I Instantly Inquired Of The Latter What The Man Had
Said To Him, But Only Obtained An Evasive Answer.
It appeared
afterwards that the conversation was about ourselves.
Two or three
leagues farther there was an inn and village where we had proposed
staying, and indeed had expressed our intention of doing so; but on
arriving there, finding that the sun was still far from its bourne,
I determined to proceed farther, expecting to meet with a resting-
place at the distance of a league; though I was mistaken, as we
found none until we reached Montaneda, nine leagues and a half from
Santander, where was stationed a small detachment of soldiers. At
the dead of night we were aroused from our sleep by a cry that the
factious were not far off. A messenger had arrived from the
alcalde of the village where we had previously intended staying,
who stated that a party of Carlists had just surprised that place,
and were searching for an English spy, whom they supposed to be at
the inn. The officer commanding the soldiers upon hearing this,
not deeming his own situation a safe one, instantly drew off his
men, falling back on a stronger party stationed in a fortified
village near at hand. As for ourselves, we saddled our horses and
continued our way in the dark. Had the Carlists succeeded in
apprehending me, I should instantly have been shot, and my body
cast on the rocks to feed the vultures and wolves. But "it was not
so written," said Antonio, who, like many of his countrymen, was a
fatalist. The next night we had another singular escape: we had
arrived near the entrance of a horrible pass called "El puerto de
la puente de las tablas," or the pass of the bridge of planks,
which wound through a black and frightful mountain, on the farther
side of which was the town of Onas, where we meant to tarry for the
night. The sun had set about a quarter of an hour. Suddenly a
man, with his face covered with blood, rushed out of the pass.
"Turn back, sir," he said, "in the name of God; there are murderers
in that pass; they have just robbed me of my mule and all I
possess, and I have hardly escaped with life from their hands." I
scarcely know why, but I made him no answer and proceeded; indeed I
was so weary and unwell that I cared not what became of me. We
entered; the rocks rose perpendicularly, right and left, entirely
intercepting the scanty twilight, so that the darkness of the
grave, or rather the blackness of the valley of the shadow of death
reigned around us, and we knew not where we went, but trusted to
the instinct of the horses, who moved on with their heads close to
the ground. The only sound which we heard was the plash of a
stream, which tumbled down the pass. I expected every moment to
feel a knife at my throat, but "IT WAS NOT SO WRITTEN." We
threaded the pass without meeting a human being, and within three
quarters of an hour after the time we entered it, we found
ourselves within the posada of the town of Onas, which was filled
with troops and armed peasants expecting an attack from the grand
Carlist army, which was near at hand.
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