THE NUN ENSIGN

 
 THE NUN ENSIGN 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH WITH 
 AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY 
 
 JAMES FITZMAURICE-KELLY 
 
 ALSO 
 
 LA MONJA ALFEREZ 
 
 A PLAY IN THE ORIGINAL SPANISH 
 BY JUAN PEREZ DE MONTALBAN 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY DANIEL VIERGE 
 
 BOSTON: DANA ESTES AND 
 COMPANY PUBLISHERS MCMIX
 
 All rights reserved.)
 
 TO 
 ARCHER MILTON HUNTINGTON 
 
 I DEDICATE 
 
 THIS STORY OF PICARESQUE ADVENTURES 
 IN THE NEW WORLD
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION . . . . . xv 
 
 THE STORY OF THE NUN ENSIGN 
 
 CHAPTER I. Her native place, parents, birth, educa- 
 tion, escape, and wanderings in different 
 parts of Spain . . . . I 
 
 CHAPTER II. She leaves San Lucar for Punta de Araya, 
 
 Cartagena, Nombre de Dios, and Panama . n 
 
 CHAPTER III. With her master Urquiza, a merchant of 
 Trujillo, she goes from Panama to the 
 port of Paita, and thence to the city of 
 Sana . . . . . . 15 
 
 CHAPTER IV. She goes from Sana to Trujillo She kills 
 
 a man . . . . . -23 
 
 CHAPTER V. She goes from Trujillo to Lima . . 27 
 
 CHAPTER VI. She reaches Conception in Chile Meets 
 her brother there Goes to Paicabi Is 
 present at the battle of Valdivia Obtains 
 an ensigncy Retires to Nacimiento Goes 
 to the Valley of Puren, and returns to Con- 
 cepcion, where she kills two men, besides 
 her own brother . . . .31 
 
 vii
 
 CONTENTS PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER VII. She goes from Conception to Tucuman . 43 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. She goes from Tucuman to Potosi . 51 
 CHAPTER IX. She goes from Potosi to Los Chunchos . 55 
 
 CHAPTER X. She goes to the city of La Plata . . 59 
 
 t 
 CHAPTER XI. She goes to Las Charcas . . .65 
 
 CHAPTER XII. She leaves Las Charcas for Piscobamba . 69 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. She goes to the city of Cochabamba 
 
 and returns to La Plata . . -75 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. She goes from La Plata to Piscobamba 
 
 and Mizque . . . . -83 
 
 CHAPTER XV. She goes to the city of La Paz She kills 
 
 a man . . . . . -87 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. She departs to the city of Cuzco . . 91 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. She reaches Lima, and leaves it to fight 
 the Dutch She is shipwrecked, and res- 
 cued by their fleet They set her ashore at 
 Paita Thence she returns to Lima . . 93 
 
 viii
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. At Cuzco she kills the new Cid, and 
 
 is wounded . . . . -99 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. She leaves Cuzco for Guamanga She 
 crosses the bridge of Andahuailas and 
 Guancavelica . . . . 105 
 
 CHAPTER XX. She reaches Guamanga And what hap- 
 pened to her there till she made her 
 avowals to the Lord Bishop . . . 109 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. Dressed in a nun's habit, she goes from 
 Guamanga to Lima by order of his Lordship 
 the Archbishop, and enters the Trinitarian 
 convent She leaves it, returns to Gua- 
 manga, and goes on to Santa Fe de Bogota 
 and Tenerife ..... 121 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. She embarks at Tenerife and goes to 
 Cartagena, and thence starts for Spain with 
 the fleet . . . . .125 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. She leaves Cadiz for Seville, and 
 leaves Seville for Madrid, Pamplona, and 
 Rome ; but, having been robbed in Pied- 
 mont, she returns to Spain . . .129 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. She leaves Madrid for Barcelona . 133 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. She goes from Barcelona to Genoa, and 
 
 thence to Rome .... 137 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. From Rome she goes to Naples . 143 
 
 ix
 
 CONTENTS PAGE 
 
 LA MONJA ALFEREZ 145 
 
 NOTES TO INTRODUCTION ... . 289 
 
 NOTES TO AUTOBIOGRAPHY ..... 299
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 " My parents brought me up at home " . . i 
 
 "The nuns being in choir" .... 2 
 " I sallied forth into the street " . . . .3 
 
 "I cut off my hair" . . . . -4 
 
 " Don Juan came out on the staircase " 6 
 
 "Some nuns asked me into the choir" . . .8 
 
 "I jumped on shore" . . . . -13 
 
 "A negro came in" . . . . -24 
 
 "I enlisted" . . . . . -29 
 
 "I killed a cacique who was carrying the standard" . 35 
 " I gave him a thrust " . . . -41 
 
 " We all three journeyed together " . -44 
 
 xi
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE 
 
 "Shots were exchanged, they missed us, two of them 
 
 fell" 52 
 
 "They led her forth to her house" . . .61 
 
 "In charge of ten thousand sheep of burden, and 
 
 over a hundred Indians" . . . .66 
 
 i 
 "I ran my point into him, and he fell dead" . . 71 
 
 "I came to the gibbet" . . . . 72 
 
 "He blazed at us with his musket" . . -79 
 
 "It may be another horse altogether" . . .96 
 
 " I nailed his hand to the table " . . .100 
 
 "They carried me one night to St. Francis's" . . 102 
 
 "I laid the constable low with a pistol-shot" . . 106 
 
 "I place myself at the feet of your most illustrious 
 
 Lordship" . . . . -US 
 
 xii
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE 
 
 "There the whole convent awaited us" . .118 
 
 "I embarked on his flagship" .... 126 
 "We were in danger of drowning" . . . 127 
 
 "A hundred slashes to anybody who tries to defend 
 
 you" 144 
 
 Xlll
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 XV
 
 THOUGH many fabulous details have 
 been interpolated in the current history 
 of her exploits, they do not justify any doubt 
 as to the existence of Catalina de Erauso, 
 the runaway Basque novice, whose real name 
 has been completely overshadowed by the 
 somewhat loose designation of La Monja 
 Alfirez the Nun Ensign which her Spanish 
 contemporaries conferred on her. The evi- 
 dence is strong. A baptismal certificate 
 proves that she was the daughter of Captain 
 Miguel de Erauso and his wife Maria Pe"rez 
 de Galarraga, and that she was born at San 
 Sebastian on, or shortly before, February 10, 
 I592. 1 If the Spanish Basques have con- 
 tributed comparatively little to art and letters, 
 they have always been noted for their devo- 
 tional fervour and practical enterprise. As a 
 national proverb puts it : Iglesia, 6 mar, 6 
 casa real, quien quiere medrar. The roll 
 of Basque heroes, from Ignacio Loyola to 
 Tomas Zumalacdrregui, shows that they have 
 laid this advice to heart, and have stead- 
 fastly sought distinction in the Church, at 
 sea, or in the king's service. " Church or 
 xvi
 
 sea " can need no explanation, and " the 
 king's household " is rightly interpreted by 
 Cervantes in Don Quixote,' 2 - where the Captive's 
 father bids one of his three sons to "serve 
 the king in the wars, for it is a hard 
 matter to win admission to his service in 
 his household." The phrase was understood 
 in this sense by the Erauso family. The 
 men served the king ; the women entered 
 religion. Catalina's father held the rank of 
 captain ; of her three brothers, Miguel was 
 an officer in the army, 3 while Francisco and 
 Domingo served in the navy .4 Two of her 
 sisters, Mari-Juan and Isabel, were professed 
 in the convent of San Sebastidn el Antiguo, 
 at San Sebastian, on April 23, 1605, and 
 on December 17, 1606, respectively. 5 
 
 It is certain that Catalina de Erauso had 
 entered the same convent in 1603, or earlier. 6 
 No doubt her parents intended her to follow 
 the example of Mari-Juan and Isabel, and to 
 become a nun. The religious vocation was 
 shared by a younger sister, Jacinta, who 
 made her vows on November 15, 1615,7 
 but it was not given to Catalina. Though 
 
 B xvii
 
 she is sometimes described as a professed 
 nun, the balance of evidence tends to show 
 that she escaped from her cell into the 
 world before the irrevocable step was taken. 
 Her name figures in the convent books for 
 the last time in March, i6o7, 8 and then she 
 vanishes for some eighteen years. Her 
 reasons for breaking cloister, and her mode 
 of life afterwards, may be gathered from her 
 formal petition to Philip IV. ancl from the 
 sworn testimony of four officers under whom 
 she had served in South America. These 
 independent witnesses, who happened to be 
 in Madrid at the time of Catalina de Erauso's 
 residence there in 1625, were Luis de 
 Ce"spedes, Captain-General of the province 
 of Paraguay ; Juan Cortes de Monrroy, 
 Captain-General of the province of Veracruz ; 
 Juan Recio de Le6n, acting Captain-General 
 of the Peruvian provinces of Tipodn and Los 
 Chunchos ; and Francisco Pe>ez de Nava- 
 rrete, an infantry captain who had met Catalina 
 de Erauso in Chile as far back as i6o8.9 
 
 Apart from certain chronological difficulties, 
 it is possible to piece together from these 
 xviii
 
 statements a fairly coherent story. It would 
 appear that a love of adventure or, as she 
 prefers to word it in her pious and loyal way, 
 "a special inclination to take up arms in 
 defence of the Catholic faith, and to be em- 
 ployed in your Majesty's service " had led 
 Catalina de Erauso to disguise herself in 
 man's clothes, to sail for South America, to 
 enlist in the Spanish army under the name 
 of Alonso Dfaz Ramfrez de Guzman, 10 and to 
 serve from 1608 onwards in the campaigns 
 against the Indians of Chile and Peru. Her 
 disguise was never penetrated not even by 
 her brother, Ensign Miguel de Erauso, whose 
 company she frequented in Chile without 
 awakening in him any suspicion of her sex or 
 identity. According to the depositions, she 
 served under Diego Brabo de Sarabfa for 
 over two years ; she was then attached to the 
 company of Captain Gonzalo Rodriguez, on 
 whose recommendation she was promoted to 
 the rank of ensign for distinguished service in 
 the field ; she was next transferred to the 
 company of Captain Guillen de Casanova, 
 commander of the garrison at the fortress of 
 
 xix
 
 Arauco ; and she was subsequently one of 
 the picked soldiers sent to occupy Paicabi 
 under Alvaro Nunez de Pineda. In Chile 
 and Peru her bravery was conspicuous. She 
 was wounded at the battle of Pure*n, and in 
 minor engagements ; and in 1620, when 
 serving in Juan Recio de Leon's company, 
 she was entrusted with a special mission to 
 Guancavelica and Cuzco. Later she would 
 seem to have been concerned in a street-brawl 
 at Guamanga, and, being so dangerously 
 wounded that her life was despaired of, she 
 avowed her sex to the Bishop of Guamanga. 
 This incident may be conjecturally assigned 
 to 1622:" at any rate Captain de Navarrete 
 swore to having seen Catalina de Erauso 
 dressed as a woman at Lima in 1623, and 
 added that she was then notorious as " the 
 Chile Nun."" 
 
 Her disclosures to the Bishop of Guamanga 
 necessarily ended her career as a soldier, and, 
 under the name of Antonio de Erauso,^ she 
 returned to Europe towards the end of i624. J 4 
 Still wearing her uniform, she roused great 
 curiosity in Spain and abroad ; the grave 
 
 XX
 
 historian, Gil Gonzalez Davila, thought her 
 exploits worth recording in his official biography 
 of Philip IIL.'S and they were discussed in 
 the remote East Indies. 16 Her story, as 
 related by herself, was printed at Madrid and 
 Seville ; X 7 an enlarged version was speedily 
 forthcoming, 18 a supplementary account of 
 her deeds was produced by a rival pub- 
 lisher,^ and before long these narratives 
 were dramatised (with unhistorical adorn- 
 ments) under the title of La Monja Alferez, 
 by Juan Prez de Montalbdn, 20 the favourite 
 disciple of Lope de Vega. Having solicited 
 and obtained a modest pension, in January, 
 1625, Catalina de Erauso set out on a pilgrim- 
 age to Rome. Her experiences were of an 
 unpleasant character. She was arrested 
 (apparently in the neighbourhood of La Tour 
 du Pin), 21 was accused of being a Spanish 
 spy, was repeatedly struck and cursed as "a 
 hypocritical Jewish dog," or " Lutheran," was 
 robbed of her clothes, money, and papers, 
 and was imprisoned in irons for about a fort- 
 night. Before June 28th she was evidently 
 back in Spain, for on that day she lodged 
 
 xxi
 
 before the authorities at Pamplona an affidavit 
 recording her ill-treatment, and filed cor- 
 roborative statements from four fellow-pil- 
 grims. 22 
 
 She succeeded in reaching Rome next year, 
 and, on June 5, 1626, was introduced by Fray 
 Rodrigo de San Miguel, a Spanish Augus- 
 tinian monk, to Pietro della Valle (II Pelle- 
 grino) the celebrated traveller, who wrote an 
 account of his visitor for the benefit of Mario 
 Schapone. 2 3 He describes her as tall and 
 burly for a woman, artificially flat-chested, not 
 plain in feature and yet not beautiful, showing 
 signs of hardship rather than of age ; with 
 black hair, cut like a man's, and hanging in 
 a mane, as was customary at the time. She 
 was dressed like a man, in the Spanish fashion, 
 and wore a sword, tightly belted ; her head 
 inclined forwards, and her shoulders were 
 slightly stooped, more like a fiery soldier 
 than like a courtier given to gallantries ; 
 epicene rather than feminine in general appear- 
 ance, she nevertheless gesticulated with her 
 plump and fleshy, but massive and powerful, 
 hands in a manner vaguely suggestive of 
 xxii
 
 her sex. Pietro della Valle notes with quaint 
 astonishment that, when introduced by him 
 to Roman nobles and ladies, Catalina de 
 Erauso showed a distinct preference for men's 
 conversation. But this and every other 
 eccentricity was forgiven to the lioness of the 
 season. Roman society made much of her ; 
 Urban VIII. granted her special permission to 
 continue wearing man's clothes ; and she sat 
 for her portrait to the fashionable artist 
 Francesco Crescendo. 2 4 
 
 However, the exacting monotony of life in 
 Europe seems to have wearied her soon, for 
 on July 21, 1630, she sailed for America 
 once more. 2 5 If local tradition is to be 
 trusted, she was still untamed. The parents 
 of a girl at Veracruz, aware that the so-called 
 Antonio de Erauso was a woman, requested 
 her to escort their daughter to Mexico. She 
 became jealously attached to her charge, re- 
 sented her young friend's subsequent marriage, 
 and, in a letter of incomparable arrogance, 
 challenged the girl's husband to a duel. 26 
 After observing that a person of her noble 
 lineage is insulted by being forbidden the 
 
 xxiii
 
 house, she refers to a current rumour that the 
 husband has threatened to assassinate her if 
 she ventures into the street where the newly 
 married pair live, and ends with this defiance: 
 " Now, although I am a woman, as this seems 
 a thing insufferable to my valour, in order that 
 you may behold my prowess and achieve your 
 boast, I shall await you at the back of St. 
 James's Church from one to six o'clock." 2 7 
 Friends intervened to prevent the meeting, 
 Catalina sheathed her rapier, and set about 
 earning a lucrative but unromantic living as 
 a carrier. A prosperous owner of negroes 
 and of mules, she was still engaged in the 
 carrying business when the Capuchin monk, 
 Nicolas de Renterfa, saw her at Veracruz in 
 i645. 28 Time had dealt gently with her, all 
 things considered. According to Rentena, she 
 was regarded as a person of great courage, 
 and skilled in the use of arms ; she was 
 dressed as a man, wore a rapier and dagger 
 with silver mountings, looked about fifty years 
 of age, was of good stature, stoutish build, 
 and dark complexion, with a few hairs repre- 
 senting a moustache. 2 9 She died at Cuitlaxtla 
 xxiv
 
 in 1650 while on the way to Veracruz.3 She 
 was buried with considerable pomp, a lauda- 
 tory epitaph was inscribed on her gravestone, 
 and three years later a " Prodigious Narrative " 
 of her eventful career was published at 
 Mexico.3 1 
 
 La Monja Alferez is not one of Pe"rez de 
 Montalban's best plays, and it did little 
 towards keeping the heroine's memory alive. 
 But she was not forgotten by the people. 
 Her legend throve in oral and other forms, and 
 a manuscript narrative of her adventures in 
 the shape of an autobiography was apparently 
 in the possession of the poet and dramatist 
 Candido Maria Trigueros at some date 
 previous to May 24, 1784. On that day a 
 copy of the manuscript was collated with the 
 original at Seville, by copyists in the employ- 
 ment of Juan Bautista Munoz, the future 
 author of a fragmentary but valuable Historic* 
 del Nuevo Mundo ; 3 2 and later on this tran- 
 script came into the hands of Francisco 
 Bauzd, director of the Hydrographical Museum 
 at Madrid, who lent it to his friend Joaqufn 
 Maria de Ferrer. Ferrer, who was a Basque, 
 
 xxv
 
 might have been expected to know something 
 of Catalina de Erauso's history ; but clearly 
 he had never heard of her, for he states that, 
 on first reading the manuscript, he took it to 
 be a piece of wholesale invention, "a novel 
 written under the name of an imaginary person 
 who had never existed in the world." On 
 learning that Gonzalez Davila had seen 
 Catalina de Erauso, and had had a long conver- 
 sation with her in his house at IVfradrid in or 
 about December, 1624, Ferrer saw his mistake, 
 and, during his exile at Paris, he once more 
 borrowed the copy 33 from Bauza, then a 
 political refugee in London. He caused 
 investigations to be made at San Sebastian 
 and in the Archives of the Indies at Seville, 
 unearthed important documents concerning 
 Catalina de Erauso, and after vainly seeking 
 for Crescentio's portrait of her, came upon 
 another likeness by Pacheco, the father-in-law 
 of Velazquez, in the house of his friend Colonel 
 Andreas Daniel Berthold von Schepeler at 
 Aachen. 34 The discovery was most opportune, 
 for Ferrer had already made up his mind to 
 print the text of Bauza's manuscript, and an 
 xxvi
 
 engraving of the portrait by Pacheco duly 
 appeared at the beginning of the Historia de 
 la Monja Alfdrez, Dona Catalina de Erauso, 
 escrita por ella mtsma, edited by Ferrer, 
 and published 35 at Paris in 1829. 
 
 Habent sua fata libelli. Ferrer, though he 
 did other useful literary work, is now chiefly 
 remembered as the editor of the text con- 
 tained in Bauza's manuscript. Yet the imme- 
 diate circumstances of publication were against 
 him. It is possible that the number of people 
 in Paris who knew Spanish was relatively 
 larger seventy-eight years ago than it is now ; 
 but the soldiers who had served in the Penin- 
 sular War were not greatly addicted to litera- 
 ture, the Spanish refugees could not afford 
 such luxuries as books, and the interest in 
 Spanish matters professed by the Romantiques 
 was mostly an affectation. At the best, a 
 Spanish work printed in Paris could not be 
 expected to circulate widely, and there may 
 be some truth in the assertion that the revo- 
 lution of 1830 ruined Ferrer's chances of 
 success. However, this argument will not be 
 pressed too far by any one who remembers 
 
 xxvii
 
 that the Orientates appeared in the same year 
 as the Historia de la Monja Alferez. Still, 
 the Spanish book attracted some attention 
 and slowly made its way. During the autumn 
 of 1829 it was favourably criticised in the 
 Revue encycloptdique by Andres Muriel ; 36 
 in 1830 it was issued in French by the elder 
 Bossange, 37 and in German by Colonel von 
 Schepeler, 38 the owner of the Pacheco por- 
 trait ; and eight years later Ferrer's edition 
 was reprinted in Spain. Thenceforward curi- 
 osity concerning Catalina de Erauso has been 
 sustained. She was reintroduced to the general 
 public in France by the Duchesse d'Abrantes 
 in the Musde des Families for 1839,39 and to 
 a more fastidious circle of readers by Count 
 Alexis de Valon in the Revue des deux mondes 
 for 1847.4 Three months later De Quincey 
 followed in Taifs Edinburgh Magazine with 
 an article clumsily entitled The Nautico-Mili- 
 tary Nun of Spain. 4* Years afterwards 
 Ferrer's text served as the basis of La Monja 
 Alftrez, a zarzuela by Carlos Coello, which 
 was produced at the Teatro de Jovellanos in 
 Madrid on November 24, 1875 ; and in 1892 
 xxviii
 
 the story of Catalina de Erauso was the subject 
 of a brief but shrewd criticism published by 
 Sr. D. Antonio Sanchez Moguel in the 
 columns of a popular newspaper. 42 Lastly, 
 in 1894, the original Spanish had the dis- 
 tinction of being once more translated into 
 French prose, this version being the work of 
 the poet of Les Trophies, Jose* Maria de 
 Heredia. 43 
 
 It is plain that the book has more than 
 ordinary interest for readers of different 
 countries and times, and we would willing 
 know more concerning the history of the 
 manuscript which Mufioz had copied. No 
 one can read Ferrer's text without noticing 
 that it contains its full share of the inaccu- 
 racies, discrepancies, and inconsistencies which 
 disfigure most works, and it is scarcely possible 
 to explain all of these as the results of care- 
 lessness or literary inexperience. No doubt 
 it was common enough for people in the 
 
 xxix
 
 seventeenth century not to know their own 
 ages, and it was as common in Spain as else- 
 where. Cervantes and still more the mem- 
 bers of his family were weak in the matter 
 of dates, and Lope de Vega treats these 
 distressing minutiae with the contempt of a 
 handsome poet who has discovered the secret 
 of eternal youth. But there are degrees of 
 imaginative chronology, and greater exactitude 
 is expected in a prose record than in a copy 
 of verses. The autobiography of the Nun 
 Ensign gives the date of her birth as 1585 
 instead of 1592, and, starting from this point, 
 the chronology is necessarily wrong through- 
 out the first chapter. Clearly Catalina de 
 Erauso cannot have been sent to the convent 
 at San Sebastian in 1589, three years before 
 she was born ; clearly, too, she cannot have 
 quarrelled with the professed nun Catalina de 
 Aliri in 1600 (or earlier), for the simple reason 
 that Catalina de Aliri was not professed till 
 1605. And these difficulties are not isolated 
 specimens. According to the autobiography 
 Catalina de Erauso, after leaving her convent, 
 roamed about Spain in various employments 
 
 XXX
 
 for more than three years before sailing for 
 America ; 44 and, as she was still at San 
 Sebastian in March, 1607, this would mean 
 that she did not start for the Indies till 1610. 
 This, however, is incompatible with the state- 
 ment that, before taking part in the battle 
 of Puren (1608), she had served for three 
 years under her brother Miguel de Erauso at 
 Conception, and (apparently) for another three 
 years at Paicabf. It is beyond ordinary 
 ingenuity to reconcile these assertions with 
 the established fact that Catalina de Erauso 
 was still at San Sebastian, a novice of fifteen, 
 in the spring of 1607. 
 
 These and other evident discrepancies in- 
 duced Ferrer to put forward the theory that 
 the adventures recorded in the present volume 
 befell a woman who, while serving in Chile, 
 had made acquaintance with Miguel de 
 Erauso, had learned from him some details 
 of his family, and had assumed the name 
 of his runaway sister. It is not recorded that 
 Catalina de Erauso, on her return to Spain 
 in 1624, visited Guipiizcoa, and Ferrer, making 
 the most of the fact (as he very fairly might), 
 
 xxxi
 
 explains the omission by attributing it to fear 
 of detection.45 This is far from being con- 
 vincing, but it is at least an attempt to account 
 for inconsistencies which have been ignored 
 by critics more famous than Ferrer as, for 
 example, De Quincey. " The reader," writes 
 De Quincey, "is to remember that this is no 
 romance, or at least no fiction, that he is 
 reading." The essayist here assumes the point 
 which it is his duty to prove, and his method 
 has the merit of being convenient, but it is 
 not illuminating; and in this particular matter 
 De Quincey, from whom most English readers 
 derive their information concerning Catalina 
 de Erauso and her adventures, is not a trust- 
 worthy guide. 
 
 It is just conceivable that some subscribers 
 to Taifs Edinburgh Magazine sixty years 
 ago enjoyed the facetiousness of De 
 Quincey's references to Catalina de Erauso's 
 father as a "proud and lazy Spanish gentle- 
 man " (a poor figure by the side of the typical 
 " British reader, who makes it his glory to 
 work hard ") ; or as an " old toad," transformed 
 a little later into "an old crocodile" with an 
 xxxii
 
 "abominable mouth." It is true that we know 
 absolutely nothing about the habits or 
 appearance of Captain Miguel de Erauso, 
 but such prosaic considerations seldom detain 
 a humorist. So, also, the allusions to "Spanish 
 constitutions and charters, Spanish financial 
 reforms, Spanish bonds, and other little 
 varieties of Spanish ostentatious mendacity," 
 may possibly have been to the taste of our 
 blameless grandfathers. But, apart from these 
 graceful international compliments, there is 
 little substance in De Quincey's study. This 
 is not surprising, for it is certain that he 
 had never read, nor even handled, the book 
 on which his essay purports to be based.46 
 Had he once glanced at Pacheco's portrait 
 of Catalina, he could not have spoken of 
 her as "eminently handsome," or "blooming 
 as a rose-bush in June," and so forth ; 
 had he read the unflattering description in 
 chapter vii. of the half-caste's daughter 
 " very black, and as ugly as the devil " 
 he could not have rhapsodised over this 
 lovely antelope (as he calls her), uniting 
 " the stately tread of Andalusian women with 
 
 c xxxiii
 
 the innocent voluptuousness of Peruvian 
 eyes." This is irrelevant fantasy, and there 
 is much more of the same kind. De Quincey's 
 essay is partly a tissue of extravagant fables 
 and partly a travesty of events recorded in 
 Ferrer's text. Two examples out of a score 
 will suffice as illustrations. De Quincey 
 describes the street-ruffians at Valladolid as 
 
 pelting Catalina de Erauso with stones, and 
 
 . 
 
 adds that Don Francisco de Cardenas, "a 
 gallant young cavalier who had witnessed 
 from his window the whole affair," rescued 
 her from the alguazils who had unjustly 
 arrested her, " and instantly offered to Catalina 
 a situation amongst his retinue." This is 
 burlesque. De Quincey confuses Valladolid 
 with Bilbao, ascribes to street-ruffians Cata- 
 lina's stone-throwing, and substitutes Cardenas 
 for Arellano, thus mistaking the name of a 
 knight of Santiago at Estella in Navarre for 
 that of a cloth-merchant's mistress at Trujillo 
 in the Indies. Again, De Quincey described 
 Catalina in a wreck, refusing to leave her 
 captain, constructing a raft, and breaking open 
 with her axe "a box laden with gold coins, 
 xxxiv
 
 reputed to be the King of Spain's." This 
 is pure invention ; in chapter iii. of the text 
 Catalina is stated to have swum ashore, and 
 there is not a syllable about captains, rafts, 
 axes, or boxes laden with gold coins. 
 
 And the curious feature of this gratuitous 
 invention is that it is not De Quincey's own. 
 He simply plagiarises these fabrications from 
 Valon " a Frenchman, who sadly misjudges 
 Kate, looking at her through a Parisian opera- 
 glass " and, while he patronises Valon, he 
 follows the article in the Revue des deux mondes 
 so closely that he reproduces some obvious 
 misprints. Professor Masson, the editor of 
 De Quincey's works, frankly admits that the 
 article in Taifs Edinburgh Magazine is "a 
 De Quinceyfied translation from the French," 
 though the writer's "craft in language en- 
 abled him to make good his assertion that 
 his narrative contained ' no one sentence 
 derived from any foreign one.' " This is the 
 least that can be said. It is clear that De 
 Quincey had never read the original Spanish, 
 that he knew nothing of Catalina de Erauso 
 beyond what he could gather from Valon's 
 
 XXXV
 
 imaginative report, that he copies without 
 acknowledgment all Valon's romantic ara- 
 besques, and that he adds insult to injury 
 by jocularly expressing a wish that Catalina 
 "were but here, to give a punch on the head 
 to that fellow who traduces her." The wish 
 to punch Valon's head was a healthy, instinctive 
 prompting of nature : for the article in the 
 Revue des deux mondes was little better than 
 a hoax, and De Quincey was a* victim. In 
 these circumstances no great weight need be 
 given to his confident views on the authenticity 
 of the text. 
 
 This question of authenticity does not 
 appear to have been considered seriously by 
 Jose" Maria de Heredia, whose opinion on 
 such a point would be much more valuable 
 than De Quincey 's. Without any suspicion 
 of a fraud, Heredia accepted the Historia de 
 la Monja Alftrez for what it professes to be 
 a genuine autobiography and he believed 
 the book to have been written by Catalina de 
 Erauso to ease her conscience of the load 
 that weighed on it during her voyage back 
 to Spain. 47 This, however, is an assumption 
 xxxvi
 
 which takes no account of the strange dis- 
 crepancies between the narrative and the 
 historical facts. These discrepancies are so 
 numerous that Sr. D. Manuel Serrano y Sanz, 
 in a work of great learning^ 8 puts forward 
 the radical theory that the Historia is a 
 forgery, not written by the Nun Ensign, 
 but concocted about the beginning of the 
 nineteenth century by Trigueros, the owner 
 of the original manuscript. 
 
 If any forgery took place it must have 
 occurred earlier than the beginning of the 
 nineteenth century, for, as we learn from 
 Munoz, his copy was collated with the 
 original in May, 1784, and, as for the 
 ascription to Trigueros, it is merely conjec- 
 tural. Trigueros was a poet and playwright 
 of some repute in his own day ;49 but no 
 one who can avoid it now reads the twelve 
 cantos of El poeta fildsofo ; such original 
 plays as El Precipitado and Egilona are 
 practically inaccessible, and the same may 
 be said of La Muerte de Abel, an oratorio 
 adapted from Metastasio. Trigueros shows 
 to most advantage in his recasts of Lope de 
 
 xxxvii
 
 Vega's plays, and these workmanlike arrange- 
 ments no doubt helped to keep alive the 
 memory of the great dramatist ; 5 yet, at 
 its best, Trigueros's style is curiously unlike 
 what Heredia calls the langue nette, concise 
 et male of the Historia. If the book were 
 proved to be by Trigueros we should have 
 to say that it deserved to outlive his other 
 works (as it has outlived them), and that it 
 was much more interesting than anything 
 published by him under his own name ; but 
 the theory of his intervention has no solid 
 foundation. 
 
 The truth is that we have no evidence as 
 to when, or by whom, the Historia was 
 written. My own conjecture would be (and 
 so far I agree with Sr. Serrano y Sanz) 
 that the work was mainly pieced together by 
 some deft hand from the genuine Relaciones 
 for which Catalina was responsible, and that 
 the episode of the New Cid was elaborated 
 from Perez de Montalban's play, La Monja 
 Alftres ; but this is a purely personal im- 
 pression, and nothing more. Meanwhile, we 
 must guard against the temptation to exag- 
 xxxviii
 
 gerate the significance of the discrepancies 
 in the text Though undoubtedly damaging, 
 they are not necessarily fatal to the theory 
 that the book is at least in substance an 
 autobiography. In Spanish literature the 
 dividing line between trustworthy personal 
 narrative and certain specimens of picaresque 
 romance is faint and shifting. Though the 
 Comentarios of Diego Duque de Estrada, 5 * the 
 Vida of Miguel de Castro, 5 2 and the Vida of 
 Captain Alonso de ContrerasSS are presented 
 as real autobiographies, no critic supposes that 
 the confessions of these ingenuous soldiers are 
 absolutely exact in detail ; but, notwithstand- 
 ing the presence of an imaginative element, 
 they are accepted as being essentially true, 
 and the Comentarios of Duque de Estrada 
 is issued as an historical document. 54 The 
 Historia de la Monja Alfdrez may, perhaps, 
 be allowed a place near these works. 
 Whoever wrote it, and whatever its in- 
 accuracies, it appears to be mainly based 
 upon authentic accounts derived from the 
 Nun Ensign herself; it gives a vivid idea 
 of the vicissitudes undergone by a strange, 
 
 xxxix
 
 truculent adventuress ; and the narrative 
 compensates for its lack of literary artifice 
 by its sober, laconic simplicity. 
 
 Pe"rez de Montalban's play, which seems 
 to ha\'e been utilised in the text, exists only 
 in the form of a suelta which was already a 
 rarity eighty years ago when Ferrer reprinted 
 it. As this comedia famosa is now rarer than 
 ever, I have thought it advisable to reproduce 
 it at the end of the present translation. 
 
 JAMES FITZMAURICE-KELLY. 
 
 xl
 
 ' My parents brought me up at home.'
 
 CHAPTER I. HER NATIVE PLACE, PARENTS, 
 BIRTH, EDUCATION, ESCAPE, AND WANDER- 
 INGS IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF SPAIN.
 
 I DONA CATALINA DE ERAUSO, 
 5 was born in the town of San Sebastian, 
 in Guipiizcoa, in the year I585, 1 daughter of 
 Captain Don Miguel de Erauso and of Dona 
 Maria PeYez de Galarraga y Arce, natives and 
 residents of the same town. My parents 
 brought me up at home with my brothers 2 
 and sisters 3 till I was four years old. In 
 15894 they placed me in the convent of San 
 Sebastian el Antiguo in the said city, be- 
 longing to the Dominican nuns, under my 
 aunt, Dona Ursula de Unza y Sarasti, first 
 cousin of my mother, and prioress of that 
 convent ; there I was brought up till I was 
 fifteen, and then the question of my pro- 
 fession arose. 
 
 When almost at the end of my year's 
 novitiate I had a quarrel with a professed 
 nun called Dona Catalina de Aliri, who 
 entered the convent as a widow, and made 
 her profession. 5 She was a brawny woman, 
 and I a slip of a girl. She laid violent 
 hands on me, and I resented it. On the 
 night of March 18, 1600, the vigil of St. 
 Joseph, while the community was rising for 
 2
 
 ' The nuns being in choir.'
 
