in
long double plaits hanging below their waists. These, after remaining a
while to cast anxious glances upon the far horizon, again recross the
thresholds of their cottages, leaving the street deserted as before.

At the time of which we are writing--the month of November, 1808--
Elanchovi presented a still more desolate aspect than was its wont. The
proximity of the French army had produced a panic among its inhabitants
and many of these poor people--forgetting in their terror that they had
nothing to lose--had taken to their boats, and sought safety in places
more distant from the invaders of whom they were in dread.

Isolated as this little village was on the Biscayan coasts, there was
all the more reason why it should have its garrison of _coast-guards_;
and such in reality it had. These at the time consisted of a company of
soldiers--carabiniers, under the command of a captain Don Lucas
Despierto--but the condition of these warriors was not one to be envied,
for the Spanish government, although nominally keeping them in its pay,
had for a long time neglected to pay them. The consequence was, that
these poor fellows had absolutely nothing upon which to live. The
seizure of smuggled goods--with which they might have contrived to
indemnify themselves--was no longer possible. The contraband trade,
under this system, was completely annihilated. The smugglers knew
better than to come in contact with _coast-guards_ whose performance of
their duty was stimulated by such a keen necessity! From the captain
himself down to the lowest official, an incessant vigilance was kept
up--the result of which was that the fiscal department of the Spanish
government was, perhaps, never so faithfully or economically served.

There was one of these coast-guards who affected a complete scepticism
in regard to smuggling--he even went so far as to deny that it had ever
existed! He was distinguished among his companions by a singular
habit--that of always going to sleep upon his post; and this habit,
whether feigned or real, had won for him the name of _the Sleeper_. On
this account it may be supposed, that he was never placed upon guard
where the post was one of importance.

Jose, or as he was more familiarly styled, _Pepe_, was a young fellow of
some twenty-five years--tall, thin, and muscular. His black eyes,
deeply set under bushy eyebrows, had all the appearance of eyes that
_could_ sparkle; besides, his whole countenance