How high is the “threshold” for the super-rich in various countries

How can I become the richest 1% of people? The situation in different countries in the world is different. In a certain country, you may be regarded as a super rich person, but you may be far worse if you change places.

The British “Daily Mail” reported on the 25th that in the UK, when your net worth reaches 1.4 million pounds (approximately 12.78 million yuan), you are considered the richest 1% of people in the country, but this standard is only equivalent to Monaco. 1/4 of it. To be the richest 1% of Monaco, your personal wealth needs to reach 5.6 million pounds, which is almost 400 times the wealth owned by the richest person in Kenya.

According to the latest wealth report of Knight Frank, an international real estate consulting company, Monaco ranks first in the world according to the amount of assets owned by the richest 1% of people in each country, followed by Switzerland and the United States. In addition, Asia-Pacific countries have performed well in this ranking. Knight Frank predicts that in the next five years, the number of wealthy people in the Asia-Pacific region will grow faster than the global average, with India and Indonesia experiencing the largest growth. Victoria Garrett, head of Knight Frank Asia Pacific, said when talking about the growth of the Asia-Pacific region: “The Asia-Pacific region’s status as the world’s major wealth center is constantly increasing.”

The name , most beautiful ladies and noble gentlemen, of my wonder is To Venture Losing; Because in her speech you will see how, in order to be an unhappy woman, when her star inclines to be so, examples or lessons are not enough: although it will be useful to hear her warning so that they do not throw themselves into the sea of ​​their unbridled desires, trusting in the nacelle of its weakness, fearing that not only the weak forces of women, but the clear and heroic understandings of men, whose deception is reason to fear, as will be seen in my wonder, which is the following .

Among the rough rocks of Monserrate, the greatness and greatness of the power of God and a miraculous admiration of the excellencies of his divine Mother, where the effects of her mercies are seen in divine mysteries, as she supports in the air the tip of a steep mountain whom the others have forsaken, with no help other than that which heaven gives them, which is not the least consideration the miraculous and sacred temple, as adorned with riches as with wonders: so many are the miracles that are in it, and the greatest of all that true portrait of the most serene queen of angels and our lady.

After having worshiped her, offering her a soul full of devoted affections, and looking attentively at those grandiose walls, covered with shrouds and crutches, with other infinite insignia of her power, Fabio, illustrious son of the noble town of Madrid, rose, luster and adornment of her greatness, because with her excellent understanding and well-known nobility, gracious condition and gallant presence, she adorns and enriches her as much as any of her courageous founders, and of whom she, as a mother, prides herself very much.

This virtuous young man carried through such rough weeds pious desires to see in them the devout cells and penitent monks who have died to the world to live for heaven.

After having visited some, and receiving sustenance for the soul and body, and considering the sanctity of its inhabitants, since they force the fugitive birds to come to their hands to eat the crumbs that are offered to them; walking to the remotest part of the mountain to see the namep. 6brada cave called San Antón; thus for being the harshest, as prodigious, regarding the things that are seen there, both the penances of those who inhabit it, as well as the astonishment that the demons do to them; that it can be said that they come out of them with such a qualification of spirit that each one is a Saint Anton.

Tired of going up a narrow path, with respect to not allowing his roughness to go otherwise than on foot, and having left the mule and a servant who accompanied him in the convent, he sat down on the edge of a small stream, spilling its pearls among small weeds, hanging down with a calm murmur from a beautiful fountain, which at the top of the mountain enjoys a gifted seat, seeming there manufactured more by the hands of angels than of men, for the recreation of the holy hermits who inhabit it; whose music and crystalline laughter, since the eyes did not see it, did not stop pleasing the ears.

And since walking on foot, the heat of the sun and the roughness of the road took away part of his spirited spirit, he wanted to recover his lost breath there.

He hardly gave life to his tired breathing, when a very soft voice reached his ears, which in low accents showed the owner was not far away. Which, as low as sad, because the humble stream served as an instrument, and thinking that no one was listening, sang like this:

Who would think that my love

Chastened in my woes,

Tired of my misfortunes,

Wouldn’t he have died a coward?

Who saw him run away

Of such great ingratitude,

That believe that in new sorrows

Please link back to me again?

Bad have my fineness

So discovered truths,

And badly there are those who called

To changeable women.

When of your unreason

I could, Celio, complain,

He wants love that does not forget you,

He wants love that loves you the most.

Since the dawn comes out,

Until the sun goes to bathe

To the sea of ​​the Indian beaches,

I cry firmly and I feel a lover.

He comes out again and finds me

Reviewing my regrets,

Feeling your unreason

Crying your freedoms.

I know well that I get tired,

Suffering pain in vain;

What tears in the absence

They cost a lot and are worth little.

I came to these mountains fleeing

How ungrateful you mistreat me;

But I adore you more firmly,

That loving you is sustenance in me.

I got rid of your sight

But I couldn’t get away

From an enemy thought,

Of a constant will.

Who saw a fenced castle,

Who saw the ship fought,

Who saw captive in Algiers,

As I am, and without moving.

But then I chose you as my owner,

Kill me, sorrows, kill me;

Well at least they will say:

He died, but without moving.

Oh well, bad senses!

You will be powerful to kill me,

But you can not do

Let love end.

Fabio listened to the pitiful voice and heartfelt complaints with such pleasure that although their owner was not the most skilled he had ever heard, he was almost sorry that it ended so quickly.

The taste, the time, the place and thep. 7The mountains gave him the desire to move forward, and if he was comforted by not doing so, it was the thought that he was partly able to give pleasure to the soul with his sight, as with his voice he had given breath to the ears; for when the cause was more humble, hearing singing on a mountain was of no small relief to those who expected only the howl of some fierce beast.