 ' / sallied forth into the street:
 
 midnight Matins, I entered the choir and 
 found my aunt kneeling there. She called 
 me, and, handing me the key of her cell, 
 told me to fetch her breviary. I went to 
 get it, opened the door, and saw the con- 
 vent keys hanging on a nail. I left the 
 cell open, and took my aunt her key and 
 breviary. The nuns being in choir and 
 Matins solemnly begun, -I went up to my 
 aunt and asked leave to retire as I was 
 not well. Placing her hand on my head my 
 aunt said, " Go and lie down ! " I left the 
 choir, lit a lamp, went to my aunt's cell, 
 and took from it scissors, some thread, and 
 a needle ; I took some reales de d ocho 6 
 which were there. I took the convent keys, 
 came out, and set to work opening and 
 shutting the doors, and at the last one 
 which was the street-door I left my scapular, 
 and sallied forth into the street, without ever 
 having seen it before, and not knowing 
 which way to turn nor where to go. I 
 cannot say which road I took, but I came 
 upon a grove of chestnuts outside the town, 
 close behind the convent, and took shelter 
 
 3
 
 there, and spent three days planning, fitting, 
 and cutting out clothes. I cut and made 
 myself a pair of breeches out of a blue 
 cloth skirt that I had on, and out of a 
 green linsey petticoat that I was wearing I 
 made a doublet and gaiters. As I could not 
 see my way to making anything out of my 
 habit I left it there. I cut off my hair and 
 threw it away, and the third night I started 
 off I knew not where, scurrying c over roads 
 and skirting villages so as to get far away, and 
 at last reached Vitoria, which is nearly twenty 
 leagues distant from San Sebastidn, on foot 
 and weary, and having eaten nothing but the 
 herbs that I . found by the roadside. 
 
 I entered Vitoria not knowing where to 
 find refuge. Within a few days I was 
 engaged by Doctor Don Francisco de Cerralta, 
 a professor there. Though he did not know 
 me, he made no difficulty about taking me 
 in, and he clothed me. He was married to 
 a first cousin of my mother's, as I gathered 
 later, but I did not reveal myself. I stayed 
 with him some three months, during which, 
 seeing that I read Latin fluently, he took a 
 4
 
 greater liking to me, and wanted to keep me 
 at my studies ; and, finding that I refused, he 
 persisted and went the length of thrashing 
 me. On this I made up my mind to leave 
 him, and did so. I took some money from 
 him, and, agreeing to pay twelve reales to a 
 carrier who was starting for Valladolid, 
 which is forty-five leagues away, set out 
 with him. 
 
 On reaching Valladolid, where the Court 
 then was, I soon got a place as page to Don 
 Juan de Idiaquez, the King's secretary, who 
 clothed me well. I there took the name of 
 Francisco Loyola, and was very comfortable 
 for seven months. At the end of this time, 
 while I was at the door one night with another 
 page, my comrade, my father arrived and 
 asked us if Senor Don Juan was at home. 
 My comrade said that he was. My father told 
 him to inform Don Juan that he was there. 
 The page went upstairs and I remained there 
 with my father, neither of us speaking a 
 word and he not recognising me. The page 
 returned, saying that he was to go upstairs ; 
 and up he went, with me in his wake. Don 
 
 5
 
 Juan came out on the staircase, and, embrac- 
 ing him, said, " Senor Captain, what a wel- 
 come visit this is ! " My father replied in such 
 a manner as to make it clear that he was in 
 trouble. Don Juan went into a room, said 
 goodbye to a visitor who had called on him, 
 came back, and they sat down. He asked my 
 father what the news was, and my father told 
 him how that girl of his had left the convent, 
 and that he had come into the neighbourhood 
 to search for her. Don Juan showed that he 
 was much concerned because of my father's 
 distress, and also because he himself was very 
 fond of me ; likewise because of the convent, 
 of which he was patron (inasmuch as his 
 ancestors had founded it), and because of the 
 town where he was born. After listening to 
 the conversation and to my father's laments 
 I retreated to my room, bundled up my 
 clothes, and made off, taking with me eight 
 doubloons 7 which I chanced to have. I went 
 to a tavern, where I slept that night, learned 
 that a carrier was leaving next morning for 
 Bilbao, and came to terms with him. We 
 started at daybreak, I not knowing what to do 
 6
 
 nor where to go, but letting myself be carried 
 along like a feather by the wind. 
 
 At the end of a long stretch something 
 like forty leagues, I fancy I reached Bilbao, 
 where I found neither lodging nor comfort, 
 and did not know what was to become of me. 
 Meanwhile, some lads took it into their heads 
 to gape at me and crowd round me to such 
 a degree that they irritated me, and I was 
 obliged to pick up stones to fling at them. 
 And I must have hurt one of them, though 
 I don't know where, for I didn't notice ; and 
 I was arrested and kept in jail a longish month 
 till he was cured, when they released me with 
 a little money in hand after expenses were 
 paid. I at once left and went to Estella in 
 Navarre, which is, I should think, twenty 
 leagues away. I reached Estella and got a 
 place as page to Don Carlos de Arellano, of 
 the Order of Santiago, in whose house and 
 service I spent two years, well treated and 
 clothed. And then, from sheer whim, I gave 
 up this comfort and went to my native place, 
 San Sebastian, ten leagues off; and there I 
 stayed, a spruce fop, unrecognised by anybody. 
 
 7
 
 And one day I was hearing Mass at my con- 
 vent when my mother was present, and I 
 noticed that she looked at me and did not 
 know me ; and, Mass being over, some nuns 
 asked me into the choir, but I pretended not 
 to understand, paid them many compliments, 
 and slipped away. This was at the beginning 
 of 1603. Thence I went to the port of 
 Pasage, which is a league away. There I 
 fell in with Captain Miguel de Berroiz, who 
 was about to sail with his ship for Seville. 
 I begged him to take me, and made a bargain 
 with him for forty reales. And I embarked, 
 and we sailed and very shortly reached San 
 Lucar. 
 
 On landing at San Liicar I went off to 
 Seville, and, though it tempted me to stay, 
 I remained there only two days, and then 
 returned to San Liicar. There I met Captain 
 Miguel de Echazarreta, who was from my 
 part of the country and commanded a tender 
 to the galleons under General Don Luis 
 Fernandez de Cordova, forming part of the 
 armada with which Don Luis Fajardo sailed 
 for Punta de Araya in 1603. I enlisted as 
 8
 
 sked me into the cltoi
 
 boy on a galleon commanded by my uncle, 
 my mother's first cousin, Captain Esteban 
 Eguino, who is now living at San Sebastian ; 
 and I went aboard, and we sailed from San 
 Lucar on Maundy Thursday, 1603.
 
 CHAPTER II. SHE LEAVES SAN LUCAR 
 
 FOR PUNTA DE ARAYA, CARTAGENA, 
 NOMBRE DE DlOS, AND PANAMA. 
 
 II
 
 BEING new to the work, I underwent 
 some hardships on the voyage. Though 
 he did not know me, my uncle took a fancy to 
 me and made much of me on learning where 
 I was from and the fictitious names of my 
 parents that I gave him. He did not know who 
 I was, and I found in him a protector. On 
 reaching Punta de Araya we found a hostile 
 force entrenched on shore there, and our 
 
 c 
 
 armada drove it away. At last we came to 
 Cartagena, in the Indies, and there we re- 
 mained a week. There I had my name taken 
 off the muster as ship's boy and entered the 
 service of the said Captain Eguino, my uncle. 
 Thence we went on to Nombre de Dios, and 
 were there nine days. There were many deaths 
 during that time, wherefore we departed very 
 hastily. 
 
 When the silver was stowed on board, and 
 everything was shipshape to return to Spain, 
 I played a rare trick on my uncle by pouching 
 five hundred pesos l belonging to him. At ten 
 at night, whilst he was asleep, I went up and 
 told the sentries that the captain was sending 
 me ashore on business, and, as they knew me, 
 
 12
 
 ' I jumped on shore.'
 
 they readily let me pass. I jumped on shore, 
 and they never set eyes on me again. An 
 hour later the parting gun boomed, and, weigh- 
 ing anchor, they were ready to sail. 
 
 After the armada had gone, I took service 
 with Captain Juan de Ibarra, Controller of 
 the Treasury at Panama, who is still alive. 
 Within four or six days we left for Panama, 
 where he resided. There I stayed with him 
 for about three months. He did not treat 
 me well, for he was a hunks, and I had to 
 spend all the money that I had taken from my 
 uncle, till at last I had not a stiver left ; so I 
 was obliged to leave and try to better myself 
 elsewhere. While looking round rne I there 
 came across Juan de Urquiza, a merchant of 
 Trujillo, to whom I engaged myself; and with 
 him I got on very well, and we remained there 
 at Panamd for three months.
 
 CHAPTER III. WITH HER MASTER 
 
 URQUIZA, A MERCHANT OF TRUJILLO, 
 
 SHE GOES FROM PANAMA TO THE PORT 
 
 OF PAITA, AND THENCE TO THE CITY OF 
 SANA.
 
 I LEFT Panamd with my master, Juan de 
 Urquiza, on a frigate bound for the port of 
 Paita, where he had a large cargo. On reaching 
 the port of Manta we were caught in such a 
 hurricane that we heeled over : those of us who 
 could swim myself, my master, and some 
 others got to shore, and the rest perished. At 
 the said port of Manta we embarked again on 
 one of the King's galleons which we met there, 
 and this cost a heap of money. We sailed 
 thence and came to the said port of Paita, and 
 there, as he expected, my master found all his 
 goods on a vessel belonging to Captain Alonso 
 Cerrato ; and, after instructing me to unload 
 them in the order of their numbers and to 
 forward them to him in the same order, he 
 went away. I immediately set to work as 
 directed ; I unshipped the goods in numerical 
 order, forwarding them in this order to my 
 master at Sana, a city some sixty leagues 
 distant from Paita ; and, at the end of it, I 
 set out from Paita with the last packages, and 
 arrived at Sana. When I reached there my 
 master received me with great kindness, show- 
 ing himself pleased with the way I had done 
 16
 
 my work. He at once ordered two handsome 
 suits for me one black, and the other of a 
 brighter colour and treated me well in every 
 way. He placed me in charge of one of his 
 shops, and what with goods and cash trusted 
 me with property amounting to over a hundred 
 and thirty thousand pesos ; and he wrote out 
 in a ledger the price I was to charge for each 
 article. He left me two slaves as attendants, 
 a negress as cook, and allowed me three pesos 
 for daily expenses. And when this was settled, 
 he packed up the rest of his property and set 
 off with it for Trujillo, which is at a distance 
 of thirty-two leagues. 
 
 He also wrote out for me in the said ledger 
 a list of persons whom he thought solvent 
 and trustworthy, and to whom I could give 
 credit for such goods as they might order and 
 wish to take away with them, but with a 
 detailed account and each item posted 
 in the ledger. And in reference to this, he 
 gave me special instructions concerning the 
 Senora Dona Beatriz de Cardenas, a person 
 for whom he had the highest regard and 
 respect. Then he went off to Trujillo. I 
 
 E 17
 
 stayed on at Sana in my shop, selling 
 according to the rule laid down for me ; I 
 took ready money, entering it in the ledger, 
 noting day, month, and year, quality, ells, 
 names of purchasers and price ; and I did the 
 same when giving credit. The Sefiora Dona 
 Beatriz de Cardenas began buying stuffs. She 
 went on, and bought so lavishly that I began 
 to have doubts about her ; and, without giving 
 her a hint of it, I wrote a full account of the 
 matter to my master at Trujillo. He answered 
 that everything was as it should be, and that 
 in the special case of this lady I might let 
 her have the whole shop if she asked for it. 
 Whereupon, keeping the letter to myself, I 
 went on as before. 
 
 Who could have imagined that I should 
 enjoy this calm for so short a while, and that 
 soon afterwards I should have to undergo sore 
 trials ? One Sunday l I was at the theatre in 
 the seat that I had paid for, when a fellow 
 called Reyes came in, placing another seat so 
 directly in front of mine, and so close to it, 
 that he cut off my view. I begged him to 
 move a little,; he answered insolently, and I 
 18
 
 retorted in the same vein. Then he told me to 
 clear out, or he would slash my face for me. 2 
 Having nothing on me in the way of arms but 
 a dagger, I left the place in dudgeon. Some 
 friends, hearing of what had happened, fol- 
 lowed me and quieted me. On Monday morn- 
 ing, while I was in my shop selling goods, 
 Reyes passed up and down in front of the 
 door. I noticed it, closed my shop, seized a 
 knife, and going to the barber's, got him to 
 grind it and give it a toothed edge like a saw. 
 I girt on my rapier 3 the first I ever wore and 
 saw Reyes sauntering in front of the church 
 with another man. I went up to him from 
 behind and said, "Ah, Sefior Reyes!" He 
 turned round and said, " What do you want 
 with me?" I replied, "I'll show you whose 
 face is going to be slashed ! " And with my 
 knife I gave him a slash which it took ten 
 stitches to sew up again. He raised both hands 
 to his wound, his friend drew his rapier and 
 made at me, and I made at him with mine. 
 We cut and thrust ; I ran my point deep into 
 his left side, and he fell. I at once fled into 
 the church close by. The Corregidor, Don
 
 Mendo de Quinones, of the Order of Alcantara, 
 came in immediately, dragged me out, took 
 me to jail (the first jail I was in),4 clapped me 
 in irons and set me in the stocks. 
 
 I duly informed my master, Juan de 
 Urquiza, who was at Trujillo, thirty-two 
 leagues from Sana. He came at once, spoke 
 to the Corregidor, and by other effective 
 means secured better treatment for me in 
 jail. The case ran its course. After three 
 months of pleas and demurrers on the part 
 of the Lord Bishop, I was taken back to the 
 church from which I had been dragged out. 
 When things had reached this point, my 
 master told me that while reflecting how to 
 end this quarrel, avoid my being banished, and 
 free me from the dread of assassination he 
 had thought of a suitable plan, which was that 
 I should marry Dona Beatriz de Cardenas, 
 whose niece was wedded to the fellow Reyes 
 whom I had slashed in the face, and that in 
 this way everything would calm down. It 
 should be said that this Dona Beatriz de 
 Cardenas was my master's leman, and his 
 aim was to keep both of us me for business 
 20
 
 and her for pleasure. And it looked as though 
 the pair of them had agreed on this dodge, for 
 after I was sent back to the church I used to 
 venture out by night to this lady's house, and 
 she caressed me freely, and, shamming fear 
 of the police, begged me not to return 
 to the church at night, but to stay where 
 I was ; and one night she locked me 'in, 
 vowing that I should pleasure her whether 
 Old Nick liked it or not, and she clasped me 
 so tightly that I had to use force and slip off. 
 After this I told my master that such a mar- 
 riage was not to be thought of, and that 
 nothing on earth would make me consent to it ; 
 but he stuck to his plan, promising me moun- 
 tains of gold, pointing out the beauty and 
 charms of the lady, what an escape this would 
 be from my serious difficulties, and other con- 
 siderations : nevertheless, I stood by what I 
 had said. Seeing this, my master suggested 
 that I should go to Trujillo to carry on the 
 same business on the same terms, and I agreed 
 to that. 
 
 21
 
 CHAPTER IV. SHE GOES FROM SANA TO 
 TRUJILLO SHE KILLS A MAN.
 
 I WE NT to the city of Trujillo, a suffragan 
 bishopric of Lima, where my master 
 opened a shop for me. I took possession of 
 it, doing business as at Sana, posting sales, 
 prices, and credits in a ledger like the old 
 one. Two months must have gone by when 
 one morning, at about eight, as I was in my 
 shop cashing a bill of exchange from my 
 master for some twenty-four thousand pesos, 
 a negro came in and told me that there 
 were three men at the door who seemed to 
 be carrying bucklers. This set me on my 
 guard. After obtaining a receipt I got rid 
 of my customer, and sent for Francisco 
 Zerain, who came at once, and he observed, as 
 he entered, that the three men outside were 
 Reyes, the friend whom I knocked over at 
 Sana with a rapier-thrust, and another. After 
 ordering the negro to close the door we 
 went into the street, and they dashed at us 
 on the spot. We faced them, and crossed 
 blades, and before long, as ill-luck would 
 have it, I ran my point where, I don't know 
 into Reyes's friend. He fell, and we went 
 on fighting two to two, giving and receiving 
 wounds on both sides. 
 24
 
 'A negro came in.'
 
 At this moment up came the Corregidor, 
 Don Ordono de Aguirre, with two constables, 
 and arrested me. Francisco Zerain took to 
 his heels and found sanctuary. While the 
 Corregidor himself was taking me to jail (for 
 the constables were busy with the others), he 
 asked me who I was and where I came from, 
 and, hearing that I was a Biscay an, he told 
 me in Basque that, as we passed the cathedral, 
 I had better unfasten the belt by which he 
 gripped and held me. I needed no second 
 hint, and did so. I rushed into the cathedral, 
 while he stood there bawling. Being safe 
 inside, I informed my master, who was at 
 Sana. He arrived very soon and tried to 
 settle my case, but this was impossible because, 
 in addition to the manslaughter, I don't know 
 what other charges they didn't rake up. 
 Accordingly there was nothing for it but to get 
 away to Lima. I handed in my accounts, 
 he had two suits made for me, gave me two 
 thousand six hundred pesos and a letter of 
 introduction, and I set out.
 
 CHAPTER V. SHE GOES FROM TRUJILLO 
 TO LIMA.
 
 HAVING left Trujillo and travelled more 
 than eighty leagues, I reached the 
 city of Lima, the capital of the wealthy 
 kingdom of Peru, which includes a hundred 
 and two cities inhabited by Spaniards (not 
 to mention numerous townships), twenty-eight 
 bishoprics and archbishoprics, one hundred and 
 
 thirty-six corregidors, the High Courts of 
 
 % 
 
 Valladolid, Granada, Las Charcas, Quito, 
 Chile, and La Paz. It has an archbishop, a 
 cathedral like that at Seville (but not so large), 
 five benefices, ten canons, six prebends, and 
 six half-prebends, a hermitage, a Tribunal of 
 the Inquisition (there is another at Cartagena), 
 a university, a viceroy, a Supreme Court which 
 rules over the rest of Peru, and other glories. 
 I handed my letter to Diego de Solarte, a very 
 rich merchant (now Consul Mayor of Lima), to 
 whom my master, Juan de Urquiza, had com- 
 mended me. With great condescension and 
 kindness he straightway received me into his 
 own house, and within a few days installed me 
 in his shop with a fixed salary of over six 
 hundred pesos a year ; and there I worked 
 much to his satisfaction and content. At the 
 28
 
 end of nine months he bade me go and earn 
 my living elsewhere ; and the reason of this 
 was that he had at home with him two un- 
 married sisters of his wife's, with whom with 
 one especially whom I preferred I used to 
 sport and frolic. And one day, when I was 
 in the parlour, combing my hair, lolling my 
 head in her lap, and tickling her ankles, he 
 came by chance to a grating through which 
 he saw us, and he heard her telling me that I 
 ought to go to Potosi and make a fortune, and 
 then we could get married. He withdrew, 
 called me shortly afterwards, asked for and 
 checked my accounts, and discharged me, 
 and I departed. 
 
 There was I out of employment, and with 
 no friend to help me. Six companies were 
 then being raised for Chile ; I enlisted in one 
 of them as a soldier, and at once received 
 two hundred and eighty pesos as pay. My 
 master heard of this, and was much concerned, 
 for it seems that he never meant to bring me 
 to such a pass. He offered to intercede with 
 the officers to have me struck off the muster- 
 roll, and to pay back the money which I had 
 
 29
 
 received. I would not allow it, saying that 
 my taste was all for roving and seeing the 
 world. And so, as a private in Captain 
 Gonzalo Rodriguez's company, I left Lima 
 with a force of one thousand six hundred 
 men, of which Diego Brabo de Sarabia was 
 Camp-master, 1 for the city of Concepcion, 
 which is five hundred and forty leagues distant 
 from Lima. 
 
 3
 
 CHAPTER VI. SHE REACHES CONCEPCION, 
 IN CHILE MEETS HER BROTHER THERE 
 GOES TO PAICAB! Is PRESENT AT 
 THE BATTLE OF VALDIVIA OBTAINS AN 
 ENSIGNCY RETIRES TO NACIMIENTO 
 GOES TO THE VALLEY OF PUREN, AND 
 RETURNS TO CONCEPCION, WHERE SHE 
 KILLS TWO MEN, BESIDES HER OWN 
 BROTHER.
 
 AFTER a voyage of twenty days we came 
 to the port of Concepcion, a fair-sized 
 city bearing the title of "noble " and "loyal " ; 
 it has a bishop. We were heartily wel- 
 comed, as the force in Chile was small. 
 There soon came an order from the Governor, 
 Alonso de Ribera, to disembark ; it was 
 brought by his secretary, Captain Miguel 
 de Erauso. As soon as I h^ard his name 
 I rejoiced and was sure that he was my 
 brother ; for though I didn't know him, and 
 had never seen him (as he left San 
 Sebastian for these parts when I was two), 
 I had heard of him, though not of his where- 
 abouts. He took the muster-roll of troops and 
 went down the line, asking each man his name 
 and birthplace ; and when he came to me, on 
 hearing my name and birthplace he dropped 
 his pen, embraced me, and began inquiring 
 about his father and mother and sisters, and 
 his little sister Catalina, the nun ; and I 
 answered as best I could without revealing 
 myself and without his suspecting anything. 
 He went on with the muster-roll, and, after 
 he had finished, took me to dine at his 
 32
 
 house, and I sat down at table. He told 
 me that Paicabi, the centre to which I was 
 to go, was a vile hole for soldiers, and that 
 he would ask the Governor to change my 
 garrison. After dinner he went to the 
 Governor's, taking me with him. He re- 
 ported the arrival of the force, and begged 
 as a favour to be allowed to transfer to his 
 company a youngster who had just come 
 from his native province, as he had met 
 with no other since he left the country. 
 The Governor ordered me to be brought in, 
 and, after looking at me, said (I don't know 
 why) that he could not transfer me. My 
 brother withdrew, disappointed. The Gover- 
 nor sent for him a little later and told him 
 that he might do what he liked. 
 
 So, when the companies marched away, I 
 stayed behind as my brother's soldier, dining 
 at his table for nearly three years without 
 awakening his suspicions. Sometimes I went 
 with him to his mistress's house, and some- 
 times without him. He got wind of it, flew 
 into a heat, and told me to keep away from 
 the place. He spied on me and caught me 
 
 F 33
 
 there once more, waited for me, belaboured 
 me with his sword-belt as I came out, and 
 hurt my hand. I was obliged to defend 
 myself, and Captain Don Francisco de Aillon, 
 who came up on hearing the scuffle, made 
 peace between us. However, I had to take 
 refuge in St. Francis's Church for fear of 
 the Governor, who was a martinet so much 
 so in this instance that, in* spite of my 
 brother's intercession, he determined to banish 
 me to Paicabi. There was nothing for it 
 but to go to the port of Paicabi, where I 
 remained three years. 
 
 After leading a rollicking life I had to 
 pack off to Paicabi and suffer hardships for 
 three years. We were always under arms, 
 because of the great invasion of Indians 
 there. At last the Governor, Alonso de 
 Sarabia, arrived with all the Chilean com- 
 panies, the rest of us joined him, and, five 
 thousand in all, we encamped with great 
 discomfort on the plains of Valdivia in the 
 open country. The Indians captured and 
 ravaged the said Valdivia. We marched out 
 to meet them, and fought them three or 
 34
 
 four times, always defeating them and 
 slaughtering them ; but in the last engage- 
 ment their reinforcements came up, things 
 took a bad turn for us, and they killed many 
 of our men and some captains and my 
 ensign, and they captured our flag. Seeing 
 it carried off, I and two mounted men 
 galloped after it into the midst of the 
 throng, trampling, killing, and receiving hard 
 knocks. One of the three soon fell dead ; 
 the two of us pressed on and reached the 
 flag, when my comrade was laid low by a 
 lance-thrust ; I received a nasty wound in 
 the leg, killed a cacique who was carrying 
 the standard, recaptured it from him, and set 
 spurs to my horse, trampling, killing, and 
 wounding no end, but was badly wounded 
 myself, pierced by three arrows, and with a 
 lance-wound in the left shoulder, which gave 
 me great pain. At last I reached a group 
 of soldiers, and fell from my horse. Some 
 hastened to help me, among them my 
 brother, whom I had not seen, and he was 
 a comfort to me. They cured me, and we 
 stayed in camp nine months. At the end 
 
 35
 
 of that time my brother got the Governor 
 to give me the flag that I had captured, 
 and I became ensign in Alonso de Moreno's 
 company, which was given soon afterwards 
 to Gonzalo Rodriguez, the first captain I 
 had served under, and I rejoiced exceed- 
 ingly. 
 
 I was an ensign for five years, was pre- 
 sent at the battle of Pure*n, where my said 
 captain died, and the company was under 
 my command for something like six months, 
 during which I had several encounters with 
 the enemy, and received several arrow- 
 wounds. In one engagement I was pitted 
 against an Indian chief, a Christian, called 
 Don Francisco Quispiguancha, a rich man, 
 who gave us no peace with his constant 
 raids. While fighting with him I unhorsed 
 him, he surrendered to me, and I at once 
 had him hanged on a tree. This angered 
 the Governor, who wanted to capture him 
 alive, and for this reason (it was said) he 
 did not give me the company ; he gave it 
 to Captain Casadevante, placing me on 
 half-pay, and promising me the step on the 
 36
 
 first vacancy. The troops retired to their 
 respective garrisons, and I went to Naci- 
 miento, which has nothing good about it 
 but its name ; in every other respect it is a 
 living sepulchre, where one is always under 
 arms. I was only there a few days, for 
 the Camp-master, Don Alvaro Nunez de 
 Pineda, came soon after by order of the 
 Governor, and withdrew from this garrison 
 and others as many as eight hundred mounted 
 men for the valley of Puren, among whom 
 I was numbered with other officers and 
 captains ; and we marched there and did 
 great havoc for six months, laying waste 
 and burning the crops. Then the Governor, 
 Don Alonso de Ribera, gave me leave to 
 return to Concepcion, and I took up my 
 post in Francisco Navarrete's company, and 
 there I remained. 
 
 I was the sport of Fortune, which turned 
 my joys into disasters. I was living peace- 
 fully at Concepci6n when one day, being at 
 the guard-house, I went with another ensign, 
 a friend of mine, to a gambling-hell close by. 
 We began to play ; the game was in full 
 
 37
 
 swing when a dispute arose, and, in the 
 presence of many onlookers, he said that I 
 lied like a wittol. I drew my rapier and 
 ran it into his chest. So many people 
 pounced on me, and so many came in at 
 the noise, that I could not move. There 
 was an adjutant in particular who gripped 
 me tight. The Chief Justice, f rancisco de 
 Parraga, came in, and he also laid firm 
 hold of me, gave me a shaking, and asked 
 me all manner of questions ; and I said that 
 I should make my statement before the 
 Governor. At this point my brother arrived, 
 and told me in Basque to make a bolt for 
 my life. The Chief Justice held me fast 
 by the collar of my doublet, and, taking my 
 dagger in my hand, I bade him let go. 
 He gave me another shake, I stabbed him 
 through the cheek ; he still held on to me. 
 I stabbed him again, and he loosened his 
 grip. I drew my rapier, many made a rush 
 at me, I backed to the door ; there was some 
 opposition, I overcame it, got out, and fled 
 to St. Francis's Church close by ; and there 
 I learned that the ensign and Chief Justice 
 38
 
 were dead. The Governor, Alonso Garcfa 
 Rem6n, was soon on the spot ; he surrounded 
 the church with soldiers, and kept them 
 there for six months. He issued a proclama- 
 tion, promising a reward to any one who 
 gave me up, and forbidding anybody to let 
 me embark at any port. Notice was given to 
 the garrisons and at the fortresses, and other 
 measures were taken, till time, which cures 
 everything, began to tone down this severity, 
 and petitions poured in and the guard was 
 withdrawn, and I even had some friends to 
 visit me, and at last people began to admit 
 that the provocation in the first instance had 
 been extreme and that my position had been 
 one of imminent peril. 
 
 At this time, amongst other friends, I 
 had a visit one day from my friend Don 
 Juan de Silva, an ensign on full- pay, who 
 told me that words had passed between him 
 and Don Francisco de Rojas, of the Order 
 of Santiago, and that he had challenged 
 him for that night at eleven, each to bring 
 a friend, and that, for this purpose, he could 
 depend on no other friend but myself. I 
 
 39
 
 hesitated a little, wondering whether this 
 was a ruse to arrest me. He observed it, 
 and said, "If you don't care to risk it, 
 never mind; I shall go alone, for I'll trust 
 my defence to no one else." I said, " What 
 can you be thinking of ? " and I accepted. 
 
 As the Angelus was ringing I left the 
 monastery and went to his house. We 
 supped and chatted till ten,*" and, hearing 
 the hour strike, we took our rapiers and 
 cloaks and went to the appointed spot. 
 The darkness was so gross that we could 
 not see our hands, and, noticing this, my 
 friend and I agreed that each of us should 
 tie a handkerchief round one of his arms 
 so as to recognise one another at need. 
 
 The two arrived, and one, whom I knew 
 by his voice to be Don Francisco de Rojas, 
 said, " Don Juan de Silva ? " Don Juan 
 replied, "Here I am!" Both drew their 
 rapiers and engaged, while the other man 
 and I stood still. They continued parrying, 
 and in a little while I noticed that my 
 friend was in pain from a thrust that he 
 had received. I took my stand beside him 
 40
 
 ' / gave him a thrust.'
 
 at once, and the other man instantly drew 
 up alongside Don Francisco. We fought 
 in couples, and before long Don Francisco 
 and Don Juan fell. I and my opponent 
 kept on fighting, and I gave him a thrust, 
 as it appeared afterwards, under the left 
 nipple, piercing (as I could feel) a double 
 jerkin, and he fell. " Ah, traitor," he said, 
 " thou hast killed me ! " I fancied that I 
 recognised the voice of the man whom I 
 could not see. I asked him who he was. 
 He said, " Captain Miguel de Erauso." I 
 stood there thunderstruck. He cried out 
 loudly for a confessor, and so did the others. 
 I ran to St. Francis's, and sent two monks, 
 who heard the confessions of all of them. 
 The two died immediately ; my brother was 
 carried to the house of the Governor, whose 
 war-secretary he was. Doctor and surgeon 
 hastened to dress his wound, and did all 
 they could. Shortly afterwards his deposi- 
 tion was taken, and they asked him the 
 name of the man who wounded him. He 
 entreated them to give him a little wine, 
 but Doctor Robledo would not let him
 
 have it, saying that it was not good for 
 him. He insisted ; the doctor refused. He 
 said, " You are more cruel to me than 
 Ensign Diaz was," and he died a little later. 
 The Governor hastened to surround the 
 monastery, and tried to break in with his 
 guard. The monks and their Provincial, 
 Fray Francisco de Otalora, who now lives 
 at Lima, resisted. The dispute over this grew 
 so violent that some monks went so far as 
 to tell him plainly that he had better mind, 
 for, if he broke in, he would never get out 
 again, whereon he cooled down and with- 
 drew, leaving the guard there. The said 
 Captain Miguel de Erauso being dead, he 
 was buried in the said monastery of St. 
 Francis. I witnessed it from the choir 
 God knows with what grief! I remained 
 there eight months, and meanwhile proceed- 
 ings were taken for contumacy, as the affair 
 did not allow of my coming forward. With 
 the help of Don Juan Ponce de Leon, who 
 gave me a horse, arms, and money, I found 
 an opportunity, and set out for Valdivia 
 and Tucuman. 
 42
 
 CHAPTER VII. SHE GOES FROM CON- 
 
 CEPCI6N TO TUCUMAN. 
 
 43
 
 I BEGAN by riding along the sea-coast, 
 suffering great hardships, including lack 
 of water, for I found none in the whole dis- 
 trict. On the road I met two other soldiers 
 who had deserted, and we all three journeyed 
 together, resolved to die rather than let our- 
 selves be captured. We had our horses, 
 rapiers, firearms, and the providence of God 
 on high. We followed the ascending ridge of 
 the mountain range for over thirty leagues, 
 and in all that distance and in three hundred 
 more leagues that we travelled we never 
 found a mouthful of bread, and seldom water. 
 We came across some herbs, small game, and 
 stray roots which kept life in us, and now and 
 then a stray Indian, who fled from us. We 
 had to kill one of our horses to make dried 
 meat, but found he was only skin and bone ; 
 and thus, plodding slowly on, we killed the 
 other two, and crawled along, unable to stand. 
 We reached a district so cold that we were 
 frozen. We sighted two men leaning against 
 a rock, and we rejoiced ; we advanced, hailing 
 them, and asking what they were doing there : 
 they made no reply. We came to where they 
 44
 
 ' ll>'e all three journeyed together."
 
 were ; and they were dead, frozen, their 
 mouths open, as though laughing ; and this 
 filled us with terror. 
 
 We pushed forward, and on the third night 
 drew up close to a rock. One of us could hold 
 out no longer, and died. The two of us kept on, 
 and next day, at about four in the afternoon, my 
 companion could go no further, and dropped 
 down sobbing, and died. I found eight pesos in 
 his pocket, and went blindly on my way, carry- 
 ing my harquebus and the slab of dried meat 
 that was over, and expecting the same end as 
 my comrades. Weary, shoeless, my feet raw, 
 my woeful state may be imagined ! I propped 
 myself up against a tree, and (for the first 
 time, I think) wept. I said the rosary, com- 
 mending myself to the Most Blessed Virgin 
 and to the glorious St. Joseph, her Spouse. I 
 rested a little, and rising again, set out on the 
 march ; and it seems that I must have left the 
 kingdom of Chile behind and reached that of 
 Tucuman, as I observed the change of tem- 
 perature. 
 
