124 WILD SPAIN. 



II. — Agua-Dulce. 



Agua-Dulce lacked the character of the noble brigand ; 

 but was so successful in a long course of perpetual petty 

 robberies, and in invariably escaping justice when caught, 

 that he had become a terror to the neighbourhood of Jerez. 

 To the simple folk whose duties took them to the 

 sequestered farmsteads or along the lonely rercdas, or 

 bridle-tracks, leading towards the sierras, there appeared 

 to be something " uncanny " about this raterillo. Agua- 

 Dulce was one of those men who acquire much fame 

 without having done anything to justify it. As a robber, 

 he was of the meaner sort, fertile in resource hi planning 

 his small crimes, and relying more on effrontery than 

 bravery to avoid capture. His victims were almost 

 exclusively poor charcoal-burners, or arrieros returning 

 from the town with their hard-earned gains — three or four 

 to twenty dollars, received for weeks of toilsome labour — 

 the very class whom Vizco el Borje subsidized, and by 

 judicious generosity made subservient to his more exalted 

 schemes. Thus the very men who, nolens volcns, became 

 allies and satellites of Vizco, were Agua-Dulce's habitual 

 victims and bitterest enemies. 



It is from the lips of Antonio Sanchez, formerly of the 

 Municipal Guard of Jerez de la Prontera, and now retired 

 on pension, that we have the following account of the 

 career and death of the miscreant known as Agua-Dulce. 

 Sanchez was, moreover, the man who slew him. 



Agua-Dulce was suspected of having various accom- 

 plices : his favourite defence was to prove an alibi, and 

 his success in throwing the authorities off the scent by 

 this means pointed to combinations which were not visible 

 on the surface. At the hour when the particular robbery 

 with which he was charged had been committed, Agua-Dulce 

 showed that he was in the town and had saluted this or 

 that functionary. And these latter were always ready to 

 support his defence as witnesses. Among other unacknow- 

 ledged alliances, Agua-Dulce was reputed to enjoy the 



