The next day the captain-general, Don Domingo Izquierdo, related to me that a man had been found crushed on the road to Murviedro.  I gave him an account of the prowess of Isidro’s mule, and no more was said.

One anecdote, taken from among a thousand, will show what an adventurous life was led by the delegate of the Bureau of Longitude.

During my stay on a mountain near Cullera, to the north of the mouth of the river Xucar, and to the south of the Albufera, I once conceived the project of establishing a station on the high mountains which are in front of it.  I went to see them.  The alcaid of one of the neighbouring villages warned me of the danger to which I was about to expose myself.  “These mountains,” said he to me, “form the resort of a band of highway robbers.”  I asked for the national guard, as I had the power to do so.  My escort was supposed by the robbers to be an expedition directed against them, and they dispersed themselves at once over the rich plain which is watered by the Xucar.  On my return I found them engaged in combat with the authorities of Cullera.  Wounds had been given on both sides, and, if I recollect right, one alguazil was left dead on the plain.

The next morning I regained my station.  The following night was a horrible one; the rain fell in a deluge.  Towards night, there was knocking at my cabin door.  To the question “Who is there?” the answer was, “A custom-house guard, who asks of you a shelter for some hours.”  My servant having opened the door to him, I saw a magnificent man enter, armed to the teeth.  He laid himself down on the earth, and went to sleep.  In the morning, as I was chatting with him at the door of my cabin, his eyes flashed on seeing two persons on the slope of the mountain, the alcaid of Cullera and his principal alguazil, who were coming to pay me a visit.  “Sir,” cried he, “nothing less than the gratitude which I owe to you, on account of the service which you have rendered to me this night, could prevent my seizing this occasion for ridding myself, by one shot of this carabine, of my most cruel enemy.  Adieu, sir!” And he departed, springing from rock to rock as light as a gazelle.

On reaching the cabin, the alcaid and his alguazil recognized in the fugitive the chief of all the brigands in the country.

Some days afterwards, the weather having again become very bad, I received a second visit from the pretended custom-house guard, who went soundly to sleep in my cabin.  I saw that my servant, an old soldier, who had heard the recital of the deeds and behaviour of this man, was preparing to kill him.  I jumped down from my camp bed, and, seizing my servant by the throat,—­“Are you mad?” said I to him; “are we to discharge the duties of police in this country?  Do you not see, moreover, that this would expose us to the resentment of all those who obey the orders of this redoubted chief?  And we should thus render it impossible for us to terminate our operations.”