Zaragoza. English Read online

  CHAPTER III

  But, alas! Don Jos? de Montoria was not in his house, and we found itnecessary to go a little way out of the city to look for him. Two of mycompanions, tired of so much going and coming, left us with the ideaof trying on their own account for some military or civil situation.Don Roque and myself therefore started with less embarrassment on ourtrip to the country house, the "torre," of our friend. (They callcountry houses torres at Saragossa.) This was situated to the westwardof the town; the place bordered on the Muela road, and was at a shortdistance from the Bernardona road. Such a long tramp was not at all theright thing for our tired bodies, but necessity obliged us to take thisinopportune exercise. We were very well treated when we at last met thelonged-for Saragossan and became the objects of his cordial hospitality.

  Montoria was occupied, when we arrived, in cutting down olive-trees onhis place, a proceeding demanded by the military exigencies of theplan of defence established by the officers in the field, because ofthe possibility of a second siege. And it was not our friend alone whodestroyed with his own hands this heritage of his hacienda. All theproprietors of the surrounding places occupied themselves with the sametask, and they directed the work of devastation with as much coolnessas if they were watering or replanting, or busy with the grape harvest.

  Montoria said to us, "In the first siege I cut down my trees on myproperty on the other side of the Huerva; but this second siege that isbeing prepared for us is going to be much more terrible, to judge bythe great number of troops that the French are sending."

  We told him the story of the surrender of Madrid, and as this seemed todepress him very much, we praised the deeds done at Saragossa betweenthe fifteenth of June and the fourteenth of August with all sorts ofgrandiloquent phrases. Shrugging his shoulders, Don Jos? said, "Allthat was possible to be done was done."

  At this point Don Roque began to make personal eulogies of me, bothmilitary and civil, and he overdrew the picture so much that he mademe blush, particularly as some of his announcements were stupendouslies. He said, first, that I belonged to one of the highest familiesof lower Andalusia, and that I was present as one of the marine guardsat the glorious battle of Trafalgar. He said that the junta had mademe a great offer of a concession in Peru, and that during the siege ofMadrid I had performed prodigies of valor at the Puerta de los Pozos,my courage being so great that the French found it convenient afterthe capitulation to rid themselves of such a fearful foe, sending mewith other Spanish patriots to France. He added that my ingenuity hadmade possible the escape of us four companions who had taken refuge inSaragossa, and ended his panegyric by assuring Don Jos? that for mypersonal qualities also I deserved distinguished consideration.

  Meantime Montoria surveyed me from head to foot, and if he observedthe bad cut of my clothes and their many rents, he must also have seenthat they were of the kind used by a man of quality, revealing hisfine, courtly, and aristocratic origin by the multiplicity of theirimperfections. After he had looked me over, he said to me, "Porra! Ishall not be able to enlist you in the third rank of the company offusileers of Don Santiago Sas, of which I am captain, but you can enterthe corps where my son is; and if you don't wish to, you must leaveSaragossa, because here we have no use for lazy men. And as for you,Don Roque, my friend, since you are not able to carry a gun, porra! wewill make you one of the attendants in the army hospital."

  When Don Roque had heard all this, he managed to express, by means ofrhetorical circumlocution and graceful ellipses, the great necessityof a piece of meat for each one of us, and a couple of loaves of breadapiece. Then we saw the great Montoria scowl, looking at us so severelythat he made us tremble, fearing that we were to be sent away fordaring to ask for something to eat. We murmured timid excuses, and thenour protector, very red in the face, spoke as follows,--

  "Is it possible that you are hungry? Porra! Go to the devil with ahundred thousand porras! Why haven't you said so before? Do I look likea man capable of letting my friends go hungry? porra! You must knowthat I always have a dozen hams hanging from the beams of my storeroom,and I have twenty casks of Rioja, yes, sir. And you are hungry, andyou did not tell me so to my face without any round-about fuss? Thatis an offence to a man like me. There, boys, go in and order them tocook four pounds of beef and six dozen eggs, and to kill six pullets,and bring from the wine-cellar seven jugs of wine. I want my breakfast,too. Let the neighbors come, the workmen, and my sons too, if they areanywhere about. And you, gentlemen, be prepared to punish it all withmy compliments, porra! You will eat what there is without thanking me.We do not use compliments here. You, Se?or Don Roque, and you, Se?orDon Araceli, are in your own house to-day, porra! to-morrow and always,porra! Don Jos? de Montoria is a true friend to his friends. All thathe has, all that he owns, belongs to his friends."

  The brusque hospitality of the worthy man astonished us. As he did notreceive our compliments with good grace, we decided to leave aside theartificial formalities of the court, and, assuredly, the most primitivefashions reigned during the breakfast.

  "Why don't you eat more?" Don Jos? asked me. "It seems to me that youare one of these compliment-makers who expect to live on compliments.I don't like that sort of thing, my young gentleman. I find it verytrying, and I am going to beat you with a stick to make you eat. There,despatch this glass of wine! Did you find any better at court? Not by along way. Come now, drink, porra! or we shall come to blows." All thismade me eat and drink more than was good for me; but it was necessaryto respond to the generous cordiality of Montoria, and too it was notworth while to lose his good will for one indigestion more or less.

  After the breakfast, the work of cutting down trees was continued, andthe rich farmer directed it as if it were a festival performance.

  "We will see," he said, "if this time they will dare to attack theCastle. Have you not seen the works that we have built? They will findit a very complicated task to take them. I have just given two hundredbales of wool, a mere nothing, and I would give my last crust."

  When we returned to the town, Montoria took us to look over thedefensive works that were built in the western part of the city. Therewas in the Portillo gate a large semi-circular battery that joined thewalls of the Convent de los Fecetas with those of the Augustine friars'convent. From this building to the Convent of the Trinitarios extendeda straight wall, with battlements along all its length and with agood pathway in the centre. This was protected by a deep moat thatreached to the famous field of Las Eras, scene of the heroic deeds ofthe fifteenth of June. Further north, towards the Puerta Sancho, whichprotected the breastworks of the Ebro, the fortifications continued,terminated by a tower. All these works, constructed in haste, thoughintelligently, were not distinguished by their solidity. Any one of theenemy's generals, ignorant of the events of the first siege, and of theimmense moral force of the Saragossans, would have laughed at thosepiles of earth as fortifications offering material for an easy siege.But God ordains that somebody must escape once in a while the physicallaws that rule war. Saragossa, compared with Amberes, Dantzig, Metz,Sebastopol, Cartagena, Gibraltar, and other famous strongholds, waslike a fortress made of cardboard.

  And yet--!