LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 25 



telescope, which he held in his hand, and burst into a flood of tears. 

 After he had told us this, he added, that whilst Sir James Saumarez 

 was hotly engaged with the forts, his son, a boy of only eleven years 

 old, stole away from St. Roque, and ran round the bay to Algesiras. 

 There he mounted the battery against which Sir James was directing 

 his heaviest shot ; and he helped to serve the guns till all was over. 

 'On the boy's safe return home,' said the Colonel, 'though I 

 admired his bravery, I was obliged to whip him for his rashness in 

 having exposed himself to almost inevitable death.' I thought I 

 could perceive a mark in the Colonel's face, as he said this, which 

 led me to understand that there was something more than paternal 

 anxiety for the boy's welfare which had caused him to apply the rod; 

 and when I call to mind the affair of the telescope, I concluded 

 that, had a French squadron, in lieu of an English one, been bom- 

 barding Algesiras : young Lyon would have escaped even without a 

 reprimand. 



" I left my travelling friend in Cadiz, and returned to Malaga on 

 board a Spaniard, who kept close under Ceuta as we passed up the 

 Straits of Gibraltar. It grieves me to add that, many years after 

 this, on my return to England from the West Indies, in passing 

 through my former companion's native town, I made inquiries after 

 him, and I was informed by a gentleman who had sat upon the in- 

 quest, that my companion had fallen in love, had wooed in vain, and 

 hanged himself in despair. 



" More than a year of my life had now passed away in Malaga and 

 its vicinity, without misfortune, without care, and without annoyance 

 of any kind. The climate was delicious ; and I felt regret in making 

 preparations to leave this old Moorish town on a trip to Malta. But 

 the Spanish proverb informs us, that man proposes, and God dis- 

 poses : ' El hombre pone, y Dios dispone.' Many a bright and glorious 

 morning ends in a gloomy setting sun. 



" There began to be reports spread up and down the city that the 

 black vomit had made its appearance ; and every succeeding day 

 brought testimony that things were not as they ought to be. I my- 

 self, in an alley near my uncles' house, saw a mattress of most sus- 

 picious appearance hung out to dry. A Maltese captain, who had 

 dined with us in good health at one o'clock, lay dead in his cabin 



