Young Americans in Spain. By Miss Susan Hale

Chapter I. Over The Border

BSOLUTELY nothing, sir, but wearing apparel, and perhaps a few drawing materials."

This statement in French was made to a mild-looking official who stood within a long counter piled with trunks, boxes, portmanteaux and valises. On the outer side was an anxious crowd of travellers pressing and pushing to find their own impediments, in order to have them passed without delay.

The mild official chalked a white cross upon the box under inspection.

"Is that all, Monsieur?"

"That is all, Bessie, is it not?" asked the gentleman who was conducting the transaction; "one, two, three and the ship trunk," he added in the same breath. " No, papa, I have not found the little black box yet." "Here it is!" cried a boy who now appeared, bumping every one in the crowd with the corners of a small travelling box which 3- poi'je- ; v a blue blouse was struggling to take away.

" This man cannot speak anything," cried Tommy, " but he thinks the trunk belongs to those other people."

Blue Blouse consented to surrender the box ; by this time the mild official was far away on his side of the counter, making white crosses upon the boxes of other impatient tourists, some of whom were obliged to open their trunks to satisfy the inspectors. All the travellers who were to go away by the train which was standing outside the station, were in a great hurry ; all the officials who were to stay, appeared to be in no sort of haste.

Finally one of them turned his attention to the little trunk. It was a harmless black box, marked T. P. H., but for some reason it appeared suspicious to the Spanish inspector, and he demanded that it should be opened. Straps were unfastened, the key produced, and the top thrown back. Soiled linen, slippers, and a dressing-case appeared upon the surface. The man plunged his hand into a corner, fumbled about, punched and squeezed a sponge in its india-rubber bag, then withdrew satisfied ; and the party, now permitted to return to their seats in the train, hurried through the long room where many other people less fortunate than themselves were still searching for their effects, and undergoing the examination, which, however slight it may be, is always tedious and vexing. They passed along the row of carriages, some of them empty, the doors standing open ready for their occupants who were still away struggling with the inspectors. In others, placid oarties were reading or chatting together. A lady sitting at the open door of a compartment, was watching for the party ; as they approached she called out :

" Here I am ! I have guarded our seats like a dragon, and I believe we shall still have the compartment to ourselves. Is everything safe ? "

"Yes, aunt Dut," replied the girl. "And here are your keys. We did not have to open one of your things, and they only fell foul of Tommy's small box."

" I don't care," said the boy, " they did not find the rahatlicum ; it was too near the bottom."

OVER THE BORDER. l\

"You do not mean to say that any of that is left!" exclaimed Miss Lejeune.

For this was Miss Lejeune who was guarding the carriage, keeping seats for the rest of the party, which consisted of herself and Mr. Horner, with Bessie Horner and Tommy. These now all entered the carriage and began to dispose of the wraps and straps which they had spread about upon the seats before leaving it, in order to make the aspect of things as forbidding as possible to passengers searching for seats. A compartment in continental railway carriages is built to hold eight, but it is much more comfortable for four persons only ; thus it becomes one of the great arts of travel to keep out intruders. Four is the most convenient number for a party travelling in this way. It not infrequently happens that they can keep a compartment to themselves, and have plenty of room for putting up feet, leaning comfortably in corners, and above all, they can control the two windows. There is room for the exhibition of all grades of good breeding, and bad manners, in this matter of the compartment. It is perfectly fair for a party to try to keep the whole for themselves, especially if the train is long, with plenty of accommodation for all ; it is annoying when new-comers persist in invading the place already taken possession of, and, by trampling upon toes, crowding the racks, and pushing themselves into the vacant seats, succeed in making the whole journey uncomfortable, and their presence disagreeable, instead of seeking elsewhere in the train an empty carriage. On the other hand, perhaps the intruders have not been able to find another carriage, or are forced to take this one by the guard, who does not encourage the exclusive system; in this case, it is hard for the late arriving travellers, flustered and hurried, with their hands full of rugs and bags, to find themselves most unwelcome, with no space resigned to them, only forbidding glances cast upon them, and even grumbling remarks which they can guess at weil enough, although the language in which they are spoken may be foreign.

