the river, but
scattered and sounding gaily and musically from glen to glen. Here, too,
the spirits of my driver mended, and he began to sing aloud in a falsetto
voice, and with a singular bluntness of musical perception, never true
either to melody or key, but wandering at will, and yet somehow with an
effect that was natural and pleasing, like that of the of birds. As the
dusk increased, I fell more and more under the spell of this artless
warbling, listening and waiting for some articulate air, and still
disappointed; and when at last I asked him what it was he sang--'O,'
cried he, 'I am just singing!' Above all, I was taken with a trick he
had of unweariedly repeating the same note at little intervals; it was
not so monotonous as you would think, or, at least, not disagreeable; and
it seemed to breathe a wonderful contentment with what is, such as we
love to fancy in the attitude of trees, or the quiescence of a pool.

Night had fallen dark before we came out upon a plateau, and drew up a
little after, before a certain lump of superior blackness which I could
only conjecture to be the residencia. Here, my guide, getting down from
the cart, hooted and whistled for a long time in vain; until at last an
old peasant man came towards us from somewhere in the surrounding dark,
carrying a candle in his hand. By the light of this I was able to
perceive a great arched doorway of a Moorish character: it was closed by
iron-studded gates, in one of the leaves of which Felipe opened a wicket.
The peasant carried off the cart to some out-building; but my guide and I
passed through the wicket, which was closed again behind us; and by the
glimmer of the candle, passed through a court, up a stone stair, along a
section of an open gallery, and up more stairs again, until we came at
last to the door of a great and somewhat bare apartment. This room,
which I understood was to be mine, was pierced by three windows, lined
with some lustrous wood disposed in panels, and carpeted with the skins
of many savage animals. A bright fire burned in the chimney, and shed
abroad a changeful flicker; close up to the blaze there was drawn a
table, laid for supper; and in the far end a bed stood ready. I was
pleased by these preparations, and said so to Felipe; and he, with the
same simplicity of disposition that I held already remarked in him,
warmly re-echoed my praises. 'A fine room,' he said; 'a very fine room.
And fire, too; fire is good