Pedro is Missing 



" We are Englishmen, and therefore afraid of nothing. 

 We carry pistols enough to shoot ten men, and if there were 

 a dozen, it is probable the two others would run away. We 

 are on our way to Gibraltar, and if anything were to happen 

 to us, the governor, who of course expects us, would imme- 

 diately shoot a bomb-shell over La Mancha into the Cortes 

 at Madrid, which would blow up all the Spains in one 



ruin." 



Ha ! ha ! you talk roundly ; but we know the English 

 are a dangerous people, and it is asserted that they season 

 their ollas with gunpowder instead of salt." 



Here we heard voices behind, and a sound, of horses* 

 hoofs. Our companion hailed them with some cry which 

 we did not understand, and as our imaginations were pre- 

 pared for robbers, we took it for a signal, and concluded 

 that the man on the donkey was an accomplice sent on to 

 reconnoitre. We therefore had our pistols ready. Two 

 men on a white horse, emerging from the darkness, over- 

 took us, and shortly afterwards another horse, also with two 

 men on it, came up. We congratulated one another on 

 this arrangement, for two bodies close together would of 

 course be much easier than one to hit in the dark. How- 

 over, the men saluted us civilly, and fell into conversation 

 with our companion. They were coming back from a fair 

 at Alcala de Guadaira, and were slightly elevated. Harry 

 and I were talking to one another in English about the pro- 

 babilities of thier being thieves ; and it is a sort of axiom 

 with the lower classes here, who are not much used to 

 foreigners, that people, who talk to one another in a lan- 

 guage which they do not understand, will not understand 

 what they say to each other in plain Spanish. 



" What has come of Pedro that he does not return with 

 you ? " said the man on the ass. 



126 



