mountains, became to him nameless monsters infesting the country; the
serpents were magnified in bulk, and the poisonous lizard redoubled
its venom. The fevers common there grew more malignant; the plague
broke out occasionally, and a few earthquakes were thrown in to
enliven the narrative. She garbled it too, sadly, suppressing the fact
that Algarve had furnished a large proportion of the adventurers who
had discovered and conquered India and Brazil, and its mariners of
this day, the best in Portugal, she converted into Barbary
corsairs. She said nothing about Algarve having been the first
province to rise against the French, or about the half-dozen
adventurous seamen who had sailed boldly in a fishing-boat to Brazil,
to inform the regent that Portugal still dared to struggle and to
hope.

L'Isle overheard and wondered at her perversion of his account of
Algarve, without detecting her motive, and Moodie thought her evident
desire to visit this region proved her little less than mad, for only
her version of select portions of L'Isle's remarks reached his ears.

"It is singular," said L'Isle, "that the Moors should have been more
thoroughly driven out of Algarve, the most southern province, than out
of others north of it. Its maritime position perhaps made it easy for
them to escape to Morocco. But the people are not so dark as in
Alemtejo, and many of the women are beautifully fair. In fact, I have
seen as lovely faces there as in any country but our own."

Lady Mabel took care not to enlighten Moodie by repeating to him this
observation, and he remained convinced that L'Isle had been describing
beforehand to the ladies the country he was leading them to.