1827 J Notes for the Month. 291 



and deposits it again in the bed : as may be guessed, it proves to be a 

 token from the young woman who sweeps his dungeon. The natural solu- 

 tion is, that this girl has conceived some passion for him. Not at all. 

 She refuses to accompany him in his flight. She will accept no remune- 

 ration for her assistance. But, from some wild feeling, which it is difficult 

 to explain, but of which instances among a highly-excited and totally ungo- 

 verned people such as the Spaniards are at present, do occur, she commu- 

 nicates with his friends for htm, deceives the persons by whom she is 

 employed, and, at the cost of a sentence to herself of perpetual banish- 

 ment, procures his escape. 



The fact is, that extraordinary emergencies elicit extraordinary resources ; 

 and the whole order of things in Spain is intrigue, arid plot, and romance, 

 and mystery. The surgeon Saumell, who attends Signer Van Halen in 

 an illness after his escape, is the companion of Dr. Gil, the " familiar," 

 who attended him in the prison of the Inquisition ; and, also, while aiding 

 the concealment of a political offender! a surgeon in the body-guard. 

 The Marquis of Mataflorida " furious in every thing connected with 

 the Inquisition" spoke with more confidence than any body of Van 

 Halen's recapture, and organized a set of spies peculiarly to undertake 

 it. The friends of Van Halen formed a. corps of counter-spies ; and this 

 with such success, that the very reports which the Marquis of Mataflorida 

 received from his agents they heard, through a hole in his wall, at the 

 moment when they were delivered. To conclude the colonel was libe- 

 rated from his confinement by the romantic devotion of one woman ; and 

 he was within an ace of being restored to it by the unreasonable jealousy 

 of another, whose habit it was always to send a servant to watch her hus- 

 band when he went out, lest his business abroad should be to visit other 

 ladies ! 



The actual manner of the author's escape, from the extraordinary sim- 

 plicity of it, after all that he describes of the terrors and difficulties of the 

 dungeons of the Inquisition, is the most curious part of the whole 

 affair: 



" At length the hour for the execution of my plan drawing near, I listened atten- 

 tively through the opening in the door, till hearing the distant noise of bolts, 

 I retreated towards my bed. As soon as Don Marcelino entered, without recol- 

 lecting the sign agreed upon respecting the plate, and fearing that this might be my 

 last opportunity, I advanced towards him, extinguished the light, and pushing him 

 violently to the farthest corner of the dungeon, flew to the door, and, rushing 

 through, shut it upon him and drew the bolt, at the same moment that he reco- 

 vering himself threatened my life. Once in the passage, I groped along in com- 

 plete darkness ; but the astounding cries of the new prisoner echoed so loudly 

 through those vaults, that fearing they might be heard, I no sooner arrived at the 

 third door of that labyrinth, than locking it after me, I took out its ponderous key, 

 with which I armed myself for want of a better weapon. 



" I passed the dungeon of the other prisoner confined in those passages, who, 

 far from imagining the scene that was acting, mistook my steps for those of the 

 jailer. Following my way at random, 1 twice lost myself in the various windings, 

 and a thousand times did I curse the obscurity which threatened to frustrate ail my 

 hopes. At length, after groping about for seven or eight minutes, which appeared 

 an eternity to me, I reached the last staircase, from which I could distinguish the 

 glimmerings of a light. As I ascended the stairs, I grasped the key in the manner 

 of a pistol, and soon after found myself at the threshold of a door wide open, that 

 led to an outer kitchen, in the middle of which hung a lantern. I judged by this 

 that I was already out of the prison j but uncertain what direction to follow, and 

 hearing the voices of people in some part of the house, 1 stood still for a moment,. 



2 P 2 



