his drift, and told him there was. Persisting
in his knavish intentions, my customer went on increasing the number of
caps, and I still saying yes, till we came to five caps. A little time
ago he came to claim them. I offered them to him, but he refuses to pay
me for the making, and insists I shall either return him his cloth, or
pay him for it."

"Is all this so, brother?" demanded Sancho.

"Yes," answered the man; "but pray, my lord, make him produce the five
caps he has made me."

"With all my heart," answered the tailor; and pulling his hand from
under his cloak, he showed the five caps on the ends of his fingers and
thumb, saying: "Here are the five caps this honest man would have me
make, and on my soul and conscience, not a shred of the cloth is left,
and I submit the work to be viewed by any inspectors of the trade."

All present laughed at the number of the caps and the novelty of the
suit. Sancho reflected a moment, and then said: "I am of opinion there
needs no great delay in this suit, and it may be decided very equitably
off-hand. Therefore I pronounce, that the tailor lose the making, and
the countryman the stuff, and that the caps be confiscated to the use of
the poor: and there is an end of that."

If the sentence Sancho afterwards passed on the purse of the herdsman
caused the admiration of all the bystanders, this excited their
laughter. However, what the governor commanded was executed, and two old
men next presented themselves before him. One of them carried a cane in
his hand for a staff; the other, who had no staff, said to Sancho: "My
lord, some time ago I lent this man ten crowns of gold to oblige and
serve him, upon condition that he should return them on demand. I let
some time pass without asking for them, being loth to put him to a
greater strait to pay me than he was in when I lent them. But at length,
thinking it full time to be repaid, I asked him for my money more than
once, but to no purpose: he not only refuses payment, but denies the
debt, and says I never lent him any such sum, or, if I did that he had
already paid me. I have no witnesses to the loan, nor has he of the
payment which he pretends to have made, but which I deny; yet if he will
swear before your worship that he has returned the money, I from this
minute acquit him before God and the world."

"What say you to this, old gentleman?" quoth Sancho.

"I confess, my lord," replied the old fellow, "that he did lend me the