by, where was abundance of grass, and trees, and a rivulet broken by tiny cascades.  The jug might contain about half a gallon, but I emptied it in a few minutes, for the thirst of fever was still burning within me, though I was destitute of appetite.  The venta had something the appearance of a German baiting-house.  It consisted of an immense stable, from which was partitioned a kind of kitchen and a place where the family slept.  The master, a robust young man, lolled on a large solid stone bench, which stood within the door.  He was very inquisitive respecting news, but I could afford him none; whereupon he became communicative, and gave me the history of his life, the sum of which was, that he had been a courier in the Basque provinces, but about a year since had been dispatched to this village, where he kept the post-house.  He was an enthusiastic liberal, and spoke in bitter terms of the surrounding population, who, he said, were all Carlists and friends of the friars.  I paid little attention to his discourse, for I was looking at a Maragato lad of about fourteen, who served in the house as a kind of ostler.  I asked the master if we were still in the land of the Maragatos; but he told me that we had left it behind nearly a league, and that the lad was an orphan and was serving until he could rake up a sufficient capital to become an arriero.  I addressed several questions to the boy, but the urchin looked sullenly in my face, and either answered by monosyllables or was doggedly silent.  I asked him if he could read.  “Yes,” said he, “as much as that brute of yours who is tearing down the manger.”

Quitting Manzanal, we continued our course.  We soon arrived at the verge of a deep valley amongst mountains, not those of the chain which we had seen before us, and which we now left to the right, but those of the Telleno range, just before they unite with that chain.  Round the sides of this valley, which exhibited something of the appearance of a horse-shoe, wound the road in a circuitous manner; just before us, however, and diverging from the road, lay a footpath which seemed, by a gradual descent, to lead across the valley, and to rejoin the road on the other side, at the distance of about a furlong; and into this we struck in order to avoid the circuit.

We had not gone far before we met two Galicians, on their way to cut the harvests of Castile.  One of them shouted, “Cavalier, turn back:  in a moment you will be amongst precipices, where your horses will break their necks, for we ourselves could scarcely climb them on foot.”  The other cried, “Cavalier, proceed, but be careful, and your horses, if sure-footed, will run no great danger:  my comrade is a fool.”  A violent dispute instantly ensued between the two mountaineers, each supporting his opinion with loud oaths and curses; but without stopping to see the result, I passed on, but the path was now filled with stones and huge slaty rocks, on which my horse was continually slipping.