The Homers were now settling themselves into the best corners of a first 'Class carriage of a train which had just crossed the frontier a Family flight through spaix.

between France and Spain. The station was Irun, in the Spanish Basque Provinces. At Hendaye, their last French town, they had crossed the frontier, and there changed carriages, necessary because the Spanish railways are built with a wider gauge than the French one, in order to impede invasion, it is said. Judging by the length of time required to transfer the ordinary travel of a period of peace, we may imagine that the delay to an impetuous army might be serious.

The Homers had left Bayonne about noon that day, having come from Bordeaux the day before. The day was lovely and the scenery charming, with glimpses of the Bay of Biscay, at intervals, on one

BORDkAl'X side, and on the other the soft line of the receding Pyrenees. It would have been pleasant to linger at Arcachon, a bright wateringplace near Bordeaux, or to take a branch train to Biarritz, the favorite resort of the Empress Eugenie, still beautiful, though less frequented than in its palmier days. As they crossed the little river Bidassoa, which is the boundary between France and Spain, they saw a small island les Faisans, called also Vile de la conference, which has served

OVER THE BORDER. Ifc

as neutral ground for more than one meeting important in history, as for instance the exchange of Francis the First, of France, after he had been the prisoner of Charles the Fifth.

"See!" said Miss Lejeune in a low tone, nudging Bessie, "there are those people who came from Bayonne. I saw them passing before. I suppose they have been identifying their boxes."

" They look nice," replied Bessie, " but I am glad they are not coming in here, for they have such quantities of hand-baggage."

"They must be changing their seats. Perhaps they did not find good ones at Hendaye."

The party they were observing consisted of a tall elderly gentleman, and three ladies, of whom the first seemed advanced in middle age, while the other two, who followed, were much younger, one of them wearing her long hair in a braid, as Bessie still did, for convenience in travelling. Each of the party was laden with shawls, umbrellas, guide-books hastily seized upon at a sudden signal for flight, and a waterproof of india-rubber trailed on the ground from one of the overflowing heaps. Tommy jumped out and ran up to the youngest girl, saying in French :

" Permettez moi, mademoiselle" while he tried to take her third umbrella from her.

"Oh, thank you; don't trouble yourself," she replied in very good English.

They had now reached the door of an empty carriage, and Tommy's assistance was by no means superfluous in helping them in. A little shriek, however, from the engine, startled them all, and he left them to hurry back to his own party. The guard pushed him in, banged the door, hurried every one else on the platform, banged more doors, and waved his hand at other guards banging other doors.

" Now we are off," said Bessie, leaning back in her stuffed and cushioned corner.

After this, the train stood motionless on the track for more than twenty minutes ; useless to inquire wherefore. Nothing of importance occurred. The luggage had been all examined and m3-rke *

A FAMILY FLIGHT THROUGH SPAIN.

and transferred to the vans. No passengers were missing. The Homers put their heads out of the window, but saw nothing to account for the delay. The Spanish passengers in the other departments were not disturbed, but quietly read their newspapers and smoked their cigarettes.

Thus it is upon the Spanish railways. Repose and procrastination pervade the system. Perhaps the officials inherit from Moorish

BIARRITZ.

ancestors the Mohammedan belief in "Kismet," for it is by Faith and Fate that trains reach their destination, rather than by rule and time-table. They start sometime, and they arrive somewhere, and that is pretty much all that can be asserted of their punctuality.

For the rest, the carriages are comfortable and clean, the officials are civil and obliging the buffets frequent enough, and the food good enough for travellers with good digestions, and enterprise, to risk experiments in strange cak-s, fruits and beverages.

