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.
