Next morning a naked
corse, besmeared with brains and blood, is found by an arriero; and
within a week a simple cross records the event, according to the
custom of Spain.
'Below there in the dusky pass
Was wrought a murder dread;
The murdered fell upon the grass,
Away the murderer fled.'
To many, such a scene, as above described, will appear purely
imaginary, or at least a mass of exaggeration, but many such
anecdotes are related by old Spanish writers of these people; they
traversed the country in gangs; they were what the Spanish law has
styled Abigeos and Salteadores de Camino, cattle-stealers and
highwaymen; though, in the latter character, they never rose to any
considerable eminence. True it is that they would not hesitate to
attack or even murder the unarmed and defenceless traveller, when
they felt assured of obtaining booty with little or no risk to
themselves; but they were not by constitution adapted to rival
those bold and daring banditti of whom so many terrible anecdotes
are related in Spain and Italy, and who have acquired their renown
by the dauntless daring which they have invariably displayed in the
pursuit of plunder.
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