entertainment prepared. He had no sooner entered than his
ears were saluted by the sound of many instruments, and four pages
served him with water to wash his hands, which the governor received
with becoming gravity. The music having ceased, Sancho now sat down to
dinner in a chair of state placed at the upper end of the table, for
there was but one seat and only one plate and napkin. A personage, who,
as it afterwards appeared, was a physician, took his stand at one side
of his chair with a whalebone rod in his hand. They then removed the
beautiful white cloth, which covered a variety of fruits and other
eatables. Grace was said by one in a student's dress, and a laced bib
was placed by a page under Sancho's chin. Another, who performed the
office of sewer, now set a plate of fruit before him; but he had
scarcely tasted it, when, on being touched by the wand-bearer, it was
snatched away, and another containing meat instantly supplied its place.
Yet before Sancho could make a beginning it vanished, like the former,
on a signal of the wand.

The governor was surprised at this proceeding, and looking around him,
asked if this dinner was only to show off their sleight of hand.

"My lord," said the wand-bearer, "your lordship's food must here be
watched with the same care as is customary with the governors of other
islands. I am a doctor of physic, sir, and my duty, for which I receive
a salary, is to watch over the governor's health, whereof I am more
careful than of my own. I study his constitution night and day, that I
may know how to restore him when sick; and therefore think it incumbent
on me to pay especial regard to his meals, at which I constantly
preside, to see that he eats what is good and salutary, and prevent his
touching whatever I imagine may be prejudicial to his health or
offensive to his stomach. It was for that reason, my lord," continued
he, "I ordered the dish of fruit to be taken away, as being too watery,
and that other dish, as being too hot and over-seasoned with spices,
which are apt to provoke thirst; and he that drinks much destroys and
consumes the radical moisture, which is the fuel of life."

"Well, then," quoth Sancho, "that plate of roasted partridges, which
seem to me to be very well seasoned, I suppose will do me no manner of
harm?"

"Hold," said the doctor, "my lord governor shall not eat them while I
live to prevent it."

"Pray, why not?" quoth Sancho.

"Because," answered the d