 I tramped on, and next morning, while lying 
 down, exhausted with fatigue and hunger, I 
 
 45
 
 saw two mounted men coming towards me. 
 I could not tell whether to lament or rejoice, 
 not knowing whether they were savages or 
 friendlies. I loaded my harquebus, but could 
 not lift it. They rode up, and asked what 
 brought me to that lonely spot. I perceived 
 that they were Christians, and saw the 
 heavens open. I told them I had lost my 
 way and knew not where I was, that I was 
 worn out and dying of hunger, and too weak 
 to rise. They were grieved at the sight of 
 me, dismounted, gave me to eat of what they 
 had, lifted me on to a horse, and led me to 
 a farm three leagues away, where they said 
 their mistress lived, and we arrived there at 
 about five in the afternoon. 
 
 The lady was a half-breed, the daughter of 
 a Spaniard and an Indian woman. She was 
 a widow, a good-natured soul, who seeing me 
 and hearing of my calamity and misery, took 
 pity on me and received me kindly. She com- 
 passionately had me placed in a comfortable 
 bed, gave me a good supper, and let me rest 
 and sleep ; and this set me up again. Next 
 morning she gave me a good breakfast, and, 
 46
 
 seeing my destitution, gave me a neat cloth 
 suit and continued treating me very well and 
 entertaining me handsomely. She was well- 
 to-do, and had vast herds and flocks ; and as, 
 apparently, few Spaniards ever pass that way, 
 it seems that she cast her eye on me for her 
 daughter. 
 
 After I had been there a week the kind- 
 hearted woman told me that I might stay on 
 to manage her household. I was most grate- 
 ful for the kindness she showed me in my 
 forlorn condition, and promised to serve her 
 as best I could. A few days later she gave 
 me to understand that she would be willing for 
 me to marry a daughter of hers who lived there 
 with her, and who was very black and as ugly 
 as the devil the very opposite of my taste, 
 which has always been for pretty faces. I 
 vowed myself enchanted at a condescension 
 so undeserved, and fell at her feet, declaring 
 that she might command me as a creature of 
 hers snatched from destruction. I continued 
 to serve her to the best of my powers. She 
 dressed me out like a beau, and confidingly 
 entrusted me with her house and belongings. 
 
 47
 
 Two months later we moved to Tucuman to 
 celebrate the marriage, and there I remained 
 another two months, postponing the ceremony 
 on diverse pretexts till I came to the end of 
 them, when, taking a mule, I departed, and 
 they have never seen me since. 
 
 Another experience of the same sort befell 
 me at this time in Tucuman. During the two 
 months I spent there befooling *my Indian I 
 chanced to strike up a friendship with the 
 Bishop's secretary, who made much of me, and 
 took me several times to his house, where we 
 gambled ; and here I made acquaintance with 
 Don Antonio de Cervantes, canon of the 
 cathedral there, and Vicar-General of the 
 Bishop. He likewise took a fancy to me, 
 courted me, flattered me, invited me to dinner 
 several times, and finally managed to unbosom 
 himself, saying that he had a niece at home 
 a girl of my age, of most striking attractions, 
 and with a good dowry and that, as I had 
 made a favourable impression on her, he had 
 determined to marry her to me. I avowed 
 myself to be most grateful for his kindness and 
 gracious intentions. I saw the wench and liked 
 48
 
 the look of her, and she sent me a suit of fine 
 velvet, twelve shirts, six pairs of breeches of 
 Rouen cloth, some Dutch linen collars, a dozen 
 handkerchiefs, and two hundred pesos in a 
 bowl : this was a gift, an act of courtesy, 
 without prejudice to the dowry. I received 
 it very thankfully, and wrote the best acknow- 
 ledgement I could, saying that I looked for- 
 ward to kissing her hand and placing myself at 
 her feet. I hid as much as I could from the 
 Indian, and, for the rest, I gave her to under- 
 stand that it was in honour of my marriage 
 with her daughter whom that gentleman knew 
 all about, and (inasmuch as I was so well 
 inclined to her) greatly esteemed. The affair 
 had got to this point when I doubled the Cape 
 and vanished : and I have never heard what 
 became of the negress and the Vicaress- 
 General. 
 
 49
 
 CHAPTER VIII. SHE GOES FROM Tucu- 
 
 MAN TO POTOSI.
 
 AFTER leaving Tucuman as I have 
 described, I made for Potosi, a distance 
 of some five hundred and fifty leagues, which 
 it took me over three months to cover, riding 
 through a cold district, mostly desert. I had not 
 got far when, to my joy, I fell in with a soldier 
 who was going the same way, and we travelled 
 together. A little further on three men, wearing 
 caps and armed with muskets, bounced out of 
 some roadside huts, demanding all we had. We 
 could not get rid of them, nor persuade them 
 that we had nothing to give ; we were obliged 
 to dismount and face them. Shots were ex- 
 changed, they missed us, two of them fell, and the 
 other fled. We mounted again and jogged on. 
 At last, after more than three months of 
 riding and constant anxiety, we reached Potosi, 
 where we knew nobody, and each of us went 
 off on his own account to look for a place. I 
 met Don Juan L6pez de Arguijo, veinticuatro l 
 of the city of La Plata, and was engaged by 
 him as camarero (which is much the same as 
 majordomo) with a fixed salary of nine 
 hundred pesos a year ; and he put me in 
 charge of twelve thousand native sheep of 
 53
 
 4 Shots were exchanged, they missed us, 
 two of them/eil."
 
 burden 2 and eighty Indians, and with these 
 I set out for Las Charcas, where my master 
 also went. We had not been there long when 
 my master had difficulties and disputes with 
 certain men, and these differences ended in 
 quarrels, imprisonment, and embargoes, which 
 caused me to take my leave and go back again. 
 Shortly after my return to Potosi, the mutiny 
 of Don Alonso Ibafiez took place, while the post 
 of Corregidor was held by Don Rafael Ortiz, 
 of the Order of St. John. He got together a 
 corps against the mutineers, who numbered 
 over a hundred. I was a member of it, 
 and, marching out one night, we met them 
 in St. Dominic's Street. The Corregidor 
 challenged them in a loud voice, " Who 
 goes there ? " They made no reply and re- 
 treated. He challenged them again, and some 
 of them shouted, " Liberty ! " The Corregidor 
 and many who were with him called out, 
 " Long live the King ! " And he advanced 
 towards them while we backed him up with 
 cuts and shots. They defended themselves in 
 like fashion, and, after driving them into a 
 street, we charged them in the rear from the 
 
 53
 
 other end of it with such effect that they sur- 
 rendered. Of those who got away we after- 
 wards captured thirty-six, among them Ibafiez. 
 We counted seven of their dead and two of 
 ours ; there were many wounded on both sides. 
 Some of the prisoners were tortured, and con- 
 fessed to planning a general rising in the city 
 for that night. Three companies of men from 
 Biscay and the mountain were raised as a city 
 guard ; and a fortnight later all the mutineers 
 were hanged, and the city was at peace. 
 
 After this either for some exploit which I 
 may have done then, or perhaps for some- 
 thing that I had done previously I was 
 appointed to the post of serjeant-major, which 
 I held for two years. While I was serving 
 at Potosi, the Governor, Don Pedro de Legui, 
 of the Order of Santiago, ordered troops to 
 be raised for Los Chunchos and El Dorado, 
 a district of warlike Indians, five hundred 
 leagues from Potosi, and rich in gold and 
 stones. Don Bartolom6 de Alva was Camp- 
 master ; he equipped the expedition and 
 arranged its route, and when everything was 
 in train we left Potosi twenty days later. 
 54
 
 CHAPTER IX. SHE GOES FROM POTOSI 
 TO Los CHUNCHOS. 
 
 55
 
 AFTER leaving Potosi for Los Chunchos 
 we came to a village called Arzaga, 
 occupied by friendly Indians, where we stayed 
 a week. We took guides with us, and yet we 
 lost our way, and were in great difficulties on 
 the ledges of rock, over which twelve men 
 toppled, as well as fifty mules carrying supplies 
 and ammunition. 
 
 On reaching the interior of the district, we 
 came upon plains thick with innumerable 
 almond-trees, like those in Spain, olives, and 
 fruit-trees. The Governor wanted to sow seed 
 there to make good our loss of provisions, 
 and the infantry refused, saying that we had 
 not come there to sow but to conquer and 
 collect gold, and that we could look for food 
 on the march. Advancing, on the third day 
 we came upon a tribe of Indians, who ran to 
 arms. We got up to them, and at the report 
 of the harquebuses they fled in confusion, 
 leaving some dead behind. We entered the 
 village, without being able to capture an 
 Indian to act as guide. 
 
 At the entrance to the village, the Camp- 
 master, Bartolom de Alva, feeling the weight 
 56
 
 of his helmet, took it off to wipe away the 
 sweat, and a little devil of a boy about twelve 
 years old, who had clambered up a tree, let 
 fly at him an arrow, which pierced his eye 
 and knocked him over, wounding him so 
 seriously that he died three days afterwards. 
 We sliced the boy into ten thousand bits. 
 
 Meanwhile the Indians, over ten thousand 
 in number, had returned to the village. We 
 charged them so fiercely and slaughtered them 
 so that a stream of blood poured down the 
 place like a river. We kept up the pursuit 
 and butchery to beyond the river Dorado. 
 Here the Governor ordered us to retire, and 
 we did so unwillingly, for some of our men 
 had found some sixty thousand pesos l worth 
 of gold-dust in the village cabins, and others 
 found vast quantities of it on the bank of the 
 river, and filled their hats with it ; and we 
 afterwards heard that the ebb usually leaves 
 a deposit of it three fingers'-breadth in depth. 
 Accordingly, later on, many of us asked leave 
 of the Governor to conquer this district, and 
 as he, for reasons of his own, refused it, many 
 of us (of whom I was one) broke out at night 
 
 57
 
 and deserted, and on reaching a town occupied 
 by Christians, we each went off on our own 
 account. I myself went to Cenhiago, and 
 thence to the province of Las Charcas, with 
 a few silver coins, which, little by little, but 
 quickly enough, I lost.
 
 CHAPTER X. SHE GOES TO THE CITY 
 OF LA PLATA. 
 
 59
 
 I WENT to the city of La Plata and 
 entered the service of Captain Francisco 
 de Aganumen, a wealthy Biscayan mine-owner, 
 with whom I stayed a few days, and then left 
 because of a dispute with another Biscayan, 
 a friend of my master's. While on the look- 
 out for a place I found refuge under the roof 
 of a widow lady, named Dona Catarina de 
 C haves, esteemed as the most fmportant and 
 noble lady in the city. At the entreaty 
 of one of her servants, with whom I had 
 formed a chance friendship, she promised to 
 give me shelter for a time. Now it came to 
 pass that, as this lady was going to Stations 
 on Maundy Thursday, at St. Francis's, she 
 met Dona Francisca Marmolejo, wife of Don 
 Pedro de Andrade, nephew of the Count de 
 Lemos ; and they came to words over some 
 question of precedence, and Dona Francisca 
 so far forgot herself as to strike Dona Catarina 
 with her patten ; whereon there was a great 
 disturbance and crush of people. Dona 
 Catarina went home, where her relatives and 
 acquaintances collected, and the matter was 
 passionately debated. The other lady stayed 
 60
 
 " They led her forth to her house."
 
 in the church amid a similar group of her 
 partisans, not daring to leave till nightfall, 
 when her husband, Don Pedro, arrived, accom- 
 panied by Don Rafael Ortiz de Sotomayor, 
 Corregidor (he is now Corregidor at Madrid) 
 and Knight of Malta, together with the 
 ordinary Alcaldes and constables, bearing 
 lighted torches ; and they led her forth to 
 her house. 
 
 While going along the street leading from 
 St. Francis's to the square, a clash of steel 
 was heard in the square, whereat the Corre- 
 gidor went to the spot with the Alcaldes and 
 the constables, leaving the lady alone with 
 her husband. At this instant an Indian ran 
 by in the direction of the noise, and, as he 
 passed near the Senora Dona Francisca 
 Marmolejo, he gave her a slash in the face 
 with a knife or razor, cut it right across, and 
 rushed on. This happened so suddenly that 
 her husband, Don Pedro, did not notice it at 
 the moment. When he did there was a 
 great din, uproar, hurlyburly, rush of people, 
 knifing, and arrests a deafening confusion. 
 
 Meanwhile the Indian went to the Senora 
 
 61
 
 Dona Catarina's house, and said to the lady, 
 as he entered, " It is done ! " The disorder 
 continued, and serious consequences were 
 feared. Something must have been discovered 
 during the investigations, for on the third day 
 the Corregidor came to Dona Catarina's house, 
 and found her sitting in her parlour. After 
 administering the oath, he asked her if she 
 knew who had cut Dona Francisca Marmolejo's 
 face, and she said she did. He asked her 
 who it was. " A razor and this hand," she 
 answered. Thereon he went away, setting a 
 guard over her. 
 
 He cross-examined the servants till he came 
 to an Indian, whom he threatened with the 
 rack ; and the craven averred that he had 
 seen me go out wearing an Indian costume 
 and wig, given me by his mistress ; that a 
 Biscayan barber, called Francisco Ciguren, 
 bought the razor ; and that he had seen me 
 come in and heard me say, "It is done!" 
 The Corregidor came away, arrested me and 
 the barber, clapped us in irons, separated us, 
 and placed us in solitary confinement. In 
 this fashion some days passed, when one 
 62
 
 night an Alcalde of the High Court, who had 
 taken the case in hand, and (for what reason 
 I don't know) arrested some constables, 
 entered the jail and tortured' the barber, who 
 at once confessed his own sins and his neigh- 
 bours'. Hereupon the Alcalde came to me 
 and took my statement ; I flatly denied any 
 knowledge of the affair. He then had me 
 stripped and placed on the rack, when a 
 solicitor came forward, pleading that as I was 
 a Biscayan and therefore entitled to the 
 privilege of nobility torture could not be 
 applied to me. The Alcalde paid no heed, 
 and continued. They gave the screws a 
 turn : I was firm as an oak. They kept at 
 it, questioning me and twisting the screws, 
 when a letter was brought in from (as I after- 
 wards learned) Dona Catarina de Chaves. 
 This was placed in the Alcalde's hand, he 
 opened it and read it, stood looking at me 
 awhile, and said, " Lift the youngster off 
 that!" They lifted me off, took me back to 
 jail, and he went home. 
 
 The suit continued how I can't tell and 
 I came out of it condemned to ten years' 
 
 63
 
 service in Chile (without pay), and the barber 
 to two hundred lashes and six years at the 
 galleys. We appealed, soliciting support from 
 the men of our province, and the affair went 
 its course (but how is more than I can say), 
 till one day the High Court gave judgement : 
 whereby I was acquitted (as was the barber), 
 and the Senora Dona Francisca was con- 
 demned in costs. These miracles often happen 
 in such cases, especially in the Indies, thanks to 
 intelligent knavery. 
 
 64
 
 CHAPTER XI. SHE GOES TO LAS 
 CHARCAS.
 
 HAVING escaped from this fix, I was 
 bound to get away from La Plata. 
 I went to Las Charcas, sixteen leagues off. 
 There I once more met the aforesaid vein- 
 ticuatro, Don Juan Lopez de Arguijo, who 
 put me in charge of ten thousand sheep of 
 burden I and over a hundred Indians. He 
 gave me a large sum of money so that I 
 might go to the plains of Cochabamba, buy 
 wheat, and, after having it ground, sell it at 
 Potosf, where there was a dearth and where 
 it would fetch a high price. I went there, 
 bought eight thousand fanegas 2 at the rate 
 of four pesos, loaded them on the sheep, 
 came to the mills at Guilcomayo, had 
 three thousand five hundred fanegas ground, 
 took them to Potosi, and sold them at once 
 to the bakers at the rate of fifteen pesos and 
 a half. I returned to the mills, where I found 
 part of the rest ground, and purchasers, to 
 whom I sold the whole at the rate of ten 
 pesos. I went back with the cash to my 
 master at Las Charcas, and, the profit being 
 so great, he sent me back again on the same 
 errand to Cochabamba. 
 66
 
 In charge often thousand sheep of burden, a>i, 
 over a hundred Indians."
 
 Meanwhile, having nothing to do at Las 
 Charcas, I went one Sunday to gamble at 
 a house belonging to Don Antonio Cal- 
 der6n, the Bishop's nephew. There were 
 present the Vicar-General, the Archdeacon, 
 and a Seville merchant who had married 
 there. I sat down to play with the mer- 
 chant ; the game was in progress, and at one 
 deal the merchant, who was already ruffled, 
 said, " I stake ! " I asked, " What do you 
 stake?" He repeated, "I stake!" I again 
 asked, "What do you stake?" He banged 
 down a doubloon, saying, " I stake a horn ! " 
 I replied, " Done ; and I go double on the 
 horn that you still have left." He flung his 
 cards down and drew his dagger. I drew 
 mine. The bystanders seized us and sepa- 
 rated us. The conversation changed and 
 continued till late at night, when I went 
 home. I had not gone far when, at the 
 corner of a street, I came on him. He drew 
 his rapier and advanced towards me. I drew 
 mine, and we engaged. After some thrusting 
 and parrying my point got home, and he fell. 
 A crowd collected at the noise, the police 
 
 67
 
 came up and tried to arrest me. I resisted, 
 received two wounds, and retreated, taking 
 sanctuary in the cathedral. There I remained 
 some days, having been warned by my master 
 to be careful. At last one night, choosing 
 my time well and rinding the coast clear, I 
 set out for Piscobamba. 
 
 68
 
 CHAPTER XII. SHE LEAVES LAS CHAR- 
 
 CAS FOR PlSCOBAMBA. 
 
 69
 
 ON reaching Piscobamba I stayed at the 
 house of my friend, Juan Torrizo de 
 Zaragoza, where I remained a few days. One 
 night, during supper, we got up a gamble 
 with some friends who dropped in. I sat 
 down to play against a Portuguese, Fernando 
 de Acosta, a great plunger. He led off by 
 staking fourteen pesos on each trick. I scored 
 sixteen tricks against him. H*e gave himself 
 a slap in the face, saying, "May the devil 
 incarnate fly away with me ! " I asked, 
 " What have you lost up to now that sets 
 you jabbering?" He stretched out his hands 
 towards my chin, and said, " I've lost my 
 father's horns ! " I dashed my cards in his 
 face and drew my rapier ; he drew his. The 
 bystanders intervened, held us back, and 
 reconciled us, and we all talked and jested 
 about rows at cards. He paid, and went 
 away, apparently calmed down. Three nights 
 later, at about eleven o'clock, as I was going 
 home, I noticed a man standing at a street- 
 corner. I swung my cloak over my shoulder, 
 drew my rapier, and went towards him. As 
 I approached he dashed at me, thrusting and 
 70
 
 ' / ran my paint into him, and he 
 fell dead:'
 
 calling out, " Cuckold rascal ! " I knew his 
 voice. We engaged, I ran my point into 
 him, and he fell dead. 
 
 I paused awhile, wondering what I should 
 do. Looking about me I observed nobody 
 who could have seen us, so I went to my 
 friend Zaragoza's house, held my tongue, and 
 got into bed. Early next morning the Co- 
 rregidor, Don Pedro de Meneses, came, roused 
 me, and walked me off. I reached the jail 
 and was put in irons. About an hour after- 
 wards the Corregidor came with a notary, and 
 took my statement. I denied all knowledge 
 of the business. Then they tortured me, and 
 I denied everything. The indictment was 
 drawn up, evidence was collected, and I gave 
 mine. When the case came on witnesses 
 were produced whom I had never even seen. 
 Sentence of death was passed. I appealed, 
 but nevertheless an order to execute me was 
 issued. I was utterly cast down. A monk 
 came in to hear my confession ; I refused. 
 He persisted ; I held out. A cataract of 
 monks was let loose on me, enough to swamp 
 me, but I proved a Luther. I was rigged
 
 out in a taffeta suit and hoisted on a horse. 
 The Corregidor was bent on it, and told the 
 monks who beset him that if I chose to go 
 to hell it was none of his business. They 
 hauled me out of jail, and took me down 
 unfrequented streets, so as to keep clear of the 
 monks. I came to the gibbet. The bawling 
 and hustling of the monks dazed me. They 
 forced me up four steps, and the man who 
 pestered me most was a Dominican, Fray 
 Andre's de San Pablo, whom I saw and 
 talked with about a year ago at Madrid in 
 the College of Atocha. I was forced a little 
 higher up. They placed round my neck the 
 volatin (that is the thin rope used for hanging), 
 and the executioner fumbled over it. I called 
 out, " You drunkard ! Put it on properly, or 
 take it off! These priests are enough to put 
 up with ! " 
 
 At this moment a messenger galloped in 
 from the city of La Plata, sent by the secre- 
 tary under orders from the President, Don 
 Diego de Portugal, on the petition of Martin 
 de Mendiola, a Biscayan, who had heard of 
 my prosecution ; and the messenger, in the 
 72
 
 1 / fame fa the yilbtt.'
 
 presence of a notary, handed the Corregidor 
 a document in which the Court ordered him 
 to suspend execution of the sentence and to 
 transfer the prisoner and the depositions to 
 the High Court, which is twelve leagues away. 
 The reason of this was extraordinary, and a 
 manifest mercy of God. It seems that those 
 who professed to be eye-witnesses in the case 
 of the Portuguese fell into the clutch of the 
 law at La Plata (for what offences I don't 
 know), and were sentenced to be hanged ; and, 
 at the foot of the gibbet, without hearing of 
 my plight, they owned that, being suborned 
 and paid, and knowing nothing at all about 
 me, they had perjured themselves in the 
 murder case ; and accordingly the Court, at 
 the instance of Martin de Mendiola, took 
 action and ordered a respite. This message, 
 which came so opportunely, moved the com- 
 passionate populace to joy. The Corregidor 
 ordered me to be removed from the scaffold 
 and taken back to jail, whence he sent me 
 under escort to La Plata. When I reached 
 there, and they looked into the depositions 
 (which those men at the foot of the gibbet 
 
 73
 
 had rendered worthless), inasmuch as there 
 was no other evidence against me, I was 
 released twenty-four days later, and I remained 
 there a little while. 
 
 74
 
 CHAPTER XIII. SHE GOES TO THE CITY 
 
 OF COCHABAMBA AND RETURNS TO LA 
 
 PLATA. 
 
 75
 
 FROM La Plata I went to the city of 
 Cochabamba to settle some accounts 
 between the aforesaid Juan L6pez de Arguijo 
 and Don Pedro de Chavarria, a native of 
 Navarre, residing there and married to Dona 
 Maria Davalos, daughter of the late Captain 
 Juan Davalos and of Dona Maria de Ulloa, 
 who became a nun at La Plata, in the con- 
 vent which she founded there. We checked the 
 accounts, and there remained a balance of one 
 thousand pesos in favour of the said Arguijo, 
 my master, and against the said Chavarria, who 
 cheerfully and courteously handed me the 
 sum ; and he invited me to dinner and took 
 me into his house for two days. And then 
 I said farewell and departed with instructions 
 from his wife to visit her mother, the nun, 
 at La Plata, and to give her many kind 
 messages. 
 
 After leaving them I was kept busy with 
 friends over odds and ends of things till late 
 in the afternoon. At last I started, and my 
 road took me past the said Chavarria's door. 
 As I went by I saw a crowd in the porch 
 and heard a disturbance inside. I stopped to 
 76
 
 find out what the matter was, and at that 
 moment Dona Maria Davalos called to me 
 from the window : " Senor Captain, take me 
 with you, for my husband wants to kill me ! " 
 No sooner said than done ; she leaped down, 
 and up came two monks, who said, " Take 
 her away with you, for her husband, who 
 caught her with Don Antonio Calderon, the 
 Bishop's nephew, has killed him, and locked 
 her up, meaning to kill her." With this 
 they placed her on the croup, and I set off 
 on the mule that I was riding. 
 
 I never halted till midnight, when I came 
 to the La Plata river. On the road I had 
 met a servant of Chavarria's returning 
 from La Plata, and he must have recognised 
 us in spite of my efforts to give him a wide 
 berth and cloak myself up ; and apparently 
 he informed his master. On reaching the 
 river I was dismayed, for it was full, and 
 it seemed to me impossible to ford it. Dona 
 Maria Davalos said to me, " Forward ! there 
 is nothing for it but to cross, God help us ! " 
 I jumped off, tried to find a ford, and made 
 up my mind to do what seemed best. I 
 
 77
 
 remounted, with my distressed lady riding 
 pillion, and plunged in, going deeper and 
 deeper. God helped us, and we crossed over. 
 I reached an inn upon which we stumbled 
 close by. I roused the landlord, who was 
 amazed at seeing us at that hour, and at 
 our having crossed the river. I looked 
 after my mule and let it have a rest. The 
 landlord gave us some eggs, bread, and fruit, 
 and we tried to wring out our clothes ; and 
 setting off again, we pressed on, and at 
 daybreak, about five leagues away, we 
 sighted the city of La Plata. 
 
 We were going along, somewhat consoled 
 by this, when suddenly Dona Maria clasped 
 me tighter, saying, " Good Heavens ! my 
 husband ! " I turned, and saw him on a 
 horse which seemed fatigued. I don't know, 
 and I still wonder how this could be, for I 
 started first from Cochabamba, leaving him 
 in his house, and, without stopping an instant, 
 I reached the river, crossed it, came to the 
 inn, stayed there about an hour, and set off 
 again. Apart from this, it must have taken 
 some time for the servant (whom I met 
 78
 
 ' He blazed at us with his musket"
 
 on the road, and who apparently informed 
 him) to reach Cochabamba, and for him 
 to saddle and start. How then could he 
 catch me up on the road? I cannot imagine, 
 unless it be that, not knowing the way, I 
 took a more roundabout route than he did. 
 Anyhow, when about thirty paces off he 
 blazed at us with his musket and missed, 
 the bullets passing so close that we could 
 hear them whiz by. I urged on my mule, 
 scrambled down a slope overgrown with 
 thicket, and saw no more of him no doubt 
 his horse was dead beat. After a ride of 
 something like four long leagues from this 
 point, I reached La Plata quite weary and 
 faint. I went to the door of St. Augustine's 
 Convent, and then handed over Dona Maria 
 Davalos to her mother. 
 
 I was going back for my mule when I met 
 Pedro de Chavarn'a, who dashed at me, rapier 
 in hand, without giving time for any explana- 
 tion. I was startled at seeing him, it was so 
 unexpected. He came upon me when I was ex- 
 hausted, and I pitied his delusion in thinking 
 that I had done him a wrong. I drew my rapier, 
 
 79
 
 and kept on the defensive. We entered the 
 church, fighting as we went. He must have 
 been a crack, for he pinked me twice in the 
 chest without my having touched him. Being 
 now roused, I pressed him, and drove him 
 backwards to the altar ; there he made a 
 tremendous cut at my head, and, warding it 
 
 off with my dagger, 1 I drove my rapier a 
 
 . 
 
 hand's-breadth into his side. So many people 
 rushed up that we could not go on. The police 
 arrived and wanted to haul us out of the 
 church. Hereupon two monks of the monastery 
 of St. Francis, which is just opposite, passed 
 me through and took me in, with the con- 
 nivance of the Chief Alguazil, Don Pedro 
 Beltran, brother-in-law of my master, Juan 
 Lopez de Arguijo. Charitably received into 
 St. Francis's Monastery, and there, tended by 
 the fathers, I lay secluded for five months. 
 
 It also took a long while to heal Chavarria's 
 wounds, and he kept on clamouring for his 
 wife to be given back to him. Concerning 
 this demand there were proceedings and 
 investigations, she pleading the manifest 
 danger to her life. The Archbishop, Presi- 
 80
 
 dent, and other authorities intervened, and 
 at last it was arranged that both should enter 
 religion and be professed ; she in the convent, 
 and he wherever he chose. 
 
 There remained my case and the indictment 
 against me. My master, Juan Lopez de 
 Arguijo, came and informed the Archbishop, 
 Don Alonso de Peralta, the President and 
 judges, of the straightforwardness, sound 
 instinct, and good-will with which I had acted 
 all quite different from what Chavarria imagined ; 
 that I had done nothing beyond suddenly 
 helping a woman who flung herself upon me 
 to escape death, conducting her, as she wished, 
 to her mother's convent. This being estab- 
 lished and admitted, the prosecution was 
 withdrawn and ended, and the couple duly 
 entered religion. I came out of my retreat, 
 settled my accounts, and often visited my nun 
 and her mother and the other ladies there, 
 who, in their gratitude, entertained me hand- 
 somely. 
 
 81
 
 CHAPTER XIV. SHE GOES FROM LA 
 PLATA TO PISCOBAMBA AND MIZQUE.
 
 I TRIED to find a situation which I could 
 fill. The Sefiora Dona Maria de Ulloa, 
 grateful for what I had done to serve her 
 obtained for me from the President and Court 
 a commission to go to Piscobamba and the 
 plains of Mizque to investigate and punish 
 certain crimes reported from there, for which 
 purpose they assigned me a notary and 
 alguazil, and we set out. I wen\ to Pisco- 
 bamba, where I issued a warrant and arrested 
 Ensign Francisco de Escobar, resident and 
 married there, on a charge of treacherously 
 killing Indians in order to rob them, and of 
 burying them at his own house in a quarry. 
 I had this dug out, and found them there. I 
 pursued my investigation in all its details till 
 it was complete ; when it was closed and the 
 parties were called before me I gave judge- 
 ment, sentencing the prisoner to death. He 
 lodged an appeal, which I granted ; the case 
 and the accused went before the Court of La 
 Plata ; sentence was confirmed and the culprit 
 hanged. I went on to the plains of Mizque, 
 settled the affair that took me there, returned 
 to La Plata, and reported what I had done, 
 84
 
 handing in the documents concerning Mizque ; 
 and after this I remained some days at La 
 Plata.
 
 CHAPTER XV. SHE GOES TO THE CITY 
 OF LA PAZ SHE KILLS A MAN.
 
 I WE NT to La Paz, where I lived quietly 
 for a while. Without a care to trouble me, 
 I stopped one day at the gate of Don Antonio 
 Barraza, the Corregidor, to gossip with a servant 
 of his, and the devil fanning the embers the 
 end of it was that he gave me the lie and struck 
 me in the face with his hat : I drew my dagger, 
 and he fell dead on the spot. So many people 
 set upon me that I was wounded, seized, 
 and taken to jail. My convalescence and 
 prosecution went on side by side. After 
 the indictment was drawn up and closed, 
 other charges were included in it, and the 
 Corregidor sentenced me to death. I 
 appealed, but nevertheless he ordered the 
 execution to be carried out. 
 
 I spent two days confessing my sins ; next 
 morning Mass was said in jail, and the holy 
 priest, having consumed, turned round, gave 
 me Communion, and went back to the altar. 
 Instantly I dropped the Host out of my mouth 
 into the palm of my right hand, crying out, 
 " I appeal to the Church ! I appeal to the 
 Church ! " There was a tumult and scandal, 
 and everybody called me a heretic. The priest 
 88
 
 returned on hearing this noise, and gave orders 
 that no one should go near me. He finished 
 his Mass, and then the Lord Bishop, Don 
 Fray Domingo de Valderrama, a Dominican, 
 entered together with the Governor ; priests 
 and a crowd of the laity collected together, 
 candles were lighted, a canopy was brought, 
 and they took me in procession as far as the 
 tabernacle where, while all fell on their knees, 
 a priest, duly vested, took the Host from my 
 hand and placed It in the tabernacle ; I could 
 not see in which vessel he placed It ; then my 
 hand was scraped, washed repeatedly, and dried ; 
 the church was cleared even of the authorities, 
 and I remained there. (This plan was sug- 
 gested to me by a holy Franciscan monk who 
 had given me good advice in jail, and finally 
 heard my confession.) For nearly a month 
 the Governor kept the church closed, and me 
 under restraint ; at last he withdrew the 
 sentries, and a holy priest (by order of the 
 Bishop, I presume), after seeing that the 
 neighbourhood and road were clear, gave me 
 a mule and money, and I set out for Cuzco. 
 
 89
 
 CHAPTER XVI. SHE DEPARTS TO THE 
 CITY OF Cuzco.
 
 I RE ACHED Cuzco, a city not inferior to 
 Lima in population and wealth, the centre 
 of a bishopric, with a cathedral dedicated to 
 the Assumption of Our Lady, served by five 
 prebendaries and eight canons. There are 
 eight parishes, four monasteries of monks 
 (Franciscans, Dominicans, Mercenarians, and 
 Augustinians), four colleges, two convents of 
 nuns, and three hospitals. 
 
 While I was there another grave disaster 
 befell me, and one really and truly undeserved, 
 for, though of bad repute, I was wholly free 
 from blame. Don Luis de Godoy, Corregidor 
 of Cuzco, a gentleman of great gifts and one 
 of the most notable thereabouts, died suddenly 
 one night. He was murdered, as was dis- 
 covered later, by one Carranza, because of 
 certain grievances too long to tell, and, as 
 he was not detected at once, the murder was 
 put down to me ; and the Corregidor, 
 Fernando de Guzman, arrested me and kept 
 me, sorely afflicted, in jail for five months 
 till, at the end of this length of time, it pleased 
 God to make manifest the truth and my entire 
 innocence in the matter. Whereupon I was 
 set free, and departed thence. 
 92
 
 CHAPTER XVII. SHE REACHES LIMA, AND 
 
 LEAVES IT TO FlGHT THE DUTCH SHE 
 
 is SHIPWRECKED AND RESCUED BY THEIR 
 FLEET THEY SET HER ASHORE AT PAITA 
 THENCE SHE RETURNS TO LIMA. 
 
 93
 
 I RE ACHED Lima when Don Juan de 
 Mendoza y Luna, Marquis de Montes- 
 Claros, was Viceroy of Peru. The Dutch 
 were then attacking Lima with eight men- 
 of-war, and the city was under arms. We 
 went out with five ships from the port of 
 Callao to meet them, and engaged them, and 
 for a long while luck was on our side ; but 
 they hammered our flagship s6 heavily that 
 she sank, and not more than three of us 
 contrived to escape by swimming till we came 
 to one of the enemy's ships, which picked us 
 up. The three were I, a barefooted Franciscan 
 monk, and a soldier, and we were rudely 
 greeted with japes and sneers. All the rest 
 on board the flagship perished. 
 
