They were little better than vast barracks for the
hereditary generations of hangers on, that battened at the expense
of a Spanish noble.
These patriarchal habits of the Spanish nobility have declined
with their revenues; though the spirit which prompted them remains,
and wars sadly with their altered fortunes. The poorest among them
have always some hereditary hangers on, who live at their expense, and
make them poorer. Some who, like my neighbor the count, retain a
modicum of their once princely possessions, keep up a shadow of the
ancient system, and their estates are overrun and the produce consumed
by generations of idle retainers.
The count held estates in various parts of the kingdom, some
including whole villages, yet the revenues collected from them were
comparatively small; some of them, he assured me, barely fed the
hordes of dependents nestled upon them, who seemed to consider
themselves entitled to live rent free and be maintained into the
bargain, because their forefathers had been so since time immemorial.
The saint's day of the old count gave me a glimpse into a Spanish
interior. For two or three days previous preparations were made for
the fete. Viands of all kinds were brought up from town, greeting
the olfactory nerves of the old invalid guards, as they were borne
past them through the Gate of Justice. Servants hurried officiously
about the courts; the ancient kitchen of the palace was again alive
with the tread of cooks and scullions, and blazed with unwonted fires.
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