Note 13 — Chapter X
Reading edition
Spain is divided among three populations. First, the aristocracy, or blue blood: as Ford says, satirically, “The azure ichor of this élite of the earth is so called in contradistinction to common red blood, the puddle that flows in plebeian veins; while the blood of heretics, Lutherans, Protestants, and political enemies, is held by Spanish sangrados, or heralds, to be black, pitchy, and therefore combustible.” A Spaniard gave me the grades thus: blue blood, aristocratic; red blood, middle class; white blood, plebeian.