248 



JOURNAL. 



about four o'clock we rode homewards, the distance being four long 

 leagues. The tints on the mountains were beautiful to-night, — from 

 almost black purple to the purest rose-colour ; and there were some 

 sudden and deep sounds from the eastward, that might have been the 

 falls of avalanches, or the voice of some of the half-extinguished 

 volcanoes in the neighbourhood. 



Don Justo met us about a mile and a half from the house, and on 

 our arrival at the door we found two strange cavaliers. One was 



E , whose gay cheerful spirit makes him welcome every where. He 



introduced to us a man, dressed in the coarsest decent dress of the 

 country, by the title of Juan de Bonaventura ; a farmer on his own 

 estate, and a good man, though unfortunately a tonto, i. e. a half-witted 

 clown. When we entered the house, and I saw the tonto by the full 

 light, I thought that nature does indeed sometimes play the huswife, 

 in bestowing such a form and such features on one without a mind. 

 However, we assembled and took tea, after having changed our riding 

 dresses ; and Mr. de Roos, Dona Rosario, and Don Lucas, formed 

 one group on the ottoman in the corner, where Don Lucas's guitar 

 and songs made them very merry. Don Jose Antonio and Don Justo 

 were not with us, Don Justo not being well. Doha Ana Maria and I, 

 therefore, sat at the table, where she had her work and I my drawing, 



with E and the tonto. We talked of all manner of things, and 



now and then, from civility, I appealed to the handsome fool, whose 

 answers were more like Shakspeare's Touchstone than those of any 

 fool I have met : and still I wondered at such a gracious outside, 

 where " every god had seemed to set his seal," coupled with so weak 

 a mind. It made me quite melancholy, and I was glad to go to supper ; 

 where Don Lucas's buffooneries furnished a natural laugh, while 

 those forced by the tonto are melancholy ; and I went to bed actually 

 sad. 



lltJi. — On rising to-day, I found that Don Lucas had set off, in 

 the fog and rain, for the city, without taking leave of us ; so adieu to 

 our dancing. I employed the morning in writing up my journal, 

 going into the dairy, and making enquiries concerning the tonto, 



