“That is true,” said the bell-ringer; “those were the good times, and for their return we fought in the mountains.  Ay! if only Don Carlos had been victorious! if only there had not been traitors amongst us!  Is it not true, Gabriel?  You who fought in the war as I did, you can say if I am not right.”

“Hold your tongue, Mariano,” said Gabriel, smiling sadly.  “You do not know what you are saying.  You fought and shed your blood for a cause that even now you do not understand.  You went to the war as blindly as I did.  Do not look so sullen; it is no use contradicting.  Well then, let us see, what did you wish for when you went out to fight for Don Carlos?”

“I?  First of all that every man should come by his own.  Did not the crown belong to his family?  Well, let it be given to him.”

“And is this all?” asked Luna with displeasure.

“That was the least of it.  What I wanted, and do want, is that the nation should have a good master, an upright lord, and a good Catholic, who without restraints of laws or Cortes, should govern us all with bread in one hand and a stick in the other.  For the robber, garrote him! for the honoured, ‘you are my friend!’ A king who will not allow the rich to crush the poor, and who will not allow any one to die of hunger who wishes to work.  Come, I think I am explaining myself clearly.”

“And all this, do you believe that it existed at any time, or that your king would be able to restore it?  Those centuries that you describe as those of greatness and well-being were really the worst in our history; they were the cause of Spanish decadence, and the beginning of all our ills.”

“Stop there, Gabrielillo,” said Silver Stick.  “You know a great deal, and have travelled and read much more than I have, but we cannot swallow that.  I am very much interested in the question, and I will not allow you to take advantage of the ignorance of Mariano and these others.  How can you say that those times were evil, and that the fault is theirs of what is happening to us now?  The true culprit is liberalism, the unbelief of the age, which has let the devil loose in our house.  Spain, when it does not trust its kings and has no faith in Catholicism, is like a lame man who drops his crutches and falls to the ground.  We are nothing without the throne and the altar, and the proof of this is everything that has happened to us since we had revolutions.  We have lost our islands, we count for nothing among the other countries.  The Spaniards who are the bravest men in the world, have been defeated, there is not a peseta anywhere, and all those gentlemen who harangue in Madrid vote fresh taxes and we are always involved in difficulties.  When was this ever seen in former times?  When?”

“Worse and more shameful things were seen,” said Luna.