Assault--Speedy Trot--Arrival at Trujillo--Night and Rain--The
Forest--The Bivouac--Mount and Away!--Jaraicejo--The National--The
Cavalier Balmerson--Among the Thicket--Serious Discourse--What is
Truth?--Unexpected Intelligence.

We remained three days at the Gypsies' house, Antonio departing
early every morning, on his mule, and returning late at night. The
house was large and ruinous, the only habitable part of it, with
the exception of the stable, being the hall, where we had supped,
and there the Gypsy females slept at night, on some mats and
mattresses in a corner.

"A strange house is this," said I to Antonio, one morning as he was
on the point of saddling his mule and departing, as I supposed, on
the affairs of Egypt; "a strange house and strange people; that
Gypsy grandmother has all the appearance of a sowanee (sorceress)."

"All the appearance of one!" said Antonio; "and is she not really
one? She knows more crabbed things and crabbed words than all the
Errate betwixt here and Catalonia. She has been amongst the wild
Moors, and can make more drows, poisons, and philtres than any one
alive. She once made a kind of paste, and persuaded me to taste,
and shortly after I had done so my soul departed from my body, and
wandered through horrid forests and mountains, amidst monsters and
duendes, during one entire night. She learned many things amidst
the Corahai which I should be glad to know."

"Have you been long acquainted with her?" said I; "you appear to be
quite at home in this house."