might demand it. Yet
Rodaja was not to be moved from his determination. "For this," said he,
"would be to act against the dictates of my conscience and of yours,
senor captain; I would, besides, much rather go free than be attached to
military service in any manner."

"A conscience so scrupulous is more suitable to the cowl of a monk than
the helmet of a soldier," said Don Diego, laughing; "but let it be as
you will, so we but remain comrades."

The first night of their journey they had passed at Antequera, and
making long stages each day, they speedily arrived at the place where
the captain was to join his company. All arrangements being completed,
the company began its march with four others to Carthagena, quartering
at such places as fell in their way.

And now Rodaja could not fail to remark the authority assumed by the
commissaries; the intractable character of many among the captains; the
rapacity of the quartermasters, and the unreasonable nature of their
demands; the fashion in which the paymasters managed their accounts; the
complaints of the people; the traffic in and exchange of billets; the
insolence of the undisciplined troops; their quarrels with the other
guests at the inns; the requisition of more rations and other stores
than were rightful or necessary; and, finally, the almost inevitable
consequences of all this. Much besides came under his observation,
which he could not but see to be in every way wrong and injurious.

For Rodaja himself, he had now abandoned the garb of a student, and
dressed himself parrot-fashion (as we say), conforming to such things as
the life around him presented. The many books he had possessed were now
reduced to the "Orisons of Our Lady," and a "Garcilaso without
Comments," which he carried in two of his pockets.

The party with which he travelled arrived at Carthagena much earlier
than he desired, for the varied life he led was very pleasant, and each
day brought something new and agreeable. At Carthagena the troops
embarked in four galleys for Naples; and in his cabin, also, Kodaja made
many observations on the strange life passed in those maritime houses,
where, for the most part, a man is devoured by vermin and destroyed by
rats, vexed by the sailors, robbed by the galley-slaves, and tormented
by the swell of the waters. He endured terrible fear from violent storms
and tempests, more especially in the Gulf of Lyons, where they had two,
by one of which they were cast