fortunate enough to obtain a large jug of milk,
for there were plenty of cows in the neighbourhood feeding in a
picturesque valley which we had passed by, in which there was abundance
of grass and trees and a run of water broken by tiny cascades. The jug
might contain about half a gallon, but I emptied it in a few minutes, for
the thirst of fever was still burning within me though I was destitute of
appetite. The _venta_ had something the appearance of a German baiting
house. It consisted of an immense stable, from which was partitioned a
kind of kitchen and a place where the family slept. The master, a robust
young man, lolled on a large solid stone bench which stood within the
door. He was very inquisitive respecting news, but I could afford him
none; whereupon he became communicative, and gave me the history of his
life, the sum of which was that he had been a courier in the Basque
provinces, but about a year since had been despatched to this village
where he kept the post-house. He was an enthusiastic liberal, and spoke
in bitter terms of the surrounding population, who, he said, were all
Carlists and friends of the friars. I paid little attention to his
discourse, for I was looking at a Maragato lad of about fourteen who
served in the house as a kind of ostler. I asked the master if we were
still in the land of the Maragatos, but he told me that we had left it
behind nearly a league, and that the lad was an orphan, and was serving
until he could rake up a sufficient capital to become an _arriero_. I
addressed several questions to the boy, but the urchin looked sullenly in
my face, and either answered by monosyllables or was doggedly silent. I
asked him if he could read: 'Yes,' said he, 'as much as that black brute
of yours who is tearing down the manger.'

Quitting Manzanal, we continued our course, the ground gradually
descending; we soon arrived at a place where the road took a turn to the
west, though previously it had tended due north. We now found that we
had to descend the steep sides of a deep and narrow valley which wound
amongst mountains, not those of the chain which we had seen before us and
which we had left at our right, but those of the Telleno range, just
before they unite with that chain. Arrived at the brink of the valley we
turned into a foot-path, to avoid making a considerable circuit, for we
saw the road on the other side of the valley opposite to us about a
furlong [distant], and th