1829.] a Tale of the South. 579 
governor, who admiring my remarkable talents, desired to have me 
brought to him ; but I, who am a professor of humility—I am never for 
any intercourse with those so far above me; and, not to be troubled with 
it, I left the city with such dispatch, that I had not time to bring away 
either watch, or money, or equipage, or valet.”—“ An understood thing,” 
said Bincon. “ But, as we at present know each other, let us leave off 
grandeur, and candidly confess that we have neither a dinner nor a pair 
of shoes between us.” —“ Agreed,” replied Diego Costado, the name of 
the younger one; “be our friendship, Senor de Bincon, eternal ; 
let us signalize its commencement by a sacred and praiseworthy cere- 
mony:” and, rising, they mutually embraced with expressions of the 
most profound esteem. They then set themselves to play at vingt-un, 
with the aforesaid dog-eared cards, which abounded as much in grease as 
in malice ; and, in a few seconds, Costado was no less expert at cutting an 
ace than was his tutor Bincon. In this moment there stept a muleteer 
out of the inn, to refresh at the door; and seeing them play, he asked 
leave to make a third. They received him with the best grace in the 
world ; and, in less than half an hour, they won from him twelve reals 
and twenty-two maravedis, which the muleteer seemed to feel as much 
as if they had given him twelve stabs of a poignard, and twenty-two 
thousand curses. The muleteer, believing that the two lads would 
never dare to defend themselves against him, wanted to force back his 
money from them; but the one putting his hand to his short sword, and the 
other to his couteau de chasse, they would soon have cut him out so much 
work, that if his comrades had not run to his assistance, he would have had 
occupation for a week at least. While this was going on, a company of 
travellers, mounted on mules, who were going to dine at the inn called 
: the Alcalda, about a quarter of-a mile farther on, passed by chance. 
The cavaliers, seeing the two youths at cuffs with the muleteer, appeased 
_ them, and said, that, if they were for Seville, they might travel along 
_ with them. “ We are going there,” said Bincon ; “ and we will serve 
and obey you, Senors, in all that you may deign to command us ;” and, on 
_ the spot, they began to march off a-head of the mules, leaving the mule- 
teer sorrowful and angry, and the hostess, who had overheard all that 
was said, astonished at the good education of those young vagabonds. 
‘Scarcely had she suggested to the muleteer that the cards were false— 
for she had, unperceived, overheard that also—than he tore his beard, 
d would have run after them to recover his money, crying that it was 
an affront which dishonoured him—that two young boys should have 
_ thus duped a man like him. His comrades restrained him, and counselled 
him not to go after them and expose thus his ignorance and simplicity. 
In fine, though all the reasons they alleged could not console him, they 
induced him at least to stay where he was. In the mean time, Costado 
and Bincon applied themselves so studiously to serve the travellers, that 
these latter took them up behind them for the last half of the way ; and 
though there offered many different occasions to visit their masters’ valises, 
they would not make use of them in the fear of losing this agreeable 
manner of making the journey to Seville, where they longed much to 
arrive. When they had reached the custom-house, just before the gate 
of the city, at about night-fall, Costado could no longer refrain from 
cutting open the valise that a Frenchman carried behind him, and with 
his couteau de chasse, he gave it such a long and deep wound as shewed 
its entrails to view, and subtly drew from among them two good 
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