I laughed at his dilemma. "My dear Lopez," replied I,
"introduce me to her, and depend upon it that she will give you no more
trouble. I will make love to her, and pleased with her new conquest she
will soon forget you."

"My good fellow," replied he, "your advice is excellent: will you come
with me this afternoon?"

Once more I was in the presence of her whom I had loved, but loved no
more, for I now only felt and lived for revenge. She had not the most
distant recognition of me. Piqued as she was with Don Lopez, and
fascinated with my exertions to please, I soon gained an interest; but
she still loved him between the paroxysms of her hate. Trying all she
could to recover him at one moment, and listening to my attentions at
another, he at last accused her of perfidy and took his leave for ever.
Then her violence broke out, and as a proof of my attachment, she
demanded that I should call him to account. I wished no better, and
pretending to be so violently attached to her that I was infatuated, I
took occasion of his laughing at me to give him the lie, and demand
satisfaction. As it was in the presence of others, there was no recal
or explanation allowed. We met by agreement, alone, in the very field
where I received my chastisement; I brought with me my monastic habit
and tonsure, which I concealed before his arrival among the very nettles
which he had gathered for my chastisement. The conflict was not long;
after a few thrusts and parries he lay dying at my feet. I immediately
threw over my dress that of the friar, and exchanging the wig for the
tonsure, stood by him. He opened his eyes, which had closed from the
fainting occasioned by the sudden gush from his wound, and looked at me
with amazement.

"Yes, Don Lopez," said I, "in Don Pedro behold the friar Anselmo; he
whom you scourged with nettles; he who has revenged the insult." I then
threw off the monk's dress, and exposed to him the other beneath it, and
changing my tonsure for the wig, "Now you are convinced of the truth,"
added I, "and now I have my revenge."

"I am, I am," replied he faintly; "but if you have slain me as Don
Pedro, now that I am dying I entreat you, as brother Anselmo, to give me
absolution. Carry not your revenge so far as to deny me this."

I could not refuse, and I gave absolution in the one costume to the man
who had fallen by my hand in the other: for my own part I thought it was
an absurdity, but my revenge was satisf