Page:The genius - Carl Grosse tr Joseph Trapp 1796.djvu/135

 and the lady became visibly more reserved in her conversation. Had I been more circumspect, I might in the critical moment of her fright have searched deeper into the secrets of their history, but now she seemed to evade with singular facility, every captious question, and combated me, as it were, with my own weapons.

On our arrival at Oropesa, I lost sight of the Countess and her children in a crowd, and never saw them again afterwards. The fair was well-attended and remarkable for an hundred entertainments that could not but prove agreeable to the country-people.

Having walked about for an hour, I stopt at last among a group of spectators who very attentively saw a large mastiff dance. The dog having done, his master took a green par rot upon his hand, and asked the bird:

"Tell me, pretty Poll, who is the eldest and who the youngest here?"

The bird first mentioned the numbers: eighty-two and eight.

"And what is their name?"