The life and letters of Washington Irving . state of siege, and in hourly expec-tation of a general assault. He had,as we have seen, recovered sufficient-ly from his tantalizing malady to beable to go about on foot, and felt soextremely interested and excited dur-ing the crisis, that he could not keepin the house day or night. I salliedout with as much eagerness, hewrites, as, when a boy, I used tobreak bounds, and sally forth at mid-night to see a fire. What added, no doubt, to his excitement,was that his residence was not far from the gate of Alcala, aboutwhich most of the skirmishing took p
The life and letters of Washington Irving . state of siege, and in hourly expec-tation of a general assault. He had,as we have seen, recovered sufficient-ly from his tantalizing malady to beable to go about on foot, and felt soextremely interested and excited dur-ing the crisis, that he could not keepin the house day or night. I salliedout with as much eagerness, hewrites, as, when a boy, I used tobreak bounds, and sally forth at mid-night to see a fire. What added, no doubt, to his excitement,was that his residence was not far from the gate of Alcala, aboutwhich most of the skirmishing took place. He states that he couldsee the flash of fire-arms from his window, and was often rousedfrom sleep by the report of them in the night. The consequenceof this exposure and fatigue to one who had hardly yet regainedthe use of his legs, was a relapse. We have seen, in a former letter, that when preparationswere made for a last stand at the palace, in case the city should becarried by assault, he had joined with the rest of the Diplomatic. Katrina Van Tassel. 22 LIFE AND LETTERS OF WASHINGTON IRVING. Corps in an offer to repair thither, and be near the Queen in thehour of danger. In the following letter, written after the event ofthe siege and the catastrophe of Esparteros regency, who hadbeen driven from the country by a successful insurrection, heenters into some particulars of his agency in proposing the diplo-matic intervention, and the motives which prompted the letter is to Mrs. Paris, is dated August loth, and, besides thetheme to which I have referred, contains other interesting andstriking details of the royal drama of which he was a spectator. . . I see the French and English papers have published incor-rect accounts of an interposition of the corps diplomatique in relation tothe safety of the little Queen and her sister, in case of the city beingcarried by storm. I am represented by some as having prepared a noteunder the direction of the French Chargd d A
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