A Robber Host 



Now, as we prepared to go, and asked for our account, 

 though we had eaten our own fish, and drunk our own cho- 

 colate, and there was nothing to pay for but the cooking of 

 the fish, the mattress, and the two horses, say, a real and a 

 half for the cooking, four reals for the bed, and six reals for 

 the two ponies, altogether eleven and a half reals (about 

 half-a-crown), our fat thief of a landlord charged us nine- 

 teen. This we refused to pay, telling him we were no 

 absurd spendthrifts from Gibraltar, but prudent men, who 

 had travelled through all the Spains, seeing men and ventas^ 

 and acquiring an accurate knowledge of prices. 



" You are Englishmen, and that is sufficient for me. I 

 have known a ventero to charge a dollar to an English- 

 man for entering his venta and drinking a glass of 

 water." 



" That ventero was a thief, and that Englishman was a 

 fool. We are not fools, and we hope you are not a thief. 

 One thing is certain, we will give you no more than twelve 

 reals" 



Here the money was thrown on the ground, and we made 

 as to ride away. 



"You shall not depart thus — thieves yourselves and 

 niggards," said the fat host, who had been stimulated in 

 the meantime by the shrill hostess, and advanced to seize 

 Harry's bridle. 



Here Harry dismounted in haste and drew a pistol ; 

 whereat all the tag-rag of the venta ran like rabbits into the 

 door, and the master retreated ; the mozo de la cuadra^ the 

 bravest man of the party, stood his ground, and took up a 

 great stone. While the pistol yet remained directed 

 towards the still uplifted-stone, another power entered the 

 field, in the person of an aged and rather shaky old corporal 

 of the carabineers in the adjoining fort. However, Harry 



202 



