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when I have put the poor lady to rest with your damned sedative, my tongue must be stopt next to prevent its blabbing; but I’ll shew you I was not born in Andalusia for nothing. Nicolas now opened a secret drawer, and took out a few pieces of money, which, in fact, was his whole stock of cash in the world; he loaded and primed his pistols, and carefully lodged them in the holsters of his saddle ! he buckled to his side his trusty spade, and hastened to caparison his mule. Ah, thou imp of the old one, quoth he, as he entered the stable, art not ashamed to look me in the face ? But come, hussy, thou owest me a good turn, methinks; stand by me this once, and be friends for ever ! thou art in good case, and if thou wilt put thy best foot foremost, like a faithful beast, thou shalt not want for barley on the way. The bargain was soon struck between Nicolas and his mule, he mounted her in the happy moment, and pointing his course toward the bridge of Toledo, which proudly strides with half a dozen lofty arches over a stream scarce three feet wide, he found himself as completely in a desart in half a mile’s riding, as if he had been dropt in the centre of Arabia Petraea. As Nicolas’s journey was not a tour of curiosity, he did not amuse himself with a peep at Toledo, or Talavera, or even Merida by the way ; for the same reason he took a circumbendibus round the frontier town of Badajoz ; and crossing a little brook, refreshed his mule with the last draught of Spanish water, and instantly congratulated himself upon entering the territory of Portugal. Bravo! quoth he, patting the neck of his mule, thou shalt
