"I am no soldier," I thought to myself. "If they insist, I shall run away."
I went at once from the Alcaldía to the Ministry and called upon a Guipúzcoan politician, as my father had previously advised me to do; but the man was a political mastodon, puffed up with huge pretensions, who, perhaps, might have been a stevedore in any other country. So he did nothing. Finally, it occurred to me to go and see the Conde de Romanones, who had just been appointed Alcalde del Centro, having jurisdiction over the district.
When I entered his office, Romanones appeared to be in a jovial frame of mind. He wore a flower in his button-hole. Two persons were with him, one of whom was no other than the Secretary of the Board, my enemy.
I related what had happened to Romanones with great force. The Secretary then answered.
"The young man is right," said the Count. "Bring me the roll of the draft."
The roll was brought. Romanones took his pen and crossed my name off altogether. Then he turned to me with a smile:
I would willingly have been anything to have escaped becoming a soldier, and so be obliged to live in barracks, eat mess, and parade.
I failed in both June and September during the fourth year of my course, which was a mere matter of luck, as I neither applied myself more nor less than in previous years.
In the meantime my father had been transferred to Valencia, whither it seemed wise that I should remove to continue my studies.
I appeared at Valencia in January for a second examination in general pathology, and failed for the second time.
I began to consider giving up my intended profession.
I found that I had lost what little liking I had for it. As I had no friends in Valencia, I never left the house; I had nowhere to go. I passed my days stretched out on the roof, or, else, in reading. After debating long what I should do, and realizing fully that there was no one obvious plan to pursue, I determined to finish my course, committing the required subjects mechanically. After adopting this plan, I never failed once.
When I came up for graduation, the professors made an effort to put some obstacles in my way, which, however, were not sufficient to detain me.
Admitted as a physician, I decided next to study for the doctor's degree at Madrid.