slackened
the reins in their mouths. I was not only indebted to Don Domingo for
these excellent adjuncts to my journey, but for a few written lines
also, to divers persons along the road, which seemed to infuse them with
a portion of their master's energy; besides, he had sent his own trusty
courier with me as guide. This was an old man of sixty, strong, active,
and honest: in youth he had proved himself a brave soldier; in virtue of
which he was permitted to carry--besides his carbine--a long lance, and
pennon that fluttered in the breeze. He frequently went without sleep,
for three days and nights successively, when riding express for his
patron. I made old Cypriano my commissary, and he always became
frightfully incensed, when called upon to pay more than he deemed the
service demanded; but again he would laugh heartily, when urging a beast
that had been overcharged, with a lash and a kick at every leap--which
he called taking a medios worth. Indeed Cypriano, from long riding, had
become a little callous, in thus visiting the sins of the masters upon
the beasts, and believed in the superstition, that hired horses had no
souls.

The face of the country was fast losing its abruptness; mountains were
verging into hills with table tops, and long sweeping undulations
stretching away in the hazy distance. It was very open, fertile, and
well-tilled, but neither wooded, nor so profusely watered as the lands
seaward of Guadalajara.

Early in the afternoon we entered the little town of Tepantitlan, where
a huge wheezing gentleman gave me a brute troubled with his own
complaint, but transferring him to the treatment of Doctor Cypriano, we
then got on in fine style. The night was far advanced when we reached a
round, portly mountain, called Cerro Gordo; where tarrying at a small
settlement, the keeper of a rancho surlily resisted opening his gateway,
until he heard the talismanic name of Don Domingo--then the door nearly
flew off the hinges. A relay was, with some delay and trouble, procured,
when again in the saddle. The road was stony and tortuous, so that we
had thirteen tedious leagues to crawl and stumble over. Gladly we threw
ourselves from the fagged-out beasts, and sought the residence of a
good-natured paisano, owning a large rancho, a large wife, and two large
daughters. Giving orders to be called in an hour, my spurs were no
sooner unclasped than I fell into heavy slumber, on a low bed beneath an
image of the virgi