there, I made a vow to go to our Lady of Guadalupe; but it is
plainly her will that my labour should befal me in your house. It is now
for you to succour and aid me with the secrecy due to one who commits
her honour to your hands. In this purse there are two hundred gold
crowns, which I present to you as a first proof how grateful I shall be
for the good offices I am sure you will render me;' and taking from
under her pillow a green silk purse, embroidered with gold, she put it
into the hands of my wife, who, like a simpleton, stood gaping at the
lady, and did not say so much as a word in the way of thanks or
acknowledgment. For my part I remember that I said there was no need at
all of that, we were not persons to be moved more by interest than by
humanity to do a good deed when the occasion offered. The lady then
continued, 'You must immediately, my friends, look out for some place to
which you may convey my child as soon as it is born, and also you must
contrive some story to tell to the person in whose charge you will leave
it. At first I wish the babe to remain in this city, and afterwards to
be taken to a village. As for what is subsequently done, I will give you
instructions on my return from Guadalupe, if it is God's will that I
should live to complete my pilgrimage, for in the meantime I shall have
had leisure to consider what may be my best course. I shall have no need
of a midwife; for as I know from other confinements of mine, more
honourable than this, I shall do well enough with the aid of my women
only, and thus I shall avoid having an additional witness to my
misfortune.'

"Here the poor distressed pilgrim ended what she had to say, and broke
out into a flood of tears, but was partly composed by the soothing words
spoken to her by my wife, who had recovered her wits. I immediately went
in search of a woman to whom I might take the child when it was born;
and, between twelve and one o'clock that night, when all the people in
the house were fast asleep, the lady was delivered of the most beautiful
little girl that eyes ever beheld, and the very same that your worship
has just seen. But the wonder was that neither did the mother make any
moan in her labour, nor did the baby cry; but all passed off quietly,
and in all the silence that became this extraordinary case. The lady
kept her bed for six days, during which the doctor was constant in his
visits; not that she had informed him of the cause of her illnes