After all, there is no hurry! ff you have allowed a certain time for seeing Spain, you may as well see it from a railway station as elsewhere. The Homers, like other Spanish travellers, came to feel

OVER THE BORDER.

n more intimate with the two gens d'armes, or alguazils, who stand at every station, than with any other inhabitants of the country. They stand immovable, in full uniform, with white hats that have a sort of flap at the back, watching the train, and awaiting its start. They are always on the platform as the train draws up at each station, and they all look so exactly alike, that it is pleasant to indulge the belief that they really are the same pair transferred by some process of swiftness, as yet unknown to the rest of the Spanis*!, from one station to another, to protect with their wooden vigilance the interests of the travelling public.

,A'tf»N*A^WT

A FAMILY FLIGHT THROUGH SPAIN.

Chapter II. Dividing Forces

SPAIN is entered perhaps most naturally in the way the Horners selected, by crossing the frontier at Irun, in order to pass down through Burgos to Madrid. It was now the first of May, and, although they had made all haste in coming from the East, where they had been passing a delightful and instructive winter, the season was somewhat advanced for making the Spanish trip.

" Spain so late!" exclaimed the Wiseacres. " You will perish with heat."

"You never will be able to stand the climate of Madrid in June."

" Make haste to get through the southern part first, or you will miss all the charm of it," said others.

In spite of these discouraging warnings, the Horners continued to feel an interest in their own plan, which had been made not without recognition of the phenomena of heat and cold, as affected by climate. They came from Bordeaux to Bayonne through the level, monotonous, but picturesque Landes, where Bessie from her window had the good luck to see a shepherd on chanques — tall stilts — which are still worn by the people to move about upon the soft, marshy ground. The Landes is a barren stretch of country, covered with turf and moss. Pines

DIVIDING FORCES.

are the only trees, and it would look desolate enough, except that where the railway crosses it, trees lately planted are beginning to change its aspect of desolation.

Bayonne is a fortified town, enclosed in walls, and entered by four gates. It is so near the frontier of Spain that it already begins to have a Spanish look. The streets are lively with a great variety of faces, costumes and languages ; for Basques, Gascons, and Spaniards, are coming and going continually. The women have pretty handkerchiefs tied about their heads, and the men wear berets and ceintures of bright colors.

The Romans constructed a citadel at Bayonne. As early as the

BAYONNE.

twelfth century it was a place of importance for the whale fishery, tanning of leather, navigation, and traffic with Spain.

The marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine with Henry of England, gave Bayonne to that country. Richard Cceur de Lion extended its privileges, which came to be so great that it was almost independent. Subsequent rulers had much trouble in restraining its "liberties. The mayor of Bayonne used to be in those days a most ..important magnate, executing justice as seemed risht in his own

A FAMILY FLIGHT THROUGH SPAIN.

eyes, upon all evil-doers. The Bayonne people were always *t odds with the Basques, their next neighbors, and intimate enemies ; legends remain of endless contests, and of one great battle in

the hall of a town where the Bayonne men were surprised by a party of Basques. They fought with chairs and tables, as well as sharper weapons, until almost everybody was killed on each side.

It was at Bayonne that Francis the First arrived from his prison at Madrid, and found his mother and the court awaiting him. Since then the local history of the place may be said to consist of passages back and forth of princes and princesses ; in the present century it has served often as a place of shelter for Spanish political schemers. The Basques, into whose province the Homers now passed, are said to be the descendants of the earliest inhabitants of the Peninsula, and to this day they preserve their strongly-marked characteristics of custom and language. Like the Bayonne men of old, they have a strong sense of independence, and a determination to maintain laws of their own, which have been respected at all times. They are noted for truth and honesty, and for their unbounded hospitality. They are tall, and often handsome, with fair hair and blue eyes, like the ideal Norsemen, which comes naturally from their Celtic origin, different from that of other Spaniards. The Basque language, wholly different from Spanish, is remarkable, and difficult. They still wear the national costume, which is highly picturesque ; for the men, short dark velvet jackets, and loose trousers, with alfargatas on their feet, and a blue or bright red sash about the waist.

