and Gitanas, or male and female
gipsies, had been sent into the world for the sole purpose of thieving.
Born of parents who are thieves, reared among thieves, and educated as
thieves, they finally go forth perfected in their vocation, accomplished
at all points, and ready for every species of roguery. In them the love
of thieving, and the ability to exercise it, are qualities inseparable
from their existence, and never lost until the hour of their death.

Now it chanced that an old woman of this race, one who had merited
retirement on full pay as a veteran in the ranks of Cacus, brought up a
girl whom she called Preciosa, and declared to be her granddaughter. To
this child she imparted all her own acquirements, all the various tricks
of her art. Little Preciosa became the most admired dancer in all the
tribes of Gipsydom; she was the most beautiful and discreet of all their
maidens; nay she shone conspicuous not only among the gipsies, but even
as compared with the most lovely and accomplished damsels whose praises
were at that time sounded forth by the voice of fame. Neither sun, nor
wind, nor all those vicissitudes of weather, to which the gipsies are
more constantly exposed than any other people, could impair the bloom of
her complexion or embrown her hands; and what is more remarkable, the
rude manner in which she was reared only served to reveal that she must
have sprung from something better than the Gitano stock; for she was
extremely pleasing and courteous in conversation, and lively though she
was, yet in no wise did she display the least unseemly levity; on the
contrary, amidst all her sprightliness, there was at the same time so
much genuine decorum in her manner, that in the presence of Preciosa no
gitana, old or young, ever dared to sing lascivious songs, or utter
unbecoming words.

The grandmother fully perceived what a treasure she had in her
grandchild; and the old eagle determined to set her young eaglet flying,
having been careful to teach her how to live by her talons. Preciosa was
rich in hymns, ballads, seguidillas, sarabands, and other ditties,
especially romances, which she sang with peculiar grace; for the cunning
grandmother knew by experience that such accomplishments, added to the
youth and beauty of her granddaughter, were the best means of increasing
her capital, and therefore she failed not to promote their cultivation
in every way she could. Nor was the aid of poets wanting; for some ther