Anticipation 



our way, as usual, and were going to Alcala de la Calle 

 instead of Setenii. 



As we began to climb a very long and steep mountain- 

 flank, a slight shower came on. Looking back, we saw a 

 most striking atmospheric effect. A great shaft of sunshine 

 streamed through the broken clouds upon Olvera's fairy- 

 palace-crowned pinnacle, which gleamed transparent through 

 a spangled robe of showers, girt with the rainbow for a 

 baldrick. 



Having stumbled on these remarkable places by accident, 

 and without any particular recommendation, we naturally 

 concluded that the whole mountain region was full of 

 such. What, then, must Ronda be herself, the queen of 

 them all ? 



Of course, we conceived that the approach to this city of 

 refuge for the smuggler, — this massive ganglion of the 

 rugged and inaccessible paths of contraband traffic, — this 

 lofty-perched eyrie of desperados, would lead us by inter- 

 minable staircase-roads up precipitous zig-zag ledges to a 

 fortress-crested city, terraced in and out among the jags and 

 chasms of the rock. 



But this is not the case. We rode along some wooded 

 table-land at the top of the mountain we had climbed, and 

 after awhile found Alcala in a dip — a dismal, poor, wintry, 

 greystone village. Here we baited. On our way to Ronda 

 we met with nothing remarkable, except a board which set 

 forth that a caballero had there been killed by a fall from 

 his horse. The spot seemed eminently appropriate, — a 

 rocky, sudden drop in the road, which, if the road had been 

 the bed of a torrent, would have made a picturesque little 

 waterfall. We rode down it carefully, and without 

 accident. 



It began to rain, and we put on our cloaks, which are 



151 



