Do you know the history of Spain?"
Now, one might know the history of one's own country by heart;
but in the condition I was at the time, with troubled mind
and head quite lost, I could not have said a word of it.
"Well," continued Captain Nemo, "you heard my question!
Do you know the history of Spain?"
"Very slightly," I answered.
"Well, here are learned men having to learn," said the Captain.
"Come, sit down, and I will tell you a curious episode in this history.
Sir, listen well," said he; "this history will interest you on one side,
for it will answer a question which doubtless you have not been
able to solve."
"I listen, Captain," said I, not knowing what my interlocutor was driving at,
and asking myself if this incident was bearing on our projected flight.
"Sir, if you have no objection, we will go back to 1702. You cannot
be ignorant that your king, Louis XIV, thinking that the gesture
of a potentate was sufficient to bring the Pyrenees under his yoke,
had imposed the Duke of Anjou, his grandson, on the Spaniards.
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