The thieves decamped at once; and two days afterwards my master, after having repaired the horse’s trappings, appeared on his back in the Plaza de San Francisco, as proud and conceited as a bumpkin in his holiday clothes.  Everybody complimented him on his bargain, declaring the horse was worth a hundred and fifty ducats as surely as an egg was worth a maravedi.  But whilst he was caracolling and curvetting, and showing off his own person and his horse’s paces, two men of good figure and very well dressed entered the square, one of whom cried out, “Why, bless my soul! that is my horse Ironfoot, that was stolen from me a few days ago in Antequera.”  Four servants, who accompanied him, said the same thing.  My master was greatly chopfallen; the gentleman appealed to justice, produced his proofs, and they were so satisfactory that sentence was given in his favour, and my master was dispossessed of the horse.  The imposture was exposed; and it came out how, through the hands of justice itself, the thieves had sold what they had stolen; and almost everybody rejoiced that my master’s covetousness had made him burn his fingers.

His disasters did not end there.  That night the lieutenant going his rounds, was informed that there were robbers abroad as far as San Julian’s wards.  Passing a cross-road he saw a man running away, and taking me by the collar, “At him, good dog!” he said, “At him, boy!” Disgusted as I was with my master’s villanies, and eager to obey the lieutenant’s orders, I made no hesitation to seize my own master and pull him down to the ground, where I would have torn him to pieces if the thief-takers had not with great difficulty separated us.  They wanted to punish me, and even to beat me to death with sticks; and they would have done so if the lieutenant had not bade them let me alone, for I had only done what he ordered me.  The warning was not lost upon me, so without taking my leave of anybody, I leaped through an opening in the wall, and before daybreak I was in Mayrena, a place about four leagues from Seville.

There by good luck I fell in with a party of soldiers, who, as I heard, were going to embark at Cartagena.  Among them were four of my late master’s ruffian friends; one of them was the drummer, who had been a catchpole and a great buffoon, as drummers frequently are.  They all knew me and spoke to me, asking after my master as if I could reply; but the one who showed the greatest liking for me was the drummer, and so I determined to attach myself to him, if he would let me, and to accompany the expedition whether they were bound for Italy or Flanders.  For in spite of the proverb, a blockhead at home is a blockhead all the world over, you must agree with me that travelling and sojourning among various people makes men wise.

Scip. That is so true that I remember to have heard from a master of mine, a very clever man, that the famous Greek, Ulysses, was renowned as wise solely because he had travelled and seen many men and nations.  I therefore applaud your determination to go with the soldiers, wherever they might take you.