an, which the people said ought to be exchanged for that
of Del Alguazil del Alcalde de Corte. Olivarez divorced him from the
woman to whom he was certainly married, and obliged him to marry the
daughter of the Duca de Frias. He was called by the people of Madrid a
man with two names, the son of three fathers, and the husband of two
wives. Le Sage, by substituting the name of Valdeasar for that of
Valcancel, proves that he was ignorant of the whole transaction. In the
_auto da fe_ which Gil Blas sees at Toledo, and in which his old friends
terminate their adventures in so tragical a manner--some of the guilty
are represented as wearing _carochas_ on their heads. This is a word
altogether without meaning; the real word was _corozas_, a cap worn by
criminals as a badge of degradation.

Another mistake deserves attention, as supplying the strongest proof of
an inaccurate transcriber. "J'espere," says Maitre Joachim to his
master, "que je vous servirai tantot un ragout digne d'un _can_tador
mayor." The word was not "_can_tador," but "_con_tador mayor," the
"ministro de hacienda," or chancellor of the exchequer; a situation
under a despotic government of the highest dignity and opulence. So Don
Annibal de Chinchilla exclaims--"Me croit-elle un contador mayor," when
repelling a demand of a rapacious prostitute. But Le Sage mistook the
_o_ of his manuscript for an _a_, and turned a phrase very intelligible
into nonsense. We now come to the passage which M. Neufchateau quotes as
decisive in favour of Le Sage's claims. It certainly was to be found in
no Spanish manuscript.

"Don Louis nous mena chez un jeune gentilhomme de ses amis, qu'on
appeloit don Gabriel de Pedros. Nous y passames le reste de la
journee; nous y soupames meme, et nous n'en sortimes que sur les
deux heures apres minuit pour nous en retourner au logis. Nous
avions peut-etre fait la moitie du chemin, lorsque nous
rencontrames sous nos pieds dans la rue deux hommes etendus par
terre. Nous jugeames que c'etoient des malheureux qu'on venoit
d'assassiner, et nous nous arretames pour les secourir, s'il en
etoit encore temps. Comme nous cherchions a nous instruire, autant
que l'obscurite de la nuit nous le pouvoit permettre, de l'etat ou
ils se trouvoient, la patrouille arriva. Le commandant nous prit
d'abord pour des assassins, et nous fit environner par ses gens;
mais il eut meilleure opinion de nous