The legend of the Alzates of Vera de Navarra relates that one Don
Rodrigo, master of the village in the fifteenth century, fell in love
with a daughter of the house of Urtubi, in France, near Urruna, and
married her. Don Rodrigo went to live in Urtubi and became so thoroughly
gallicized that he never cared to return to Spain, so the people of Vera
banded together, dispossessed him of his honours and dignity, and
sequestrated his lands.

In the early part of the nineteenth century, my great-grandfather,
Sebastian Ignacio de Alzate, was among those who assembled at Zubieta in
1813 to take part in the rebuilding of San Sebastian, and this great-
grandfather was uncle to Don Eugenio de Aviraneta, a good relative of
mine, protagonist of my latest books.

St. Francis Xavier, Don Teodosio de Goni, Pero Lopez de Ayala,
Aviraneta--a saint, a revered worthy, an historian, a conspirator--these
are our family gods.

Now let me take my stand with Chateaubriand as attaching no importance
to such things.




OUR HISTORY


Baroja is a hamlet in the province of Alava in the district of
Penacerrada. According to Fernandez Guerra, it is an Iberian name
derived from Asiatic Iberia. I believe that I have read in Campion that