ation rears the horrid front
of a joint-stock hotel in Tangier, or the prospectors go divining for
copper, coal, iron, silver and gold. I could wish the Moorish women,
however, would wash their children's heads occasionally, and not take
them up by the ankles when they spank them. After a sojourn in every way
pleasurable--pshaw! Albert's illness was a trifle, and we soon resigned
ourselves to the miseries of the prisoners on the hill--we ate our last
morsel of the Jewish pasch-bread of flour and juice of orange, cracked
our last bottle of champagne, and took our leave of the Dark Continent
with lightsome heart. The impression this little by-journey left upon me
was so agreeable that I could not avoid the enticement to communicate it
to the reader. If I have wandered from romantic Spain, it was only to
take him to a land more romantic still.

CHAPTER VII.

Back to Gibraltar--The Parting with Albert--The Tongue of
Scandal--Voyage to Malaga--"No Police, no Anything"--Federalism
Triumphant--Madrid _in Statu Quo_--Orense--Progress of the
Royalists--On the Road Home--In the Insurgent Country--Stopped by
the Carlists--An Angry Passenger is Silenced.

"How like a boulder tossed by Titans at play!" said the sentimental
lady, as we approached Gibraltar on our return.

"More like a big-sized molar tooth," broke in Mrs. Captain.

And, indeed, this latter simile, if less poetic, gave a better idea of
the conformation of the fortified hill, with the gum-coloured outline of
all that was left of a Moorish wall skirting its side. The tooth is
hollow, but the hollow is plugged with the best Woolwich stuffing, and
potentially it can bite and grind and macerate, for all the peaceful
gardens and frescades of the Alameda that circle its base like a belt
of faded embroidery. At Gibraltar our party separated, the Yorkshire
Captain and his friends taking the P. and O. boat to Southampton, my
countryman going back to Tangier after having made some purchases, and I
electing to voyage to Malaga by one of Hall's packets, which was lying
at the mercantile Mole discharging the two hundred tons of Government
material which it is obliged to carry by contract on each fortnightly
voyage. When Albert and I parted no tears were shed; we resigned
ourselves to the decree of destiny with equanimity. But I humbly submit
that Mrs. Captain, when thanking me for my good intentions towards him,
might have spared me the ironica