ut
he could as well make bird-cages. But when the Queen learned of her
daughter's marriage to one so much beneath her in rank, her heart
broke in twain and she collapsed and was buried in three days, the
duenna declared, tears streaming down her face all the while.

Sancho was curious at once, and wanted to have a doubt settled. "She
died, no doubt?" he asked; and the duenna assured him that they did
not bury the living in Kandy, only the dead. But Sancho thought it was
a very stupid thing for the Old Queen to go and die thus; he said he
could see no reason why she should have taken the whole thing so to
heart, for the Princess might have married a page. That, in Sancho's
opinion, might have been an excuse for dying; but the Don was such an
accomplished man, and a gentleman at that, who could even make
bird-cages. Dying was too absurd!

Then the duenna resumed, and now came the worst of her story. She told
how the two lovers, upon the Queen's death, had become enchanted by
the giant Malambruno, the Queen's first cousin, who had sworn that
they would not regain their right shapes until the famous and valiant
knight of La Mancha had met him in single combat. Having sentenced
them thus, he summoned all the duennas in the castle, charging them
with the responsibility of the evil match, and saying that since he
did not wish them to suffer death, he would punish them in some other
way. Scarcely had the giant uttered these words before their faces
began to sting, their pores opened, and when the duennas put their
hands to their faces, they felt themselves punished in a most
horrifying manner.

Here the thirteen duennas raised their veils, and the Duke and his
company were amazed to see that all the women were bearded. The
Distressed Duenna raised a wail, and assured those present that had it
not been that she had cried so much that she had no tears left, she
would now shed them copiously, and she exclaimed: "Where, I ask, can a
duenna with a beard go? What father or mother will pity her? Who will
help her? For, if even when she has a smooth skin and a face tortured
by a thousand kinds of cosmetics, she can hardly get anybody to love
her, what will she do when she shows a countenance turned into a
thicket? O duennas! It was an unlucky moment when we were born and
when our fathers begot us!"

As the unhappy duenna spoke these words, it seemed as if she were
about to faint. With a deep and distressing moan, she covered her f