warmest affections of
her aunt and cousins, and her time passed agreeably, except that she was
sometimes teased by the reverend clergy to enter a convent, and to
"dedicate herself to God;" but as the young lady thought she could serve
God to better purpose out of a convent than in one, she civilly declined
their polite invitations to shut herself in a dungeon.

The same priest who befriended her father, extended his kindness to the
daughter. He was a very influential clergyman, secretly of very liberal
and enlightened views, on the subject of religion; but, not perceiving
any pressing necessity for giving his body to be burnt, he had thought
best to keep his religious notions to himself. He might very easily have
"gained a martyr's glorious name," if he had only been one of those

"Stubborn saints, whom all men grant
To be the true church militant;"

but he was not; and, besides, martyrdom is not near so fashionable as it
was during the time of the Roman emperors, when one saint insisted upon
being crucified heels uppermost; and another, who was very comfortably
broiling on a gridiron, sung out to be turned, when he thought he was
cooked enough on one side. _Our_ clergy are a grave, serious, set of
men, who scorn such mad pranks; they have no idea of suffering
martyrdom, or any thing else, if they can help it. I believe there have
been no martyrs since the commencement of the nineteenth century, except
Mr. Wolff, who was bastinadoed by the Pacha of Egypt, for interfering
with what did not concern him, and some ten or a dozen missionaries,
that would not do something the Cochin-Chinese bid them, and were, in
consequence, made shorter by the head.

The good priest interposed his good offices, and influence, in
Isabella's behalf, and gave her instructions in such branches of
education as he thought were suited to her sex. But, in about a year
after her mother's death, Don Gaspar received his appointment, as
military commander of St. Blas, which, as I have already observed, was
then a royal depot and arsenal; and, though but seldom visited by
Spanish men-of-war, because there were but very few, besides
guarda-costas, in the Pacific, was a place of considerable importance.
Isabella cheerfully accompanied him to America; for, though neither
giddy, nor thoughtless, all places were alike to her, provided she could
be always surrounded with her uncle's family, with whom she enjoyed
quiet happiness.

In the priests