ow I have lost the key. "Jolly captain--left his wife--forty
years--electric light deceives on a low beach--fourteen children--El
Cano--break in the head of wine-casks": there is a literal copy of the
contents of a page, which may mean nothing or anything, frivolity or a
thesaurus of serious information. Memory, what a treacherous jade thou
art! It may be said, why did I not take copious notes in short-hand? I
would have done so were I a stenographer; but I am not. I tried to
acquire the accomplishment once, and ignobly failed. I could write
short-hand slightly quicker than long-hand, but when written, I could
not transcribe my jottings.

Flanking a beautiful coast, mostly hill-fringed--with hills, too, of
such metallic richness that lead and iron were positively to be quarried
out of their bosoms--we steamed into the harbour of Malaga, and landed
at the Custom-House quay. But there were no Customs' officers to trouble
us with inquiry. A red-bearded, flat-capped, dirty fellow in bare feet,
holding a bayoneted rifle with a jaunty clumsiness, accosted Senor
Heredia with a laughing voice. He was a sentinel of the provisional
government established in Malaga. The nature of that government may be
judged from his frank avowal: "We've no police--no anything." There were
French and German war-vessels at anchor, which was some guarantee of
protection for strangers. A novel tricolour of red, white, and a
washed-out purple had replaced the national flag. The Federal Republic
existed there, and yet the city was quiet; and official bulletins were
extant, recommending the citizens to preserve order. But this quietude
was not to be relied on over-much. One of the magnificoes under the new
_regime_ was a dancing-house keeper, and his principal claim to
administrative ability lay in the ownership of a Phrygian cap. Another,
who styled himself President of the Republic of Alhaurin de la Torre, a
territory more limited than the kingdom of Kippen, had stabbed a lady at
a masked ball a few months previously, for a consideration of sixty-five
duros. Still, it would be unfair to infer from that example that every
Malagueno was a mercenary ruffian, Senor Heredia related to me an
anecdote of a poor man who had found a purse with value in it to the
amount of thirty thousand reals, and had given it up without mention of
recompense. But a city where the wine-shops had nine doors, and
potato-gin was dispensed at a peseta the bottle, and there were "