Isidro, seated on the shaft, according to the custom of the country,
answered:--

"Your pistols are completely useless, gentlemen; leave me to act; one
cry will be enough; my mule will rid us of two, three, or even four
men."

Scarcely one minute had elapsed after the calezero had uttered these
words, when two men presented themselves before the mule and seized her
by the nostrils. At the same instant a formidable cry, which will never
be effaced from my remembrance,--the cry of _Capitana!_--was uttered by
Isidro. The mule reared up almost vertically, raising up one of the men,
came down again, and set off at a rapid gallop. The jolt which the
carriage made led us to understand too well what had just occurred. A
long silence succeeded this incident; it was only interrupted by these
words of the calezero, "Do you not think, gentlemen, that my mule is
worth more than any pistols?"

The next day the captain-general, Don Domingo Izquierdo, related to me
that a man had been found crushed on the road to Murviedro. I gave him
an account of the prowess of Isidro's mule, and no more was said.

One anecdote, taken from among a thousand, will show what an adventurous
life was led by the delegate of the _Bureau of Longitude_.

During my stay on a mountain near Cullera, to the north of the mouth of
the river Xucar, and to the south of the Albuféra, I once conceived the
project of establishing a station on the high mountains which are in
front of it. I went to see them. The alcaid of one of the neighbouring
villages warned me of the danger to which I was about to expose myself.