Thus I have still a country and a name,should I wish to take up a position in the world again.
Thank Heaven,this finishes our business,and the house of Soria is saved!
At the very moment when I drop into simple Baron de Macumer,the French cannon announce the arrival of the Duc d'Angouleme.You will understand why I break off....
October.
When I arrived here I had not ten doubloons in my pocket.He would indeed be a poor sort of leader who,in the midst of calamities he has not been able to avert,has found means to feather his own nest.For the vanquished Moor there remains a horse and the desert;for the Christian foiled of his hopes,the cloister and a few gold pieces.
But my present resignation is mere weariness.I am not yet so near the monastery as to have abandoned all thoughts of life.Ozalga had given me several letters of introduction to meet all emergencies,amongst these one to a bookseller,who takes with our fellow-countrymen the place which Galignani holds with the English in Paris.This man has found eight pupils for me at three francs a lesson.I go to my pupils every alternate day,so that I have four lessons a day and earn twelve francs,which is more than I require.When Urraca comes I shall make some Spanish exile happy by passing on to him my connection.
I lodge in the Rue Hillerin-Bertin with a poor widow,who takes boarders.My room faces south and looks out on a little garden.It is perfectly quiet;I have green trees to look upon,and spend the sum of one piastre a day.I am amazed at the amount of calm,pure pleasure which I enjoy in this life,after the fashion of Dionysius at Corinth.
From sunrise until ten o'clock I smoke and take my chocolate,sitting at my window and contemplating two Spanish plants,a broom which rises out of a clump of jessamine--gold on a white ground,colors which must send a thrill through any scion of the Moors.At ten o'clock I start for my lessons,which last till four,when I return for dinner.