Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/280

240 lost fifty-two ounces of silver; and then treated me as a prodigal and extravagant hussey, because he saw a waxen taper burning in the candlestick, complaining that in this, and in various other ways, I ruined the family.

Neither can I, nor my children, venture into the entry, or court-yard, because he keeps them filled with game-cocks, sometimes tied up, and at other times loose, which he rears with a care greater than that he bestows on the education of the children. He is present at all the cock-fights the amphitheatre affords: he says he has no other vice than this one, and that he cannot correct himself. Two months ago he betted three hundred piastres on a cock of his own breeding, sprung from a good race, which he named the Great Captain: his cock was killed, and he lost his money. His choler and imprecations were vented on me, without my having any other fault than that of being the wife of a lout.

He is at this time engaged in a law-suit, in consequence of a legacy, for a part of the stream which runs through the grounds: all that is essential in this affair is not worth three snails; but is very anxious about it, and says, that in this consists the point of honour. He wastes the whole of the morning in the gallery of the royal audience, and knows by heart all the causes that are tried before that venerable tribunal, with their origin and consequences. What disgusts me most, is to see the lively interest he takes in the public elections of the university, and of the consulate, without being either a doctor, or a merchant. On those days he runs, sweats, and overturns all that he meets, without any other object in view, than that of giving himself the airs of one concerned in what is going on. There is not a raffle of horses, buckles, watches, &c. which