clothed me from head to foot in her own colours. I liked this sort of living better than any I had yet tried, and therefore resolved to stick to my trusty Grajales till death. I learnt all the cant, and in a short time was an absolute master among the ruffians. The officers of justice took all possible care to search for us, and kept rounds about the sanctuary; yet for all that we took our rambles after midnight in disguise. Perceiving that this was like to be a tedious business, and that ill fate pursued me everywhere, though it made me never the wiser to take warning for the future, tiring me out like a true obstinate sinner, I therefore, with the advice of my doxy Grajales, resolved to go to the Indies, taking her along with me, to try whether I could meet with better fortune in another country. But it proved worse, for they never mend their condition who only change places without mending life and manners. [Illustration] FOOTNOTES: [1] From Mr. J. Y. Gibson's spirited translation of _El Viage del Parnaso_ (1883). [2] _Don Quixote_, Part i., chap. iii. [3] _i.e._, she was Jew. [4] _Cardinal_, a weal raised by a lash. [5] In allusion to the proverb--_á cada puerco viene su San Martin_--to every pig comes its Martinmas. [6] In allusion to the Shrove-tide sport of throwing at cocks. [7] _Era batalla nabal_, a play upon the word _nabal_, meaning "belonging to turnips (_nabos_)" as well as "naval." [8] No imaginary but a real personage, whose true name was Antonio Cabreriza. [9] The Morisco was called _dog_ by the Christians; and _cat_ (gato) was a cant word for thief. [10] There is a scene here which will not bear an English dress. The scholars stand around and spit at Pablo. There is no other humour of which the reader is deprived. [11] The famous secretary of Philip II., whose intrigues against Spain never ceased till his death in 1611. [12] Ostend was taken by the Spaniards under Espinola, on the 22nd September, 1604, after a siege which lasted more than three years. [13] A book so named, written by a famous master of the sword, Pacheco de Narvaez, was published at Madrid in 1600. [14] There was actually a famous fencing-master, a mulatto, Francisco Hernandez, of whom his rival, Narvaez, wrote slightingly. Probably they are both ridiculed in this passage. [15] Majalahonda is a village ten miles from Madrid, famous for the rudeness of its inhabitants and their speech. See _Don Quixote_, Part ii., chap. xix. [16] _Demandador_--one who begs for alms for the release of the souls of the poor from purgatory, elsewhere called facetiously _animero_. [17] In the original _que era un Conde de Irlos_. The Conde de Irlos was one of the heroes of the ancient ballads. He was the Marquis de Carabas of Spanish legend. [18] Literally, "he who is nothing cannot be a son of something," _i.e._, _hidalgo_--_hijo de algo_.