CHAPTER X.
_Of our merry journeying to Alicante._
We turned into the first posada we came to--a poor, mean sort of an innand general shop, to be sure, but we were in no condition to cavil abouttrifles, being fagged out with our journey and the adventures of theday, and only too happy to find a house of entertainment still open. Soafter a dish of sausages with very good wine, we to our beds and an endto the torment of fleas I had endured from the moment I changed myFrench habit for Spanish rags.
The next morning, when we had eaten a meal of goats' milk and bread andpaid our reckoning, which amounted to a few rials and no more, DonSanchez and I, taking what rested of Moll's two pieces, went forth intothe town and there bought two plain suits of clothes for ourselves inthe mode of the country, and (according to his desire) another of thesame cut for Dawson, together with a little jacket and petticoat forMoll. And these expenditures left us but just enough to buy a goodguitar and a tambourine--indeed, we should not have got them at all butthat Don Sanchez higgled and bargained like any Jew, which he could dowith a very good face now that he was dressed so beggarly. Then back toour posada, where in our room Jack and I were mighty merry in putting onour new clothes; but going below we find Moll still dressed in herfinery, and sulking before the petticoat and jacket we had bought forher, which she would not put on by any persuasion until her father fellinto a passion of anger. And the sight of him fuming in a short jacketbarely covering his loins, and a pair of breeches so tight the seamswould scarce hold together, so tickled her sense of humour that she fellinto a long fit of laughter, and this ending her sulks she went upstairswith a good grace and returned in her hated petticoat, carrying her finedress in a bundle. But I never yet knew the time when this sly baggagewould not please herself for all her seeming yielding to others, and wewere yet to have more pain from her than she from us in respect of thatskirt. For ere we had got half way through the town she, dawdling behindto look first in this shop and then in that, gave us the slip, so thatwe were best part of an hour hunting the streets up and down in theutmost anxiety. Then as we were sweating with our exercise and trouble,lo! she steps out of a shop as calm as you please in a petticoat andjacket of her own fancy (and ten times more handsome than our purchase),a red shawl tied about her waist, and a little round hat with a brightred bob in it, set on one side of her head, and all as smart as acarrot.
"Da!" says she, "where have you been running all this time?"
And we, betwixt joy at finding her and anger at her impudence, could saynothing; and yet we were fain to admire her audacity too. But how, notknowing one word of the language, she had made her wants known was amystery, and how she had obtained this finery was another, seeing thatwe had spent all there was of her two pieces. Certainly she had notchanged her French gown and things for them, for these in a cumbrousbundle had her father been carrying up and down the town since we lostthe minx.
"If you han't stole 'em," says Dawson, finding his tongue at last,"where did you find the money to pay for those trappings, slut?"
"In my pocket, sir," says she, with a curtsey, "where you might havefound yours had you not emptied it so readily for the robbers yesterday.And I fancy," adds she slyly, "I may still find some left to offer you adinner at midday if you will accept of it."
This hint disposed us to make light of our grievance against her, and wewent out of Ravellos very well satisfied to know that our next mealdepended not solely upon chance. And this, together with the brightsunlight and the sweet invigorating morning air, did beget in us aspirit of happy carelessness, in keeping with the smiling gay aspect ofthe country about us.
It was strange to see how easily Moll fell into our happy-go-luckyhumour, she, who had been as stately as any Roman queen in her longgown, being now, in her short coloured petticoat, as frolicsome andfamiliar as a country wench at a fair; but indeed she was a born actressand could accommodate herself as well to one condition as another withthe mere change of clothes. But I think this state was more to her realtaste than the other, as putting no restraint upon her impulses andgiving free play to her healthy, exuberant mirth. Her very step was akind of dance, and she must needs fall a-carolling of songs like a larkwhen it flies. Then she would have us rehearse our old songs to our newmusic. So, slinging my guitar in front of me, I put it in tune, and Jackties his bundle to his back that he may try his hand at the tambourine.And so we march along singing and playing as if to a feast, and stoppingonly to laugh prodigiously when one or other fell out of tune,--the mostmad, light-hearted fools in the world;--but I speak not of Don Sanchez,who, feel what he might, never relaxed his high bearing or unbent hisserious countenance.
