111
S. de la Nuez y J. Schraibman, Cartas del archivo de Pérez Galdós (Madrid, 1967), 53. Unamuno wrote from Salamanca, 30 November 1898:
112
A. Ghiraldo, Obras inéditas de B. Pérez Galdós (Madrid, 1923), 1, 28-38, and W. H. Shoemaker, Las cartas desconocidas de Galdós en «La Prensa» de Buenos Aires (Madrid, 1973), 109-113.
113
S. Ortega, Cartas a Galdós (Madrid, 1964), 195: «Se le aviso por si quiere V. acompañarme, o darme algún encargo relativo a eso que perjeña o plumea.»
114
At the end of the manuscript Galdós wrote «Luchana, enero-febrero 1899», but the novel was finished around the middle of March. See Guimerá Peraza, op. cit., 68.
115
Appendix, 41, (i). Unfortunately, the maps referred to in the letter were not to be found in the archive.
116
Appendix, 41, (ii). The unit of currency in the novel is the real (OC, II, 1221a and elsewhere). Eguia's disability is mentioned twice (OC, II, 1205a and 1206a).
117
Appendix, 42, (iii).
118
P. Bush, op. cit., 311-13. The author of the letter was Pedro Pascual Uhagón, who appears in the final chapter of the novel as a friend of Calpena. He tells Espartero of the happiness of his «pobres chimbos» at the victory (OC, II, 1257). It is a matter of speculation whether Galdós had made the link between the letter and Uhagón. Perhaps a mutual friend (Pereda?) knew about the author of the letter and had answered the questions which he had posed to Gorbeña and which Gorbeña was so long in answering (Appendix, 43, (iv)). Why else should he suddenly introduce Uhagón who is not mentioned in the historical accounts of the siege which Galdós read? The letter from Gorbeña does at least show that the letter appealed to Galdós' imagination. It was written in the summer when Galdós was writing La estafeta romántica. Uhagón next appears in the Third Series in this novel (OC, III, 42b).
119
The three-volume work was written «bajo la dirección de don José Segundo Flórez» (Madrid, 1843-45).
120
Galdós supplemented Flórez with two other works. He read the Bosquejo o Memoria de los Sitios Segundos y Terceros sufridos por la Heroica Villa de Bilbao by Zenón de Garayo. This is another liberal work, describing in some detail the shelling and destruction of the city and «la memorable resistencia de la heroica Bilbao». By the description of the final stages of the battle, Galdós wrote «júbilo del pueblo de Bilbao». Like Uhagón's letter, it confirmed his vision of the heroic liberal populace. The work, written in 1836, is not included in the list of sourcebooks given by R. Cardona, op. cit., 123-27. He also used the third volume of Pirala's Historia de la guerra civil, mainly for important facts omitted by Flórez. There are in the archive his notes on the individual members of the juntas leading the defence of the city. In the novel, these names are translated in the fictional portrayal of the upper echelons of the society under siege. See P. Bush, op. cit., 314 and A. Pirala, Historia de la guerra civil y de los partidos liberal y carlista (Madrid, 1869), 491, note 2.