than the good lady herself) soon convinced me of my error; however, as a greater token of his civility, having admitted no Spaniards along with my companions and me, it passed off the better; and his after civilities manifested that he was willing to reform my ignorance by his complaisance.

To demonstrate which, upon my telling him that I had a set of beads, which I must entreat him to consecrate for me, he readily, nay eagerly complied; and having hung them on her arm for the space of about half, or somewhat short of a whole minute, he returned me the holy baubles with a great deal of address, and most evident satisfaction. The reader will be apt to admire at this curious piece of superstition of mine, till I have told him that even rigid Protestants have, in this country, thought it but prudent to do the like; and likewise having so done, to carry them about their persons, or in their pockets; for experience has convinced us of the necessity of this most catholic precaution; since those who have here, travelling or otherwise, come to their ends, whether by accident, sickness, or the course of nature, not having these sanctifying seals found upon them, have ever been refused Christian burial, under a superstitious imagination that the corpse of a heretic will infect everything near it.

Two instances of this kind fell within my knowledge; one before I came to Montserat, the other after. The first was of one Slunt, who had been bombardier at Monjouick; but being killed while we lay at Campilio, a priest, whom I advised with upon the matter, told me, that if he should be buried where any corn grew, his body would not only be taken up again, but ill-treated, in revenge of the destruction of so much corn, which the people would on no account be persuaded to touch; for which reason we took care to have him laid in a very deep grave, on a very barren spot of ground. The other was of one Captain Bush, who was a prisoner with me on the surrender of Denia; who being sent, as I was afterwards, to St. Clemente la Mancha, there died; and, as I was informed, though he was privately, and by night, buried in a corn field, he was taken out of his grave by those superstitious people, as soon as ever they could discover the place where his body was deposited. But I returr to the convent at Montserat.

Out of the chapel, behind the high altar, we descended into a spacious room, the repository of the great offerings

SUPERSTITIOUS TRIBUTE TO THE LADY.

397

made to the lady. Here, though I thought in the chapel itself I had seen the riches of the universe, I found a prodigious quantity of more costly presents, the superstitious tribute of most of the Roman Catholic princes in Europe. Among a multitude of others, they showed me a sword set with diamonds, the offering of Charles III., then King of Spain, but now Emperor of Germany. Though, I must confess, being a heretic, I could much easier find a reason for a fair lady's presenting such a sword to a King of Spain, than for a King of Spain presenting such a sword to a fair lady; and by the motto upon it, Pulchra tamen nigra, it was plain such was his opinion. That prince was so delighted with the pleasures of this sweet place, that he, as well as I, stayed as long as ever he could; though neither of us so long as either could have wished.

But there was another offering from a King of Portugal, equally glorious and costly, but much better adapted; and therefore in its propriety easier to be accounted for. That was a glory for the head of her ladyship, every ray of which was set with diamonds, large at the bottom, and gradually lessening to the very extremity of every ray. Each ray might be about half a yard long; and I imagined in the whole, there might be about one hundred of them. In short, if ever her ladyship did the offerer the honour to put it on, I will, though a heretic, venture to aver, she did not, at that present time, look like a human creature.

To enumerate the rest, if my memory would suffice, would exceed belief. As the upper part was a plain miracle of nature, the lower was a complete treasury of miraculous art.

If you ascend from the lowest cell to the very summit, the last of all the thirteen, you will perceive a continual contention between pleasure and devotion; and at last, perhaps, find yourself at a loss to decide which deserves the preeminence for you are not here to take cells in the vulgar acceptation, as the little dormitories of solitary monks: No! neatness, use, and contrivance, appear in every one of them; and though in an almost perfect equality, yet in such perfection, that you will find it difficult to discover in any one of them anything wanting to the pleasure of life.

If you descend to the convent near the foot of the venerable hill, you may see more, much more of the riches of the world; but less, far less appearance of a celestial treasure. Perhaps

it might be only the sentiment of a heretic; but that awe and devotion, which I found in my attendant from cell to cell, grew languid, and lost, in mere empty bigotry and foggy superstition, when I came below. In short, there was not a greater difference in their heights, than in the sentiments they inspired me with.

I

Before I leave this emblem of the beatific vision, I must correct something like a mistake, as to the poor borigo. said at the beginning, that his labour was daily; but the Sunday is to him a day of rest, as it is to the hermits, his masters, a day of refection. For, to save the poor faithful brute the hard drudgery of that day, the thirteen hermits, if health permit, descend to their cœnobium, as they call it; that is, to the hall of the convent, where they dine in common with the monks of the order, who are Benedictines.

