quest of work, to charge himself
with it, promising that I would pay him well for his trouble. The man,
watching his opportunity, received the letter from Vitoriano at the
window; and it was he who, after travelling on foot all night, delivered
it to me in safety at Madrid.

I was now relieved from my anxiety, and had no fears for the result. I
instantly went to a friend who is in possession of large estates about
Guadalajara, in which province Fuente La Higuera is situated, who
furnished me with letters to the Civil Governor of Guadalajara and all
the principal authorities, and at Antonio's request, I despatched him
upon the errand of the prisoner's liberation. He first directed his
course to Fuente La Higuera, where entering the _Alcalde's_ house he
boldly told him what he had come about. The _Alcalde_, expecting that I
was at hand with an army of Englishmen for the purpose of rescuing the
prisoner, became greatly alarmed, and instantly despatched his wife to
summon his twelve men. However, on Antonio's assuring him that there was
no intention of having recourse to violence, he became more tranquil. In
a little time Antonio was summoned before the conclave and its blind
sacerdotal president. They at first attempted to frighten him, by
assuming a loud bullying tone and talking of the necessity of killing all
strangers, and especially the detested Don Jorge and his dependents.
Antonio, however, who is not a person apt to allow himself to be easily
terrified, scoffed at their threats, and showing them his letters to the
authorities of Guadalajara said that he should proceed there on the
morrow and denounce their lawless conduct; adding that he was a Turkish
subject, and that should they dare to offer him the slightest incivility
he would write to the Sublime Porte, in comparison with whom the best
kings in the world were but worms, and who would not fail to avenge the
wrongs of any of his children, however distant, in a manner too terrible
to be mentioned. He then returned to his _posada_. The conclave now
proceeded to deliberate among themselves, and at last determined to
despatch their prisoner on the morrow to Guadalajara, and deliver him
into the hands of the Civil Governor.

Nevertheless, in order to keep up a semblance of authority, they that
night placed two men armed at the door of the _posada_ where Antonio was
lodged, as if he himself were a prisoner; these men as often as the clock
struck the hours,