"I would fain relieve you, my friends, from the wonder you must be feeling, as to the cause I have for wishing to be of service to you, and so I will inform you that my name is Ambrosia Agustina, and my birth-place a city of Aragón. Don Bernardo Agustina is my brother, and he commands those galleys that lie in the bay. Contarino de Arbolanchez, a knight of the order of Aleantara, during my brother's absence, secretly and unknown to my relations, fell in love with me, and I, led by my destiny, or, perhaps, by my too great weakness, with the title of wife, made him master of myself and my whole heart. The same day on which I gave my hand to him, he received an order from the king instantly to set off and conduct a regiment of Spanish infantry (just come from Lombardy to Genoa) to Malta, where it was expected that the Turks would make a descent. Contarino obeyed without delay the orders he received; without being moved by my tears, he departed. I felt as if the sky had fallen upon my head, and that my heart was pressed down between it and the earth. A few days passed, when as one scheme after another entered my brain, I resolved to put one into execution, the accomplishment of which had well nigh cost me both life and honour. I left my home in the disguise of a man, the dress of a young page which I took, and engaged myself as servant to a drummer in a regiment about eight leagues off; I soon learned to beat the drum as well as my master, and to play the part of a buffoon like those of my profession. Another regiment joined ours, and both together marched to Carthagena, in order to embark in the galleys commanded by my brother. It was my intention to go over to Italy, and seek my husband, from whose affection I hoped that my rash conduct would escape censure, and that he would not find fault with my wish to see him, which made me so blind that I never considered the risk I ran of being discovered, if I embarked in my brother's galley; but as no difficulties deter an enamoured heart, and it sees none which it cannot conquer, no fears it cannot oppose, no roughnesses it cannot make smooth, I resisted all these, and hoped even in a kind of desperation. But, as the event of things often turns out different to what we expect, so mine, as ill considered as it was imprudent, placed me in the situation you soon shall hear. The soldiers of the regiments I mentioned, engaged in a cruel affray with the people of a town in La Mancha, about lodgings, the result of which was, that a certain count of some place, the name of which I do not know, received his death-wound. There was an enquiry made by the court, the captains were taken into custody, the soldiers separated, and some, among whom I, for my misfortune, was one, though quite guiltless of any fault, condemned to the galleys to work two years at the oar. In vain I lamented my fate, seeing how all my plans were frustrated; I would gladly have died, but the fear of a yet worse