Page:Memoirs of Baron Hyde de Neuville; outlaw, exile, ambassador; (IA memoirsofbaronhy01hyde).pdf/246

210 or sad memories, wear out your courage. Die, in exile, if God so will, but never trifle with your conscience, 1 would rather think of you as in misery in exile, than loaded with riches and honours in France at such a price.”

On the 12th March 1806, we trod the soil of France for the last time before going to America. Heaven did not forsake us in our trial, and veiled from our eyes the length of our banishment; and hope tempered our regrets. We were young, full of confidence; misfortunes had taught us courage and patience; we looked forward trustfully, to ample compensation in the future for the sorrows of the present.

Spain seemed to us a refuge from ourselves ; it was the first halting place in our exile, and we settled at Barcelona for a considerable time. No definite date had been fixed for our departure, and it seemed good to linger on the road to final exile. Later, my brother decided to accompany us, my mother wishing him to see us settled in America, so that he might tell her how we fared when he returned. His arrival having been delayed by various causes, we remained at Barcelona, from the middle of March till the end of September.

Our manner of life had accustomed us.ta nomadic habits, and we easily adapted ourselves to our surroundings. Barcelona offered us resources that we were unwilling to forego. Te was an interesting study for us—this Spanish society, that had kept up, in great measure, the customs of the time of Philip II, and the strict etiquette, which contrasted so strongly with the comfort, cheerfulness, and facility of intercourse in France.

Spain, at this time—Barcelona at least—seemed to have gone back several centuries. A foreigner, arriving there without previous warning, might have thought that, by some magic wand, he had been transported to the fifteenth or sixteenth century. Naturally indolent and somewhat vain, the Spaniards seem to have remained lost in contemplation of the age of Charles V, the day of �