Penny Blood Serial Fiction — page 139: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

122 REYNOLDS’ WORKS in the picturesque Catalan costume, and carried a rifle in his hand. His belt was furnished with pistols and daggers, and by his side hung a straight sword of immense length. He might either have been a guerilla or a bandit chief, I knew not which at the moment, but I strongly suspected the latter. | “J must here observe that this was the middle of Sep- tember, 1839, and the Carlist war was just concluded. Don Carlos had passed with the bulk of his army into France, ~ but Cabrera, one of his most famous generals, still continued in Spain at the head of a large body of troops. He was not, however, at that time in Catalonia, but I believe in the Basque Provinces, while Catalonia itself had become almost — completely pacified. The Catalan whom I have described, and whom I thus encountered at sunrise in the midst of his own native wilds, stood gazing upon me for upwards of a minute in speechless astonishment. And no wonder that such should have been his feeling, for I doubtless appeared to him like a person dropped from the clouds in that lonely region. But blended with his look of surprise was an ex-’ pression of admiration, and suspecting that I was not a Spanish woman, he at length addressed me in the French tongue. He spoke with mildness and courtesy, asking me whether I had not lost my way, and whether he could be of any assistance to me. I replied frankly that I had wandered the whole night, that I was exhausted with fatigue and famished with hunger, and that I required both repose and refreshment. Without asking another question, he cour- teously invited me to accompany him, assuring me of kind treatment. | : ‘“T showed by my looks and manner that I put confidence in him, and he led the way up the eminence, until we reached a winding path which descended somewhat precipitately between two walls of rock, which grew higher and higher in proportion as we went lower and lower. The path con- tinued its tortuous way almost completely around the hill, until it reached a valley on the opposite side; and there I beheld a little encampment, consisting of half a dozen tents pitched upon the bank of a streamlet. A fire was burning in the open air, and over it a caldron was sus- pended in the true gipsy fashion. A dozen men, dressed and. armed in a manner similar to the individual who was guiding Gomicbooks:. co