finery, I could muster more than two thousand ducats,
which, with her two thousand five hundred, would be enough for us to
retire upon to a village of which I was a native, and where I had
relations and some patrimony. Its yearly increase, helped by our money,
would enable us to lead a cheerful and unembarrassed life. In fine, our
union was at once agreed on; the banns were published on three
successive holidays (which happened to fall together), and on the fourth
day, the marriage was celebrated in the presence of two mends of mine,
and a youth who she said was her cousin, and to whom I introduced myself
as a relation with words of great urbanity. Such, indeed, were all those
which hitherto I had bestowed on my bride--with how crooked and
treacherous an intention I would rather not say; for though I am telling
truths, they are not truths under confession which must not be kept
back.

My servant removed my trunk from my lodgings to my wife's house. I put
by my magnificent chain in my wife's presence; showed her three or four
others, not so large, but of better workmanship, with three or four
other trinkets of various kinds; laid before her my best dresses and my
plumes, and gave her about four hundred reals, which I had, to defray
the household expenses. For six days I tasted the bread of wedlock,
enjoying myself like a beggarly bridegroom in the house of a rich
father-in-law. I trod on rich carpets, lay in holland sheets, had silver
candlesticks to light me, breakfasted in bed, rose at eleven o'clock,
dined at twelve, and at two took my siesta in the drawing-room. Dona
Estefania and the servant girl danced attendance upon me; my servant,
whom I had always found lazy, was suddenly become nimble as a deer. If
ever Dona Estefania quitted my side, it was to go to the kitchen and
devote all her care to preparing fricassees to please my palate and
quicken my appetite. My shirts, collars, and handkerchiefs were a very
Aranjuez of flowers, so drenched they were with fragrant waters. Those
days flew fast, like the years which are under the jurisdiction of time;
and seeing myself so regaled and so well treated, I began to change for
the better the evil intention with which I had begun this affair.

At the end of them, one morning, whilst I was still in bed with Dona
Estefania, there was a loud knocking and calling at the street door. The
servant girl put her head out of the window, and immediately popped it
in again, saying,--