author's
tone toward the past is generally severe and disdainful. "Had Spain,
perchance, a 'constitution' when she was the foremost nation in the
world?" he puts into the mouth of one of his characters, with sardonic
intent. He has been called unappreciative, and his attitude towards
Spanish antiquity has been protested against by other leading writers,
of more conservative feeling, as unwarranted. These romances contain
some passages showing aversion to the barbarities of war, but in
general they are less humanitarian than those of Erckmann-Chatrian:
they are principally devoted to glorifying Spanish fortitude and
courage