The Bible in Spain: Or, the Journeys, Adventures, and Imprisonments of an Englishman, in an Attempt to Circulate the Scriptures in the PeninsulaBorrow, George
Religion
The Bible in Spain: Or, the Journeys, Adventures, and Imprisonments of an Englishman, in an Attempt to Circulate the Scriptures in the Peninsula
Borrow, George
Borrow, George, 1803-1881 -- Travel -- Spain; Spain -- Description and travel; Spain -- History -- 19th century
_Myself_.—It is true that they are both hunchbacks. But how can I be
like Don Carlos? I have nothing the appearance of a Spaniard, and am
nearly a foot taller than the pretender.
_Alcalde_.—That makes no difference; you of course carry many waistcoats
about you, by means of which you disguise yourself, and appear tall or
low according to your pleasure.
This last was so conclusive an argument that I had of course nothing to
reply to it. The alcalde looked around him in triumph, as if he had made
some notable discovery. “Yes, it is Calros; it is Calros,” said the
crowd at the door. “It will be as well to have these men shot
instantly,” continued the alcalde; “if they are not the two pretenders,
they are at any rate two of the factious.”
“I am by no means certain that they are either one or the other,” said a
gruff voice.
The justicia of Finisterra turned their eyes in the direction from which
these words proceeded, and so did I. Our glances rested upon the figure
who held watch at the door. He had planted the barrel of his musket on
the floor, and was now leaning his chin against the butt.
“I am by no means certain that they are either one or the other,”
repeated he, advancing forward. “I have been examining this man,”
pointing to myself, “and listening whilst he spoke, and it appears to me
that after all he may prove an Englishman; he has their very look and
voice. Who knows the English better than Antonio de la Trava, and who
has a better right? Has he not sailed in their ships; has he not eaten
their biscuit; and did he not stand by Nelson when he was shot dead?”
Here the alcalde became violently incensed. “He is no more an Englishman
than yourself,” he exclaimed; “if he were an Englishman would he have
come in this manner, skulking across the land? Not so I trow. He would
have come in a ship, recommended to some of us, or to the Catalans. He
would have come to trade, to buy; but nobody knows him in Finisterra, nor
does he know anybody: and the first thing, moreover, that he does when he
reaches this place is to inspect the fort, and to ascend the mountain
where, no doubt, he has been marking out a camp. What brings him to
Finisterra if he is neither Calros nor a bribon of a faccioso?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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