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In fact, to read Señor Romero Robledo's discourses on these occasions, and the excellent articles in the newspaper which represents his views, El Nacional, one would imagine the Golden Age to have dawned for Spain.
His dress, or rather his undress, was somewhat shabby: he had a foraging cap on his head, and in lieu of a morning gown, he wore a sentinel's old great coat. "I am glad to make your acquaintance, senor nacional," said I to him, after his mother had departed, and Baltasar had taken his seat, and of course lighted a paper cigar at the brasero.
Then he burst into a laugh and said, 'My dear Hamilton, it's all very well to talk of the victor of San Felipe and the Dictator of Gloria. But the victor of San Felipe is the victim of the Plaza Nacional, and the Dictator of Gloria is at present but one inconsiderable item added to the exile world of London, one more of the many refugees who hide their heads here, and are unnoted and unknown.
Then the National asked for his passport: "I remembered having read that the best way to win a Spaniard's heart is to treat him with ceremonious civility. I therefore dismounted, and taking off my hat, made a low bow to the constitutional soldier, saying, 'Senor Nacional, you must know that I am an English gentleman travelling in this country for my pleasure.
But to that one Englishman standing there, moody in spite of the sunlight, the scene which his eyes saw was not the tranquil London street, but the Plaza Nacional of Gloria, red with blood, and 'cut up, in the painter's sense, with corpses. 'Shall I ever get back? Shall I ever get back? that was the burden to which his thoughts were dancing.
We made rather an imposing cavalcade as we filed forth from the great gate of the hotel, and took our way along the Calle Nacional, the principal street of the city, towards the Garita del Poniente.
One of the latter, facing the park on its western side, across the Prado, is now known as the Nacional. Formerly it was the Tacon, a monument to that notable man. There is quite a story about that structure. It is somewhat too long for inclusion here, but it seems worth telling. The following is an abridgment of the tale as it is told in Mr. Ballou's History of Cuba, published in 1854.
"How would you like a true Megsican dinair, Mees?" says Señor Noma, blinking a little as the liquid fire pours down his throat. "It ees not bad." "I should fancy it might be very interesting," I say. "Well, then, if Madama Steele and the ladies and zhentlemen present will do me so much honour I will await them at the Hotel Nacional at seven o'clock. I must now see a friend. Adios!"
'Gypsy gentleman, say I to one of them, 'what will you have for that donkey? 'I will have ten dollars for it, Caballero nacional, says the gypsy; 'it is the best donkey in all Spain. 'I should like to see its paces, say I. 'That you shall, most valorous! says the gypsy, and jumping upon its back, he puts it to its paces, first of all whispering something into its ears in Calo, and truly the paces of the donkey are most wonderful, such as I have never seen before.
El Nacional is also Conservative, but belonging to the party of Romero Robledo. What the exact politics of that variation of Conservatism might be, it is difficult, I might almost say impossible, for a stranger to say. If you were told nothing about it, and took it up accidentally to read of current events, you would certainly suppose it to be independent, with a decidedly Liberal tendency.
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