can people
live in the city," they exclaimed, "when such a free and happy life is
before them? How can they prefer brick and stone to the everlasting
hills, the soft green turf, and the majestic forests? Here, you can
really behold the sky, with its beautiful fleecy clouds, ever changing
in shape and hue, and you can see the starry universe spread out before
you; there, you can perhaps catch a glimpse of a few stars, and a small
piece of a cloud, but the rest is hidden by dead walls. In the city, our
time is taken up, and our hearts are frozen, by ceremonious visits,
stately dinners, and the rules of etiquette; here, in the country, a
real, true life could be spent, free from insincerity and busy idleness.
Dear father, will you not give up your offices at court, and live
henceforth at Alcantra?" Their father smiled at their enthusiasm, and
felt himself almost rejuvenated, as he listened to their raptures,
flowing fresh from young and ardent hearts; but told them that they had
not yet seen their ancestral castle, and that perhaps their expectations
might be grievously disappointed; he would wait until they had spent
some time there, before he gave them his answer.

As they approached the termination of their journey, the country became
yet wilder, and the villages were more thinly scattered; while here and
there a wooden cross appeared upon the roadside, with some simple
inscription, calculated to inspire terror in proportion to its very
simplicity. "Here they killed Iago," or "Here the robbers killed Senor
Jose Blanco." They noticed, on their last day of travel, when they had
entered into the territory of the Conde, that the roadside crosses
became more frequent, and the cottages of the peasantry assumed a look
of poverty they certainly did not bear in former times, when the lords
of the manor resided upon their estate, and were able to see to the
welfare of the people. When they entered the little inn of the village
of Alcantra, about four miles from the castle, the garrulous old
landlord greeted the Conde most warmly.

"And a good thing it is for the country that your Excellencia has
returned once more to his estates. Now we may hope to have a little
peace; now the peasants will not be ground down to the dust, as they
have been; now some villanous upstarts I know of, will not dare to ride
over them rough-shod, and to treat them as if they were beasts of the
field. Viva! viva! The illustrious Conde has returned!"