As the old buck seemed so determined on this marriage, I thought it more prudent not to profess myself averse to his wishes. “You are so persuasive,” said I, “my dear uncle, that you have already destroyed my taste for an ecclesiastical life; and I feel convinced that I shall be perfectly happy in receiving a wife from your hands. Permit me, however, to represent to you, that I already enjoy a benefice of ten thousand crowns a year, and am in daily expectation of fifteen thousand, which some relations of my mother, who have great influence at court, have given me hopes of. It will be most gratifying for me, should I attain my wishes, to have those two handsome presentations to bestow on the children of my cousins.” They all approved highly of my resolution, and gave me a thousand thanks in anticipation of the honour I intended them. Towards the end of the repast, Don Bertrand asked Captain Favello if he had received any orders for his departure. “Yes,” answered he, “and we must set sail in three days for Barcelona. We are already very busy in shipping our goods.” I was overjoyed at this news, which informed me that I had no time to lose. As soon as dinner was over, I ordered my major-domo aloud, to lock up my plate and casket, and carry them himself to my uncle’s house. The room was cleared in less than an hour, and in the presence of my relations, whilst I kept up the conversation with them. I insisted on accompanying my uncle, where I had the satisfaction of seeing, not the two trunks full of my plate, but two similar ones that we had filled the evening before with bags of sand of nearly the same weight, and which Sayavedra had very dexterously exchanged.