Clarence a Little Altered 



a fine blazing noonday sun, and we thought our great-coats 

 would be enough. 



" Oh, Lord ! methought, what pain it was to starve ! " 

 I was sleepy too, to add to my torments, and could not 

 doze three minutes together without being awakened by 

 the cold or the jolting. At last the day began to break, 

 but the light made it no warmer ; and even when the 

 broad red sun slanted over the dark masses of Cuenca 

 among the hills, he seemed powerless. 



However, in half an hour or so his genial beams began 

 to tell. The postilion, who had ridden all night, beginning 

 to feel more comfortable, fell asleep. These poor wretches, 

 who have to ride three or four hundred miles on end with- 

 out stoppage of more than two hours, would be badly off 

 if they could not sleep a little in the saddle. This boy 

 would have to go all the way to Valencia. It is the same 

 in Seville diligences, which have a still longer distance. 



I had made this wonderful functionary's acquaintance 

 (when we stopped at Tarancon) while he ate his beefsteak 

 and smoked. He was a sinewy stolid youth, who seemed 

 to possess no particular forte besides his long endurance in 

 the saddle, and, indeed, such a course of life is enough to 

 turn both body and soul into leather. I should have said 

 that he was more tough than witty. 



The near approach to Cuenca is pretty ; a corner of the 

 town rises on the rock-edge beyond a picturesque bridge. 

 Crossing the river, we entered a long, broad street in the 

 lower town, which is commonplace enough. Here the 

 diligence stops to breakfast at the Parador de la Diligencia ; 

 and as Old Cuenca (the high town) is very imperfectly 

 seen from this street, many people, who only stop to 

 breakfast, must go away with the impression that the place 

 is nothing very remarkable. They only see the round end 



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