hin two hours, and then the
mighty audience troop out with flushed cheeks, the smell of blood strong
in their nostrils.

XXVI

[Sidenote: On Horseback]

I had a desire to see something of the very heart of Andalusia, of that
part of the country which had preserved its antique character, where
railway trains were not, and the horse, the mule, the donkey were still
the only means of transit. After much scrutiny of local maps and
conversation with horse-dealers and others, I determined from Seville to
go circuitously to Ecija, and thence return by another route as best I
could. The district I meant to traverse in olden times was notorious for
its brigands; even thirty years ago the prosperous tradesman, voyaging
on his mule from town to town, was liable to be seized by unromantic
outlaws and detained till his friends forwarded ransom, while ears and
fingers were playfully sent to prove identity. In Southern Spain
brigandage necessarily flourished, for not only were the country-folk in
collusion with the bandits, but the very magistrates united with them to
share the profits of lawless undertakings. Drastic measures were needful
to put down the evil, and in a truly Spanish way drastic measures were
employed. The Civil Guard, whose duty it was to see to the safety of the
country side, had no confidence in the justice of Madrid, whither
captured highwaymen were sent for trial; once there, for a few hundred
dollars, the most murderous ruffian could prove his babe-like innocence,
forthwith return to the scene of his former exploits and begin again. So
they hit upon an expedient. The Civil Guards set out for the capital
with their prisoner handcuffed between them; but, curiously enough, in
every single case the brigand had scarcely marched a couple of miles
before he incautiously tried to escape, whereupon he was, of course,
promptly shot through the back. People noticed two things: first, that
the clothes of the dead man were often singed, as if he had not escaped
very far before he was shot down; that only proved his guardians' zeal.
But the other was stranger: the two Civil Guards, when after a couple of
hours they returned to the town, as though by a mysterious premonition
they had known the bandit would make some rash attempt, invariably had
waiting for them an excellent hot dinner.

The only robber of importance who avoided such violent death was the
chief of a celebrated band who, when captured, signed a decla