Carmen | Page 9

this the gipsy cast a glance of the most utter scorn at
him, then, seating herself Turkish-fashion in a corner of the room, she
picked out an orange, tore off the skin, and began to eat it.
Don Jose took hold of my arm, opened the door, and led me into the
street. We walked some two hundred paces in the deepest silence. Then
he stretched out his hand.
"Go straight on," he said, "and you'll come to the bridge."
That instant he turned his back on me and departed at a great pace. I
took my way back to my inn, rather crestfallen, and considerably out of
temper. The worst of all was that, when I undressed, I discovered my
watch was missing.

Various considerations prevented me from going to claim it next day,
or requesting the Corregidor to be good enough to have a search made
for it. I finished my work on the Dominican manuscript, and went on to
Seville. After several months spent wandering hither and thither in
Andalusia, I wanted to get back to Madrid, and with that object I had to
pass through Cordova. I had no intention of making any stay there, for I
had taken a dislike to that fair city, and to the ladies who bathed in the
Guadalquivir. Nevertheless, I had some visits to pay, and certain
errands to do, which must detain me several days in the old capital of
the Mussulman princes.
The moment I made my appearance in the Dominican convent, one of
the monks, who had always shown the most lively interest in my
inquiries as to the site of the battlefield of Munda, welcomed me with
open arms, exclaiming:
"Praised be God! You are welcome! My dear friend. We all thought
you were dead, and I myself have said many a pater and ave (not that I
regret them!) for your soul. Then you weren't murdered, after all? That
you were robbed, we know!"
"What do you mean?" I asked, rather astonished.
"Oh, you know! That splendid repeater you used to strike in the library
whenever we said it was time for us to go into church. Well, it has been
found, and you'll get it back."
"Why," I broke in, rather put out of countenance, "I lost it--"
"The rascal's under lock and key, and as he was known to be a man
who would shoot any Christian for the sake of a peseta, we were most
dreadfully afraid he had killed you. I'll go with you to the Corregidor,
and he'll give you back your fine watch. And after that, you won't dare
to say the law doesn't do its work properly in Spain."
"I assure you," said I, "I'd far rather lose my watch than have to give
evidence in court to hang a poor unlucky devil, and especially
because--because----"

"Oh, you needn't be alarmed! He's thoroughly done for; they might
hang him twice over. But when I say hang, I say wrong. Your thief is
an Hidalgo. So he's to be garrotted the day after to-morrow, without
fail.* So you see one theft more or less won't affect his position. Would
to God he had done nothing but steal! But he has committed several
murders, one more hideous than the other."
* In 1830, the noble class still enjoyed this privilege. Nowadays, under
the constitutional regime, commoners have attained the same dignity.
"What's his name?"
"In this country he is only known as Jose Navarro, but he has another
Basque name, which neither your nor I will ever be able to pronounce.
By the way, the man is worth seeing, and you, who like to study the
peculiar features of each country, shouldn't lose this chance of noting
how a rascal bids farewell to this world in Spain. He is in jail, and
Father Martinez will take you to him."
So bent was my Dominican friend on my seeing the preparations for
this "neat little hanging job" that I was fain to agree. I went to see the
prisoner, having provided myself with a bundle of cigars, which I
hoped might induce him to forgive my intrusion.
I was ushered into Don Jose's presence just as he was sitting at table.
He greeted me with a rather distant nod, and thanked me civilly for the
present I had brought him. Having counted the cigars in the bundle I
had placed in his hand, he took out a certain number and returned me
the rest, remarking that he would not need any more of them.
I inquired whether by laying out a little money, or by applying to my
friends, I might not be able to do something to soften his lot. He
shrugged his shoulders, to begin with, smiling sadly. Soon, as by