There were voices without, speaking in accents of violence, and whose idiom was not of my country.  I roused myself, rubbed my eyes, and directed them out of the windows.  By the light of a lantern that blazed from the top of the diligence, I could discover that this part of the road was skirted by olive-trees, and that the mules, having come in contact with some obstacle to their progress, had been thrown into confusion, and stood huddled together, as if afraid to move, gazing upon each other, with pricked ears and frightened aspect.  A single glance to the right-hand gave a clue to the mystery.  Just beside the fore-wheel of the diligence stood a man, dressed in that wild garb of Valencia which I had seen for the first time in Amposta:  his red cap, which flaunted far down his back, was in front drawn closely over his forehead; and his striped manta, instead of being rolled round him, hung unembarrassed from one shoulder.  Whilst his left leg was thrown forward in preparation, a musket was levelled in his hands, along the barrel of which his eye glared fiercely upon the visage of the conductor.  On the other side the scene was somewhat different.  Pepe (the postilion) being awake when the interruption took place, was at once sensible of its nature.  He had abandoned the reins, and jumped from his seat to the road-side, intending to escape among the trees.  Unhappy youth, that he should not have accomplished his purpose!  He was met by the muzzle of a musket when he had scarce touched the ground, and a third ruffian appearing at the same moment from the treacherous concealment of the very trees towards which he was flying, he was effectually taken, and brought round into the road, where he was made to stretch himself upon his face, as had already been done with the conductor.

I could now distinctly hear one of these robbers—­for such they were—­inquire in Spanish of the mayoral as to the number of passengers:  if any were armed; whether there was any money in the diligence; and then, as a conclusion to the interrogatory, demanding La bolsa! in a more angry tone.  The poor fellow meekly obeyed:  he raised himself high enough to draw a large leathern purse from an inner pocket, and stretching his hand upward to deliver it, said, Toma usted, caballero, pero no me quita usted la vida! “Take it, cavalier; but do not take away my life!” The robber, however, was pitiless.  Bringing a stone from a large heap, collected for the repair of the road, he fell to beating the mayoral upon the head with it.  The unhappy man sent forth the most piteous cries for misericordia and piedad.  He might as well have asked pity of that stone that smote him, as of the wretch who wielded it.  In his agony he invoked Jesu Christo, Santiago Apostol y Martir, La Virgin del Pilar, and all those sacred names held in awful reverence by the people, and the most likely to arrest the rage of his assassin.  All in vain:  the murderer redoubled his blows, until, growing furious