AN ADVENTURE. 21 



On our way I said to the calezero (driver), a man 

 whom I had employed for a long time, and who was 

 much devoted to me : 



" Isidro, I have some reason to believe that we shall 

 be stopped ; I warn you of it, so that you may not be 

 surprised at the shots which will be fired from the caleza 

 (vehicle)." 



Isidro, seated on the shaft, according to the custom of 

 the country, answered : 



" Your pistols are completely useless, gentlemen ; leave 

 me to act ; one cry will be enough ; my mule will rid us 

 of two, three, or even four men." 



Scarcely one minute had elapsed after the calezero had 

 uttered these words, when two men presented themselves 

 before the mule and seized her by the nostrils. At the 

 same instant a formidable cry, which will never be effaced 

 from my remembrance, the cry of Capitana I was ut- 

 tered by Isidro. The mule reared up almost vertically, 

 raising up one of the men, came down again, and set off 

 at a rapid gallop. The jolt which the carriage made led 

 us to understand too well what had just occurred. A 

 long silence succeeded this incident ; it was only inter- 

 rupted by these words of the calezero, " Do you not 

 think, gentlemen, that my mule is worth more than any 

 pistols ? " 



The next day the captain-general, Don Domingo Iz- 

 quierdo, related to me that a man had been found crushed 

 on the road to Murviedro. I gave him an account of the 

 prowess of Isidro's mule, and no more was said. 



One anecdote, taken from among a thousand, will show 

 what an adventurous life was led by the delegate of the 

 Bureau of Longitude. 



During my stay on a mountain near Cullera, to the 



