sian
boots,--made up the chief details of a figure whose unwieldy size the
tightness of the dress did not by any means set off to advantage. He
wore besides a quantity of daggers, pistols, and stilettos suspended
around his person, and a huge Barcelona blade hung by two silver chains
from his side, the rattle and jingle of which, as he spoke, appeared to
give him the most lively pleasure. I was ordered to stand before a table
at which he sat, with a kind of secretary at his side, while he
interrogated me as to who I was, whence I came, the object of my
journey, and so forth. My account of myself was given in the very
briefest way I could devise,--totally devoid of all coloring or
exaggeration, and, _for me_, with a most singular avoidance of the
romantic; and yet, to my utter discomfiture, from the very announcement
of my name, down to the last incident of my journey, he characterized
every statement by the very short and emphatic word "a lie," desiring
the secretary to record the same in his "Ledger," as his own firm
conviction; "and add," said he, solemnly, "that the fellow is a spy from
the States of North America,--that he probably belonged to some
exploring party into our frontier,--and that he will most certainly be
hanged whenever the smallest offence is proved against him." These
benign words were most royally spoken, and I made my acknowledgments for
them by taking off my tattered and greasy cap and, with a most urbane
bow, wishing him health and happiness for half a century to come, to
pronounce similar blessings upon many others.

The bystanders did look, I confess, somewhat terrified at my impromptu
courtesy; but Salezar, upon whom my rags, and my grotesque appearance
generally, produced a rather amusing effect, laughed heartily, and bade
them give me something to eat. The order, simple and intelligible as it
was, at least to me, seemed to evoke the strangest signs of surprise and
astonishment, and not unreasonably; for, as I afterwards came to know,
no Lazarus eat of the crumbs which fell from this "rich man's table,"
while from the poor herd of the settlers not a crust nor a parched pea
could be expected, as they were fed by rations so scantily doled out as
barely to support life. The order to feed me was therefore issued
pretty much in the same spirit which made Marie Antoinette recommend the
starving people to eat "brioche." As no one was to be found, however,
bold enough to express a doubt as to the fac