As I have said, my father was a mining engineer, but during the war he
was engaged in teaching natural history at the Institute. I have no idea
how this came about. He was also one of the Liberal volunteers.
I have a vague idea that one night I was taken from my bed, wrapped up
in a mantle, and carried to a chalet on the Concha, belonging to one
Errazu, who was a relative of my mother's. We lived there for a time in
the cellar of the chalet.
Three shells, which were known in those days as cucumbers, dropped on
the house, and wrecked the roof, making a great hole in the wall which
separated our garden from the next.
MONSIGNOR, THE CAT
Monsignor was a handsome yellow cat belonging to us while we were living
in the cellar of Senor Errazu's chalet.
From what I have since learned, his name was a tribute to the
extraordinary reputation enjoyed at that period by Monsignor Simeoni.
Monsignor--I am referring to the yellow cat--was intelligent. A bell
surmounted the Castillo de la Mota at San Sebastian, by whose side was
stationed a look-out. When the look-out spied the flash of Carlist guns,
he rang the bell, and then the townspeople retired into the doorways and
cellars.
Monsignor was aware of the relation of the bell to the cannonading, so
when the bell rang, he promptly withdrew into the house, even going so
far sometimes as to creep under the beds.
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