elonging to the
Archbishop of Toledo, he gave vent to his feelings in words.

"Ah," said he, "my father was always called a donkey from the day of his
marriage; but would to goodness I were the archbishop's mule! Look at
the rich livery he bears; look at his stout sides; see how he drinks up
his wine and eats his maize bread! Oh, it would be a merry life, indeed!
My father was, they say, an ass, so I would be a mule!"

And then he leant against the manger, and laughed so heartily that the
archbishop's mule stopped eating to look at him.

"What ho!" said the mule. "Remember that my reverend master, being a
corpulent man, is somewhat heavy; but if thou wilt change conditions
with me, thou need but take hold of both my ears, and, _caramba_, a mule
thou shalt be, and that in the service of the Archbishop of Toledo!"

"And that will I," answered Pablo the hostler; "for better be a well-fed
mule than a starving hostler." So saying, he seized the mule by the
ears, and, looking at him in the face, he was immediately transformed;
but, to his surprise, he saw that the quondam mule was changed into a
monk. "How now!" cried he. "Wilt thou not bring me some more wine and
maize bread, sir monk? Wilt thou not be my hostler?"

But the monk turned away and left the stable, and Pablo then saw that he
had made a mistake. But he resolved that as soon as he was led out into
the street he would run off to his old mother, and implore her to
intercede on his behalf with the patron St. James of Compostella.

When the archbishop had rested, he called for his mule, which was
brought out; and, in the absence of the hostler, whom they could not
find, one of the attendants was about tightening the girths, when the
mule Pablo, seizing the opportunity, bolted away as hard as he could
down the road in the direction of his mother's house.

The archbishop thought his mule had gone mad, and as the servants
followed it, running, and crying out, "Stop the beast--stop it!" the
rabble joined in the chase; but Pablo never stopped till he got to his
mother's house.

The old woman was at the door, spinning at her distaff, and as she was
very deaf she had not heard the clamour. Pablo, bending over her, tried
to kiss her hand, to ask her for her blessing, but his tongue now failed
him. So frightened was she at the approach of the animal that she hit
him over the head with her distaff, and cried out, "Abernuncio!"

By this time the servants had surrounded