A Traveller's Tale 



trench dug fifty or sixty feet deep in a hill ; sometimes it goes 

 across a valley on arches as high as the Alhambra stands 

 above Granada ; sometimes it plunges through the stony 

 heart of a mountain, and comes out, after a league of dark- 

 ness underground. It is laid with continuous bars of iron, 

 on which the wheels fit, so that whatever pace it goes the 

 carriages cannot run off the road." 



" But in what sort of a carriage do they travel on these 

 iron roads ? " 



" There is a long string of forty or fifty carriages, each 

 four or five times as big as a diligencia. It looks like a 

 gigantic caterpillar, with a hundred wheels instead of legs. 

 It has a great iron head like a dragon, containing the 

 engine, which pulls the whole line, and snorts great clouds 

 of steam from its nostrils, and breathes flame, and drops 

 bright burning coals from its fiery mouth. You hear a great 

 panting sound like a giant out of breath afar ofF. You see a 

 square spot in the distance, which grows rapidly bigger and 

 bigger in your eye as it comes pulF — puff — puffing. In a mo- 

 ment it is here with a crashing noise ; and the next moment 

 it has passed you as quick as a swallow on the wing, and is 

 rumbling and puffing away in the distance at the other side. 

 They can go five-and-twenty leagues in an hour, though 

 they seldom do, for such a speed would wear the carriages 

 out too quickly ; and, indeed, it is almost enough to rattle 

 them to pieces." 



In this discourse we passed a small shed, too wretched to 

 be called a venta^ though they sold wine there. As it 

 was a hot and thirsty day, I called for a reaTs worth of 

 wine, and they brought us about a quart, which we drank, 

 and went on. 



He said they had given us less than our money's worth. 

 I said I had asked for a reaPs worth, and as long as they 



237 