The Homers at once began to enjoy the novelty of the Spanish national costumes. Although, as in other pa^ f 3 of Europe, these are now somewhat superseded by the encroaching black broadcloth for men, and conventional Parisian fashions for women, much still

DIVIDING FORCES.

iemains of picturesque attire. Each province of Spain has its own characteristic ; different colors prevail in different places, with, however, a general similarity. The short breeches coming only to the knee, with buttons up the outside of the leg, are so much more becoming to the manly form than the long, slouchy trousers enforced by fashion, that it seems strange that man's vanity should have been so passive as to allow the change. Alfargatas are sandals of white hemp, thick and strong, for the sole of the foot, bound on with a mysterious arrangement of strings, generally black, crossed over the foot.

It must now be explained why the Horner family is so small as to occupy only the four corners of their compartment. They have been

BATTLE BETWEEN BAYONNE AND THE BASQUES.

seen filling the whole of one without extending the actual limits of their party.

Upon leaving the East. Spain was the goal towards which the minds of the Homers turned, but there was a difference in the degree of longing with which each regarded that land of romance *>*d sunshine. Mrs. Horner expressed a willingness to do it vicariously, and a preference to settling down somewhere quietly, while the rest of her family went through Spain ; after which they could come back and tell her all about it. This idea was only accepted with equanimity by the rest because it seemed reasonable. It was quite unlike the last division of the family, when the broad Atlantic and the narrow Mediterranean had flowed between the two parts. A large party is inconvenient for travelling anywhere, and especially in Spain ; not only for comfort in railway carriages, but by diligence, in hotels, indeed, in all manner of sight-seeing.

Mrs. Horner received the full permission of the council to ^ form a nucleus" where she liked, and to select her companions who were to remain with her, leaving four to undertake the Spanish campaign. She chose the Pyrenees for her retreat, with ample advice from the friendly Fords, who knew the region well, where to select her point of repose. Mr. Horner she appointed leader of the Spanish expedition, and Miss Lejeune his chief counsellor, keeping Philip as her own protector, escort and financier. Between the two girls it would have been difficult to select, but that Mary seemed hardly strong enough for the undertaking. Everybody depicts the condition of Spain as so deplorable, its roads so bad, its inns so poor, that there is a general impression that only giants for strength, and lions for courage, should undertake it. Mary herself hesitated, fearing she should be an encumbrance ; at times not up to the requisite mark. Bessie on the other hand was now in full health and spirits, with a tremendous appetite, and unflagging powers of endurance. She smelled the battle afar, and champed the bit ; it would have been cruel to have deprived her of it. So Mary stayed behind with her mother. Tommy became number four, and very joyfully.

Mr. Hervey was out of the reckoning for either branch of the party. He accompanied them all to Marseilles, and thence to Lourdes, a way-station on the way to Bordeaux, where the great separation took place, the Spanish portion going on to Bordeaux, and thence to Bayonne, as we have seen, while the rest took a branch train

DIVID1XG FORCES. 2Y

up to Pierrefitte, among the mountains. Mr. Hervey still escorted them, wishing to see them fairly settled before he left them for America.

They had a couple of hours to wait at Lourdes, where is the famous "Grotto of the Virgin." A close row of omnibuses waited at the station to convey people to the Grotto, and small boys waylaid every one on foot, with voluble offers to escort them thither ; but the Homers were not even tempted by simple curiosity to avail themselves of the opportunity of seeing the immense church which has lately been erected on the spot where, in 1758, the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared in person to a young girl. There is a fountain of supposed miraculous powers of healing, and thousands of pilgrims visit the place. Since the miracle has been pronounced "authentic" by the Church, it is wholly given over to their accommodation, and to making money out of them.

A fine drizzling rain made the landscape dull, and the roads muddy. Mrs. Horner and Mary preferred to remain in the station reading guide-books and newspapers which they bought at the bookstall, while Mr. Hervey and Philip, with some difficulty escaping the attacks of tormentors, determined to take them to the Grotto, found their way up to an old castle picturesquely placed on top of a little hill.

"What are you smiling about, Mary?" asked her mother, across the top of the Vie Moderne which she was looking over.

