EPISODES OF 1848 AT PARIS AND MADRID. 125 



police to repair to some place away from the square of 

 the post-office whence the mails started, and the 

 General arrived in disguise, carrying a trunk. Narvaez 

 has been given such a character for cruelty that this 

 story may perhaps cause astonishment, for it has rvrn 

 been related of him that, in reply to the confessor 

 who, upon his deathbed, asked him if he had forgiven 

 his enemies, replied, " I have no need to do so, for I 

 have had them all shot." This story is an outrageous 

 calumny, for I have known few more generous and 

 kindly men. Narvaez was always ready to sacrifice 

 his own life, either to defend his country from the 

 stranger or to maintain order at home. 



A few days after this I was told that Mdllc. 

 Eugenie do Montijo, accompanied by her governess, 

 was waiting to see me in the drawing-room, in order to 

 speak to me on a very pressing and important matter. 

 It appeared that, on hearing of the revolt at Madrid, 

 and without waiting to know the result, a regiment 

 stationed at Valencia had mutinied, but as the revolt 

 was unsuccessful .the authorities assembled a court- 

 martial, and thirteen officers belonging to the leading 

 families at Court had been sentenced to death. The cap- 

 tain-general of the province had remitted the sentence 

 to Madrid to be countersigned by the President be- 

 fore carrying it out, and the sister of one of the offi- 

 cers had come to implore of Mdlle. de Montijo, whose 

 mother was grand mistress of the Court, to present her 

 to Queen Isabella. She had taken her to the palace, 



