hat I had them all right. It is a safeguard under the protection
of which the man who has anything to fear slips through the fingers of
frontier guards and police, while the honest man quite frequently
neglects the necessary formalities and is detained.

Our train crossed the bridge over the Bidassoa and we were on Spanish
soil. Soon we entered the gorges of the Pyrenees, and while speculating
whether I should awaken my wife to see the magnificent scenery all
necessity for awakening any one on that train was over. Three or four
musket shots rang out, our train was off the rail, and after a crash or
two came to a sudden stop, and then a babel arose, while the train was
surrounded by armed men. It was laughable. It seemed like an opera
bouffe, the real thing, this motley array of brigands, all trying to
maintain under difficulties the grave Spanish exterior.

One monkey of 18 or 19 years, armed, came to our compartment, and,
pointing to my chain, said he wanted it and my watch. None of us
understood Spanish, but we all comprehended his meaning readily. I
refused to make him a gift, and got rid of him easily.

We were all ordered to alight and our captors seemed inclined to be
ugly. Myself and party were about the only well-dressed people on the
train, and, seeing a priest close by, I went up to him, and ascertaining
he could speak French, I began, in very bad French indeed, to threaten
with very dire consequences Don Carlos and every band of Carlists who
dares to annoy an English Duke and Duchess, and demanded instant shelter
and a guard for my wife, the Duchess. We could hardly keep from
laughing, it was so very like a melodrama. My wife thoroughly enjoyed
the situation, and I should have done so too, had I not had such strong
reasons for quick passage through Spain to blue water on the South, for
I desired to speedily put some leagues of Neptune's domain between
myself and the Old World.

The priest, although a sallow, sombre fellow, was a very good one, and
seemed to realize the gravity of the situation, for, calling the chief
to him, he warned him to be careful. That gentleman came up, and drawing
himself up said very proudly: "Sir, we are soldiers, not robbers." I
said I was very glad to know it, and demanded to be informed if I was a
prisoner or not, and was told I was not, but with the same breath he
said he would be obliged to detain us for a few days. There was a fonda,
or inn, close by, and leaving my wife th