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The Pocket George Borrow by George Henry Borrow
page 110 of 145 (75%)
her population, than the fact that, at the present day, she is still a
powerful and unexhausted country, and her children still, to a certain
extent, a high-minded and great people. Yes, notwithstanding the misrule
of the brutal and sensual Austrian, the doting Bourbon, and, above all,
the spiritual tyranny of the court of Rome, Spain can still maintain her
own, fight her own combat, and Spaniards are not yet fanatic slaves and
crouching beggars. This is saying much, very much: she has undergone far
more than Naples had ever to bear, and yet the fate of Naples has not
been hers. There is still valour in Asturia, generosity in Aragon,
probity in Old Castile, and the peasant women of La Mancha can still
afford to place a silver fork and a showy napkin beside the plate of
their guest. Yes, in spite of Austrian, Bourbon, and Rome, there is
still a wide gulf between Spain and Naples.

Strange as it may sound, Spain is not a fanatic country. I know
something about her, and declare that she is not, nor has ever been:
Spain never changes. It is true that, for nearly two centuries, she was
the she-butcher, La Verduga, of malignant Rome; the chosen instrument for
carrying into effect the atrocious projects of that power; yet fanaticism
was not the spring which impelled her to the work of butchery: another
feeling, in her the predominant one, was worked upon--her fatal pride. It
was by humouring her pride that she was induced to waste her precious
blood and treasure in the Low Country wars, to launch the Armada, and to
many other equally insane actions. Love of Rome had ever slight
influence over her policy; but, flattered by the title of Gonfaloniera of
the Vicar of Jesus, and eager to prove herself not unworthy of the same,
she shut her eyes, and rushed upon her own destruction with the cry of
'Charge, Spain!'

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