"What infidel companion," cried she, "is this you have brought home at this late hour, to draw upon us the eyes of the Inquisition?”

"Be quiet, wife," replied the Gallego; "here is a poor 5 sick stranger without friend or home; wouldst thou turn him forth to perish in the streets?"

The wife would still have remonstrated; for, although she lived in a hovel, she was a furious stickler for the credit of her house; the little water carrier, however, for 10 once was stiff-necked, and refused to bend beneath the yoke. He assisted the poor Moslem to alight, and spread a mat and a sheepskin for him on the ground in the coolest part of the house, being the only kind of bed that his poverty afforded.

15 In a little while the Moor was seized with violent convulsions which defied all the ministering skill of the simple water carrier. The eye of the poor patient acknowledged his kindness.

During an interval of his fits he called him to his side, 20 and, addressing him in a low voice, "My end," said he, "I fear is at hand. If I die, I bequeath you this box as a reward for your charity.”

So saying, he opened his albornoz, or cloak, and showed a small box of sandalwood, strapped round his body. 25" God grant, my friend," replied the worthy little Gallego, "that you may live many years to enjoy your treasure, whatever it may be." The Moor shook his head; he laid his hand upon the box and would have said something more concerning it, but his convulsions 30 returned with increasing violence, and in a little while he expired.

The water carrier's wife was now as one distracted. "This comes," said she, "of your foolish good nature, always running into scrapes to oblige others. What will become of us when this corpse is found in our house? We shall be sent to prison as murderers; and 5 if we escape with our lives, we shall be ruined by notaries and alguazils."

Poor Peregil was in equal tribulation, and almost repented himself of having done a good deed. At length a thought struck him. "It is not yet day," said he; "I 10 can convey the dead body out of the city, and bury it in the sands on the banks of the Xenil. No one saw the Moor enter our dwelling, and no one will know anything of his death."

So said, so done. The wife aided him; they rolled the 15 body of the unfortunate Moslem in the mat on which he had expired, laid it across the donkey, and Peregil set out with it for the banks of the river.

II

As ill luck would have it, there lived opposite to the water carrier a barber named Pedrillo Pedrugo, one of 20 the most prying, tattling, and mischief-making of his gossip tribe. He was a weasel-faced, spider-legged varlet, supple and insinuating; the famous barber of Seville. could not surpass him for his universal knowledge of the affairs of others, and he had no more power of retention 25 than a sieve. It was said that he slept with but one eye at a time, and kept one ear uncovered, so that even in his sleep he might see and hear all that was going on. Certain it is, he was a sort of a scandalous chronicle for the

quidnuncs of Granada, and had more customers than all the rest of his fraternity.

This meddlesome barber heard Peregil arrive at an unusual hour at night, and the exclamations of his wife 5 and children. His head was instantly popped out of a little window which served as a lookout, and he saw his neighbor assist a man in Moorish garb into his dwelling. This was so strange an occurrence that Pedrillo Pedrugo slept not a wink that night. Every five minutes he was at 10 his loophole, watching the lights that gleamed through the chinks of his neighbor's door, and before daylight he beheld Peregil sally forth with his donkey unusually laden.

The inquisitive barber was in a fidget; he slipped on 15 his clothes and stealing forth silently, followed the water carrier at a distance, until he saw him dig a hole in the sandy bank of the Xenil, and bury something that had the appearance of a dead body.

The barber hied him home and fidgeted about his shop, 20 setting everything upside down, until sunrise. He then took a basin under his arm, and sallied forth to the house of his daily customer the alcalde.

The alcalde was just risen. Pedrillo Pedrugo seated him in a chair, threw a napkin round his neck, put a 25 basin of hot water under his chin, and began to mollify his beard with his fingers.

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Strange doings!" said Pedrugo, who played barber and newsmonger at the same time. "Strange doings!

Robbery and murder and burial all in one night!

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30 Hey! how! what is that you say?" cried the alcalde. "I say," replied the barber, rubbing a piece of soap

over the nose and mouth of the dignitary - for a Spanish barber distains to employ a brush-"I say that Peregil, the Gallego, has robbed and murdered a Moorish Mussulman, and buried him this blessed night. Accursed be the night for the same!"

"But how do you know all this?" demanded the alcalde.

"Be patient, señor, and you shall hear all about it," replied Pedrillo, taking him by the nose and sliding a razor over his cheek. He then recounted all that he had 10

seen.

5

Now it so happened that this alcalde was one of the most overbearing and at the same time most griping and corrupt curmudgeons in all Granada. It could not be denied, however, that he set a high value upon justice, 15 for he sold it at its weight in gold. He presumed the case in point to be one of murder and robbery; doubtless, there must be a rich spoil; how was it to be secured into the legitimate hands of the law? For as to merely entrapping the delinquent, that would be feeding the 20 gallows; but entrapping the booty, that would be enriching the judge, and such, according to his creed, was the great end of justice. So thinking he summoned to his presence his trustiest alguazil, a gaunt, hungry-looking varlet, clad according to the custom of his order in the 25 ancient Spanish garba broad, black beaver turned up at its sides; a quaint ruff; a small black cloak dangling from his shoulders; rusty black underclothes, that set off his spare, wiry frame; while in his hand he bore a slender white wand, the dreaded insignia of his office. Such was 30 the legal bloodhound of the ancient Spanish breed that he

put upon the traces of the unlucky water carrier, and such was his speed and certainty that he was upon the haunches of poor Peregil before he had returned to his dwelling, and brought both him and his donkey before 5 the dispenser of justice.

The alcalde bent upon him one of the most terrific frowns. "Hark ye, culprit!" roared he, in a voice that made the knees of the little Gallego smite together. "Hark ye, culprit ! there is no need of denying thy guilt ; 10 everything is known to me. A gallows is the proper reward for the crime thou hast committed, but I am merciful, and readily listen to reason. The man that has been murdered in thy house was a Moor, an infidel, the enemy of our faith. It was doubtless in a fit of religious 15 zeal that thou hast slain him. I will be indulgent, therefore; render up the property of which thou hast robbed him, and we will hush the matter up."

The poor water carrier related the whole story of the dying Moor, with the straightforward simplicity of truth, 20 but it was all in vain. "Wilt thou persist in saying," demanded the judge, "that this Moslem had neither gold nor jewels which were the object of thy cupidity?”

"As I hope to be saved, your worship," replied the water carrier, “he had nothing but a small box of sandal25 wood, which he bequeathed to me in reward for my services."

"A box of sandalwood! a box of sandalwood!" exclaimed the alcalde, his eyes sparkling at the idea of precious jewels. "And where is this box? Where have 30 you concealed it?"

"An it please your grace,” replied the water carrier,