The King, The Greatest Alcalde

(Aside)Either Sancho came down this way, or else my hopes deceive me. In faith, there he is now! … I knew my heart would find him out. He was looking in the brook where he surprised me yesterday. Does he think, I wonder, my shadow stays behind? Ah! But I was angry when I saw him looking at me in the water! (Aloud) What are you looking for Sancho –whom God bless! –in the sands of these swift mountain brooks, every time that you come out to the pasture? Have you found the corals which I lost here by the bank?

I was looking for myself –I lost myself here yesterday; but now I begin to find myself again, because I find myself with you.

I know you have come to help me find them.

A pretty thing to do –to look for what you are bringing with you in your cheeks. I wonder is it modesty or disdain? But I have found the jewels.

Where?

There on your lips– and look out! (Kisses her) All bordered about with silver!

Let me go!

Always ungrateful for my faith and loyalty!

Sancho, you are too bold. What more would you do, tell me that, if by any chance it were the eve of your wedding day?

But whose fault was it?

Yours, by my faith!

Mine? No, because I warned you; my heart spoke but you said nothing.

What better answer could you want than to have me say nothing?

We are both to blame.

Since you are so cautious, Sancho, let me tell you that we women say most when we are silent. We give when we deny. Judge by this and by what you see and never believe us, whether we are cruel or kind. For everything we do is to be taken by opposites.

Then if that is so, you give me permission to ask Nuño to let us marry. You say nothing? You say yes then. Good! I have mastered the science.

You have; but you must never tell him that I love you.

Here he comes.

I will hide behind this elm and wait his answer,

Oh God! If it might be that we should marry! If not, I die.

(To Pelayo)You serve me in such sort, Pelayo, it would be better for me to find some one who would keep a sharper watch over my flocks along the river bank. Are you discontented in my house?

God knows I am.

Then your employment ends today; service is not marriage.

It ought to come before it.

You have lost my hogs.

But with my mind where it was, what else was I to do? Listen: I want to become one of the family.

Why not? By all means do. But never blame then your hoggishness on me …

Wait; it’s not easy to explain …

Wait, and it will be harder to do.

As she was coming out of the house yesterday, Elvira called to me: “Hello, Pelayo! Your pigs are fat.”

Well, what did you answer?

Amen, like the sacristan.

You did? But what do you make of this?

Don’t you see?

How should I?

She has lost all sense of shame.

(Apart)Will the blockhead never go?

Don’t you see she loves me, and this is the way she takes to let me know that she wants to marry?

God bless us!

I didn’t tell you though so as to make you angry at our happiness.

Sancho! You here? …

Waiting to speak with you.

At once. (Leaving Pelayo) Pelayo, a moment … wait.

Soft! Come in. They are alone. No one is here who will prevent you.

You are right, for those who are with them are all of the house.

Now you will see what they give you.

I but comply with the demands of duty.

Did Don Tello say that?

He did, sir.

Surely he answers in a manner befitting his great worth.

He commanded them to give me the flock as I have told you.

May he live a thousand years!

And although it is too great a gift, I value the honor he does me by coming to be my sponsor more.

But is his sister to be with him too?

She is.

Such a generous disposition is the direct gift of heaven.

They are liberal masters.

Oh that this house might be a splendid palace, since it is to entertain the richest and the most powerful guests in all the kingdom!

Make no trouble about that. It will be the same in their eyes as if it covered infinite space. In short, they will presently be here.

What good advice I gave you!

I have certainly found in Don Tello a complete and perfect master. Take generosity away from the master, in which he is most like to God, and he is no more a master; but that he is one is seen both in his giving and his bestowing honor. Since it is God’s will to make his sovereign virtue known by giving, without giving and without bestowing honor, no master can be master.

A hundred sheep! Twenty cows! It will be a goodly fortune as you lead them out along the pastures of the Sil in the springtime. May God reward Don Tello for so rich a gift and such priceless favor!

