" They were all content - like pirates - to go around demanding favours as if this were their right; and all of them of course claimed to have the blood of the Goths flowing in their veins; and all were in pursuit of the dream nurtured by every Spaniard: to live without doing a stroke of work, to pay no taxes and to swagger about with a sword at their belt and a cross embroidered on their doublet. "

― Arturo Pérez-Reverte , El caballero del jubón amarillo (Las aventuras del capitán Alatriste, #5)