Ballads, Spanish; Legends -- Spain; Spanish literature -- History and criticism
One day Guzman observed that among the few jewels the captain still
had left to him there was a very handsome gold reliquary set with
diamonds, and this he begged his superior to lend him for a few
days. The audacious stripling at once took it to a jeweller's,
to whom he offered it for two hundred crowns. But the man would
only tender him a hundred and twenty, and this Guzman refused. The
jeweller called upon him next day to renew his offer, which the lad
accepted. Guzman handed him the purse in which the reliquary was kept,
receiving the hundred and twenty crowns in exchange. But the old fellow
had scarcely left the house when the young adventurer raised a cry
of "Stop thief! Stop thief!" Some soldiers immediately arrested the
jeweller, and Guzman cried out that he had robbed him of the captain's
reliquary. The jeweller assured the arquebusiers that he had paid a
hundred and twenty crowns for the article, but this Guzman denied. The
wretched goldsmith was haled before a magistrate, and, as he had a
bad reputation for usury, was forced to disgorge the reliquary. But
although the captain was glad enough to get the money thus scurvily
gained, he feared that further association with such a rascal as de
Alfarache would ruin him. In a few days the company set sail for Genoa,
and when they had arrived there his superior intimated that they must
part, at the same time thrusting a pistole into his hand.
Tormented by Devils
The young adventurer now began to make inquiries about his relations,
and was informed that they were the most rich and powerful persons
in the republic. He inquired the way to their mansion, where he
was but ill received, all the more so as his appearance was shabby
in the extreme. But as he had taken care to make his relationship
to them public property, they could not very well repulse him. One
evening he met a venerable-looking old man, who told him that he had
known his father, and that he felt quite indignant at the behaviour
of his relations toward him, and offered him an asylum at his own
house. Without giving him anything to eat, he at once sent him to bed,
where the wretched lad lay tormented by the pangs of hunger. Before he
went to sleep the old man informed him that the room he occupied had
the reputation of being haunted by evil spirits. Famished and restless,
Guzman lay awake, when to his horror four figures in the shape of
devils entered the chamber and dragged him out of bed. Throwing him
into a blanket, they tossed him in the air with such violence that he
struck the ceiling again and again, until, exhausted by the exercise,
they placed him in bed once more and departed. In the early morning,
stiff, sore, and dejected, Guzman crawled from the mansion, but he
registered an oath never to forget the detestable manner in which his
acquaintance had treated him, and resolved to be avenged upon him at
the first opportunity.
Guzman Joins the Beggars of Rome
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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