y offered us
of the juice in a small vessel, declaring it excellent; but there was a
suspicious want of cleanliness about the whole thing--it might have been
fancy--and we civilly declined the attention; upon which, possibly to
set us a good example, they emptied the vessel themselves, smacked their
lips and pronounced it very good.

Narrow streets led upwards from the main street to the old cathedral, a
steep, rough climb. It was a place to revel in, full of wonderful
perspectives and artistic groupings, as much the result of accident as
of purpose. The eye was arrested by a bewildering accumulation of
wrought-iron balconies, casements and sunblinds, all sparkling in
sunshine and shadow, whilst above one could trace a long succession of
ancient gabled roofs, clear-cut against the blue sky, the projecting
water-spout of every house looking like a grinning gargoyle and adding
much to the quaint antiquity of the place. Through the old gates we
watched the mules passing in their rich and curious trappings.

Very distinctly we felt that Lerida was a revelation and a discovery; a
town by no means to be passed over when searching out the glories of
Spain.

We found the narrow thoroughfare in which last night we had almost come
to grief; so tortuous and ill-paved, we wondered how we had escaped
destruction. Here and there small houses of the meanest description
broke the continuity of dead grey walls. At the door of the cottage H.
C. had charged sat an evil-looking dog that growled and showed its teeth
as we passed and evidently connected us with the midnight raid. Whether
the owner of the blunderbuss had killed himself with his own weapon or
was only absent on business remained uncertain; he did not appear.

Continuing upwards we presently came out upon the open space surrounding
the old cathedral.

The precincts were certainly not ecclesiastical. We seemed to have
reached the poorest part of the town, and the houses were quite
picturesque in their shabbiness. A splendid doorway admitted to the
interior of the semi-religious fortress, before which a sentinel with
gun and bayonet kept watch and ward. No one passed him without a special
permission from the churlish old commandant of the town, who, after
tracing your pedigree back to Adam, bestowed the simple favour as
though conferring upon you the dignity of Spain's high order of the
Saint Esprit.

[Illustration: LERIDA.]

Strangers and especially Englishmen, evidentl