stone, generally with an alcove at the end, in which stood a wretched
flock bed. Behind the house was a court, and in the rear of this a
stable, full of horses, ponies, mules, machos, and donkeys, for there was
no lack of guests, who, however, for the most part slept in the stable
with their caballerias, being either arrieros or small peddling
merchants, who travelled the country with coarse cloth or linen. Opposite
to my room in the corridor lodged a wounded officer, who had just arrived
from San Sebastian on a galled broken-kneed pony: he was an Estrimenian,
and was returning to his own village to be cured. He was attended by
three broken soldiers, lame or maimed, and unfit for service: they told
me that they were of the same village as his worship, and on that account
he permitted them to travel with him. They slept amongst the litter, and
throughout the day lounged about the house smoking paper cigars. I never
saw them eating, though they frequently went to a dark cool corner, where
stood a bota or kind of water pitcher, which they held about six inches
from their black filmy lips, permitting the liquid to trickle down their
throats. They said they had no pay and were quite destitute of money,
that su merced the officer occasionally gave them a piece of bread, but
that he himself was poor and had only a few dollars. Brave guests for an
inn, thought I; yet, to the honour of Spain be it spoken, it is one of
the few countries in Europe where poverty is never insulted nor looked
upon with contempt. Even at an inn, the poor man is never spurned from
the door, and if not harboured, is at least dismissed with fair words,
and consigned to the mercies of God and his mother. This is as it should
be. I laugh at the bigotry and prejudices of Spain, I abhor the cruelty
and ferocity which have cast a stain of eternal infamy on her history,
but I will say for the Spaniards that in their social intercourse no
people in the world exhibit a juster feeling of what is due to the
dignity of human nature, or better understand the behaviour which it
behoves a man to adopt towards his fellow beings. I have said that it is