nsplanted into the annals of any other
country, form an era of bloodshed. Since the advent of Narvaez to power,
although the vigour of his government has prevented civil war and checked
insurrection, that has only been accomplished by a system of despotic
cruelty worthy of the days of Ferdinand the Well-beloved. Countless
instances may be adduced in support of this assertion. Executions, like
that of Zurbano and his family, have been defended by the argument, that
the sufferers were rebels against the established government of the
country, and as such deserved the fate they met. Rather a flimsy argument,
it appears to us, in a country in which revolution flourishes as an
evergreen plant. How is it to be decided which is the rightful governor,
and which the usurper? who shall say whether those in power are there by
right as well as might; or whether they are merely successful rebels,
banditti on a large scale, who have seized upon place and power with as
much justice, and by the same violent means, as highwaymen of inferior
grade possess themselves of the purses of travellers? But even if we
concede this point, and admit that whoever holds the reins, though but
from yesterday, and with a bloodstained hand, is justified in slaughtering
by wholesale all who show a disposition to drag him down again, it will
still be impossible to palliate the treacherous and tyrannical proceedings
of Narvaez. The inhabitants of Madrid, lured out of their houses by the
bait of some joyous festival, the streets hung with banners and strewed
with flowers, the fountains playing wine and milk--on all sides rejoicings
and festivity; the _insouciant_ light-hearted Castilians forgetting for a
while the misfortunes of their country, and giving themselves up to the
unrestrained enjoyment of the moment. But there are those amongst them who
will soon trouble their pleasures; agents of their rulers, tutored to
excite them to some apparently rebellious demonstration. A shout or two,
interpreted as indicative of disaffection, and caught up by an excitable
mob; and immediately battalions appear upon the _plaza_, dragoons gallop
out of the side streets, bayonets are lowered and sabres bared, and amidst
the clatter of the charge, the screams of women and the oaths of men, the
festal garlands are trodden under foot, and blood reddens the pavement.
"On many a _fiesta_, or day of saints," says our author, "which Spain
regards as of special holiness, plots and sna