Communicating With This Apartment
Was A Wooden Gallery, Open To The Air, Which Led To A Small
Chamber, In Which I Was Destined To Sleep, And Which Contained An
Old-Fashioned Tester-Bed With Curtains.
It was just one of those
inns which romance writers are so fond of introducing in their
descriptions, especially when the scene of adventure lies in Spain.
The host was a talkative Asturian.
The wind still howled, and the rain descended in torrents. I sat
before the fire in a very drowsy state, from which I was presently
aroused by the conversation of the host. "Senor," said he, "it is
now three years since I beheld foreigners in my house. I remember
it was about this time of the year, and just such a night as this,
that two men on horseback arrived here. What was singular, they
came without any guide. Two more strange-looking individuals I
never yet beheld with eye-sight. I shall never forget them. The
one was as tall as a giant, with much tawny moustache, like the
coat of a badger, growing about his mouth. He had a huge ruddy
face, and looked dull and stupid, as he no doubt was, for when I
spoke to him, he did not seem to understand, and answered in a
jabber, valgame Dios! so wild and strange, that I remained staring
at him with mouth and eyes open. The other was neither tall nor
red-faced, nor had he hair about his mouth, and, indeed, he had
very little upon his head. He was very diminutive, and looked like
a jorobado (hunchback); but, valgame Dios! such eyes, like wild
cats', so sharp and full of malice. He spoke as good Spanish as I
myself do, and yet he was no Spaniard. A Spaniard never looked
like that man. He was dressed in a zamarra, with much silver and
embroidery, and wore an Andalusian hat, and I soon found that he
was master, and that the other was servant.
"Valgame Dios! what an evil disposition had that same foreign
jorobado, and yet he had much grace, much humour, and said
occasionally to me such comical things, that I was fit to die of
laughter. So he sat down to supper in the room above, and I may as
well tell you here, that he slept in the same chamber where your
worship will sleep to-night, and his servant waited behind his
chair. Well, I had curiosity, so I sat myself down at the table
too, without asking leave. Why should I? I was in my own house,
and an Asturian is fit company for a king, and is often of better
blood. Oh, what a strange supper was that. If the servant made
the slightest mistake in helping him, up would start the jorobado,
jump upon his chair, and seizing the big giant by the hair, would
cuff him on both sides of the face, till I was afraid his teeth
would have fallen out. The giant, however, did not seem to care
about it much. He was used to it, I suppose. Valgame Dios! if he
had been a Spaniard, he would not have submitted to it so
patiently. But what surprised me most was, that after beating his
servant, the master would sit down, and the next moment would begin
conversing and laughing with him as if nothing had happened, and
the giant also would laugh and converse with his master, for all
the world as if he had not been beaten.
"You may well suppose, Senor, that I understood nothing of their
discourse, for it was all in that strange unchristian tongue in
which the giant answered me when I spoke to him; the sound of it is
still ringing in my ears. It was nothing like other languages.
Not like Bascuen, not like the language in which your worship
speaks to my namesake Signor Antonio here. Valgame Dios! I can
compare it to nothing but the sound a person makes when he rinses
his mouth with water. There is one word which I think I still
remember, for it was continually proceeding from the giant's lips,
but his master never used it.
"But the strangest part of the story is yet to be told. The supper
was ended, and the night was rather advanced, the rain still beat
against the windows, even as it does at this moment. Suddenly the
jorobado pulled out his watch. Valgame Dios! such a watch! I will
tell you one thing, Senor, that I could purchase all the Asturias,
and Muros besides, with the brilliants which shone about the sides
of that same watch: the room wanted no lamp, I trow, so great was
the splendour which they cast. So the jorobado looked at his
watch, and then said to me, I shall go to rest. He then took the
lamp and went through the gallery to his room, followed by his big
servant. Well, Senor, I cleared away the things, and then waited
below for the servant, for whom I had prepared a comfortable bed,
close by my own. Senor, I waited patiently for an hour, till at
last my patience was exhausted, and I ascended to the supper
apartment, and passed through the gallery till I came to the door
of the strange guest. Senor, what do you think I saw at the door?"
"How should I know?" I replied. "His riding boots perhaps."
"No, Senor, I did not see his riding boots; but, stretched on the
floor with his head against the door, so that it was impossible to
open it without disturbing him, lay the big servant fast asleep,
his immense legs reaching nearly the whole length of the gallery.
I crossed myself, as well I might, for the wind was howling even as
it is now, and the rain was rushing down into the gallery in
torrents; yet there lay the big servant fast asleep, without any
covering, without any pillow, not even a log, stretched out before
his master's door.
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