Penny Blood Serial Fiction — page 141: what you’re looking at

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

124 REYNOLDS’ WORKS name was Isabella, assisted me in my toilet, and when it was completed, she invited me to join the rest in partaking of the afternoon meal. . “On issuing forth from the tent, [ found a complete banquet spread upon the grass, the whole arrangements having the air of an English picnic. There were roast capons, masses of smoked ham, piles of sausages, huge pieces of cheese, vegetables, bread, biscuits, and quantities of grapes and other fruits. The caldron was again simmering over the fire, and this huge iron vessel contained the favourite Spanish comestible, called pochero, a sort of soup with quantities of various kinds of meat, poultry, and game. Plates, dishes, and all the requisite articles of crockery and cutlery were likewise at hand, and there was no de- ficiency of wine and spirits. The men and women of the band were already seated at the banquet, which they had not, however, commenced, courteously waiting for my appearance. Don Diego Christoval, rising up from the grass, doffed his cap in graceful salutation, and taking me by the hand, invited me to place myself next to him. We accordingly sat down, and the festival commenced. But little conversation took place during the repast, every one having an appetite so keen as to cause ample justice to be done to the good things above enumerated. When it was over, the men lghted their pipes, and lounging upon the erass, smoked and drank at their ease; but Don Diego, who, it appeared, was not addicted to the use of tobacco, pro- posed to me, if I were not still too much fatigued, to walk with him along the bank of the streamlet. Supposing that he wished to speak to me relative to my circumstances, I accepted the invitation, and we rambled away from the encampment. ‘‘ At first he expressed a hope that I was satisfied with the attention shown me, and that I had found everything as comfortable as, considering the limited and rude nature of the arrangements, I could have expected. When I had given a suitable response, declaring my gratitude for the treatment I had received, he intimated that if I thought fit to give any explanation relative to the circumstances which had brought me into those wilds, he was prepared to listen; but he at the same time, with much mingled frankness and delicacy, assured me that if I preferred re- Gomicbooks. co: m