After seven days' variety of such innocent delight (the space allowed for the entertainment of strangers), I took my leave of this pacific hermitage, to pursue the more boisterous duties of my calling. The life of a soldier is in every respect the full antithesis to that of a hermit; and I know not whether it might not be a sense of that, which inspired me with very great reluctancy at parting. I confess, while on the spot, I over and over bandied in my mind the reasons which might prevail upon Charles V. to relinquish his crown; and the arguments on his side never failed of energy, when I could persuade myself that this, or some like happy retreat, was the reward of abdicated empire.

Full of these contemplations (for they lasted there), I arrived at Barcelona; where I found a vessel ready to sail, on which I embarked for Denia, in pursuance of my orders. Sailing to the mouth of the Mediterranean, no place along the Christian shore affords a prospect equally delightful with the castle of Denia. It was never designed for a place of great strength, being built and first designed, as a seat of pleasure to the great Duke of Lerma. In that family it many years remained; though, within less than a century, that, with two other.dukedoms, have devolved upon the family of the Duke de Medina Celi, the richest subject at this time in all Spain

DENIA A GARRISON, BY ORDER OF KING CHARLES-EXTRAORDINARY STORM OF LOCUSTS-SINGULAR MINE EXPLOSION AT ALICANT-SAINTE CLEMENTE DE LA MANCHA RENDERED FAMOUS BY THE RENOWNED DON MICHAEL CERVANTESINTERESTING ACCOUNTS-SURPRISING FLIGHT OF EAGLES

THE INQUISITION.

DENIA was the first town, that, in our way to Barcelona, declared for King Charles; and was then, by his order, made a garrison. The town is but small, and surrounded with a thin wall; so thin, that I have known a cannon-ball pierce through it at once.

When I arrived at Denia, I found a Spaniard governor of the town, whose name has slipt my memory, though his behaviour merited everlasting annals. Major Percival, an Englishman, commanded in the castle, and on my coming there, I understood it had been agreed between them, that in case of a siege, which they apprehended, the town should be defended wholly by Spaniards, and the castle by the English.

I had scarce been there three weeks before those expectations were answered. The place was invested by Count D'Alfelt, and Major-general Mahoni; two days after which, they opened trenches on the east side of the town. I was necessitated, upon their so doing, to order the demolishment of some houses on that side, that I might erect a battery to point upon their trenches, the better to annoy them. I did so; and it did the intended service; for with that, and two others, which I raised upon the castle (from all which we fired incessantly, and with great success), the besiegers were sufficiently incommoded.

The governor of the town (a Spaniard, as I said before, and with a Spanish garrison) behaved very gallantly; insomuch, that what was said of the Prince of Hesse, when he so bravely defended Gibraltar against the joint forces of France and Spain, might be said of him, that he was governor, engineer, gunner, and bombardier all in one: for no man

could exceed him, either in conduct or courage. Nor were the Spaniards under him less valiant or vigilant; for in case the place was taken, expecting but indifferent quarter, they fought with bravery, and detended the place to admiration.

The enemy had answered our fire with all the ardour imaginable; and having made a breach, that, as we thought, was practicable, a storm was expected every hour. Preparing against which, to the great joy of all the inhabitants, and the surprise of the whole garrison, and without our being able to assign the least cause, the enemy suddenly raised the siege, and withdrew from a place which those within imagined in great danger.

The siege thus abdicated (if I may use a modern phrase), I was resolved to improve my time, and make the best provision I could against any future attack. To that purpose made several new fortifications, together with proper casements for our powder, all which rendered the place much stronger, though time too soon showed me that strength itself must yield to fortune.

Surveying those works, and my workmen, I was one day standing on the great battery, when casting my eye toward the Barbary coast, I observed an odd sort of greenish cloud making to the Spanish shore; not like other clouds, with rapidity or swiftness; but with a motion so slow, that sight itself was a long time before it would allow it such. At last it came just over my head, and interposing between the sun and me, so thickened the air, that I had lost the very sight of day. At this moment it had reached the land; and though very near me in my imagination, it began to dissolve, and lose of its first tenebrity, when, all on a sudden, there fell such a vast multitude of locusts, as exceeded the thickest storm of hail or snow that I ever saw. All around me was immediately covered with those crawling creatures; and they yet continued to fall so thick, that with the swing of my cane I knocked down thousands. It is scarce imaginable the havoc I made in a very little space of time; much less conceivable is the horrid desolation which attended the visitation of those animalculæ. There was not, in a day or two's time, the least leaf to be seen upon a tree, nor any green thing in a garden. Nature seemed buried in her own ruins, and the vegetable world to be supporters only to her monument. I never saw the hardest winter, in those parts, attended with any equal