"Is't not enough?" Juan asked.
"It is enough." Then he turned to me and said: "You are riding to Lugo to-night?"
"That is our road," I replied, feeling my temper mount at the man's changed manner. "What of it? Does that route displeasure you, pray?"
"Ho!" he grunted; "for that, it makes no matter to me." Then added: "The horses are there," in so insolent a tone that I had a difficulty in restraining myself from kicking or striking him. But I remembered that, before all else, our safety had to be consulted, and that naught should be done to cause delay to our progress; wherefore, I swallowed my ire as best I might.
Yet, as we rode out of the courtyard, I saw at once that Juan's own thoughts tended exactly in the same direction as mine, since he said to me:
"That fellow has been told something by the old man--doubtless, that you are English--that we both are. Por Diôs! Suppose he has informed him that you were in the English fleet!"
"I have no doubt that the man has been told so," I replied. "But no matter. If it were not for you I should not care a jot."
Then once more I saw the dark eyes turned on me, and wished that I had held my tongue--at least as regarded the latter part of my speech.
It seemed as if the town had gone to bed already. The great square was deserted--except that the geese and pigs were still in it, huddled together around the fountain, and severally cackled and grunted as we trotted by them; down the long street, as we rode, we saw no signs of any one being outside the doors.
Yet, as we neared the extremity of both the town and the street, and came to where the latter ended off into a country road stretching along a dreary-looking plain, over which the moon had risen, we saw that such was not precisely the case. At the end of the street, that which was the last building was a little, low, whitewashed chapel; above its black door there was a figure in a little niche, with, burning in front of it, a candle in a miserable red-glassed lantern; and, feeble as were the rays cast forth from this poor, yet sacred, lamp, they were sufficient to show us three men on horseback, all sitting their steeds as rigidly as statues.