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.
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