About Midday We Obtained A Dim And
Distant View Of An Immense Range Of Mountains, Which Are In Fact
Those Which Bound Castile On The North.
The day, however, became
dim and obscure, and we speedily lost sight of them.
A hollow wind
now arose and blew over these desolate plains with violence,
wafting clouds of dust into our faces; the rays of the sun were
few, and those red and angry. I was tired of my journey, and when
about four we reached -, a large village, half way between Palencia
and Leon, I declared my intention of stopping for the night. I
scarcely ever saw a more desolate place than this same town or
village of -. The houses were for the most part large, but the
walls were of mud, like those of barns. We saw no person in the
long winding street to direct us to the venta, or posada, till at
last, at the farther end of the place, we descried two black
figures standing at a door, of whom, on making inquiry, we learned
that the door at which they stood was that of the house we were in
quest of. There was something strange in the appearance of these
two beings, who seemed the genii of the place. One was a small
slim man, about fifty, with sharp, ill-natured features. He was
dressed in coarse black worsted stockings, black breeches, and an
ample black coat with long trailing skirts. I should at once have
taken him for an ecclesiastic, but for his hat, which had nothing
clerical about it, being a pinched diminutive beaver.
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