 Next day when our vessels, commanded by 
 General Don Rodrigo de Mendoza, returned 
 to the port of Callao, nine hundred men were 
 missing, among whom they reckoned me, as 
 having been on the flagship. I was twenty-six 
 days in the enemy's hands, dreading that they 
 would take me to Holland. At the end of this 
 time they set me and my two companions 
 ashore at Paita, about a hundred leagues 
 94
 
 from Lima ; and some days later, after we 
 had suffered many hardships, a kindly man, 
 touched by our destitution, clothed us, set 
 us on the right road, and gave us where- 
 withal to reach Lima, and we arrived there. 
 I stayed seven months at Lima, struggling as 
 best I could. I bought a horse, which turned 
 out good and not dear, and I rode it for a few 
 days while arranging to set out to Cuzco. As 
 I was about to leave, I was passing through 
 the square one day when an alguazil came up 
 to tell me that the Sefior Alcalde, Don Juan de 
 Espinosa, Knight of the Order of Santiago, 
 wanted me. I went to his worship. Two 
 soldiers were there, and, as I arrived, they 
 said: "That is it, sir! This horse is ours: 
 we lost it, and can soon prove it." The con- 
 stables made a ring round me, and the Alcalde 
 said: "What is to be done in this case?" 
 Taken unawares, I knew not what to say ; 
 hesitating and perplexed, I must have looked 
 guilty, but it occurred to me to take off my 
 cloak and cover the horse's head with it. And 
 I said : " Sir, I beseech your worship to bid 
 these gentlemen tell you which of this horse's 
 
 95
 
 eyes is blind, the right or the left. It may be 
 another horse altogether, and these gentlemen 
 may have made a mistake." The Alcalde said : 
 " You are right. Answer both of you together; 
 which is the blind eye ? " They were puzzled. 
 The Alcalde said : " Now then, both together ! " 
 One said: "The left." The other said : "The 
 right no ! I mean the left." To which the 
 Alcalde replied : " Your evidence is bad and 
 does not agree." They then repeated together: 
 " The left, we both said the left, there is no 
 mistake about that." I said: "Sir, this is no 
 proof at all, for one of them says one thing 
 and the other says another." One of the men 
 answered : "We said precisely the same thing 
 that it is blind in the left eye ; and that's 
 what I was going to say when my tongue 
 slipped, but I corrected myself at once, and 
 I tell you it's the left eye." The Alcalde 
 paused, and I asked : " What are your wor- 
 ship's commands ? " The Alcalde answered : 
 "If there is no further proof, go your way 
 with God ! " Then I whisked off my cloak 
 and said : " Your worship can see that both 
 of them are liars, for my horse is not blind 
 96
 
 y be another horse altogether
 
 but sound." The Alcalde rose, went up to 
 the horse, looked at it, and said : " Mount, 
 and go with God ! " And, turning to the men, 
 he arrested them. I got up, and rode off, and 
 never heard how the affair ended, because I 
 went on to Cuzco. 
 
 97
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. AT Cuzco SHE KILLS 
 
 THE NEW ClD AND IS WOUNDED. 1 
 
 99
 
 I WE NT back to Cuzco again, staying at 
 the house of the treasurer, Lope de 
 Alcedo, and there I remained a while. One 
 day I went into a friend's house to gamble ; 
 two of us who were friends sat down to play, 
 and the game went on ; the new Cid took a 
 place beside me a dark, hairy man, of great 
 height and truculent appearance, nicknamed 
 " the Cid." I went on with the game and won 
 a trick : he dipped his hand into my money, 
 took some reales de d ocho, and walked away. 
 Soon afterwards he came back once more, took 
 another dip, helped himself to a handful, and 
 placed himself behind me. I got my dagger 
 ready, continued playing, and he again dipped 
 into my money. I felt he was going to do so, 
 and nailed his hand to the table with my 
 dagger. I jumped up and drew my rapier, 
 the bystanders drew theirs ; other friends 
 of the Cid joined in, pressed me hard, 
 and wounded me thrice. I reached the street, 
 and this was a piece of luck, for other- 
 wise they would have cut me into ribbons. 
 The first man to follow me was Cid. I made 
 a thrust at him, but he was encased like a 
 100
 
 " / nailed his hand to the table,"
 
 watch ; others came up and pressed me close. 
 Two Biscayans chanced to pass just then, 
 hastened to where the noise was, and seeing 
 me engaged single-handed against five, took 
 my part. The three of us got the worst of it, 
 and backed down the whole length of a street 
 till we came to an open space. As we drew 
 near St. Francis's the Cid stabbed me from 
 behind with such force that he went clean 
 through my left shoulder ; another ran his 
 rapier a span deep into my left side, and I 
 dropped, bleeding in torrents. 
 
 At this both sides bolted. I staggered up 
 in a death-agony, saw the Cid at the church- 
 door, and made towards him ; he met me, 
 calling out: "You dog! are you alive still?" 
 He made a thrust at me, which I parried with 
 my dagger, and I replied with one in the mid- 
 riff that went right through him ; he fell, 
 clamouring for confession, and I fell too. At 
 this noise up came a crowd, some monks, and 
 the Corregidor, Don Pedro de C6rdova, of the 
 Order of Santiago, who, on seeing the con- 
 stables seize me, said : " Stop ! confession is 
 the only thing he needs ! " The other man 
 
 101
 
 died there and then. Some charitable persons 
 carried me to the treasurer's, where I had 
 been staying. I was put to bed, and the 
 surgeon did not venture to dress my wounds 
 till I had made my confession, lest I should 
 die first. That splendid fellow Fray Luis 
 Ferrer of Valencia, came and heard my con- 
 fession ; and, seeing that I was dying, I re- 
 vealed my sex to him. He was astounded, 
 absolved me, and strove to cheer and console 
 me ; the Holy Viaticum was brought and ad- 
 ministered, and after this I seemed to feel 
 stronger. 
 
 I suffered intensely when my wounds were 
 dressed, and, what with the pain and haemor- 
 rhage, swooned away for fourteen hours ; and 
 during all this time the saintly Father Ferrer 
 never left me. May God reward him for it ! 
 I recovered consciousness, invoking St. Joseph ; 
 abundant grace was vouchsafed me, for God 
 provides at need. Three days went by, and 
 on the fifth day I took a turn for the better. 
 Then they carried me one night to St. 
 Francis's to the cell of Father Fray Martin 
 de Ar6stegui, a relative of my friend Alcedo 
 
 102
 
 1 They carried me one night to St. Francis's.'
 
 where I spent the four months that my illness 
 lasted. The Corregidor was beside himself on 
 hearing this, stationed sentries about the place, 
 and had the roads watched. Being better, and 
 convinced that I could not remain in Cuzco, 
 with the help and by the advice of my friends, 
 I determined to change my quarters : for I 
 dreaded the rancour of some of the dead man's 
 friends. Captain Don Caspar de Carranza 
 gave me a thousand pesos ; the said treasurer 
 Lope de Alcedo gave me three mules and 
 arms ; Don Francisco de Arzaga gave me 
 three slaves. Thus equipped, and with two 
 trusty Biscayan friends, I left Cuzco one night 
 and took the road to Guamanga. 
 
 103
 
 CHAPTER XIX. SHE LEAVES Cuzco FOR 
 GUAMANGA SHE CROSSES THE BRIDGE OF 
 ANDAHUAILAS AND GUANCAVELICA. 
 
 105
 
 AFTER leaving Cuzco, as I have just said, 
 I came to the bridge of Apurimac, where 
 I found the police and the dead Cid's friends 
 waiting for me. The constable said : " You 
 are arrested " ; and, with eight others, he 
 advanced to seize me. We five spread out 
 into line, and a fierce contest began. Before 
 long one of my negroes fell, a man on the 
 other side gave his last groan, and so did a 
 second man ; another of my negroes dropped, 
 and I laid the constable low with a pistol-shot ; 
 others of his band were wounded, and at the 
 sound of firearms they retreated, leaving on 
 the ground three of their men, to whom no 
 doubt they returned later. It is said that 
 the jurisdiction of Cuzco extends to the said 
 bridge, and no further : wherefore my comrades 
 accompanied me to this point. There they 
 turned back, and I went on my way. I 
 reached Andahuailas, where I came across 
 the Corregidor who, in the blandest and 
 most gracious way, placed his house at my 
 service and invited me to dinner. Distrust- 
 ing such exaggerated courtesy, I declined, 
 and departed. 
 106
 
 ' / /azV/ ^//^ constable low with a pistol-shot"
 
 I came to the city of Guancavelica, put up 
 at an inn, and spent two days seeing the 
 sights of the place. I reached a small square 
 near the quicksilver-hill, and there stood 
 Doctor Sol6rzano, Alcalde of the Lima Court, 
 who had come to check the accounts of the 
 Governor, Don Pedro Osorio. I noticed an 
 alguazil (Pedro Juarez was his name, as I 
 learned afterwards) go up to him, whereupon 
 he turned, looked at me, took out a paper, and 
 looked at me again ; and then I noticed the 
 alguazil and a negro making towards me. I 
 strolled off as if I had no cause for uneasiness, 
 though in fact I had a great deal of cause. 
 Before I had gone far the alguazil passed in 
 front of me and knocked off my hat ; I knocked 
 off his, the negro came up behind, and seized 
 me by my cloak. I shook myself free of it, 
 drew my rapier and a pistol, and both attacked 
 me with their rapiers. I fired at the alguazil 
 and knocked him over ; I engaged the negro, 
 and before long a few thrusts sent him 
 down. As I bolted, I met an Indian with 
 a led horse (the Alcalde's, as I found out 
 later) : I snatched it from him, leaped up, 
 
 107
 
 and rode off to Guamanga, fourteen leagues 
 away. 
 
 Beyond the river Balsas I dismounted to 
 give the horse a little rest, and just then 
 perceived three horsemen fording the river 
 and half-way across. I don't know what 
 moved me to call out, " Where are you 
 going, good gentlemen ? " One of them 
 replied, " To arrest you, Captain ! " I got 
 out my arms, loaded two pistols, and said, 
 " You won't be able to arrest me alive ; you'll 
 have to kill me first, and then arrest me." 
 And, saying this, I drew near the river-bank. 
 Another of them said, " We have our orders, 
 Captain, and are bound to obey, but we are 
 quite at your service." And there they stopped 
 in mid-stream. Thanking them for their kindly 
 action, I left three doubloons for them on a 
 stone, mounted, and, after many compliments, 
 went on my road to Guamanga. 
 
 108
 
 CHAPTER XX. SHE REACHES GUAMANGA : 
 AND WHAT HAPPENED TO HER THERE TILL 
 SHE MADE HER AVOWALS TO THE LORD 
 BISHOP. 
 
 109
 
 1CAME to Guamanga, and put up at an 
 inn. There I met a soldier passing that 
 way, who took a fancy to the horse, and 
 I sold it to him for two hundred pesos. I 
 went out to have a look at the city, which 
 I thought striking, full of handsome build- 
 ings, the best I saw in Peru. I noticed three 
 monasteries of Franciscans, Mercenarians, 
 
 V 
 
 and Dominicans ; a convent of nuns and a 
 hospital, a great number of Indian settlers, 
 and many Spaniards. It is a splendid 
 climate for a settlement in the plains, neither 
 cold nor hot ; great abundance of wheat, 
 wine, fruit, and cereals ; a fine cathedral with 
 three prebendaries and two canons, and a 
 saintly bishop, an Augustinian, Don Fray 
 Agustin de Carvajal, my mainstay, though 
 snatched from me by his sudden death in 
 the year '20. It is said that he had been 
 Bishop there since the year '12. 
 
 I stayed on here a while, and ill-luck would 
 have it that I went several times to a 
 gambling-hell, and, while I was there one 
 day, in came the Corregidor Don Baltasar 
 de Quifiones. Looking at me, and not recog- 
 
 110
 
 nising me, he asked me where I came from : 
 I told him that I was a Biscayan. He said, 
 " Where have you come from now ? " I said 
 I came from Cuzco. He paused a moment, 
 still looking at me, and said, " You are 
 arrested." "Of course!" said I, and, draw- 
 ing my rapier, retreated to the door. He 
 called out for help in the King's name ; there 
 was so much opposition at the door that I 
 could not get through. I pulled out my 
 three-barrelled pistol and made off, going 
 into hiding at the house of a friend I had 
 made there. The Corregidor went off, and 
 seized my mule as well as some small be- 
 longings of mine at the inn. I found out that 
 this friend of mine was a Biscayan, and 
 stayed with him a few days. Meanwhile not 
 a breath was heard of the affair, nor did the 
 police seem concerned about it. It was 
 plain, however, that I must change my 
 quarters, for I had got into a scrape there 
 as elsewhere. Having made up my mind 
 to it, I started off at nightfall, and before 
 long ill-luck threw two alguazils in my way. 
 They challenged me, " Who goes there ? " 
 
 in
 
 I replied, " Friends ! " They asked me my 
 name, and I said, " The Devil ! " This was 
 not quite a proper answer. They were about 
 to seize me when I drew my rapier, and 
 there was a great uproar. They called out, 
 " Help in the name of the law ! " A crowd 
 gathered, the Corregidor came out of the 
 Bishop's house, and more constables made 
 at me. Finding myself cornered, I fired my 
 pistol and knocked one of them over. My 
 position grew worse, and my Biscayan friend, 
 with others from the same part of the 
 country, ranged themselves beside me. The 
 Corregidor bawled to his men to kill me ; 
 firearms were used on both sides. Accom- 
 panied by four torch-bearers, the Bishop 
 came out and down into the middle of the 
 throng, while his secretary, Juan Bautista de 
 Arteaga, led him to me. On reaching me, 
 he said, "Ensign, give me your arms!" I 
 replied, " My lord, I am surrounded by 
 enemies!" He repeated, "Give them up! 
 you are out of harm's way with me, and I 
 pledge my word to see you safe out of this 
 whatever it costs me." I answered, " Most 
 
 112
 
 illustrious Lord, when we reach the cathedral 
 I will kiss your Lordship's feet." At this 
 instant four of the Corregidor's slaves laid 
 hold of me, hustling and dragging me savagely 
 about, with no respect for his Lordship's 
 presence, so that, to defend myself, I had 
 to use my hands and floor one of them. 
 Armed with buckler and rapier, the Bishop's 
 secretary hurried up with others of the 
 household, loudly denouncing the disrespect 
 shown to his Lordship ; and then the riot 
 quieted down a little. His Lordship caught 
 me by the arm, took my weapons from me, 
 and, placing me beside him, led me along 
 into his house. He gave orders that a slight 
 wound which I had received should be 
 dressed, that I should have supper and a 
 bed, and that I should be locked in and the 
 key be taken away. The Corregidor arrived 
 soon afterwards, and had a long talk and 
 argument about the matter with his Lord- 
 ship, as I gathered later on. 
 
 Next morning, at about ten, his Lordship 
 had me brought into his presence, and asked 
 me who I was, where I came from, who my 
 
 L 113
 
 parents were, and all about my life, how and 
 why I had come there, going into particulars, 
 and weaving into his questions good advice, 
 dwelling on the dangers of this life the fear 
 of death and its consequences and the dread 
 of the other life for a sinner whose taking off 
 comes without warning ; exhorting me to be 
 peaceful, to cultivate a gentle spirit, and to fall 
 down on my knees before God. And this dis- 
 course made me feel very small ; and, seeing 
 that he was such a saintly man, and feeling 
 as though I were in the presence of God, I 
 revealed myself, and said to him, "My Lord, 
 all that I have told your Lordship is untrue ; 
 the truth is this : that I am a woman, that 
 I was born in such-and-such a place, daughter 
 of So-and-So and So-and-So ; that I was 
 placed at such-and-such an age in such-and- 
 such a convent with my aunt So-and-So, that 
 I was educated there, took the habit, be- 
 came a novice, and was about to be professed 
 when, for such-and-such reasons, I ran away ; 
 that I went to such-and-such a place, stripped, 
 dressed up, and cut my hair, went hither and 
 thither, embarked, went into port, took to 
 114
 
 ' / place, myself at the feet of your mos 
 illustrious Lordship."
 
 roving, slew, wounded, embezzled, and roamed 
 about till the present moment, when I place 
 myself at the feet of your most illustrious 
 Lordship." 
 
 While my story lasted that is till one 
 o'clock the saintly Bishop sat in amazement, 
 listening to me, without saying a word or 
 blinking an eyelid ; and, when I had finished, 
 he still sat speechless, shedding scalding tears. 
 Then he sent me to rest and dine ; he rang 
 his bell, asked for an old chaplain of his, 
 and sent me to his oratory ; there they placed 
 a table and mattress for me, and locked me 
 in, and I lay down and slept. In the after- 
 noon, at about four, the Lord Bishop sent 
 for me again, and spoke to me with great 
 gentleness of spirit, beseeching me to give 
 profound thanks to God for the mercy that 
 He had vouchsafed me by opening my eyes 
 to the path of perdition which was leading 
 me straight to everlasting torment ; he ex- 
 horted me to look back upon my past life, 
 and to make a good confession which I had 
 in great part made already, and which would 
 now be easy to me ; and then God would 
 
 "5
 
 direct us as to what was to be done ; and 
 with this, and similar reflections, the after- 
 noon came to an end. I retired, had a 
 good supper, and went to bed. 
 
 Next morning the Lord Bishop said Mass, 
 at which I was present ; he made his thanks- 
 giving, went to breakfast, and took me with 
 him ; he renewed his homily ai\d continued 
 it, and at last said that he thought my case 
 the most remarkable one of its kind that he 
 had ever heard of in his life. And he ended 
 by saying, "But is it really a fact?" I 
 replied, " Yes, my Lord ! " He answered, 
 " Don't think it odd that so unusual an 
 affair should be a strain on one's credulity.' 
 I said, " My Lord, I have told you the truth, 
 and, if a jury of matrons would set your 
 Lordship's doubts at rest, here I am ! " He 
 answered, " Well, I agree to that, and am 
 glad to hear you propose it." And I with- 
 drew, as it was his reception-time. I dined 
 at noon, and then rested a while. In the 
 afternoon, at about four, two matrons came 
 in, saw me, and were convinced, and after- 
 wards declared on oath before the Bishop 
 116
 
 that they had visited me, and were duly 
 enabled to certify that they had found me 
 a maid entire, as on the day I was born. 
 His lordship was touched, dismissed the 
 midwives, sent for me, and in the presence 
 of the chaplain who accompanied me, stood 
 up and embraced me tenderly, saying, "My 
 daughter, I believe without a doubt all that 
 you have told me, and I shall believe in 
 future whatever you may say ; and I respect 
 you as one of the remarkable people in this 
 world, and I promise to help you so far as 
 I can for your own benefit, and for the service 
 of God." He ordered a suitable room to be 
 got ready for me, where I stayed comfort- 
 ably, preparing for my confession, which I 
 made as well as I could ; and after this his 
 Lordship gave me Communion. It seems 
 that the truth leaked out, and an immense 
 crowd gathered, it being impossible to ex- 
 clude important personages much to my 
 regret and to his Lordship's. 
 
 At last, six days later, his Lordship made 
 up his mind to place me in the Convent 
 of St. Clare at Guamanga (the only convent 
 
 117
 
 of nuns there). I put on the habit, the 
 Bishop came forth from his house, leading 
 me beside him amid such a throng that 
 everybody in the city must have been there ; 
 so that it was a long while before we arrived. 
 At last we reached the door, it being im- 
 possible for us to go to the cathedral first 
 of all, as his Lordship had purposed, for the 
 building was packed as soon as his intention 
 became known. There the whole convent 
 awaited us with lighted candles. There the 
 Abbess and senior nuns signed a document, 
 in which the convent authorities undertook 
 to give me up to his Lordship, or to the 
 prelate who should succeed him, whenever 
 I was asked for. His Lordship embraced me 
 and gave me his blessing, and I went in. 
 They led me in procession to the choir, 
 where I prayed. I kissed the Abbess's hand 
 and, after embracing the nuns and being 
 embraced by them, I was taken to a par- 
 lour where his Lordship was waiting for 
 me. There he gave me good advice, ex- 
 horted me to be a good Christian, to give 
 thanks to Our Lord, and to frequent the 
 118
 
 sacraments, and his Lordship promised to 
 come and administer them to me (as he often 
 did, in fact) ; and, after generously offering 
 me everything I needed, he left. The news 
 of this event spread everywhere, and through- 
 out the Indies those who had seen me 
 previously, and those who before and after- 
 wards heard of my story, were amazed. 
 Within five months, in the year 1620, my 
 saintly Bishop died suddenly, and I missed 
 him sadly. 
 
 119
 
 CHAPTER XXI. DRESSED IN A NUN'S 
 HABIT, SHE GOES FROM GUAMANGA TO 
 LlMA BY ORDER OF HIS LORDSHIP THE 
 ARCHBISHOP, AND ENTERS THE TRINI- 
 TARIAN CONVENT SHE LEAVES IT, 
 RETURNS TO GUAMANGA, AND GOES ON 
 TO SANTA FE DE BOGOTA AND TENERIFE. 
 
 121
 
 SHORTLY after the death of his Lordship 
 of Guamanga, I was sent for by his 
 Lordship Don Bartolome" Lobo Guerrero, 
 Metropolitan Archbishop of Lima from (it is 
 said) the year 1607 till his death on January 12, 
 1622. The nuns parted from me with great 
 regret. I set out in a litter, accompanied by 
 six priests, four nuns, and six pien armed 
 with swords. 
 
 Though we entered Lima by night we could 
 not get through the press of people who had 
 gathered, curious to see the Nun Ensign. 
 They set me down at the Archbishop's house, 
 and I was yearning to get in. I kissed his 
 Lordship's hand, he received me graciously, 
 and gave me shelter there that night. Next 
 day I was taken to the Palace to see the 
 Viceroy, Don Francisco de Borja, Count de 
 Mayalde, Prince de Esquilache, who was in 
 office there from the year 1615 to 1622 ; 
 and I dined at his house that day. At night 
 I returned to the Archbishop's, where I had 
 a good supper and comfortable room. 
 
 On the following day his Lordship told me 
 to look about and choose which convent I 
 
 122
 
 should like to live in. I asked leave to see 
 them all, and he gave it, and I visited all, 
 saw them, and stayed four or five days in 
 each. At last I decided on the convent of 
 the Most Holy Trinity belonging to the Com- 
 mandresses of St. Bernard a large convent 
 which maintains a hundred nuns with black 
 veils, fifty with white veils, ten novices, ten 
 lay-sisters, and sixteen servants. I remained 
 there exactly two years and five months, till 
 clear proofs were sent from Spain that I 
 was not, and never had been, a professed 
 nun ; whereupon, to the universal regret of 
 all the nuns, I was allowed to leave the 
 convent, and I set out on the way to Spain. 
 First of all I went to Guamanga to see 
 the ladies in the convent of St. Clare and 
 to bid them farewell. They kept me there a 
 week, paying me many attentions, giving me 
 presents, and weeping at my departure. I 
 continued my journey to the city of Santa Fe 
 de Bogotd in the new kingdom of Granada. 
 I saw the Lord Bishop, Don Julian de 
 Cortazar, who strongly urged me to enter 
 the convent of my order there. I told him 
 
 123
 
 that I had no order nor religious vocation, 
 and that I was trying to get back to my 
 native country, where I should do what seemed 
 best to save my soul : whereupon he gave 
 me a handsome present, and I took leave of 
 him. I went to Zaragoza up the river Magda- 
 lena ; there I fell ill, and thought the soil 
 unhealthy for Spaniards, and was at death's 
 door. After a few days, being slightly better, 
 though unable to stand, I was ordered away 
 by a doctor, and I travelled down-stream to 
 Tenerife, where I soon recovered. 
 
 124
 
 CHAPTER XXII. SHE EMBARKS AT TENE- 
 RIFE AND GOES TO CARTAGENA, AND 
 THENCE STARTS FOR SPAIN WITH THE 
 FLEET. 
 
 125
 
 AS I there found that the fleet, under General 
 Tomas de Larraspuru, was starting for 
 Spain I embarked on his flagship in the year 
 1624. He received me with great courtesy, 
 paid me much attention, gave me a seat at 
 his table, and treated me thus till we were 
 two hundred leagues this side of the Strait 
 of Bahama. There was a quarrel one day 
 whilst we were gambling, and I happened to 
 give somebody a scratch in the face with a 
 little knife I had about me, and there was a 
 hullabaloo, and the General was obliged to 
 shift me and transfer me to the flagship of 
 the second in command, where there were men 
 from my part of the country. This was not 
 to my liking, so I begged to be sent on board 
 the tender San Telmo, commanded by Captain 
 Andres de Ot6n, which was a despatch-boat ; I 
 was transferred to it but suffered hardships, 
 for it leaked, and we were in danger of 
 drowning. 
 
 Thank God we arrived at Cadiz on Novem- 
 ber i, 1624. We disembarked, and I stayed 
 there a week, receiving great attentions from 
 Senor Don Fadrique de Toledo, General of 
 126
 
 ' We "were in danger of drowning?
 
 the Fleet, who had in his service two of my 
 brothers. I made their acquaintance and pre- 
 sented them to him, and as a compliment to 
 me he took them into favour, keeping one 
 of them on his own staff and giving the 
 other a pair of colours. 
 
 127
 
 CHAPTER XXI 1 1. SHE LEAVES CADIZ FOR 
 SEVILLE, AND LEAVES SEVILLE FOR MADRID, 
 PAMPLONA, AND ROME ; BUT, HAVING BEEN 
 ROBBED IN PIEDMONT, SHE RETURNS TO 
 SPAIN. 
 
 M 129
 
 FROM Cadiz I went to Seville and stayed 
 there a fortnight, keeping out of sight 
 as much as possible to escape the crowds 
 that thronged to see me dressed like a 
 man ; thence I passed on to Madrid, where 
 I remained twenty days without revealing 
 myself. There I was arrested (I don't know 
 why) by command of the Vicar, but the 
 Count de Olivares ordered me to be released 
 at once. There I was engaged by the Count 
 de Javier, who was starting for Pamplona, 
 and I set out and served him for about two 
 months. 
 
 Leaving the Count de Javier, I started from 
 Pamplona to Rome, it being the holy year 
 of the great jubilee. I made my way across 
 France and underwent great trials, for, while 
 passing through Piedmont, on reaching Turin 
 I was arrested on suspicion of being a Spanish 
 spy ; they robbed me of the few coins and 
 clothes I had, and kept me fifty 1 days in jail, 
 and at the end of this time, after (I suppose) 
 making investigations which disclosed nothing 
 against me, they released me. But they did 
 not allow me to go on my way, ordering me 
 130
 
 to turn back under penalty of the gallows ; 
 so back I had to go in distress, poor, on 
 foot, and a beggar. I reached Toulouse in 
 France, and presented myself before the Comte 
 de Gramont, 2 Viceroy of Pau and Governor 
 of Bayonne, to whom, when travelling the 
 other way, I had brought and handed letters 
 from Spain. This kindly gentleman was 
 shocked to see me, had me clothed, treated 
 me generously, and supplied me with a 
 hundred escudos and a horse for my journey, 
 and I set out. 
 
 I came to Madrid, presented myself before 
 His Majesty, and besought him to reward 
 my services, which I set forth in a petition that 
 I placed in his royal hand. His Majesty 
 referred me to the Council of the Indies, to 
 which I went, laying before it such papers 
 as remained over to me after being robbed. 
 The Council saw me, and, with the approval 
 of His Majesty, graciously granted me a life- 
 pension of eight hundred escudos a little less 
 than I had asked for. This happened in 
 the month of August, 1625. Meanwhile, 
 several experiences befell me at the capital
 
 which I omit as of no account. Shortly after- 
 wards His Majesty set out for the Cortes of 
 Arag6n, and reached Zaragoza at the beginning 
 of January, 1626. 
 
 132
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. SHE LEAVES MADRID 
 FOR BARCELONA.
 
 I STARTED on the road for Barcelona 
 with three other friends who were travel- 
 ling that way. We halted awhile at Lerida, 
 and set off again in the afternoon of Maundy 
 Thursday. Towards four in the afternoon, a 
 little before we came to Velpuche, while we 
 were gay and free from care, at a turn in the 
 road nine men sprang out of a^thicket on the 
 right, cocked their muskets, surrounded us, 
 and ordered us to dismount. We could do 
 nothing else, being thankful enough to dis- 
 mount alive. They took our arms, horses, 
 clothes, and everything we had about us 
 except our papers, which we begged of them 
 as a favour. After looking through them, 
 they gave them back to us, not leaving us 
 another stitch. 
 
 We went on our way, naked and ashamed, 
 and got to Barcelona during the night of 
 Holy Saturday, 1626, without knowing at 
 least I didn't know what to do. I don't 
 know where my companions went to look for 
 help. For my own part, by going from door 
 to door and telling everybody that I had been 
 plundered, I picked up some tattered clothes and
 
 a worn-out hood to cover me. As the night 
 went on I sneaked into a porch, where I found 
 some other poor devils stretched out, and 
 gathered that the King was in the city, and 
 that the Marquis de Montes-Claros a kind and 
 charitable gentleman whom I had met and 
 spoken to at Madrid was there on his staff. 
 I went to him in the morning and told him 
 of my disaster. The kindly gentleman was 
 distressed to see me, had me clothed at once, 
 and made an opportunity of presenting me to 
 His Majesty. 
 
 I entered, and told His Majesty how my 
 misfortune had happened. He listened to me, 
 and said, " But how did you let yourself be 
 robbed ? " I answered, " Sir, I couldn't do 
 more than I did." He asked me, " How 
 many of them were there ? " I said, " Nine, 
 Sir, with their muskets cocked, and they took 
 us by surprise as we were passing a thicket." 
 His Majesty motioned to me to give him my 
 petition. I kissed his hand and placed the 
 petition in it, and His Majesty said, " I will 
 see to it." His Majesty was then standing 
 up, and he passed out. I withdrew, and soon 
 
 135
 
 afterwards received the decree in which His 
 Majesty ordered them to give me four rations 
 as a half-pay ensign and thirty ducats as a 
 gift. Whereupon, having taken leave of the 
 Marquis de Montes-Claros, to whom I was 
 so much beholden, I shipped in the San 
 Martin, the new galley from Sicily, which 
 was starting for Genoa. 
 
 136
 
 CHAPTER XXV. SHE GOES FROM BARCE- 
 LONA TO GENOA, AND THENCE TO ROME.
 
 HAVING sailed from Barcelona on the 
 galley, we shortly reached Genoa, 
 where we stayed a fortnight. During that 
 time it occurred to me one day to go and see 
 the Controller-General, Pedro de Chavarria, of 
 the Order of Santiago. Apparently it was too 
 early, for the house was not open. I strolled 
 about to kill time, and then sar down on a 
 stone slab at Prince Doria's door ; and while 
 I was there a well-dressed man came and sat 
 down there too. He was a spruce soldier, 
 with flowing locks, whom I recognised as an 
 Italian by his speech. We bowed to one 
 another, began to talk, and he said to me, 
 " You are a Spaniard ? " I answered that I 
 was. He continued, " Well, then, you must 
 be conceited for all Spaniards are and arro- 
 gant as well, though they are not the heroes 
 they make themselves out to be." I said, 
 " For my part, I look upon them all as 
 genuine men in every respect." He answered, 
 " I look upon them all as so many turds." I 
 rose, remarking, " Don't talk like that, for the 
 vilest Spaniard is better than the best Italian." 
 He said, " Will you back what you say ? " 
 138
 
 I replied, "Yes, I will." He said, "Then the 
 sooner the better." I answered, "Good!" 
 And we went behind some waterworks near 
 by, he following me. We drew our rapiers, 
 and began cutting and thrusting ; and just 
 then I saw another man draw up beside him. 
 They cut and I parried ; I gave the Italian 
 a thrust, which sent him down. There 
 remained the other, and I was forcing him 
 to give way before me when up came a lame 
 man, but with plenty of pluck a friend, no 
 doubt who took his stand beside him and 
 pressed me closely. Another man came up 
 and took my side, perhaps because he saw 
 I was alone, for I didn't know him. So many 
 men joined in that the affair became a hurly- 
 burly, and so, fortunately, and without any 
 one's noticing it, I stole off, went to my galley, 
 and never heard what the end of it was. 
 There I dressed a slight wound in my hand. 
 At this time the Marquis de Santa Cruz was 
 at Genoa. 
 
 I left Genoa for Rome, kissed the foot of 
 His Holiness Urban VIII., and told him 
 briefly, as well as I could, about my life, wan-
 
 derings, sex, and virginity ; and His Holiness 
 was clearly amazed at my story and graciously 
 gave me leave to go on wearing man's clothes, 
 urging me to live uprightly in future, to avoid 
 injuring my neighbour, and to fear God's 
 vengeance respecting His commandment 
 Non occides. And then I withdrew. My case 
 became notorious in Rome, and I % saw myself 
 surrounded by a remarkable crowd of great 
 personages princes, bishops, and cardinals- 
 and every door was thrown open to me ; so 
 that, during the month and a half I spent in 
 Rome, there was seldom a day that I was not 
 invited and entertained by princes ; and one 
 Friday in particular, at the special order and 
 expense of the Roman Senate, I was invited 
 and entertained by certain gentlemen, and 
 they inscribed my name on the roll as a 
 Roman citizen. And on St. Peter's Day, 
 June 29, 1626, they took me into the Chapel 
 of St. Peter, where I saw the cardinals and 
 the usual ceremonies of that feast-day ; and 
 all, or most of them, showed me every atten- 
 tion and kindness, and many of them con- 
 versed with me. And in the evening, while 
 140
 
 three cardinals were standing round me, one of 
 them it was Cardinal Magalon said my only 
 defect was that I was a Spaniard. To which 
 I replied, " Speaking under correction, your 
 Eminence, I think that is the only good thing 
 about me."
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. FROM ROME SHE GOES 
 TO NAPLES.
 
