e Italian
apothecary in the Calle Plateros, and happened to ask him if he were
acquainted with his heroic countryman. Whereupon the apothecary went
off into fits of unextinguishable laughter, and told us how our friend
really had been in the skirmish he described, and had nobly run away
almost before a shot was fired, leaving his friends to fight it out. An
hour or two after, he was found shaking with terror in a ditch.

To return to our road. The forest is on both sides of the Sierra; but
it is on the southern slope, over which we look down from the pass,
that the pines attain their fullest size and beauty; for here they are
as grand as in the Scandinavian forests, with all the beauty of the
pine-trees on the Italian hills. The pass, with its deep forest
skirting the road, has been a resort of robbers for many years; and the
driver pointed out to my companion a little grassy dell by the
road-side, from which forty men had rushed out and plundered the
Diligence just ten days before. With his mind just prepared, one may
imagine his feelings when he caught sight of some twenty wild-looking
fellows in all sorts of strange garments, with the bright sunshine
gleaming on the barrels of their muskets. A man was riding a little in
front of us, and as he approached the others they descended, and ranged
themselves by the side of the road. They were only the guard, after
all, and such a guard! Their thick matted black hair hung about over
their low foreheads and wild brown faces. Some had shoes, some had
none, and some had sandals. They had straw hats, glazed hats, no hats,
leather jackets and trousers, cotton shirts and drawers, or drawers
without any shirt at all; and--what looked worst of all--some had
ragged old uniforms on, like deserters from the army, and there are no
worse robbers than they. When the Diligence reached them, the guard
joined us; some galloping on before, some following behind, whooping
and yelling, brandishing their arms, and dashing in among the trees and
out into the road again. Every now and then my friend outside got a
glimpse down the muzzle of a musket, which did not add to his peace of
mind. At last we got through the dangerous pass, and then we made a
subscription for the guard, who departed making the forest ring again
with war-whoops, and firing off their muskets in our honour until we
were out of hearing.

The top of the pass is 12,000 feet above the sea, but the clouds seemed
as high as ever a