ctically a box on
four wheels, with a very narrow seat running on each side, and very low
in the roof. Going downhill the horses--such as they were--went as fast
as they could, and every time we struck a hole in the road down went the
box, up we banged our heads against the roof, and then we collapsed
quietly on to the floor, beautifully mixed up.

This little affair happened often, and it was made especially interesting
by the fact that we had two apparently youthful lady travellers. They had
started with us from Bayonne. They were very quietly dressed, and--so far
as we could see, through the extremely thick veils which they wore about
their heads, and from occasional ringlets of hair peeping out here and
there--they were quite the type of the dark Spanish beauties. They had
chosen the two innermost seats inside the coach, and I happened to occupy
the seat on one side next to one of them.

In those days cigarette-smoking by ladies was quite uncommon, much less
was the smell of a strong cigar acceptable to them. However, the journey
from Bayonne to the border was somewhat long. I wanted a smoke. I had a
cigar. I politely asked the ladies whether they objected to my lighting
up. They did not speak, but they--as it seemed to me--gracefully nodded
"Yes." So I lit up, and presently I began to notice that the one next to
me, towards whose face the smoke sometimes drifted, seemed to like it
very much, and, I would almost have said that she was trying to sniff
some of it herself. A little later on, when we came to an unusually big
rut in the road, we all went up as usual against the roof, and all came
down again, missing the narrow seat. Extracting ourselves from our
awkward positions, I came across a foot which certainly seemed to me not
to belong to a lady, but, as it happened, it _was_ a foot belonging to
one of the ladies. I began to think but said nothing, and I also began to
watch and look. Their hands had woollen gloves on, very thick, so that it
was difficult to say what the hand was like inside. I may say that the
three other passengers were Frenchmen, two of whom were very young and
apparently unable to speak Spanish. As we were nearing the frontier I
spoke to the ladies on some trivial matter, and mentioned the fact that I
was going into Spain and that I hoped to see something of the fighting;
that I was an Englishman, but that I had been born in Spain and that I
knew personally Don Carlos and several of his office