1826.] The Ral-Trap. 5». 



liquor, from horn cups, which lay scattered about the floor, or from their 

 goat-skin borachioi, which here, as well as in Spain, were the ordinary 

 wine flasks of the country. 



They were habited, and appointed, singularly, these persons ; and 

 with an affectation rather of costume fitted for the characters they filled, 

 and trade they had to follow. Masses of dark and tangled un-combed 

 hair ; whiskers and mustachios trained to the fashion of some particular 

 robber executed twenty years before. Apparel rude, but picturesque ; 

 weapons to the teeth (more than any reasonable combatants could be 

 supposed ever to need use of) ; and here and there some costly 

 ornaments, the fruit of plunder, not yet forfeited at play or bartered 

 from necessity, garish and fantastical, as coupled with the coarser cir- 

 cumstances of the equipment. One gentleman, the proprietor of the 

 honest mansion, a beetle browed villain, stout and greasy, seemed with a 

 surly familiarity to play the host among the rest. Tliree or four dange- 

 rous looking dogs, lean and haggard, of the large, shaggy wolf-hound 

 breed, who had been roused from their slumbers by the fray before the 

 cardinal entered, curled round when his appearance quashed it, and 

 " addressed themselves again to sleep." One specimen only of the softer 

 sex, a middle aged female, slipshod, hardfeatured, and filthy, squatted 

 upon her heels at the side of the immense fire-place, preparing a heap of 

 poultry of various kinds for suj)per. And across the fire-place, from 

 the side where this poultry lay, reached a particularly conspicuous rob- 

 ber; in the act, just as the legate entered, of striking at two others who 

 opposed him — his right hand endowed with a long two edged sword, 

 while in his left — one eye squinting at his defence, and one upon the 

 lady — he held a plucked turkey up by the throat, which he shook, as 

 in terrorem at the rest of the party. 



But loud was the laugh, and long continued, which the stranger's 

 presence excited ; so joyous, that all previous strife seemed by general 

 consent to be forgotten in it. 



"A priest! — A priest! — Oh— ho, ho, ho !" cried the last mentioned 

 astonished and delighted person, still flourishing the sword in one hand 

 and the turkey in the other. 



" A priest ! — Whee-hee !" squeaked six other equally pleasantly dis- 

 posed individuals. But the idea was too facetious ; they relapsed again 

 into merriment. 



" Nay, then," resumed the first speaker, " it is certain that Providence 

 watches over the wants of honest men in their necessity." 



" Reverend father !" delivered the (cense) host, bowing to the very 

 earth, and brushing away the dust with his hat before the feet of the 

 cardinal, " by what fortune is it, both for j^ourself and us, that — well 

 provided no doubt to recompense a gorgeous entertainment — we have 

 the sanction of your company this night at the Trappola ?" 



" Stand by Guiseppe, and let the holy gentleman come forward !" 

 said a juvenile caitiff, who liad a profusion of cock's feathers stuck in 

 his hat, and sat amusing himself by whistling into the muzzle of a loaded 

 pistol. — " It is long since one of his cloth was of our company, and his 

 prayers shall bring down a very blessing on thy roof." 



" An they might bring a new roof down altogether, or something to stop 

 the holes in this old one, it were not amiss," suggested a red-nosed robber ; and 

 as he looked upwards to illustrate the proposition, a drop of rain fell in his 

 eyej which again exceedingly excited the good merriment of the company. 



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