ple in this country are afraid to say what they think, as long
as they are scandalised by a new idea, and tremble at what their
neighbours will say, so long will they laugh at revolutions, for
however much they break out, none of these will bring the water to
your mouths."

Don Antolin laughed on hearing this.

"But Gabrielillo, man--you must be mad. All this reading and
travelling has turned your head. At first I was indignant, thinking
you were among those who wished for another revolution to take
away the little that is left to us, proclaiming the republic and
suppressing all ecclesiastical things, but I see that you go much
beyond this, that you conform to nothing, and that everything seems to
you the worst; and this rather pleases me, because I see you are not a
terrible enemy to be feared as you fire from too far. It seems to me
that your head is as much affected as your chest. But do all these
revolutions we have had seem as nothing to you? Do you think the
country is still as savage as you have described it in past years? But
I," continued the priest ironically, "hear a great deal said about the
progress of the country, and I know that we have railways, and that
the long chimneys are arising in all the town suburbs, and many of the
impious are delighted at this, comparing them to the church belfries."

"Bah!" exclaimed Gabriel indifferently. "There is a little of this
progress; the revolutions have placed Spain in touch with other
countries, the progressive current has caught this country and is
carrying it along as the Asiatics and others are carried; no one
can escape it nowadays. But we advance at very low water, inert and
without strength; if we advance it is with the current, and not by
our own energy, while other people stronger than we swim and swim,
advancing at every stroke. How have we contributed to this progress?
Where are our manifestations of modern life? The railways, few and
bad, are the work of foreigners, and are their property; the grass
grows between the rails, which shows that we still follow the holy
calm of carts and wagons. The most important industries, metallurgy
and mines, are all in the hands of foreigners or of Spaniards who are
subject to them, living under their bountiful protection. Commerce
languishes under an old-fashioned protection which enhances the price
of all commodities, and so there is no capital forthcoming; money
remains hidden in earthen jars in the fields as treas