 A FTER a month and a half in Rome, I 
 ^i- left there for Naples on July 5, 1626; 
 we embarked at Ripa. One day, while 
 sauntering on the quay at Naples, my atten- 
 tion was drawn to the guffaws of two 
 wenches who were gossiping with a couple of 
 youngsters and staring at me. I looked at 
 them, and one of them said, "Whither away, 
 my lady Catalina ? " I replied, " To give you 
 a hundred thumps on the scruff of your necks, 
 my lady strumpets, and a hundred slashes to 
 anybody who tries to defend you." They were 
 mum, and slunk off. 
 
 144
 
 "A hundred slashes to anybody who tries to lie/end yo
 
 LA MONJA ALF&REZ 
 
 COMEDIA FAMOSA DE 
 
 JUAN PEREZ DE MONTALBAN 
 
 N 145
 
 PERSONAS 
 
 DON DIEGO, galan 
 
 DON JUAN 
 
 GUZMAN (LA MONJA ALF&REZ, DONA CATALINA 
 
 DE ERAUSO) 
 DONA ANA, dama 
 MIGUEL DE ERAUSO, oficial 
 EL NUEVO CID, alfe'rez 
 EL CASTELLANO del CALLAO 
 EL VIZCONDE DE LA ZOLINA * 
 SEBASTIAN DE ILLUMBE, hidalgo 
 TEODORA, dama cortesana 
 TRISTAN, criado de D. Diego 
 MACHIN, criado de Guzman 
 INES, criada de Dona Ana 
 UN SOLDADO 
 
 UN ALCALDE DE CORTE 
 UN RELIGIOSO 
 PRESOS DE LA CARCEL
 
 LA MONJA ALFREZ 
 
 COMEDIA 
 
 JORNADA PRIMERA 
 
 ESCENA I. 
 
 GUZMAN Y MACHIN, de famine, 
 DONA ANA t INKS tea mantos. 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 No puedo enfrenar el llanto. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 No lo hubiera yo emprendido 
 Mi bien, si hubiera entendido 
 Que tii lo sintieras tanto. 
 Mas ya es hecho, tu, senora, 
 Eres culpada, yo no, 
 Pues que tu amor me oculto 
 Lo que me descubre ahora. 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 El favor mas limitado 
 De una principal muger, 
 
 147
 
 No basta para prender 
 La esperanza y el cuidado. 
 <; Puedo yo, siendo quien soy 
 Darte senales mas claras 
 De mi amor ? <r Y tu estimaras, 
 Los favores que te doy, 
 Si te entregase liviana 
 La posesion de mi pecho? 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Ya no hay remedio, ya es hecho 
 Mas, alivie mi Dona Ana, 
 Si mi ausencia te lastima, 
 El mal que sintiendo estas, 
 Ver que dos leguas no mas 
 Dista el Callao de Lima. 
 Y no dara luz la aurora, 
 Jamas al monte ni prado, 
 Sin que a mi me la haya dado 
 Ese sol que el alma adora. 
 Asi desmentir podre" 
 La ausencia que te amenaza, 
 Que supuesto que la plaza 
 Yo de soldado asent, 
 Y en el puerto he de asistir, 
 Las noches que estar de posta 
 148
 
 No me toque ; por la posta 
 A verte podr6 venir. 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 Con eso no solamente 
 Se alivian mis sentimientos, 
 Mas es para mis tormentos 
 El medio mas conveniente : 
 Pues si de las ansias mias 
 La envidiosa diligencia 
 Tuvo indicios, con tu ausencia 
 Desmentimos las espias : 
 Que ya sabes que el efeto 
 De poderte ver y hablar, 
 Solamente ha de durar 
 Lo que durare el secreto ; 
 Y asi de nuevo te pido, 
 Que la palabra me des 
 De no rompello, aunque estes 
 Ya zeloso, ya ofendido. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Y de nuevo te prometo 
 Que no sepa mi cuidado 
 De mf, sino este criado, 
 Que es ejemplo del secreto. 
 
 149
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 No viene Machin de casta 
 Que se pierde por hablar 
 Pues para saber callar, 
 Soy Vizcaino, que basta. 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 Pues Alonso de Guzman 
 Hace de ti confianza, 
 Esa es la mayor probanza 
 Que tus meritos me dan. 
 Y tu (d Guzman), porque la ocasion 
 Jamas pierdas de venir 
 A verme, sin que inferir 
 Pueda nadie tu aficion : 
 Pues es la curiosidad 
 Tan necia que te podria 
 Poner una oculta espia, 
 Que al entrar en la ciudad 
 Te siguiese y nuestro amor 
 Viniera a saberse, quiero 
 Que el caballo mas ligero, 
 Del indiano picador 
 Agitado, escede al viento, 
 Obedezca a tu cuidado, 
 Porque pedirlo prestado, 
 150
 
 No de" indicios de tu intento : 
 
 (Dale una cadena.} 
 Del valor de esta cadena 
 Puedes comprallo, y advierte, 
 Que pues en verte 6 no verte 
 Esta mi gloria, 6 mi pena, 
 No haya estorbo que resista 
 El efeto d mi deseo, 
 Si cuanta hacienda poseo 
 Me ha de costar una vista. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 <iQu diligencia y cuidado 
 En servirte no pondra, 
 Quien de tu favor esta 
 For mil partes obligado ? 
 Esta cadena recibo, 
 Mas porque sus eslabones 
 Manifiesten las prisiones 
 En que enamorado vivo 
 Que por comprar el caballo : 
 Que donde es tal el favor, 
 Alas son los pies de amor 
 Para volar a gozallo. 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 A Dios pues, que estoy temiendo
 
 La asechanza cuidadosa 
 De alguna aficion zelosa. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Aunque de oillo me ofendo, 
 Trueco a tu opinion, sefiora, 
 Los sentimientos mas graves. 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 No hay que advertirte pues sabes 
 La sefia, ventana y hora.... (Vase.) 
 
 ESCENA II. 
 GUZMAN Y MACHIN. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 <; Qu6 dices de mi ventura ? 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Que pasa gran tempestad 
 Tu voto de castidad, 
 Entre ocasion y hermosura : 
 Pero Don Diego tu amigo 
 Viene aqui.... 
 152
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Mucho sintiera 
 Que a Dona Ana conociera 
 Si agora la vi6 conmigo : 
 
 (Aparte.) 
 
 Cuando mi pecho le estima... 
 De tal suerte, que por dar 
 A sus temores lugar, 
 Gusto de salir de Lima. 
 
 ESCENA III. 
 
 GUZMAN, MACHIN, DON DIEGO, 
 TRISTAN. 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 Era ya tiempo de veros 
 Guzman amigo. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 El buscaros 
 
 Pudiera escusar, si hallaros 
 Ha de ser para perderos.
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 <iC6mo ? 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 De Lima me ausento 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 <iQu dices? 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 A 
 
 Mi natural 
 
 Inclinacion es martial, 
 Y vivo en la paz violento, 
 Y al rey me parto a servir 
 En el puerto. 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 No me mueve 
 Ser la distancia tan breve, 
 A que deje de sentir 
 La ausencia vuestra, Guzman. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Tantas veces volvere 
 A veros, cuantas me de 
 Licencia mi capitan. 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 Porque podais acordaros, 
 Y por ser en la milicia
 
 La gala de mas codicia, 
 Un penacho quiero daros 
 Escelente, cuyas plumas 
 En la fineza y color, 
 Unas son alas de amor, 
 Y otras de Venus espumas. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Yo lo estimo, porque veo, 
 Que en el, Don Diego, me dais 
 Las alas que imaginais 
 Que en vuestra ausencia deseo. 
 Mas pues me le dais por prenda 
 De memoria, aunque confia 
 De vuestra amistad la mia 
 Que el olvido no la ofenda, 
 Os quiero dar unos guantes, 
 (Los guantes que saque Guzman serdn 
 
 de ante muy bor dados) 
 En la hechura y el olor, 
 En la materia y valor, 
 A los que veis semejantes : 
 Que cuando por su estrana 
 Novedad los estimeis, 
 Hacello al menos podreis 
 Por ser hechos en Espana.
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 De vos en todo escedido 
 Y obligado me confieso, 
 Y por venceros en eso, 
 Me quiero dar por vencido. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Estos brazos os daran * 
 La respuesta. A Dios Don Diego. 
 (Abrdzanse.) 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 A Dios : Tristan, lleva luego 
 Aquel penacho a Guzman. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Siglos, Machin, considero 
 Para partir los instantes : 
 Lleva a Don Diego los guantes, 
 Que puesto a caballo espero.... 
 
 (Vase.) 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Yo lo hare, mas si supiera 
 Que tti no habias de rompellos 
 Por Dios que te hubiera dellos 
 Cortado una bigotera. (Vase.) 
 156
 
 ESCENA IV. 
 DON DIEGO, TRISTAN. 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 <j Que* te detiene Tristan ? 
 
 TRISTAN. 
 
 Solo el decirte que vf 
 Mientras hablabas aqui 
 Con Alfonso de Guzman 
 A Dona Ana. 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 Dame, amor, 
 La ventura en alcanzar 
 Como el cuidado en seguir. 
 
 TRISTAN. 
 Todo se alcanza obligando. 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 O he de vivir alcanzando, 
 
 O siguiendo he de morir. (Vase.} 
 
 '57
 
 ESCENA V. 
 
 MIGUEL DE ERAUSO, (vestido de 
 soldado, y en jubon, abriendo una carta, 
 y va dentro de ella un retrato.} 
 
 MIGUEL (fee el sobrescrito y luego la carta.) 
 
 Al alferez Miguel de Erauso, mi hijo, en el puerto del 
 Callao, en los reinos del Peru. 
 
 Hijo, valga por testamento esta carta, pues me 
 tiene a las puertas de la muerte la afrenta que 
 vuestra hermana Catalina nos ha hecho, ausentan- 
 dose ocultamente de San Sebastian. No os lo he 
 escrito antes, aunque ya hace trece anos, por escu- 
 saros la pena ; mas agora por haber entendido que 
 paso a esos reinos en trage de varon, por el deseo 
 de su remedio, atropello vuestro sentimiento. Si la 
 suerte 6 la diligencia la hallare, noble sois y cuerdo, 
 y sabreis lo que habeis de hacer. Dios os guarde. 
 De San Sebastian, a 20 de febrero de 1618 anos, 
 Vuestro padre, MIGUEL DE ERAUSO. 
 
 ^C6mo es posible que haya yo leido 
 Estos renglones, sin haber perdido 
 Si no la vida el seso ? 
 jQue se arrojase a tan infame esceso, 
 158
 
 Muger que naci6 noble, cielo santo ! 
 
 Mas si naci6 muger ^de que" me espanto? 
 
 jO carta que el veneno por los ojos 
 
 Disteis al alma ! en atomos despojos 
 
 De mi furor, al viento 
 
 Informad de mi grave sentimiento. 
 
 (Rompe la carta.) 
 
 No os pongan las crueldades de mi suerte 
 O mi vecina, ya forzosa muerte 
 En ageno poder, para que al suelo 
 Sirvais en mi deshonra por libelo. 
 Y tu, retrato, si tambien del dueno, 
 Que representas por la semejanza, 
 La fealdad y engano no te alcanza, 
 Libra mi honor de tan infame empefio, 
 Verdad me informa, porque conocella 
 Puedo por tf, si acaso llego a vella. 
 Mas en diverse trage, y las facciones 
 Ya de los anos, del calor, del frio, 
 Mudadas, y en ame>icas regiones 
 Que son tan dilatadas, desvarfo 
 Sera el querer buscalla, 
 Ni prometerme que podran hallalla 
 Cuidado, ingenio, 6 diligencia alguna ; 
 Encomiendolo al tiempo y la fortuna.
 
 ESCENA VI. 
 
 MIGUEL, EL NUEVO CID, GUZMAN 
 MACHIN, UN SOLDADO. 
 
 EL CID. 
 
 Sepa sefior soldado 
 
 Que en esta fuerza, es fuero ^a asentado 
 
 Que paguen los bisonos la patente. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Pues yo que no lo soy, no solamente 
 No tengo de pagalla, 
 Mas de quien me la pida he de cobralla, 
 Que soy Alonso de Guzman.... 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 ^ Qu6 es esto ? 
 
 EL CID. 
 
 Sabed Miguel Erauso que el soldado 
 Que mirais, mas cerril que desbarbado, 
 Nos niega la patente. 
 
 GUZMAN ( aparte ). 
 
 jOh santos cielos! 
 Este es mi hermano. 
 
 EL CID. 
 
 Diga ^en qu6 se fia? 
 1 60
 
 Mas barba, amigo, y menos valentia ; 
 Sepa que a mi me llaman por mal nombre 
 El nuevo Cid, ye"! es apenas hombre, 
 Por que es razon que note 
 Que el valor se divisa del bigote. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Pues porque este" el valor mas en su centre 
 Echo yo los bigotes hacia dentro 
 Y basta.... 
 
 MACHIN (aparte). 
 
 Aqui entro yo, que ya se enoja, 
 Y esta dos dedos de sacar la hoja. 
 {Miguel mira atentamente d Alonso de 
 
 Guzman.} 
 
 Sefior, advierte, que esta es ley que puso 
 El uso, y no es estafa lo que es uso. 
 
 EL CID. 
 
 Es cierto : que jamas la cortesia 
 Militar, permitio supercheria. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Por ese estilo sf, mostralles quiero, 
 Que estimo la opinion mas que el dinero ; 
 Todos conmigo come'ran mafiana. 
 
 EL CID. 
 Con eso a todos por amigos gana. 
 
 o 161
 
 SOLD ADO. 
 
 Pues quedese esto asi ; y agora un rato 
 Al ocio le sirvamos este plato ; 
 
 (Saca unos naipes.) 
 <;Jugais Alonso de Guzman? 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 A todo ; 
 Pero mas a los dados me acocnodo. 
 
 EL CID. 
 Usanse poco en la region indiana. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 <?A que hemos de jugar ? 
 EL CID. 
 
 ,?No es cosa liana 
 
 Que en el Peru no saben los tahures 
 Otro juego mejor que los albures ? 
 (Juegan a los naipes sobre un bufete, 
 y Miguel un poco aparte mira atento 
 d Guzman.) 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Senor soldado : diga por su vida 
 <; Por aca los que ganan son ingratos ? 
 <; Suelen vender muy caros los baratos ? 
 
 SOLDADO. 
 Los soldados son gente muy partida. 
 
 162
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Esos son los percances de un criado, 
 Que esta a mirar perpetuo condenado. 
 
 MIGUEL (aparte}. 
 
 Dicen que el pastor cuando ha perdido 
 Alguna oveja, como esta advertido 
 A buscarla no mas, se la semeja 
 Cualquiera voz, balido de su oveja. 
 Que a ml con el cuidado 
 Que mi perdida hermana me ha causado, 
 Cualquier joven que viere, en quien el sello 
 No ponga de la edad al rostro el vello, 
 He de pensar que es ella, y ya el deseo 
 Comienza a ejecutallo en el que veo, 
 Pues no solo en la voz, el rostro y talle 
 Me parece muger, mas me parece, 
 Que las facciones que su rostro ofrece 
 Las del retrato son : .quiero miralla 
 Unas con otras partes confiriendo ; 
 Mas.... jqu locura acreditar pretendo ! 
 Si este es Alonso de Guzman <;desecha 
 No deja su valor cualquier sospecha ? 
 
 GUZMAN (aparte). 
 
 Si no es de mi temor esta advertencia 
 Suspense, atento, cuidadoso y mudo, 
 
 163
 
 Me contempla mi hermano, mas no pudo, 
 Aunque tenga noticia de mi historia, 
 Conservar de mi rostro la memoria, 
 Las especies despues de tanta ausencia ; 
 Y mas haciendo en mf tal diferencia 
 La edad, el trage, el brio y el estado : 
 En vano me desvela este cuidado. 
 
 MIGUEL. 
 
 Si es ella, d recatarse ha de obligalla 
 El verme pensativo : descuidalla 
 Disimulando importa, que ocasiones 
 Me daran con el tiempo sus acciones, 
 Yendo con advertencia, 
 Con que de la sospecha haga evidencia. 
 (Lldgase d jugar.) 
 
 EL CID. 
 Mas, al caballo cuatro patacones. 
 
 MIGUEL. 
 
 Conmigo van. 
 
 EL CID. 
 
 j Que" presto viene el siete ! 
 i Que juegue yo los naipes? j voto a Cristo! 
 
 MIGUEL. 
 
 So alfe"rez, ,mo me paga? 
 
 EL CID. 
 
 Estaba visto. 
 164
 
 MIGUEL. 
 
 No estaba. 
 
 EL CID. 
 Yo lo digo, 
 Y basta. 
 
 MIGUEL. 
 
 ^Pues conmigo 
 Habla de esa manera ? 
 
 SOLDADO. 
 
 No se espante 
 Que esta perdiendo. 
 
 MIGUEL. 
 
 No ha de ser bastante 
 Para que me hable a mf con arrogancia. 
 
 EL CID. 
 
 Aunque no pierda puedo yo tenella. 
 Porque yo soy..... 
 
 MIGUEL. 
 
 Para conmigo nada. 
 EL CID. 
 Yo soy mejor que vos. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Mentis villano. 
 
 (Dale con la daga en la cabeza Guzman 
 al Cid: sacan todos las espadas.) 
 
 165
 
 EL CID. 
 
 La lengua he de cortaros y la mano. 
 
 MIGUEL. 
 
 <iNo tengo espada yo, Guzman? jqu es 
 
 esto ! 
 
 <:No veis que es agraviarme 
 Vengarme vos, pudiendo yo v^ngarme ? 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Hecha donde yo estoy la demasfa, 
 Siempre la tomo yo por cuenta mia. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Esto es hecho, alld va la Vizcaina, 
 Que nunca vuelve sin hacer cecina. 
 
 ESCENA VII. 
 
 LOS DICHOS, EL CASTELLANO DEL 
 CALLAO, 
 
 (en ciierpo con baston.) 
 
 CASTELLANO. 
 
 j Soldados, ola ! 
 
 166
 
 SOLDADO. 
 
 Este es el Castellano. 
 
 CASTELLANO. 
 
 Tenganse ; 6 j vive Dios ! 
 
 EL CID. 
 
 Obedeceros 
 Es fuerza. 
 
 CASTELLANO. 
 
 Envainen luego los aceros. 
 Y cudntenme que es esto. 
 
 MIGUEL. 
 
 Ya no es nada, 
 
 Sobre palabras desnude" la espada 
 Con el alfe'rez.... (hdblale en secreto.) 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 j Buena la hemos hecho ! 
 GUZMAN (aparte). 
 
 No pude mas, enfureci6me el pecho 
 La ofensa de mi hermano : 
 Y de la sangre el impetu violento 
 Me arrebat6 el primero movimiento. 
 
 CASTELLANO. 
 
 Siendo asi, Nuevo Cid, dadle la mano, 
 Que con sacar la espada habeis quedado 
 Entrambos bien. 
 
 (Danse la mano el Nitevo Cid y Miguel.} 
 
 167
 
 EL CID. 
 
 La mano os doy de amigo 
 
 CASTELLANO. 
 
 Tambien la habeis de dar a este soldado ; 
 
 Porque si cuando os ofendi6 tenia 
 
 La daga ya en la mano, caso es llano 
 
 Que nadie a su enemigo 
 
 Agravia con las armas en la mano. 
 
 (Dale la mano a Guzman.) 
 Y si hubo en ello alguna demasfa, 
 Eso es lo que ha de obrar mi terceria. 
 
 EL CID. 
 Vos lo mandais, respondo obedeciendo, 
 
 (Aparte.) 
 
 Que sois mi superior : mas yo me entiendo, 
 Que no estoy obligado, 
 Sinti6ndome agraviado, 
 A guardar la amistad que he prometido. 
 
 SOLDADO. 
 
 Alferez, ivais herido? 
 
 EL CID. 
 Pienso que no. (Vase.) 
 
 SOLDADO. 
 
 Debi6 de dar de llano : 
 Como un nabo le parte, si la mano 
 168
 
 Vuelve de filo : informacion ha hecho 
 
 El lampino de ser de pelo en pecho. (Vase.) 
 
 CASTELLANO. 
 
 Agradezca el soldado 
 
 Que del virey me vino encomendado, 
 
 Que sino yo le hiciera 
 
 Con un trato de cuerda, que supiera 
 
 Que no se ha de arrojar tan atrevido 
 
 A perder a un alfe>ez el respeto, 
 
 Que aunque no es oficial suyo, en efeto 
 
 For el puesto que ocupa le es debido. 
 
 (A Mac kin.) 
 
 Y vos mancebo, que tambien inquieto 
 Imitais vuestro dueno, yo os prometo 
 Si dais otra ocasion, que os de" la pena 
 Escarmiento colgado de una almena. (Vase.) 
 
 ESCENA VIII. 
 GUZMAN Y MACHIN. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Y lo hara, vive Dios, como lo dice, 
 
 Que no es hombre de burla el Castellano. 
 
 <jQu6 dices tii, senor ? 
 
 169
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Que ya lo hice, 
 
 Y que gustosa me quedo la mano 
 Del coscorron que le asente de llano ; 
 Pero la noche viene, y el dinero 
 De la cadena ha dado fin, y quiero, 
 Pedir otro socorro a mi Dona Ana : 
 El caballo preven, que la manana 
 Nos ha de hallar de vuelta en el castillo. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Yo voy a prevenillo 
 Alegre, porque ver a Ines deseo, 
 Y triste porque veo, 
 Que me lleva en sus ancas tu caballo, 
 Y es tal la matadura y tanto el callo, 
 Que tengo ya de sus trotonerfas 
 Que pienso que le llevo yo en las mias. 
 
 (Vanse.) 
 
 ESCENA IX. 
 MIGUEL. 
 
 Si ofrecen los afectos naturales 
 De la oculta verdad claras senales, 
 170
 
 conjetura 6 prevencion mas liana 
 De que es esta mi hermana, 
 Que el repentino ardor y ciega furia 
 Con que dio fuego al golpe de mi injuria? 
 Del natural amor y sentimiento 
 Fue aquel involuntario movimiento, 
 Que con la lengua respondi6 y la mano, 
 Al soy me/or que vos, mentis villano : 
 Mas con otra esperiencia, 
 Tengo de confirmar por evidencia 
 Mi sospecha, y podre" determinarme 
 Sin declarar mi afrenta, a declararme. 
 
 (Vase.) 
 
 ESCENA X. 
 DOftA ANA 6 INKS (A la ventana). 
 
 DOftA ANA. 
 
 Ya no bastan las prisiones 
 
 De mi honor y de mi fama, 
 
 A oprimir la ardiente llama 
 
 De mis resueltas pasiones. 
 
 Y en esto por cosa liana 
 
 Tengo, Ines, que ha de afrentarme 
 
 171
 
 Mas, en priblico casarme, 
 Que en secreto ser villana 
 Que si Alonso de Guzman 
 Es en Lima forastero, 
 A quien su brazo y acero 
 Solamente nombre dan : 
 Que su sangre, y nacimiento, 
 Y su calidad, se ignora, 
 Cuando mis desdenes llora 
 Y aspira a mi casamiento 
 El noble Don Diego en vano, 
 Claro esta que era buscar 
 Mi afrenta publica, dar 
 De esposa a Guzman la mano. 
 Y asi pues muero de amor, 
 Resuelvo comprar la vida 
 Con prenda que no es perdida 
 Mientras se oculta el error. 
 
 INES. 
 
 Tanto te he visto penar 
 Que vence de tu tormento 
 La piedad, al sentimiento 
 De verte asi despenar; 
 Y ya que a tan ciego efeto 
 
 Llegas a determinarte, 
 172
 
 Confia, que he de ayudarte 
 Con lealtad y con secreto. 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 A lo mucho que te quiero 
 Responde tu obligacion. 
 
 INES. 
 Gente viene. 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 El corazon 
 Me dice que es el que espero. 
 
 ESCENA XI. 
 
 DONA ANA, INES, GUZMAN Y 
 MACHIN. 
 
 (Las primer as en la ventana, y los tiltimos 
 en la calle.) 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Valgate el diablo el rocin 
 Y lo que me ha batanado. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Tu eres para enamorado 
 Muy delicado, Machin :
 
 Pero ya es hora de ver 
 A mi querida Dona Ana, 
 Quiero hacer a la ventana 
 La sena. 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 No es menester. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 <? Aqui estas hermoso duefto ? 
 Mi cuidado previniste. 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 El pecho en que amor asiste 
 Da breve tribute al sueno. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Tu desvelo ha adivinado 
 
 La necesidad que tengo 
 
 De abreviar puntos, que vengo 
 
 En confianza obligado, 
 
 A que la aurora ha de hallarme 
 
 En mi prision. 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 ^ Estas preso? 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Hice, senora, un esceso 
 Que pienso que ha de costarme 
 Cuidado y desasosiego, 
 174 Y dinero.
 
 MACHIN (aparte). 
 Dispar6. 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 Cuanta hacienda tengo yo 
 Tienes por tuya. 
 
 MACHIN (aparte). 
 
 Di6 fuego. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Pienso que me has de obligar 
 A ser cobarde con eso, 
 Si en haciendo yo el esceso 
 Tii, mi bien, lo has de pagar. 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 Yo estoy, Guzman, con temor 
 De que en la calle te vean, 
 Que hay muchos que la pasean 
 Desvelados de otro amor. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 <;Tan apriesa me despides? 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 No despido, antes te pido 
 Que no pongas en olvido 
 Los favores que me pides. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Me>ito es la cobardia, 
 Siendo tan alta la empresa.
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 Sin me*ritos se confiesa 
 Quien amando desconfia ; 
 Y yo que conozco en tf 
 Lo que bastara a vencerme, 
 Resuelvo que entres a verme 
 Para confesarlo asi ; 
 Y para que la ocasion * 
 Evite, que puedes dar 
 En la calle de infamar 
 De liviana mi opinion. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Favor tan no merecido 
 Ya lo toco, y no lo creo, 
 Que aun ocultando el deseo 
 Lo acusaba de atrevido. 
 Solo temo, hermoso dueno, 
 Tu peligro en mi ventura. 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 La oscuridad me asegura 
 Y a mi padre ocupa el suefto. 
 Con silencio a paso lento 
 For tinieblas seguiras 
 Mis plantas, y llegaras 
 Sin peligro a mi aposento. 
 176
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Ya con la gloria que espero, 
 Un punto d mil siglos pasa. 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 Voy a disponer la casa, 
 Que matar las luces quiero 
 Para mas seguridad. 
 Aguardame tii y Machin 
 A la puerta. 
 
 (Vanse Dona Ana 4 Ines.) 
 
 ESCENA XII. 
 GUZMAN Y MACHIN. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Aqui di6 fin 
 El voto de castidad. 
 For Dios que he de ver agora 
 Si aguardas dispensacion 
 A oscuras, y en la ocasion, 
 Con quien amas, y te adora. 
 
 p 177
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 ,; Luego yo me he de poner 
 En el peligro ? 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Pues ya : 
 
 Cuando la ocasion esta 
 En tus manos, <qu has de hacer ? 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 El remedio es no aguardalla. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Es agravio declarado. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Con lo mismo que has pensado 
 Que la ofendo, he de obligalla. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 < ;C6mo ? 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 El secreto y recato 
 Es la primer condicion, 
 Que ha puesto a mi pretension ; 
 Pues en este breve rato, 
 Que tarda en abrir, dire 
 Que vino gente a la calle 
 Y que yo por no arriesgalle 
 La opinion, me retire" ;
 
 Y que mostrando celosa 
 Curiosidad me siguieron, 
 Y alcanzandome quisieron 
 Conocerme, y fue forzosa 
 Mi resistencia, y asi 
 Dur6 la marcial porfla, 
 Hasta que la luz del dia 
 Nos puso en paz, y de aquf 
 Levantare* una pendencia 
 Por zelos, con que ni deje 
 Ocasion, de que se queje 
 Dona Ana de aquella ausencia, 
 Ni tenga por mal partido 
 Poderme desenojar. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Gente viene alii. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Ayudar 
 
 Mis intentos ban querido 
 Los cielos con la verdad, 
 Ven. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Por ti pierdo a Ines, 
 De participantes es 
 Tu voto de castidad. (Vanse.) 
 
 179
 
 ESCENA XIII. 
 DON DIEGO Y DON JUAN. 
 
 (Es de noche, Don Diego saca los guantes 
 de Guzman.) 
 
 DON JUAN. 
 
 Parece que se retiran 
 De la calle con cuidado, 
 Pues recelo os han causado 
 Sepamos por quien suspiran. 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 Aunque intentemos seguillos, 
 Es imposible alcanzallos, 
 Y pues los zelos es dallos 
 Mucho mejor que pedillos, 
 Guardemos la puerta y calle 
 De Dona Ana, y ellos vengan. 
 Dado caso que los tengan 
 Por agravio a averigualle : 
 Pues de creer es de que aspiran 
 Si no vuelven a otro amor, 
 O he de quedar superior 
 Si ofendidos se retiran. 
 1 80
 
 DON JUAN. 
 
 Bien decis. 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 Don Juan, callad, 
 Que la puerta de Dona Ana 
 Siento abrir. 
 
 DON JUAN. 
 
 No ha sido vana 
 Vuestra sospecha. 
 
 ESCENA XIV. 
 
 DON DIEGO, DON JUAN, DONA 
 
 ANA. 
 
 (Asdmase Dona Ana al pano^ toma la mano 
 a Don Diego, y este la da d Don Juan, 
 y van por el teatro como d oscuras ; Don 
 Diego se quita los guantes y los pone en 
 la guarnicion de la espada.) 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 Llegad, 
 
 Dadme la mano, y con tiento 
 Seguid mis pasos los dos. 
 
 181
 
 DON DIEGO (aparte). 
 La que adoro es, vive Dios : 
 Gozar la ocasion intento. 
 
 DON JUAN (aparte). 
 \ Notable engano ! 
 
 DON DIEGO (aparte). 
 
 <iQu6 dudo? 
 
 Hoy tomo justa venganza, 
 Y amor enganado alcanza, 
 Lo que obligado no pudo. 
 
 DON JUAN. 
 
 La perdida ocasion es 
 De los cobardes que huyeron ; 
 Y pienso, pues la perdieron, 
 Llevar de barato d Ines. (Vanse.} 
 
 ESCENA XV. 
 
 MIGUEL, Y TEODORA (de ramera en 
 chine las]. 
 
 TEODORA. 
 
 Como te digo enganada 
 Me trae toda la vida, 
 182
 
 Si ha hecho voto, 6 no ha hecho 
 
 voto, 
 
 Y de la romana silla 
 La relajacion aguarda ; 
 Y dilatando los dias, 
 Trae mi deseo enganado, 
 Mi libertad oprimida. 
 Yo en tu valor confiada 
 Con semejante desdicha 
 Espero con confianza, 
 Que del rigor de su ira 
 Me libres, siendo sagrado 
 De mi libertad cautiva. 
 
 MIGUEL. 
 
 Yo te lo ofrezco, no temas, 
 Que estando por cuenta mia, 
 No se atrevera a ofenderte. 
 
 TEODORA. 
 
 Tu, alfe"rez, le notifica 
 
 Mi intento, que el fin del caso 
 
 Quiero aguardar escondida. (Vase.] 
 
 183
 
 ESCENA XVI. 
 MIGUEL. 
 
 <|Que falta para que entienda 
 Que es mi hermana Catalina, 
 Este fingido Guzman? 
 jQue un mozo d quien solicitan 
 La ocasion, bella muger, 
 Y la edad mas encendida. 
 For el voto, no es creible 
 Que a los impulses resista 
 De los deleites de Venus ; 
 Y mas cuando de su vida 
 En lo demas sus costumbres, 
 De santo no le acreditan ! 
 Pues si con esto se juntan 
 La natural simpatia 
 Con que mi ofensa sinti6, 
 Si el retrato lo confirma, 
 Si Teodora con no estar 
 De esta sospecha advertida 
 Dice, que no sabe en qu 
 Nuestros rostros simbolizan, 
 <[Que indicios mas evidentes, 
 184
 
 senales mas precisas 
 Para resolverme espero? 
 
 ESCENA XVII. 
 MIGUEL, GUZMAN Y MACHIN. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Pon al caballo la silla 
 Mientras escribo a Dona Ana 
 La ocasiones fingidas 
 De la que perdi esta noche. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Entre amores y mentiras, 
 Toca el punto del dinero, 
 Vende caras tus caricias, 
 Ya que me obligas a ser 
 Lanzadera de aqui a Lima. ( Vase.} 
 
 ESCENA XVIII. 
 MIGUEL Y GUZMAN. 
 
 MIGUEL (aparte). 
 Ya que a solas he quedado 
 Pues la ocasion me convida, 
 
 185
 
 Saldre de esta confusion ; 
 
 (A Guzman.) 
 Guzman a buscaros iba. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 <r Hay en que* os sirva ? 
 
 MIGUEL. 
 
 El alf<6rez 
 
 Que agraviado se imagina^ 
 Dice, que la mano di6 
 Forzado de quien podia 
 Mandarlo, a las amistades 
 En tal caso no le obligan ; 
 Y para satisfacerse 
 Dos a dos nos desafia, 
 Y en el campo nos aguarda. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 En poco tiene la vida : 
 Vamos presto, no atribuya 
 La tardanza a cobardia. 
 
 MIGUEL. 
 
 Seguidme que no es tan lejos. 
 
 (Aparte.) 
 
 i C6mo es posible que viva 
 En un pecho mugeril 
 Tan varonil osadfa, 
 186
 
 Si cuantos espada empunan 
 En la guerra y paz afirman, 
 Que salir a un desaflo 
 Es la mayor valenda? 
 Mas si cuentan las historias, 
 Ya modernas, y ya antiguas 
 Tantas matronas, jamas 
 De humanas fuerzas vencidas, 
 <; Que mucho que las iguale 
 Una muger vizcaina, 
 Engendrada entre las duras 
 Montanas que el hierro crian? 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 <; D6nde estan nuestros contraries ? 
 Que largo trecho la vista 
 Del campo raso descubre, 
 Y no parecen. 
 
 MIGUEL. 
 
 For dicha 
 No han llegado ; el sitio es este. 
 