In short, Fabio, encouraged more than before, continued on his way to discover the owner of the voice he had heard, seeming to him not to be in such a part without a cause, leading him touched and hurt to hear complaints in such a harsh part. Remarkable piety and generous action to be touched by the passion of others.

Fabio was so eager to speak to the injured musician that there is no one who knows how to make him more expensive: and because he did not hide, he went with as much silence as possible.

Finally, following the margin of the crystal ribbon, looking for his beautiful birth, seeming to him that it would be the place that treasured the jewel that in his opinion he was looking for with some suspicion of the same thing that it was; And he was not deceived, because when he had just climbed a meadow that was at the top of the mountain, home only for the chaste Diana or for some desperate creature, whose back was made by a white rock, from which a thick piece of glass, tasty sustenance from flowers, green rosemary and graceful thyme, he saw a young man, who apparently his age was in the first of his years, leaning on them, dressed in a brown breeches, the white and bristly skin of some lamb, his satchel and crook next to him, and with his sandals and hat.

He hardly saw him when he knew he was the owner of the sung verses, because he seemed to be suspenseful and sad, crying over the passions he had sung.

And if the voice he had heard did not disappoint Fabio, he would think he was an unknown figure, made to adorn the fountain: his care was so immobile. She had a knot made of her white hands, such that they could make the snow envious, if she had not run away from the mountain. If your face was facing the sun, tell it how little offense its rays made you, since you had not allowed them to take possession of its beauty, nor to exercise the commission that they have against beauty.

He had scattered among the fragrant grasses a herd of sheep, more to give reason to his costume, than for the care he showed with them, because they were more a cause of bringing him lost.

It was the suspension of the handsome young man, such that Fabio got so close that he could notice that the golden flowers of the face descended to the suit, because being a man the tender veil must already gild his mouth; and for being a woman it was such a dangerous place that she almost doubted what she saw; but seeing in part, that almost the same deception blamed him for not being daring, he came closer, and greeted him with great courtesy.

To which the enraptured boy came to himself with such a pitiful woe that it seemed to be the last of his life; and as the mountain had not yet taken away the courtesy, seeing Fabio got up, making it with discreet caresses, asking him about his coming from that part.

To which Fabio, after thanking his courteous reasons, satisfied in this way:

—I am a gentleman from Madrid, I came to Barcelona on important businesses, and since I ended them, and it was a force to return to my homeland, I did not want to put it into execution until I saw the miraculous temple of Monserp. 8rate. I visited devotee, and I wanted pious to see the hermitages that are in this mountain. And while I was resting among those fragrant thyme, I heard your pitiful voice, which suspended my fright and encouraged the desire to see the owner of such well-felt complaints, knowing in them that you suffer firmly and cry badly paid; and seeing in your face and in your presence that your being is not what your suit shows, because neither the face comes with the dress, nor the words with which you try to imply, I have looked for you, and I find that your face denies to everything, because in age you pass as a boy, and in the few signs of your beard you do not show yourself to be a man; for which I want to ask you in courtesy to get me out of this doubt, first assuring you that if I am part of your remedy, do not leave it as impossible to hinder it, nor send me heartbroken,

Attentively, the waiter listened to the discreet Fabio, letting from time to time drop some tired pearls, which with slow steps searched the ground for the center. And when she saw him keep quiet, and that she was waiting for an answer, she said:

—Heaven must not want, sir knight, that my passions are hidden, or because there is someone to help me suffer, or because the end of my tired life must be approaching, and it intends that they remain, for example and a lesson to the people. ; Well, when I believed that only God and these rocks listened to me, he led you, driven by your devotion, to this part, so that you would hear my pities and passions, which are so many and come by so many ways, that I have by the way that you I will do more favor in keeping them silent than in saying them, for not giving you something to feel; Besides that my story is so long, that you will lose time if you stay to listen to it.

“Before,” replied Fabio, “you have given me so much care and desire to know it, that if I thought I would remain wild to dwell among these rocks, while I am in them I will not leave you until you tell me, and I will get you out, if I can.” , from that life, that I will be able to, to what I look at in you; For those who have so much discretion, it will not be difficult to persuade them to choose a more rested and less dangerous life, since you are not sure about the beasts that breed here and the bandits that there are in this mountain; that if perhaps they have the knowledge of your beauty that I believe is that they will not value your person with the respect that I do.

“Well, if that’s the case,” said the waiter, “sit down, sir, and listen to what no one has known about me up to now, and consider trusting your discretion and understanding such prodigious things, and not happened except to those who were born to the extreme.” of misfortune, that I do not do little without knowing you, assuming that knowing who I am risks the opinion of many noble relatives that I have, and my life with them; it is force that for revenge they take it away

Fabio thanked him for the best he knew, and he knew well, for wanting to make his secrets archive, and assuring him, after having told him his name, of his danger, and sitting together near the fountain, the handsome boy began his story of this kind. .

—My name, discreet Fabio, is Jacinta, your eyes were not deceived in my knowledge; my homeland Baeza, noble city of Andalusia, my noble parents, and my estate enough to support the opinion of their notp. 9beauty.

A brother and I were born in my father’s house, he to his sadness, and I to his disgrace; Such is the weakness in which women are raised, because nothing can be trusted to our value, because we have eyes that were born blind fewer events would have seen the world, that at last we would live safe from deception.

My mother missed the best time, which was not a small fault, since her company, government and vigilance were more important to my honesty than my father’s carelessness, who did not have him look after me and give me status (notable error of the waiting for their daughters to take him without pleasure): he loved my brother tenderly, and this was just his wakefulness, without me giving him anything: I don’t know what his thought was, because he had done enough for everything what I would like to undertake.