Where is Elvira, sir?

Busy with her hair or some frippery of her wedding dress.

As long as she retains her smile, she can dispense with curls and ornaments; for it is all sunshine.

You are no rustic lover.

I shall bring to her, sir, the steadfastness of the laborer and the devotion of the courtier.

No man can love worthily who is deficient in understanding; for the very essence of love is this –that we feel what we feel. I rejoice that it is so with you. Call in the men! I will have this gentleman to know I too am someone here –I am or I have been.

I think I hear my masters draw near; and they will follow them. Tell Elvira to leave her hair and make ready to receive their blessing.

Where is my sister?

She has gone in to the bride.

Señor…

Sancho!

It would be madness, with my rude wit, to attempt to return thanks for this great honor.

Where is the father of the bride?

Where his years have already been enriched by your unbounded favor!

Come to my arms!

Would that my house were a world, and you lord of that world!

(To Juana)What is your name, little one?

Pelayo, sir.

I did not speak to you.

You did not speak to me?

Juana, at your service.

Well said!

Even if he doesn’t know it. But if a man gets after her in the kitchen, I tell you see hits him a blow with the ladle that’s enough to curdle his wits. Once when I got as far as the olla, there was nothing left of me for two whole months together.

(To Leonor)And what is your name?

Pelayo, sir.

I did not speak to you.

I thought you did speak to me.

What is your name?

Mine? Leonor.

(Aside)Why is he questioning the girls all the time, and never a word to us young fellows? (Aloud) I am Pelayo, sir.

Well? What have you to do with them?

I am the swineherd; yes sir.

I mean are you a husband, a brother?

What a blockhead you are!

What an ignorant clown!

As my mother made me.

Here comes your sister and the bride.

Brother, show them favor. Happy the masters who can count such vassals!

You are right, in God’s name! A beautiful girl!

And spirited as well.

Modesty overcomes me –it is the first time– I never looked upon your Lordship before.

My Lords, sit down; these chairs are all I have.

(Aside)I never saw such loveliness. What heavenly perfection! Their praise has been too small. Happy the hope that waits on such possession!

Give Sancho permission to sit down.

Sit down.

No, my Lord.

Sit down!

Such an honor to me in the presence of my Lady?

Sit down by the bride; there is no one now to dispute the place with you.

(Aside)In all my life I never thought to see such strange, surpassing beauty.

And I – where shall I sit?

Out there in the stable; there you can solemnize the feast.

(Aside)In God’s name, I am on fire! (Aloud) What is your name?

Pelayo, sir.

Will you be silent? He was talking to the women; and you were counting yourself in with the girls. Elvira is her name, my Lord.

By God then, but Elvira is beautiful and worthy, however great a miracle it seem, of a husband nobly born!

Girls, let the wedding be merry.

(Aside)What rare beauty!

Dance until the priest comes, as you are wont to do.

The priest is already here.

Then tell the priest that he shall not come in. AsideSuch heavenly beauty steals my heart away!

You understand me well enough.

I hardly think a very subtle understanding is required to understand you, great my Lord.

Go in then; Elvira and the old man are alone.

The people went to their homes in notable displeasure to see the wedding so delayed.

I acted, Celio, upon the first counsel which love gave to me. It would have been infamous in my passion to have suffered a peasant to possess the beauty which I crave. After I am tired of her, this country fool can marry her, and I will grant him a flock and a grange, with money enough for him to live. It is a compensation which comes to many, as we have both of us seen in the world. Finally, I have the power, and I will avail me of it while I may, since the fellow is not married. –Put on your masks.

Shall we knock?

Do.

They open now.

Enter, Sancho, my soul!

Elvira?

Yes.

(Aside)Fortunate encounter!

It is not you, Sancho?–Woe is me! Father! Señor! Nuño! Help me, heaven! They seize me! They carry me away!

Away now!

(Within the house)What is this?

(In the distance)Father!

