They Then Went To
His House And Pillaged It, And So Ill-Treated Madame, Who At That
Time Happened To Be Enceinte, That In A Few Hours She Expired.
"I tell you what, mon maitre, when I heard of the misfortune of
madame and the general, you would scarcely believe it, but I
actually shed tears, and was sorry that I had parted with them in
unkindness on account of that pernicious quail.
"Eh bien, mon maitre, nous poursuivrons notre histoire. The eldest
son, as I told you before, was a cavalry officer and a man of
resolution, and when he heard of the death of his father and
mother, he vowed revenge. Poor fellow! but what does he do but
desert, with two or three discontented spirits of his troop, and
going to the frontier of Galicia, he raised a small faction, and
proclaimed Don Carlos. For some little time he did considerable
damage to the liberals, burning and destroying their possessions,
and putting to death several nationals that fell into his hands.
However, this did not last long, his faction was soon dispersed,
and he himself taken and hanged, and his head stuck on a pole.
"Nous sommes deja presque au bout. When we arrived at the inn, the
young man took me above, as you saw, and there for some time he
could do nothing but weep and sob. His story is soon told:- he
returned from his travels, and the first intelligence which awaited
him on his arrival in Spain was, that his father was drowned, his
mother dead, and his brother hanged, and, moreover, all the
possessions of his family confiscated. This was not all: wherever
he went, he found himself considered in the light of a factious and
discontented person, and was frequently assailed by the nationals
with blows of sabres and cudgels. He applied to his relations, and
some of these, who were of the Carlist persuasion, advised him to
betake himself to the army of Don Carlos, and the Pretender
himself, who was a friend of his father, and remembered the
services of his brother, offered to give him a command in his army.
But, mon maitre, as I told you before, he was a pacific young
gentleman, and as mild as a lamb, and hated the idea of shedding
blood. He was, moreover, not of the Carlist opinion, for during
his studies he had read books written a long time ago by countrymen
of mine, all about republics and liberties, and the rights of man,
so that he was much more inclined to the liberal than the Carlist
system; he therefore declined the offer of Don Carlos, whereupon
all his relations deserted him, whilst the liberals hunted him from
one place to another like a wild beast. At last, he sold some
little property which still remained to him, and with the proceeds
he came to this remote place of Colunga, where no one knew him, and
where he has been residing for several months, in a most melancholy
manner, with no other amusement than that which he derives from a
book or two, or occasionally hunting a leveret with his spaniel.
"He asked me for counsel, but I had none to give him, and could
only weep with him. At last he said, 'Dear Antonio, I see there is
no remedy. You say your master is below, beg him, I pray, to stay
till to-morrow, and we will send for the maidens of the
neighbourhood, and for a violin and a bagpipe, and we will dance
and cast away care for a moment.' And then he said something in
old Greek, which I scarcely understood, but which I think was
equivalent to, 'Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we
die!'
"Eh bien, mon maitre, I told him that you were a serious gentleman
who never took any amusement, and that you were in a hurry.
Whereupon he wept again, and embraced me and bade me farewell. And
now, mon maitre, I have told you the history of the young man of
the inn."
We slept at Ribida de Sela, and the next day, at noon, arrived at
Llanes. Our route lay between the coast and an immense range of
mountains, which rose up like huge ramparts at about a league's
distance from the sea. The ground over which we passed was
tolerably level, and seemingly well cultivated. There was no lack
of vines and trees, whilst at short intervals rose the cortijos of
the proprietors, - square stone buildings surrounded with an outer
wall. Llanes is an old town, formerly of considerable strength.
In its neighbourhood is the convent of San Cilorio, one of the
largest monastic edifices in all Spain. It is now deserted, and
stands lone and desolate upon one of the peninsulas of the
Cantabrian shore. Leaving Llanes, we soon entered one of the most
dreary and barren regions imaginable, a region of rock and stone,
where neither grass nor trees were to be seen. Night overtook us
in these places. We wandered on, however, until we reached a small
village, termed Santo Colombo. Here we passed the night, in the
house of a carabineer of the revenue, a tall athletic figure who
met us at the gate armed with a gun. He was a Castilian, and with
all that ceremonious formality and grave politeness for which his
countrymen were at one time so celebrated. He chid his wife for
conversing with her handmaid about the concerns of the house before
us. "Barbara," said he, "this is not conversation calculated to
interest the strange cavaliers; hold your peace, or go aside with
the muchacha." In the morning he refused any remuneration for his
hospitality. "I am a caballero," said he, "even as yourselves. It
is not my custom to admit people into my house for the sake of
lucre. I received you because you were benighted and the posada
distant."
Rising early in the morning, we pursued our way through a country
equally stony and dreary as that which we had entered upon the
preceding day.
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