A FANDANGO. 177 
We lounged for an hour or two in Laborde's beautiful garden, watching 
the sunset over the western glen, and found it difficult to leave even for the 
promise of a dinner. While we had been on our morning visit to the 
hacienda, the diligence arrived from Mexico, and the hungry passengers, 
who had travelled since three o'clock almost without food, made a deep 
inroad in the larder. It required some energy to repair this havoc, and 
as our dinner had been ordered at six o'clock, I took occasion to pay my 
respect'^ -o the cook-maid. With the aid of a little cash and persuasion, 
I managed to preserve our own stores untouched until we penetrate far- 
ther into the country, where, in all likelihood, we will need them more. 
After dinner, we took a walk by moonlight through the town. The 
night was as cloudless and serene, as one of our summer evenings by 
the sea-shore. 
Antonio, the broken-nosed hero, and owner of the cur, proposed that 
we should go to see a fandango, at the house of one of the burghers, 
who was his friend. He led the way, through several streets, to a neat 
dwelling in the midst of a garden, where we found a row of elderly ladies 
strung on high-backed chairs against the wall, while a dozen young and 
pretty ones (by the light of a couple of starved tallow candles,) received 
ihe compliments of as many of the village beaux. Two or three musi- 
cians were seated in a corner strumming their handalones, and going 
through a half hour of preparatory tuning, while the company gathered. 
At length, when all had assembled, the schoolmaster — a veteran and a 
bachelor, the briskest and busiest man of the party — constituted himself 
master of ceremonies for the evening, and insisted on our joining in a 
contra dance, got up expressly for the strangers. Du Roslan and myself 
joined the dance, on my principle of "taking people as they are, and 
doing as they do," besides that I think it always in the worst taste to 
leave men, no matter how humble or poor they may be, under the im- 
pression that you have visited them as curiosities. After footing it through, 
we handed the servants a couple of dollars to bring in refreshments of 
"Perfect-love" and "Noyau" for the ladies, and something more likely 
to be relished by the gentlemen. This we understood was not contrary 
to the rules of " good society ;" — so they sipped and became livelier. A 
couple took the floor — the lady with castanets, and the man chantino- an 
air to the guitar. Another pair followed their example, while the re- 
mainder formed a cotillon, to the twang of the rest of the instruments. 
The Cuernavacans seemed wide awake, for once at least, and we stole 
off quietly at midnight, in the midst of an uproar of music and merriment. 
2(ith Septemher. At four o'clock, day was just breaking and the moon 
still shining, when we passed through the suburbs of Cuernavaca. As 
we reached the highlands of the plateau, where the barranca breaks pre- 
cipitously, the sun rose. There had been no rain during the niijht ; the 
sky was perfectly clear, and in the distance lay the mountains of the 