(Without)Cover her mouth.

Daughter! Now I hear and see you! But my feeble age and tottering strength – what can they do against the might of a young and powerful man? I know now who it is.

I thought I heard cries in the valley in the direction of the Master’s house.

Speak low; don’t let the servants hear.

While I am inside, remember – you must not fall asleep.

I shall not; I understand. I have had my opportunity already.

When the morning star rises to beg alms of the dawn, I shall come out; but the dawn need expect none from me, for it will be driving me out of paradise.

While you are inside, do you know what I shall be like?

Knock.

I’ll lay you that Elvira is peeping through the keyhole.

Here I stand, and knock.

I shall lose my reason.

Who goes there?

A man!

Nuño?

Sancho?

But you in the street? What is this?

What is this, you say?

Yes, but what is the matter? I fear some harm.

The greatest that can befall; some would be too little.

How?

A body of armed men broke down these doors and bore her off.

No more! My hope is ended!

(Without)This is the way rascals pay for effrontery.

(Without)Out of the palace!

(Without)Out!

Yes, kill me, you squires! I have no sword myself.

My son, my fear is great lest this man will have your life, he is so turbulent and bold.

What is left for me in life?

Fortune perchance may relent; she is quick to change so long as life itself endures.

In God’s name they shall not drive me from this threshold where I stand, although they strike me dead! Without Elvira I do not wish to live.

Live ad you may yet find justice. These kingdoms have a king, and there is still a higher court of appeal, for you may petition heaven.

Oh there you are!

Who is here?

Pelayo, and stuffed full with satisfaction. I come for a reward.

Reward? How? At a time like this?

I said a reward.

For what, Pelayo, when I am dead already and Nuño is at the last gasp?

I want a reward!

You know what this fool is.

Well, I have found Elvira out …

Ah, father! Then they have sent her back? Speak, my Pelayo! What is it you say?

The whole village is on tip-toe and everybody tells me that Don Tello has had her with him in his house since twelve o’clock last night.

Curses on you and amen!

They all think now that he will never want to give her up.

My son, we must find some remedy. Alfonso, King of Castile, by right and virtue of his mighty deeds, now holds his court at León. He is a just and an upright judge; wherefore go seek him out and lay your wrongs before him, for I verily believe that he will do us justice.

Alas! I very well know, Nuño, that Alfonso, King of Castile, is a complete and perfect prince, but how think you shall it be that a rude peasant like myself may enter his presence? What gallery of the palace shall I dare desecrate with my presumption? What turnkey will be found who will suffer my presence, Nuño? The doors are flung wide open there to brocades and rich trappings, to grave and stately retinues; and this is as it should be, as we ourselves must confess. But the doorkeepers, Nuño, permit the poor people only to gaze from without upon the gates and the caparisons and the arms, and even this must be from far off. I will go to León and I will make my way into the palace, and then you will see what marks they will imprint with the flat sides of their swords upon my shoulders. What? Present myself with petitions before the King? I tell you they will drop from his hand into oblivion. I shall come back having had sight of the ladies and of the noble gentlemen, of the church, the palace, the park, the stately buildings; and I fear I shall bring back with me besides a distaste for this dwelling among yew trees and among oak trees and live oaks, where the birds sing and we hear the dogs bark. No, Nuño, you do not advise me well.

I know truly, Sancho, that I do advise you well. Go then and speak with King Alfonso, for if you remain here, I am certain that they will take your life.

I desire naught else, Nuño.

I have a chestnut horse which is so swift that he will wager his mane against the wings of the wind and lay his hoofs against the bridle. Take him and be gone, and let Pelayo take the little mottled horse which daily goes out with him into the fields.

To please you I obey.–Pelayo, will you come with me to court?

