By the four
sides; he is not used to the ways of this barbarous country." "Oh,
he is a Cordovese," said the voice, "vaya, I did not know that; I
am from Cordova myself. Pobrecito! let me pat him - yes, I know by
his coat that he is my countryman - shoot him, indeed! vaya, I would
fain see the Gallegan devil who would dare to harm him. Barbarous
country, io lo creo: neither oil nor olives, bread nor barley.
You have been at Cordova. Vaya; oblige me, cavalier, by taking
this cigar."
In this manner we proceeded for several hours, up hill and down
dale, but generally at a very slow pace. The soldiers who escorted
us from time to time sang patriotic songs, breathing love and
attachment to the young Queen Isabel, and detestation of the grim
tyrant Carlos. One of the stanzas which reached my ears, ran
something in the following style:-
"Don Carlos is a hoary churl,
Of cruel heart and cold;
But Isabel's a harmless girl,
Of only six years old."
At last the day began to break, and I found myself amidst a train
of two or three hundred people, some on foot, but the greater part
mounted, either on mules or the pony mares:
