Thanks be to God, those times are
past, and I hope they will never return."
Once, as we were walking through the streets of Saint James, he
stopped before a church and looked at it attentively. As there was
nothing remarkable in the appearance of this edifice, I asked him
what motive he had for taking such notice of it. "In the days of
the friars," said he, "this church was one of refuge, to which if
the worst criminals escaped, they were safe. All were protected
there save the negros, as they called us liberals." "Even
murderers, I suppose?" said I. "Murderers!" he answered, "far
worse criminals than they. By the by, I have heard that you
English entertain the utmost abhorrence of murder. Do you in
reality consider it a crime of very great magnitude?" "How should
we not," I replied; "for every other crime some reparation can be
made; but if we take away life, we take away all. A ray of hope
with respect to this world may occasionally enliven the bosom of
any other criminal, but how can the murderer hope?" "The friars
were of another way of thinking," replied the old man; "they always
looked upon murder as a friolera; but not so the crime of marrying
your first cousin without dispensation, for which, if we believe
them, there is scarcely any atonement either in this world or the
next."
Two or three days after this, as we were seated in my apartment in
the posada, engaged in conversation, the door was opened by
Antonio, who, with a smile on his countenance, said that there was
a foreign GENTLEMAN below, who desired to speak with me. "Show him
up," I replied; whereupon almost instantly appeared Benedict Mol.
"This is a most extraordinary person," said I to the bookseller.
"You Galicians, in general, leave your country in quest of money;
he, on the contrary, is come hither to find some."
Rey Romero. - And he is right. Galicia is by nature the richest
province in Spain, but the inhabitants are very stupid, and know
not how to turn the blessings which surround them to any account;
but as a proof of what may be made out of Galicia, see how rich the
Catalans become who have settled down here and formed
establishments. There are riches all around us, upon the earth and
in the earth.
Benedict. - Ow yaw, in the earth, that is what I say. There is much
more treasure below the earth than above it.
Myself. - Since I last saw you, have you discovered the place in
which you say the treasure is deposited?
Benedict. - O yes, I know all about it now. It is buried 'neath the
sacristy in the church of San Roque.
Myself. - How have you been able to make that discovery?
Benedict. - I will tell you: the day after my arrival I walked
about all the city in quest of the church, but could find none
which at all answered to the signs which my comrade who died in the
hospital gave me. I entered several, and looked about, but all in
vain; I could not find the place which I had in my mind's eye. At
last the people with whom I lodge, and to whom I told my business,
advised me to send for a meiga.
Myself. - A meiga! What is that?
Benedict. - Ow! a haxweib, a witch; the Gallegos call them so in
their jargon, of which I can scarcely understand a word. So I
consented, and they sent for the meiga. Och! what a weib is that
meiga! I never saw such a woman; she is as large as myself, and
has a face as round and red as the sun. She asked me a great many
questions in her Gallegan, and when I had told her all she wanted
to know, she pulled out a pack of cards and laid them on the table
in a particular manner, and then she said that the treasure was in
the church of San Roque; and sure enough, when I went to that
church, it answered in every respect to the signs of my comrade who
died in the hospital. O she is a powerful hax, that meiga; she is
well known in the neighbourhood, and has done much harm to the
cattle. I gave her half the dollar I had from you for her trouble.
Myself. - Then you acted like a simpleton; she has grossly deceived
you. But even suppose that the treasure is really deposited in the
church you mention, it is not probable that you will be permitted
to remove the floor of the sacristy to search for it.
Benedict. - Ow, the matter is already well advanced. Yesterday I
went to one of the canons to confess myself and to receive
absolution and benediction; not that I regard these things much,
but I thought this would be the best means of broaching the matter,
so I confessed myself, and then I spoke of my travels to the canon,
and at last I told him of the treasure, and proposed that if he
assisted me we should share it between us. Ow, I wish you had seen
him; he entered at once into the affair, and said that it might
turn out a very profitable speculation: and he shook me by the
hand, and said that I was an honest Swiss and a good Catholic. And
I then proposed that he should take me into his house and keep me
there till we had an opportunity of digging up the treasure
together. This he refused to do.
Rey Romero.