 GUZMAN (aparte). 
 Recelos me solicitan 
 De algun enganoso intento 
 De mi hermano, que la misma 
 Conciencia, aunque nadie pudo
 
 De quien soy darle noticias, 
 En la mayor confianza 
 Me acusa y atemoriza, 
 Pero no he de declararme 
 Aunque me cueste la vida. 
 
 MIGUEL (aparte). 
 Usar quiero de cautela 
 Que si no es quien imagina 
 Mi pecho, no me esta bien 
 Que sepa la afrenta mia ; 
 
 (A Guzman.) 
 Cansado vengo de andar 
 For esta playa arenisca : 
 Asent&nonos pues tarda, 
 (Sie'ntanse, Miguel d una parte del teatro, 
 y Guzman d otra lejos de 41.) 
 El Nuevo Cid. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Poco estima 
 Su opinion, pues tanto tarda. 
 
 MIGUEL (aparte). 
 Con cuidado se retira 
 De mi, cierta es mi sospecha, 
 Su recelo la confirma. 
 (A Guzman. ) 
 188
 
 ,; Porqu6 os asentais tan lejos ? 
 Que mientras vienen querria, 
 Que vuestra patria, y discurso 
 Me conteis de vuestra vida. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Desde aquf os la contare" 
 Que esta pefia me con vida 
 Con asiento acomodado. 
 
 MIGUEL. 
 
 El ruido que en la orilla 
 Del mar, forma la resaca 
 En las pefias, combatidas, 
 Nuestras voces desvanece, 
 Y d hablar a gritos obliga 
 Para entendernos ; mas yo 
 Quiero que esta cortesia 
 Me debais 
 
 (Levdntase, va hacia Guzman, y este empuna 
 
 la espada.) 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Teneos, alfe*rez. 
 
 MIGUEL. 
 
 <; Qu haceis, Guzman ? 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 No prosigan
 
 Vuestros pies : no os acerqueis, 
 Porque os quitar6 la vida. 
 
 MIGUEL. 
 
 ^De mi os recelais? 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Si he hecho 
 
 En Espafia, y en las Indias 
 Mil escesos, mil injurias, 
 Y agravios mil, qu& os admira ; 
 Que me recele, de quien 
 No conozco si podria 
 Tocaros en sangre alguna 
 Persona de mi ofendida ? 
 Y mas cuando contra vos 
 Esta sospecha acredita 
 Del Nuevo Cid la tardanza : 
 i Que s6 yo, si como mira 
 Los escrupulos del duelo 
 Tan curiosa la malicia, 
 Os ofendisteis de mi 
 Cuando pens que os servia, 
 Vengando en el vuestria injuria ! 
 Pues en la pendencia misma 
 De este sentimiento disteis 
 Senales tan conocidas. 
 190
 
 MIGUEL. 
 
 Guzman, Guzman, todas esas 
 Son ficciones que fabrica 
 Para ocultar la verdad 
 Vuestro pecho, que imagina 
 Que la ignore ; hablemos claros, 
 Yo tengo cierta noticia 
 De vuestro mentido trage, 
 De Vizcaya me lo avisan, 
 Con senas, y con retratos, 
 Que vuestro engafio averiguan ; 
 Aqui los truje, que quiero 
 Que entre los dos se decida 
 El remedio con secreto : 
 Poned en esto la mira 
 Sin perder tiempo en negar, 
 Lo que a no ser tan precisas 
 Las probanzas que lo muestran, 
 Vuestros temores publican. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 No entiendo vuestros intentos, 
 Ni alcanzo vuestros enigmas : 
 Mas pues las razones muestran, 
 Que vuestro pecho delira, 
 Quiero dejaros por loco. 
 (Quiere irse y le detiene.)
 
 MIGUEL. 
 
 Vuelve, vuelve, Catalina, 
 Que no te he sacado aqui 
 Para dejar indecisa 
 La cuestion : yo estoy resuelto 
 A que desta playa misma, 
 Sin plazos, ni dilaciones, 
 En un convento de Lima 
 He de partir a encerrarte, 
 O he de quitarte la vida, 
 Porque no hagas mas afrenta 
 A la nacion vizcaina. 
 
 GUZMAN (aparte). 
 Ya se declard, perdone 
 La sangre, que solo estriba 
 En el acero el remedio. 
 
 (A Miguel) 
 
 Sospecho que se os olvidan 
 Las hazafias de este brazo, 
 Pues con tan loca osadia 
 Nombre de muger me dais ; 
 Y si a provocar mi ira 
 No bastara la violencia 
 Que pretendeis, bastaria 
 Solo este agravio d vengarme 
 192
 
 Y d que el fuerte acero esgrima. 
 
 (Acuchttlanse?) 
 
 Para mostraros que es hombre 
 Y mas que hombre quien fulmina 
 Rayos, que espantan al cielo 
 Y que la tierra castigan. 
 (Cae herido Miguel?) 
 
 MIGUEL. 
 
 Tente, tente, que me has muerto. 
 
 GUZMAN (aparte). 
 \ Ay de mi ! ya me lastima 
 El amor de hermano. 
 
 (A Miguel?] 
 Ponte 
 
 En mis hombros, y a esa ermita 
 Te llevare* a confesar. 
 
 (Cdgele en hombros) 
 Que el ser cristiano me obliga 
 A que con piadoso afecto 
 El remedio te aperciba 
 
 (Aparte?) 
 
 Del alma ; j ojald pudiera 
 Darle tambien a la vida ! 
 
 FIN DE LA JORNADA PRIMERA. 
 
 Q 193
 
 JORNADA II. 
 
 ESCENA I. 
 MACHIN INKS. 
 
 (Machin con botas y espuelas, Ines con manto 
 y una carta en la mano qiie da d Machin.) 
 
 INES. 
 
 Esta, Machin, es la carta 
 Para tu seftor. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Ines 
 
 Solo falta que me des, 
 Para que aliviado parta 
 Esos brazos. 
 
 INES. 
 
 Yo os los doy 
 Con el alma. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Aprieta mas. 
 ss. 
 <?A1 fin d Chile te vas? 
 
 INES.
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Al fin a Chile me voy 
 A ser nuevo paladin : 
 Mas tente que si el amor 
 No me engafia, es mi sefior 
 El que estoy viendo. 
 
 ESCENA II. 
 GUZMAN, MACHIN INKS. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 j Machin ! 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 ^ Es posible que te veo, 
 Sefior de mi vida? 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Ines, 
 ^ No me abrazas ? 
 
 INES. 
 
 Con los pies 
 Satisfaces mi deseo : 
 A ganar de mi seftora 
 Las albricias voy volando. 
 196
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Espera, Ines, dime cuando 
 La podre" ver 
 INES. 
 
 No hay agora 
 
 Quien lo impida, que la muerte 
 Sepulta a su padre ya ; 
 Y la suya solo esta, 
 En la dilacion de verte. 
 Ven conmigo. (Vase.) 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Ya te sigo. 
 
 ESCENA III. 
 GUZMAN Y MACHIN. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Esta carta te escribia 
 Dona Ana, y hoy me partia 
 A Chile a buscar contigo 
 La vida, 6 sin tf la muerte. 
 (Dale la carta, y Guzman la abre y la lee.) 
 
 197
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Yo me confieso obligado 
 De tu amor. 
 
 MACHIN 
 
 Yo lo he quedado 
 De tu venida a la suerte, 
 Pues que te dije del trote 
 De un rocin : mas, senor, di, 
 <? Pasan los dias por ti ? 
 Con un palmo de bigote 
 Te imaginaba, <;y te vienes 
 Tras la ausencia de tres afios, 
 Calvo de barba? <jqu6 banos, 
 Que" ungiientos, qu6 drogas tienes 
 Para no barbar ? que quiero 
 Verme libre de una vez, 
 De irle d entregar la nuez, 
 Cada semana d un barbero. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Machin, si tengo de hacello, 
 Prociiralo merecer, 
 Porque no lo has de saber 
 Mientras me tratares dello. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 ^ De modo, que lo diras 
 Si no lo pregunto ?
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 SL 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Pues digo que desde aqui 
 No lo pregunto jamas ; 
 Pero ya tu hermosa amante 
 A recibirte se ofrece. 
 
 ESCENA IV. 
 
 GUZMAN, MACHIN, DOfiA ANA 6 
 INKS. 
 
 (Guzman va d abrazar d Dona Ana, y esta 
 le deliene.) 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Si tus abrazos merece 
 Senora, un amor constante. . . . 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 Detente, Guzman. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 < Qu^ es esto ? 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 Solos nos dejad los dos. 
 
 199
 
 INKS. 
 
 Vamos, Machin. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Vive Dios, 
 
 Que la larga ausencia ha puesto 
 Muy mal acondicionado 
 Este juro, y no querria, 
 Que tii tambien, Ines mfa, 
 La finca hubieses mudado. (Vanse.) 
 
 ESCENA V. 
 GUZMAN, DOftA ANA. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Ya estamos solos agora, 
 ,; Podr merecer los brazos, 
 Cuyos amorosos lazos 
 Firmemente el alma adora, 
 Tras tanta ausencia Dona Ana? 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 Escucha primero el dafio 
 De que fue causa un engafio, 
 La noche que a la ventana 
 200
 
 Te hable\ que fue la postrera 
 
 De tu vista, y mi contento, 
 
 Como fue de mi tormento, 
 
 Y tu agravio la primera : 
 
 Que puesto que me has escrito 
 
 For disculpa, que el respeto 
 
 De mi fama, y el secreto 
 
 De tu amor, caus6 el delito 
 
 De no aguardar la ocasion 
 
 De entrarme a ver, porque habia 
 
 Gente en la calle, y seria 
 
 Atropellar mi opinion. 
 
 Yo, porque no es bien fiar 
 
 Tan grave caso a un papel, 
 
 No quise decirte en e"! 
 
 Lo que agora has de escuchar : 
 
 Porque el remedio te toca, 
 
 Como en el caso verds, 
 
 Que de otra suerte jamas 
 
 Rompiera el sello a la boca. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Senora, el siguiente dia 
 De esta noche que por tf, 
 Y por tu opinion perdi 
 La ocasion, que el alma mia 
 
 201
 
 Tan largo tiempo ha llorado, 
 Sali al campo con Miguel 
 De Erauso, y rifiendo en e*l, 
 Fue el alfe"rez desdichado 
 Mas que yo, pues de una herida 
 Penetrante que le di, 
 Entre la sangre le vf 
 Casi despedir la vida. 
 Deste suceso obligado 
 Me parti solo, y a pie 
 Desde alii, que ni avise* 
 A Machin este criado, 
 Que es mi compafiero fiel 
 En los bienes y en los dafios, 
 Causa de que estos tres afios 
 Haya vivido sin 61 
 En Arauco, a donde huyendo 
 Llegu6 al fin y no escribi, 
 Senora, a Machin, ni a ti 
 En muchos meses, temiendo 
 Que descubrirme podrian 
 Las cartas, que los discretes 
 Nunca importantes secretes 
 De fragil nema confian ; 
 Hasta que despues sabiendo 
 
 3O2
 
 Que sanando de la herida 
 Miguel de Erauso, y la vida 
 De una enfermedad perdiendo, 
 Llegue", Dona Ana, a tener 
 Seguridad, y con esto 
 Me dispuse lo mas presto 
 Que pude venirte a ver. 
 Estos han sido los pasos 
 De mi ausencia y mis enojos, 
 Que la gloria de tus ojos 
 Me han impedido estos casos. 
 Cuenta agora confiada 
 Los tuyos, pues ofrecida 
 Tengo d tu gusto la vida, 
 Y a tu defensa la espada. 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 Despues que de la ventana 
 Me aparte", Guzman, y muertas 
 Las luces, mi casa toda 
 Ocuparon las tinieblas. 
 A cumplir lo concertado 
 Contigo, volvi a la puerta 
 De la calle, abrf, y dos hombres 
 Halle* parados en ella. 
 Tu, y Machin, trades dos ; 
 
 203
 
 <jQuin recelarse pudiera, 
 Si en el niimero conforman, 
 Y en aguardarme concuerdan ? 
 Dame la mano, y los dos 
 Me seguid, dije, y apenas 
 Lo pronunciaron los labios, 
 Cuando tan callados llegan 
 Me dan la mano y me siguen, 
 Que si mil causas tuviera 
 De recelarme, esto solo 
 Desmintiera las sospechas. 
 Mientras las confusas sombras, 
 Hasta mi cuarto penetran, 
 La oscuridad y el silencio 
 Sus enganos lisonjean. 
 A mi retrete llegamos, 
 Cierro muy quedo la puerta, 
 Y el que tengo por mi dueno 
 Dentro conmigo se queda, 
 Dejando al que imaginaba 
 Que era tu criado, fuera 
 Con Ines, por darle a solas 
 A nuestro amor mas licencia. 
 El traidor nada cobarde, 
 Las persuasiones empieza 
 204
 
 For las obras, y a las manos 
 Da el oficio de la lengua : 
 Es verdad que me tenia 
 El amor tuyo tan ciega, 
 Que fuera en mi rendimiento 
 Fingida la resistencia : 
 Mas al abrazo primero 
 Su persona corpulenta, 
 De la tuya delicada 
 Me ofrecio la diferencia, 
 Y para certificarme 
 T6cole el rostro, y las senas 
 Varoniles hallo en el, 
 Que tu poca edad te niega. 
 Entonces j ay desdichada ! 
 Cada vez que se me acuerda, 
 Entre nuevas turbaciones, 
 Faltan al pecho las fuerzas ; 
 Como a la misera nave 
 En la confusa tormenta 
 Mortal naufragio amenazan, 
 Ya las olas ya las pefias, 
 Encontrados pareceres 
 Me animan y me refrenan : 
 Cada vez mas afligida, 
 
 205
 
 Cada vez menos resuelta, 
 Si me doy por entendida 
 Del engafio ha de ser fuerza 
 Resistir, y aunque aventure 
 La vida en la resistencia 
 Que rendirme confesando 
 Que no lo conozco, fuera 
 Consintiendo mi deshonrk 
 Confesarle mi flaqueza. 
 Si resisto, si doy voces, 
 Si llamo d mi padre, es cierta, 
 Como su agravio, mi muerte, 
 Como mi culpa su afrenta ; 
 Demas que su edad caduca, 
 Y en sus ya d^biles fuerzas, 
 Dos hombres, cuya osadia 
 Se conoce en la que intentan, 
 ^Qu6 muerte no ejecutaran? 
 Y mas donde las tinieblas 
 Facilitan su delito, 
 Y aseguran su defensa. 
 Al fin tras discursos varies, 
 Si discurre quien se anega, 
 Y camina quien sin luz 
 Tropieza en troncos y penas ; 
 206
 
 For menor dano tuvieron 
 
 Mis temores, que me hiciera 
 
 No entendida del engano, 
 
 Que entendida de la ofensa : 
 
 Que no pudiendo vengarla, 
 
 Pierde menos quien se muestra, 
 
 Ignorante con disculpa, 
 
 Que sentido con afrenta. 
 
 Y asi para dar color 
 
 De virtud a mi flaqueza, 
 
 Mintiendo amorosos gustos, 
 
 Fingiendo palabras tiernas, 
 
 Y llamandole mi esposo, 
 
 Legitim la licencia 
 
 De entregarle de mi honor 
 
 La posesion que desea. 
 
 Mas como aquel que a la orilla 
 
 Del Hondo lago forceja, 
 
 Con las procelosas aguas 
 
 Entre la muerte conserva 
 
 El cuidado de la vida, 
 
 Y un junco 6 rama pequena 
 
 Ansioso prende, librando 
 
 El postrer remedio en ella: 
 
 Asi yo entre las congojas, 
 
 207
 
 Entre las ansias y penas, 
 De la muerte de mi honor, 
 Al agresor de mi afrenta, 
 Para poder conocerlo, 
 Para sefial de la deuda, 
 Para testigo del dano, 
 Quitar procuro una prenda. 
 La turbacion, el recato, 
 Y el temor de que entendiera 
 Mi intencion, no permitieron 
 Mas curiosa diligencia 
 De la que basto, a quitarle 
 Unos guantes, porque es fuerza 
 Contentarse con la suerte, 
 Donde la eleccion se niega. 
 Mas por aumentar mis males 
 Te obligo mi suerte adversa 
 A ausentarte de este reino 
 Antes que a verme volvieras, 
 Siendo el silencio forzoso 
 Hasta verte, porque fueran 
 Tres siglos de infierno mio 
 Los tres afios de tu ausencia. 
 
 (Muestra los guantes.) 
 Estos, Guzman, son los guantes 
 208
 
 Si conocerlos confiesas, 
 
 Y del donatario aleve 
 
 A quien los distes te acuerdas ; 
 
 Si no pretendes sufriendo 
 
 Tan claro agravio, que entienda 
 
 Que fuiste complice injusto 
 
 De su engafio, y de mi afrenta, 
 
 Su castigo, mi remedio, 
 
 Y tu venganza, prevenga 
 
 Tu valor, que nunca supo 
 
 Sufrir livianas ofensas ; 
 
 Pues fue ladron de tu gloria, 
 
 Y causador de mi pena, 
 
 Y siendo yo tuya, corren 
 
 Mis agravios por tu cuenta. 
 
 GUZMAN (aparte]. 
 Don Diego sin duda fue 
 El agresor, bien lo prueban 
 Los guantes, y ser amante 
 De Dona Ana, que ni fuera 
 De su puerta y de su calle 
 A tal hora centinela, 
 Ni emprendiera tal esceso, 
 Sino que amor le tuviera ; 
 Y si supo que me hacia . 
 
 R 309
 
 A mi el agravio, me fuerza 
 Mas que a remediar el dafio, 
 A vengarme de la ofensa. 
 
 (A Dona Ana.) 
 Dona Ana, sola una cosa, 
 Para que el modo resuelva 
 Del remedio, 6 la venganza, 
 Es forzoso que me adviertas. 
 I Nombrasteme aquella noche ? 
 I El ladron de tu belleza 
 Pudo entender que era yo 
 A quien hurtaba tus prendas ? 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 No me acuerdo, si primero 
 Que el engano conociera 
 Te nombre\ que como estaba 
 De tan gran traicion agena, 
 Quito la seguridad 
 Como el cuidado a la lengua, 
 La atencion a la memoria : 
 Pero despues, yo estoy cierta 
 De que tu nombre oculte", 
 Y con la misma advertencia 
 Ines, en desconociendo 
 El companero, refrena 
 210
 
 Los labios, no s6 si fue 
 De medrosa 6 de discreta. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Dame los guantes, y fia 
 
 Que ban de faltar las estrellas 
 
 A la noche, luz al sol, 
 
 Agua al mar, centro a la tierra, 
 
 O has de ver, aunque al traidor 
 
 El mismo infierno defienda, 
 
 Su castigo ejecutado, 
 
 O tu opinion satisfecha. 
 
 DONA ANA (ddndole los guantes). 
 
 Dime qui6n es mi enemigo ? 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Primero quiero que sepas 
 De mi valor el efeto, 
 Que el causador de tu afrenta ; 
 Porque, segun lo deseo, 
 De ti misma se recela 
 Mi pecho y la confianza 
 De este secreto te niega, 
 Porque no llegue primero 
 Que la ejecucion, la nueva 
 De mi enojo a los oidos 
 De quien vengarte deseas. 
 
 211
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 Prevencion es de tu amor, 
 Y de tu valor fineza. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Mas debo a la confianza 
 
 Con que tu honor me encomiendas. 
 
 (Vanse.) 
 
 * 
 
 ESCENA VI. 
 DON DIEGO Y DON JUAN. 
 
 DON JUAN. 
 
 Tanto admiro que constante 
 Tres anos la hayas querido, 
 Como que no hayas podido 
 Descubrir quien fue el amante 
 Que aquella noche esperaba. 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 Mucho en mi puede el honor, 
 Pues no me vence el amor, 
 Que si primero la amaba, 
 Despues ac he enloquecido: 
 Mas idos con Dios Don Juan, 
 Porque Alonso de Guzman 
 
 212
 
 Que me dicen ha venido 
 Voy d ver. 
 
 DON JUAN. 
 
 Yo no ire 
 
 Por andarme despachando 
 Para Espafia, acompanando. . . . (Vase.) 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 Esta noche os buscare\ 
 
 ESCENA VII. 
 
 DON DIEGO, GUZMAN. 
 
 (Sale Guzman con el penacho en el sombrero.) 
 
 GUZMAN, 
 
 Sefior Don Diego. 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 <; Que os veo, 
 Guzman ? 
 
 GUZMAN . 
 
 Apenas llegue 
 Cuando os busco. 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 No podre" 
 
 213
 
 Significar el deseo 
 
 Que de veros he tenido. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 En esta ausencia fiad, 
 Don Diego, de mi amistad, 
 Que lo que mas he sentido 
 Es de carecer de vos. 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 For mas que lo encarezcais 
 Se" que a deberme quedais. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Si hemos de apostar los dos 
 A finezas, yo querria 
 Que me dij trades antes, 
 Que" hicisteis de aquellos guantes, 
 Que cuando d servir partia 
 Al punto, por prenda os df 
 De amistad, y de memoria. 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 <; Importa para la historia, 
 Que os de cuenta de ello ? 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Si, 
 
 Que viendo que vuestro pecho 
 Tanto llega encarecer 
 214
 
 Su amistad, quiero saber 
 
 La estimacion que habeis hecho 
 
 De mis prendas, pues conmigo 
 
 Tanto las vuestras valieron, 
 
 Que ni los afios pudieron, 
 
 Ni del barbaro enemigo 
 
 La batalla mas renida 
 
 Y sangrienta, hacer jamas, 
 
 Que no defendiese mas 
 
 Estas plumas, que esta vida. 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 Si estuviera el defender, 
 El conservar y estimar 
 Las vuestras, en arriesgar 
 La vida, podreis creer, 
 Que despreciara la muerte. 
 Mas como son siempre vanas 
 Las prevenciones humanas 
 Contra el orden de la suerte, 
 Fue la misma estimacion 
 Que de los guantes hacia, 
 Pues conmigo los traia, 
 De perderlos la ocasion. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 Ya por lo menos mostro 
 
 215
 
 El cuidado que he tenido, 
 Don Diego, que os he vencido 
 En no descuidarme yo : 
 Pero ya que no podais 
 Vencido en esto negar, 
 Hay ocasion de cobrar 
 En las albricias que dais 
 For cobraros la opinion * 
 Que perdisteis en perdellos ; 
 Ved lo que dareis por ellos 
 En hallazgo, que estos son. 
 
 (Mudstraselos.) 
 i Conoceislos ? 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 Si, Guzman, 
 
 Que por las senas que ofrecen 
 Son ellos, 6 lo parecen. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Pues ya, Don Diego, que quedan 
 Reconocidos, probanza 
 Del suceso que sabeis, 
 Solo quiero que me deis 
 De hallazgo la confianza 
 De una secreta verdad ; 
 En cuya declaracion 
 ai6
 
 Mostrareis la estimacion 
 Que teneis de mi amistad, 
 Supuesto que se la historia, 
 Pues s6 que donde perdistes 
 Estos guantes, conseguistes 
 En nombre ageno la gloria 
 Mayor, que el amor alcanza, 
 Dando la noche ocasion 
 A hurtar su posesion 
 For engano a otra esperanza. 
 
 DON DIEGO (aparte). 
 \ Qu6 escucho ! j qu6 se ha sabido 
 Por los guantes el secreto ! . . . 
 j Causa de tan grande efeto 
 Indicio tan leve ha sido ! 
 El yerro ha estado en decir 
 Que los perdf, pues con eso 
 Conforma en parte el suceso : 
 Mas ni pude prevenir 
 El dano de confesallo, 
 Ni advert! que los perdf 
 La noche que cometf 
 El delito, que a olvidallo 
 Fueran tres aftos bastante 
 Que han pasado. 
 
 217
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Si el dudar 
 Es especie de negar : 
 De tres puntos importantes 
 Quiero, Don Diego, avisaros, 
 Para que os determineis. 
 El uno, pues que sabeis 
 Que s6 el caso, el recelaros, 
 Y negarmelo es quitarme 
 La obligacion de callar ; 
 Y al contrario, el confiar 
 De mi el secreto, obligarme 
 A guardallo, y dello os doy 
 La palabra : lo segundo, 
 En que con mas causa fundo 
 Lo que pidiendoos estoy, 
 Es, que sabe el agraviado 
 Que fuisteis vos el ladron 
 De su perdida ocasion ; 
 Y que esta determinado 
 A mataros, y no hareis 
 Facilmente que no goce 
 La ocasion, que 1 os conoce, 
 Y vos no le conoceis. 
 
 Lo tercero que yo estoy 
 218
 
 En el caso de por medio, 
 Y os advertire* el remedio, 
 Porque vuestro amigo soy, 
 Con que os declareis conmigo, 
 Que en cambio dello os prometo, 
 Que debajo de secreto 
 Os dire vuestro enemigo. 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 Lo que referis confieso 
 Que es verdad, que confesallo, 
 Es lo mismo que contallo, 
 Pues sabeis todo el suceso ; 
 Y asi pues de vos me fio, 
 Resta agora que cumplais 
 Vuestra palabra, y digais 
 Quien es el contrario mio, 
 Y el medio que prevenis 
 Para que me asegureis. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 El contrario qu6 teneis 
 Soy yo. 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 Guzman, j qu decis ! 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Que yo soy d quien hurtasteis 
 
 219
 
 La ocasion, yo quien estaba 
 En la calle, y aguardaba 
 La gloria que vos gozasteis : 
 Que advirtiendo que venia 
 Gente entonces, fue en mi amor 
 Retirarme por su honor 
 Decoro, y no cobardia : 
 Que la primer condition 
 Que me puso, y prometi, 
 Cuando el alma le ofrecf, 
 Fue mirar por su opinion ; 
 Y pues sabeis mi valor 
 Satisfecho puedo estar, 
 De que no podreis pensar 
 De que lo hice de temor ; 
 Y ya que sabido habeis 
 Que soy yo quien la ha perdido, 
 El remedio es ser marido 
 De quien el honor debeis. 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 Pluguiera a Dios que pudiera 
 Sin que mi opinion manchara, 
 Pues que su deuda pagara 
 Y mi amor satisfaciera : 
 Mas admirame, Guzman, 
 220 

 
 Que en tan poco me tengais, 
 Que casarme pretendais 
 Con quien tuvo otro galan. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Si por tener otro amante 
 Su honor hubiera perdido, 
 Os hubiera yo ofendido 
 Con demanda semejante : 
 Mas supuesto que no infama 
 Siendo licito el favor, 
 Y solo dafia al honor 
 La ejecucion, 6 la fama, 
 Justa es esta pretension, 
 Pues que yo en su pensamiento 
 Alcance^ solo el intento, 
 Pero vos la ejecucion. 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 ,; Licito favor llamais 
 El que le determin6 
 A las obras, y os abri6 
 Como aqui me confesais, 
 Y prob con la esperiencia, 
 La puerta? 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 <r Si me llamaba 
 
 221
 
 Ya su esposo, no le daba 
 El honor esa licencia? 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 Si, mas de eso mismo arguyo 
 
 Lo que conmigo perdi6, 
 
 Que si a vos, Guzman, os dio 
 
 Nombre de marido suyo, 
 
 Y aquella noche os abria 
 
 Su casa, con esa fe, 
 
 <iC6mo me asegurare" 
 
 De que otra vez no haria 
 
 El mismo amoroso esceso 
 
 Con vos ? 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Esa es presuncion 
 Bien fundada, y con razon 
 Habeis reparado en eso ; 
 Mas si os dejo satisfecho 
 En esa parte ^ sereis 
 Su esposo? 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 <j Como podeis, 
 
 Donde en vuestro mismo hecho 
 Vos no valeis por testigo ? 
 
 222
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Pues si es imposible hagamos, 
 Porque el caso resolvamos, 
 Un contrato : yo me oblige, 
 Si no os satisfago, daros 
 Por libre de que os caseis, 
 Con que vos os obligueis 
 Si os satisfago, a casaros, 
 Con que guardeis un secreto 
 Que de vuestro valor fio 
 <; Lo guardareis como mio ? 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 Como quien soy lo prometo. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Sabed pues, Don Diego amigo, 
 Que yo soy muger. 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 <i Muger ? 
 
 Valor que supo veneer 
 En campana al enemigo 
 Tantas veces, que aun escede 
 El cre"dito a la opinion, 
 Y esperanza del varon 
 Mas valiente, <; como puede 
 Ser hijo del fragil pecho 
 
 223
 
 De una mugeril flaqueza ? 
 Y ya que naturaleza 
 Tan gran milagro haya hecho, 
 <; Como se pudo encubrir 
 Tanto tiempo, 6 que ocasion 
 En el trage de varon 
 Os ha obligado a servir 
 En la guerra ? y si adocais 
 A Dona Ana ^he de creer 
 De que amais siendo muger 
 A otra muger ? no querais 
 Acreditar imposibles. 
 GUZMAN . 
 
 Mi historia, y las ocasiones 
 De tales trasformaciones, 
 Y casos tan increibles 
 Con atencion escuchad, 
 Que en ella conocereis 
 De la novedad que veis 
 El engafio, 6 la verdad. 
 En San Sebastian, que es villa, 
 En la provincia soberbia 
 Guipuzcoana ; la mas rica, 
 A quien el mar lisonjea ; 
 Pues que llega a sus murallas 
 224
 
 A contribuir las perlas, 
 
 Si bien de las olas se hacen, 
 
 Y olas despues quedan hechas, 
 
 Naci, Don Diego ; <; mas c6mo 
 
 Te podra decir mi lengua 
 
 Que naci muger? perdone 
 
 Mi valor tan grande ofensa. 
 
 Naci muger en efeto, 
 
 De antigua y noble ascendencia, 
 
 Es mi nombre Catalina 
 
 De Erauso, que mi nobleza, 
 
 Me dio este noble apellido 
 
 Bien conocido en mi tierra. 
 
 En la edad, pues, si se escucha, 
 
 Que es cuando la lengua apenas 
 
 Dicciones distintas forma, 
 
 Juzgaba naturaleza 
 
 Violenta en mi, pues desnuda 
 
 De la mugeril flaqueza 
 
 Me ocupaba, haciendo afrenta 
 
 A Palas, cuando vio a Venus 
 
 Pasar los muros de Grecia. 
 
 La labor que es ejercicio 
 
 De la mas noble doncella, 
 
 La trocaba por la espada : 
 
 s 225
 
 Las cajas y las trompetas, 
 Me daban mayores gustos 
 Que las musicas compuestas. 
 Pero mis padres mirando 
 En mi condicion tan fiera, 
 En un convento que es freno 
 De semejantes soberbias, 
 Me metieron. j Ay, Don T)iego ! 
 Quien esplicarte pudiera 
 La rabia, el furor, la ira, 
 Que en mi corazon se engendra 
 En ocasion semejante ! 
 Mas remito estas certezas 
 A las violentas acciones 
 Que has visto en mi en esta tierra. 
 Once anos, y once siglos 
 Paso alii mi resistencia, 
 Casi a imitacion del fuego 
 Cuando le oprime la tierra : 
 Mas viendo que se llegaba 
 La ocasion, en que era fuerza 
 Hacer justa profesion, 
 Ayudada de tinieblas 
 Y femeniles descuidos, 
 Deje" la clausura honesta, 
 226
 
 Quiero decir el convento, 
 Y penetrando asperezas, 
 Montes descubriendo y valles, 
 Troqu6 el vestido, que alientan 
 Las desdichas con venturas, 
 Cuando los males comienzan. 
 Llegue* a la corte, y Don Juan 
 De Idiaquez, que entonces era 
 Presidente, conociendo 
 Mi Guipuzcoana nobleza, 
 Tenidndome por varon, 
 For page me admite, a fuerza 
 De peticiones que hice 
 Para obligar su grandeza. 
 Supo todo esto mi padre, 
 Vine a Madrid, mas resuelta, 
 Y animosa, a Madrid trueco 
 Por Pamplona, ciudad bella. 
 A Don Carlos de Arellano 
 Servi en ella, mas la ofensa 
 De un caballero atrevido, 
 A quien di muerte sangrienta, 
 Me ausent6 de alia, y parti 
 A la ciudad a quien besa 
 El Betis los altos muros, 
 
 237
 
 Sevilla al fin, real palestra 
 De los que siguen a Marte ; 
 Al fin segui a Marte en ella. 
 En la armada me embarque' 
 Indiana, llegue a la tierra 
 Que a Espafia la fertiliza 
 De oro, que cria en sus venas. 
 Hubo con el Araucano ' 
 Soberbio, sangrienta guerra ; 
 Halle* me en ella, mostre 
 El valor que en mi se encierra : 
 Yo sola en la escaramuza 
 Que vi trabada primera, 
 Mate... mas esta alabanza 
 Diganlo voces agenas, 
 Que yo no te dire* mas 
 De que en la ocasion primera, 
 Me dio Don Diego Sarabia 
 De sargento la gineta, 
 Y despues no paso mucho 
 Me honraron con la bandera 
 Que honro a Gonzalo Rodriguez, 
 Muerto a las manos soberbias 
 De barbaros Araucanos : 
 Puesto que su muerte cuesta 
 228
 
 Muchas vidas a los Indies, 
 Y a mi heridas inmensas, 
 Que si en mi pecho las miras 
 Te daran clara evidencia. 
 Fuse en el rostro la mano 
 De un caballero, y fue fuerza 
 Venirme a Lima, Don Diego, 
 A donde Dona Ana bella, 
 Juzgandome por varon 
 Amor y aficion me muestra. 
 Goce* un ano sus favores, 
 Y al cabo de 1 representa 
 Vuestro amor, el sentimiento 
 De que yo la adore y quiera. 
 Dej6 a Lima, fuime al puerto, 
 Para que vos con mi ausencia 
 Gozasedes mas favores, 
 Aunque aquella noche mesma 
 La volvi a ver, y esta vista 
 Fue causa que vuestra sea, 
 Con el engano, Don Diego, 
 Que vos sabeis, mas no es esta 
 Ocasion de dilatar 
 Lo que mi razon intenta. 
 
