Carmen

Carmen

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Carmen, by Prosper Merimee This
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Title: Carmen
Author: Prosper Merimee
Translator: Lady Mary Loyd
Release Date: March 28, 2006 [EBook #2465]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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Produced by Dagny; John Bickers

CARMEN
by Prosper Merimee
Translated by Lady Mary Loyd

CHAPTER I
I had always suspected the geographical authorities did not know what
they were talking about when they located the battlefield of Munda in
the county of the Bastuli-Poeni, close to the modern Monda, some two
leagues north of Marbella.
According to my own surmise, founded on the text of the anonymous
author of the Bellum Hispaniense, and on certain information culled
from the excellent library owned by the Duke of Ossuna, I believed the
site of the memorable struggle in which Caesar played double or quits,
once and for all, with the champions of the Republic, should be sought
in the neighbourhood of Montilla.
Happening to be in Andalusia during the autumn of 1830, I made a
somewhat lengthy excursion, with the object of clearing up certain
doubts which still oppressed me. A paper which I shall shortly publish
will, I trust, remove any hesitation that may still exist in the minds of
all honest archaeologists. But before that dissertation of mine finally
settles the geographical problem on the solution of which the whole of
learned Europe hangs, I desire to relate a little tale. It will do no
prejudice to the interesting question of the correct locality of Monda.
I had hired a guide and a couple of horses at Cordova, and had started
on my way with no luggage save a few shirts, and Caesar's
Commentaries. As I wandered, one day, across the higher lands of the
Cachena plain, worn with fatigue, parched with thirst, scorched by a
burning sun, cursing Caesar and Pompey's sons alike, most heartily, my
eye lighted, at some distance from the path I was following, on a little
stretch of green sward dotted with reeds and rushes. That betokened the
neighbourhood of some spring, and, indeed, as I drew nearer I
perceived that what had looked like sward was a marsh, into which a
stream, which seemed to issue from a narrow gorge between two high
spurs of the Sierra di Cabra, ran and disappeared.
If I rode up that stream, I argued, I was likely to find cooler water,
fewer leeches and frogs, and mayhap a little shade among the rocks.

At the mouth of the gorge, my horse neighed, and another horse,
invisible to me, neighed back. Before I had advanced a hundred paces,
the gorge suddenly widened, and I beheld a sort of natural amphitheatre,
thoroughly shaded by the steep cliffs that lay all around it. It was
impossible to imagine any more delightful halting place for a traveller.
At the foot of the precipitous rocks, the stream bubbled upward and fell
into a little basin, lined with sand that was as white as snow. Five or six
splendid evergreen oaks, sheltered from the wind, and cooled by the
spring, grew beside the pool, and shaded it with their thick foliage. And
round about it a close and glossy turf offered the wanderer a better bed
than he could have found in any hostelry for ten leagues round.
The honour of discovering this fair spot did not belong to me. A man
was resting there already--sleeping, no doubt--before I reached it.
Roused by the neighing of the horses, he had risen to his feet and had
moved over to his mount, which had been taking advantage of its
master's slumbers to make a hearty feed on the grass that grew around.
He was an active young fellow, of middle height, but powerful in build,
and proud and sullen-looking in expression. His complexion, which
may once have been fine, had been tanned by the sun till it was darker
than his hair. One of his hands grasped his horse's halter. In the other he
held a brass blunderbuss.
At the first blush, I confess, the blunderbuss, and the savage looks of
the man who bore it, somewhat took me aback. But I had heard so
much about robbers, that, never seeing any, I had ceased to believe in
their existence. And further, I had seen so many honest farmers arm
themselves to the teeth before they went out to market, that the sight of
firearms gave me no warrant for doubting the character of any stranger.
"And then," quoth