Alhama 



appropriate " Ay de mi, Alhama " with much fervour many- 

 times. The few peasants we met on the way seemed in 

 league with one another to put us out of heart ; for 

 the nearer we approached, the further they represented 

 Alhama to be. At last, at the top of a hill, when we 

 had almost given up Alhama, as a Mrs. Harris Gamped 

 up by Lord Byron and Mr. Ford, the mist suddenly 

 blew away, and a little greystone, rock-girt nest of a town, 

 very different from what we had expected, appeared in the 

 hollow beneath. The main street, down which we scrambled, 

 is a steep slope of solid rock, across which grooves are cut 

 to give some little foothold. The Casa de los Caballeros^ 

 recommended by the guide-book, seemed an unpromising 

 place, and we had to put our ponies in a sort of coal-hole. 

 I was dreadfully tired and hungry, which resulted in a cer- 

 tain impatience of temper against which my philosophy is 

 not proof under such trials. There was no mo%o de la cuadra 

 to get a place made for our ponies among the fuel in the 

 coal-hole, except an imbecile grandfather of the establish- 

 ment, a very helpless and garrulous old man, who could not 

 even get us any barley. 



The woman of the house, too, was stupidly inquisitive 

 about the hot water which I had asked for to wash the 

 Moor's sore shoulder j and I showered the effect of my 

 irascible exhaustion upon both their heads in such a volley 

 of arriero language, that Harry was obliged to remind me 

 of my official capacity as the mild and persuasive spokesman 

 of the party. So the huespeda^ by degrees, heated some 

 water in the frying-pan, and the old man gabbled, and 

 fussed, and pottered about till the ponies were finally provided 

 for. I washed the Moor's shoulder, and found it had not 

 got so much worse as I expected. The landlady made us an 

 excellent supper of water-souchet^ fried anchovies, and salad. 



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