“Sir,” she said, “when the Emperor sent the Spanish prisoners of war and others here, the Government quartered on me a young Span¬iard who had been sent to Vendome on parole. Parole notwithstanding he went out every day to show himself to the sous-prefet. He was a Spanish grandee! Nothing less! His name ended in os and dia, some¬thing like Burgos’de F6redia. I have his name on my books; you can read it if you like. Oh! but he was a handsome young man for a Spaniard; they are all said to be ugly. He was only five feet and a few inches high, but he was well-grown; he had small hands that he took such care of; ah! you should have seen! He had as many brushes for his hands as a woman for her whole dressing apparatus!
Monsieur Decazes
He had thick black hair, a fiery eye, his skin was rather bronzed, but I liked the look of it. He wore the finest linen I have ever seen on any one, although I have had princesses staying here, and, among others, General Bertrand, the Duke and Duchess d`Abrantes, Monsieur Decazes, and the King of Spain. He didn`t eat much; but his manners were so polite, so amiable, that one could not owe him a grudge.
Oh! I was very fond of him, although he didn`t open his lips four times in the day, and it was impossible to keep up a conversation with him. For if you spoke to him, he did not answer. It was a fad, a mania with them all, I heard say. He read his breviary like a priest, he went to Mass and to all the services regularly. Where did he sit? Two steps from the chapel of Madame de Merret. As he took his place there the first time he went to church, nobody suspected him of any intention in so doing. Besides, he never raised his eyes from his prayer-book, poor young man!
After that, sir, in the evening he would walk on the mountains, among the castle ruins. It was the poor man`s only amusement, it reminded him of his country. They say that Spain is all mountains! From the commencement of his imprisonment he stayed out late. I was anxious when I found that he did not come home before midnight; but we got accustomed to this fancy of his. He took the key of the door, and we left off sitting up for him. He lodged in a house of ours in the Rue des Casernes.
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