octor, "our great master Hippocrates, the north
star and luminary of medicine, says in one of his aphorisms, _Omnis
saturatio mala, perdicis autem pessima_; which means, 'All repletion is
bad, but that from partridges the worst.'"

"If it be so," quoth Sancho, "pray cast your eye, signor doctor, over
all these dishes here on the table, and see which will do me the most
good or the least harm, and let me eat of it without whisking it away
with your conjuring-stick; for, by my soul, and as Heaven shall give me
life to enjoy this government, I am dying with hunger; and to deny me
food--let signor doctor say what he will--is not the way to lengthen my
life, but to cut it short."

"Your worship is in the right, my lord governor," answered the
physician, "and therefore I am of opinion you should not eat of these
stewed rabbits, as being a food that is tough and acute; of that veal,
indeed, you might have taken a little, had it been neither roasted nor
stewed; but as it is, not a morsel."

"What think you, then," said Sancho, "of that huge dish there, smoking
hot, which I take to be an olla-podrida?--for, among the many things
contained in it, I surely may light upon something both wholesome and
toothsome."

"_Absit!_" quoth the doctor, "far be such a thought from us.
Olla-podrida! there is no worse dish in the world. Leave them to
prebends and rectors of colleges or lusty feeders at country weddings;
but let them not be seen on the tables of governors, where nothing
contrary to health and delicacy should be tolerated. Simple medicines
are always more estimable and safe, for in them there can be no mistake,
whereas in such as are compounded all is hazard and uncertainty.
Therefore, what I would at present advise my lord governor to eat, in
order to corroborate and preserve his health, is about a hundred small
rolled-up wafers, with some thin slices of marmalade, that may sit upon
the stomach and help digestion."

Sancho, hearing this, threw himself backward in his chair, and looking
at the doctor from head to foot very seriously, asked him his name and
where he had studied. To which he answered, "My lord governor, my name
is Doctor Pedro Rezio de Aguero; I am a native of a place called
Tirteafuera, lying between Caraquel and Almoddobar del Campo, on the
right hand, and I have taken my doctor's degrees in the university of
Ossuna."

"Then, hark you," said Sancho in a rage, "Signor Doctor Pedro Rezzio de
Aguero, native o