And be so glad of the opportunity to see what I have never seen before, that I would stoop to kiss your feet, Sancho. They tell me that at court all the streets are laid with eggs and paved with rashers of bacon, and they greet strangers with a bounty so hearty that for all the world it is the same as if they had come out of Flanders or Italy or else Morocco. They say the court is one great bag wherein a man may draw naught but prizes and all the counters unite to spell fortune, whether they be black or white. For God’s sake then let us go to court!

Father, farewell! I go. And give me your blessing.

You have wisdom and discretion, son; that we know. Speak out boldly to the King.

You will learn presently how bold I am.–Come.

Good-bye, Sancho.

Good-bye, Elvira!

And good-bye, pigs.

Another sort

In accordance with your commands I have inquired about the churl, and I had this information under threats, although Nuño himself refused to answer. He is not in the valley; he has been absent some days.

Most strange behavior!

They tell me that he has gone to León.

To León?

To what end?

To speak with the King.

But for what purpose? He is not Elvira’s husband; and therefore I have not done him wrong. Had Nuño made the complaint he might well have been excused. But Sancho! …

I had it from the shepherds who tend your flocks. As the lad has wit in his head, my Lord, and as he is in love, in truth this daring does not surprise me.

Is it no more than daring for him to present himself to speak with the King of Castile?

Alfonso was reared in Galicia at the hands of Count Don Pedro de Andrada, and for that reason they say he will never close his door to any Gallegan, though never so humble his birth.

See who knocks, Celio. What? Are there no pages in my hall?

So help me God, my Lord, but it is Sancho, the very churl of whom we spoke but now!

Can greater presumption be?

May you live many years to learn how much I love you!

Bid him come in; I will receive him here.

Great my Lord, I cast myself before your feet.

Where have you been, Sancho? Some days have passed since last you came into my presence.

Rather they seemed years to me. My Lord, when I found how you persisted in the passion wherewith you were consumed –or call it love for my Elvira– I betook me to appeal to the King of Castile, who is the supreme and highest judge and who has the power to right all wrongs.

So? And what, pray, did you tell him of me?

I told him that at the moment of my marriage you stole my wife away.

Your wife? You lie, base knave! How? Did the priest come in, who was there that night?

No, my Lord; but he was advised that we both had given consent.

If he never joined your hands, how then can it be marriage?

I have not come to discuss whether or not it be marriage. The King has granted me this letter which is writ in his own hand.

I shake with rage. (Reads) “Upon receipt of this you will deliver up to this poor peasant the woman whom you have taken from him, without word of reply; remember that the loyal vassal may be known, however distant he may be from his King, and that Kings are never distant when it is their duty to punish evil. THE KING”. Man! What is this that you have done?

Señor, I bring this letter, given me by the King.

By God, I am astonished at my own forbearance! Do you think, you hind, that by this insolence you shall teach me fear in my own despite? Do you know who I am?

I do, my Lord; and because I am assured of your nobility. I have brought this letter, not as you suppose to do you displeasure, but as a right friendly missive from my Lord of Castile, who is our King, that you may restore to me my wife.

Then out of respect to this same letter, know that you and this miserable clown who comes with you …

Saint Blas! Saint Paul!

I do not string you up here to the merlons of the battlements.

This not being my saint’s day, by all the saints though altogether it has a devilish bad look for saints!

Out of my palace on the instant, and look you linger not within my lands, or I will have you done to death with clubs! You knaves, you hinds, you low, earthly rascals of the clay! … What? To come to me! …

He is right too; and we were great fools to put him to this displeasure.

If I have taken your wife, you knave, know I am who I am, and I reign here and here I do my will as the King does his in his Castile. My forebears never owed this land to him –they won it from the Moors.

Yes, they won it from the Moors and from the Christians too, and you don’t owe a thing to the King.

I am who I am …

(Aside)Saint Macarius!

That is the reason I do not take vengeance on you by my own hand. What? Give up Elvira! What is he to Elvira? Kill them, I say! But no –let them go! It is an unworthy thing in an hidalgo to stain his sword with peasants’ blood!

