ficially to
the mining corps, set out shortly afterward, and, after a second change
of trains, the mixed train No. 65 bore him, as we have seen, to the
loving arms of Uncle Licurgo.

The age of our hero was about thirty-four years. He was of a robust
constitution, of athletic build, and so admirably proportioned and of so
commanding an appearance that, if he had worn a uniform, he would
have presented the most martial air and figure that it is possible to
imagine. His hair and beard were blond in color, but in his countenance
there was none of the phlegmatic imperturbability of the Saxon, but, on
the contrary, so much animation that his eyes, although they were not
black, seemed to be so. His figure would have served as a perfect and
beautiful model for a statue, on the pedestal of which the sculptor
might engrave the words: "Intellect, strength." If not in visible
characters, he bore them vaguely expressed in the brilliancy of his
glance, in the potent attraction with which his person was peculiarly
endowed, and in the sympathy which his cordial manners inspired.

He was not very talkative--only persons of inconstant ideas and unstable
judgment are prone to verbosity. His profound moral sense made him
sparing of words in the disputes in which the men of the day are prone
to engage on any and every subject, but in polite conversation he
displayed an eloquence full of wit and intelligence, emanating always
from good sense and a temperate and just appreciation of worldly
matters. He had no toleration for those sophistries, and mystifications,
and quibbles of the understanding with which persons of intelligence,
imbued with affected culture, sometimes amuse themselves; and in defence
of the truth Pepe Rey employed at times, and not always with moderation,
the weapon of ridicule. This was almost a defect in the eyes of many
people who esteemed him, for our hero thus appeared wanting in respect
for a multitude of things commonly accepted and believed. It must be
acknowledged, although it may lessen him in the opinion of many, that
Rey did not share the mild toleration of the compliant age which has
invented strange disguises of words and of acts to conceal what to the
general eye might be disagreeable.

Such was the man, whatever slanderous tongues may say to the contrary,
whom Uncle Licurgo introduced into Orbajosa just as the cathedral bells
were ringing for high mass. When, looking over the garden wall, they saw
the yo