“My abilities shall always be at your service, and that of the gentlemen who are our comrades,” replied Rinconete; and Monipodio then turned towards Cortadillo.

“And you, Cortadillo, what may you be good for?” he inquired; to which Cortadillo replied, “For my part I know the trick called ’put in two, and take out five,’ and I can dive to the bottom of a pocket with great precision and dexterity.”  “Do you know nothing more?” continued Monipodio.  “Alas, no, for my sins, that is all I can do,” admitted Cortadillo, “Do not afflict yourself, nevertheless,” said the master; “you are arrived at a good port, where you will not be drowned, and you enter a school in which you can hardly fail to learn all that is requisite for your future welfare.  And now as to courage:  how do you feel yourselves provided in that respect, my children?” “How should we be provided,” returned Rinconete, “but well and amply?  We have courage enough to attempt whatever may be demanded in our art and profession.”  “But I would have you to possess a share of that sort which would enable you to suffer as well as to dare,” replied Monipodio, “which would carry you, if need were, through a good half dozen of ansias without opening your lips, and without once saying ‘This mouth is mine.’” “We already know what the ansias are, Senor Monipodio,” replied Cortadillo, “and are prepared for all; since we are not so ignorant but that we know very well, that what the tongue says, the throat must pay for; and great is the grace heaven bestows on the bold man (not to give him a different name), in making his life or death depend upon the discretion of his tongue, as though there were more letters in a No than an Aye.”

“Halt there, my son; you need say no more,” exclaimed Monipodio at this point of the discourse.  “The words you have just uttered suffice to convince, oblige, persuade, and constrain me at once to admit you both to full brotherhood, and dispense with your passing through the year of novitiate.”

“I also am of that opinion,” said one of the gaily-dressed Bravos; and this was the unanimous feeling of the whole assembly.  They therefore requested that Monipodio would immediately grant the new brethren the enjoyment of all the immunities of their confraternity, seeing that their good mien and judicious discourse proved them to be entirely deserving of that distinction.

Monipodio replied, that, to satisfy the wishes of all, he at once conferred on those new-comers all the privileges desired, but he exhorted the recipients to remember that they were to hold the favour in high esteem, since it was a very great one:  consisting in the exemption from payment of the media anata, or tax levied on the first theft they should commit, and rendering them free of all the inferior occupations of their office for the entire year.  They were not obliged, that is to say, to bear messages to a brother of higher grade, whether in prison or at his