But just afterward the sound of a falling roof was heard, and Comic Relief, in the persons of _Bras_ and _Bato_, entered, carrying a basket of food and a bottle of wine. Everybody brightened up at the appearance of these beloved crooks; anticipatory mirth went around the room. _Bato_ suggested that he eat his half while _Bras_ stood guard, whereupon _Bato_ ate _Bras’s_ share, too. In the midst of the quarrel that followed, before they could hide the traces of their guilt, the shepherds and shepherdesses came back in search of the thief. Many and absurd were the reasons invented by _Bato_ and _Bras_ to explain the presence of the food and drink, which they finally managed to convince the company was of diabolical origin. In order to further cover their traces they invited the others to eat what is left. This scene, the most comic of the whole play, could hardly be heard for the roars of laughter that interrupted every speech. A young fellow reached over and punched a _compadre_. "Do you remember how we got out of it when they caught us milking Don Pedro’s cows?" _Lucifer_ returned, and was invited to join the feast. He incited them maliciously to continue discussion of the robbery, and little by little to place the blame upon a stranger whom they all agreed having seen. Of course they meant _Lucifer_, but, upon being invited to describe him, they depicted a monster a thousand times more repulsive than the reality. None suspected that the apparently amiable stranger seated in their midst was _Lucifer_. How _Bato_ and _Bras_ were at last discovered and punished, how _Laura_ and _Arcadio_ were reconciled, how _Fabio_ was rebuked for his avariciousness and saw the error of his ways, how the Infant Jesus was shown lying in his manger, with the three strongly individualized Kings out of the East, how _Lucifer_ was finally discovered and cast back into hell—I have not space here to describe. The play lasted for three hours, absorbing all the attention of the audience. _Bato_ and _Bras_—especially _Bato_—received their enthusiastic approbation. They sympathized with _Laura_, suffered with _Arcadio_, and hated _Lucifer_ with the hatred of gallery gods for the villain in the melodrama. Only once was the play interrupted, when a hatless youth rushed in and shouted: "A man has come from the army, who says that Urbina has taken Mapimi!" Even the performers stopped singing—they were pounding the floor with jingling crooks at the time—and a whirlwind of questions beat upon the newcomer. But in a minute the interest passed, and the shepherds took up their song where they had dropped it.