him
what had happened between her and me, how she had become pregnant, had
made a pilgrimage to our Lady of Guadalupe to conceal her misfortune,
and had been delivered in this inn of a daughter named Costanza. The man
gave me the tokens upon which she was to be delivered to me, namely the
piece of chain and the parchment, and with them thirty thousand gold
crowns, which the lady had left as a marriage portion for her daughter.
At the same time, he told me that it was the temptation to appropriate
that money which had so long prevented him from obeying the dying
behest of his mistress, but now that he was about to be called to the
great account, he was eager to relieve his conscience by giving me up
the money and putting me in the way to find my daughter. Returning home
with the money and the tokens, I related the whole story to Don Juan de
Avendano, and he has been kind enough to accompany me to this city."

Don Diego had but just finished his narrative when some one was heard
shouting at the street-door, "Tell Tomas Pedro, the hostler, that they
are taking his friend the Asturiano to prison." On hearing this the
corregidor immediately sent orders to the alguazil to bring in his
prisoner, which was forthwith done. In came the Asturian with his mouth
all bloody. He had evidently been very roughly handled, and was held
with no tender grasp by the alguazil. The moment he entered the room he
was thunderstruck at beholding his own father and Avendano's, and to
escape recognition he covered his face with a handkerchief, under
pretence of wiping away the blood. The corregidor inquired what that
young man had done who appeared to have been so roughly handed. The
alguazil replied that he was a water-carrier, known by the name of the
Asturian, and the boys in the street used to shout after him, "Give up
the tail, Asturiano; give up the tail." The alguazil then related the
story out of which that cry had grown, whereat all present laughed not a
little. The alguazil further stated that as the Asturian was going out
at the Puerta de Alcantara, the boys who followed him having redoubled
their cries about the tail, he dismounted from his ass, laid about them
all, and left one of them half dead with the beating he had given him.
Thereupon the officer proceeded to arrest him; he resisted, and that was
how he came to be in the state in which he then appeared. The corregidor
ordered the prisoner to uncover his face, but as he delayed to do