os_ of the
Aragonese was one that ran thus: _"Que siempre que el rey quebrantose
sus fueros, pudiessen eligir otro rey encora que sea pagano"_ (If ever
the King should infringe our _fueros_, we can elect another King, even
though he might be a pagan), and the preamble of the election ran thus:
"We, who are as good as you, and are more powerful than you (_podemos
mas que vos_) elect you King in order that you may protect our rights
and liberties, and also we elect one between us and you (_el justicia_),
who has more power than you: _y si no, no!_" which may be taken to mean,
"otherwise you are not our King."

Somewhat of this spirit still abides in the Aragonese. The costume is
one of the most picturesque in Spain. The men wear short black velvet
breeches, open at the knees and slashed at the sides, adorned with rows
of buttons, and showing white drawers underneath; _alpargatas_, or the
plaited hempen sandals, which, with the stockings, are black; a black
velvet jacket, with slashed and button-trimmed sleeves, and the
gaily-coloured _faja_, or silk sash, worn over an elaborate shirt.

In the old days, when one entered Spain by diligence from Bayonne to
Pampeluna over the Pyrenees, one learned something of the beauty of the
scenery and the healthy, hardy characteristics of the people, as one
whirled along through the chestnut groves, over the leaping streams,
always at full gallop, up hill and down dale, with a precipice on one
side of the road and the overhanging mountains on the other. Below lay a
fertile country with comfortable little homesteads and villages
clustering round their church, and the like dotted the hillsides and the
valleys wherever there seemed a foothold. As the diligence, with its
team of ten or twelve mules, dashed through these villages or past the
isolated farms, the people stood at their doors and shouted; it was
evidently the event of the day. The mules were changed every hour, or
rather more, according to the road, and as the ascent became steeper
more were added to their number; sometimes six or eight starting from
Bayonne where twelve or fourteen were needed for the top of the Pass. At
least half the journey was always made at night, and if there were a
moon the scenery became magically beautiful; but, in any case, the
stars, in that clear atmosphere, made it almost as bright as day, while
a ruddy light streamed from the lamp over the driver's seat, far above
the coupe, along the string of hu