on la
imaginacion de mis lectores para hacerme comprender en este que
pudieramos llamar boceto de un cuadro que pintare algun dia.

I

--Herido va el ciervo, herido va; no hay duda. Se ve el rastro de la
sangre entre las zarzas del monte, y al saltar uno de esos lentiscos
han flaqueado sus piernas.... Nuestro joven senor comienza por donde
otros acaban ... en cuarenta anos de montero no he visto mejor
golpe.... iPero por San Saturio,[1] patron de Soria![2] cortadle el
paso por esas carrascas, azuzad los perros, soplad en esas trompas
hasta echar los higados, y hundidle a los corceles una cuarta de
hierro en los ijares: ?no veis que se dirige hacia la fuente de los
Alamos,[3] y si la salva antes de morir podemos darle por perdido?

[Footnote 1: San Saturio. Saint Saturius was born, according to
Tamayo, in 493. In 532 he withdrew from the world into a cave at the
foot of a mountain bathed by the river Duero, near where now stands
the town of Soria. There he lived about thirty-six years, or until
568, when he died and was buried by his faithful disciple St.
Prudentius, later bishop of Tarazona, who had been a companion of
the hermit during the last seven years of his life. His cave is
still an object of pilgrimage, and a church has been built on the
spot to the memory of the saint. See Florez, _Espana_ Sagrada,
Madrid, 1766, tomo vii, pp. 293-294.]

[Footnote 2: Soria. A mediaeval-looking town of 7296 inhabitants
situated on a bleak plateau on the right bank of the Duero. It is
the capital of a province of the same name. The old town of Numantia
(captured by the Romans under P. Cornelius Scipio AEmilianus, 133
B.C.) lay about three miles to the north of the present site of
Soria.]

[Footnote 3: Alamos. The choice of a grove of poplars as setting to
the enchanted fount is peculiarly appropriate, as this tree belongs
to the large list of those believed to have magical properties. In
the south of Europe the poplar seems to have held sometimes the
mythological place reserved in the north for the birch, and the
people of Andalusia believe that the poplar is the most ancient of
trees. (See de Gubernatis, Za _Mythologie des plantes_, Paris,
Reinwald, 1882, p. 285.) In classical superstition the black poplar
was consecrated to the goddess Proserpine, and the white poplar to
Hercules. "The White Poplar was also dedicated to Time, because its
leaves were constantly in mo