the husbandman was taken
to be made king of Spain; and from among brocades and pleasures and
riches, Roderick was taken to be devoured by adders, if the verses of
the old ballads don't lie."

"To be sure they don't lie!" exclaimed Dona Rodriguez, the duenna, who
was one of the listeners. "Why, there's a ballad that says they put
King Rodrigo alive into a tomb full of toads and adders and lizards,
and that two days afterwards the king, in a plaintive, feeble voice,
cried out from within the tomb--

'They gnaw me now, they gnaw me now,
There where I most did sin.'

And according to that, the gentleman has good reason to say he would
rather be a laboring man than a king, if vermin are to eat him."

The duchess could not help laughing at the simplicity of her duenna,
or wondering at the language and proverbs of Sancho, to whom she
said:--"Worthy Sancho knows very well that when once a knight has made
a promise he strives to keep it, though it should cost him his life.
My lord and husband the duke, though not one of the errant sort, is
none the less a knight for that reason, and will keep his word about
the promised island in spite of the envy and malice of the world. Let
Sancho be of good cheer; for when he least expects it he will find
himself seated on the throne of his island and seat of dignity, and
will take possession of his government that he may discard it for
another of three-bordered brocade. The charge I give him is, to be
careful how he governs his vassals, bearing in mind that they are all
loyal and well-born."

"As to governing them well," said Sancho, "there's no need of charging
me to do that, for I'm kind-hearted by nature, and full of compassion
for the poor; 'There's no stealing the loaf from him who kneads and
bakes'; and by my faith, it won't do to throw false dice with me; I am
an old dog, and I know all about 'tus, tus'; I can be wide awake if
need be, and I don't let clouds come before my eyes, for I know where
the shoe pinches me; I say so, because with me the good will have
support and protection, and the bad neither footing nor access. And it
seems to me that in governments, to make a beginning is everything;
and maybe after having been governor a fortnight, I'll take kindly to
the work and know more about it than the field labor I have been
brought up to."

"You are right, Sancho," said the duchess; "for no one is born ready
taught, and the bishops are made out of men and not out of