"Oh, your worship is an Englishman,"
answered the corporal; "that, indeed, alters the matter; the
English in Spain are allowed to do what they please with their own,
which is more than the Spaniards are. Cavalier, I have seen your
countrymen in the Basque provinces; Vaya, what riders! what horses!
They do not fight badly either. But their chief skill is in
riding: I have seen them dash over barrancos to get at the
factious, who thought themselves quite secure, and then they would
fall upon them on a sudden and kill them to a man. In truth, your
worship, this is a fine horse, I must look at his teeth."
I looked at the corporal - his nose and eyes were in the horse's
mouth: the rest of the party, who might amount to six or seven,
were not less busily engaged. One was examining his forefeet,
another his hind; one fellow was pulling at his tail with all his
might, while another pinched the windpipe, for the purpose of
discovering whether the animal was at all touched there. At last
perceiving that the corporal was about to remove the saddle that he
might examine the back of the animal, I exclaimed:-
"Stay, ye chabes of Egypt, ye forget that ye are hundunares, and
are no longer paruguing grastes in the chardy."
The corporal at these words turned his face full upon me, and so
did all the rest.
