Thereupon he led me to the house of Don Ramon Valdez, who very
politely exhibited the portrait of Feijoo. It was circular in
shape, about a foot in diameter, and was surrounded by a little
brass frame, something like the rim of a barber's basin. The
countenance was large and massive but fine, the eyebrows knit, the
eyes sharp and penetrating, nose aquiline. On the head was a
silken skull-cap; the collar of the coat or vest was just
perceptible. The painting was decidedly good, and struck me as
being one of the very best specimens of modern Spanish art which I
had hitherto seen.
A day or two after this I said to Benedict Mol, "to-morrow I start
from hence for Santander. It is therefore high time that you
decide upon some course, whether to return to Madrid or to make the
best of your way to France, and from thence proceed to your own
country."
"Lieber herr," said Benedict, "I will follow you to Santander by
short journeys, for I am unable to make long ones amongst these
hills; and when I am there, peradventure I may find some means of
passing into France. It is a great comfort, in my horrible
journeys, to think that I am travelling over the ground which
yourself have trodden, and to hope that I am proceeding to rejoin
you once more. This hope kept me alive in the bellotas, and
without it I should never have reached Oviedo. I will quit Spain
as soon as possible, and betake me to Lucerne, though it is a hard
thing to leave the schatz behind me in the land of the Gallegans."
Thereupon I presented him with a few dollars.
"A strange man is this Benedict," said Antonio to me next morning,
as, accompanied by a guide, we sallied forth from Oviedo; "a
strange man, mon maitre, is this same Benedict. A strange life has
he led, and a strange death he will die, - it is written on his
countenance. That he will leave Spain I do not believe, or if he
leave it, it will be only to return, for he is bewitched about this
treasure. Last night he sent for a sorciere, whom he consulted in
my presence; and she told him that he was doomed to possess it, but
that first of all he must cross water. She cautioned him likewise
against an enemy, which he supposes must be the canon of Saint
James. I have often heard people speak of the avidity of the Swiss
for money, and here is a proof of it. I would not undergo what
Benedict has suffered in these last journeys of his, to possess all
the treasures in Spain."
CHAPTER XXXIV
Departure from Oviedo - Villa Viciosa - The Young Man of the Inn -
Antonio's Tale - The General and his Family - Woful Tidings - To-
morrow we Die - San Vincente - Santander - An Harangue - Flinter the
Irishman.
