Asturiano; give up the tail.”  The alguazil then related the story out of which that cry had grown, whereat all present laughed not a little.  The alguazil further stated that as the Asturian was going out at the Puerta de Alcantara, the boys who followed him having redoubled their cries about the tail, he dismounted from his ass, laid about them all, and left one of them half dead with the beating he had given him.  Thereupon the officer proceeded to arrest him; he resisted, and that was how he came to be in the state in which he then appeared.  The corregidor ordered the prisoner to uncover his face, but as he delayed to do so the alguazil snatched away the handkerchief.  “My son, Don Diego!” cried the astonished father.  “What is the meaning of all this?  How came you in that dress?  What, you have not yet left off your scampish tricks?” Carriazo fell on his knees before his father, who, with tears in his eyes, held him long in his embrace.  Don Juan de Avendano, knowing that his son had accompanied Carriazo, asked the latter where he was, and received for answer the news that Don Tomas de Avendano was the person who gave out the oats and straw in that inn.

This new revelation made by the Asturiano put the climax to the surprises of the day.  The corregidor desired the innkeeper to bring in his hostler.  “I believe he is not in the house, but I will go look for him,” said he, and he left the room for that purpose.  Don Diego asked Carriazo what was the meaning of these metamorphoses, and what had induced him to turn water-carrier, and Don Tomas hostler?  Carriazo replied, that he could not answer these questions in public, but he would do so in private.  Meanwhile Tomas Pedro lay hid in his room, in order to see thence, without being himself seen, what his father and Carriazo’s were doing; but he was in great perplexity about the arrival of the corregidor, and the general commotion in the inn.  At last some one having told the landlord where he was hidden, he went and tried half by fair means and half by force to bring him down; but he would not have succeeded had not the corregidor himself gone out into the yard, and called him by his own name, saying, “Come down, senor kinsman; you will find neither bears nor lions in your way.”  Tomas then left his hiding place, and went and knelt with downcast eyes and great submission at the feet of his father, who embraced him with a joy surpassing that of the Prodigal’s father when the son who had been lost was found again.

The corregidor sent for Costanza, and taking her by the hand, presented her to her father, saying, “Receive, Senor Don Diego, this treasure, and esteem it the richest you could desire.  And you, beautiful maiden, kiss your father’s hand, and give thanks to heaven which has so happily exalted your low estate.”  Costanza, who till that moment had not even guessed at what was occurring, could only fall at her father’s feet, all trembling with emotion, clasp his hands in hers, and cover them with kisses and tears.