United States or Northern Mariana Islands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Departure from Astorga The Venta The By-path Narrow Escape The Cup of Water Sun and Shade Bembibre Convent of the Rocks Sunset Cacabelos Midnight Adventure Villafrancs. It was four o'clock of a beautiful morning when we sallied from Astorga, or rather from its suburbs, in which we had been lodged: we directed our course to the north, in the direction of Galicia.
Perhaps the whole world might be searched in vain for a spot whose natural charms could rival those of this plain or valley of Bembibre, as it is called, with its wall of mighty mountains, its spreading chestnut trees, and its groves of oaks and willows, which clothe the banks of its stream, a tributary to the Minho.
Then the two companies formed fours again, and went on at the double until they reached the rear of the column. Such, however, was not the case, and the column was not further molested until they reached Cacabolos, where they were halted. The rest of the army had moved on, the troops committing excesses similar to those that had taken place at Bembibre, and plundering the shops and houses.
"They will not fall out, they will not straggle, but if they come to a place where wine's in plenty, they will make bastes of themselves; and after all," he added, "after the work they have gone through, who is to blame them?" At the halt the next evening at Bembibre the colonel's forebodings that the men could not be trusted where liquor was plentiful were happily not verified.
From Astorga he proceeded by way of Puerto de Manzanal, Bembibre, Cacabelos, Villafranca, Puerto de Fuencebadon and Nogales, "through the wildest mountains and wildernesses" to Lugo. Owing to the unsafety of the roads, it was customary for travellers to attach themselves to the Grand Post, which was always guarded by an escort.
At the time I would have desired no better fate than that of a shepherd on the prairies, or a hunter in the hills of Bembibre. Three hours passed away and we were in another situation.
When he saw a peaceful rich landscape in a bright sunny hour, as at Monte Moro, he shed tears of rapture, sitting on and on in those reveries which, as he well knew, only enervate the mind: or he felt that he would have desired "no better fate than that of a shepherd on the prairies or a hunter on the hills of Bembibre": or looking through an iron-grated door at a garden court in Seville he sighed that his fate did not permit him to reside in such an Eden for the remainder of his days.
We had halted and refreshed ourselves and horses at Bembibre, a village of mud and slate, and which possessed little to attract attention: we were now ascending, for the road was over one of the extreme ledges of those frontier hills which I have before so often mentioned; but the aspect of heaven had blackened, clouds were rolling rapidly from the west over the mountains, and a cold wind was moaning dismally.
Word Of The Day