No, don’t you do it, on your life!

Now what do you say?

I say out of Galicia.

My brain whirls round when I consider that this fellow refuses to obey his King because he has three or four henchmen gathered here about me. For so help me God …

No, contain yourself, Sancho. It is good advice –and always was– never permit yourself a quarrel with a strong man and make no friendships among servants.

Let us return to León.

Well, I have the doubloons yet which the King gave me. So come on then.

I shall report to him what has happened. Ah, Elvira! Who now remains to bring you succor. Fly, fly to her, my sighs, and until I come again, tell her I die of love!

Better hurry, Sancho; for this fellow has not yet possessed Elvira.

How do you know, Pelayo?

Because he would have given her back once he had done his will.

You are both welcome home.

I cannot say how well we are come, although some good may well come out of it, Juana, so it be the will of heaven.

So it be the will of heaven, Juana, at least it will come out … well, that we have come. Because a horse is obliged to keep his thoughts to himself is no reason, I say, why a man should envy a horse.

Do you think they will murder us all?

Where is the master?

Gone, I think, to speak with Elvira.

What? Will Don Tello permit her to talk with him?

Through a window in a tower, as Celio said.

Does she still remain in the tower?

It makes no matter anyway, because somebody is coming who will soon make him …

Take care, Pelayo …

(Aside)I forgot both fingers.

Here comes Nuño.

Señor!

My son, what news?

I return with a lighter heart to your service.

You return with a lighter heart? In what way?

I bring a just judge with me.

We are bringing a judge with us who will …

Take care, Pelayo …

(Aside)I forgot both fingers.

But has he a large force with him?

Two men.

Then I must entreat you to attempt nothing further, my son. The effort will be useless, because a mighty nobleman upon his own estates, where he is provided with arms and vassals and with money, will either twist justice to his liking, or else some night when we are all asleep he will have us murdered in our beds.

Murdered? Aha! But I like that! Didn’t you ever play a trump, man? Why, I tell you Don Tello has led a two spot and –well we hold the ace of spades.

Pelayo, have you any sense?

(Aside)I forgot both fingers.

You must have lodgings made ready for him, master, because he is a right worthy and an honorable man.

He is so honorable that I might almost say …

God help you, fool! …

(Aside)I forgot both fingers … (Aloud) I had better not say another word.

Rest yourself, my son. Before we are done, I fear this infatuation will have cost the forfeit of your life.

But first I must see the tower where my Elvira is confined. As surely as the sun casts a shadow some trace of her presence must be left behind her at the bars; but if the sun has set and there is none, then I know that my imagination will be able to conjure up an image of its own.

What rare devotion!

I verily believe there was never anything like it in the world.

Come here, Pelayo.

I have to tell the cook something.

Come here, I say.

I’ll be back in a moment.

Come here.

What do you want?

Who is this Sir Judge, this magistrate that Sancho brings home with him?

This judge, sir, this magistrate … Oh, we have hooked him! (Aside)God help me with a good one! (Aloud) He is a man of excellent fine judgment, pale yet fiery, and tall if somewhat dwarfed of person, with a mouth at the place where he eats and a red beard and a black one too; and if I make no mistake, he is a great doctor, or else he will shortly prove himself to be one, only when he orders people to be bled, it is always somehow at the neck …

Juana, was there ever such a stupid beast?

Hurry, Señor Nuño, three gentlemen are dismounting at the door of the house from three fine horses, all with new clothes on, and boots and spurs and plumes waving all over.

So help me God but they are here! What? A judge who wears plumes?

Oh, there be such, sir, as do plume themselves, though frivolous mayhap, because a sober judge unless he is detained by some important bribery, goes back as impartial to the court again as he came out of it in the first place, which was a matter of course, and then he tells you what he makes out of it.

Who taught this animal this arrant nonsense?

Have I not just come from court? What is the matter with you?

I knew you as soon as I saw you a great way off.

