Roland Cashel (Volume 1) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. MR. SIMMS ON LIFE AT THE VILLA. He told them of men that cared not a d?n For the law or the new police, And had very few scruples for killing a lamb, IX they fancied they wanted the fleece. Sir Peter's Lament. When Roland Cashel rejoined Mr. Simms, he found that worthy individual solacing himself for the privations of prairie travel, by such a breakfast as only Don Pedro's larder would produce. Surrounded by various dishes whose appetizing qualities might have suffered some impairment from a more accurate knowledge of their contents, ? sucking monkeys and young squirrels among the number, ? he tasted and sipped, and sipped again, till between the seductions of sangaree and Curacoa punch, he had produced that pleasing frame of mind when even a less gorgeous scene than the windows of the villa displayed before him would have appeared delightful. Whether poor Mr. Simms's excess ? and such we are compelled to confess it was ? could be excused on the score of long fasting, or the consciousness that he had a right to some indulgence in the hour of victory, he assuredly revelled in the fullest enjoyment of this luxurious banquet, and, as Cashel entered the room, had reached the delicious dreamland of misty consciousness, where his late adventures and his former life became most pleasingly commingled, and jaguars, alligators, gambusinos, and rancheros, danced through his brain in company with Barons of the Exchequer and Masters in Chancery. Elevated by the scenes of danger he had passed through, ? some real, the far greater number imaginary, ? into the dignity of a hero, he preferred rather to discuss prairie lifeand scenes in the Havannah, to dwelling on the topics so nearly interesting to Cashel. Nor was Roland a very patient listener to digressions...