d one day last May, that is
to say, about a year ago, that Leonisa and her parents, Cornelio and
his, accompanied by all their relations and servants had gone to enjoy
themselves in Ascanio's garden, close to the sea shore on the road to
the Saltpits.

"I know the place well," interrupted Mahmoud, "and passed many a merry
day there in better times. Go on, Ricardo."

"The moment I received information of this party, such an infernal fury
of jealousy possessed my soul that I was utterly distraught, as you will
see, by what I straightway did; and that was to go to the garden, where
I found the whole party taking their pleasure, and Cornelio and Leonisa
seated together under a nopal-tree, a little apart from the rest.

"What were their sensations on seeing me I know not, all I know is that
my own were such that a cloud came over my sight, and I was like a
statue without power of speech or motion. But this torpor soon gave way
to choler, which roused my heart's blood, and unlocked my hands and my
tongue. My hands indeed were for a while restrained by respect for that
divine face before me; but my tongue at least broke silence.

"'Now hast thou thy heart's content,' I cried, 'O mortal enemy of my
repose, thine eyes resting with so much composure on the object that
makes mine a perpetual fountain of tears! Closer to him! Closer to him,
cruel girl! Cling like ivy round that worthless trunk. Comb and part the
locks of that new Ganymede, thy lukewarm admirer. Give thyself up wholly
to the capricious boy on whom thy gaze is fixed, so that losing all hope
of winning thee I may lose too the life I abhor. Dost thou imagine,
proud, thoughtless girl, that the laws and usages which are acknowledged
in such cases by all mankind, are to give way for thee alone? Dost thou
imagine that this boy, puffed up with his wealth, vain of his looks,
presuming upon his birth, inexperienced from his youth, can preserve
constancy in love, or be capable of estimating the inestimable, or know
what riper years and experience know? Do not think it. One thing alone
is good in this world, to act always consistently, so that no one be
deceived unless it be by his own ignorance. In extreme youth there is
much inconstancy; in the rich there is pride; in the arrogant, vanity;
in men who value themselves on their beauty, there is disdain; and in
one who unites all these in himself, there is a fatuity which is the
mother of all mischief.

"'As for thee, boy,