Where  such  open  violence  is  not  employed,
ruses  are  tried ;  and  Alonso  on  the  way  to
Seville  has  a  narrow  escape  in  a  little  venta
from  the  landlord's  daughter. She  proposes
that  he  espouse  her,  and  on  his  demurring,
she  raises  a  cry  at  which  seven  men  pounce
upon  him. The  parents  pretend  he  has  been
there  often  before,  showing  the  lady  marked
attention ;  and  Alonso,  realizing  that  he  is
trapped,  can  only  appear  to  accede  to  their
demands. Preparations  for  the  wedding  fes-
tivities are  made,  but,  when  momentarily  un-


SOCIETY  THROUGH  THE   ROGUE'S  EYE      127

guarded,  the  bridegroom-elect  takes  to  his  heels
and  succeeds  in  regaining  liberty. At  Ma-
drid, Lazarillo  de  Manzanares  and  his  master
have  a  similar  experience  with  a  landlady  and
her  daughter,  but  release  is  secured  for  a  finan-
cial consideration. Sometimes  the  innkeeper  is
discovered  robbing  his  guests,  and  outwitted
when  he  thinks  himself  safest. Marcos,  at
Ventas  Nuevas,  hiding  in  a  tavern  stable,
finds  the  host  and  his  wife  entering  at  night
to  open  a  trap-door  into  a  cabinet,  where  some
guests  on  the  other  side  of  the  wall  have
locked  their  treasure. The  innkeeper,  mis-
taking Marcos  in  the  dusk  for  his  wife,  hands
him  the  booty,  with  which  the  picaro  is  not
long  in  departing. The  wife  of  Rodrigo  —
a  rogue  innkeeper  of  the  JEnganos  deste  siglo
—  makes  her  thief -of -a-lord  believe  that  her
gallant's  mantle  is  one  she  has  stolen  from
a  guest,  and  so  escapes  suspicion. The  gen-
eral counsel  for  the  innkeeper  is  best  arrayed
by  Diego  Diez,  Justina's  father,  an  astute
member  of  the  trade. He  advises  that  the
barley  be  kept  at  a  distance,  where  its  pur-
chaser may  not  see  it  mixed,  and  that  a  hand
properly  applied   in   measuring  will  be  worth


128  ROMANCES  OF  ROGUERY

half  a  peck. If  the  beasts  be  good,  he  says,
they  will  eat  anything,  and  if  bad,  they  do
not  deserve  even  the  worst. When  a  guest
asks  what  there  is  for  food,  he  is  not  to  be
told  what  already  the  house  affords,  but  a
pretence  of  fetching  it  is  to  be  made,  that
the  favor  may  appear  the  greater. More
graces  than  words  are  to  be  bestowed  upon
the  traveller,  and  all  demonstrations  should
take  place  before  meals,  as  then  he  will  ex-
change anything  for  his  hunger. 