e going. If you wish to send your chest, I
have no objection to take it at so much (naming an extravagant price).
As for what you have told me, I understand little of it and believe not a
word of it; but in respect to the books which you have shown me, I will
take three or four. I shall not read them, it is true, but I have no
doubt that I can sell them at a higher price than you demand.'

So much for the Maragatos.

It was four o'clock of a beautiful morning that we sallied from Astorga,
or rather from the suburbs in which we had been lodged; we directed our
course to the north in the direction of Galicia. Leaving the mountain
Telleno on our left, we passed along the eastern skirts of the land of
the Maragatos over broken uneven ground, enlivened here and there by
small green valleys and runs of water. Several of the Maragato women
mounted on donkeys passed us on their way to Astorga whither they were
carrying vegetables; we saw others in the fields handling their rude
ploughs drawn by lean oxen; we likewise passed through a small village in
which we however saw no living soul. Near this village we entered the
high road which leads direct from Madrid to Corunna, and at last having
travelled near four leagues we came to a species of pass formed on our
left by a huge lumpish hill (one of those which descend from the great
mountain Telleno), and on our right by one of considerably less altitude.
In the middle of this pass which was of considerable breadth, a noble
view opened itself to us. Before us, at the distance of about a league
and a half, rose the mighty frontier chain of which I have spoken before;
its blue sides and broken and picturesque peaks still wearing a thin veil
of the morning mist, which the fierce rays of the sun were fast
dispelling. It seemed an enormous barrier threatening to oppose our
further progress, and it reminded me of the fables respecting the
children of Magog, who are said to reside in remotest Tartary behind a
gigantic wall of rocks which can only be passed by a gate of steel a
thousand cubits in height.

We shortly after arrived at Manzanal, a village consisting of wretched
huts, and exhibiting every sign of poverty and misery. It was now time
to refresh ourselves and horses, and we accordingly put up at a kind of
_venta_, the last habitation in the village, where, though we found
barley for the animals, we had much difficulty in procuring anything for
ourselves. I was at last