"Poor Bessie!" replied May. "I was thinking of the last thing she said while we were standing on the platform before their train went off. She is so afraid she shall not be up to the mark about the Spanish galleries. She said- 'I know I shall not like the right things, and then aunt Gus will be dissatisfied. She will miss you all the time she is looking at the pictures.' "

Mrs. Horner laughed, but said :

"Bessie has very good taste in pictures. I dare say she will do very well."

"But she has heard of the Montpensier collection which came to Boston long ago, and she fears all Spanish pictures are horrid."

28 A FAMILY FLIGHT THROUGH SPAIK.

Chapter III. To Burgos

AT last the train was fairly off, and the Spanish Homers, as we must call that branch of the family who were to explore the Peninsula, settled themselves in the four corners of their compartment, which was, luckily for them, all their own. They were such old travellers by this time that everything proceeded with a certain system. Four neat shawl-straps seemed of themselves to seek commodious corners of the rack above their heads. Four umbrellas fell together behind the straps. There was, besides, a small straw box containing lunch put up at Bayonne, and a little book-strap which held the guide-books and time-tables.

It will be observed that each one had an individual shawl-strap and umbrella. This can hardly be avoided in travelling, and it is a good plan for each person to consider himself absolutely responsible for these two things of his own. It was the rule with every Horner, but, for the first time on this trip, Tommy, grown both strong in arm and chivalric at heart, announced to Miss Lejeune at the outset that he meant always to carry her strap as well as his own.

It may seem to tarry-at-home travellers a want of gallantry on the part of the gentlemen, that the ladies of the party should ever be allowed to carry their own straps ; but experienced tourists know that the leader of a party must not be burdened with even the thought of such things. It is the responsibility more than the dead weight of hand-luggage which makes it a burden ; for in general there is not much carrying to be done; a stout porter is almost always to be found upon whose broad shoulders portman-

TO BURGOS. 29

teaux may be heaped, and whose hands hold all possible parcels. He carries everything faithfully and accepts at the end fifty centimes, or its equivalent, with contented cheerfulness.

So Miss Lejeune, accepting, for the boy's sake quite as much as her own, this gallant knightship, was not encumbered with wraps. As soon as they were started, Bessie undid the little book-strap.

"Which will you have, aunt Gus ? " she inquired.

" Give me O'Shea, unless your father wants it."

" Not at all," replied Mr. Horner. / " I am going to devote myself to accounts, for I have not yet accustomed myself to this Spanish gold."

At Bayonne Mr. Horner had exchanged his French money for Spanish without difficulty ; nor did 'he find it difficult to understand the latter, it is so like the? French, a peseta being worth

somewhat, but not much, more than a franc. The sum he received

-

was given him chiefly in bright golfl coins worth twenty-five pesetas each, looking very much like English sovereigns, and of about the same value. The reales were rather puzzling to the Homers, because they heard a great deal about them, but only saw pesetas and countless small coins of trifling value, which they never came to clearly understand. Hotel bills are generally reckoned in reales, and as it takes four reales to make a pesela (twenty cents), the number at the bottom of a bill looks formidable with its sum of figures until it is divided by four, after which it subsides to a moderate number of pesetas with nothing alarming about it.

A real is about the same as five cents ; but it seems a more important value in Spain, on account of the number of lesser coins, sometimes very small in size, for one of which may be bought in the street a handful of carnations, or an immense magnolia blossom ten inches in diameter.

The time passed quickly as the train swept along through scenery sometimes grand and wild, suggesting bandits and brigands. The guide-books kept our party well posted on the points of interest, historic and romantic, and they would have been glad to pause often to make a sketch or inspect a castle. Darkness alone gave

A FAMILY FLIGHT THROUGH SPAIN.

rest to their eager eyes, and minds excited with this first experience of Spain. They were glad to sit silent for an hour or two. It was ten o'clock in the evening before they arrived in Burgos.

