1832.J Autobiography of Polmario, the Spanish Bandit. 435 



put into my mother's hand the real he had gained, "when," said she, 

 addressing her husband/' will this little rogue," tapping me on the head, 

 " be able to do the like ?" 



(< I was thinking," said my father, " that he had best follow his 

 father's trade ; I'll put him 011 a mule the next time I go to Andujar ; 

 and who knows but in a year's time, as the lad is quick, he may 

 manage to take two mules to Jaen, at the same time that I take two to 

 Andujar, and so turn over more reals than Diego ? and so in effect it 

 was agreed : at thirteen I was a muleteer ; and to the taste which this 

 manner of living gave me for an unsettled life, may be partly attri- 

 buted the events that subsequently followed. But I have now to relate, 

 with some exactness, one or two circumstances that helped more espe- 

 cially to change my manner of life. 



I had attained the age of fifteen, when my father gave me in charge 

 two mules to take all the way to Cordova, to bring back some lead from 

 the mines in that neighbourhood, which was wanted for some repairs to 

 the Convent of San Felipe Neri, in our town. I took my mules to 

 Cordova accordingly, and put up at the Posada ; I had scarcely dressed 

 and watered the beasts, when there drove into the yard a coach drawn 

 by seven mules, and another coach behind it. The Duque de Huescar 

 sat in the first, and four of his highness's attendants occupied the other. 

 The Posada was soon all in a bustle ; for dinner was to be got ready 

 for the duke. There were soups, and stews, and pasties, and many fine 

 dishes I never saw before or heard of, for the duke's own cook a 

 Frenchman as some said travelled with his master ; but there were 

 no pucheros no, no ! the duke's stomach was too delicate for them. 

 At length the dinner was cooked and served ; but the duke not having 

 then dismissed the corregidor, who had waited upon his highness out 

 of civility, the head servant invited all who were in the kitchen to go 

 and see the duke's dinner, the like of which nobody there had ever 

 before set eyes on. Among those who were in the kitchen, there 

 chanced to be a poor fellow, with scarce a rag to cover his back, and 

 who appeared grievously to stand in need of some inner lining to his 

 belly. I had observed, that when the cook tossed a bone to the dog, 

 he snatched it up, and began to peel off it the little that was left ; and 

 this pobre followed the rest out of the kitchen. " All this," thought I, 

 " for the Duque de Huescar, and nothing for this pobre !" As my eye 

 wandered over the smoking soups and stews, and the rich steam saluted 

 my nose, there was a dish with a capon in it, divided into two : and 

 just as I had cast my eye upon it, a great bustle in the passage an- 

 nounced the duke's approach. Every one scampered off, the duke's 

 servant the first, and I took the opportunity to seize a half capon by a 

 drumstick that rose above the sauce, and whisking it out of the dish, 

 conveyed it to the starved wretch, who still lingered behind, wistfully 

 eyeing the dishes ; and he concealing it under his tattered cloak, we 

 left the room just as the duke entered. Among all the events of my 

 life, and their results, no one ever afforded greater satisfaction than this ; 

 when soon after leaving the kitchen to look after my mules, I saw the 

 poor hungered fellow crouching among the beasts, busy with the capon 

 which I had subtracted from the duke's feast. The whole of that even- 

 ing I argued within myself the question, whether there could be any 

 sin in robbing the rich to give to the poor ; and the longer I thought 

 upon the matter, the more satisfied I was with myself. I had never, 



2 G 2 



