TOO GOOD TO LAST.

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Hyppolita might have heard still more gallant chiding among these hills, which would catch and continue sounds long after the impulse that gave them birth had ceased.

But the nature of human enjoyment is transitory. My three days at Ronda—the utmost limit of my permitted stay-expired; and I turned my back upon its chasm-girdled walls almost as lingeringly as the Moors of old when dispossessed by the crafty Ferdinand.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

DEPARTURE-SHEEP-ROBBER-CAVE-ARRIVAL AT MALAGA-ITS PRODUCTS

VINTAGE-RAISINS-THE MUCHACHAS CRACKING ALMONDS-ALAMEDA-START FOR GRENADA.

THE morning was fair, and scented with the perfume of flowers and medicinal plants when I started for Malaga; I took care to attend to the provende before setting out; for Alpine scenery looks grander, in my opinion, to the full man than the fasting, and it was well I was so thoughtful-for at the first posada we stopped at we found no food-not even the coarsest bread.

There are more sheep, I believe, in Spain than men -a fortunate circumstance-for the former is the more useful animal of the two. I saw many a large flock whitening the mountain top to which it clung; and the shepherds armed with the same sling that David used so artistically against the son of Anak. After the capture of Jerusalem by that grass-eating monarch, Nebuchadnezzar, great crowds of Jews emigrated to Spain-some of whom, doubtless, were shepherds, and introduced these slings. Don Quixote, as well as Goliath, found them an efficient weapon of offense in the hands of these keepers of flocks. A stone from one of them carried away two or three of his teeth, and caused him to bite the dust with the rest. I saw the shepherd boys, surrounded by their grazing flock,

MORE WOOL THAN WOOD.

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taking their soft siesta upon the green banks protected by the shadow of a tree or rock from the noontide rays—a picture of repose relieving the savageness of Nature. The sheep not only afford meat for the table of the Spaniard but a means of transportation for his wine. Their skins have superseded mostly the use of barrels and bottles, and are said to keep the wine better: which may be so, though the probably true reason of the universal use of the skins for this purpose is their abundance, and the scarcity of wood; with, perhaps, the additional reason that they are more easy of carriage on the backs of the mules than barrels. They require, too, but little preparation. First tanned a little, then coated with pitch, on the hairy side, and turned inside out-and they are water-tight or winetight casks. They are then sewed up, legs and all, with the exception of one leg which is tied with a string, and serves as a conduit or spout for the liquor. The skin, or bota, adapts itself easily to the form and motion of the mule, and don't fall or roll off as a barrel would be very likely to do. I carried one holding about half a gallon, made something like a shot-bag, with my pistols, upon the pommel of the saddle-it went off much oftener than the latter.

I passed some very nice robber scenery-many a place where you could be easily overcome by an ambuscade and more than one defile on the principal of the Caudine Forks, or cul-de-sac, from which there would be no escape from a well-arranged attack. And I visited a cave said to have been once, and not long before, the abode of a noted gang, whose depredations had harassed the neighborhood far and near. It was not unlike in appearance to Gil Blas' description of the one Captain Rolando conducted him to, and where he served his noviciate as scullion to Dame

Leonarda. "In vain I looked around on all sides," says he, "I could see neither house, cottage nor dwelling of any kind. In the mean time two of the band raised up a great wooden trap-door covered with earth and brambles, which concealed the entrance of a sloping and subterranean path, into which the horses threw themselves as if they were well acquainted with it." The one I saw was a fac-simile of this. The former hidden trap-door had been removed, and the deep cavern was open to the sun-otherwise you would have supposed yourself visiting Captain Rolando's quarters. There were evident marks of former occupation. Empty and broken bottles covered the bottom of one of the apartments, while in another there were many indications of a former cuisine. Horses might have been stabled there, and indeed we discerned their foot-prints, and other vestiges of their former occupancy.

The robbers who held this cavern, the arrièro told me, had not been content with stopping people on the highway, and stripping them of clothes and money; but had often taken them to their hiding-place, and kept them in confinement till their relatives or friends had ransomed them: and so indifferent had they become to the justicia, that their envoys would appear openly in the villages to treat about the terms of ransom. The rich preferred paying a certain sum for the release of a relative to applying to the justicia, as the latter was the most expensive and least reliable institution of the two-while the poor, as they were never troubled, more frequently espoused their cause. Indeed, these cavaliers of the road might have descended to their graves full of riches and honors, but for their indiscretion in carrying off a corregidor of one of the towns. This worthy official, who had been long sus

pected of collusion with the robbers, was, to the surprise of every one, captured one day while within a short distance of the walls of the town, and carried to this cave. It seems the robbers had suspected him of an unfair sequestration of certain spoil with which he had been intrusted as receiver for them, and resorted to this effectual means of getting satisfaction. The corregidor was released upon disgorging the proper amount; but he felt too deeply the insult to his selflove, as well as the injury to his pocket, to pass over the matter in silence. He bought over one of the gang to lead a well-armed party secretly to the cave while the band was absent. Here they remained quietly ensconced till the robbers returned in the evening more than usually fortunate in their collections. Outnumbered and taken by surprise as they unsuspiciously entered within, they surrendered at discretion. Two of the ringleaders were capitally punished, and the rest, with the exception of the traitor, condemned to the galleys. Their effects, of course, as in the days of Gil Blas, were confiscated to the justicia. The original owners were obliged "to put up with the first loss." The fate of the traitor was indicated by a cross of stones we passed some miles distant from the cave. It commemorated his untimely and violent death. I asked the arrièro who killed him. "Quien sabe?" he replied: and I was satisfied.

Spain, in losing its robbers, is losing part of its romance. In any other country you can be fleeced by landlords and unconscionable tradespeople. But in Spain you have always looked forward to a rencontre on the highway. It was in my hopes when I landed. But here I had been months in the country, and over routes pronounced dangerous, and had never been in peril of my life! had never even been requested to