"It was agreed that we three should go together to the Sierra de Gaucín, where I was to leave my companions and go on to Gibraltar in the guise of a dealer in fruit. At Ronda, a man who was in our pay had procured me a passport; at Gaucín they gave me a donkey; I loaded him with oranges and melons and started." (Don José on his covert mission to find Carmen and persuade her to return to the band of smugglers.)

Chapter 3: Carmen by Prospero Mérimée. Translated into English by George Burnham Ives