 A Lima he vuelto obligada 
 
 229
 
 De mi desdichada estrella, 
 Que en impulses de mi espada 
 Tiene sus acciones puestas. 
 Tres anos ha que este acaso 
 Sucedi6, y ella me ruega, 
 Como causa de este error, 
 Y principle de esta pena, 
 Que por su honor vuelva y mire 
 Aquesta es forzosa deuda 
 En mi, pues que di ocasion, 
 A que su honor se perdiera. 
 Vos lo podeis remediar, 
 Y lo habeis de hacer por fuerza 
 Cuando no querais de grado ; 
 Y advertid, que no os parezca 
 Porque soy muger, Don Diego, 
 Que no alcanzare esta empresa. 
 Que jvive Dios! que primero 
 El sol dejard A la tierra, 
 A las arenas el mar, 
 Las aves la region fresca, 
 La tierra las verdes plantas, 
 El fuego su altiva esfera, 
 Que vos podais eximiros 
 De pagar tan justa deuda, 
 230
 
 Pues la razon os obliga 
 Cuando mi valor os ruega. 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 Yo quedo de verdad tan prodigiosa 
 For las senas del rostro satisfecho, 
 Pues ya la barba en el era forzosa ; 
 Mas Don Juan, secretario de mi pecho, 
 Ines, criada de Dona Ana hermosa, 
 Machin, privanza vuestra, son del hecho 
 Testigos, y es precise darles cuenta 
 De esta verdad, para evitar mi afrenta, 
 Si tengo de casarme. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 No lo niego, 
 
 Y de Dona Ana el bien me solicita : 
 Mas publicar que soy muger, Don Diego, 
 Primero morir que lo permita. 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 <; Qu6 haremos pues ? 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 La Have que os entrego 
 Del secreto guardad, que el tiempo quita 
 Inconvenientes, y el discurso humano 
 No tiene los remedies en la mano : 
 Dejadmelo pensar que ya esta hecho 
 
 231
 
 Lo mas, pues con mi historia habeis quedado 
 Del honor de Dona Ana satisfecho, 
 Y de vuestra sospecha asegurado. 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 Vuestro secreto morird en mi pecho, 
 Y de vuestra amistad voy confiado, 
 Que no obligue a Dona Ana con mi afrenta. 
 (Vase Don Diego?) 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Su honor y el vuestro quedan por mi cuenta. 
 
 ESCENA VIII. 
 
 GUZMAN, EL NUEVO CID, 
 
 (Es de noc he.} 
 
 EL CID (aparte). 
 
 6l es, y viene solo, y pues la suerte 
 Despues de tanto tiempo a su castigo 
 La ocasion me dispone ; con su muerte 
 Mi afrenta vengare\...jMuere enemigo! 
 (Sacan las espadas, acuchillanse y entranse.} 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 jAh vil traidor! 
 
 232
 
 EL CID. 
 
 Procura defenderte. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 ^'Conoces que es Guzman el que contigo 
 Mide la espada? 
 
 EL CID. 
 
 Muerto soy, espera, 
 Dejame confesar antes que muera. 
 
 ESCENA IX. 
 
 OCANA, MONROY Y PEROMATO, 
 
 (presos de la cdrcel). 
 
 OCANA. 
 
 Cualquiera gallina miente 
 Si lo dice. 
 
 MONROY. 
 
 Yo lo digo ; 
 
 Pero eso no habla conmigo 
 Que a las gallinas desmiente, 
 Y sabe que no lo soy. 
 
 OCANA. 
 Si i\ lo dice, con & hablo.
 
 MONROY. 
 
 Ocana, ^enganate el diablo 
 O estas borracho? 
 
 OCANA. 
 
 Monroy, 
 
 Ni he bebido, ni me engana. 
 
 MONROY. 
 
 Triste, ^quieres que te mate? 
 
 OCANA. 
 
 j Que gracioso disparate ! 
 
 MONROY. 
 
 Ala, doblen por Ocana. 
 
 (Acuchillanse con ter dados, y mttese en medio 
 Peromato sin terciado.} 
 
 ESCENA X. 
 
 LOS DICHOS, MOTRIL Y JARAVA, 
 (presos). 
 
 MOTRIL. 
 
 ^ Es posible que de piano 
 Confesase ? 
 234
 
 JARAVA. 
 
 No os espante, 
 Si le hallaron en fragante, 
 Y con la espada en la mano 
 Desnuda, y ensangrentada. 
 
 MOTRIL. 
 
 Si e*l negara, no muriera, 
 For mas indicios que hubiera. 
 
 MONROY. 
 <j Que" es eso, Motril ? 
 
 MOTRIL. 
 
 No es nada. 
 
 Mat6 al Nuevo Cid Guzman, 
 Prendie"ronle y al momento 
 Sin tocar el instrumento 
 Cant6 como un sacristan. 
 
 OCA&A. 
 
 Yo apostare* que al probete 
 Le dan luego su recado, 
 Que al virey tienen cansado 
 Los delitos que comete, 
 Y querrd abreviar con e"l. 
 
 235
 
 ESCENA XL 
 DON DIEGO, Y DON JUAN. 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 Muero de pesar, Don Juan, 
 Viendo a Alonso de Guzman 
 En un trance tan cruel, 
 Que dicen que ha cortfesado 
 El delito, y es forzoso, 
 Que el ser tan escandaloso, 
 Tan inquieto y arrojado, 
 Provoque la indignacion 
 Del virey. 
 
 DON JUAN. 
 
 Airado esta, 
 
 Y en esta ocasion querri 
 Hacer gran demostracion. 
 
 ESCENA XII. 
 LOS DICHOS, Y MACHIN, (ttorando.) 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 j Ay amo de mis entranas ! 
 ^ C6mo es posible que plugo 
 236
 
 A los cielos, que un verdugo 
 Oscurezca tus hazafias? 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 fQue hay de tu senor, Machin? 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Hay, que el virey se ha mostrado 
 Mas cruel, mas obstinado, 
 Que suele un hombre ruin 
 Agraviado y con poder. 
 Segun orden de milicia 
 Ha mandado hacer justicia 
 Dl al punto, sin querer 
 Admitir suplicacion, 
 Y ya se esta confesando, 
 Y el pueblo todo aguardando 
 La afrentosa ejecucion. 
 DON DIEGO (aparte). 
 Ya es esta ocasion forzosa, 
 De declarar que es muger 
 Al virey, que es de creer 
 Que por ser tan prodigiosa 
 Le mueva a justa piedad ; 
 Y aunque ella no lo confiesa, 
 Dir que es monja profesa 
 Y pondra su potestad 
 
 237
 
 Secular, impedimento : 
 Pues stendolo, al tribunal 
 Del fuero espiritual, 
 Toca su conocimiento. 
 Dos justos fines consigo 
 Con este tan facil medio, 
 Pues que su vida remedio 
 Como verdadero amigo ; 
 Y con esto satisfechos 
 Machin, Ines y Don Juan, 
 De que es muger, quedaran 
 Los escrupulos desechos, 
 Que impiden que tan forzosa 
 Deuda le pague a Dona Ana, 
 Y su beldad soberana 
 Goce en paz y union dichosa. 
 Venid conmigo Don Juan. 
 
 DON JUAN. 
 
 iA donde vais? 
 
 DON DIEGO, 
 
 A romper 
 
 Un secreto que ha de ser 
 El remedio de Guzman. (Vanse.}
 
 ESCENA XIII. 
 
 MACHIN, OCANA, MOTRIL, 
 MONROY. 
 
 OCANA. 
 
 En fin quiso de este modo, 
 Machin, ser mas confesor, 
 Que martir vuestro senor, 
 Y ha venido a serlo todo. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Y con obstinado pecho 
 Dice, j qua* tema tan loca ! 
 Que no ha de negar la boca 
 Lo que las manos han hecho. 
 
 MOTRIL. 
 
 Caprichoso disparate. 
 MONROY. 
 
 ^ Es por ventura mejor 
 Dar cabriolas ? 
 
 OCANA. 
 
 No hay valor 
 Como guardar el gaznate. 
 
 239
 
 ESCENA XIV. 
 GUZMAN, MACHIN, UN ALCALDE, 
 
 Y UN RELIGIOSO. 
 ALCALDE. 
 
 Vistase la ropa, amigo. 
 
 GUZMAN. '* 
 
 <; Qu6 ropa ? yo soy soldado, 
 Y en mi trage han de llevarme. 
 
 RELIGIOSO. 
 
 No mire en puntos hermano, 
 Que va a morir, y es cristiano. 
 
 GUZMAN (aparte]. 
 i Pues yo que dejo quitarme 
 La vida, por no decir 
 Que soy muger, ni tener 
 Faldas, habia de querer 
 Llevarlas para morir ? 
 
 RELIGIOSO. 
 
 Advierta que los perdones 
 Del habito perdera. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Misas hay, todo sera 
 Un ano mas de tizones. 
 240
 
 RELIGIOSO. 
 
 j Que" terrible obstinacion ! 
 
 GUZMAN (aparte). 
 Por no parecer muger 
 Todo lo quiero perder 
 Fuera del alma. 
 
 (Dentro toctos.) 
 
 Perdon, 
 Perdon... 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 ? lo dije luego. 
 
 ESCENA XV. 
 LOS DICHOS, Y DON JUAN. 
 
 DON JUAN. 
 
 La sentencia ha suspendido 
 El virey, porque ha sabido 
 De vuestro amigo Don Diego 
 Que sois muger. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 i Muger yo ? 
 Miente...mande su escelencia 
 
 T 241
 
 Ejecutar la sentencia, 
 Que Don Diego le engan6 
 For escusarme la muerte. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Vive Cristo que has de ser, 
 Aunque no quieras, muger, 
 Y librarte de la muerte, 
 Que despues ello dira.* 
 
 RELIGIOSO. 
 
 Si lo tiene por afrenta 
 Sin fruto negarlo intenta, 
 Que el caso es publico ya. 
 
 DON JUAN. 
 
 Y de todos viene a ser 
 El mayor dano morir. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 ^ Para que" quiero vivir 
 Si saben que soy muger? 
 
 FIN DE LA JORNADA SEGUNDA. 
 
 242
 
 JORNADA III. 
 
 ESCENA I. 
 
 La escena es en Madrid. 
 
 EL VIZCONDE DE LA ZOLINA, (en 
 hdbito de Alcdntara) Y DON DIEGO. 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 Despues que el virey de Lima 
 La suplicacion le otorga, 
 De la novedad movido 
 Que le refiri6 mi boca : 
 Juridicas esperiencias 
 Licitas, por ser forzosas, 
 De que es muger el Alfe"rez 
 Con evidencia le informan. 
 Y asi mirando su causa 
 Con atencion mas piadosa 
 Le da plazos, en que prueba 
 Que el Nuevo Cid la provoca 
 A la pendencia, y por ser 
 Justa y natural la propia 
 Defensa, en la liltima instancia 
 La sentencia le revoca. 
 
 243
 
 Restituida a su trage 
 En las trinitarias monjas 
 La recluyen, por la fama 
 Que tiene de religiosa. 
 Alii violentada, juzga 
 Eternidades las horas, 
 Mas repugnante que el viento 
 Oprimido de las ondas : 
 Hasta que vino a romper 
 Las prisiones, la discordia 
 Que sobre elegir prelada, 
 Iras siembra, y bandos forma 
 De Isabel de Larrifiaga, 
 Por ser vizcaina, toma 
 Por cuenta suya la voz 
 Para elegirla priora. 
 Era la parcialidad 
 Contraria mas poderosa, 
 Y asi remite a las manos 
 Lo que no alcanza la boca ; 
 Y con un baston robusto 
 De tal suerte el viento azota, 
 Que lo que no ablandan ruegos 
 A duros golpes negocia. 
 Ofendidas de su esceso, 
 344
 
 Y de su furia medrosas, 
 La espulsion que ella desea 
 Le solicitan las monjas. 
 Las dos cabezas del reino 
 Secular, y religiosa, 
 For evitar disensiones 
 En lo mismo se conforman. 
 Libre al fin de la clausura 
 Pasar a Espafta y a Roma 
 Resuelve, a cosas que entiendo 
 Que a la conciencia le importan ; 
 Y al instante que al Callao 
 Daba por el mar la popa, 
 En calzones y ropilla 
 Trueca basquinas y ropa. 
 Halla propicio a Neptuno, 
 Llega a la arena espanola, 
 Que a las columnas de Alcides 
 Cerr6 el paso, y dio memoria. 
 Por el habito indecente 
 El obispo la aprisiona ; 
 Mas informado despues 
 De sus hazanas heroicas, 
 No solo no la castiga, 
 Mas antes la galardona, 
 
 245
 
 Alentando su Jornada 
 Con dineros y con joyas. 
 Parti6se luego de Cadiz 
 Para esta corte que goza 
 Del sol, en la casa de Austria, 
 Los rayos y la corona. 
 Dfcenme que esta ya en ella, 
 Btiscola, porque me importa 
 Lo que sabeis. Prosiguiendo 
 Tras de la suya mi historia, 
 Ya os dije, senor vizconde 
 De Zolina, que dos cosas 
 Me obligaron justamente 
 A que el secreto le rompa. 
 Una fue librar la vida 
 De infame suplicio, y otra 
 Dar yo la mano a la dama 
 Que firme mi pecho adora, 
 Y satisfacer la deuda 
 De su honor sin mi deshonra, 
 Declarando a los testigos 
 De su engafio, y de la gloria 
 Que en nombre ageno alcance", 
 Que quien sus favores goza 
 Es Guzman, y publicado 
 246
 
 Que es muger, deshace y borra 
 Las sospechas que amenazan 
 Murmuracion a mis bodas, 
 Sin reparar en deseos 
 No ejecutados, que pocas 
 Llegan al talamo honradas, 
 Si los intentos deshonran. 
 Luego pues que del teatro 
 De su tragedia afrentosa, 
 Redemi a la Monja Alfe>ez, 
 Que asi la llaman agora, 
 A la dama por quien muero 
 Voy a declarar la historia, 
 Alegre de poder ya 
 Admitirla por esposa. 
 Ella no menos contenta, 
 Pues su honor perdido cobra, 
 Hace gracias al engano 
 Por quien viene a ser dichosa. 
 Con esto parto al instante 
 A dar al AlfeVez Monja 
 Cuenta de como los cielos 
 Nuestros intentos conforman. 
 Estaba presa, y ya en trage 
 De muger, y hablando d solas, 
 
 347
 
 Le doy alegre la nueva 
 De mis concertadas bodas ; 
 Mas ella j quten tal pensara ! 
 Cuando espero que responda 
 Dandome mil parabienes, 
 Quiere que mis males oiga, 
 Dicidndome estas palabras : 
 Ya yo, Don Diego, soy otra, 
 Que fuf, porque de la muerte 
 He visto la horrible sombra. 
 Yo no soy quien de esa dama 
 Perdio la ocasion dichosa 
 Que por engano alcanzaste, 
 Otro amante es quien la goza. 
 Ser conocidos por mios 
 Los guantes, y ser notoria 
 Al mundo mi valentia, 
 Hizo que en mis manos ponga 
 Esta dama su remedio ; 
 Era la causa piadosa, 
 Ella muger, yo muger, 
 Dadivas quebrantan rocas. 
 Todo junto me obligo 
 A que en favor suyo rompa 
 La ley de vuestra amistad, 
 248
 
 Y a engafiaros me disponga : 
 
 Mas ya que os debo la vida, 
 
 Y arrepentida me exhorta 
 
 La confesion a la enmienda, 
 
 No es bien que os quite la honra. 
 
 Dijo : y quede* como suele, 
 
 El sin ventura a quien tocan 
 
 De Jupiter vengativo 
 
 Las armas abrasadoras : 
 
 Como aquel que en pena dura 
 
 En un punto se trasforma, 
 
 Si el rostro fatal le ensena 
 
 La Gorgona encantadora, 
 
 Vuelvo en mi, y multiplicando 
 
 Al paso de las congojas, 
 
 Las palabras, le pregunto, 
 
 Si de la verdad me informa : 
 
 Afirmase en lo que ha dicho, 
 
 A matarla me provoca 
 
 Mi furor, mas mi valor 
 
 For ser muger la perdona. 
 
 Fugitive parto a Espana, 
 
 Jornada que me ocasiona 
 
 Y facilita Don Juan, 
 
 Que en aquella misma flota, 
 
 249
 
 A intentos suyos partia : 
 Mas ella, perdida y loca, 
 Que el desprecio es el que mas 
 A la muger enamora, 
 En demanda de su honor 
 Me sigue mas que mi sombra, 
 Que para ser importuna 
 Bastale ser acreedora. 
 Llego 4 Madrid, y d Madrid 
 Llega tambien, y sus obras, 
 Palabras, y pensamientos, 
 De tal suerte se conforman 
 En quererme, en obligarme, 
 Y en persuadirme que sola 
 Resistiera d sus combates, 
 La deidad que honor se nombra : 
 Pasando prolijos dias 
 En batalla tan penosa, 
 Su amor, y mi resistencia, 
 Encuentro d Machin agora, 
 Refireme lo que yo 
 Ignoraba de esta historia, 
 Despues que triste parti 
 De la America, 4 la Europa. 
 Diceme que est& el Alferez 
 250
 
 En la corte ya, y que posa 
 En casa de un noble hidalgo 
 Su amigo, y compatriota, 
 Cuyo nombre es Sebastian 
 De Illumbe, y que su persona, 
 Senor vizconde, y la vuestra 
 Un solo espiritu forman. 
 Y asi me quiero valer 
 De vos con el, porque ponga, 
 Y vos en favorecerme 
 Pongais vuestras fuerzas todas ; 
 Intercediendo los dos 
 Para que el AlfeYez Monja 
 Alumbre con la verdad 
 Mi confusion tenebrosa : 
 Que tan constante porfia, 
 Y tan tiernamente llora 
 Mi triste amante, afirmando, 
 Que la Monja Alfe"rez sola 
 Sus favores mereci6 
 Que a las insensibles rocas 
 Persuadird, cuanto mas, 
 A quien como yo la adora. 
 Mueva a piedad mi desdicha, 
 Y al fin de vuestra persona 
 
 251
 
 La autoridad, que ha de ser 
 La causa mas poderosa. 
 VIZCONDE. 
 
 Lo que mas con el valor 
 De un hidalgo pecho alcanza, 
 Es el hacer desconfianza 
 En negocios del honor ; 
 Y asi la podreis tener 
 De que para averiguar 
 La verdad, no he de dejar 
 Piedra alguna por mover. 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 Pues con eso asegurais 
 Mis esperanzas. 
 
 VIZCONDE. 
 
 Yo quiero, 
 
 Hablarla a solas primero, 
 Que vos con ella os veais. 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 Pues la brevedad, sefior, 
 Os pido. 
 
 VIZCONDE. 
 
 Bien se" Don Diego 
 Que no permiten sosiego 
 Puntos de honor y de amor. (Panst.) 
 252
 
 ESCENA II. 
 GUZMAN Y MACHIN. 
 
 GUZMAN (rompiendo unos naipes). 
 \ Ah sota ! <: qu juegue yo ? 
 j Voto a Dios ! 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Vota y re mega, 
 La culpa tiene quien juega, 
 Que la sota <; en que* pec6 ? 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Ya he perdido, ^ que* he de hacer, 
 Pue"dolo yo remediar? 
 MACHIN. 
 
 No, pero puedes guardar 
 Lo que queda por perder. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Bien dices. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 ^ Pero no sabes 
 Como a Don Diego he encontrado? 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 j A Don Diego ! <; y que" te dijo ? 
 
 253
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Que le contase tus casos 
 Desde que parti6 de Lima, 
 Hasta que a Madrid llegamos : 
 Y dellos y de la casa 
 En que vives, informado, 
 Diciendo que te veria 
 Se despidi6. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 ,;Y del engano 
 De Dona Ana no te habl6 ? 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Yo estaba desatinado 
 For tener nuevas de Ines ; 
 Mas sabe que soy un marmol 
 En callar, desde que en Lima, 
 Por haberme tii mandado 
 Que negase los amores 
 De Dona Ana, halld en mis labios 
 Las costumbres de Vizcaya 
 En lo duro y lo cerrado, 
 Y asi no toc6 ese punto ; 
 Mas pues los dos lo tocamos, 
 Si la mudanza de tierras 
 Y de los tiempos, la ha dado 
 254
 
 A tus intentos ocultos, 
 <: No me diras hasta cuando 
 A Dona Ana y a Don Diego, 
 Has de hacer tan graves daflos? 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 Yo me entiendo. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 <; Que* fin llevas ? 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Yo me entiendo. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Algun gran caso 
 Sin duda alguna previenes, 
 Pues de mi lo ocultas tanto, 
 Que siempre fui del archive 
 De tu pecho secretario. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Ya digo que yo me entiendo : 
 Ver a Don Diego es el plazo, 
 De declarar la intencion 
 De mi silencio y mi engano : 
 Ten paciencia, y no me apures, 
 Que importa, pues yo lo callo. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 Sebastian de Illumbe viene. 
 
 255
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 No le digas que he jugado. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 ^Temes la fraterna? 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Si, 
 Que es cuerdo, y tiene a su cargo, 
 
 % 
 
 Mi correccion y modestia 
 For comision del vicario. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 For esta vez callare", 
 
 Mas si otra vez juegas, canto. 
 
 ESCENA III. 
 
 LOS DICHOS, SEBASTIAN DE ILLUMBE 
 
 Y UN CRIADO, con un lio de vestidos de muger, 
 y pdnelos sobre un bufete. 
 
 SEBASTIAN. 
 
 Deja sobre ese bufete 
 Ese vestido, y volando 
 Parte a casa del vizconde 
 256
 
 De Zolina, y di que aguardo 
 El coche que le pedf. 
 
 (Vase el criado.) 
 Sabed, Alferez Erauso, 
 Que un consejero real 
 A quien la fama ha llevado 
 Nuevas de vos, quiere veros. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 j Qu ha de verme ! <? soy acaso 
 Algun monstruo nunca visto, 
 O la fiera que inventaron 
 Que con letras y con armas 
 Se vi6 en el reino polaco ? 
 ^ No ha visto un hombre sin barbas ? 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 j Hombre !...<; que tii has olvidado 
 Sin duda el memento mulier 
 De aquel mongil trinitario, 
 Que te pusieron en Lima? 
 
 SEBASTIAN. 
 
 Ser una muger soldado, 
 
 Y una monja alfdrez, es 
 
 El prodigio mas estrano 
 
 Que en estos tiempos se ha visto ; 
 
 Y al fin en siendo mandato 
 
 u 257
 
 De un consejero, es forzoso 
 El obedecerle. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Vamos, 
 
 Que debe de convenir 
 Pues porfias. 
 
 SEBASTIAN. 
 
 Aguardaos 
 
 Que quiero que vais en trage 
 De muger. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Esto es el diablo. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Senor Sebastian de Illumbe, 
 Solo el respeto que os guardo 
 Puede hacer que vuestro intento 
 No castigue por agravio. 
 
 SEBASTIAN. 
 
 Mirad cuan lejos estaba 
 De imaginar agraviaros, 
 Ni hallar en vos resistencia, 
 Que sin haber consultado 
 Con vos el intento mio, 
 De casa una dama os traigo 
 258
 
 Este vestido, y previne 
 Un coche para llevaros. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 j La alferez, y Catalina . . . ! 
 (Llega Machin con un manto, y dale Guzman 
 un gofye.} 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 Aparta loco. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 j Mai ano 
 Para la ama de Alcides! 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 De colera estoy rabiando. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Pues a trueque de ir en coche, 
 Hay en Madrid mil Barbados, 
 Que se pondran de botargas. 
 
 SEBASTIAN. 
 
 AlfeVez, determinaos 
 Que esto importa. 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Si os he dicho, 
 Y os dice mi vida, cuanto 
 Mi propio ser aborrezco ;
 
 Si de mis padres y hermanos 
 Troque^ la amada presencia 
 For el inddmito Arauco ; 
 Si recibf mil heridas, 
 Y si de Miguel Erauso 
 Mi mismo hermano vertio 
 La sangre, mi airada mano ; 
 Si del ultimo suplicio * 
 Viendo ya el lugar infausto 
 Me dejaba dar la muerte 
 En un infame teatro, 
 Todo por no publicar 
 Que soy muger, ^ no es en vano 
 Querer que me vista agora 
 De lo que aborrezco tanto? 
 
 SEBASTIAN. 
 
 Por vuestro gusto habeis hecho 
 Escesos tan mal pensados, 
 Quiza porque no tuvisteis 
 Quien supiese aconsejaros. 
 Mas ya que yo os aconsejo, 
 Y que el nombre me habeis dado 
 De amigo, tengo de ver 
 Si con vos, AlfeVez, valgo 
 Mas que vuestra inclinacion ; 
 260
 
 Y si quereis por un rato 
 De disgusto, que me tenga 
 Por hombre poco avisado 
 El oidor, si a su presencia, 
 Que ha de respetarse tanto, 
 Os llevo en trage indecente. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Pues decid qu6 desacato 
 Se hace a su autoridad, 
 Si ya por ella el vicario 
 De Madrid me tuvo presa, 
 Y por haberse informado 
 De mis hazanas, me di6 
 Por libre. 
 
 SEBASTIAN. 
 
 Pues publicado 
 Con ello que sois muger 
 <; Qu6 perdereis en mudaros 
 Por dos horas en su trage? 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Dos horas son dos mil anos, 
 Y no quiero parecello 
 Ya que no puedo negallo : 
 Demas que el oidor querra 
 Verme en el mismo que traigo : 
 
 261
 
 Mas la novedad esta 
 
 Que le obligue a desearlo, 
 
 Que en el otro <jque hay que ver? 
 
 <; Es por ventura milagro 
 
 Ver una muger vestida 
 
 De muger ? 
 
 SEBASTIAN. 
 
 Si, cuando ha dado 
 Tanta materia a la fama, 
 Con hechos tan senalados, 
 Que ellos, no el disfraz, le mueven 
 A querer veros y hablaros. 
 Esto en efecto ha de ser, 
 Que ya por el mismo caso 
 Que me resistis, celoso 
 De ver lo poco que valgo 
 Con vos, 6 he de conseguirlo, 
 O jamas tengo de hablaros. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Acab6se, vizcainos 
 Testarudos sois entrambos : 
 Ved por cual ha de quebrar. 
 Mas tii que estas rehusando 
 Parecer muger, y en nada 
 Podras parecerlo tanto, 
 
 262
 
 Como en decir tijeretas 
 Has de ser lo mas delgado. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Claro esta que lo he de ser, 
 Pues un amigo a quien guardo 
 Tanto respeto, se empena 
 
 (QuUase la capa con rabia.} 
 Tan resuelto y arrojado : 
 
 (A Mackin.) 
 Dame ese manteo. 
 
 SEBASTIAN. 
 
 Agora 
 Me pones al rostro un clavo. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 j Que" bien haces ! no porfies, 
 Que a un tal Roque preguntando 
 Que porqu de las mugeres 
 Piiblicas, gustaba tanto, 
 Dijo, por no porfiar. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Acaba. 
 
 SEBASTIAN. 
 
 ^ Quieres acaso 
 Vestirte sobre la espada? 
 
 263
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Estoy tan acostumbrado.... 
 (Quitase la espada, y pdnese el manteo al revest] 
 
 MACHIN. 
 Acostumbrada.... 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Tambien 
 
 Lo estoy de tratarme hablando, 
 Como varon. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Ponte agora 
 El manteo que es bizarro. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 El mas bizarro manteo 
 No iguala al calzon mas llano. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 No aciertas la coyuntura. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 j Qu6 he de acertar ! que los diablos 
 Inventaron estos grilles. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Vue'lvele de esotro lado. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 j Pese a mi ! <; qu he de volver ? 
 ,? No veis que me viene largo ? 
 264
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Pues ponerte los chapines. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 j Chapines ! <; estas borracho ? 
 (Suenan dentro cuckilladas.) 
 
 DENTRO. 
 Dete"nganse caballeros. 
 
 OTRO. 
 Vive Dios, que he de mataros. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 ^ Qu6 es aquello ? 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Cuchilladas. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Pese las faldas.... 
 (Sttelta el manteo, coge la espada y la 
 desenvaina.) 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Andallo. 
 
 SEBASTIAN. 
 
 Aguardad. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 j Que he de aguardar ! 
 Todo es cansarme y cansaros, 
 
 265
 
 Lo que no puedo conmigo, 
 Necedad es intentarlo. 
 
 SEBASTIAN. 
 
 ,;D6nde vais ? 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 <j Eso pregunta 
 Si se estan acuchillando, 
 Y no tiene otras cosquillas ? 
 
 SEBASTIAN. 
 
 El reducirlo es en vano 
 Porque tiene solamente 
 De muger, lo porfiado. 
 
 (Vanse.) 
 
 ESCENA IV. 
 DON JUAN, DON DIEGO, DONA ANA. 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 Al vizconde le Zolina, 
 A quien el Alfe"rez Monja, 
 Quiere en todo hallar lisonja 
 Porque d ampararle se inclina, 
 Lo mismo le ha respondido. 
 266
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 <;Que aun estd firme en su engano ? 
 
 ,; Que* me haga tan to dano, 
 
 Sin haberla yo ofendido? 
 
 Si tan conocida injuria, 
 
 Sin justa pena dejais 
 
 j Cielos ! ; para quin guardais 
 
 Los rayos de vuestra furia ? 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 Dona Ana, sin fruto son 
 Tus quejas, yo no he podido 
 Mostrar lo que te he querido 
 Con mas clara informacion, 
 Que haberme determinado, 
 Contra escrupulos de honor, 
 Obligado de tu amor, 
 Y de mi deuda obligado 
 A ser tu esposo, si fue 
 El disfrazado Guzman 
 Solamente tu galan, 
 Y de la ocasioh que hurte" 
 Era el dueno, pues podia 
 Perdonar tu liviandad, 
 For tener seguridad 
 De que tu intencion no habia 
 
 267
 
 Llegado a la ejecucion, 
 
 Que es cierto que se casaran 
 
 Muy pocos, si repararan 
 
 En delitos de intencion. 
 
 Mas la Monja, como ves, 
 
 Lo niega tan en tu dano, 
 
 Quej'ate pues de su engafio, 
 
 Si por ventura lo es, 
 
 Y no de mi buen intento, 
 
 Que sabe el cielo, senora, 
 
 Que de tus plantas adora 
 
 Las huellas mi pensamiento. 
 
 Mas fuera gran desvario, 
 
 Y tii misma me culparas, 
 
 Si porque tu honor cobraras, 
 
 Quisiera perder el mio, 
 
 Y el tuyo que es cierta cosa, 
 
 Que no tiene una muger 
 
 Mayor afrenta, que ser 
 
 De un hombre afrentado esposa. 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 Tii sin duda arrepentido 
 De pagar tu obligacion, 
 Has trazado esta invencion, 
 Y tu amistad ha podido 
 
 268
 
 Obligarla a que olvidara 
 De su conciencia el temor, 
 Para quitarme el honor 
 Negando verdad tan clara; 
 Mas la justicia.... 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 Detente 
 
 Que porque en esa sospecha 
 Quedes tambien satisfecha, 
 Informacion evidente 
 Es saber que desde el dia 
 Que ser tu amante neg6 
 En Lima, y se retrat6 
 De lo que afirmado habia 
 La Monja Alfe>ez, no vi 
 Jamas su rostro, y responde 
 Lo que te he dicho al vizconde 
 De Zolina, y no a mf. 
 Luego indicio es verdadero, 
 De que no intento engaftar, 
 Obligarla declarar 
 La verdad con tal tercero. 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 <; Luego tii no le has hablado 
 
 En la corte? 
 
 269
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 Mis enojos 
 
 No han permitido a mis ojos, 
 Ver a quien los ha causado : 
 Y aunque es verdad que al vizconde 
 Le pidi6 que me dijese 
 Que yo con ella me viese ; 
 Porque entiendo de que eseonde 
 Algun misterio el deseo 
 De verme, la quiero hablar : 
 Yo no le pienso tocar 
 Este punto si la veo, 
 Tanto porque es obligarme 
 De c6lera a enloquecer, 
 Y es en efeto muger, 
 De quien no puedo vengarme : 
 Cuando porque ella pudiera 
 Sospechar que yo queria 
 Con semejante porfia, 
 No que la verdad dijera, 
 Sino que, 6 lo fuese 6 no, 
 Dijese que era verdad 
 Ser ella a quien tu beldad 
 For duefio solo estim6, 
 Y fuera justa ocasion 
 270
 
 De mi infamia esta sospecha. 
 
 Y pues quedas satisfecha 
 
 Con esto de mi intencion, 
 
 Que no publiques te pido 
 
 Sucesos tan contra ti, 
 
 Y ten lastima de mi, 
 
 Que te adoro y te he perdido. (Vase.} 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 Aguarda, aguarda...Don Juan. 
 
 ESCENA V. 
 DONA ANA, DON JUAN. 
 
 DON JUAN. 
 
 <; Que me mandais ? 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 Que conmigo 
 Os vengais a ser testigo 
 De lo que el falso Guzman 
 Me responde en este caso 
 A mi misma. 
 
 DON JUAN. 
 
 Justo es 
 Que te sirva. 
 
 271
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 El manto, Ines, 
 Que de ofendida me abraso. (Vanse.) 
 
 ESCENA VL 
 
 GUZMAN (con botas y unos papeles), SEBAS- 
 TIAN DE ILLUMBE Y MACHIN. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 De vos confio el cuidado 
 De acordar mis pretensiones, 
 En todas las ocasiones 
 En el consejo de estado. 
 Estos los papeles son 
 De mis servicios, tomad, 
 Y por los ojos pasad 
 Esa certificacion, 
 Que entre las demas os dejo, 
 Que della os informareis 
 De lo que pedir podeis 
 En recompensa al consejo. 
 272
 
 SEBASTIAN (lee). 
 
 Don Luis de Cespedes Xeria, gobernador y capitan 
 general de la provincia de Paraguay, etc. 
 
