第197章

Precisely at eleven on the following day, I attended at the office of the corregidor.He was not the individual whose anger I had incurred on a former occasion, and who had thought proper to imprison me, but another person, I believe a Catalan, whose name I have also forgotten.Indeed, these civil employments were at this period given to-day and taken away to-morrow, so that the person who held one of them for a month might consider himself a functionary of long standing.I was not kept waiting a moment, but as soon as I had announced myself, was forthwith ushered into the presence of the corregidor, a good-looking, portly, and well-dressed personage, seemingly about fifty.He was writing at a desk when Ientered, but almost immediately arose and came towards me.He looked me full in the face, and I, nothing abashed, kept my eyes fixed upon his.He had, perhaps, expected a less independent bearing, and that I should have quaked and crouched before him; but now, conceiving himself bearded in his own den, his old Spanish leaven was forthwith stirred up.He plucked his whiskers fiercely."Escuchad," said he, casting upon me a ferocious glance, "I wish to ask you a question.""Before I answer any question of your excellency," said I, "I shall take the liberty of putting one myself.What law or reason is there that I, a peaceable individual and a foreigner, should have my rest disturbed by DUENDES and hobgoblins sent at midnight to summon me to appear at public offices like a criminal?""You do not speak the truth," shouted the corregidor;"the person sent to summon you was neither duende nor hobgoblin, but one of the most ancient and respectable officers of this casa, and so far from being dispatched at midnight, it wanted twenty-five minutes to that hour by my own watch when he left this office, and as your lodging is not distant, he must have arrived there at least ten minutes before midnight, so that you are by no means accurate, and are found wanting in regard to truth.""A distinction without a difference," I replied."For my own part, if I am to be disturbed in my sleep, it is of little consequence whether at midnight or ten minutes before that time; and with respect to your messenger, although he might not be a hobgoblin, he had all the appearance of one, and assuredly answered the purpose, by frightening the woman of the house almost into fits by his hideous grimaces and sneezing convulsions."CORREGIDOR.- You are a - I know not what.Do you know that I have the power to imprison you?

MYSELF.- You have twenty alguazils at your beck and call, and have of course the power, and so had your predecessor, who nearly lost his situation by imprisoning me;but you know full well that you have not the right, as I am not under your jurisdiction, but that of the captain-general.If Ihave obeyed your summons, it was simply because I had a curiosity to know what you wanted with me, and from no other motive whatever.As for imprisoning me, I beg leave to assure you, that you have my full consent to do so; the most polite society in Madrid is to be found in the prison, and as I am at present compiling a vocabulary of the language of the Madrilenian thieves, I should have, in being imprisoned, an excellent opportunity of completing it.There is much to be learnt even in the prison, for, as the Gypsies say, "The dog that trots about finds a bone."CORREGIDOR.- Your words are not those of a Caballero.

Do you forget where you are, and in whose presence? Is this a fitting place to talk of thieves and Gypsies in?

MYSELF.- Really I know of no place more fitting, unless it be the prison.But we are wasting time, and I am anxious to know for what I have been summoned; whether for crimes trivial or enormous, as the messenger said.