274 Spanish Highways and Byways. [[MARCH, 



necessary to adopt the tedious forms of law usual in our own time, 

 ordered the supposed culprit to be forthwith gibbeted. Great interest 

 was made to save him, but without success ; and the cord was actually 

 about his neck as he stood under the gibbet in front of the governor's 

 palace, when the wife of the Goth rushed into the apartment of her 

 husband, and on her knees begged the prisoner's life. At that moment 

 the Goth had seated himself snugly at dinner, and a slave had placed 

 before him two roasted fowls smoking in their rich gravy. Irritated at 

 what he conceived to be an opposition to his will, the Goth seized one of 

 the fowls, and, in the unceremonious manner of those days, disclaiming 

 the aid of knife or fork, was about to tear it asunder, but first raising 

 it in his hand, he said ' When this fowl shall fly and crow, I will 

 believe the prisoner innocent, and he shall be liberated.' Suddenly 

 the bird slipped from his grasp, and recovering his plumage, to the 

 utter amazement of all, began to fly about the room and crow, in such 

 a manner as cock never crew before. Indeed he proved that his organs 

 of articulation had not been at all injured by the roasting he had under- 

 gone. At the same moment, his companion on the dish, who had like- 

 wise been his companion on the perch, liberated herself in the most 

 extraordinary manner from the thraldom of the skewer and string, dis- 

 charged her stuffing on the dish, and splashing the gravy in the face of 

 the astonished Goth, sprung round the room with a vigour and freshness 

 that seemed utterly at variance with the preconceived idea that she had 

 been at least an hour and a half under the care of the cook. The mira- 

 culous birds then flew out at the window, and alighted, one on each 

 shoulder of the culprit, just as the order was given for his execution. 

 This singular appeal of course stayed the proceeding, until the wonder- 

 ing Goth, unable to resist such testimony, liberated the prisoner. The 

 pagan was converted; but history does not mention," continued the 

 padre, " whether he most regretted his unjust condemnation of the 

 Christian" " Or the irretrievable loss of his dinner," I added. The 

 padre, I thought, smiled in pity. ( ' This, however, is certain, and which 

 even the sceptical must admit," he continued, in the most triumphant 

 tone, "as it is recorded, that the fowls were actually caught on the 

 spot, and placed in this sanctuary, so it is certain they have existed in 

 this very situation for a thousand years ; for are they not here before our 

 eyes, as vigorous as when the miracle was first wrought? What do 

 you say to that ?" " May they live for ever !" I exclaimed, in answer, 

 and with an appearance of devotion, which the padre himself might 

 have envied. " Amen !" he replied ; and on his part making his usual 

 cross and genuflexion, we left the church. 



I recommenced my journey shortly afterwards, passing over a flat 

 but pleasant country, and arrived in the evening at the town of Escaray. 

 My principal object in visiting Spain was to inspect the mode of 

 preparing wool for foreign markets, and to suggest some alteration in 

 the method of working it, and improving its condition. It was there- 

 fore with great pleasure I recognized an old friend in the person of 

 Mr. Bradley, who saved me some trouble by introducing me at once to 

 Sen or Don Agipito Maria Texada, who was a deputy of the Cortes, 

 and an eminent ganarado, or flock-holder, and director of the Royal 

 Cloth Establishment belonging to the Cinco Gremios in Madrid. 



On the following day I was invited to inspect the manufactory, which 

 is of modern construction, and sufficiently large to admit of making fifty 

 long pieces of cloth per week; the machinery was new, and in great 

 perfection, as it was all made at Paris; but I observed great inexperience 



