happiness in the world, if men did not mar it for
themselves." The "course of true love" had, at last, "run smooth." I
was present at the marriage of Lafontaine. The trials of fortune had
been of infinite service to _him_; they had sobered his eccentricity,
taught him the value of a quiet mind, and prepared him for that
manlier career which belongs to the husband and the father. I left
them, thanking me in all the language of gratitude, promising to visit
me in England.

* * * * *

My mission to the junta was speedily and successfully accomplished.
Spain, in want of every thing but that which no subsidy could supply,
a determination to die in the last intrenchment, was offered arms,
ammunition, and the aid of an English army. In her pride, and yet a
pride which none could blame, she professed herself able to conquer by
her own intrepidity. Later experience showed her, by many a suffering,
the value of England as the guide, sustainer, and example of her
national strength. But Spain had still the gallant distinction of
being the first nation which, as one man, dared to defy the conqueror
of all the great military powers of the Continent. The sieges of
Saragossa and Gerona will immortalize the courage of the Spanish
soldier; the guerilla campaigns will immortalize the courage of the
Spanish peasant; and the memorable confession of the French Emperor,
that "Spain was his greatest error, and his ultimate ruin," is a
testimonial more lasting than the proudest trophy, to the magnanimous
warfare of the Peninsula.

This was the Crisis. The spirit of the whole European war now assumed
a bolder, loftier, and more triumphant form. A sudden conviction
filled the general heart, that the fortunes of the field were about to
change. Nations which had, till then, been only emulous in prostration
to the universal conqueror, now assumed the port of courage, prepared
their arms, and longed to try their cause again in battle. The outcry
of Spain, answered by the trumpet of England, pierced to the depths of
that dungeon in which the intrigue and the power of France had
laboured to inclose the continental nations. The war of the Revolution
has already found historians, of eloquence and knowledge worthy of so
magnificent an era of human change. But, to me, the chief interest
arose from its successive developments of the European mind. The whole
period was a continued awakening of faculties, hitherto almost
un