I was sixteen years old when one night, while I was sleeping, I dreamed that I was going through a most pleasant forest, in whose thicket I found a man so handsome that it seemed to me (oh my! And how I had awakened experience of her) I had not seen him in my life such; his face was covered with the cape of a tawny iron, with silver railings and braces.

I stopped to look at him, pleased with his size and eager to see if his face conformed to him: with graceful audacity I managed to remove his shawl, and I hardly did so when, pulling out a dagger, he struck me so cruelly through the heart that he forced me to pain to shout, to which my maids came and waking up from the heavy sleep I found myself without the life of the one who did me such an injury, the most passionate you can think of, because his portrait remained stamped in my memory so that in a long time he did not move away from her.

I wished, noble Fabio, to find a man of his size and gallantry for the owner, and it brought this imagination so far out of me that I painted it in it, and then reasoned with him, so that in a few moments I found myself in love without knowing who ; And you can believe me that if it was Narciso Moreno, Narciso was the one I saw.

With these thoughts I lost sleep and food, and after that the color of my face, giving rise to the greatest sadness that I had in my life, so much so that almost everyone noticed my move. Who saw, Fabio, love a shadow? Well, although it is said that many have loved incredible and monstrous things, at least they had a way to love.

I’m sorry Pygmalion has with me, who adored the image that Jupiter later encouraged him; and the young man of Athens, and those who loved the tree and the dolphin; but I who loved nothing but a shadow and fantasy, what will the world feel about me? Who doubts that he will not believe what I say, and if he does, he will call me crazy? Well, I give you my word, by noble law, that neither in this nor in the rest that I tell you, I advance anything else of the truth.

The considerations he made, the reprimands he gave me, believe me they were many; and also that I looked attentively at the most handsome young men of my country, with the desire to take a liking to someone who would free me from my care; but everything stopped in loving my dream lover again, not finding in any of the gallantry than in that one.

My love reached so much that I remember that I wrote some verses to my beloved shadow, that if you do not get tired of hearing them I will tell you, that although they are female, all the greater, because menp. 10It is not fair to forgive them for the mistakes they make in them, since they are adorned and purified with art and study; but a woman who only uses her natural, who doubts that she deserves an apology in the bad, and praise in the good?

—Say, beautiful Jacinta, your verses, Fabio said, which will be very pleasant for me, because although I know how to do them with some success, I appreciate so little of them, that I swear to you that those of others always seem better to me than mine.

“Well, if that’s the case,” Jacinta replied, “while my story lasts, I don’t need to ask you for permission to say what they did on purpose; and so I say that the ones I did are these:

I adore what I don’t see

And I don’t see what I adore;

I do not know the cause of my love,

And find the cause I wish:

My confused rambling

Who will be able to understand him?

Well, without seeing I come to want

By imagination alone,

Tilting my hobby

To a being that has no being.

Fall in love with a painting,

It won’t be a new miracle

That although such love I do not approve,

It is indeed beauty:

More to love a figure

That perhaps the soul pretended,

No one such madness saw;

Because to think that I have to find

Cause that is about to breed,

Who asked such a miracle?

The wound of the heart

Pour blood, but I do not die:

I gladly wait for death,

For ending my passion:

State out of reason,

When I don’t die, sleep;

But how can I ask

Life or death to a subject

That was not perfect

More to be than knowing how to hurt?

Give me, baby, if you have raised

This being that I wish,

Of my will I use,

And before being born loved;

But what does a poor man ask for,

When no luck was born?

Because to whom did it happen

Of love so ugly miracle,

Let desire occupy him

Lover who in dreams did you see?

Who would have thought, Fabio, that heaven would be so liberal in giving me even what I didn’t ask for? Because as I wanted the impossible, my freedom did not dare so much, if it was not in these verses, which was more gala than request. But when one has to be unhappy, heaven also allows his misery.

There lived in my same place a natural gentleman from Seville, of the most noble lineage of the Ponces de León, a surname so well known as qualified, who, having done some mischief in his land as a young man, became denatured of it, and married in Baeza with a lady his the same, in whom he had three children, the oldest and youngest female, and the middle male.

The eldest married in Granada, and the youngest was entertained by the loneliness and absence of Don Félix, who was the name of the gallant son, who, wishing him to show off the courage and bravery of his illustrious predecessors, continued the war, giving occasion with his courageous deeds that his relatives, who were many and noble, as published by the excellent houses of the Dukes of Arcos and Counts of Bailén, knew him as a branch of their descendants.

This noble gentleman arrived at the florid age of twenty-four, and having reached for his hands a flag, and desp. elevenAfter having served her for three years in Flanders, he returned to Spain to claim his increases; and while in court they were arranged by the hand of his relatives, he went to see his parents, who had not seen them for days and who lived with this desire.

Don Félix arrived in Baeza while I was occupying a balcony in the afternoon, entertained in my thoughts; and being forced to pass in front of my house, since it was his house on the same street, I was able, leaving my imaginations, to put my eyes on his finery, servants and gentle presence, and stopping there more than is fair, I saw such gallantry in him that wanting it to mean to you was to lengthen this story and my torment

In fact, I saw the same owner of my dream, and even of my soul, because if it was not him, I am not the same Jacinta who saw him and loved him more than the very life I have.

I did not know Don Félix, nor did he know me, regarding the fact that when he went to war I was so young that it was impossible to remember, although his sister Doña Isabel and I were very close friends.

