Time rolled on:  the hour of her delivery arrived:  it took place in the utmost secrecy, her mother taking upon her the office of midwife:  and she gave birth to a son, one of the most beautiful ever seen.  The babe was conveyed, with the same secrecy, to a village, where he remained till he was four years old, when his grandfather brought him, under the name of nephew, to his own house, where he was reared, if not in affluence, at least most virtuously.  The boy, who was named Luis after his grandfather, was remarkably handsome, of a sweet docile disposition; and his manners and deportment, even at that tender age, were such as showed him to be the son of some noble father.  His grandfather and grandmother were so delighted with his grace, beauty, and good behaviour, that they came at last to regard their daughter’s mischance as a happy event, since it had given them such a grandson.  When the boy walked through the streets, blessings were showered upon him by all who saw him—­blessings upon his beauty, upon the mother that bore him, upon the father that begot him, upon those who brought him up so well.  Thus admired by strangers, as well as by all who knew him, he grew up to the age of seven, by which time he could already read Latin and his mother tongue, and write a good round hand; for it was the intention of his grandparents to make him learned and virtuous, since they could not make him rich, learning and virtue being such wealth as thieves cannot steal, or fortune destroy.

One day, when the boy was sent by his grandfather with a message to a relation, he passed along a street in which there was a great concourse of horsemen.  He stopped to look at them; and to see them the better, he moved from his position, and crossed the street.  In doing so, he was not rapid enough to avoid a fiery horse, which its rider could not pull up in time, and which knocked Luis down, and trampled upon him.  The poor child lay senseless on the ground, bleeding profusely from his head.  A moment after the accident had happened, an elderly gentleman threw himself from his horse with surprising agility, took the boy out of the arms of a person who had raised him from the ground, and carried him to his own house, bidding his servants go fetch a surgeon.

Many gentlemen followed him, greatly distressed at the sad accident which had befallen the general favourite; for it was soon on everybody’s lips that the sufferer was little Luis.  The news speedily reached the ears of his grandparents and his supposed cousin, who all hurried in wild dismay to look for their darling.  The gentleman who had humanely taken charge of him being of eminent rank, and well known, they easily found their way to his house, and arrived there just as Luis was under the surgeon’s hands.  The master and mistress begged them not to cry, or raise their voices in lamentation; for it would do the little patient no good.  The surgeon, who was an able man, having dressed the wound with great