ADVENTURE WITH SPANISH BRIGANDS.
A few years ago a gentleman of my acquaintance had a curious adventure in Spain, which I will endeavor to relate in his own words. “I was travelling with my wife,” said he, “and we had a long ride before us to Grenada. I found that two diligences were to start the next day, one of them quite new, and the other an old one. I engaged the coupé of the new diligence, paid for it, and was told to be ready at six o’clock the next morning. When I went there, I found that an English woman and her servant had installed themselves in our place, which they preferred to the old carriage, in which they had chartered the coupé. I protested; but the woman cut me short with, ‘I am the Duchess of ——, and shall retain this carriage.’
“‘Ah,’ I replied, bowing low, ‘but I am the Prince Thomas of America, and my other titles are Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Salt Lake. We are all princes in America; and, madam, my wife is the Countess of Michigan, Illinois, and Kentucky.’
“But the woman repeated her title, and refused to move. She did not care for an American prince; and I was about to call the officials to eject her, when my wife said, in her hearing, ‘If she is so unlady-like as to act in this way, we will leave her to herself, and ride in the old diligence.’
“The new vehicle moved off, bearing the English duchess, and we followed ten minutes later in the old one. About two miles from the starting-point, we passed the new carriage with a broken pole, and the driver and conductor were endeavoring to get another from a neighboring farm-house. As we passed them, I shouted to our postilion that I would give him a real for every mile he kept ahead of the other carriage, and a dollar for every hour he arrived in advance of his usual time.
“He accepted the offer, and urged the horses to their best speed. Every time we changed, I distributed a few reals to the men about the stable; and I heard the postilion hint to them to make the changes as fast as possible, but to be in no hurry in supplying the other diligence. We went at a killing pace, and every time when we halted, the postilion said, ‘You will owe me a great deal of money for this; you will owe me a great deal of money.’
“I found on calculation that I should owe him a very liberal gratuity, and assured him that I would pay everything I owed. As we passed through a certain wood, I observed that he watched the road-side very closely, and soon after repeated his remark about my indebtedness to him. I could not understand what he meant, but was wiser afterwards.
ENGAGING AN ENTIRE HOTEL.
“We reached Grenada more than three hours ahead of time. There was then but one decent hotel in the place; and I knew that my duchess would be certain to go there, as it was not only the best hotel, but the point of arrival and departure of the diligence. The house was nearly full, and I engaged all the vacant rooms, paid a part of the money for them, and took a receipt. Two or three Spanish travellers arrived in the next hour, and I gave up some of my rooms to them, but enjoined the landlord under no circumstances to admit the duchess, or I would prosecute him for a violation of the contract.
“We dined, and took our ease in our room, and, after dinner was over, we watched for the other diligence, which was somewhat overdue.