Don Félix looked at the balcony, seeing that my eyes alone were celebrating his coming, and finding Love the occasion and the time, he executed the blow of his golden arrow, that in me his work was already excused, for having it done. And just like that he told me: “Such a jewel, or it will be mine, or I will lose my life.” The soul wanted to say: “I already am”, but the shame was as great as the love, to whom I asked with many submissions and humility to give me opportunity and luck, because he had given me cause.

Don Félix did not allow him to lose any of those that fortune gave to his hands; And it was the first that, having notified me of her brother’s coming, it was a force to visit her, on whose visit Don Félix gave me in the eyes of knowing her love so clearly that I could give him the joys of my luck; and since I loved him I could not deny him the right correspondence on that occasion.

And with this I gave him the opportunity to walk my street day and night, and that to the sound of a guitar, with his sweet voice and some verses, in which he was right-handed, he would better let me know his will. I remember, Fabio, that the first time I spoke to you alone through a fence, this sonnet gave me cause:

Love the day, hate the day,

Call the night and despise it later,

Fear the fire and approach the fire,

Have both pain and joy;

Being together courage and cowardice,

The cruel contempt and the soft plea,

Have brave blind understanding,

Reason bound, free daring;

Find a place to alter evils,

And not wanting to move,

Wanting without knowing what you want;

Have the same liking and dislike,

And all good spared in hope:

If this isn’t love, I don’t know what it is.

My downfall had love ready, and so I was putting the ties in which I got entangled and the holes where I fell: because finding the opportunityp. 12I was looking for myself, as soon as I heard the music I went down to a lower room of a servant of my father, called Sarabia, more greedy than loyal, where it was easy for me to talk, because I had a low bar, so much so that it was not difficult hands. And seeing Don Félix close by, I said to him:

“If you love as rightly as you say, happy will be the lady who deserves your will.”

“You know well, my lady,” answered Don Félix, “of my eyes, my desires and my cares, which always manifest my sweet perdition, that I know better to mean than to say it;” that you know that you have to be my owner as long as I have life, is what I try, and not to credit myself as a good poet or a better musician.

“And it seems,” I replied, “that it would be good for me to believe what you say?”

“Yes,” replied my lover, “because even letting herself be loved, and loving the one who is to be her husband, a lady has a license.”

“Well, who assures me that you have to be?” I said again.

“My love,” said Don Felix, “and this hand, which if you want it in pledges of my word, will not be a coward even if it costs its owner his life.”

What woman, finding herself begged for the same thing she wants, friend Fabio, ever despised the opportunity to marry, and more of the same one she loves, who then does not accept any party, since there is no greater bait in which the doom of a woman may strike than this? And so I did not want to put my happiness in condition, which is why I had it, and I will always have to bring to mind this day.

And sticking my hand through the fence, I took the one my owner offered me, saying:

“It is no longer the time, Senor Don Félix, to seek disdain by dint of deceit, or to cover up wills at the cost of detachments, sighs and tears; I love you not only from the day I saw you, but before; And so that my words do not confuse you, I will tell you things that scare you —and then I told him everything I have told you about my dream.

Don Félix did not do, while I was telling him these news, for him and for those who hear him, but rather kiss the hand that was in his, as if in gratitude for my sorrows; in whose glory the day would catch us, and even today, if our love had not become more daring.

Let’s say goodbye with a thousand tenderness, our will being very settled and with the purpose of seeing each other every night in the same part; conquering with gold the impossible of the servant, and with my daring being able to get there, with respect to having to pass in front of the bed of my father and brother to leave my room.

Dona Isabel visited me very often, forcing her to do this, after their friendship, to please her brother and serve as a faithful third party to her love.

Ours was in this tasty state, without Don Félix trying to return to Italy at that time, when among the ladies to whom he rendered his gallant presence, who were almost all of the city, was a cousin of his, called Dona Adriana, the most beautiful that was found in all that land.

This lady was the daughter of a sister of Don Félix’s father, who, as I have said, was from Seville, and had four sisters; which due to the death of his father had brought Baeza, putting the two minors in religion.

Right there the one who followed after her married, the eldest staying, without wanting to take status, with this sister, already a widow, who had been left, as heir to more than fifty thousand ducats, this single daughter, whom she loved as best you can. think,p. 13 being alone and as beautiful as I have told you.

Well, as Dona Adriana enjoyed Don Félix’s conversation about kinship very often, she began to love him so badly that it couldn’t have been more, as you will see in what happened.

Don Félix knew the love of his dear cousin, and since his soul was so full of mine, he concealed as much as he could, excusing himself for giving him the opportunity to lose himself more than he was; And thus, how many samples Dona Adriana gave him of her will, with a disdainful carelessness he made himself ignorant.

Thus, these disdain had so much force with her that, defeated by her love, fighting against them, she found herself in bed, giving the doctors very little security of her life: because other than not eating, or even sleeping, she did not want to be do no remedy.

With the fact that she had her mother in the greatest sadness in the world, which, as a discreet, gave us to wonder if her daughter’s evil would be a hobby; and with this thought, forcing with entreaties a maid whom Dona Adriana trusted, she learned the case, and wanted as a matter of course to remedy it.

She called her nephew, and having made him understand with tears the sorrow she had for her daughter’s illness, and the cause that had her in such a state, she asked him to be her husband, because in all Baeza she would not find a richer marriage, and she would reach from her brother to consider it good.

Don Félix did not want to be the cause of the death of his cousin, nor to give his aunt a sour answer to grief. In this agreement he told him, trusting in the time that had to pass in coming the dispensation, to treat him with his father, that as he wanted he would have it for good.

And entering to see her cousin, she filled her soul with hopes, showing her happiness in her improvement, often going to her house, as her aunt requested it; with which Dona Adriana recovered full health.

