atulations from the rest of the party.

At last they sat down to a merry supper to the sound of music, for the
performers, who had been previously engaged, were now arrived. Rodolfo
saw his own likeness in his son's face as in a mirror. The four
grandparents wept for joy: there was not a corner of the house but was
full of gladness; and though night was hurrying on with her swift black
wings, it seemed to Rodolfo that she did not fly, but hobble on
crutches, so great was his impatience to be alone with his beloved
bride. The longed-for hour came at last: every one retired to rest: the
whole house was buried in silence; but not so shall be the truth of this
story, which will be kept alive in the memory of men by the many
children and descendants of that illustrious house in Toledo, where that
happy pair still live, and have, for many prosperous years, enjoyed the
society of each other, their children, and their grandchildren, by the
blessing of Heaven, and through the force of that blood which was seen
shed on the ground by the valorous, illustrious, and Christian
grandfather of the little Luis.

THE JEALOUS ESTRAMADURAN.

Not many years ago there issued from a town in Estramadura a hidalgo
nobly born, who, like another prodigal son, went about various parts of
Spain, Italy, and Flanders, squandering his years and his wealth. At
last, after long peregrinations, his parents being dead and his fortune
spent, he made his appearance in the great city of Seville, where he
found abundant opportunity to get rid of the little he had left. Finding
himself then so bare of money, and not better provided with friends, he
adopted the remedy to which many a spendthrift in that city has
recourse; that is, to betake themselves to the Indies, the refuge of the
despairing sons of Spain, the church of the homeless, the asylum of
homicides, the haven of gamblers and cheats, the general receptacle for
loose women, the common centre of attraction for many, but effectual
resource of very few. A fleet being about to sail for Tierrafirma, he
agreed with the admiral for a passage, got ready his sea-stores and his
shroud of Spanish grass cloth, and embarking at Cadiz, gave his
benediction to Spain, intending never to see it again. The fleet slipped
from its moorings, and, amidst the general glee of its living freight,
the sails were spread to the soft and prosperous gale, which soon wafted
them out of sight of land into the wide domains