It Seemed An Enormous Barrier, Threatening To Oppose
Our Farther Progress, And It Reminded Me Of The Fables Respecting
The
Children of Magog, who are said to reside in remotest Tartary,
behind a gigantic wall of rocks, which can only
Be passed by a gate
of steel a thousand cubits in height.
We shortly after arrived at Manzanal, a village consisting of
wretched huts, and exhibiting every sign of poverty and misery. It
was now time to refresh ourselves and horses, and we accordingly
put up at a venta, the last habitation in the village, where,
though we found barley for the animals, we had much difficulty in
procuring anything for ourselves. I was at length fortunate enough
to obtain a large jug of milk, for there were plenty of cows in the
neighbourhood, feeding in a picturesque valley which we had passed
by, where was abundance of grass, and trees, and a rivulet broken
by tiny cascades. The jug might contain about half a gallon, but I
emptied it in a few minutes, for the thirst of fever was still
burning within me, though I was destitute of appetite. The venta
had something the appearance of a German baiting-house. It
consisted of an immense stable, from which was partitioned a kind
of kitchen and a place where the family slept. The master, a
robust young man, lolled on a large solid stone bench, which stood
within the door. He was very inquisitive respecting news, but I
could afford him none; whereupon he became communicative, and gave
me the history of his life, the sum of which was, that he had been
a courier in the Basque provinces, but about a year since had been
dispatched to this village, where he kept the post-house. He was
an enthusiastic liberal, and spoke in bitter terms of the
surrounding population, who, he said, were all Carlists and friends
of the friars. I paid little attention to his discourse, for I was
looking at a Maragato lad of about fourteen, who served in the
house as a kind of ostler. I asked the master if we were still in
the land of the Maragatos; but he told me that we had left it
behind nearly a league, and that the lad was an orphan and was
serving until he could rake up a sufficient capital to become an
arriero. I addressed several questions to the boy, but the urchin
looked sullenly in my face, and either answered by monosyllables or
was doggedly silent. I asked him if he could read. "Yes," said
he, "as much as that brute of yours who is tearing down the
manger."
Quitting Manzanal, we continued our course. We soon arrived at the
verge of a deep valley amongst mountains, not those of the chain
which we had seen before us, and which we now left to the right,
but those of the Telleno range, just before they unite with that
chain. Round the sides of this valley, which exhibited something
of the appearance of a horse-shoe, wound the road in a circuitous
manner; just before us, however, and diverging from the road, lay a
footpath which seemed, by a gradual descent, to lead across the
valley, and to rejoin the road on the other side, at the distance
of about a furlong; and into this we struck in order to avoid the
circuit.
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