Don Félix was absent from my visits because he went to his cousin’s; and I, desperate, mistreated my eyes and blamed their loyalty.

One night that he wanted to satisfy my jealousy, and that by excusing the gossip of the neighbors had made it easier with Sarabia to enter inside, seeing my tears, my complaints and feelings, as a firm and blameless lover in my suspicions, he realized everything that with her cousin was passing; in love, but not sane, because if up to there my fears were only my fears, from that point on they were declared jealousy. And with the anger of a jealous woman, which I do not ponder, I told her not to speak to me in her life if she did not tell her cousin that he was my husband, and that he was not to be hers.

With this anger I wanted to go to my room, and my lover did not consent to it; more loving and humble, he promised me that the day he was waiting would not pass without obeying me; I would have already done it, if it weren’t for keeping my proper decorum.

And having given myself a word again in front of the secretary of my liberties, I gave him possession of my soul and body, it seemed to me that that way I would have him more secure.

The night passed faster than ever, because the day of my misfortunes was to follow; for which morning the doctor had determined that Dona Adriana, taking a steely syrup, should go out to exercise in the fields, because since the evil of the soul could not be seen, she judged by the lost color that it was opilations.

And by this time my husband had also freed the disappointment of his love, and satisfaction of my jealousy; forp. 14that since a man has no more than one body and one soul, even if he has many desires, he cannot go to one without needing the other: and last night Don Félix, having had her with me, had missed his cousin; And the most certain thing is that fortune, which guided things more to its liking than to my advantage, ordered Dona Adriana to get up early to take her steely drink, and leaving in the company of her aunt and maids, the first station she did was to his cousin’s house, and entering it with the joy of all, who welcomed him like a sun the welcome of his coming and health, he went with Dona Isabel to his brother’s room, who was resting what he had lost from sleep in his loving jobs, and he began in front of his sister to ask him to account for having been absent last night; whom Don Félix did not satisfy, but disappointed by luck,

For these reasons, a faint covered the eyes of doña Adriana, which was force to get her out of there, and take her to her cousin’s bed, who turned to herself, hiding as much as possible the tears, said goodbye to her, responding to the consolations that doña Isabel hit him with great dryness and detachment.

She arrived at her house, where in revenge for her contempt she did the greatest cruelty that has ever been seen, with herself, with her cousin and with me: or jealousy, what will you not do, and more so if you take hold of a woman’s breasts! What started his furious rage was when he wrote my father a piece of paper, giving him an account of what was happening, telling him to watch and have an account with his house, that there were those who took away his honor; And with this he waited for the morning, that taking his pítima, and giving the role to a servant who would take him to my father, already with the cloak on to go out to exercise, his mother came to something more tender than his cruel heart. gave rise, and said:

—My God, I’m going to the country; If I come back, God knows. For the life of her, lady, hug me, in case I don’t see her again.

—Hush, Adriana, her mother said, upset, don’t say such nonsense, if it isn’t that you like to end my life: why don’t you have to see me again, if you’re already so hot that I haven’t seen you for many days? seen better? Go, my daughter, with God, and do not wait for the sun to enter.

“Why doesn’t your grace want to hug me?” Dona Adriana replied.

And turning (his eyes full of tears) his back, he reached the door of the street, and barely left it and took two steps, when throwing a pitiful woe, he dropped to the ground.

Her aunt, her maids, and her mother, who was coming after her, came and thinking that she was fainting, they took her to the stretcher, calling the doctor to do the possible errands; but there was none enough, because it was his eternal swoon; and declaring that she was dead, they stripped her naked to cover her, the house collapsing with screams; And as soon as they unbuttoned the doublet she was wearing when they found a paper between her beautiful breasts that she herself wrote to her mother, in which she told her that she herself had taken her own life with Suleiman, which she had put in the syrup, because more he wanted to die than to see his ungrateful cousin in the arms of another.

Who to thisp. fifteenThe point was to see her sad mother, to believe that her heart broke through pain, because once she was pierced she could not cry, especially when they saw that after the body was cold, she became very swollen and black; because he not only considered seeing his daughter dead, but having been desperately; And so you can consider, Fabio, what would be his house and the city, and I who, in the company of Doña Isabel, went to see this show, innocent and careless of what was ordered against me, although confused that I was the cause of such an event , because I already knew from my husband’s role what had happened to her.

Don Félix was not found at the burial, so as not to irritate heaven in revenge for his cruelty, although I made him feel sorry. They buried the unfortunate and ill-fated lady, providing her wealth and quality in the impossible ways that there might be, she having died by his hands. And with this I returned to my house, wishing for the night to see Don Félix, and it was barely nine o’clock, when he told me that he was already in his room (it would be good to God his grief would last, and he did not come): to me It seemed that seeing him was better prepared than on other nights, because although my father, having already been warned by the role of Dona Adriana, went to bed earlier, making my brother and the other people pick up, and I did the same for more dissimulation, I did not However, aided by his sleeplessness, and despite his care, he slept so heavily that he slept until four in the morning.

As I saw him asleep, I got up, and barefoot, with only a skirt, I went into the arms of my husband, and in them I tried to remove the regret he had with caresses and pleas, treating with admiration the event of Dona Adriana.

Sarabia was sitting on the stairs as a spy of my antics, while my terrified father woke up, and got up he went to my bed, and as he could not find me, he took a pistol and his sword, and calling my brother, he informed him of the case ; But they could not do it with so much silence that a dog that was at home did not warn my servant with voices, who, listening attentively, heard footsteps, came to us, and told us that if we wanted to live, we should follow him, because we were felt.

We did it like that, although very disturbed, and before my father had a place to go down the stairs, the three of us were already in the street and the door was closed from the outside, that this cunning taught me my need.

