understand why I break off. . . .

October.

When I arrived here I had not ten doubloons in my pocket. He would
indeed be a poor sort of leader who, in the midst of calamities he has
not been able to avert, has found means to feather his own nest. For
the vanquished Moor there remains a horse and the desert; for the
Christian foiled of his hopes, the cloister and a few gold pieces.

But my present resignation is mere weariness. I am not yet so near the
monastery as to have abandoned all thoughts of life. Ozalga had given
me several letters of introduction to meet all emergencies, amongst
these one to a bookseller, who takes with our fellow-countrymen the
place which Galignani holds with the English in Paris. This man has
found eight pupils for me at three francs a lesson. I go to my pupils
every alternate day, so that I have four lessons a day and earn twelve
francs, which is more than I require. When Urraca comes I shall make
some Spanish exile happy by passing on to him my connection.

I lodge in the Rue Hillerin-Bertin with a poor widow, who takes
boarders. My room faces south and looks out on a little garden. It is
perfectly quiet; I have green trees to look upon, and spend the sum of
one piastre a day. I am amazed at the amount of calm, pure pleasure
which I enjoy in this life, after the fashion of Dionysius at Corinth.
From sunrise until ten o'clock I smoke and take my chocolate, sitting
at my window and contemplating two Spanish plants, a broom which rises
out of a clump of jessamine--gold on a white ground, colors which must
send a thrill through any scion of the Moors. At ten o'clock I start
for my lessons, which last till four, when I return for dinner.