might, I felt it to be a portent and a prophecy.

When I awoke in the morning I was dumfounded to find a blizzard blowing
that the cattle could not face, and with every appearance of
continuance. In reply to my inquiries I learned they sometimes blew in
those altitudes for a week. This was unpleasant news for me, and the
prospect made me nervous. It was now Thursday, the fourth day since our
departure from Paris. And what might have happened in London in that
time! Here was I as completely isolated from the outside world and from
all news about my companions in England as if on a desert isle. For all
I knew discovery might have been made, and full details of the fraud
might be blazing in the press of Europe. I began to fear I had run into
a trap. To make matters worse, the steamer El Rey Felipe was advertised
to sail Monday from Cadiz, and to miss her seemed danger indeed.

[Illustration: PRISONERS WAITING TRIAL, AT NEWGATE, RECEIVING VISITORS.]

I was a prisoner in a wretched inn in a defile of the Pyrenees, with a
civil war raging, and no telling what might arise to detain us. Our
objective point was only some thirty-five miles away, but with roads
deep in snow, with wretched cattle and more wretched Spaniards for
drivers, there was poor prospect of making headway. I felt it would
never do for me to suffer longer detention.

I determined to leave my wife and baggage in charge of Nunn, to put the
$120,000 I had in a bag and start back to the French frontier, cross
into France and catch the Saturday steamer from Havre to New York,
explaining to my wife that important business demanded my presence in
America, that she could follow on the next steamer and that I would meet
her on arrival.

In the mean time my unlucky thirteen were happy. For were they not
sheltered, with plenty of food and high wages, all out of the pocket of
the great lord the Virgin herself must have sent to them? In fact, they
were winning from me what to them was a fortune. I was paying each man a
dollar a day and $5 for each team and cart.

From my experience I must give the Spaniards a good name for honesty. Of
course, they were charging me cut-throat prices, but they were poor,
and wealthy lords did not often come their way. Aside from that they
were very honest. Many things, such as rugs, shawls, lunch baskets,
dressing cases, etc., that must have seemed of value to them, lay around
everywhere, but not a single article was missing during the