THE JEALOUS ESTRAMADURAN 331

THE ILLUSTRIOUS SCULLERY-MAID 365

THE TWO DAMSELS 410

THE LADY CORNELIA.

Don Antonio de Isunza and Don Juan de Gamboa, gentlemen of high birth
and excellent sense, both of the same age, and very intimate friends,
being students together at Salamanca, determined to abandon their
studies and proceed to Flanders. To this resolution they were incited by
the fervour of youth, their desire to see the world, and their
conviction that the profession of arms, so becoming to all, is more
particularly suitable to men of illustrious race.

But they did not reach Flanders until peace was restored, or at least on
the point of being concluded; and at Antwerp they received letters from
their parents, wherein the latter expressed the great displeasure caused
them by their sons having left their studies without informing them of
their intention, which if they had done, the proper measures might have
been taken for their making the journey in a manner befitting their
birth and station.

Unwilling to give further dissatisfaction to their parents, the young
men resolved to return to Spain, the rather as there was now nothing to
be done in Flanders. But before doing so they determined to visit all
the most renowned cities of Italy; and having seen the greater part of
them, they were so much attracted by the noble university of Bologna,
that they resolved to remain there and complete the studies abandoned at
Salamanca.

They imparted their intentions to their parents, who testified their
entire approbation by the magnificence with which they provided their
sons with every thing proper to their rank, to the end that, in their
manner of living, they might show who they were, and of what house they
were born. From the first day, therefore, that the young men visited the
schools, all perceived them to be gallant, sensible, and well-bred
gentlemen.

Don Antonio was at this time in his twenty-fourth year, and Don Juan had
not passed his twenty-sixth. This fair period of life they adorned by
various good qualities; they were handsome, brave, of good address, and
well versed in music and poetry; in a word, they were endowed with such
advantages as caused them to be much sought and greatly beloved by all
who knew them. They soon had numerous friends, not only among the many
Spaniards belong