170 ANDALUSIAK SKETCHES. 



the females of her country. She possessed their usual accomplishments 

 danced with grace, sang in a pleasing voice their romantic national 

 songs, and touched the guitar with tolerable skill. On the evening I 

 allude to she was dancing the cackucha, accompanying herself with 

 the lively castanets, old Francisco singing in a peculiar manner an 

 interminable ballad to the air of the dance, and the mother thrumming 

 a zambomba.* We looked on with amusement, and even assisted the 

 music by loudly beating time in clapping our hands. In the very 

 height of our enjoyment, at a moment when the dance was becoming 

 most interesting, and we were in admiration at the really graceful 

 postures of Juana, the door suddenly opened, and a Spanish soldier, 

 in a dirty, dusty uniform, followed by a large dog of singular ap- 

 pearance, entered the apartment. " Hijo de mi vida !" (my beloved 

 son), shrieked both the old people, as they threw themselves on the 

 neck of the stranger. " Hermanito mio !" (my dear brother), ex- 

 claimed Juana, as she struggled for a share in the embrace. No 

 one could have beheld unmoved the unbounded joy and affection with 

 which the new-comer was received. Tears of delight ran down old 

 Francisco's manly furrowed cheeks. Maria, the mother, wept and 

 laughed, and danced alternately. All amusement, of course, was at 

 an end, and we could scarcely obtain from them the information that 

 the stranger was their only son Alonzo, whom they had not seen since 

 he first joined the army many years past ; that, indeed, he had been 

 mourned for as dead, a report to that effect having reached them. 

 We soon parted from the happy family, who withdrew to their own 

 division of the cottage. 



The following morning we were off early towards Castellar, 

 and had an excellent day's sport. In the evening, after our meal, 

 the family joined us. Alonzo had brushed up his regimentals, and 

 had evidently had recourse to his father's wardrobe, one of the old 

 man's fine snow-white linen shirts being displayed with studied care 

 by throwing open his single-breasted uniform jacket. They had only 

 began to sober down and control their excited feelings, and had not 

 been able to listen to any of the repeated attempts Alonzo told us he 

 had made to give some details of his adventures. We joined in a re- 

 quest that he would now do so. He at once complied, and we at- 

 tended with the greatest interest to his narrative, notwithstanding 

 that many of the particulars he related were well known to us : 



"You will doubtless remember, my revered parents," said he, 

 "that it was at the commencement of the year 1819, soon after my 

 eighteenth birthday, that I was obliged to leave the Boca for San 

 Roque to attend the muster of those upon whom the quinta (con- 

 scription) had fallen. Five was the number of soldiers to be furnished 

 by our neighbourhood, but nine had been drawn and ordered to ap- 



ear, so that four of us would return to our homes. Your grief, my 

 ear father, I shall not easily forget, when the corregidor chose me as 



* Zambomba an earthen pot, the mouth covered with parchment drawn 

 tightly over, in the centre of which is a small hole with a stick inserted ; this, 

 drawn slowly to and fro, produces a noise evidently most agreeable to Spanish 

 ears, though discordant enough to ours. 



