n him.

"If it were not for what is at stake, I should not have been mixed up in
this dirty business, and I certainly should not be leaving my wife and
baby," he said to himself, with some bitterness.

Before reaching his district he made a stop at the capital of the
province, where he was received with extreme cordiality by the governor.
He was a young man who had recently been filling the position of second
or third _gazetillero_ on a liberal paper at the capital. It was said in
the city that his administrative knowledge might possibly have been more
solid without doing any harm; but, on the other hand, whenever it took
his fancy he replied in rhyme to letters, walked the street, in free and
easy costume, gave lunch-parties to the provincial deputies almost every
day, enjoyed cracking jokes with the ushers, and when the assembly was
in session, sometimes permitted himself to whistle in an undertone arias
from _Blue Beard_ or _The Grand Duchess_. His name was Castro.

As soon as Miguel presented himself at the _Gobierno Civil_, Castro gave
him a most hearty squeeze, as though he were an intimate friend,
although they had never spoken together in Madrid more than three or
four times, and began to address him from the very first with the
familiar "thou." He instantly promised him the whole weight of his
official influence.

"I'll get you in swimmingly, my lad, no matter what it costs. Go to the
district and write me from there all that you need, and I will do for
you anything in the world."

Rejoiced and flattered by this reception, our hero on the following day
took the diligence for Serin, which was about seven leagues from the
capital.

It was a miserable little village, but admirably situated near a river,
the banks of which displayed the luxuriant vegetation of tropical
countries, and the fresh verdure of the North; orange-trees,
lemon-trees, and river-laurels almost shook hands with oak and chestnut
groves which swept up the slopes of the mountains; they in turn were
gentle and green in the foreground, dark and steep in the background,
thus making a magnificent chain, rendering the landscape most
picturesque. The group of white cottages that composed the village of
Serin was surrounded by a thick border of trees, except on the side of
the river, in whose clear blue waters it was reflected.

Now this delectable spot, which appeared like a little corner of
Paradise was rather a little corner of Hades, as Migu