 Certifico y hago fe d S. M. que conozco Catalina de 
 Erauso de mas de diez y ocho anos esta parte, que en 
 habito de hombre, y soldado le ha servido en Chile, 
 mas de diez y siete en las compamas del maese de 
 campo D. Diego Brabo de Sarabia, y del capitan Gon- 
 zalo Rodriguez : de la cual fue por sus servicios alferez, 
 llamandose Alonso Diaz Ramirez de Guzman, y se ha- 
 llo en todas las ocasiones que se ofrecieron con mucho 
 valor, y reformada su compania, paso & servir a la del 
 capitan Guillen de Casanova, y fue por buen soldado de 
 los aventajados, sacado para campear desde el castillo 
 de Paicabi con el maese de campo Alvaro Nunez de 
 Pineda, y se hallo en muchas batallas ; y recibio heri- 
 das, y en particular en la de Puren, donde llego a la 
 muerte. Por lo cual y por ser digna de que S. M. 
 le haga merced, le di la presente, con mi nrma y 
 
 sello. 
 
 En Madrid a 2 de febrero de 1625. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 De aquese misma tenor 
 Son las demas, esta es 
 De noble Don Juan Cortes 
 De Monroy, gobernador 
 De Veraguas : de Don Diego 
 Flores de Leon, es esta, 
 Que en el pecho manifiesta 
 La cruz del Patron Gallego, 
 
 x 273
 
 Maese de campo a quien dan 
 En las regiones australes, 
 Alabanzas inmortales 
 Sus hechos : del capitan 
 Y cabo de companias 
 Francisco de Navarrete 
 Es aquesta, que promete 
 Premio a las hazanas mias ; 
 Segun las ha exagerado. 
 Estas son las que en Madrid 
 Pude juntar, acudid 
 Al secretario de estado 
 Que pienso que le hallareis 
 Atento a mi pretension. 
 
 SEBASTIAN. 
 
 <;A que" remuneracion 
 Os inclinais ? 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Si podeis 
 
 Para Flandes negociar 
 Una ventaja, me holgara 
 Que su magestad premiara 
 Mis hechos con emplear 
 En su servicio estas manos ; 
 Que rabian ya por saber, 
 274
 
 Si pueden tambien veneer 
 Flamencos como Araucanos. 
 Pero si al fin conquistar 
 No podeis merced alguna, 
 Pretended al menos una, 
 Que es mas facil de alcanzar. 
 
 SEBASTIAN. 
 
 <;Cual es? 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Que se me conceda 
 Andar siempre de varon, 
 Que con esta permision 
 Quedo pagada y contenta. 
 
 SEBASTIAN. 
 
 Pues sin tenella te pones 
 En su trage, <-que te inquieta? 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 No quiero vivir sujeta 
 A enfados y vejaciones. 
 
 SEBASTIAN. 
 
 Por advertido me doy, 
 Mas trata de prevenirte, 
 Que es hora ya de partirte 
 Que en casa el vizconde voy. (Vase.) 
 
 275
 
 ESCENA VII. 
 
 GUZMAN, MACHIN, DON JUAN, 
 DORA ANA 6 INKS (con mantos). 
 
 DON JUAN. 
 
 Aqui esta ; Alferez Guzman 
 Bien debeis a mi deseo 
 Los brazos. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 <; Que es lo que veo ? 
 <; Es Ines ? 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Senor Don Juan, 
 ^'Teneis salud ? 
 
 .DON JUAN. 
 
 Bueno estoy 
 Para serviros. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 <: Don Diego ? 
 
 DON JUAN. 
 
 A buscaros vendra luego. 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Ines los brazos te doy. 
 276
 
 INES. 
 
 j C6mo te llegas a mi 
 Testigo falso !... 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 Un criado, 
 ,? Qu ha de hacer siendo mandado ? 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 Guzman, ^ conoceisme ? 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Si: 
 Bien te conozco, Dona Ana. 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 ^ Pues c6mo tu falso pecho, 
 
 Si me conoces ha hecho 
 
 Una accion tan inhumana 
 
 Contra mi honor y opinion 
 
 Negando claras verdades ? 
 
 <? For dicha te persuades 
 
 Que no hay ley, que no hay razon ? 
 
 i Que no hay Dios, que no hay justicia ? 
 
 Di que* intento te ha obligado 
 
 Para haber ejecutado 
 
 Tan detestable malicia? 
 
 <?Verdad tan averiguada, 
 
 No la diran los que ves 
 
 277
 
 Que la saben ? habla Ines, 
 Habla Machin.... 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 No s nada. 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 jAh traidor, falso testigo! 
 Mai haya yo que muger * 
 Naci, para no poder 
 Dar a entrambos el castigo. 
 
 INES. 
 
 <? Agora no me decias 
 Disculpandote, un criado 
 Que" ha de hacer siendo mandado? 
 
 MACHIN. 
 No se* nada. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Tus porfias 
 
 No han de hacer mudanza en mi 
 Que aunque tu mal me lastima, 
 Lo mismo que dije en Lima, 
 Te digo, Dona Ana, aqui. 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 ^ Es posible que de Dios 
 Te puedes tanto olvidar ? 
 
 278
 
 DON JUAN (aparte]. 
 i Quien podra determinar 
 Cual miente aqui de los dos ? 
 Pero Don Diego ha llegado. 
 
 MACHIN (aparte]. 
 Gracias a Dios que esta vez 
 Se acabara la prenez 
 De engano tan dilatado. 
 
 DONA ANA (aparte). 
 Este es Don Diego : ojala 
 Vengue en este infame pecho 
 Su agravio y mi deshonor. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 Ya se cumpli6 mi deseo. 
 
 ESCENA VIII. 
 LOS DICHOS, Y DON DIEGO. 
 
 DON DIEGO (aparte). 
 Ya estoy con ver la ocasion 
 De tantos dafios ardiendo 
 En c6lera, pero quiso 
 
 Que fuese muger el cielo 
 
 279
 
 Porque no pueda vengarme. 
 Dona Ana esta aquf y me huelgo 
 For dejarla satisfecha. 
 
 MACHIN (aparte}. 
 El color pierden jque es esto! 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 Porque me dijo el vizconde 
 Que teneis que hablarme, 1 vengo 
 A hacerlo, Alfe"rez. 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Sintiera 
 En el alma irme sin veros. 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 Hablad, pues, que ya os escucho. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 ^ Teneis memoria, Don Diego 
 De que para descubriros 
 Que era muger, el secreto 
 Prometisteis como noble? 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 Si prometi, bien me acuerdo. 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 I Pues c6mo lo quebrantasteis ? 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 Por daros la vida. 
 280
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 El celo 
 
 De Hbrarme, no era justo 
 Que os obligase a rompello, 
 Habie"ndoos yo prevenido, 
 Que sintiera mucho menos 
 La muerte, que publicar 
 Que era muger, y asi viendo 
 Que a descubrillo os movi6 
 De casaros el deseo, 
 Quise con aquel engafio 
 Impediros el efeto, 
 Y el fruto que conseguir 
 Pensastes de haberlo hecho : 
 Hasta que vi^ndome libre 
 De prisiones, y volviendo 
 A vestir varonil trage 
 Y a cenir marcial acero, 
 De los agravios, afrentas, 
 Infamias y vituperios, 
 Que desde entonces aca 
 He padecido y padezco, 
 For no haberme vos guardado 
 La palabra del secreto, 
 Tomara asi la venganza 
 
 281
 
 Y os diera justo escarmiento. 
 (Dale a Don Diego con un baston ; y sacan 
 las espadas.) 
 DON DIEGO. 
 jAh vil! 
 
 MACHIN. 
 
 <; No lo dije yo ? 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 jAy de mi! 
 
 (Mttese Don Juan por medio.) 
 
 DON JUAN. 
 <? Qu haceis Don Diego ? 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 Castigar una muger 
 Atrevida. 
 
 DON JUAN. 
 
 Si vos mismo 
 
 Decis que es muger, <; que* afrenta 
 Una muger puede haceros? 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Mentis que no soy muger 
 Mientras empuno este acero, 
 Que ha vencido tantos hombres. 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 Apartad, Don Juan. 
 282
 
 ESCENA IX. 
 
 LOS DICHOS, EL VIZCONDE DE ZOLINA 
 (de camino\ Y SEBASTIAN DE 
 ILLUMBE. 
 
 VIZCONDE. 
 
 i Qu es esto ? 
 
 Seftor Don Diego, aguardad ; 
 < Sois hombre ? <; sois caballero ? 
 J Contra una muger sacais 
 La espada ? 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 En nadie la empleo 
 Mejor, que en una muger, 
 Cuando me pierde el respeto. 
 
 VIZCONDE. 
 
 Acabad, sed mas prudente 
 Que aunque os le pierda, os advierto 
 Que si os dais por agraviado, 
 No quedareis satisfecho, 
 Aunque la muerte le deis 
 Pues es muger, siendo cierto 
 Que es mas afrenta que hazana 
 Manchar en ella el acero.
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 j QUC" es muger L.tanta muger... 
 Tratadme, vizconde, menos 
 De muger, que perdere^ 
 Sobre ello al mundo el respeto. 
 
 VIZCONDE. 
 Si lo eres, <? de qu6 te agravias ? 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Si lo soy, ni lo confieso, 
 
 Ni quiero sufrir que nadie 
 
 Me lo llame, y vos, Don Diego, 
 
 Pues padezco estas afrentas 
 
 For vos, ni de lo que he hecho 
 
 Me pesa, ni soy muger, 
 
 Si quereis satisfaceros. 
 
 SEBASTIAN. 
 
 j Hay condicion mas estrana ! 
 
 DONA ANA. 
 
 ;Qud tigre te di6 alimento 
 Que a la que tanto le debes 
 Tantos agravios has hecho 
 Cruel? 
 
 GUZMAN. 
 
 Escucha, senora, 
 Que pues mi agradecimiento 
 284
 
 Y tu honor pudieron tanto 
 En mi pecho, que me hicieron 
 Solo porque tu sospecha 
 Satisfaciese Don Diego, 
 Descubrir que era muger 
 Cuando estaba tan secreto ; 
 Agora pues que, Dona Ana, 
 Es publico y hago menos 
 Y que satisface ya 
 Mi enojo, y cesa con esto 
 La ocasion, porque mi engafio 
 Le impidid tu casamiento, 
 Mejor lo confesare* 
 For dar a tu honor remedio, 
 Y no malograr fineza, 
 Que tan a mi costa he hecho. 
 Y asi, Don Diego, ya es justo, 
 Restituir lo que debo 
 A Dona Ana, declarando 
 Que solo cupo en su pecho 
 Mi amor ; y pues habeis visto 
 De negaroslo el intento, 
 Dadle la mano, que yo, 
 Si acaso consiste en esto, 
 Porque ni vos repareis 
 
 285
 
 En la ofensa que os he hecho, 
 Ni ella se case con quien 
 Tenga el menor sentimiento : 
 Y para que efeto tenga 
 Segunda vez os confieso, 
 Que soy muger, pues deshago 
 Y satisfago con esto, 
 Vuestro agravio, pues decis^ 
 Que soy muger, y es lo mesmo 
 Que confesar que no pude 
 Agraviaros, ni ofenderos : 
 Y si esto no os satisface, 
 Haga mi agradecimiento 
 Lo que no hiciera la muerte 
 En este invencible pecho, 
 
 (Arrodfllase.) 
 
 Rindie"ndome a vuestros pies, 
 Y confesdndome en ellos 
 Vencida, y que a merced vuestra 
 Vivo, pues quedais con esto, 
 Mucho mas que con matarme, 
 Ventajoso y satisfecho. 
 
 DON DIEGO. 
 
 Levanta, y dame los brazos, 
 Que no solamente quedo 
 286
 
 Satisfecho, mas vencido 
 Envidioso del ejemplo 
 Que de agradecida has dado, 
 Y quisiera yo haber hecho 
 Mas esta hazana, que cuantas 
 Han celebrado los tiempos. 
 
 VIZCONDE. 
 
 Nunca has mostrado el valor 
 Como agora, de tu pecho. 
 
 SEBASTIAN. 
 
 Mas has ganado vencida 
 De tf misma, que venciendo 
 EjeVcitos de enemigos. 
 
 VIZCONDE. 
 
 Pues con aquesto, y pidiendo 
 Perdon, tenga fin aquf 
 Este caso verdadero. 
 Donde llega la comedia 
 Han llegado los sucesos, 
 Que hoy esta el Alfe"rez Monja 
 En Roma, y si casos nuevos 
 Dieren materia a la pluma, 
 Segunda parte os prometo. 
 
 FIN. 
 
 287
 
 NOTES TO INTRODUCTION 
 
 289
 
 1 The baptismal certificate is printed by Joaquin 
 Maria de Ferrer in his edition of the Historia de la 
 Monja Alferez, Dona Catalina de Erauso, escrita POT ella 
 misma (Paris, 1829), p. 129. 
 
 " Bautizose Catalina de Erauso en diez de febrero 
 de dicho afio [1592] , hija lejitima de Miguel de 
 Erauso, y de Maria Perez de Galarraga. Padrinos 
 Pedro de Galarraga, y Maria Velez de Aranalde. 
 Ministro el vicario Alvisua." 
 
 In the greater part of Spain, and more particularly 
 in the Basque Provinces, baptism takes place as soon 
 as possible after birth : it was and even still is 
 frequently administered on the day of birth. 
 
 2 Part I., Chapter xxxix. 
 
 3 In Catalina de Erauso's petition to the King of 
 Spain, Miguel is described as an alferez or ensign : 
 Ferrer, op. cit., p. 136. But he is called Captain in 
 other contemporary documents such as the Capitulo 
 de una Carta de Cartagena de Indias dando cuenta 
 de una monja que, en hdbito de hombre, fue soldado en 
 Chile y Tipoan, y de sus hazanas con los Indios Chiles y 
 Chambos (Seville, 1618 [a misprint for 1625]) : see the 
 reprint (Madrid, 1903) by D. Victoriano Suarez, p. 9. 
 
 4 Ferrer, op. cit., pp. 137-138. " Por tanto y porque 
 asi bien interpone los servicios del capitan Miguel de 
 Erauso su padre, y del dicho alferez Miguel de Erauso, 
 y de Francisco de Erauso, que sirvio en la armada de 
 Lima con D. Rodrigo de Mendoza, y Domingo de 
 Erauso que se fue en la armada que salio para 
 Brasil. . . ." 
 
 s Ferrer, op. cit., pp. 130-131. 
 
 6 The convent-fees for the three daughters of Captain 
 Miguel de Erauso, covering the expenses of 1603, were 
 paid in 1604 : see Ferrer, op. cit., p. 132. 
 290
 
 7 Ibid., p. 132. 
 
 8 Ibid., p. 133. 
 
 9 Ibid., pp. 135-143, I56-I5 8 - 
 
 10 This is her own statement, and is supported by 
 the four officers under whom she served. In the 
 Capitulo de una Carta de Cartagena de Indias she is 
 said to have been known as Francisco de Loyola, 
 " and up to the present the name has not been 
 changed " ; and by Gil Gonzalez Davila her pseudonym 
 is given as Pedro de Orive : see Monarquia de Espana 
 (Madrid, 1770-1771), vol. iii. 1296. 
 
 11 The incident of the street-brawl is reported by 
 Pietro della Valle (II Pellegrino) on the authority of 
 Catalina herself : in her petition to the King of Spain 
 she discreetly refers to it as "an incident which it is 
 out of place to relate here." 
 
 In the Capitulo de una Carta de Cartagena de Indias 
 the date of the avowal is given as July 8, 1617. This 
 is certainly wrong, for Recio de Leon declares in two 
 passages of his statement that Catalina de Erauso 
 served under him in 1620. 
 
 12 Ferrer, op. cit., p. 141. 
 
 '3 This is the signature which she attached to several 
 official documents during her stay in Spain, but her 
 petition to the King of Spain is drawn up in the name 
 of " El Alferez Dona Catalina de Erauso." 
 
 x Gonzalez Davila states that Catalina " arrived at 
 Madrid in the month of December, 1624, and came to 
 my house, dressed as a soldier." 
 
 *s Historia de la vida y hechos del inclito monarca, 
 amado y santo D. Felipe Tercero, 1296-1300. This 
 posthumous work forms vol. iii. of the Monarquia de 
 Espana already mentioned in note 10. 
 
 16 Pietro della Valle (II Pellegrino), De' Viaggi . . . 
 
 291
 
 Parte Terza, doe V India, co'l ritorno alia Patria (Roma, 
 1658-1663), vol. iv. p. 499. " lo sapeva gia di lei nell' 
 India Orientale, doue m'haueua sentito parlare, che fin 
 la era arriuata la sua fama, e piu volte ne haueua 
 desiderate particolare informatione. . . ." 
 
 J 7 Relation verdadera de las grandes hazanas, y vale- 
 rosos hechos en veynte y quatro afios que siruio en el 
 Reyno de Chile y otras paries al Rey nuestro senor, en 
 abito de soldado . . . sacada de vn original, que dexo 
 en Madrid en casa de Bernardino de Guzman (Madrid- 
 Sevilla, 1625). 
 
 18 Segunda Relacion de la mas copiosa y verdadera que 
 ha salido (Madrid-Sevilla, 1625). The date is misprinted 
 " 1615." 
 
 '9 Segunda relacion de los famosos hechos que en el 
 Reyno de Chile hizo una varonil muger sirviendo veynte 
 y quatro anos de soldado en servicio de su Magestad el Rey 
 nuestro Sefior, en el qual tiempo tuvo muy onrosos cargos 
 (Sevilla, 1625). This was published by Juan de Cabrera: 
 the previous accounts were issued by Bernardino de 
 Guzman at Madrid, and by Simon Faxardo at Seville. 
 
 20 La Monja Alferez was printed in the form of an 
 undated suelta ; but, from the closing lines, which 
 speak of the heroine as being at present in Rome, 
 we may assume the play to have been written in 
 1626. 
 
 Donde llega la comedia 
 
 Han llegado los sucesos, 
 
 Que hoy esta el Alferez Monja 
 
 En Roma, y si casos nuevos 
 
 Dieren materia a la pluma, 
 
 Segunda parte os prometo. 
 
 In El Bachiller Trapaza Alonso de Castillo Solorzano 
 292
 
 states that Luis de Belmonte Bermudez also wrote a 
 play entitled La Monja Alferez : if so, it has been 
 lost. 
 
 21 An eye-witness, Juan Perez de Liquendi, states 
 that the arrest took place " in the open country near 
 the city of Piu." I have followed Ferrer (op. '/., 
 p. 152, w.), who identifies " Piu " as La Tour du Pin, 
 on the road to Chamberi. 
 
 aa Ferrer, op. a'/., pp. 143-155. Catalina de Erauso's 
 declaration was actually confirmed by six persons, but 
 only four appear to have witnessed her arrest and 
 imprisonment. 
 
 2 3 The date of the visit is given as July 5, 1626, in 
 Ferrer, op. cit., p. 122 ; but Valle himself dates the visit 
 a month earlier. 
 
 Valle, op. '/., vol. iv. pp. 499-500. " Alii 5 
 Giugno venne la prima volta in casa mia VAlfiere 
 Caterina d'Arcuso Biscaina, venuta di Spagna, & 
 arriuata in Roma appunto il giorno innanzi. Era 
 costei vna donzella d'eta all' hora di trentacinque in 
 quarant' anni in circa. . . . lo poi 1'ho fatta conoscere 
 in Roma a diuerse Dame, e Caualieri, de quali assai 
 piu, che delle Donne amaua la conuersatione. II 
 Signer Francesco Crescentio, che sa dipinger molto 
 bene, Pha ritratta di sua mano. Ella e di statura grande, 
 e grossa per donna, che non si puo per quella cono- 
 scere che non sia huomo : no ha petto che da 
 giouinetta, mi disse hauer fatto no so che di rimedio 
 per farselo seccare, e restar quasi piano . . . di viso 
 non e ingrata, ma non bella, e si conosce essere stra- 
 pazzata alquanto, & horamai d'eta, e con i capelli 
 negri, e corti da huomo con vn poco di zazzeretta, 
 com' hoggi s'vsa ; rappresenta in effetto piu un 
 Eunucho, che vna donna : Veste da huomo alia 
 
 293
 
 Spagnuola, porta la spada, e ben cinta, e cosi anche 
 la vita ; ma la testa bassetta alquanto ; e com' vn poco 
 aggobbatella, piu tosto da soldato stentato, che da 
 cortegiano che vada su 1'amorosa vita. Alia mano solo 
 si puo conoscere esser donna, che 1'ha pienotta, e 
 carnosa, se bene robusta, e forte e la muoue ancora 
 donnescamente alquanto." 
 
 The detail concerning the dispensation to wear men's 
 clothes is taken from Ferrer, op. cit., p. 120. 
 
 2 s Ferrer, op. cit., pp. 120-121. Catalina de Erauso 
 returned on a vessel belonging to the squadron com- 
 manded by Miguel de Echazarreta : he is stated to 
 have been captain of the ship which took her to 
 America some twenty-three years previously. 
 
 2(5 Vicente Riva Palacio, Mexico a traves de los siglos 
 (Mexico, 1888-1896), vol. ii. p. 622. 
 
 2 7 The text of Catalina's letter is as follows : "Quando 
 las personas de mi calidad entran en una casa con su 
 nobleza, tienen asegurada la fidelidad del buen trato, 
 y no habiendo el mio excedido los limites que piden 
 sus partes de vm., es deslumbramiento impedirme el 
 entrar en su casa, demas que me han certificado, que si 
 por su calle paso, me ha de dar la muerte, y assi, yo 
 aunque mujer pareciendole imposible a mi valor, para 
 que vea mis bizarrfas, y consiga lo que blasona, le 
 aguardo sola detras de San Diego desde la una hasta las 
 seis. Dona Chatherina de Erauzu." 
 
 38 Ferrer, op. cit., p. 121. 
 
 2 9 Ibid., pp. 121-122. " . . . Era de buen cuerpo, no 
 pocas carnes, color trigueno, con algunos pocos pelillos 
 por bigote." 
 
 3 Riva Palacio, op. cit., p. 621. In an essay to which 
 reference is made later Valon, who is followed by 
 De Quincey, gives it to be understood that Catalina 
 394
 
 was drowned off Veracruz : this is not supported 
 by any evidence, and appears to be a wild sur- 
 mise. 
 
 3* Relation prodigiosa de la vida y hechos de Catalina 
 de Erauso, monja de Espana, soldado y alferez en Lima, 
 y traficante en Mexico, donde falletio en el pueblo de 
 Cuitlaxtla el ano de i6$o (Mexico, 1653). 
 
 3 s Published at Madrid in 1793. Munoz, who died 
 in 1799, incorporates material from the then unpub- 
 lished Historia general de las continuadas guerras y 
 diftcil conquista del gran reino y provincias de Chile 
 by Luis Tribaldos de Toledo. 
 
 33 This copy, used by Ferrer, is now in the library of 
 the Royal Academy of History at Madrid. Another 
 manuscript of the work was in the possession of Sr. D. 
 Sancho Rayon a few years ago. 
 
 34 Ferrer, op. '/., pp. xvj-xxxv. 
 
 35 By Jules Didot. 
 
 3 6 Revue encyclopedique ou Analyse raisonnee des pro- 
 ductions les plus remarquables dans les sciences, les arts 
 industriels, la literature el les Beaux Arts. Par une 
 reunion de Membres de PInstitut et d'autres hommes 
 de lettres (Paris, Juillet-Septembre, 1829), vol. xliii. 
 pp. 742-744- 
 
 & Histoire de la Monja- Alferez (Paris, 1830). A copy 
 of this rarity is in the Bibliotheque Nationale. 
 
 3 8 Under the title of Die Nonne-Fahnrich, oderGeschichte 
 der Dona Catalina de Erauso, von ihr selbst geschrieben 
 (Aachen und Leipzig, 1830). The translator, Andreas 
 Daniel Berthold von Schepeler, had resided in Spain, 
 and was a good Spanish scholar. He is the author of 
 the Geschichte der Revolutions Spaniens und Portugals, 
 und besonders des daraus entstandenen Krieges (Posen 
 und Bamber, 1826-1827) and the Geschichte der 
 
 295
 
 spanischen Monarchic von 1810 bis 1823 (Aachen und 
 Leipzig, 1829-1833). 
 
 39 Musee des Families, Lectures du soir (Paris, 1839), 
 vol. vi. pp. 303-311. 
 
 4 Revue des deux mondes, 5 me serie (Paris, Fevrier 15, 
 1847), pp. 589-637. The article was reprinted by the 
 author in his Nouvelles et Critiques (Paris, 1851). 
 
 4* Tail's Edinburgh Magazine (Edinburgh, 1847), 
 vol. xiv. pp. 324-333, 369-376, 431-440. The three 
 instalments appeared in the numbers for May, June, 
 and July : there is an error in the pagination of the 
 last instalment, which is accidentally numbered u 231- 
 240." 
 
 v La Ilustracion Espanola y Americana (Madrid, July 
 8, 1892). 
 
 La Nonne Alferez. Illustrations de Daniel Vierge 
 gravees par Privat- Richard (Paris, 1894). 
 
 44 Ferrer (op, cit., p. 168) calculates that three years 
 twenty-two days elapsed between the flight from the 
 convent and the embarkation for America. 
 
 45 Ibid., pp. xxxvij-xlviij. 
 
 4 6 In the opening paragraph omitted in the reprints 
 of the article in Tail's Edinburgh Magazine De Quincey 
 wrote : " M. de Ferrer, a Spaniard of much research, 
 and originally incredulous as to the facts, published, 
 about seventeen years ago, a selection from the lead- 
 ing documents, accompanied by his palinode as to 
 their accuracy. His materials have since been the 
 basis of more than one narrative, not inaccurate, in 
 French, German, and Spanish journals of high authority. 
 It is seldom the case that French writers err by pro- 
 lixity. They have done so in this case. The present 
 narrative, which contains no sentence derived from any 
 foreign one, has the great advantage of close compres- 
 296
 
 sion ; my own pages, after equating the size, being 
 i to 3 of the shortest continental form. In the mode 
 of narration, I am vain enough to flatter myself that the 
 reader will find little reason to hesitate between us. 
 Mine will, at least, weary nobody ; which is more than 
 can always be said for the continental versions." 
 
 De Quincey implies that he had read Ferrer as well 
 as the narratives based on Ferrer " in French, German, 
 and Spanish journals of high authority" ; it is, however, 
 evident that he had read nothing on the subject except 
 Valon's article. He seems to have felt that he had gone 
 too far, for, when reprinting his article in 1854, he made 
 the following statement in a postscript : u I must not 
 leave the impression upon my readers that this complex 
 body of documentary evidence has been searched and 
 appraised by myself. Frankly I acknowledge that, on 
 the sole occasion when any opportunity offered itself 
 for such a labour, I shrank from it as too fatiguing 
 and also as superfluous. . . ." Professor Masson's 
 comment is : " This seems to be De Quincey's way 
 of saying that, to as late as 1854, he had never had 
 an opportunity of examining the original of Kate's 
 memoirs in M. de Ferrer's book." This is proved by a 
 passage in the postscript which speaks of the published 
 autobiography as being " mobbed and hustled by a 
 gang of misbelieving (i.e., miscreant) critics," headed by 
 Ferrer. In 1854 De Quincey was still unaware that 
 the text had been published for the first time by Ferrer 
 himself. 
 
 47 See the preface to La Nonne Alferez, pp. v-vii. 
 
 4 8 Apuntes para una biblioteca de escritoras espanolas 
 desdc el ano 1401 al 1883 (Madrid, 1903-1905), vol. i. 
 
 PP. 388-392- 
 
 49 Candido Maria Trigueros was born at Orgaz in 
 
 297
 
 1736 ; he appears to have died in 1802, but the exact 
 date of his death is unknown. 
 
 3 La Estrella de Sevilla, El Anzuelo de Fenisa, and Los 
 Melindres de Belisa were recast by Trigueros under the 
 respective titles of Sancho Ortiz de las Roelas, La Buscona, 
 and La Melindrosa 6 los esclavos supuestos. 
 
 s 1 Comentarios de el desenganado de si mesmo, prueba 
 de todos estados y election del mejor de ellos, 6 sea Vida de 
 el mesmo autor, que lo es Don Diego Duque de Estrada 
 (Madrid, 1860). 
 
 s 2 Vida del soldado espanol Miguel de Castro, escrita por 
 el mismo y publicada por A. Paz y Melia (Barcelona- 
 Madrid, 1900). This forms vol. ii. of M. R. Foulche- 
 Delbosc's Bibliotheca Hispanica. 
 
 S3 Vida del Capitdn Alonso de Contreras, Caballero del 
 hdbito de San Juan, natural de Madrid, escrita por el 
 mismo (anos 1582 a 1633). Publicala con una intro- 
 duction M. Serrano y Sanz (Madrid, 1900). 
 
 s* As edited by Pascual de Gayangos, it forms vol. xii. 
 of the Memorial historico espanol.
 
 NOTES TO AUTOBIOGRAPHY 
 
 *99
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 1 It is proved that Catalina de Erauso was baptized 
 at San Sebastian on February 10, 1592 ; from this 
 it follows that many of the subsequent dates are 
 wrong. 
 
 2 Three of Catalina's brothers are mentioned in the 
 text: see Chapter VI., p. 32, and Chapter XXII., 
 p. 127. 
 
 3 Three of Catalina's sisters entered the convent of 
 San Sebastian el Antiguo. Mari-Juan de Erauso was 
 professed on April 23, 1605, and died on September 21, 
 1655 ; Isabel de Erauso was professed on December 17, 
 1606, and died on January 8, 1617 ; Jacinta de Erauso 
 was professed on November 15, 1615, and died on 
 March 8, 1649. 
 
 * Catalina was not born till three years after this 
 date. 
 
 5 Soror Catalina de Jesus y Aliri was professed on 
 November 20, 1605, at which date the Madre Joana de 
 Lozcano was prioress. Soror Catalina de Jesus y Aliri 
 was herself prioress of the convent for fifteen years 
 before her death, which took place on October 15, 
 1657. The record of her profession does not state that 
 she was a widow. 
 
 6 Roughly speaking a real = 6d. A real de a ocho 
 contained eight reales, and was worth about 43. 4d. It 
 is represented by the dollar in the United States and 
 Canada. 
 
 7 The doblon de a dos (= 2 gold escudos) contained 
 23^ reales and was worth about 123. This is probably 
 the coin mentioned in the text ; but there was also 
 a doblon de a cuatro, worth about i 45. 
 
 300
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 1 The dollar, or real de a ocho, was also called a 
 peso de A ocho or peso de plata (besides other names 
 which need not be given here). Later on, at about 
 the date of Catalina de Erauso's adventures, the real de 
 a ocho was commonly called a pesofuerte or peso duro ; 
 this name was abbreviated during the last third of the 
 eighteenth century, since when the coin has been 
 known as a peso in Spanish America and as a duro 
 in Spain. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 1 Un dia de fiesta might be either a Sunday or a 
 holiday of obligation ; but the context shows that the 
 former is intended here. 
 
 a According to Ferrer, apart from the actual wound, 
 to slash a man's face rayar la cam, or, in nautical 
 slang, pintar un jabeque is a gross insult. 
 
 3 Espada in the original. " A Frenchman called his 
 arm, ' esp6e ' ; an Englishman, ' sword.' Both, when 
 they talked of the Spaniard's sword, called it a rapier." 
 See Mr. Egerton Castle, Schools and Masters of Fence 
 from the Middle Ages to the end of the eighteenth century 
 (London, 1892), pp. 29-30. 
 
 * The meaning no doubt is that this was the first 
 time Catalina was imprisoned in America ; she had 
 already spent " a longish month " in jail at Bilbao : 
 see Chapter I., p. 7. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 1 Cp. Robert Barret, The Theorike and Practike of 
 Moderne Warres (London, 1598). In "A Table, show- 
 
 301
 
 ing the signification of sundry forraine words, used 
 in these discourses," Barret writes : " Campe Maister r 
 in Spanish Maestro del Campo, is a Colonell : being 
 the chiefe Commander or officer ouer one Regiment or 
 Tertio." 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 1 A veinticuatro is a superior alderman with functions 
 somewhat resembling those of a mayor. 
 
 a The "native sheep of burden" is he llama, the 
 camel of South America. 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 1 It is doubtful whether the text refers to the 
 ordinary peso duro mentioned on p. 301, . i, or to the 
 Peruvian peso ensayado, a weight of silver (not a coin) 
 worth 13^ reales a little more than js. 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 1 See Chapter VIII., p. 53. 
 
 2 A fanega = no lb., and is therefore roughly 
 equivalent to a bushel. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 1 According to Mr. Egerton Castle, the Spanish shell 
 dagger, corresponding to the main gauche of the French, 
 " combined the advantages of the target, or broquel, and 
 the dagger, and was especially convenient with heavy 
 rapiers." That bouts played with rapier and dagger were 
 frequent is evident from Hamlet (Act V. sc. ii.) : 
 302
 
 Osric. You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is 
 
 Hamlet. I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with 
 him in excellence ; but to know a man well, were to know 
 himself. 
 
 Osric. I mean, sir, for his weapon ; but in the imputation laid on 
 him by them, in his meed he's unfellowed. 
 
 Hamlet. What's his weapon ? 
 
 Osric. Rapier and dagger. 
 
 Hamlet. That's two of his weapons ; but, well. 
 
 As the action of Hamlet takes place long before 
 Shakespeare's time, the passage is inappropriate ; but it 
 records the contemporary practice at the beginning of 
 the seventeenth century. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 1 The incidents recorded in this chapter are probably 
 apocryphal : they appear to be suggested by Perez de 
 Montalban's play, La Monja Alferez, Jornada I., Escena 
 vi., and Jornada II., Escena viii. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 1 Cincuenta : probably a slip for quince (fifteen). In 
 the declaration made at Pamplona on July 28, 1625, 
 Catalina states that she was imprisoned for fourteen 
 days. 
 
 * Antoine de Gramont, son of Philibert de Gramont 
 and Diane d'Andouins, la belle Corisande, the mistress of 
 Henri IV. According to Anthony Hamilton, Henri IV. 
 was prepared to recognise Antoine de Gramont as 
 his son ; but this seems to be merely a proud family 
 tradition. 
 
 303
 
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