k locks and olive skin of his companion as they
differed from the generally received notions of Spanish physiognomy.
The face wore no particular expression, excepting that of
good-humoured _insouciance_; his hazel eye had a merry twinkle, and a
slight fulness of lip and chin seemed to denote a reasonable degree of
addiction to the good things of this life. Altogether, and to judge
them by their physiognomies only, one would have chosen the first for
a friend, the latter for a pleasant and jovial boon-companion.

On leaving the cross-road, the two pedestrians took a northerly
direction, in which they proceeded for nearly a quarter of an hour
without exchanging a syllable, the one absorbed in meditations which
the other was apparently unwilling to disturb. At the end of that time
they paused, as if by preconcerted arrangement, in front of a small
_venta_, or country inn, less remarkable for the accommodation it
afforded, than for its pleasant situation and aspect. It stood a
little back from the road, in a nook formed by the recession of a line
of wooded hills which there skirt the highway. The front of the house,
composed of rough blocks of grey stone, was overgrown by the twisted
branches of a venerable vine, the age of which did not prevent it from
becoming covered each spring with leaves and tendrils, nor from
yielding in the autumn an abundant supply of delicious gold-coloured
grapes. At a short distance in front of the door, which opened into
the stable, whence a wooden step-ladder led to the upper floor, there
stood a huge oak, throwing its broad shadow over a table and some
benches placed beneath it for the accommodation of guests. On one side
of the venta, and detached from it, but in a right line with its
front, was a massive fragment of wall, which had probably, at no very
remote period, formed part of a chapel or convent. Its summit, which
was broken and irregular, rose full thirty feet from the ground
throughout more than double that length, and along the wall, at about
two-thirds of a man's height, ran a horizontal black line, indicating,
as did also the numerous marks and bruises upon the whitewashed
surface, that this ancient piece of masonry enabled the frequenters of
the venta to indulge in the favourite _juego de pelota_, or a game at
ball, to which the Navarrese and the northern Spaniards generally are
much addicted, and at which most of them excel.

On the arrival of our travellers, the benches in fr