up their minds to go
to the mountains of Toledo, and thence to scour all the surrounding
country, and lay it under contribution. Accordingly they struck their
tents, and departed, offering Andrew an ass to ride; but he chose rather
to travel on foot, and serve as attendant to Preciosa, who rode
triumphantly another ass, rejoicing in her gallant esquire; whilst he
was equally delighted at finding himself close to her whom he had made
the mistress of his freedom.

O potent force of him who is called the sweet god of bitterness--a title
given him by our idleness and weakness--how effectually dost thou
enslave us! Here was Andrew, a knight, a youth of excellent parts,
brought up at court, and maintained in affluence by his noble parents;
and yet since yesterday such a change has been wrought in him that he
has deceived his servants and friends; disappointed the hopes of his
parents; abandoned the road to Flanders, where he was to have exercised
his valour and increased the honours of his line; and he has prostrated
himself at the feet of a girl, made himself the lackey of one who,
though exquisitely beautiful, is after all a gitana! Wondrous
prerogative of beauty, which brings down the strongest will to its feet,
in spite of all its resistance!

In four days' march, the gipsies arrived at a pleasant village, within
two leagues of the great Toledo, where they pitched their camp, having
first given some articles of silver to the alcalde of the district, as a
pledge that they would steal nothing within all his bounds, nor do any
other damage that might give cause of complaint against them. This done,
all the old gitanas, some young ones, and the men, spread themselves all
over the country, to the distance of four or five leagues from the
encampment. Andrew went with them to take his first lesson in thievery;
but though they gave him many in that expedition, he did not profit by
any of them. On the contrary, as was natural in a man of gentle blood,
every theft committed by his masters wrung his very soul, and sometimes
he paid for them out of his own pocket, being moved by the tears of the
poor people who had been despoiled. The gipsies were in despair at this
behavior: it was in contravention, they said, of their statutes and
ordinances, which prohibited the admission of compassion into their
hearts; because if they had any they must cease to be thieves,--a thing
which was not to be thought of on any account. Seeing this, An