"Perhaps unjustly," said he.

"Why, to look no further into their short-comings and back-slidings,
to use Moodie's terms, have they not signally failed in the first duty
of a nation, defending itself?"

"Remember the combination of fatalities that beset them," said L'Isle,
"and the atrocious perfidy that aggravated their misfortunes. Both
countries were left suddenly without rulers, distracted by a score of
contending _juntas_, to resist a great nation, under a government of
matchless energy, the most perfectly organized for the attainment of
its object, which is not the good of its subjects, but solely the
developement, to the uttermost, of its military power. They at once
sunk before it, showing us how completely the vices of governments,
and yet more, the sudden absence of all government, can paralyze a
nation. But they have since somewhat redeemed their reputation, by
many an example of heroism."

"Why did not the nation, as one man, imitate the heroes of Zaragoza
and Gerona, and wage, like them, war to the knife's point against the
infidel and murderous horde of invaders?" exclaimed Lady Mabel, with a
flushed cheek and flashing eye, that would have become Augustina
Zaragoza herself.

"Because every man is not a hero, nor in a position to play a hero's
part. Spain was betrayed and surprised. The invaders came in the guise
of friends, under the faith of treaties, by which the flower of the
Spanish army had been marched into remote parts of Europe as allies to
the French; nor was the mask thrown off until long after it was