One thing I remember of him on this journey. Having gone about fivemiles, we sat us down on a bridge to rest a while, and there the Donleft us to go a little way up the course of the stream that flowedbeneath, and he came back with a posey of sweet jonquils set off with adelicate kind of fern very pretty, and this he presents to Moll with agracious little speech, which act, it seemed to me, was to let her knowthat he respected her still as a young gentlewoman in spite of her shortpetticoat, and Moll was not dull to the compliment neither; for, afterthe first cry of delight in seeing these natural dainty flowers (sheloving such things beyond all else in the world), she bethought her tomake him a curtsey and reply to his speech with another as good and wellturned, as she set them in her waist scarf. Also I remember on this roadwe saw oranges and lemons growing for the first time, but full a mileafter Moll had first caught their wondrous perfume in the air. And thesetrees, which are about the size of a crab tree, grew in close groves oneither side of the road, with no manner of fence to protect them, sothat any one is lief to pluck what he may without let, so plentiful arethey, and curious to see how fruit and blossom grow together on the samebush, the lemons, as I hear, giving four crops in the year, and moredelicious, full, and juicy than any to be bought in England at six tothe groat.
We got a dinner of bread and cheese (very high) at a roadside house, andglad to have that, only no meat of any kind, but excellent good winewith dried figs and walnuts, which is the natural food of this country,where one may go a week without touching flesh and yet feel as strongand hearty at the end. And here very merry, Jack in his pertinacious,stubborn spirit declaring he would drink his wine in the custom of thecountry or none at all, and so lifting up the spouted mug at arm'slength he squirts the liquor all over his face, down his new clothes andeverywhere but into his mouth, before he could arrive to do it like DonSanchez; but getting into the trick of it, he so mighty proud of hisachievement that he must drink pot after pot until he got as drunk asany lord. So after that, finding a retired place,--it being midday andprodigious hot (though only now in mid-April),--we lay down under theorange trees and slept a long hour, to our great refreshment. Dawson onwaking remembered nothing of his being drunk, and felt not one penny theworse for it. And so on another long stretch through sweet country, withhere and there a glimpse of the Mediterranean, in the distance, of asurprising blueness, before we reached another town, and that on the topof a high hill. But it seems that all the towns in these parts (savethose armed with fortresses) are thus built for security against thepirates, who ravage the seaboard of this continent incessantly from endto end. And for this reason the roads leading up to the town are madevery narrow, tortuous, and difficult, with watch-towers in places, andmany points where a few armed men lying in ambush may overwhelm an enemyten times as strong. The towns themselves are fortified with gates, thestreets extremely narrow and crooked, and the houses massed all togetherwith secret passages one to another, and a network of little alleysleading whither only the inhabitants knew, so that if an enemy do getinto them 'tis ten to one he will never come out alive.
It being market day in this town, here Jack and his daughter gave a showof dancing, first in their French suits, which were vastly admired, andafter in their Spanish clothes; but then they were asked to dance afandango, which they could not. However, we fared very well, getting thevalu
e of five shillings in little moneys, and the innkeepers would takenothing for our entertainment, because of the custom we had brought hishouse, which we considered very handsome on his part.
We set out again the next morning, but having shown how we passed thefirst day I need not dwell upon those which followed before we reachedBarcelona, there being nothing of any great importance to tell. OnlyMoll was now all agog to learn the Spanish dances, and I cannot easilyforget how, after much coaxing and wheedling on her part, she at lengthpersuaded Don Sanchez to show her a fandango; for, surely, nothing inthe world was ever more comic than this stately Don, without any music,and in the middle of the high road, cutting capers, with a countenanceas solemn as any person at a burying. No one could be more quick toobserve the ludicrous than he, nor more careful to avoid ridicule;therefore it said much for Moll's cajolery, or for the love he bore hereven at this time, to thus expose himself to Dawson's rude mirth andmine in order to please her.
