10. Don Sunday’s Terrible Fright (11)
July 30th. I slept till after daylight, and was awoke by Don Sunday in a terrible fright. He said: “Sir, we are likely to be taken. There is a troop of horse formed in the valley, about three or four hundred yards from this hut.” This sudden intelligence alarmed me a good deal; but I recollected that the gentleman who had attended us yesterday had told us that some Spanish cavalry, who frequented the mountains, often called at this shepherd’s hut, and thence sent down men for any article they wanted in the town. Nevertheless, it was equally possible that the horsemen might be French; so we ran out of the hut.
Don Sunday sneaked, like an old fox, up the side of the hill; I went down the valley on the opposite side. Turning, I saw Don Sunday lay hold of the bough of a tree, and run his hand along it till he got above a large furze-bush, into the middle of which he dropped himself. This bush was, I do suppose, twelve feet high and about the same number of yards round. Here he remained in quiet, and might have held out a siege for three or four days, being well provisioned for that time by means of our wallet. The shepherds, concluding the troops to be French, were flying up the mountain-side, and their dogs with them. I, for my part, ran to the oak thicket in the valley, and crept among the boughs, closely interwoven one with another, till the oak-leaves covered me and my hat.
From this lair I curiously watched the dragoons, who climbed the opposite side of the hill, explored the hut, and found it empty, and then rode down the valley in which I lay concealed. Here they halted, and, alighting from their horses, some tied them to trees, others hobbling their forefeet with ropes and letting them graze. Some horses were actually fastened to the outer boughs of the bush in which I was concealed.
The horsemen were, fortunately, Spanish dragoons. The shepherds on the mountain-side soon detected this, and ran down to converse with the officers. One shepherd, approaching the place of my concealment, shouted that these were friends, and that I need not fear them. But on attempting to emerge, I found that I had got so far under the matted boughs that they would not admit of my rising, nor could I creep out head first! I had to return again by the way I had got in. I struggled backwards for some time, but was at last obliged to call the shepherd to my aid, who not only came himself but brought the Spanish officers, who had a hearty laugh at my confinement. With great difficulty they removed the boughs and set me at liberty.
My own mind being relieved from anxiety, I began to think of Don Sunday, and with the three Spanish officers went in search of him. Reaching his furze-bush, I called and he answered from the midst, complaining bitterly of the thorns he had to encounter, which encompassed him so sadly on all sides that without assistance he was afraid to move. The shepherds with their long poles cleared a passage and set the poor Don at liberty. He told the officers who I was, and the story of my escape from Seville. They appeared much astonished and interested, and promised me their protection and convoy through the mountains. They purposed sending down into the town for some things that they wanted.
We sat down on the grass, and, while we waited, the officers partook of some of my provisions and wine. It was late before the messengers returned, and we slept on sheepskins in the hut that night.
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