The Life of Lazarillo of Tormes: His Fortunes and Misfortunes as Told by HimselfAnonymous
General
The Life of Lazarillo of Tormes: His Fortunes and Misfortunes as Told by Himself
Anonymous
Picaresque literature, Spanish; Spain -- Social conditions -- 16th century -- Fiction; Spanish fiction -- Translations into English
The law officers stood there, bathed in oil, and cursing whoever
had brought them to the place. And so was I, because they said I
was the pander and they were going to tar and feather me. They
went out like fritters from the frying pan, leaving a trail
wherever they walked. They were so irate that they swore to God
and to the four holy Gospels that they would hang everyone they
found. We prisoners trembled. They went over to the storeroom
to look for the others. They went in, and from the top of a door
a bag of flour was poured down on them, blinding them all.
They shouted, "Stop, in the name of the law!"
If they tried to open their eyes, they were immediately closed up
with flour and water. The men holding us let go so they could
help the constable who was yelling like a madman. They had
hardly gotten inside when their eyes were covered with flour and
water, too. They were wandering around like they were playing
blindman's bluff, bumping into and clouting each other so much
they broke their jaws and teeth.
When we saw that the officers were done in, we threw ourselves on
them, and they attacked each other so wildly that they fell,
exhausted, to the floor while blows and kicks rained and hailed
down on top of them. Finally, they didn't shout or move any
more than dead men. If one of them tried to open his mouth, it
was immediately filled with flour and stuffed like a capon at a
poultry farm. We bound their hands and feet and carried them
along like hogs to the wine cellar. We threw them in the oil
like fish to be fried, and they squirmed around like pigs in a
mire. Then we locked up the doors, and we all went home.
The owner of that one had been in the country, and when he came
back he found the doors locked and that no one answered when he
called. A niece of his had loaned out his house for that feast,
and she had gone back to her father's, afraid of what her uncle
would do. The man had the doors unlocked, and when he saw his
house sown with flour and anointed with oil, he flew into a rage
and began shouting like a drunkard. He went to the wine cellar
and found his oil spilled all over and the law officers wallowing
in it. He was so angry to see his home devastated that he picked
up a cudgel and hammered away on the constable and the officers,
leaving them half dead. He called his neighbors over, and they
helped drag them out to the street, and there boys threw mud,
garbage, and filth on the officers and the constable. They were
so full of flour no one recognized them. When they came to and
found themselves in the street, free, they took to their heels.
Then people could very well have said, "Stop the name of the law-
-it's running away!"
They left behind their cloaks, swords, and daggers and didn't
dare go back for them so that no one would find out what had
happened.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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