Now, I ask the most long-headed and wary of my readers, what more could old Felipe have done in the way of taking precautions for his security, since he would not even allow that there should be any male animal within his dwelling?  No tom-cat ever persecuted its rats, nor was the barking of a dog ever heard within its walls; all creatures belonging to it were of the feminine gender.  He took thought by day, and by night he did not sleep; he was himself the patrol and sentinel of his house, and the Argus of what he held dear.  Never did a man set foot within the quadrangle; he transacted his business with his friends in the street; the pictures that adorned his rooms were all female figures, flowers, or landscapes; his whole dwelling breathed an odour of propriety, seclusion, and circumspection; the very tales which the maid servants told by the fireside in the long winter nights, being told in his presence, were perfectly free from the least tinge of wantonness.  Her aged spouse’s silver hairs seemed in Leonora’s eyes locks of pure gold; for the first love known by maidens imprints itself on their hearts like a seal on melted wax.  His inordinate watchfulness seemed to her no more than the due caution of an experienced and judicious man.  She was fully persuaded that the life she led was the same as that led by all married women.  Her thoughts never wandered beyond the walls of her dwelling, nor had she a wish that was not the same as her husband’s.  It was only on the days she went to mass that she set eyes on the streets, and that was so early in the morning, that except on the way home she had not light to look about her.  Never was there seen a convent more closely barred and bolted; never were nuns kept more recluse, or golden apples better guarded; and yet for all his precautions poor Felipe could not help falling into the pit he dreaded,—­or at least believing that he had so fallen.

There is in Seville an idle pleasure-seeking class of people who are commonly called men on town,[80] a sauntering, sprucely dressed, mellifluous race, always finding means to make, themselves welcome at rich men’s feasts.  Of these people, their manners and customs, and the laws they observe among themselves, I should have much to say, but abstain from it for good reasons.  One of these gallants, a bachelor,—­or a virote, as such persons are called in their jargon, the newly married being styled matones,—­took notice of the house of Carrizales, and seeing it always shut close, he was curious to know who lived there.  He set about this inquiry with such ardour and ingenuity, that he failed not to obtain all the information he desired.  He learned the character and habits of the old man, the beauty of Leonora, and the singular method adopted by her husband in order to keep her safe.  All this inflamed him with desire to see if it would not be possible, by force or stratagem, to effect the reduction of so well-guarded a fortress.  He imparted his thoughts to three of his friends,