Sadly Disturbed 



we had to sleep without beds again. I was therefore thank- 

 ful not to have lost it the day before, for I should have been 

 wretchedly off without it last night on the stone bench. I 

 now understood its evident predisposition to get lost the day 

 before at the Arco de Media Legua. I have often observed, 

 that when a thing is about to be shortly lost altogether, it 

 loosens itself gradually from your possession by several pre- 

 vious delinquencies. So I made up my mind to buy a 

 better one in Madrid. 



Since the Puerto de Arenas, the ravine had widened into 

 a valley again, and the stream to a strong torrent. Jaen 

 stands where the valley opens out, among ragged spurs of 

 the mountains, upon the plain. On one of these stands the 

 Moorish castle of Jaen, with ruined fortifications following 

 the ridge in zig-zags down to the city. 



We crossed the river, and rode up into the town. Near 

 the gate was the Posada del Santo Rostro. Here we supped, 

 and I went to sleep at once in my clothes, lying on my bed. 

 In the middle of the night, or rather about three o'clock in 

 the morning, I woke up, severely bitten by bugs. I heard 

 a clattering of horses below. The last thing on one's mind 

 over-night will strike one the first thing in the morning. 

 I suppose I had some drowsy consciousness that I ought to 

 have unsaddled the Moor before going to bed, and that the 

 clattering might be some unscrupulous muleteer departing 

 early to get away unobserved with my saddle. Going 

 downstairs, I found it was only an arriero leading his mules 

 to drink at a clear broad trough of running water, near the 

 entrance of the posada. The gate however was shut, and 

 nobody appeared to have departed yet. 



I now made an excursion through about sixty or seventy 

 yards of stabling, edging my way between the tails of two 

 long rows of mules, standing as close together as they could 



244 