We reached Barcelona the 25th of April, and there we stayed till the 1stof May, for Moll would go no further before she had learnt a bolero anda fandango--which dances we saw danced at a little theatre excellentlywell, but in a style quite different to ours, and the women very fat andplain. And though Moll, being but a slight slip of a lass, in whom thewarmer passions were unbegotten, could not give the bolero thevoluptuous fervour of the Spanish dancers, yet in agility and in prettyinnocent grace she did surpass them all to nought, which was abundantlyproved when she danced it in our posada before a court full ofSpaniards, for there they were like mad over her, casting their silkhandkerchiefs at her feet in homage, and filling Jack's tambourine threetimes over with cigarros and a plentiful scattering of rials. And Ibelieve, had we stayed there, we might have made more money than ever wewanted at that time--though not so much as Don Sanchez had set his mindon; wherefore he would have us jogging again as soon as Moll could bebrought to it.
From Barcelona, we journeyed a month to Valencia, growing more indolentwith our easier circumstances, and sometimes trudging no more than fiveor six miles in a day. And we were, I think, the happiest, idlest set ofvagabonds in existence. But, indeed, in this country there is not thatspur to exertion which is for ever goading us in this. The sun fillsone's heart with content, and for one's other wants a few halfpence aday will suffice, and if you have them not 'tis no such great matter.For these people are exceeding kind and hospitable; they will give you ameasure of wine if you are thirsty, as we would give a mug of water, andthe poorest man will not sit down to table without making you an offerto share what he has. Wherever we went we were well received, and inthose poor villages where they had no money to give they would pay usfor our show in kind, one giving us bed, another board, and filling ourwallets ere we left 'em with the best they could afford.
'Twas our habit to walk a few miles before dinner, to sleep in the shadeduring the heat of the day, and to reach a town (if possible) by thefall of the sun. There would we spend half the night in jollity, and lieabed late in the morning. The inns and big houses in these parts arebuilt in the form of squares, enclosing an open court with a sort ofarcade all round, and mostly with a grape-vine running over the sunnierside, and in this space we used to give our performance, by the light ofoil lamps hung here and there conveniently, with the addition, maybe, ofmoonlight reflected from one of the white walls. Here any one was freeto enter, we making no charge, but taking only what they would freelygive. And this treatment engenders a feeling of kindness on both sides(very different to our sentiment at home, where we players as often asnot dread the audience as a kind of enemy, ready to tear us to pieces ifwe fail to please), and ours was as great a pleasure to amuse as theirsto be amused. I can recall to mind nothing of any moment occurring onthis journey, save that we spent some time every day in perfecting ourSpanish dances, I getting to play the tunes correctly, which at first Imade sad bungling of, and Dawson in learning of his steps. Also, he andMoll acquired the use of a kind of clappers, called costagnettes, whichthey play with their hands in these fandangos and boleros, with a verypleasing effect.
At Valencia we stayed a week and three days, lingering more than wasnecessary, in order to see a bull-fight. And this pastime they do not aswe with dogs, but with men, and the bull quite free, and, save for theneedless killing of horses, I think this a very noble exercise, being afair trial of human address against brute force. And 'tis not nearly sobeastly as seeing a prize fought by men, and not more cruel, I take it,than the shooting of birds and hares for sport, seeing that the agony ofdeath is no greater for a sturdy bull than for a timid coney, and haththis advantage, that the bull, when exhausted, is despatched quickly,whereas the bird or hare may just escape capture, to die a miserablelong death with a shattered limb.
From Valencia we travelled five weeks (growing, I think, more lazy everyday), over very hilly country to Alicante, a seaport town very stronglyprotected by a castle on a great rock, armed with guns of brass andiron, so that the pirates dare never venture near. And here I fullythought we were to dawdle away another week at the least, this being avery populous and lively city, promising much entertainment. For Moll,when not playing herself, was mad to see others play, and she did reallygovern, with her subtle wiles and winning smiles, more than her father,for all his masterful spirit, or Don Sanchez with his stern authority.But seeing two or three English ships in the port, the Don deemed itadvisable that we should push on at once for Elche, and, to our greatastonishment, Moll consented to our speedy going without demur, thoughwhy, we could not then discover, but did soon after, as I shallpresently show.
A Set of Rogues Page 10
