For as the Cavaliero was disabled and carry’d off, the Foot Tauriro enter’d in white Accoutrements, as before; but he flatter’d himself with an easier Conquest than he found:  there is always on these Occasions, when he apprehends any imminent Danger, a Place of Retreat ready for the Foot Tauriro; and well for him there was so; this Bull oblig’d him over and over to make Use of it.  Nor was he able at last to dispatch him, without a general Assistance; for I believe I speak within Compass, when I say, he had more than an hundred Darts stuck in him.  And so barbarously was he mangled, and flash’d besides, that, in my Mind, I could not but think King Philip in the Right, when he said, That it was a Custom deserv’d little Encouragement.

Soon after this Tauridore, or Bull-Feast was over, I had a Mind to take a pleasant Walk to a little Town, call’d Minai, about three Leagues off; but I was scarce got out of la Mancha, when an Acquaintance meeting me, ask’d where I was going?  I told him to Minai; when taking me by the Hand, Friend Gorgio, says he in Spanish, Come back with me; you shall not go a Stride further; there are Picarons that Way; you shall not go.  Inquiring, as we went back, into his Meaning, he told me, that the Day before, a Man, who had received a Sum of Money in Pistoles at la Mancha, was, on the road, set upon by some, who had got notice of it, and murdered him; that not finding the Money expected about him (for he had cautiously enough left it in a Friend’s Hands at la Mancha) they concluded he had swallowed it; and therefore they ript up his Belly, and open’d every Gut; but all to as little Purpose.  This diverted my Walk for that time.

But some little Time after, the same Person inviting me over to the same Place, to see his Melon-Grounds, which in that Country are wonderful fine and pleasant; I accepted his Invitation, and under the Advantage of his Company, went thither.  On the Road I took notice of a Cross newly erected, and a Multitude of small stones around the Foot of it:  Asking the Meaning whereof, my Friend told me, that it was rais’d for a Person there murder’d (as is the Custom throughout Spain) and that every good Catholick passing by, held it his Duty to cast a Stone upon the Place, in Detestation of the Murder.  I had often before taken Notice of many such Crosses:  but never till then knew the Meaning of their Erection, or the Reason of the Heaps of Stones around them.

There is no Place in all Spain more famous for good Wine than Sainte Clemente de la Mancha; nor is it any where sold cheaper:  For as it is only an inland Town, near no navigable River, and the People temperate to a Proverb, great Plenty, and a small Vend must consequently make it cheap.  The Wine here is so famous, that, when I came to Madrid, I saw wrote over the Doors of host Houses that sold Wine, Vino Sainte Clemente.  As to the Temperance of the People, I must say, that notwithstanding those two excellent Qualities of good and cheap, I never saw, all the three Years I was Prisoner there, any one Person overcome with Drinking.