The Chamber In Which I Was Lodged Stood At The End Of
An Immensely Long Corridor, Of The Kind So Admirably Described In
The Wondrous Tale Of Udolfo.
For a day or two after my arrival I
believed myself to be the only lodger in the house.
One morning,
however, I beheld a strange-looking old man seated in the corridor,
by one of the windows, reading intently in a small thick volume.
He was clad in garments of coarse blue cloth, and wore a loose
spencer over a waistcoat adorned with various rows of small buttons
of mother of pearl; he had spectacles upon his nose. I could
perceive, notwithstanding he was seated, that his stature bordered
upon the gigantic. "Who is that person?" said I to the landlord,
whom I presently met; "is he also a guest of yours?" "Not exactly,
Don Jorge de mi alma," replied he, "I can scarcely call him a
guest, inasmuch as I gain nothing by him, though he is staying at
my house. You must know, Don Jorge, that he is one of two priests
who officiate at a large village at some slight distance from this
place. So it came to pass, that when the soldiers of Gomez entered
the village, his reverence went to meet them, dressed in full
canonicals, with a book in his hand, and he, at their bidding,
proclaimed Carlos Quinto in the market-place. The other priest,
however, was a desperate liberal, a downright negro, and upon him
the royalists laid their hands, and were proceeding to hang him.
His reverence, however, interfered, and obtained mercy for his
colleague, on condition that he should cry Viva Carlos Quinto!
which the latter did in order to save his life. Well; no sooner
had the royalists departed from these parts than the black priest
mounts his mule, comes to Cordova, and informs against his
reverence, notwithstanding that he had saved his life. So his
reverence was seized and brought hither to Cordova, and would
assuredly have been thrown into the common prison as a Carlist, had
I not stepped forward and offered to be surety that he should not
quit the place, but should come forward at any time to answer
whatever charge might be brought against him; and he is now in my
house, though guest I cannot call him, for he is not of the
slightest advantage to me, as his very food is daily brought from
the country, and that consists only of a few eggs and a little milk
and bread. As for his money, I have never seen the colour of it,
notwithstanding they tell me that he has buenas pesetas. However,
he is a holy man, is continually reading and praying and is,
moreover, of the right opinion. I therefore keep him in my house,
and would be bail for him were he twenty times more of a skinflint
than he seems to be."
The next day, as I was again passing through the corridor, I
observed the old man in the same place, and saluted him.
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