CHAPTER XXII.

STILL AT SEVILLE-LITERARY PLANS AND PURSUITS-LETTER TO PETER-LETTER TO PRINCE DOLGORCUKI-RECEIVES DIPLOMA OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF HISTORY-LETTER TO PETER-THE BOLIVAR SHARES, AND WHAT BECAME OF THEM-LETTER TO ALEXANDER H. EVERETT-THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONHIS IMPRESSIONS OF ANDREW JACKSON-REASON FOR ADOPTING A NOM DE GUERRE FOR THE CONQUEST OF GRANADA-EXTRACTS FROM DIARY-LETTER TO PETER-LONGING DESIRE TO RETURN TO AMERICA-UNPUBLISHED CHRONICLES-LETTERS TO PETER-PUBLICATION OF CHRONICLES OF GRANADALETTER TO ALEXANDER II. EVERETT — LETTER TO PETER-ABOUT TO LEAVE SEVILLE FOR GRANADA.

THE period of Mr. Irving's sojourning at Seville,

where he had been since the third of November, was continued through the months of January, February, March and April; a visit to the Barbary States which he had meditated in the interim, having failed of its accomplishment. In pursuance of the purpose which I keep steadily in view, to make the author his own biographer, I intermingle some passages from his letters and diary, which will illustrate in his own words his life and literary plans and pursuits during these four months.

[To Peter Irving, at Havre.]

MY DEAR BROTHER:

SEVILLE, Jan. 3, 1829.

I shall endeavor to get up the chronicle of the invasion as soon as possible. The fag at the abridgment has rather thrown. me out of the writing mood for a little while, but the fit is reviving. *

* *

In my last I mentioned my having received a letter from Allan Cunningham, begging me to furnish him with a short sketch and tale, or either one, for a yearly miscellany to be published next autumn, similar to the German almanacs. I have not yet replied, for I fear to crowd myself with work. Yet I remember Cunningham for a worthy, pleasant, clever man. He is a friend of Wilkie's, and his miseellany is to be illustrated by engravings from Wilkie, Newton & Leslie. I shall endeavor to prepare something for him.* I feel anxious to make the most of my present sunshine, but the very anxiety agitates me, and I feel at times a little perplexed what to take hold of.

[DIARY.]

January 3d.-Write part of story of Enchanted Soldier of the Alhambra.

Wednesday 7th.-Finished in a lame way the story of Enchanted Soldier.

Saturday 10th.-Write a little at the tales of the Alhambra -write to Prince Dolgorouki and to Don Diego Clemencia.

MY DEAR DOLGOROUKI

SEVILLE, Jan. 10, 1829.

I am very greatly obliged to you for your attention in forwarding me the diploma of the Royal Academy of History,

* He sent Cunningham "The Widow's Ordeal."

and will thank you to remit the enclosed reply to Don Diego Clemencia, the Secretary. * * * I feel very sensibly the compliment which the Royal Academy has paid me in making me a member, and should like to know to what member's proposition I am indebted for the measure.*

I fear my chronicle of the Conquest of Granada will not answer the high anticipations you appear to entertain of it. I have been hazarding a kind of experiment in literature, and the success is in some degree a matter of chance. The Conquest of Granada has hitherto been a fertile theme for tales of romance and chivalry; in the account I have given of it, there is nothing of love or gallantry, and the chivalry is the chivalry of actual life, as it existed at the time, exhibited in rugged and daring enterprises and rough, hard fighting. I have depicted the war as I found it in the old chronicles, a stern, iron conflict, more marked by bigotry than courtesy, and by wild and daring exploits of fierce soldiery, than the gallant contests of courteous cavaliers. However, the work will soon be published, and then you will be able to judge of its merits; but do not indulge in high expectations nor form any romantic idea of its nature.

I am sorry I cannot give a good account of myself for some weeks past. I have done little or nothing. I believe I overworked myself in preparing the Abridgment, a great part of which I had also to copy in a hurry to get it ready for a ship about sailing. For some time after I was quite out of order, and was threatened with a return of the malady that once afflicted me in consequence of a similar fit of vivid excitement

* The proposition came from Navarrete.

and application. Spots appeared on my skin in various places, and I thought I should have had to take baths; but fortunately all have passed away, and I am in good health. I cannot, however, get myself fairly and warmly at work. I have sketched two or three light tales, and have written a few of the early chapters of Don Roderick, but feebly and unsatisfactorily. I shall soon, however, get in train again. The mind ebbs and flows in these matters like the tide. * * *

I wish a thousand times you could be here to pass the winter with me. This climate, throughout the greater part of the year, would exactly suit you. There is almost perpetual sunshine. For the last five weeks I have had fire in my room, but there is very little occasion for it. We make occasional parties into the country; chiefly to St. Juan de Alfarache, a convent situated on the site of a famous old Moorish castle, about two miles from Seville. It is on the brow of a hill, commanding a beautiful view of the city, the windings of the Guadalquivir and the distant mountains of Ronda, &c. Here we dined on the grass in the open air on the third of January. The country looks as fresh and green, and the air is as soft and genial as in the month of May in other countries. On last Sunday we had a little junketing party at a country seat about three miles from this, and I cannot tell you how delicious it was to ramble about the fields and gardens. In fact, you have in this country for eight months of the year the delightful temperature of spring; excepting that the sun at midday is apt to be too powerful even in the winter.

I am sorry to find he has

I had letters lately from paid two more dividends on my shares of 15s. each, which makes the cost of the shares amount to £30 each. He says he has written to you fully on the subject. Do give it a

thought, and decide for me. I am content to lose all that I have paid, so that I can get completely exonerated. These demands always produce an indignation and irritation of spirit, that no profit can compensate for.

*

This last allusion refers to his unfortunate investment in the Bolivar mines, made at Paris in 1825, and which had ever since remained without productive value, while his resources were tasked to meet the recurring demands for new assessments. He subsequently preferred to forfeit the shares rather than submit to further exactions of the kind, sinking in this adventure, and the "shipments" before glanced at, more than the entire profits of the English edition of the Life and Voyages of Columbus.

The following is in reply to a letter of Mr. Everett, received on the 10th, giving him the result of the Presidential election, in which Andrew Jackson received 178 votes; John Quincy Adams 83.

[To Mr. Alexander H. Everett.]

MY DEAR SIR:

SEVILLE, Feb. 14, 1829.

Your statement of the relative number of votes for General Jackson and Mr. Adams quite surprises me. It shows how fallacious are all calculations upon the humor of the people, since many of our electioneering astrologers were confident in their predictions that Mr. Adams would be reëlected. I was rather sorry when Mr. Adams was first raised to the presi dency, but I am much more so at his being displaced; for he has made a far better president than I expected, and I am