460 THRILLING ADVENTURES. 



and the muleteer quarrelled with the landlord about the 

 scanty fodder given to his mules. Supper was provided for 

 the servant and the muleteer' in the public room of the inn. 

 It was a scanty meal, but as they were accustomed to Spa- 

 nish public-houses, they had not expected more. After the 

 meal had been dispatched and the table cleared, Narciso ob- 

 tained a bottle of rather ordinary wine, and as the bleak winds 

 howled around the inn, invited the landlord, the muleteer, 

 and a stranger a large, powerful and grave looking fellow, 

 who had hitherto kept apart to take a social glass. There 

 was no hesitation. All were companions of the hour, and 

 they rightly judged that they ought to pass it as pleasantly 

 as possible. 



Of course, the landlord inquired as to the destination of 

 the travellers ; and the information was readily communi- 

 cated. Donna Costanza had been upon a visit to a French 

 lady an old friend and was returning to her father's man- 

 sion, fifty miles from the foot of the Pyrenees. The stranger 

 was named Vasquez de Cando, an^l he intended crossing the 

 mountains and visiting Paris. He resided some miles from 

 the inn, had been accustomed to the mountains from his boy- 

 hood ; and having heard so much of the French capital, he 

 had scraped together sufficient money to pay the expenses 

 of a journey thither. The bottle of wine was soon a bottle 

 without a drop ; and the mountaineer, wishing to display his 

 desire for a continuance of the social chat, called for another. 

 He then became the head of the board, and decidedly the 

 most fluent talker of the party. At length the conversation 

 turned upon adventures among the Pyrenees, and here he 

 was "in the vein." One adventure, which nearly proved 

 fatal to him, he narrated as follows : 



" One night, about two or three winters ago, I was sitting 

 with a jovial party of mountaineers in this very inn. We 

 had been very successful in hunting bears upon the mountains, 

 and their flesh afforded us several rare feasts, while their 