Consider me, Fabio, with only a damask skirt, and barefoot, because in this way I had come down the stairs to see my desired owner, who with the greatest hurry he could took me to the convent where his aunts were, when it was already daylight. ; He called the gatehouse, and entering the lathe, giving them an account of the event, in less than an hour I found myself behind a gate, full of tears and surrounded by confusion, although Don Félix encouraged me as much as he could, and his aunts consoled me, all assuring me of a good success, since, after anger, my father would have the marriage for good.

And in case they wanted to ask Don Félix to escalate the house, he and Sarabia remained withdrawn in the same monastery, in a room that their aunts had ordered to dress up for their stay, from where he notified his father and sister of the event of their loves.

His father, who by his signs already imagined that he loved me, and was not sorry for it,p. 16 Knowing that in Baeza her son could not find a more senior or rich marriage, seeming to him that everything would end in being my husband, he then went to see me in the company of Dona Isabel, who provided dresses and jewelry to make up for the lack of mine. While others were being made, he arrived where I was, giving me a thousand consolations and hopes.

This happened for me, while my father, offended by such a scandalous action, as it was to have left his house, although it would be more so if I awaited his fury, since at least it would cost me my life, he sent his revenge into his hands ( noble action) without wanting for justice to make any diligence or more fuss, or more feeling than if he had not lacked the best jewel of his house and the best garment of his honor.

And for this honorable purpose he put spies on Don Felix, so that even his attempts were not concealed from him.

And before many days he found the occasion he was looking for, although with as little luck as the others, since until then fortune had been on the part of Don Félix, who one night, already tired of his resolution, and being certain that I was collected in my cell with her aunts, who loved me as a daughter, overcoming with money the ease of a waiter who had the keys to the door of the house, she asked her to let him out, that she wanted to get to her father’s, not to it was far away, which would then turn around.

The unreliable guardian did it, preventing him from danger: and he, facilitating everything, full of weapons and finery, left, and barely set foot in the street, when my father and brother found him, the naked swords, which made vigilant spies of his opinion, they slept only at the doors of the convent.

My brother was very daring, how prudent Don Félix, because at the first coming and going of the swords, Don Félix pierced his through the chest, and without even taking place to call God, he fell to the ground at every point dead.

The waiter who had the keys, as he had not yet closed the door, because everything was done in an instant, picked up Don Félix before my father or the justice system could do their due diligence.

The day has come, the case is resolved, God is buried for the unfortunate; And I, ignorant of the case, went out to a parlor to see Dona Isabel, who was waiting for me full of tears and feelings, because she thought, as I was her brother’s wife, she would be mine, whom she loved dearly. Prevínme of the event and the absence that Don Félix wanted to make from Baeza and from all of Spain, because it was said that the magistrate was trying to get him out of the church while a court mayor was coming, for whom he had been sent in a hurry.

Consider, Fabio, my tears with such sad news, that it was a lot not to cost me my life, and more so seeing that that same night it was to be the departure of my dear owner to Flanders, a refuge for criminals and insurance for the unfortunate; as he did, leaving order for my gift and care to his father, and to tame the parts and negotiate his return.

With this, through a false door that was sent by the nuns’ room, and it was only opened with the permission of the vicar and abbess, she left leaving me in the arms of her aunt, almost dead, where she transferred me from her family for not waiting. to more tenderness, taking the road to Barcelona, ​​where were the galleys that had brought the companies than for the expulsionp. 17 Of the Moors, the Majesty of Felipe III had ordered to come, and they were waiting for the Most Excellent Don Pedro Fernández de Castro, Count of Lemos, who was to be Viceroy and Captain General of the Kingdom of Naples.

My father learned of the absence of Don Félix, and as a discreet, he drew up, since he could not take revenge on him, do it on me. And the first plan that he gave for this was to take the roads, so that neither his father nor me would come letters, taking them all: and it was not a bad agreement, because that is how he knew the path he was leading, that the gentlemen of the quality of my father everywhere have friends to whom to commit his revenge.

Twenty days of absence passed, looking like my twenty thousand years, without having had news of my absent. One day my father-in-law and brother-in-law were with me, a postman came in and gave my father-in-law a letter, claiming to be from Barcelona, ​​which, with what I later learned, had been posted. It went like this:

“I am very sorry to be the first to tell you such bad news; but even if I wanted to excuse myself, it is not fair to stop resorting to my friendship and obligation. Last night, Ensign Don Félix Ponce de León, your son, came out of a gambling house, without knowing who or how they stabbed him, without even allowing him to imagine who the aggressor was. This morning we buried you, and I send this so that you know it, whom our Lord comforts, and give the life that his servants desire. To Sarabia I will go with me to Naples if you do not send anything else. Barcelona, ​​June 20.

Captain Diego de Mesa . ”

Oh Fabio, and how new! I don’t want to recall my extremes; Suffice it to say that I believed them because I was this captain who was a close friend of Don Felix, with whom he had correspondence, and whom he planned to continue on this journey; and because I believed them, by this you will be able to conjecture my feelings and tears.

You do not want to know more, but, without giving more information, the next day I took the habit of religious, and with me, to console me and accompany me, Dona Isabel, who loved me very tenderly.

Be warned, discreet Fabio, that my father was the one who made this deception, and wrote this letter; And as he took all the ones that came, he learned that Don Félix, as he arrived in Barcelona, ​​found the viceroy on board, and without having place to write more than four lines, warning of how the galleys were leaving that day, he embarked, and with him Sarabia , who had not wanted to leave him, fearful of his danger: he asked us to write to him in Naples, where he planned to arrive, and from there to go around Flanders.

