y
molesting peaceable citizens as they returned home to their families,
thrashing the _serenos_ or watchmen, and suchlike intellectual and
dignified diversion. He got seriously wounded by a pistol-shot on one of
these occasions, and we next find him editing the Guirigay or "Slang," a
paper remarkable for its personal and unscrupulous tone. For some time its
attacks were directed against Christina, to whose expulsion from Spain it
is said to have contributed, so great is the influence of newspaper
violence in the Peninsula. During the Queen-Dowager's three years' exile,
however, Bravo wrote himself round from a violent _exaltado progresista_,
or Radical, into a very decided _moderado_, or Conservative, in which
latter character he entered office. Taxed with his renegade conduct, his
defence was a most impudent one, highly characteristic of the man. "_No es
ridiculo_," said he, "_estar para siempre el mismo?_" Is it not ridiculous
to be always the same?

But though he managed to get on while in opposition--and even, by a
certain amount of impassioned energy and satirical _verve_, to place
himself at the head of a party of young members, who, although not
exceeding fifty in number, turned the scale in many parliamentary
contests--his incapacity became glaringly apparent as soon as he took
office.

"The prime minister, when he should have been writing sage decrees,
was scribbling scurrilous paragraphs; from his portfolio peeped forth
old numbers of 'The Slang' and his official robes could not hide his
harlequin's jacket. '_Vistan me, dijo Sancho, como quisieren qui de
cualquier manera que vaya vestido sere Sancho Panza._' Let them dress
me up as they will, quoth Sancho, however I am dressed I shall still
be Sancho Panza."

Bravo, however, did as well as another to be the tool of Narvaez, and
moreover he was found pliant, which doubtless prevented his being kicked
out of office as soon as he got into it. Of course he lost no time in
taking care of himself and his friends. His father, who had been dismissed
from a government employment for malversation, received the appointment of
under-secretary to the Treasury; his wife's brother, a hanger-on at one of
the theatres, was made state-groom to the Queen; while a number of other
equivocal characters were appointed to the diplomatic corps, and half the
political chiefs and public employes in Spain were dismissed to make room
for the new premi