Next morning, when the sun rose, I had a conversation with my guest, which I will try to reproduce faithfully.

“Your situation is perfectly known to me; I know that you are not a custom-house guard; I have learnt from certain information that you are the chief of the robbers of the country.  Tell me whether I have any thing to fear from your confederates?”

“The idea of robbing you did occur to us; but we concluded that all your funds would be in the neighbouring towns; that you would carry no money to the summit of mountains, where you would not know what to do with it, and that our expedition against you could have no fruitful result.  Moreover, we cannot pretend to be as strong as the King of Spain.  The King’s troops leave us quietly enough to exercise our industry; but on the day that we molested an envoy from the Emperor of the French, they would direct against us several regiments, and we should soon have to succumb.  Allow me to add, that the gratitude which I owe to you is your surest guarantee.”

“Very well, I will trust in your words; I shall regulate my conduct by your answer.  Tell me if I can travel at night?  It is fatiguing to me to move from one station to another in the day under the burning influence of the sun.”

“You can do so, sir; I have already given my orders to this purpose; they will not be infringed.”

Some days afterwards, I left for Denia; it was midnight, when some horsemen rode up to me, and addressed these words to me:—­

“Stop there, senor; times are hard; those who have something must aid those who have nothing.  Give us the keys of your trunks; we will only take your superfluities.”

I had already obeyed their orders, when it came into my head to call out—­“But I have been told, that I could travel without risk.”

“What is your name, sir?”

“Don Francisco Arago.”

“Hombre! vaya usted con Dios (God be with you).”

And our cavaliers, spurring away from us, rapidly lost themselves in a field of “algarrobos.”

When my friend the robber of Cullera assured me that I had nothing to fear from his subordinates, he informed me at the same time that his authority did not extend north of Valencia.  The banditti of the northern part of the kingdom obeyed other chiefs; one of whom, after having been taken, was condemned and hung, and his body divided into four quarters, which were fastened to posts, on four royal roads, but not without their having previously been boiled in oil, to make sure of their longer preservation.

This barbarous custom produced no effect; for scarcely was one chief destroyed before another presented himself to replace him.