his
would have been. The notary's clerk was not exactly of that stuff of
which honest men are composed. Nature, even in its crimes, does not
leap to grand villainies at once; it proceeds from less to greater; and
Cagatinta, though still but young, was yet capable of a little bit of
"cribbing."

Don Ramon was not long in coming out of his sleeping-room. In a little
while he showed his jovial face at the door of the audience chamber.

He was a person of portly and robust figure; and it was easily seen that
one leg of his ample pantaloons would have been sufficient to have made
a pair for the thin limbs and meagre body of the escribano.

"_Por Dios_! Senor alcalde," said the clerk, after having exchanged
with his superior a profusion of matinal salutations, "what a splendid
pair of pantaloons you have on!"

From the alcalde's answer, it was evident that this was not the first
time that Cagatinta had made the remark.

"Ah! Gregorio, _amigo_!" replied he, in a tone of good-humour, "you are
growing tiresome with your repetitions. Patience, patience, senor
escribano! you know that for the services you are to render me--I say
nothing of those already rendered--I have promised you my liver-coloured
breeches, which have been only a very little used: you have only to gain
them."

"But what services are to gain them, senor alcalde?" inquired the clerk,
in a despairing tone.

"Eh--Dios!--who knows what--patience, _amigo_! Something may turn up
all at once, that will give you that advantage over me. But come! let
us to business--make out the deed of appropriation of the boat of that
bad pay, Vicente Perez, who under pretence that he has six brats to
feed, can't reimburse me the twenty dollars I have advanced him."

Cagatinta drew out from his little portfolio a sheet of stamped paper,
and sitting down by the table proceeded to execute the order of the
magistrate. He was interrupted by a hurried knocking at the outer
door--which had been closed to prevent intrusion.

"Who dare knock in that fashion?" sharply inquired the alcalde.

"_Ave Maria purisima_!" cried a voice from without.

"_Sin pecado concebida_!" replied at the same time the two acolytes
within.

And upon this formula, Gregorio hastened to the door, and opened it.

"What on earth can have brought you here at this hour, Don Juan de Dios
Canelo?" inquired the alcalde in a tone of surprise, as the old steward
of the Countess de Mediana appeared in the