He Received It Without Uttering A Single Word, And
Placed It On One Of The Shelves Of His Study; But
I observed him
nodding significantly to the Irish student, perhaps as much as to
say, "Your friend loses no opportunity
Of propagating his book";
for he was well aware who I was. I shall not speedily forget the
truly good presbyter, Anthonio Garcia de Aguilar, Cura of Pitiegua.
We reached Pedroso shortly before nightfall. It was a small
village containing about thirty houses, and intersected by a
rivulet, or as it is called a regata. On its banks women and
maidens were washing their linen and singing couplets; the church
stood lone and solitary on the farther side. We inquired for the
posada, and were shown a cottage differing nothing from the rest in
general appearance. We called at the door in vain, as it is not
the custom of Castile for the people of these halting places to go
out to welcome their visitors: at last we dismounted and entered
the house, demanding of a sullen-looking woman where we were to
place the horses. She said there was a stable within the house,
but we could not put the animals there as it contained malos machos
(savage mules) belonging to two travellers who would certainly
fight with our horses, and then there would be a funcion, which
would tear the house down. She then pointed to an outhouse across
the way, saying that we could stable them there. We entered this
place, which we found full of filth and swine, with a door without
a lock. I thought of the fate of the cura's mule, and was
unwilling to trust the horses in such a place, abandoning them to
the mercy of any robber in the neighbourhood. I therefore entered
the house, and said resolutely, that I was determined to place them
in the stable. Two men were squatted on the ground, with an
immense bowl of stewed hare before them, on which they were
supping; these were the travelling merchants, the masters of the
mutes. I passed on to the stable, one of the men saying softly,
"Yes, yes, go in and see what will befall." I had no sooner
entered the stable than I heard a horrid discordant cry, something
between a bray and a yell, and the largest of the machos, tearing
his head from the manger to which he was fastened, his eyes
shooting flames, and breathing a whirlwind from his nostrils, flung
himself on my stallion. The horse, as savage as himself, reared on
his hind legs, and after the fashion of an English pugilist, repaid
the other with a pat on the forehead, which nearly felled him. A
combat instantly ensued, and I thought that the words of the sullen
woman would be verified by the house being torn to pieces. It
ended by my seizing the mute by the halter, at the risk of my
limbs, and hanging upon him with all my weight, whilst Antonio,
with much difficulty, removed the horse.
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