xt morning, I soon retired to bed, my servant
sleeping in the same apartment, which was the only one in the house
vacant. I closed not an eye during the whole night; beneath us was a
stable in which some _almocreves_, or carriers, slept with their mules,
and at our back in the yard was a hog-stye. How could I sleep? The hogs
grunted; the mules screamed; and the _almocreves_ snored most horribly.
I heard the village clock strike the hours until midnight, and from
midnight till four in the morning, when I sprang up and began to dress,
and despatched my servant to hasten the man with his mules, for I was
heartily tired of the place, and wished to leave it.

An old man, but remarkably bony and hale, accompanied by a bare-footed
lad, brought the beasts. He was the proprietor of them, and intended to
accompany us to Evora with the lad, who was his nephew. When we started
the moon was shining brightly, and the morning was piercingly cold. We
soon entered a sandy, hollow way, emerging from which we passed by a
large edifice, standing on a high, bleak sand-hill, on our left. We were
speedily overtaken by five or six men on horseback, riding at a rapid
pace, each with a long gun slung at his saddle, the muzzle depending
about two feet below the horses belly. I questioned the old man as to
the cause of their going thus armed; he answered that the roads were very
bad (meaning that they abounded with robbers), and that these people
carried arms for their defence. They soon turned off to the right
towards Palmella.

We reached a sandy plain studded with stunted pine; the road was little
more than a footpath, and as we proceeded the trees thickened and became
a wood, which extended for two leagues with clear spaces at intervals, in
which herds of cattle and sheep were feeding. The sun was just beginning
to show itself, but the morning was misty and dreary, which together with
the aspect of desolation which the country exhibited had an unfavourable
effect on my spirits. I got down and walked, entering into conversation
with the man. He seemed to have but one theme of conversation, 'the
robbers' and the atrocities they were in the habit of practising in the
very spots we were passing. The tales he related were truly horrible,
and to avoid them I mounted again and rode on considerably in front.

In about an hour and a half we emerged from the forest and entered upon
wild broken ground covered with _mato_ or brushwood. The