Well, since his father and I did not receive that letter, because the letter of his death came in its place, and we believed it to be true, we did not write more or do more diligence than, after the year, doña Isabel and I do our profession with great pleasure , particularly me, it seemed to me that, lacking Don Felix, there was no one left in the world who deserved me.

A month after my profession, my father died, leaving me heir to four thousand ducats of income, which he could not take from me because he did not have children, and although he was angry, at that point he went to his obligation.

These I spent a long time onp. 18things from the convent; and so she was his mistress, without doing anything more than my taste.

Don Félix arrived in Naples, and finding no letters there, as he thought, angry at my carelessness, without wanting to write, seeing that five companies were leaving for Flanders, and that in one of them they had given him the flag again, he broke, and in Brussels, to dispassion of my cares, she gave hers to checkers and games, in which she amused herself in such a way that in six years she did not remember Spain or the sad Jacinta that she had left in her: please God she was until today, and would have left me in my stillness, without having subjected myself to so many misfortunes; Well, to bring me to them, at the end of this time, recalling his obligations, he went around Spain, where, entering at dusk, without going to his parents’ house, he went straight to the convent, and arriving around time they wanted to close him, he asked for Dona Jacinta, saying that he brought her some letters from Flanders. One of her aunts was turning, and anxious to know what she loved me, it seemed novel to me that no one was looking for me except Don Félix’s father, which was the visit I always had, she moved away a little, and arriving later, she asked:

“Who is looking for Dona Jacinta, which I am?”

“Not that deception to me,” said Don Félix, “that the soldier who gave me the letter also made his voice known to me.”

Seeing the subtlety the messenger, with all diligence sent me to call to know such enigmas, and as I arrived asking who was looking for me, and Don Félix knew my voice, he arrived, saying:

“Was it time, my Jacinta, to see you?”

Oh Fabio, and what a voice for me, now it seems that I hear it, and I feel what I felt at that point! Just as I met Don Félix in speech, considering at one point the false news of his death, my state, and the impossibility of possessing him, awakening my love, who had been asleep, I gave a great cry, forming in him an woe pitiful as it was sad, and I found myself on the ground with such a cruel faint that it lasted three days for me to be like dead; and although the doctors declared that I was alive, no matter how many remedies they used, they could not bring me back to myself.

Don Félix picked up a block inside the room, which must have been the same one where he was first, where he saw his sister, because there was a fence in it where we talked to each other, who knew what had happened so far, and seeing that he was professes, it was a miracle not to lose his life. I entrust him with the care of my health and the secret of his coming, because he did not want his father to know that his mother was already dead.

I came back from fainting, and I got better from the bad; because heaven saved my life for more misfortunes, and I went out to see Don Félix. We both cried, and we arranged for Sarabia to go to Rome for license to get married, since the first word was the valid one.

While I was gathering money that I had, fifteen days passed, in which time I returned to relive love, and the persuasions of Don Félix to have the strength that they had always had, and my weakness to surrender.

And it seemed to us that the Pope’s brief was safe, trusting in the word given before profession, I ordered to have the key to the false door through which Don Félix left to go to Flanders, which I gave to my lover, finding me more joyful than with a kingdom.

Oh heinous case and I laughedp. 19guroso! Almost every night or so he came to sleep with me, because it was easy, because there was a cell that I had carved out there.

When I consider this, I do not admire, Fabio, the misfortunes that follow me, and before I praise and magnify the love and mercy of God in not sending a thunderbolt against us.

At this time Sarabia left for Rome, Don Félix staying in hiding, determined that it would not be known that he was there until the brief came.

Well, after Sarabia arrived in Rome, she presented the papers and a memorial that she carried to give to her holiness, in which she gave an account of the whole substance of the business, and how she entered the convent. This surprised his holiness so much that he ordered that a greater excommunication penalty, latæ sententiæ , should appear Don Félix before his court, where, knowing the most minor case, he would give the dispensation, giving for it four thousand ducats.

Well, when we were awaiting the good event, Sarabia arrived with these news: and I began to feel with greater extremes the absence of Don Félix, fearing his oversights; who with the same sorrow asked me to leave the convent, and go with him to Rome, and that together we would more easily obtain the license to marry.

He told a woman he loved, which was to facilitate the case, because the next night, taking the amount of money and jewelry that I had, writing a letter to Doña Isabel, and leaving her the care and government of my property, I put myself in power of Don Félix, that in three mules that Sarabia had prepared, when the day arrived we were already well away from Baeza, and in another twelve we were in Valencia, and setting sail, at great risk of lives and a thousand jobs, we arrived at Civitavecchia, and in it we landed, and a car in which we arrived in Rome.

Don Félix had friendship with the ambassador of Spain, and some cardinals who had been in Baeza, with whose favor we dared to throw ourselves at the feet of his holiness, who, looking at our business with pity, absolved us, ordering that we give two thousand ducats to the royal hospital of Spain in Rome; and then he dispatched us on condition, and in penance for sin, that we should not get together for a year, and if we did, the penalty and punishment would be reserved for himself.

We were in Rome visiting those sanctuaries, and generally confessing, during which time Don Felix learned how the Countess of Gelves, Doña Leonor de Portugal, was embarking to come to Zaragoza, from where Don Diego Pimentel, her husband, had been made viceroy.

And it seemed to him a good opportunity to come to Spain and our land to rest, he brought me to Naples, and made his way through the Marquis of Santa Cruz with the countess’s ladies, and he joined the troop of companions.

Fortune had the end that is known, because forced by a storm, it forced us to come by land; it was enough for me to come there. Finally, my husband and I came to Madrid, and there he took me home from a debt of hers, a widow, and that he had a daughter as ladylike as beautiful, and as discreet as she was gallant, where he wanted me to be, with respect to having to be the rest of the year set aside.

