210 



MEXICO, 



the house with peals of laughter. The curate 

 was nowhere to be seen during this exhibition^ 

 which he could not, I suppose, have permitted to 

 go on, although, indeed, everything serious seem- 

 ed banished for the time. 



Immediately after this joke, the noise ceased^ 

 the party broke up, and every one went off to his 

 siesta, with a composure, and steadiness, which 

 showed that the greater part of the preceding riot 

 was the effect of choice, not of intoxication ; to 

 which, certainly, in appearance, it was most close- 

 ly allied. To satisfy myself on this point, I en- 

 tered into conversation with several of the most 

 boisterous, but they were now so perfectly quiet 

 and sedate, that it was difficult to believe they 

 were the same individuals who, but a few mi- 

 nutes before, had been, apparently, so completely 

 tipsy. 



Some days after this dinner, I went to the 

 Convent of La Cruz to visit a friend who was do- 

 ing penance, not for a sin he had committed, but 

 for one he was preparing to commit. The case 

 was this : Don N. had recently lost his wife, and 

 not choosing to live in solitude, looked about for 



