we met?

"You are late, gentlemen. It grows towards midnight. In a few minutes I
must call the hour and the weather. The people of Lerida are even
earlier than those of Burgos, where I was watchman until six months
ago."

Then the mystery was solved. This was the very old watchman who had
piloted us to the hotel the night we had lost ourselves in that most
uncomfortable of Spanish towns, with the worst of Spanish inns.

"Have you forgotten us?" we asked. "Do you not remember taking two
strangers through the streets of Burgos more than a year ago, and seeing
them safely to their door?"

The watchman put down his lantern deliberately and struck the ground
with his spear. "Is it possible, senor! Santa Maria! A plague upon
memory and eyesight! But the night is dark, and my lantern burns dim.
Indeed I remember it well. Can I ever forget your largesse on that
occasion? I have often wondered how you fared in Spain and whither you
wandered. Often wished I might meet you again."

"But what brings you here? Surely Burgos is more important than Lerida,
and you have progressed backwards. This hardly looks like promotion."

"Oh, senor, there is no promotion for us poor watchmen. One town is much
as another. I earn as much in Lerida as I did in Burgos, and the saints
know either pays little enough."

"Were you, then, sent here for any special reason?"

"A reason of my own, senor. My wife's old parents live here and she
wanted to be near them; so I petitioned to come here and it was granted.
On the whole I am better off than in Burgos."

After some further conversations, and with a substantial remembrance for
auld lang syne, we left the old watchman and turned for our hotel.

We soon felt almost as lost as in that past time at Burgos. The houses
were all exactly alike. Every light was out, every door closed. There
was no especial lamp to indicate which was the inn, and we could
discover neither sign nor name. At last in the darkness we managed to
trace on a lamp, in small characters, the words _Fonda de Espana_. The
great door beneath was shut, like every other door; but there was a
ponderous knocker, to which we directed our energies.

It was all in vain, for no one responded. Knock after knock brought
forth no result. The echoes we roused in the avenue were enough to wake
the dead. Our watchman had gone to the far end, and by the gleam of his
lamp we saw him turn and hasten. The habitable part of the inn was
upstairs, a