II. The Convention of Cintra.

Title-page.  ‘Qui didicit,’ &c.  From Horace, ‘De Arto Poetica,’ ll. 312, 314, 315.

Verso of title-page.  Quotation from Bacon.  From ’Advertisement touching the Controversies of the Church of England (4th paragraph), Spedding’s Letters and Life,’ vol. i. p. 76.

P. 55, l. 40.  ‘General Loison.’  A French general of cavalry.  He was known by the nickname of Maneta, the bloody one-handed.  He was the Alaric of Evora.  ‘His misdeeds,’ says Southey, ’were never equalled or paralleled in the dark ages.’  It was from Orense that Soult invaded Portugal, having Loison and Foy for his lieutenants.

P. 56, l. 26.  ‘M. le duc d’Abrantes.’  Andoche Junot, duc d’Abrantes, born 23d Oct. 1771, and died by his own hand 29th July 1813.  He was created duke by Napoleon when he was sent by him to command the French army in Portugal (1808); defeated by Sir Arthur Wellesley (Wellington) at Vimiera, 21st August 1808.

P. 65, l. 27.  ‘Massaredo.’  Rather Mazaredo, a Spanish general.  He had lived much in England.  He cleansed and repaired Sir John Moore’s tomb at Corunna, and planted the ground for a public Alameda (walk).

P. 59, ll. 25-6.  ‘General Morla.’  At wind-blown Fuencanal (one league from Madrid) is an old mansion of the Mendoza family, in which Buonaparte lodged from Dec. 2, 1808, until Dec. 22; and here, Dec. 3, he received the Madrid deputation headed by the traitor Morla.  ’On the 4th Dec. 1808, General Morla and General Don Fernando de Vera, governor of the town (Madrid), presented themselves, and at ten o’clock General Belliard took the command of Madrid.  All the posts were put into the hands of the French, and a general pardon was proclaimed’ (Southey, s.n.).

P. 60, l. 15.  ‘The names of Pelayo and The Cid,’ &c. (1) Pelayo.  The Moorish descent was made in great force near Gibraltar in 711.  The battle of the Gaudalete (fought near Jerez de la Frontera) followed immediately; and in the course of three years they (the Moors) had conquered the whole of Spain except the north-west region (Biscay and Asturias), behind whose mountains a large body of Chontians under Pelayo retreated.  Seven years later he (Pelayo) defeated the Moors, seized Leon, and became the first king of the Asturias. (2) The Cid.  Rodrigo Ruy Diaz of Vibar, born in 1026, is the prince the champion of Spain, El Cid Campeador, and the Achilles and Aeneas of Gotho-Spanish epos.  Thus, as Schlegel says, ’he is worth a whole library for the understanding the spirit of his age and the character of the old Castilian.’  ’Cast in the stern mould of a disputed and hostile invasion, when men fought for their God and their father-land, for all they had or hoped for in this world and the next, the Cid possessed the vices and virtues of the mediaeval Spaniard, and combined the daring personal valour, the cool determination and perseverance of the Northman, engrafted on the subtle perfidy and brilliant chivalry of the Oriental.’