Alguazil
and Senor Attorney," said the hostess, "none of your tricks upon me, for
I know a thing or two, I tell you. Give me none of your blustering, but
shut your mouth, and go your ways in God's name, otherwise by my faith
I'll pitch the house out of the windows, and blow upon you all; for I am
well acquainted with the Senora Colendres, and I know moreover that for
many months past she has been kept by the Senor Alguazil; so don't
provoke me to let out any more, but give this gentleman back his money,
and let us all part good friends, for I am a respectable woman, and I
have a husband with his patent of nobility with its leaden seals all
hanging to it, God be thanked! and I carry on this business with the
greatest propriety. I have the table of charges hung up where everybody
may see it, so don't meddle with me, or by the Lord I'll soon settle
your business. It is no affair of mine if women come in with my lodgers;
they have the keys of their rooms, and I am not a lynx to see through
seven walls."

My masters were astounded at the harangue of the landlady, and at
finding how well acquainted she was with the story of their lives; but
seeing there was nobody else from whom they could squeeze money, they
still pretended that they meant to drag her to prison. She appealed to
heaven against the unreasonableness and injustice of their behaving in
that manner when her husband was absent, and he too a man of such
quality. The Breton bellowed for his fifty crowns; the bailiffs
persisted in declaring that they had never set eyes on the breeches, God
forbid! The attorney privately urged the alguazil to search Colindres'
clothes, for he suspected she must have possessed herself of the fifty
crowns, since it was her custom to grope in the pockets of those who
took up with her company. Colindres declared that the Breton was drunk,
and that it was all a lie about his money. All in short was confusion,
oaths, and bawling, and there would have been no end to the uproar if
the lieutenant corregidor had not just then entered the room, having
heard the noise as he was going his rounds. He asked what it was all
about, and the landlady replied with great copiousness of detail. She
told him who was the damsel Colindres (who by this time had got her
clothes on), made known the connection between her and the alguazil, and
exposed her plundering tricks; protested her own innocence, and that it
was never with her consent that a woman of bad rep