Here they left the train, with all their little Spanish phrases at their tongues' ends, reaJy to do battle in that language. Passing

SPANISH MULE-KUS.

out of the station, and surrendering their tickets to the man at

the gate, they saw a long line of omnibuses, and a long line of

porters, all labelled — both men and carriages — with the names of

their several hotels. This was quite as it would be elsewhere in

Europe, and quite reassuring. Mr Horner, however, endeavored to

TO BURGOS. 81

;ive a Spanish turn to the way he pronounced the words Fonda del Vorte. The man whose hat was encircled with the same words, took them to the omnibus of that hotel, took the small piece of paper, which in Europe corresponds to our bunch of baggagechecks, and by and by returned with their effects, which were hoisted up to the top of the omnibus, and plunged down upon it with the usual thump. All this was all en regie, except that the vehicle seemed a little squarer and squalider than some they knew, and Tommy had perceived that three mules in a row were harnessed to it. The two or three people who joined them were evidently not Spaniards, but travellers like themselves — a grumbling Frenchman, and a very stout German with a curved nose. They started off with a jerk, and cracking of whips. The three mules kicked up their heels, as Tommy could see through the darkness from the little front window, and they were whirled off over a rough pavement, at a mad pace. The passengers were bumped against each other, the windows rattled, the little kerosene lamp smoked and smelt, the thing rocked as if it would tip over. As they could not in the least see where they were going, it was a little alarming.

"I'm gflad mamma is not here," said Bessie, holding on to the side of the omnibus, "If it is all going to be like this."

"I like it" — much, Tommy was about to add, but the sudden jolt of stopping shook his mouth together before he had time to finish his sentence.

They were ushered into a low, dimly-lighted passage-way. Two or three proprietors and waiters, both men and women, came out to receive them, and Mr. Horner bravely began to state his views about rooms, in words culled from several Spanish conversation-books. " Qnatro camas y quatros por quatro" was what he had learned by heart, a troublesome collection of q's and c's, which means "four beds, and rooms for four." He was greatly relieved, though not flattered, to be answered in English, which, though not of the best, was more intelligible than his Spanish. They were soon shown to a wonderful salon, low and large, furnished with dingy

A FAMILY FLIGHT THROUGH SPAIN.

chairs and furniture, sofas, a shabby carpet, clocks and mirrors after the manner of France, dimly lighted by two candles. From this opened at each end a bedroom, so that Miss Lejeune and Bessie on the one hand, and Mr. Horner and Tommy on the other, were comfortably established. Two truly Spanish maids came in, with panuelas round their heads, and bustled about the beds.

OUTSIDE THE STAHLE.

Miss Lejeune began trying her Spanish on them, and said, in that language, that she wished much to learn to speak it.

" Poor lady'" said the girl to her companion. "The Senora wishes to speak our tongue, and she cannot."

After they were refreshed a little they went up-stairs to supper, or late dinner. Their own rooms were up one flight from the street, and were directly over a stable, whence the sounds, and eke the odors, of animals arose, and in the morning the cheerful hee-haw of a dear donkev. There was no grand entrance or

TO BURGOS. 3b

broad corridor to this hostelry; all the stairs looked like back stairs, and the passages were dark and narrow. They were placed at one end of a long table, filled with guests, chiefly men, all apparently chance travellers. The table was lighted by hanging lamps (probably kerosene), and ornamented with vases of mature artificial flowers. The courses were served at the elbow, like any other table d'hote.

So much is said and asked about the food in Spain, that perhaps it will be well, once for all, to give a little account of it. It is known, by this time, that the Homers were never fastidious about what they ate, and that they had failed seldom to discover wholesome food, in some form, wherever they went. They were prepared to find things pretty bad in Spain, and therefore were agreeably disappointed in this matter. The fact is that now almost all hotels in large Spanish cities, are kept either by French or Italians, and the food is much the same as that furnished in other hotels on the Continent ; better or worse, according to the grade of the hotel. This dingy old Fonda at Burgos differs from the hotels of Madrid and Seville, in being less like those of other continental towns ; so that the little bit of Spanish experience which the Homers had had at the outset was not repeated for some time.