the case.  That Basque of yours is a noble fellow.  I shall never forget how he spoke for you, when he came running to the embassy to inform us of your arrest.  He interested both Sir George and myself in the highest degree:  should you ever wish to part with him, I hope you will give me the refusal of his services.  But now to other matters.”  He then informed me that Sir George had already sent in an official note to Ofalia, demanding redress for such a wanton outrage on the person of a British subject.  “You must remain in prison,” said he, “to-night, but depend upon it that to-morrow, if you are disposed, you may quit in triumph.”  “I am by no means disposed for any such thing,” I replied.  “They have put me in prison for their pleasure, and I intend to remain here for my own.”  “If the confinement is not irksome to you,” said Mr. Southern, “I think, indeed, it will be your wisest plan; the government have committed themselves sadly with regard to you; and, to speak plainly, we are by no means sorry for it.  They have on more than one occasion treated ourselves very cavalierly, and we have now, if you continue firm, an excellent opportunity of humbling their insolence.  I will instantly acquaint Sir George with your determination, and you shall hear from us early on the morrow.”  He then bade me farewell; and flinging myself on my bed, I was soon asleep in the prison of Madrid.

CHAPTER XL

Ofalia—­The Juez—­Carcel do la Corte—­Sunday in Prison—­Robber
Dress—­Father and Son—­Characteristic Behaviour—­The Frenchman—­
Prison Allowance—­Valley of the Shadow—­Pure Castilian—­Balseiro—­
The Cave—­Robber Glory.

Ofalia quickly perceived that the imprisonment of a British subject in a manner so illegal as that which had attended my own, was likely to be followed by rather serious consequences.  Whether he himself had at all encouraged the corregidor in his behaviour towards me, it is impossible to say; the probability is that he had not:  the latter, however, was an officer of his own appointing, for whose actions himself and the government were to a certain extent responsible.  Sir George had already made a very strong remonstrance upon the subject, and had even gone so far as to state in an official note that he should desist from all farther communication with the Spanish government until full and ample reparation had been afforded me for the violence to which I had been subjected.  Ofalia’s reply was, that immediate measures should be taken for my liberation, and that it would be my own fault if I remained in prison.  He forthwith ordered a juez de la primera instancia, a kind of solicitor-general, to wait upon me, who was instructed to hear my account of the affair, and then to dismiss me with an admonition to be cautious for the future.  My friends of the embassy, however, had advised me how to act in such a case.  Accordingly, when the juez on the second night of my imprisonment