and then a sullen despair and a final making
ip one's mind that, after all, it can't last for
ever, are the phases through which the unhappy
travellers pass during these agreeable diligence
journeys. It was some little time before our party
could get sufficiently reconciled to their misery to
enjoy the scenery. But when they could look
about them^ they found themselves passing through
a beautifiil gorge, and up a zig-zag road, like the
lower spurs of an Alpine pass, over the Sierra
Morena. Then began the descent, during which
some of the ladies held their breath, expecting to
be dashed over the parapet at each sharp turn in
the road: the pace of the mules was never relaxed,
and the unwieldy top-heavy mass oscillated over
the precipice below in a decidedly unpleasant
manner. Then they came into a fertile region of
olives and aloes, and so on by divers villages and
through roads which the late rains had made
almost impassable, and in passing over which
every bone of their bodies seemed dislocated in
their springless vehicle, till, at two o'clock in the
afternoon, they reached the station, where, to
their intense relief, they again came upon a rail-
road. Hastily swallowing some doubtftil chocolate,
they established themselves once more comfort-
ably in the railway carriage ; but after being in
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ON THE ROAD TO CORDOVA.
37
