herself pressed food and drink upon me.

Only one who has lived among the Spanish people can realize what a
privilege it was to be thus received into the intimate society of my
travelling companions. We conversed with cousinly gaiety and freedom on
all subjects which came to mind, from the ambition of the great Corsican
to the latest fashionable ditties, and Alisanda filled me with
delightful anticipations by stating that amongst her baggage was a
guitar, which she and Don Pedro were not unskilled in fingering.

After the dessert of sweets, or _dulces_, to use the Spanish term, I
went out to relieve Don Pedro at the steer-oar and to inquire whether he
wished to stop over at the island. He replied that it might be necessary
to confer at some length with Mr. Blennerhasset.

A half-hour later we were sheering our craft toward the Virginia bank,
to make the wharf which faced the Ohio shore, near the upper end of
Blennerhasset Island. As the channel which separated the island from
Virginia was scarcely a stone's-throw across, our course brought us well
to the left of the river's centre. With the ready aid of Don Pedro at
the steer-oar, I managed, between sculling and poling, to bring the
flat alongside the wharf. Before I could leap out, a negro ran down the
bank and made fast the line tossed him from the stern by Chita.

Another slave who had sighted us from the crest of the bank turned and
ran with the news of our landing, so that before we could straighten our
garments and step ashore, Mr. Blennerhasset himself came hastening down
the bank to welcome us. Our visit had been unheralded, and, so far as he
knew at the moment, we were no more than chance strangers. But it was
enough for this cultured, unworldly Irish gentleman that persons of
quality had stopped at his gate.

Senor Vallois introduced Alisanda and myself with all the stateliness of
a Spanish hidalgo, and followed by delivering over the letter from
Colonel Burr. With no more than a glance at the address, Mr.
Blennerhasset thrust the letter into his pocket, and pressed us to
accompany him at once to his house, where, he said, Mrs. Blennerhasset
would be anxiously awaiting her guests.

Such warmth of hospitality would have melted even a reluctant visitor,
and we were far from unwilling to view the famed beauties of the place.
My one regret was that I could not claim the privilege of escorting the
senorita. Don Pedro and I ascended the bank behind the others,