From Royan, at the mouth of the Gironde, they ran before the wind in a smack as far as San Sebastian, in Spain, and posted thence, past bald limestone mountains, to Burgos. Young Crowberry, in whom Wine and his glimpse of Woman had wrought wonders, found the cathedral of Burgos worth all the cathedrals of France put together: and Antonio himself, while conscious of its faults, felt strangely moved by its beauties. Three days later they were in Valladolid, where young Crowberry, making rapid progress, declared that with a box of building-bricks he himself would design a better cathedral than Herrera's fragment. At Salamanca, the last stopping-place in Spain, nearly all that Antonio had read about architecture was contradicted. Here was a cathedral raised in almost the worst period of Gothic: yet it impressed the beholder as one of the grandest temples in the world. They left Salamanca early one October morning, while the city's grand towers and domes were still sharply silhouetted against the golden east. Young Crowberry was garrulous and dogmatic about everything; but Antonio hardly spoke, for he was nearing Portugal. Mile after mile of dreary plain resounded under the mules' little hoofs. At last the road began to climb awful mountains whence the malaria had driven nearly every living thing. They passed stone-huts of prehistoric hill-men, and Roman military monuments with braggart inscriptions. Then they descended. The landscape relaxed its frown. A few vines greened narrow terraces here and there in the rocks. Soon afterwards they reached a white house in the midst of orange trees. Two soldiers came out with muskets. Antonio was once more in Portugal. VI On the morrow of young Crowberry's reunion with his impatient father at Oporto, Antonio made haste to give an account of his stewardship. About ten pounds in gold remained in his purse and he held, still uncashed, a letter of credit for thirty pounds more. Mr. Crowberry burst out laughing. "If Teddy hadn't told me ten times over that he's fared like a fighting-cock," he said, "I should believe you've been living on fresh air and ship's biscuit." "I did my best to make him enjoy his travels," responded Antonio, "but, at the same time, I was reasonably careful." "You've made a man of him, anyway," said the proud parent. "He used to be the biggest muff in England. Believe me or not: but I've never had to knock him down until this morning." "This morning you knocked him down?" echoed Antonio, aghast. As a Portuguese he had been accustomed to see parents obey their children. "Thank God, yes," said Mr. Crowberry heartily. "He was too damnably impudent about claret. But pick up this money. I don't want it, and I won't have it." The Englishman's determination was unshakable, so Antonio picked up the coins and the draft. But he did so with reluctance: for it made doubly hard his task of announcing that he sought release from the firm of Castro.