EPISODES OF 18+8 AT PARIS AND MADRID. 127 



cited my intervention to procure a pardon which, in 

 my opinion, will strengthen rather than weaken you, 

 there is nothing left for me but to retire and to take 

 leave of you." Whereupon Narvaez, looking me 

 straight in the face, and seeing how determined I was, 

 shook me vigorously by the hand and said to me in 

 Spanish, " You may be off, Ferdinand, with these 

 men's heads in your pocket." I did not stop to hear 

 more, and grasping Narvaez by the hand in turn, 

 went back to Madrid, where I learnt that the Queen 

 had, at the instance of Narvaez, signed the pardon of 

 the condemned men. 



A few days after this I received a message from the 

 French Consul at Bilbao, informing me that a French 

 merchant vessel, with forty-five political refugees on 

 board, who had been implicated in some unsuccessful 

 revolt, had left that port in the middle of the night, 

 but had been obliged, owing to a violent tempest, to 

 put back the next day. The authorities had laid an 

 embargo upon the vessel, and had demanded that the 

 refugees, who had embarked clandestinely, without 

 passports, should be delivered up. The Consul had 

 asked for a delay until he could communicate with 

 me. I at once went to see Marshal Narvaez, and 

 pointed out to him that we had no right to detain the 

 Spanish refugees on board a merchant vessel, which 

 did not enjoy the privilege of exterritoriality, which 

 is exclusively reserved for men-of-war, and that the 

 unhappy men were at his disposal. He did not hesi- 



