Obedient to my behest, the youth turned to a man who came out from the door giving entrance to the inn itself and, in Spanish, made his demand, whereupon the fellow, after bowing politely, said:
"There is ample accommodation for--for more--alas!--than travel these roads."
Then, because I addressed a word or so in French to him, he continued in that language, which, however, he had exceedingly badly:
"Messieurs will stay here till night, then push on to Lugo? Bon, they will be there by morning. So! So! Yes, in verity, they can have a good meal. There are geese, fowls, meat, also some wine of excellence. Messieurs may refresh themselves in all ways."
Our horses put in the stable, therefore, we sat down half an hour later in a vast sala--in which a great banquet might have been given with ease--to a dish of veal, a fowl, and an olla-podrida, all of which would have been good enough had they not been flavoured so much with garlic that--to my taste, at least--all pleasure was destroyed; also we had some most excellent chocolate and some good spirituous liquor to follow--at which latter Juan turned a wry face. Then ordering another meal to be ready ere we set out--with strict injunctions that the flavouring should on this occasion be omitted--we betook ourselves to the rooms above, where we were to get a few hours' rest.
Yet, as we passed along the whitewashed corridor, the windows of which gave on to the stable yard, the travelling coach standing there caught our eyes, and I said to the host:
"You have at least some one else here besides us. Some great personage, I should suppose, by his equipage," and I directed my glance to where the great carriage was.
"Ho!" said the man with the true Spanish shrug of the shoulder, which is even more emphatic than the French one, more suggestive, as it seems to me; "a personage of wealth, I should say, but no grandee--of Spain, at least."
"Of what land, then?" I asked. "And why a personage of wealth, yet no grandee?"
"Oh! well, for that," the man said, with again the inimitable shrug, "his deportment, his conduct is not that which our nobility permit themselves. Though I know not--perhaps it may be so--he is a nobleman of--well--possibly, England. He drinks heavily--name of a dog! but he drinks like a fiend, un enragé--cognac, cognac, cognac--also he sings all the night, sometimes so that even the fowls and the dogs are awakened, also all our house. Yet he pays well--very well!"