" My Oracular Tongue 



i> 



honourable man, but it appeared his conduct in this instance 

 had been inexcusable. One of the women asked me if we 

 were not Portuguese, and seemed to be all the better 

 pleased to hear I was not. The caminero had confidently- 

 asserted we were Alemanes (Germans). 



After about a quarter of an hour Harry returned : the 

 maestro had decided in his favour, and reprimanded the 

 camineroy telling him " that to create obstructions on the 

 highway was not a means to make foreigners of distinction 

 travel through their country." Who this maestro was it 

 did not clearly appear. Harry said he seemed a venerable 

 old man, to whom the alcalde listened with supreme defer- 

 ence. Perhaps he was the schoolmaster, and most learned 

 man of the place. 



I was considerably elated with my success as a mob 

 orator, this being the most public display I ever had to 

 make in a foreign language ; and though my opponent was 

 certainly a very stupid and sulky fellow, still they seemed to 

 listen impartially to all he said, and only by degrees came 

 over to my side of the quarrel, so that I think I may con- 

 sider it to a certain extent a triumph in the Spanish idiom. 

 It cost us about an hour and a half's delay. 



At Torquemada we dined, and took a siesta^ the day being 

 very hot. The Moor cuts and stumbles a good deal, and is 

 getting lame. The eight or nine hundred miles we have 

 travelled has told on his constitution. All the latter part 

 of our journey, indeed ever since we left Granada, we have 

 been going as far every day as our ponies could be got to 

 go ; and though they had three weeks' rest at Madrid, as 

 we were not there to see after them, I fear they were not 

 fairly treated. 



Towards sunset we set off for Quintana, and made the 

 greater part of our stage by starlight. The posada was 



