“Let all questions cease, gentlemen:  here is the purse, from which nothing is missing that the Alguazil has described, since my comrade Cortadillo prigged it this very day, with a pocket-handkerchief into the bargain, which he borrowed from the same owner.”  Thereupon Cortadillo produced the handkerchief before the assembled company.

Seeing this, Monipodio exclaimed “Cortadillo the Good! for by that title and surname shall you henceforward be distinguished.  Keep the handkerchief, and I take it upon myself to pay you duly for this service; as to the purse, the Alguazil must carry it away just as it is, for it belongs to a Sacristan who happens to be his relation, and we must make good in his case the proverb, which says, ’To him who gives thee the entire bird, thou canst well afford a drumstick of the same.’  This good Alguazil can save us from more mischief in one day than we can do him good in a hundred.”

All the brotherhood with one voice approved the spirit and gentlemanly proceeding of the two new comers, as well as the judgment and decision of their superior, who went out to restore the purse to the Alguazil.  As to Cortadillo, he was confirmed in his title of the Good, much as if the matter had concerned a Don Alonzo Perez de Guzman, surnamed the Good, who from the walls of Tarifa threw down to his enemy the dagger that was to destroy the life of his only son.[24]

[24] Our readers will perceive that this relates to the atrocity committed by the Infant Don Juan of Castille, who, while in revolt against his brother, Sancho IV., appeared before the city of Tarifa with an army, chiefly composed of Mahometans; finding the infant son of the governor, Don Alonzo Perez de Guzman, at nurse in a neighbouring village, he took the child, and bearing him to the foot of the walls, called on Guzman to surrender the place on pain of seeing his infant slaughtered before his eyes in case of refusal.  The only reply vouchsafed by Don Alonzo was the horrible one alluded to in the text.  He detached his own dagger from its belt, and threw it to Don Juan, when the sanguinary monster, far from respecting the fidelity of his opponent, seized the weapon, and pierced the babe to the heart as he had threatened to do This anecdote is related, with certain variations, in Conde, “La Dominacion de los Arabes en Espana.”—­See English Translation, vol. iii.

When Monipodio returned to the assembly he was accompanied by two girls, with rouged faces, lips reddened with carmine, and necks plastered with white.  They wore short camlet cloaks, and exhibited airs of the utmost freedom and boldness.  At the first glance Rinconete and Cortadillo could see what was the profession of these women.  They had no sooner entered, than they hurried with open arms, the one to Chiquiznaque, the other to Maniferro; these were the two bravos, one of whom bore the latter name because he had an iron hand, in place of one of his own, which had been cut off by the hand of justice.  These two men embraced the girls with great glee, and inquired if they had brought the wherewithal to moisten their throats.  “How could we think of neglecting that, old blade!” replied one of the girls, who was called Gananciosa.[25] “Silvatillo, your scout, will be here before long with the clothes-basket, crammed with whatever good luck has sent us.”