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by for the whole of the day. Here the Alcayde of the village very hospitably sent me refreshments, and called on me at my inn, offering his house and whatever it afforded. I returned his visit, and found the good old man surrounded by his children and grand-children, a numerous family, grouped in their degrees, and sitting in their best apartment ready to receive me. After chocolate had been served, the guitar was introduced, and the younger parties danced their sequedillas. When they had animated themselves with this dance, the player on the guitar began to sound the notes of the fandango: I had seated myself by the old grandfather, a feeble, nerveless creature, and observed, with some concern, a paralytic motion vibrating in all his limbs and muscles, when at once, unable to keep his seat, he started up in a kind of ecstasy, and began snapping his fingers like castanets, and dancing the fandango to my surprise and amusement. This was the first time I had seen it performed, and I ceased to wonder at the extravagant attachment which the Spaniards show for that national tune and dance.

On Sunday the 18th of June, at five o'clock in the morning, we arrived at Aranjuez, and were most affectionately welcomed by Mr. Hussey. He delivered a paper to me dictated by the minister, and first appearances argued favorably for my negotiation. The day following I was visited by the subminister Campo, Anduaga and Escarano (belonging to the minister's department), also by the Duc d'Almodovar, Abbé Curtis, and others, and in the evening of that day I had my first interview with the Count Florida Blanca.

CHAPTER VII.

News of Lord George Gordon's riots-Influence of on the court of Spain-Progress of negotiations-Count D'Estaing-Florida Blanca-Galvez-Uncomfortable situation-Mr. Hussey-Departure of D'Estaing-Character of Hussey -Thrown from his mule-His surgeons-Anecdote-Patrick Curtis-Letter from Del Campo-Return of Hussey to England-Letters of Brutus-Visit to the Escurial-Paintings-Interview with the king.

I SHALL not enter upon local descriptions; it is neither to my purpose, nor can it edify the reader, who will find all this done so much better by writers who have travelled into Spain, and been more at leisure for looking about them than I ever was. My thoughts were soon distressfully occupied by the account, which met me, of the riots and disturbances in London by what was called Lord George Gordon's mob, which all but quite extinguished my hopes of success in the very outset of my business. I had repeated interviews with the minister, whom I visited by night, ushered by his confidential valet through a suit of five rooms, the door of every one of which was constantly locked as soon as I had passed it. The description of those dreadful tumults was given to the Spanish court by their ambassador at Paris, Count d'Aranda, and faithfully given without exaggeration. The effect it had upon the King of Spain was great indeed, and for me most unfortunate, for I had no advices from my court to qualify or oppose it. How this intelligence operated on the mind of his Catholic Majesty can only be conceived by such as were acquainted with his character, and knew to what degree he remained affected by the insurrection, then not long passed, in his own capital of Madrid. I will only say that my treaty was in shape, and such as my instructions would have warranted me to transmit and recommend. Spain had received a recent check from Admiral Rodney, Gibraltar had been relieved with a high hand, she was also upon very delicate and dubious terms with France. The crisis was decidedly in my favor; my reception flattering in the extreme; the Spanish nation was anxious for peace, and both court, ecclesiastics and military, professedly anti-gallican. The minister did not lose an hour after my arrival, but with much apparent

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alacrity in the cause immediately proceeded to business. I never had any reason, upon reflection, to doubt the sincerity of Count Florida Blanca at this moment, and verily believe we should have advanced the business of the preliminaries, if the fatal news of the riots had not most critically come to hand that very day, on which, by the minister's own appointment, we were to meet for fair discussion of the terms, while nothing seemed to threaten serious difficulty or disagreement between us.

According to appointment I came to him, perfectly ignorant of what had come to pass in my own country: I had prepared myself to the best of my capacity for a meeting and discussion which it behooved me to manage with discretion and address, and which, according to my view of it, promised to crown my mission with success. We were to write, and Campo was to be present, so that when I entered the minister's inner chamber, and saw only a small table with a single candle, no Campo present and no materials for writing, I own my mind misgave me. I did not wait more than two minutes before Florida Blanca came out of his closet, and in a lamentable tone sung out the downfall of London; king, ministers, and government whelmed in ruin, the rebellion of America transplanted to England, and heartily as he condoled with me, how could he, under such circumstances, commit his court to treat with me? I did not take the whole for truth, and was too much on my guard to betray any astonishment or alarm, but left him to lament the unhappy state of my wretched country, and affected to treat the narrative as a French exaggeration of the transitory tumults of a London mob. In the mean time, I could not fail to see that nothing was to be done on my part, but to yield to the moment and wait for information upon which I might rely. All that I did in the interim was to address a letter to the minister, and confidently risk a prediction that the tumult would be quashed so speedily and completely, as to add dignity to the king's government and stability to his ministers. He gave for answer that both his Catholic Majesty and himself trembled for the king, but of the extermination of the ministry no question could be made. I renewed my assertions in terms more confident than before, not so much upon conviction as from desperation, well knowing that if I was undone by the event, it was of little importance that I was disgraced by my over-confidence and presumption.

