us. I met in the town the daughter of a
Frenchman resident at Valencia, Madlle. B----. All the hotels were
crowded; Madlle. B---- invited us to take some refreshments at her
grandmother's; we accepted; but on leaving the house she informed us
that our visit had not been to the taste of her betrothed, and that we
must be prepared for some sort of attack on his part; we went directly
to an armourer's, bought some pistols, and commenced our return to
Valencia.

On our way I said to the calezero (driver), a man whom I had employed
for a long time, and who was much devoted to me:--

"Isidro, I have some reason to believe that we shall be stopped; I warn
you of it, so that you may not be surprised at the shots which will be
fired from the caleza (vehicle)."

Isidro, seated on the shaft, according to the custom of the country,
answered:--

"Your pistols are completely useless, gentlemen; leave me to act; one
cry will be enough; my mule will rid us of two, three, or even four
men."

Scarcely one minute had elapsed after the calezero had uttered these
words, when two men presented themselves before the mule and seized her
by the nostrils. At the same instant a formidable cry, which will never
be effaced from my remembrance,--the cry of _Capitana!_--was uttered by
Isidro. The mule reared up almost vertically, raising up one of the men,
came down again, and set off at a rapid gallop. The jolt which the
carriage made led us to understand too well what had just occurred. A
long silence succeeded this incident; it was only interrupted by these
words of the calezero, "Do you not think, gentlemen, that my mule is
worth more than any pistols?"

The next day the captain-general, Don Domingo Izquierdo, related to me
that a man had been found crushed on the road to Murviedro. I gave him
an account of the prowess of Isidro's mule, and no more was said.

One anecdote, taken from among a thousand, will show what an adventurous
life was led by the delegate of the _Bureau of Longitude_.

During my stay on a mountain near Cullera, to the north of the mouth of
the river Xucar, and to the south of the Albufera, I once conceived the
project of establishing a station on the high mountains which are in
front of it. I went to see them. The alcaid of one of the neighbouring
villages warned me of the danger to which I was about to expose myself.
"These mountains," said he to me, "form the resort of a band of highway
robbers." I asked for the n