“But it gave me more courage when his majesty said to me: ‘Don’t be bashful, man; for to the man that saved my life I’d give even the crown I wear.’ ” “Whew! so he said that to you?” “As sure as I’m here.” “Then why didn’t you ask him more?” “There we are again! What more had I to ask?” “You are right; for, as somebody said, ‘there are more days than long sausages,’ and ‘A horse and a friend No work can spend.’ ” On the following day the Marquis and Marchioness of Marville took a turn in their grandest coach, and it was a sight to see how they rolled along, at every hour in the day, all around those parts, the very wheels seeming to say envy! envy! to the Marchioness of Radishe and the Countess of Cabbidge. Some little trouble took place on account of the actions and complaints of the country folk, who prevented them from passing in their coach over this and that road, or by this and that property. But the marchioness quite forgot all these annoyances when, for example, at meeting the wife of the apothecary or surgeon, she said to them from her coach wherein she reclined in all her glory, “Adios, Doña Fulana,” and the other answered her, trotting along on foot, “Good‐by, my lady marchioness.” After some time the marquis thought he noticed that his wife was not perfectly happy, because he found her every day more capricious, and she never slept quietly. One morning, when the day was already advanced, the marquis slept away like a dormouse, and the marchioness, who had passed a more restless and sleepless night than ever, lay awake at his side impatiently waiting for him to awake. “S. Swithin! what a sleeper!” exclaimed the marchioness; and, no longer able to restrain her impatience, she gave her husband a tremendous pinch, and said, “Wake up, brute.” “Oh! ten thousand d——!” yelled the marquis. “Are you not ashamed to sleep so much?” “Ashamed! of something so natural? More ashamed should the one be who does not sleep, for sleeplessness bespeaks an unquiet conscience. What the devil is the matter with you that you have not ceased the whole night from turning and twisting about?” “Yes, indeed, if one only had a soul as broad‐shouldered as you.” “I don’t understand you, woman.” “Well, then, you shall understand me, blockhead though you are. Now, tell me, Juan, an emperor is greater than a king?” “Why shouldn’t he be?” “That is to say, that emperors can make kings?” “I think so. For instance, suppose his majesty the emperor wished to say to us, ‘Ha, my good friends the Marquis and Marchioness of Marville, I convert the province of Micomican, which belongs to me, into a kingdom, and I make you the monarchs of my new kingdom,’ I believe nobody could hinder it.” “Very well, then; I wish his majesty to say and do this at your petition.” The very house seemed to fall atop of Juan at hearing this from his wife; but this latest caprice of Ramona was so absurd that he had courage to hope in its all being a joke.