t I might continually remind thee of my wrong,
not in order to pray to thee for vengeance, which I do not invoke, but
to beseech thee to inspire me with some counsel which may enable me to
bear it with patience." Then turning to Dona Estafania, "This boy,
senora," she said, "towards whom you have manifested the extreme of your
great kindness and compassion, is your own grandson. It was by the
merciful providence of Heaven that he was run over, in order that being
taken to your house, I should find him in it, as I hope to find there,
if not the remedy most appropriate to my misfortune, at least the means
of alleviating it." Thus saying, and pressing the crucifix to her
breast, she fell fainting into the arms of Dona Estafania, who as a
gentlewoman, to whose sex pity is as natural as cruelty is to man,
instantly pressed her lips to those of the fainting girl, shedding over
her so many tears that there needed no other sprinkling of water to
recover Leocadia from her swoon.

Whilst the two were in this situation, Dona Estafania's husband entered
the room, leading little Luis by the hand. On seeing his wife all in
tears, and Leocadia fainting, he eagerly inquired the cause of so
startling a spectacle. The boy having embraced his mother, calling her
his cousin, and his grandmother, calling her his benefactress, repeated
his grandfather's question. "I have great things to tell you, senor,"
said Dona Estafania to her husband, "the cream and substance of which is
this: the fainting girl before you is your daughter, and that boy is
your grandson. This truth which I have learned from her lips is
confirmed by his face, in which we have both beheld that of our son."

"Unless you speak more fully, senora, I cannot understand you," replied
her husband.

Just then Leocadia came to herself, and embracing the cross seemed
changed into a sea of tears, and the gentleman remained in utter
bewilderment, until his wife had repeated to him, from beginning to end,
Leocadia's whole story; and he believed it, through the blessed
dispensation of Heaven, which had confirmed it by so many convincing
testimonies. He embraced and comforted Leocadia, kissed his grandson,
and that same day he despatched a courier to Naples, with a letter to
his son, requiring him to come home instantly, for his mother and he had
concluded a suitable match for him with a very beautiful lady. They
would not allow Leocadia and her son to return any more to the house of