At the “Mono” (the “Ape”), a beast which at first I mistook for a certain historical character to whom popular prejudice always vouchsafes a tail, I put up, and having discussed a very sumptuous breakfast, sent for the landlord, a little dark-visaged Jew from Pernambuco.
“I hear,” said I, arranging myself in an attitude of imposing elegance, “I hear, Señhor Maestro, that my people and equipages have not arrived yet, and I begin to feel a great anxiety for their safety. Can you learn from any of the Muleros if they have seen two carriages, with four mules each, on the Chihuahua road?”
“I have just inquired,” said the Jew, with a sly, almost impertinent leer, “and his Excellency's suite have not been seen.”
“How provoking!” said I, impatiently. “This comes of indulging that capricious taste for adventure which always inclines me to a solitary ramble among mountains. And now, here I am, without clothes, baggage, horses, servants,—in fact, with nothing that a person of my condition is accustomed to have about him.”
The Jew's face changed its expression during this speech, and, from a look of droll malice which it wore at first, assumed an air of almost open insolence as he said,—
“Señhor Viajador, I am too old to be imposed upon by these fooleries. The traveller who enters an inn on his feet, with ragged clothes and tattered shoes, takes too high a flight when he raves of equipage and followers.”
I bethought me of the lesson I once gave the mate of the transport ship at Quebec, and I lay back indolently in my chair and stared coolly at the Jew. “Son of Abraham,” said I, with a slow intonation, “take care what you say. I indulge in a vast variety of caprices, some of which the severe world calls follies; but there is one which I never permit myself,—namely, to suffer the slightest liberty on the part of an inferior. I give you this piece of information for your guidance, since it is possible that business with the banker Don Manuel Hijaros may detain me a few days in this place, and I desire that the lesson be not lost upon you.”
The Jew stood, while I delivered these words, a perfect ideal of doubt and embarrassment. The pretentious tone, contrasted with the ragged apparel, the air of insufferable pride, with all the semblance of poverty, and the calm composure of confidence, seemed to him singular features in one whose apparent destitution might have suggested humility.
“I see your embarrassment,” said I, “and I forgive your error; and now to business. I have several visits to pay in this neighborhood; my people may not arrive for a day or two; and I cannot afford the delay of waiting for them. Can you tell if there be anything suitable in the way of equipage for a man of rank to be had here? Something simple, of course, as befitting the place,—a plain carriage, with four mules,—if Andalusian, all the better; two lazadores, or outriders, will be sufficient, as I wish to avoid display; the liveries and equipment may be plain also.”
“There is at this moment, Señhor, the open carriage of the late Gobernador of Guajuaqualla to be sold,—he had not used it when he was called away by death: that and his six mules,—not Andalusian, it is true, but of the black breed of the Habannah,—are now at your Excellency's disposal.”