occasionally murmur forth some of those sainted names whose aid he had
vainly invoked in the moment of tribulation. Having taken down the light
from the top of the coach, we found them so much disfigured with bruises
and with blood, that recognition would have been impossible. The finery
of poor Pepe, his silver buttons and his sash of silk, were scarcely
less disfigured than his features. There happened to be in our party a
student of medicine, who now took the lead in the Samaritan office of
binding, with pieces of linen and pocket handkerchiefs, the wounds of
these unhappy men.

The wounded men were at length placed in a cart, and sent back slowly
to Amposta, the mayoral showing some signs of returning sensibility,
but the unfortunate Pepe evidently in his last agony. The diligence
proceeded on its route, and stopped to breakfast at Vinaroz.

The kitchen of the posada at Vinaroz offered a scene of unusual
confusion. The hostess was no other than the mother of Pepe, a very
decent-looking Catalan woman, who, I understood, had been sent there the
year before by the Diligence Company, which is concerned in all the inns
at which their coaches stop throughout the line. She had already been
told of the probable fate of her son, and was preparing to set off for
Amposta in the deepest affliction; and yet her sorrow, though evidently
real, was singularly combined with her habitual household cares. The
unusual demand for breakfast by fourteen hungry passengers had created
some little confusion, and the poor woman, instead of leaving these
matters to take care of themselves, felt the force of habit, and was
issuing a variety of orders to her assistant; nor was she unmindful
of her appearance, but had already changed her frock and stockings,
and thrown on her mantilla, preparatory to departure. It was indeed a
singular and piteous sight to see the poor perplexed woman changing some