“The common lot, Senor, of able men,” replied the first speaker, “for I have always heard that it is the way of the world to let the finest talents go to waste; but your worship is still at an age when this evil fortune may be remedied, and the rather since, if I mistake not, and my eyes do not deceive me, you have other advantageous qualities which it is your pleasure to keep secret.”  “It is true that I have such,” returned the younger gentleman, “but they are not of a character to be publicly proclaimed, as your worship has very judiciously observed.”

“But I,” rejoined the elder, “may with confidence assure you, that I am one of the most discreet and prudent persons to be found within many a league.  In order to induce your worship to open your heart and repose your faith on my honour, I will enlist your sympathies by first laying bare my own bosom; for I imagine that fate has not brought us together without some hidden purpose.  Nay, I believe that we are to be true friends from this day to the end of our lives.

“I, then, Senor Hidalgo, am a native of Fuenfrida, a place very well known, indeed renowned for the illustrious travellers who are constantly passing through it.  My name is Pedro del Rincon,[9] my father is a person of quality, and a Minister of the Holy Crusade, since he holds the important charge of a Bulero or Buldero,[10] as the vulgar call it.  I was for some time his assistant in that office, and acquitted myself so well, that in all things concerning the sale of bulls I could hold my own with any man, though he had the right to consider himself the most accomplished in the profession.  But one day, having placed my affections on the money produced by the bulls, rather than on the bulls themselves, I took a bag of crowns to my arms, and we two departed together for Madrid.

[9] Peter of the Corner; rincon meaning a corner, or obscure nook.

[10] The Spanish authorities, under the pretext of being at perpetual war with Infidels, still cause “Bulls of the Crusade,” to the possession of which certain indulgences are attached, to be publicly sold in obscure villages.  The product of these sales was originally expended on the wars with the Moors, but from the time when Granada fell into the hands of the Spaniards, it has been divided between the church and state.  The bulls are carried about by hawkers, who are called “Buleros.”—­Viardot.

“In that city, such are the facilities that offer themselves, I soon gutted my bag, and left it with as many wrinkles as a bridegroom’s pocket-handkerchief.  The person who was charged with the collection of the money, hastened to track my steps; I was taken, and met with but scant indulgence; only, in consideration of my youth, their worships the judges contented themselves with introducing me to the acquaintance of the whipping-post, to have the flies whisked from my shoulders for a certain time, and commanding me to abstain from revisiting the Court and Capital during a period of four years.  I took the matter coolly, bent my shoulders to the operation performed at their command, and made so much haste to begin my prescribed term of exile, that I had no time to procure sumpter mules, but contented myself with selecting from my valuables such as seemed most important and useful.