ly no bigger than
dogs, clambering slowly up the steep and rocky path; then were heard the
long cadences of the muleteer's rude but not unmusical song; and at last
the active figures of the muleteers themselves, with their fantastical
garb and five hundred buttons, the variegated accoutrements of the mules,
with their worsted plumes, and tufts, and frippery, and many-coloured
saddle-cloths, and even the trabucos that were slung behind the saddles,
were all distinguishable. There was a wild picturesqueness in the
appearance of the cavalcade as it wound its way over the seemingly
perpendicular rocks, while the rough sonorous song, accompanied by the
sound of the bells, came creeping up the mountain side. Suddenly a figure
detached itself from the party, as if weary of the circuitous route it was
taking, and, with extraordinary activity and daring, commenced a more
direct ascent. Springing from cliff to cliff, the adventurous climber
seemed to find pleasure in his breakneck pastime, and continued his course
without a pause till he reached the second shelf of the barranca, which
was riven by a deep and wide crevice. High over his head a gigantic eagle
was wheeling and circling, floating upon the air, now darting down towards
him, and then again shooting upwards, sporting, as it seemed, with an
anticipated prey. The young man, for such those above could now discern
him to be, drew breath for a few seconds, cast a glance upwards at the
kingly bird, and then, with one fearless spring, cleared the chasm. With
unabated vigour he bounded from rock to rock, and at length reached a
rocky projection immediately below the platform. Grasping the trunk of a
dwarf oak, he climbed nimbly up it, and let himself drop from the branches
on the plateau itself.

"_Diabolo!_" muttered the two Zambos, who had witnessed the young man's
hazardous progress with that mute admiration and sympathy which the
exhibition of bodily strength and activity is apt to excite, especially
amongst half-civilized men--"_Diabolo!_ He has more lives than a cat!" And
with the words they slunk into the thicket.

It was no other than Don Manuel himself who had made this daring, and, as
it appeared, unnecessary display of his aptitude for the life of a
mountaineer--a display the more perilous, as his rich and fantastical
riding dress was any thing but favourable to it. He wore a Guadalajara
hat, of which the brim, full six inches broad, was completely covered with
gold