no quiet; not even for the siesta? _C--jo!_"

And again she jerked herself into her hammock, which Manca now kept in a
state of vibration, creating a cool breeze in the room, but at the same
time raising clouds of dust. About two minutes elapsed, during which not a
word was spoken; the Spaniard had lighted a cigar, and was puffing forth
volumes of smoke. On a sudden he took the cigar from his mouth, apparently
in a great rage.

"_Muerte y infiernos!_" he exclaimed. A twinge interrupted him, and he
relapsed into his groanings, while his greenish-brown physiognomy was
horribly distorted. "_Muerte y infiernos!_" he resumed, as the pangs
diminished in violence. "No quiet, say you? And whose fault is it? Who
brought us up here from Acapulco?"

"Would you have stopped there to be made minced meat of by the rebels?"
retorted his wife.

"_Maldito mal pais_," growled the Spaniard. "Would that I had remained in
the Madre Patria!"

The lady cast a glance of the most supreme contempt upon her shadow of a
husband, took a cigar from the Indian girl, and beckoned the mulatto to
bring her a light. It was only when her cigar was in full puff that she
vouchsafed a reply.

"Remain in the Madre Patria, say you? To dine with St Antonio,[18] I
suppose. To feast upon garlic soup, with six-and-thirty garbanzos in it,
and as many drops of oil swimming on the hot water. _Porquerias! No hablas
como Cristiano._"

"Not speak like a Christian, say you?" cried the Spaniard with a sort of
comical shudder. "Jesus, Maria, y Jose! _Nosotros!_ We, who descend from
the oldest Christians of whom Castile can boast--we, whose ancestors were
at the fight by Roncesvalles"----

"Pshaw! the man talks nonsense. Did we not come all the way from Acapulco
to get him cured of his consumption? And now we are here, the fool will
not see the doctor, because he would be obliged to call the Zambo Don, or
Senor. Cursed folly!"

"Folly!" returned her better half furiously--"Folly, do you say? _You_ may
call it so; you who have not a drop of the blood of the Matanzas in your
veins. Folly, quotha!" continued he with a fresh outburst of indignation;
"the heroism of a Matanzas, whose three hundred forefathers must look down
on him from heaven with pride and exultation, especially the great
Matanzas who in the fight by Roncesvalles"----

"Roncesvalles or no Roncesvalles!" interrupted his spouse, "my ancestors
were members of the Seville Consulado, Senor! remember that