APPENDIX.  429

"I  am  ashamed  of  one  thing  in  my  Spanish  military
service,  and  one  only, — that  an  arm  of  mine  should  have
been  raised,  or  a  drop  of  blood  of  mine  shed  in  the  *  liberal
cause '  of  a  people  so  utterly  worthless,  and  so  incapable
of  appreciating  the  generous  sympathy  of  England,  as
the  Spaniards  are.  They  had  Wo  years  of  harder  work
out  of  me,  than  I  ever  performed  in  any  other  two  years ;
and  I  never  had  an  idle  day,  from  eight  years  of  age  up
to  twenty-one,  at  which  age  I  entered  the  Scots'  Greys.
The  readers  of  the  "Autobiography"  know  what  the
work  was.
"  It  was  less  from  a  desire  to  Ji^hi  for  the  Spanish
*  liberal  cause,'  that  I  went  to  Spain,  in  August,  1835,
than  from  a  desire  to  travel,  write  a  book  of  travels,  and
have  an  original  subject  to  write  about.  There  was  a
free  passage  to  Spain ;  and,  filled  with  ambition  to  be  an
author,  I  thought  a  book  about  Spain  would  introduce
me  as  a  writer  to  the  public.  Most  of  aU,  the  men  who
went  from  Scotland  were  engaged  for  one  year  ;  and  the
general  impression  sought  to  be  made  upon  me  and
others,  was,  that  there  would  be  very  little  fighting :
that  we  should  probably  be  only  a  few  months  there ;
and  that  the  most  that  would  be  required  of  us  would  be,
to  show  in  formidable  numbers  for  Isabella  and  the
constitution;  upon  which,  the  Carlists  and  absolutism
would  at  once  shrink  to  nothing  before  us.
