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Updated: July 5, 2025
"Well," said the esquilador, "it may be the shortest; but if you had ridden along it this morning, as I did, you would hardly call it the best. The winter rains have washed away the path, and left the bare rocks so slippery and uneven, that I could scarcely get my horse over them in daylight, and by night I should make sure of breaking his legs and my own neck."
"Will you come with me to clip a mule?" said Paco. "I have no time," replied the esquilador. "The heat of the day is past, and I must be moving. I have ten leagues to do between this and morning."
Paco gave a turn of the rope round the chimney, and then leaning forward from behind it, put his mouth to the gipsy's ear, and spoke in one of those suppressed whispers which seem scarcely to pass the lips of the speaker. "Remember," said he, "ten ounces, or" A significant motion of his hand round his throat, completed the sentence in a manner doubtless comprehensible enough to the esquilador.
"Here is the sum you name, and something over. Who is your man?" "Your señoria has heard of Romany Jaime, the gipsy esquilador?" The Count made a movement of surprise. "He is one of our spies; devoted to the general. You cannot think of trusting him?" "He is devoted to any body who pays him," returned Paco. "I knew him well in former days, when I went to buy mules in the mountains of Arragon.
The esquilador, or shearer for such was the profession of the individual just described had found a subject for the exercise of his art in a large white dog of the poodle species, who, with a most exemplary patience, the result probably of a frequent repetition of the same process, lay upon his back between the operator's knees, all four legs in the air, exposing his ribs and belly to the scissors that were rapidly divesting them of their thick fleece.
And he held out a handful of dollars, which, the next instant, disappeared in one of Jaime's capacious pockets. This time a muttered word or two of thanks escaped the lips of the taciturn esquilador. "Whither do you now proceed?" enquired Baltasar. "Are you to rejoin the General? What are your orders?" "I am no man's servant," replied the gipsy, "and have no orders to obey.
Paco slipped off his shoes, twisted the other rope round his body, and opening the door in the tiles, in an instant was on the top of the house. The esquilador followed.
This, indeed, the esquilador informed her, was her father's wish, as he found that he should be detained some time in his present quarters by the consequences of his wound.
"Where did you leave my father?" she enquired, as the esquilador entered the room. "Is he well? Why does he not return?" "I left the Señor Conde at a convent near Lecumberri," replied the gipsy. "Near Lecumberri?" repeated Rita; "it was not in that direction he went. He left this for the plains of Vittoria."
Apparently he could distinguish nothing; for, after remaining a few moments stationary, he again approached the wall of the house, looked cautiously around him, and, giving three low distinct coughs, continued his walk. Without pausing to consider the meaning of this strange proceeding, the esquilador caught Herrera's arm. "Out with you," said he, "and quickly!"
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