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Updated: June 3, 2025
The day was one that he never forgot, and he was glad to link it with a domestic occurrence so happy and so fortunate. Sometimes silently, sometimes with a few words to his boys, he had always, on this festival, drank his glass of fine Xeres to the honor and glory of the land he loved. This day he spoke her name proudly.
A letter from him to Sir Richard Fanshawe, dated at Xeres, 1st June 1664, occurs among the Original Letters of Sir Richard Fanshawe, printed in 1701, page 102; and in his correspondence with Lord Arlington, in the British Museum, he thus alluded to him: MADRID, 3rd June, 1666, stilo loci. "Lord Dongan intends to set forth from this Court to England upon Friday next." Harl. MS. 7010, f. 274.
He made a hasty levy of his retainers and of the fighting men of Xeres, and hurried off with three hundred horse and two hundred foot, all resolute men and panting for revenge. In the mean time, the veteran Bexir had accomplished his march, as he imagined, undiscovered.
In the interior of Spain, about one hundred and thirty miles southwest of Madrid, there is the small walled town of Xeres. It is remote from all great routes of travel, and contains about nine thousand inhabitants, living very frugally, and in a state of primitive simplicity. There are several rude castles of the ancient nobility here, and numerous gloomy, monastic institutions.
Immediately on receiving his commission, Cortes used the utmost activity in preparing for the expedition; and though already much embarrassed with debts, through his own extravagance and the expensive dress and establishment of his wife, he procured the advance of 4000 crowns in money and as much in goods, on the security of his estate, from Jeronymo Tria and Pedro de Xeres, two merchants, who considered him as rising in the world, and a favourite of fortune.
His name is unknown to me, but I could tell he was English from his manner of speaking. The Colonel had an English friend who spoke so one engaged in the sherry in Xeres. 'Ah yes! And this Englishman, what was he like? 'He was very tall and straight, like a soldier, and had a moustache quite light in colour, like straw. 'Ah yes. The English are so. And he left a letter? 'Yes, reverendo.
It was the Colonel Monreal of Xeres a good man, reverendo, but a politician. 'Ah! 'Yes, and he was murdered, as your reverence has no doubt seen in the newspapers. A week ago it was the day that the Englishman came with a letter. 'What Englishman was that? inquired Father Concha, brushing some grains of snuff from his sleeve. 'What Englishman was that, my child? 'Oh, I do not know!
So they sat long over the sweetmeats, and fresh figs, and the pale wines of Xeres and Alicante. And they rose up with laughter, looking into each others' faces with eyes that seemed to bespeak love and remembrance. And then they went from the table, and saw not Destiny standing cold and pitiless behind them, marking two places for evermore vacant. There was not much siesta that day.
'Let his Excellency stay here and drink a glass of wine at this venta, said Concepcion. 'Alone, I shall be able to get information without attracting attention. And then, in the name of the saints, let us shake the dust of Xeres off our feet. The first thing we see is steel, and I do not like it. I have a wife in Algeciras to whom I am much attached, and I am afraid yes, afraid.
Unaided, he might have gone on forever, to the bottom of a butt of Xeres wine; but finding the second glass better than the first, he called to Mrs. Jellicorse, who was in the garden gathering striped roses, to come and have a sip with him, and taste the yellow cherries.
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