Page:Madrid shaver's adventures in the Spanish Inquisition (4).pdf/14

14 had been dropt in the centre of Arabia Petraea. As Nicolas’s journey was not a tour of curiosity, he did not amuse himself with a peep at Toledo, or Talavera, or even Merida, by the way: for the same reason he took a circumbendibus round the frontier town of Badajoz; and crossing a little brook, refreshed his mule with the last draught of Spanish water, and instantly congratulated himself upon entering the territory of Portugal. Brava! quoth he, patting the neck of his mule, thou shalt have a supper this night of the best sive-meat that Estramadura can furnish: we are now in a country where the scattered flock of Israel fold thick and fare well. He now began to chaunt the Song of Solomon, and gently ambled on in the joy of his heart.

When Nicolas at length reached the city of Lisbon, he hugged himself in his good fortune; still he recollected that the Inquisition had long arms, and he was yet in a place of no perfect security. Our adventurer had in early life acted as assistant-surgeon in a Spanish frigate bound to Buenos Ayres, and being captured by a British man of war and carried into Jamaica, had very quietly passed some years in that place as journeyman apothecary, in which time he had acquired a tolerable acquaintance with the English language. No sooner then did he discover the British ensign flying on the poop of an English frigate then lying in the Tagus, than he eagerly caught the opportunity of paying a visit to the surgeon; and finding he was in want of a mate, offered himself, and was entered in that capacity for a cruize against the French and Spaniards,