My uncle, when he was only an acolyte, was certain he would become a cardinal, and he succeeded.

I shall rise much faster.

Besides, you know that to be an archbishop of Toledo is not a small thing.

My uncle has many friends in the palace, and commands in the ministry of war just as though he were a general.

In point of fact he is far more a soldier than a cleric! And to prove it to you, there is the only thing he has ever written, a prayer to the Virgin for the soldiers to recite before they go into action." "And you, Juanito, do you really feel any vocation for a military life ?" "A great deal--ever since I knew how to open books and read them I have wished to rival those great captains that I saw in the prints, erect on their horses, with swords in their hands, proud and handsome.
Believe me, no one enters on this career without a vocation; many are entered in the seminaries against their will, but no one can make a soldier by force; anyone who comes to the academy has the longing in himself." "And are all of them as sure of the result as you are ?" "Oh, yes; all," said the cardinal's nephew smiling, "except that the immense majority have not such probabilities of making a name.
But, such as we are, there is not one amongst us who dreams of the possibility of vegetating as a captain in a reserve regiment, or of dying of old age as a commandant.