t and liberality of the Asturian; but
as the mob are for the most part unjust, and more prone to evil than to
good, they thought nothing of the generosity and high mettle of the
great Lope, but only of the tail; and he had scarcely been two days
carrying water about the city, before he found himself pointed at by
people who cried, "There goes the man of the tail!" The boys caught up
the cry, and no sooner had Lope shown himself in any street, than it
rang from one end to the other with shouts of "Asturiano, give up the
tail! Give up the tail, Asturiano!" At first Lope said not a word,
thinking that his silence would tire out his persecutors; but in this he
was mistaken, for the more he held his tongue the more the boys wagged
theirs, till at last he lost patience, and getting off his ass began to
drub the boys; but this was only cutting off the heads of Hydra, and for
every one he laid low by thrashing some boy, there sprang up on the
instant, not seven but seven hundred more, that began to pester him more
and more for the tail. At last he found it expedient to retire to the
lodgings he had taken apart from his companion in order to avoid
Argueello, and to keep close there until the influence of the malignant
planet which then ruled the hours should have passed away, and the boys
should have forgotten to ask him for the tail. For two days he never
left the house except by night to go and see Tomas, and ask him how he
got on. Tomas told him that since he had given the paper to Costanza he
had never been able to speak a single word to her, and that she seemed
to be more reserved than ever. Once he had found as he thought an
opportunity to accost her, but before he could get out a word, she
stopped him, saying, "Tomas, I am in no pain now, and therefore have no
need of your words or of your prayers. Be content that I do not accuse
you to the Inquisition, and give yourself no further trouble." But she
made this declaration without any expression of anger in her
countenance. Lope then related how the boys annoyed him, calling after
him for the tail, and Tomas advised him not to go abroad, at least with
his ass, or if he did that he should choose only the least frequented
streets. If that was not enough, he had an unfailing remedy left, which
was to get rid of his business and with it of the uncivil demand to
which it subjected him. Lope asked him had the Gallegan come again to
his room. He said she had not, but that she persis