In the course of a very few days my prediction was happily verified, for on the 24th I was informed by Escarano, that the rioters were quelled, Lord George Gordon committed to the Tower, and indemnification ordered to the sufferers in the tu

mult, and on the day following the minister sent me the letter he had received from Count d'Aranda, to explain why he had delayed to inform me of the news from London. I availed myself of this happy change, by every means in my power for bringing back the negotiation to that state of forwardness, in which it stood before it was interrupted; but the minds and understandings of those with whom I had to deal, were not easy to be cured of alarms once given, or prejudices once received. It is not necessary for me to discuss the characters with whom it was my lot to treat; it is enough to say that during more than a year's abode in Spain, I believe no moment occurred so favorable to the business I had in hand, as that of which ill fortune had deprived me in the very outset of my undertaking. There was a gloomy being, out of sight and inaccessible, whose command as Confessor over the royal mind was absolute, and whose bigotry was disposed to represent everything in the darkest colors against a nation of heretics, whose late enormities afforded too good a subject for his spleen to descant upon; and in the mind, where no illumination, no elasticity resides, impressions will strike strongly and sink deep.

On the 26th I had completed my dispatches, in which I gave a full and circumstantial detail of my proceeding, the hopes I had entertained and the interruption I had met with, the conferences and correspondences I had held with the minister, and the measures I had pursued for reviving the negotiation, and reconducting it according to the tenor of my instructions. In this dispatch I observe to the Secretary of State, 'that although I relied upon his lordship's kind interpretation of my motives for leaving Lisbon, yet it was no inconsiderable anxiety that I suffered till my doubts were satisfied upon the points which Mr. Hussey's letter had not sufficiently explained. As it appeared to me a case where I might use my discretion, and in which the inconveniences incidental to my disappointment, bore no proportion to the good that might result from my success, I decided for the journey, which I had now performed, and flattered myself his lordship would see no cause to regret the step I had taken.'

'Had I not made ready use of my passports and relays, I had good reason to believe my hesitation would have proved decisive against any treaty; whereas, now I had the satisfaction of seeing many things point to a favorable and friendly issue.'

Speaking of a probability of detaching Spain, antecedent to the news of the disturbances in London, I tell the Secretary of

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State-That the moment for detaching Spain is now peculiarly favorable. She is upon the worst terms with France; not only the King of Naples, but the Queen of Portugal have written pressingly to his Catholic Majesty to make peace with England, and since my arrival a further influence is set to work to aid the friends of peace, and this is the Duc de Losada, who, on behalf of his nephew, the Duc d'Almodovar, has actually solicited the embassy to England, and been favorably received. These and many other circumstances conspire to press the scale for peace; in the opposite one we may place their unretrieved disgrace in the relief of Gibraltar, their hopes in the grand armament from Cadiz, of the 28th of April, their overrated successes in West Florida, and their belief that your expeditions to the South American continent are dropped, and that Sir Edward Hughes's condition disables him from attempting any enterprise against the Manillas.' I then recite the circumstance that gave a check to my negotiation, state the measures I had since taken for resuming it, and transmit a summary of such points in requisition as require answers and instructions, and conclude with suggesting such a mode of accommodating these to the punctilio of the Spanish court, as in my opinion cannot fail to bring the treaty to a successful issue. If this is conveyed,' I observe, ' in mild and friendly terms towards Spain, who submits the mode to the free discretion of Great Britain, and requests it only as a salvo, I think I have strong grounds to say her family compact will no longer hold her from a separate peace with Great Britain.'

On the 27th I removed with my family to Madrid, where I took a commodious house in an airy situation, and on the 1st of July the king and royal family arrived from Aranjuez. Though I had frequent communications with Count Florida Blanca through the subminister Campo, which occasioned me to dispatch letters on the 6th instant, yet I had no appointed interview till the 15th; our treaty paused for the expected answer to my transmission before mentioned, and it was clear to me that the Spanish minister, under the pretence of sounding the sincerity of the British cabinet, was in effect manoeuvring upon the suspicion of their stability. Nevertheless, in this conversation, which he held on the 15th instant, he expressly declares, 'that if Great Britain sends back any answer, which shall be couched in mild and moderate terms towards Spain, he will then proceed upon the treaty with all possible good-will, and give me his ideas without reserve, endeavoring to adjust some expedient satisfactory to both parties; but he fears that our ministry is so con