GIL BLAS. 35
•ntique air, of which he was not a little vain. He pretended that one of his ancettors had caufed it to be built; and from thence concluded, that there was not a more ancient houfe in Spain than that of Xercia. But this title of nobility, fair as it was, had like to have been deftroyed by time: for the cattle, which they were obliged to prop up in feveial parts, threatened immediate ruin* How happy, therefore, was Don Manuel in marrying me ! more than half of my money was employed in reparations : and the reft ferved to put us in a condition of making a figure in the country. Behold me then (to ule the ex predion) in a new world, changed into the nymph of a cattle, and lady of a pari lb. Here was a metamorphoiis! and 1 was too good au aftrefs, not to fupport, with dignity* the fplcndor with which I was inverted by my rank, I aliumed lofty theatrical airs, which made the village conceive an high idea of my birth. How merry Would they have been at my expence, had they known the truth cf the matter! the nobility in the neighbourhood would have bellowed upon me a thou fund taunts, and the pcafants abated a gieat deal of the reipefr they fhewed.
I had lived happily near fix vears with Don Manuel, when he died, leaving my affairs in great perplexity, with your lifter Beatrice, then going in her fifth year. The cattle, which was all the ellate we had, was unluckily engaged to feveral creditors, the chief of whom was one Bernard Aftulo, whofe name feemed very well adapted to his character: he praftifed ac Valencia the bufmefs of an attorney, which he exer- cifed with confumniate (kill, having ftudied the law', in order to qualify himfelf for cheating with the greater dexterity. What a terrible creditor he was ! a cattle under the claws of fuch an attorney, is like a pigeon in the talons of a kite. Accordingly, Signior Alturo, as foon as he underftood the death of my hulband, did not fail to befiege the cattle, which he would undoubtedly have blown up, by the mines that chicanery B 6 began