 do at present, Luigi?  What are your prospects?

Luigi.—My prospects are a blank, Giorgio; my prospects are a blank.  I propose nothing but to die in Coruña, perhaps in the hospital, if they will admit me.  Years ago I thought of fleeing, even if I left all behind me, and either returning to England, or betaking myself to America; but it is too late now, Giorgio, it is too late.  When I first lost all hope, I took to drinking, to which I was never before inclined, and I am now what I suppose you see.

“There is hope in the Gospel,” said I, “even for you.  I will send you one.”

There is a small battery of the old town which fronts the east, and whose wall is washed by the waters of the bay.  It is a sweet spot, and the prospect which opens from it is extensive.  The battery itself may be about eighty yards square; some young trees are springing up about it, and it is rather a favourite resort of the people of Coruña.

In the centre of this battery stands the tomb of Moore, built by the chivalrous French, in commemoration of the fall of their heroic antagonist.  It is oblong and surmounted by a slab, and on either side bears one of the simple and sublime epitaphs for which our rivals are celebrated, and which stand in such powerful contrast with the bloated and bombastic inscriptions which deform the walls of Westminster Abbey:

“JOHN MOORE,
leader of the english armies,
slain in battle,
1809.”

The tomb itself is of marble, and around it is a quadrangular wall, breast high, of rough Gallegan granite; close to each corner rises from the earth the breech of an immense brass cannon, intended to keep the wall compact and close.  These outer erections are, however, not the work of the French, but of the English government.

Yes, there lies the hero, almost within sight of the glorious hill where he turned upon his pursuers like a lion at bay and terminated his career.  Many acquire immortality without seeking it, and die before its first ray has gilded their name; of these was Moore.  The harassed general, flying through Castile with his dispirited troops before a fierce and terrible enemy, little dreamed that he was on the point of attaining that for which many a better, greater, though certainly not braver man, had sighed in vain.  His very misfortunes were the means which secured him immortal fame; his disastrous route, bloody death, and finally his tomb on
