Costanza made him no reply, nor did he wait for any, but hurrying out, with his face concealed as he had come in, he went to acquaint Carriazo that their fathers had arrived at the Sevillano.  The landlord called for Tomas to give out oats, but no Tomas appearing, he had to do it himself.

Meanwhile, one of the two cavaliers called one of the Gallegan wenches aside, and asked her what was the name of the beautiful girl he had seen, and was she a relation of the landlord or the landlady.  “The girl’s name is Costanza,” replied the Gallegan; “she is no relation either to the landlord or the landlady, nor do I know what she is.  All I can say is, I wish the murrain had her, for I don’t know what there is about her, that she does not leave one of us girls in the house a single chance, for all we have our own features too, such as God made them.  Nobody enters these doors but the first thing he does is to ask, Who is that beautiful girl? and the next is to say all sorts of flattering things of her, while nobody condescends to say a word to the rest of us, not so much as ’What are you doing here, devils, or women, or whatever you are?’”

“From your account, then,” said the gentleman, “I suppose she has a fine time of it with the strangers who put up at this house.”

“You think so.  Well, just you hold her foot for the shoeing, and see how you’ll like the job.  By the Lord, senor, if she would only give her admirers leave to look at her, she might roll in gold; but she’s more touch-me-not than a hedgehog; she’s a devourer of Ave Marias, and spends the whole day at her needle and her prayers.  I wish I was as sure of a good legacy as she is of working miracles some day.  Bless you, she’s a downright saint; my mistress says she wears hair-cloth next her skin.”

Highly delighted with what he had heard from the Gallegan, the gentleman did not wait till they had taken off his spurs, but called for the landlord, and withdrew with him into a private room.  “Senor host,” said he, “I am come to redeem a pledge of mine which has been in your hands for some years, and I bring you for it a thousand gold crowns, these links of a chain, and this parchment.”

The host instantly recognised the links and the parchment, and highly delighted with the promise of the thousand crowns, replied, “Senor, the pledge you wish to redeem is in this house, but not the chain or the parchment which is to prove the truth of your claim; I pray you therefore to have patience, and I will return immediately.”  So saying, he ran off to inform the corregidor of what was happening.

The corregidor, who had just done dinner, mounted his horse without delay, and rode to the Posada del Sevillano, taking with him the tally parchment.  No sooner had he entered the room where the two cavaliers sat, than hastening with open arms to embrace one of them, “Bless my soul! my good cousin Don Juan de Avendano!  This is indeed a welcome surprise.”