"Very well," said he, turning to Senor Pacheco, "in that case they will
serve my purpose very well, and you may send them up to the castle at
once. And, as they are, after all, merely a couple of boys, I think we
shall run no very great risk of losing them if we arrange for them to
stay about the place altogether; what say you?--it will be much more
convenient for me; and I will find rations and quarters for them; and
they can report themselves periodically at the citadel, if need be."
Senor Pacheco expressed himself as perfectly satisfied with the proposed
arrangement; and we were forthwith instructed to leave work there and
then and make the best of our way to a chateau which was pointed out to
us, and which lay embosomed in trees some three miles to the westward of
the town and about a mile from the shore. We had no packing to do, as
we possessed nothing in the world but the clothes we stood up in--and
which, by the way, were now in the very last stage of "looped and
windowed raggedness"--so we simply nodded a "good-bye" to such of our
envious acquaintances as happened to be within saluting range, and at
once set off up the road which we were informed would conduct us to our
destination.
Once fairly away from the scene of our late labours, Courtenay and I
gave full rein both to our tongues and to our imaginations, discussing
and wondering what in the world the commandant could possibly want with
ship-models; but that, after all was a question which we did not greatly
trouble ourselves to solve; the dominant thought and reflection in our
minds that we were likely to be, for some time at least, absentees from
the prison and all the discomfort and wretchedness connected with it,
and which I have not dwelt upon or attempted to describe for the one
simple reason that it was wholly undescribable. We never thought of
escaping, although we soon found ourselves passing through a thinly-
inhabited country where our abandonment of the high-road and concealment
in the neighbouring woods could have been accomplished without the
slightest risk of observation; but we had learned by this time that
escape was no such easy matter; it was a something which would have to
be carefully planned beforehand and every possible precaution adopted to
ensure success, and had we been foolishly tempted to try it then and
there our non-arrival at the chateau would speedily have been reported,
with the result that a search would have been instituted, followed by
our speedy recapture and ignominious return to the abhorred prison. No;
we were very thankful for and very well satisfied with the sudden change
in our fortunes which had been so unexpectedly wrought, for, though we
could of course form no very clear idea of what our lot would be in the
service of the commandant, we felt pretty certain it would be much
easier than what we had been obliged to put up with since our landing
from the frigate; and, for the rest, we were content to wait and see
what time had in store for us, whilst we were fully resolved to keep a
bright lookout for and to take the utmost advantage of any opportunity
for escape which might be opened out to us.
We had just arrived at a handsome pair of park gates which we
conjectured gave admittance to the castle grounds when we were overtaken
by the commandant, on horseback. He nodded to us; remarked, "I see you
have found your way all right;" shouted for the ancient custodian to
open the gates; and then, as the heavy iron barriers swung back,
dismounted, threw the bridle over his arm, and walked up the long avenue
with us.
We now had an opportunity to observe him a little more closely than at
our first interview; and we found him to be a tall and strikingly
handsome man, somewhere about fifty years of age, as we judged; with
piercing black eyes which seemed to read one's very thoughts, yet which
were by no means devoid of amiable expression, and black hair and
moustache thickly dashed with grey. Somewhat to our surprise, we found
that he could speak English very fairly. His demeanour to us was
characterised by that lofty stately courtesy peculiar to the old
nobility of Castile (of which province he was a native); and we
subsequently learned that he was as gallant a warrior as he was a
polished gentleman, having served with much distinction in various parts
of the world. His style and title, we afterwards ascertained, was El
Commandant Don Luis Aguirre Martinez de Guzman; and we speedily found
that he had a very strong predilection for the English, attributable to
the fact--which ultimately leaked out--that his first and deepest love
had been won by an English girl, whom, however,--the course of true love
not running smoothly--he never married.
As we walked up the noble avenue side by side he questioned us as to our
names, ages, and rank, how long we had been prisoners, and so on; and
expressed his astonishment at the harsh treatment which we had received
at the hands of the prison authorities. Upon this I thought it
advisable to mention to him our refusal to give our parole, stating as
our reason our total lack of funds.
"Oh, well," he said laughingly, "that need no longer influence you, you
know. You will have free quarters and rations at the castle, in
addition to the remuneration to which you will be entitled for your
services, so you can give your parole when next you report yourselves at
the citadel, and that will end the matter."
This, however, would not suit our views at all, though we did not choose
to say so; we therefore changed the subject by asking him what more
particularly were the services which we should be asked to perform. His
answer was to the effect that his especial hobby was the study of
fortification, respecting which, it seems, he had several rather novel
theories, in the working out and testing of which--and also by way of
amusement--he had constructed the model of a fortified town on the
shores of a small lake within the castle grounds; and he had sought our
assistance to enable him to place a fleet of ship-models before this
town, to illustrate his method of overcoming the difficulties attendant
upon a state of siege and blockade. By the time that this fancy of his
had been fully explained we had reached the castle--a noble building as
to size but of no very great pretensions from an architectural point of
view--and, the major-domo having been summoned, we were handed over to
him with the necessary instructions for our proper housing and so on.