… honour eternal is due to the BRAVE AND NOBLE PEOPLE OF SPAIN, worthy of better rulers and a better fortune! And now that the jobs and intrigues of their juntas, the misconduct and incapacity of their generals, are sinking into the deserved obscurity of oblivion, the national resistance rises nobly out of the ridiculous details… That resistance was indeed wild, disorganized, undisciplined and Algerine, but it held out to Europe an example which was not shown by the civilized Italian or intellectual German.
RICHARD FORD
Handbook for Travellers in Spain and Readers at Home. London, 1845