I Was Pitched Forward Into The
Dirt, And The Drunken Driver Fell Upon The Murdered Mule.
I was in a great rage, and cried, "You drunken renegade, who are
ashamed to speak the language of
Your own country, you have broken
the staff of your existence, and may now starve." "Paciencia,"
said he, and began kicking the head of the mule, in order to make
it rise; but I pushed him down, and taking his knife, which had
fallen from his pocket, cut the bands by which it was attached to
the carriage, but life had fled, and the film of death had begun to
cover its eyes.
The fellow, in the recklessness of intoxication, seemed at first
disposed to make light of his loss, saying, "The mule is dead, it
was God's will that she should die, what more can be said?
Paciencia." Meanwhile, I despatched Antonio to the town for the
purpose of hiring mules, and, having taken my baggage from the
chaise, waited on the roadside until he should arrive.
The fumes of the liquor began now to depart from the fellow's
brain; he clasped his hands and exclaimed, "Blessed Virgin, what is
to become of me? How am I to support myself? Where am I to get
another mule! For my mule, my best mule is dead, she fell upon the
road, and died of a sudden! I have been in France, and in other
countries, and have seen beasts of all kinds, but such a mule as
that I have never seen; but she is dead - my mule is dead - she fell
upon the road and died of a sudden!" He continued in this strain
for a considerable time, and the burden of his lamentation was
always, "My mule is dead, she fell upon the road, and died of a
sudden." At length he took the collar from the creature's neck,
and put it upon the other, which with some difficulty he placed in
the shafts.
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