“With all the pleasure in life,” answered Adair; “and will you have the kindness, sir, to tell these noisy fellows, pulling at our horses’ tails, that we can dispense with their company?”
“It would be far from a kindness if I did, for you would find that your beasts would not move ahead without them,” said the merchant, laughing, and directing the arrieros to stop at his house on their return, he bade the merry party good morning.
Up and up they went, till Gerald declared that they should reach the moon if they continued on much longer. At length they found themselves on the brink of an enormous chasm, some thousand feet in depth, upwards of two miles in length, and half-a-mile in width, while before them a precipitous wall of rocks towered up towards the blue heavens, broken into numberless craggy pinnacles, amid which the clouds careered rapidly, although far below they lay in thin strata, unmoved by a breeze.
“Grand! magnificent!” and similar exclamations broke from the party. They pushed on to the end of the ravine, where it almost closes; a natural bridge of rocks existing over it to the opposite side; another much broader ravine opening out beyond. Returning by the way they came, the party gazed down upon Funchal and their ships in the harbour.
“Faith, they look for all the world like two fleas floating with their legs in the air,” exclaimed Adair; “this is a mighty big mountain, there is no doubt about that.”
Their keen appetites and the recollection of the merchant’s promised repast made them hurry on their downward way. They were not disappointed either in the substantials, or in the delicacies, oranges, and grapes, with other fruits and wines provided for their entertainment.
“I am expecting your captains and a few grandees and others to dinner, or I would have pressed you to stay,” said their kind host, as he wished them good-bye; “I hope you will come to-morrow, though, and remember that my house is at your orders as long as you stay.”
Most of the naval heroes had imbibed a sufficient quantity of the merchant’s generous liquid to raise their spirits, even somewhat above their usual high level, and Adair took Gerald to task for not having refused the last few glasses offered, though he declared that he himself was as sober as an archbishop.
“And so, faith, am I, Uncle Terence,” cried Gerald; “to prove that same I’ll race ye down to the bottom of this hit of a hill, and whoever comes in first shall decide the question. Now off we go. ‘Wallop ahoo! ahoo! Erin-go-bragh!’” And urging on his steed, of which his arriero had long since let go, as had the others of their animals on descending the mountains, away he started; Adair shouting to him to stop, from the fear that he would break his neck, followed, however, at the same headlong speed, giving vent, in his excitement, to the same shout of “Wallop ahoo! ahoo! Erin-go-bragh!”
The example was infectious, the marine officer even catching it, and off set lieutenants and surgeons, and midshipmen and clerks, as if scampering away from an avalanche to save their lives, instead of running a great risk of losing them. In vain their attendants shouted to them to stop, and went bounding after them. The animals kept well together in a dense mass—a regular stampedo—Terence and his nephew keeping the lead. To check themselves had they tried it was impossible, without the certainty of bringing their steeds to the ground, and taking flying leaps over their heads. Suddenly there appeared before them a palanquin—a dignified ecclesiastic seated in it—attended by footmen, while further on were seen several cavaliers, some in military uniforms, with a couple of naval cocked hats rising in their midst. That instant had the cry of “Erin-go-bragh!” escaped from the excited Irishman’s throat. “Avast! haul up for your life, boy,” shouted Adair, on beholding the spectacle before him. “Starboard your helm, or you’ll be over the padre.”