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to one extremely rude, began to demand from Renata the money she owed her for her room, I hastened to say that everything would be paid her fairly. Then I asked Renata whether she had a horse to continue the road, for in such remote districts it is not easy to find a good one.
    “I have no horse,” said Renata to me. “But from here it is not far to the town. You can lift me into your saddle and lead the horse by the rein. And in the town it will not be difficult to buy another mount.”
    She ordered me and all my goods about as if I were her servant or a bought slave.
    And, to justify myself in my own eyes in a measure, I thus addressed myself:
    “What matter even though I spend some coins and some days extra in travel. The girl is attractive and worth such a sacrifice; and, after the labours of my journey, I am entitled to the usual diversion. And, moreover, she laughed at me yesterday and I must show her that I am not so simple and uncouth as she supposes. Now, I shall amuse myself with her during the journey, until she bores me, and then I shall leave her. And as far as the fact that the Devil is after her is concerned, that is hardly my business, and I am not likely to be frightened of any devil in my relations with a pretty woman, I, who never feared the redskins with their poisoned arrows.”
    Thus I reasoned with myself, trying to convince myself that my meeting with Renata was merely a droll incident, one of those that men, smiling, relate to their fellows in alehouses, and, deliberately, with self-importance, I felt my taut and heavy belt, reminding myself of the song I had heard the evening before:

    Ob dir ein Dirn gefelt,
    So schweig, hastu kein Gelt.

    Fortifying our strength in the inn with milk and bread, we made ready to depart. I helped Renata to mount my horse, which had quite recovered overnight. To the bundle with my goods was added another package, though not a heavy one. Renata was as merry as a turtle-dove, laughed a great deal, joked and parted on friendly terms with the hostess. At last we struck the road, Renata on horseback, I walking by her side, holding the horse by the rein or leaning on the pommel. All the inhabitants of the inn crowded at the gate to see us off and take leave of us, not without mockery. And I was ashamed to turn my head and look at them.

Chapter the Second
That which was foretold us by the Village Witch and how we spent the Night at Düsseldorf
    F ROM the hostelry, for a time the road still led through the woods. It was cool and shady, and Renata and I talked without tiring, the while we slowly made our way onward. I was not a stranger to society, despite my soldier’s life, for in Italian cities I had often had occasion to visit both carnival masques and theatrical performances, and later, in New Spain, I used to attend the evening gatherings in local wealthy houses, where reigns by no means the barbarism of a wilderness, as many think, but where, on the contrary, elegant ladies play the lute, the zither and the flute, and dance the algada, the passionesa, the mauresque and the other latest dances with their cavaliers. Trying to show Renata that under my rough sailor’s jacket hid one who was no stranger to education, I was happily surprised to find in my partner’s conversation a sharpness of wit and a breadth of knowledge unusual in a woman, so that involuntarily all my mental faculties took guard, like an experienced fencer meeting unexpectedly a skilful blade in his opponent. Of the manifestations of the night we said not a word, and one might have imagined, to see how gaily we were talking, that I was peacefully escorting a lady away from some sumptuous tournament.
    To my question whither we should turn our way, Renata replied without hesitation—to Köln, for there she had relatives with whom she would like to stay a while; and I was glad that I had not to alter the route I had chosen. The thought that our strange acquaintanceship was not long to last caused me