nged mules with Beelzebub," said a fat
priest, "for no earthly animal would thus treat a prince of the Church!"

"Ay," continued one of the runaway servants; "and if his neck had been a
foot longer I should have been dangling in mid-air like the coffin of
the false prophet."

"I never thought to have run so fast again," ejaculated a very short
and stout priest. "Faith, my legs seemed to grow under me, as our
sacristan said after he had been tossed by the abbot's bull."

"But what has become of the archbishop?" said another. "We must not
leave him in his sorry plight."

Saying this, he carefully opened the door of the chapel, and there they
saw their prelate swooning on the pavement, and Pablo dashing full tilt
among the crowd, trying to wreak his vengeance on as many as he could
possibly get hold of.

Having torn the leather breeches of some half-dozen sightseers, and
knocked down and trampled on some score of men and women, he rushed out
of the city by the same gate, and never stopped till he arrived at the
inn where he had been hostler. The master of the inn, thinking that some
mishap had befallen the archbishop, made haste to secure the mule; but
as it was already night, he postponed sending off one of his servants
till next morning.

Once again at the manger, Pablo had time to consider over the mistake he
had made, and he would gladly have undergone any punishment, could he
but have regained his former shape.

While he was thus musing, he saw the monk approaching, looking very
sorrowful indeed.

"Pablo," said he, "how dost thou like being a mule?"

Now, Pablo was cunning, and, not wishing to let the monk know what had
happened, he answered--

"As for liking it, I enjoyed carrying the archbishop as much as he liked
being carried; but I am not accustomed to such gay trappings and good
living, so that I am afraid of injuring my health."

"If that be the case," continued the monk, "hold down thy head, and I
will relieve thee of the danger; for, to tell you the truth, I find out
that my wife is still living, and she recognized me although I was
disguised as a monk. By my faith, I would rather bear my master's
harness to the grave than my wife's tongue from morning till night!
_Caramba_, I hear her knocking at the door! Dear Pablo, let us again
exchange conditions."

And Pablo, when he awoke next morning, was tightly grasping a beam,
thinking he was the Archbishop of Toledo clinging on to the mule's neck.