hat gentleman). "Och, what good fortune, that the
_Herr_ is the first person I meet in Compostella." Even Borrow could
scarcely believe his eyes. Benedict had come to dig for the treasure,
and in the meantime proposed to live at the best hotel and pay his score
when the digging was done. Borrow gave him a dollar, which he paid to a
witch for telling him where exactly the treasure lay. A third time, to
his own satisfaction and Borrow's astonishment, he re-appeared at Oviedo.
He had, in fact, followed Borrow to Corunna, having been despitefully
used at Compostella, met highwaymen on the road, and suffered hunger so
that he slaughtered a stray kid and devoured it raw. From Oviedo he trod
in Borrow's footsteps, which was "a great comfort in his horrible
journeys." "A strange life has he led," said Borrow's Greek servant,
"and a strange death he will die--it is written on his countenance." He
re-appeared a fourth time at Madrid, in light green coat and pantaloons
that were almost new, and a glossy Andalusian hat "of immense altitude of
cone," and leaning not on a ragged staff but "a huge bamboo rattan,
surmounted by the grim head of either a bear or lion, curiously cut out
of pewter." He had been wandering after Borrow in misery that almost
sent him mad:

"Oh, the horror of wandering about the savage hills and wide plains of
Spain without money and without hope! Sometimes I became desperate, when
I found myself amongst rocks and barrancos, perhaps after having tasted
no food from sunrise to sunset, and then I would raise my staff towards
the sky and shake it, crying, Lieber herr Gott, ach lieber herr Gott, you
must help me now or never. If you tarry, I am lost. You must help me
now, now! And once when I was raving in this manner, methought I heard a
voice--nay, I am sure I heard it--sounding from the hollow of a rock,
clear and strong; and it cried, 'Der schatz, der schatz, it is not yet
dug up. To Madrid, to Madrid! The way to the schatz is through
Madrid.'"

But now he had met people who supported him with an eye to the treasure.
Borrow tried to persuade him to circulate the Gospel instead of risking
failure and the anger of his clients. Luckily Benedict went on to
Compostella:

"He went, and I never saw him more. What I heard, however, was
extraordinary enough. It appeared that the government had listened to
his tale, and had been so struck with Benedict's exaggerated description
of the buried treasur