The Firebrand

had here laid aside the world and assumed the cowl, yet mighty Kings of Aragon and Navarra lay buried within i

ountains. A clear trout stream, which furnished many a Friday's breakfast to the monks, ran through a rich vale. Of no pla

. The men were serfs, the women handmaids. Soul and body they were bound to their masters of the monastery of Montblanch. Without permissio

, as men crouched closer about the glowing charcoal pan, and women glanced fearfully out between the

e Spain of the cities and provinces, the chiefs of the Holy Office had found a last place of refuge beneath the grey rocks of Montblanch, and that whoso offended against th

Vicencio, by the mountain path beside which the stream brattled and sulked alterna

y in which such things can be done. Has civilisation not reached as far

ho came whistling down the path, a bundl

onastery of Montblanch?" he said, pinching th

nese crossed himse

have you

f Spain" which averts the evil eye; but under his loos

!" he said, a

to enter it

quoth the man

the Scot, wishful

o go in thither, no

t of sight, his feet, shod with sandals of esparto grass,

ine uncle, reverend man, is no

stic of northern Iberia deepened behind the hills, while the bushes of

y, he stipulates that I shall make by my own exertions a clear profit of a thousand pounds. I, on my part, have agreed neither to marry nor to return till I can do so with a thousa

d have made me a wandering Jew for life, and a perpetual bachelor to boot! A thousand p

any way assist me in the buying of good vintages, out of which I may chance to make profit? Besides the firm's c

t you by so much farther from your happiness. But of cou

farthing to marry, or for whose mess of connubial

psing into dialect, "the shoe has aye pinched the ither foot wi' me, my lad. No to speak o' Peggy Ramsay, I think I

companion, "how so, man? D

oot a lang man like me that tak's them, the craiturs, and I hae a way o' my ain wi' them, though I never gat mair schooling than my father could thrash into me wi' a dog whip. But the fact is tha

are quarrelsome?" sa

m the Englishman's arm and dr

e, and it is my nature, but to the man who flings it in my teeth that I am

cient card-case of damaged silver, bulged and dinted o

a quarrelsome, ungrateful dog! But forgive me, Mr. Mortimer, it is my nature, and at any rate it does not last long. I am not yet of those 'that age and sullens have,' as my father used to say. A desperate wise man

. I am above all anxious to take over to England some thousand hectolitres of the fam

t to do so much?" asked the Scot, with an

, and it struck me that with your command of the language and my knowledge of business, we might be able to ship so

en the weight of obligement under which you have placed me, you can count on my services. I am scarce such a fool as

r; "the usual commission is five per cent, on all transact

lair, hotly. "Did I not tell you I would do m

ut I have always found the benefit of a clea

semary, broom, thyme, and bay-tree laurel to a sheltered little plain, much of it

side which kept it a full hour late, shone behind the two ad

finite space. In the clefts high up were black tufts of trees, that seemed from below like so many gooseberry bushes. A kind of three days' stubble of beard covered the plain itself r

ws, now mere splashed oblongs of darkness irregularly scattered along the white walls. Only at one end the chapel was lit up, and from its windows of palest gold, and Madonna bl

e miscen

ustam co