"As to personal danger, Pépé," I made answer, "dismiss your fears for me. As I told you before, I am only going to see my friends Beltran and Alonzo; but unless I see them this very night, our project to surprise Ronda must be abandoned."
"Can you not," he rejoined, "communicate this to them by letter? your presence here may be very necessary; I will be the bearer."
"Impossible," said I; "it may be necessary to alter the whole of our arrangements. Good night, my faithful Pépé; be assured you have my full confidence. Should my non-appearance to-morrow excite surprise, say I am unwell, and have given orders not to be disturbed; but if my absence exceed forty-eight hours, go to Jacobo, and tell him all you know of my movements. He is aware of the value I set upon you; and your head--in the situation in which he will then be placed--will be required by him. Once more _adios y Pesetas!_ with this stout mule I trust I shall be able to reach Gaucin before midnight;" and putting spurs to the animal's sides, I urged him rapidly down the steep acclivity of the _Sierra Endrinal_, taking the _trocha_ to _Cortes_.
The dark shadows of the lofty impending mountain soon concealed my movements from observation, and quitting the beaten track, I struck into a path on the left hand, which is used only by the goatherds, and leads through a dense forest to _Montejaque_. Putting my animal to the utmost speed the bad road would admit, I reached that village in two hours.
Every inmate of the little Eagle's nest was at my command. I found no difficulty, therefore, whilst a barber was robbing me of my mustaches and eyebrows, in getting my mule exchanged for a stout _burro_, my military costume for a tattered _zamarra_;[222] and thus metamorphosed, issued forth from the village. Descending by a rugged footpath to the river Guadiaro, and fording the stream a little above where a remarkable cavern, called the _Cueva del Gato_, overhangs its right bank, I made a wide circuit round Ronda, until I had gained the high road from that place to Gaucin; and then turning to the left (directing my ass's head towards the French garrison), proceeded quietly along the road, until, on arriving at the commencement of the long suburb, which extends beyond the walls on the south side of the town, I fell in with an enemy's piquet.
