your prayers, and I will
remember you, as well as myself, in mine, that he may keep us all, and
preserve us in this dangerous trade of ours from all the terrors of
justice." These words concluded, the old woman went her way.

Dame Pipota having disappeared, all seated themselves round the mat,
which Gananciosa covered with the sheet in place of a table-cloth. The
first thing she drew from the basket was an immense bunch of radishes;
this was followed by a couple of dozens or more of oranges and lemons;
then came a great earthen pan filled with slices of fried ling, half a
Dutch cheese, a bottle of excellent olives, a plate of shrimps, and a
large dish of craw-fish, with their appropriate sauce of capers, drowned
in pepper-vinegar: three loaves of the whitest bread from Gandul
completed the collation. The number of guests at this breakfast was
fourteen, and not one of them failed to produce his yellow-handled
knife, Rinconete alone excepted, who drew his dudgeon dagger instead.
The two old men in serge gowns, and the lad who had been the guide of
the two friends, were charged with the office of cupbearers, pouring the
wine from the bottle into the cork cup.

But scarcely had the guests taken their places, before they were all
startled, and sprang up in haste at the, sound of repeated knocks at the
door. Bidding them remain quiet, Monipodio went into one of the lower
rooms, unhooked a buckler, took his sword in his hand, and, going to the
door, inquired, in a rough and threatening voice, "Who is there?"

"All right Senor! it is I, Tagarote,[31] on sentry this morning,"
replied a voice from without. "I come to tell you that Juliana de
Cariharta[32] is coming, with her hair all about her face, and crying
her eyes out, as though some great misfortune had happened to her."

[31] The quill-driver.

[32] Fat-face, puff-cheeks, or any other term describing fulness of
face, in the least complimentary manner.

He had scarcely spoken when the girl he had named came sobbing to the
door, which Monipodio opened for her, commanding Tagarote to return to
his post; and ordering him, moreover, to make less noise and uproar when
he should next bring notice of what was going forward,--a command to
which the boy promised attention.

Cariharta, a girl of the same class and profession with those already in
presence, had meanwhile entered the court, her hair streaming in the
wind, her eyes swollen with tears, and her face covered with co