bano, chuckling and rubbing his hands. "I can show
your excellency the written testimony in the case."

"Fetch it hither," said the governor.

The Escribano bustled into his office, delighted with having another
opportunity of displaying his ingenuity at the expense of the
hard-headed veteran. He returned with a satchel full of papers, and
began to read a long deposition with professional volubility. By this
time a crowd had collected, listening with outstretched necks and gaping
mouths.

"Prithee man, get into the carriage out of this pestilent throng, that I
may the better hear thee," said the governor. The Escribano entered the
carriage, when in a twinkling the door was closed, the coachman smacked
his whip, mules, carriage, guards, and all dashed off at a thundering
rate, leaving the crowd in gaping wonderment, nor did the governor pause
until he had lodged his prey in one of the strongest dungeons of the
Alhambra.

He then sent down a flag of truce in military style, proposing a cartel
or exchange of prisoners, the corporal for the notary. The pride of the
captain-general was piqued, he returned a contemptuous refusal, and
forthwith caused a gallows, tall and strong, to be erected in the center
of the Plaza Nueva, for the execution of the corporal.

"Oho! is that the game?" said Governor Manco; he gave orders, and
immediately a gibbet was reared on the verge of the great beetling
bastion that overlooked the Plaza. "Now," said he, in a message to the
captain-general, "hang my soldier when you please; but at the same time
that he is swung off in the square, look up to see your Escribano
dangling against the sky."

The captain-general was inflexible; troops were paraded in the square;
the drums beat; the bell tolled; an immense multitude of amateurs had
collected to behold the execution; on the other hand, the governor
paraded his garrison on the bastion, and tolled the funeral dirge of the
notary from the Torre de la Campana, or tower of the bell.

The notary's wife pressed through the crowd with a whole progeny of
little embryo Escribanoes at her heels, and throwing herself at the feet
of the captain-general implored him not to sacrifice the life of her
husband and the welfare of herself and her numerous little ones to a
point of pride.

The captain-general was overpowered by her tears and lamentations, and
the clamors of her callow brood. The corporal was sent up to the
Alhambra under a guard, in his gall