Page:Madrid shaver's adventures in the Spanish Inquisition (4).pdf/4

4 who does not know what a passion they have for the tinkling of a bell; and no sooner had the jingling chords vibrated in the sympathetic organs of Pedrosa’s beast, than bolting forward with a sudden spring, she ran roaring into the throng of friars, trampling on some, and shouldering others, at a prophane rate; when Nicolas availing himself of the impetus, and perhaps not able to controul it, broke away, and was out of sight in a moment. ‘All the devils in hell blow fire into thy tail, thou beast of Babylon, muttered Nicolas to himself, as he scampered along, never once looking behind him, or stopping to apologize for the mischief he had done to the bare feet and shirtless ribs of the holy brotherhood.

Whether Nicolas saved his distance, as likewise, if he did, whether it was a male or a female Castilian he ushered into the world, we shall not just now inquire, contented to await his return in the first of the morning, next day, when he had no sooner dismounted at his shop, and delivered his mule to a sturdy Arragonese wench, than Don Ignacia de Santos Aparicio, Alguazil-mayor of the supreme and general inquisition, put an order into his hand, signed and sealed by the Inquisitor-general, for the conveyance of his body to the Casa, whose formidable door presents itself in the street adjoining to the square in which Nicolas’s brazen basin hung forth, the emblem of his trade.

The poor little fellow, trembling in every joint, and with a face as yellow as saffron, dropt a knee to the altar which fronts the entrance, and crossed himself most devoutly: as soon as he had