ll to respect religion and honor
its ministers. What say you to that, my friends? Is there anything in
what I say, or am I talking to no purpose?"

"There is so much in what your worship says, senor governor," said the
major-domo, "that I am filled with wonder when I see a man like your
worship, entirely without learning (for I believe you have none at
all), say such things, and so full of sound maxims and sage remarks,
very different from what was expected of your worship's intelligence
by those who sent us or by us who came here. Every day we see
something new in this world; jokes become realities, and the jokers
find the tables turned upon them."

* * * * *

Day came after the night of the governor's round: a night which the
head carver passed without sleeping, so full were his thoughts of the
face and air and beauty of the disguised damsel, while the major-domo
spent what was left of it in writing an account to his lord and lady
of all Sancho said and did, being as much amazed at his sayings as at
his doings; for there was a mixture of shrewdness and simplicity in
all his words and deeds. The senor governor got up, and by Doctor
Pedro Recio's directions they made him break his fast on a little
conserve and four sups of cold water, which Sancho would have readily
exchanged for a piece of bread and a bunch of grapes: but seeing there
was no help for it, he submitted with no little sorrow of heart and
discomfort of stomach; Pedro Recio having persuaded him that light and
delicate diet enlivened the wits, and that was what was most essential
for persons placed in command and in responsible situations, where
they have to employ not only the bodily powers but those of the mind
also.

By means of this sophistry Sancho was made to endure hunger, and
hunger so keen that in his heart he cursed the government and even him
who had given it to him. However, with his hunger and his conserve he
undertook to deliver judgments that day; and the first thing that came
before him was a question that was submitted to him by a stranger in
the presence of the major-domo and the other attendants, and it was in
these words:--"Senor, a large river separated two districts of one and
the same lordship--will your worship please to pay attention? for the
case is an important and a rather knotty one. Well then, on this river
there was a bridge, and at one end of it a gallows, and a sort of
tribunal, where four