Tenez, Compere," He Added, In Most Villainous French,
"Voila Mon Affaire; Voila Ce Que Je Viens Vous Dire."
Thereupon he glared at me for a moment, nodded his head twice, and
replacing his staff beneath is cloak, shambled out of the room, and
with a valedictory sneeze in the passage left the house.
Precisely at eleven on the following day, I attended at the office
of the corregidor. He was not the individual whose anger I had
incurred on a former occasion, and who had thought proper to
imprison me, but another person, I believe a Catalan, whose name I
have also forgotten. Indeed, these civil employments were at this
period given to-day and taken away to-morrow, so that the person
who held one of them for a month might consider himself a
functionary of long standing. I was not kept waiting a moment, but
as soon as I had announced myself, was forthwith ushered into the
presence of the corregidor, a good-looking, portly, and well-
dressed personage, seemingly about fifty. He was writing at a desk
when I entered, but almost immediately arose and came towards me.
He looked me full in the face, and I, nothing abashed, kept my eyes
fixed upon his. He had, perhaps, expected a less independent
bearing, and that I should have quaked and crouched before him; but
now, conceiving himself bearded in his own den, his old Spanish
leaven was forthwith stirred up. He plucked his whiskers fiercely.
"Escuchad," said he, casting upon me a ferocious glance, "I wish to
ask you a question."
"Before I answer any question of your excellency," said I, "I shall
take the liberty of putting one myself. What law or reason is
there that I, a peaceable individual and a foreigner, should have
my rest disturbed by duendes and hobgoblins sent at midnight to
summon me to appear at public offices like a criminal?"
"You do not speak the truth," shouted the corregidor; "the person
sent to summon you was neither duende nor hobgoblin, but one of the
most ancient and respectable officers of this casa, and so far from
being dispatched at midnight, it wanted twenty-five minutes to that
hour by my own watch when he left this office, and as your lodging
is not distant, he must have arrived there at least ten minutes
before midnight, so that you are by no means accurate, and are
found wanting in regard to truth."
"A distinction without a difference," I replied. "For my own part,
if I am to be disturbed in my sleep, it is of little consequence
whether at midnight or ten minutes before that time; and with
respect to your messenger, although he might not be a hobgoblin, he
had all the appearance of one, and assuredly answered the purpose,
by frightening the woman of the house almost into fits by his
hideous grimaces and sneezing convulsions."
Corregidor. - You are a - I know not what. Do you know that I have
the power to imprison you?
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