(Apart to Sancho)Remember, Sancho; no word that I am here.

You are welcome, sir.

Who are you?

This is Nuño, my father-in-law.

Well met, Nuño.

I kiss your feet a thousand times.

Let all the laborers be warned, lest Don Tello be advised a judge has come.

Then it will be better, in my opinion, if we have them all locked up, so that none may wander from the house. (Sancho speaks to Brito and Juana who go out) Sir, my mind misgives me of this business. You have only brought two men. There is not a more powerful lord in all the kingdom, nor none richer nor more headstrong.

Nuño, the King’s staff is like the thunder –it gives warning where the lightning is about to strike. As you see, I came along to dispense justice for the King.

I behold such god-like worth in your presence as makes me tremble, although I am the wronged.

I will take the depositions.

Rest yourself, first, sir; for you have more than time.

I have never more than time. Did you arrive home well, Pelayo?

Yes, my Lord, I arrived home very well. Your Highness remembers …

What I told you?

Yes, to put on the bridle. Your Grace had a pleasant journey?

Thanks be to God, a very pleasant journey.

By my faith, if we ever get through with this business, I have made up my mind to present you with a pig as big as yourself.

Silence, you fool!

A little one then, like I am.

Summon your people without further delay.

What is your wish, master?

It will be necessary for you to wait a long while till the shepherds have come in from the valleys and the ridges.

Those who are here will suffice. –Tell me, who are you?

I am Brito, kind sir –a shepherd upon these pastures.

He is the son of some goat herds attached to the place hereabouts and something near a goat himself by the same token.

What know you of Don Tello and this matter of Elvira?

Some men carried her off on the night of her wedding day; and they broke down these gates.

And you? … Who are you?

Juana, sir, your servant who waits on Elvira; but now alas! I know she has lost her honor and her life!

And who is this good man?

My lord, this is Fileno the piper. At night he does nothing but pipe up and down after the witches, all over these ploughed fields; so one night they out and dragged him along behind after them, since when, like a salmon, he has had scales on the bottom.

Declare what you know of this.

I was coming in to pipe, sir, and I saw Don Tello give orders not to let the priest come in, And when the wedding was broken off he carried Elvira away with him to his house and her father and her kin have been there since to see her.

Who is this country wench?

She is Leonora of Cueto, daughter of Pedro Miguel of Cueto, whose grandfather was Nuño of Cueto, while at the same time he had for uncle Martin Cueto, who was olive presser for the entire neighborhood –all of them very noble people. He had two aunts, though, who were witches, but that was a long time ago, and he had a nephew who was squint-eyed, and he was the first man who planted turnips in Galicia.

That will do for the present. –Gentlemen, to rest. We shall pay a visit to Don Tello –yes, this afternoon.

Upon less testimony than this you might well be assured that Sancho has not deceived you. The guilelessness of these folk is the most convincing proof.

(Apart to Nuño)Let a priest be sent for secretly, and a headsman.

(To Sancho, apart)Sancho –

Master –

I cannot understand what sort of a judge this man is. Without entering a process, he sends for a priest and an executioner.

Nuño, I do not understand what he would do.

Even with an armed battalion he could not take him. How much less then with two men!

We had better make sure though that he has first food enough to eat. Afterwards we shall discover whether or not he is able to go through with the business.

Will they all eat at the same time?

I think that the judge will eat by himself and the others will eat afterwards together.

Belike his scribe and constable.

I think so too.

Juana!

Sir?

Spread a clean cloth and look you that four hens be killed without delay, and roast a good fat side of pork. And while it is being flayed put that young, tender turkey on; let it be roasted too, while Fileno goes down into the vault for wine.

Sunshine and heaven, Nuño, but I must break bread with that judge today!

You are the kind who never will learn judgement.

It is a terrible thing that Kings must always eat alone. That is the reason, I suppose, they are willing to have dogs and fools around.

Help, help, O heaven! I have no hope on earth