Ere I reached the village that I now saw before
me I had met two such bands, I wondered, and then wondered
at my own wonder.
The chief house of the village was become an inn. Two
long tables stood in the patio where no fountain now flowed
nor orange trees grew nor birds sang in corners nor fine
awning kept away the glare. Twenty of these wild and
base fighting men crowded one table, eating and drinking,
clamorous and spouting oaths. At the other table sat together
at an end three men whom by a number of tokens
might be robbers of the mountains. They sat quiet, indifferent
to the noise, talking low among themselves in a
tongue of their own, kin enough to the soldiery not to
fear them. The opposite end of the long table was given to
a group to which I now joined myself. Here sat two Franciscan
friars, and a man who seemed a lawyer; and one who
had the air of the sea and turned out to be master of a
Levantine; and a brisk, talkative, important person, a Catalan,
and as it presently appeared alcalde once of a so-so
village; and a young, unhealthy-looking man in black with
an open book beside him; and a strange fellow whose
Spanish was imperfect.
I sat down near the friars, crossed myself, and cut a piece
of bread from the loaf before me. The innkeeper and his
wife, a gaunt, extraordinarily tall woman, served, running
from table to table.
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