He presented the papers of his services in the council of war, asking for a company, seeming to him that with the title of captain and our estate would be king in Baeza,p. twenty certain premises of his claim.

His Majesty’s order had come out, that all the suiting soldiers should go to serve the Mamora, who on their return would do them favors; And since Don Felix, with respect to having served so well, was honored for this occasion with the desired position of captain, his honest thoughts did not allow him to resort to the obligations of my love. And so one day when he saw me in front of his relatives, he told me:

—Love Jacinta, you know on the occasion that I am, that not only the knights obliges, but the humble ones, if they were born with honor; This undertaking cannot last long, and if it lasts longer than I now imagine, as a man has what he loves with him, and does not lack an honest inn, living in Algiers or Constantinople, everything is living, because love He makes the fields cities, and the huts palaces.

I tell you this because my absence is not excused for such fair respects, that if I ran them over it would give a lot to say. So honorable cause excuse my love, if you want to give that name to my departure. The confidence I have in you excuses me for taking you, that if it were not this, it would encourage me that in my company you would begin to suffer again, or seeing myself surrounded by jobs, or getting the chance to die together.

God will be served more than in calming down these revolutions, may I instead come to possess you, or at least send for you where I use myself to serve you, because I know well the debt in which I am at your value and will; You are my wife, and we have seven months to go before I can freely have you as my own.

The honor and growth that I have is yours. Please, my lady, this day, because with this you will save part of the regret that you must have and I have. You stay at my aunt’s house, and with the debt of being who you are.

What you need for your gift should not be lacking. I write to my father and brother, giving an account of my events; letters and money will come to you. With this and yours I will have more courage at times, and more hope to see you again.

I have to leave this afternoon, I have not wanted to tell you anything up to this point. For your life and mine, showing on this occasion the value that you have had in the others, you excuse the feeling, and do not deny me the license I ask for.

With a sea of ​​tears in my eyes, I listened to my gift Felix, appearing at that point more handsome and more loving, and my love greater than ever; I had to lose him, how much to torment me that my bad luck plotted this caution? I wanted to answer him, and passion did not give me room, and at this time I considered that he was right in what he said: and so I told him with very troubled words, that my eyes answered for me, because they made such a feeling, passing between the two words so loving that they served to increase our sorrows more and more.

The time came when I was to lose him forever: Don Félix finally left, and I was like the one who has lost his mind, because I could neither cry nor speak, nor hear the consolations that Dona Guiomar and her mother stubbornly gave me. Finally, the loss of my owner cost me three months of illness, which I was already to abandon my life. I wish to heaven it did me this good! But when do the unfortunate receive him or even from those who have so much to give?

In all this time I had no letters from Don Félix, and although they couldp. twenty-oneGive me those of his father and sister, who were happy to know the end of so many misfortunes, and forewarned of a thousand gifts and money, gave me their approval, asking me that when Don Félix returned, we should try to go to rest in their company, it was not possible that they fill the emptiness of my careful will, which gave me a thousand suspicions of my misery; because I have for me that there are no more certain astrologers than lovers.

More than four months had passed that I had this life, when one night, it seems that sleep had taken hold of me more than others (because as fortune gave me Don Félix in dreams, he wanted to take away from me in the same fate), I dreamed that I received a letter from him, and a box that seemed to bring some jewels, and going to open it, I found my husband’s head inside.

Consider, Fabio, that the cries and voices that I gave were so great, waking up with so many tears, anguish and anxiety, that it seemed that my life was ending; and fainting, I did not come to myself except to the voices that Dona Guiomar gave me, and the water that was thrown on my face.

Tell the dream to you, and she, her mother, and the maids did not dare to leave me because of the fear with which I was, it seemed to me that everywhere I turned my head via Don Felix’s.

When morning came, they decided to take me to my confessor to confess, as he was a very knowledgeable priest and a consummate theologian. At the time of leaving my house I heard a voice, although the others did not hear it:

“Dead is, without a doubt, Don Felix.”

With such omens you can believe that I did not find consolation in the confessor, nor did I consider him a servant.

I spent a few days like this, at the end of which came the news of what happened in La Mamora, and with it the report of those who drowned in it, with Don Félix coming almost in the first few days.

From here a few days Sarabia arrived, which was the most certain news, which told how the ships were going to take port, in competition with each other, two of them were smashed, and they sank, unable to save themselves from those who not even a single man was in them. In one of these was Don Félix, armed with double weapons, because, falling into the sea, he did not appear again; threw some out, he was not seen. Thus ended life on such an unfortunate occasion the most handsome young man that Andalusia had, because at thirty years old they accompanied the greatest graces that nature could form.

To tire of telling my feelings, my anxieties, my crying, would be paying you badly for the pleasure with which you listen to me; I’m just telling you that in three years I didn’t even know what happiness or health was.

His father and sister learned of the event, they tried to take me and return me to my convent; but I, although I felt the death of my husband with so many truths, I did not accept it, because I did not return to the eyes of my relatives without their protection, and even less with the nuns, regarding having been the cause of their scandal; Besides, my poor health gave me no place to set out, nor to suffer the burden of religion again; Before that, I ordered that Sarabia, whom I already had as a companion in my fortunes, should go to govern my estate, and I remained in the company of Dona Guiomar and her mother, who had me instead of their daughter; and they didn’t do much, since I spent all my income with them.

Some friends advised me to marry, but I could not find another Don Félix to satisfy my eyes, or swell my eyes.p. 22empty of my heart, although it was not empty of his memory, nor would my companions want me to find him; but to my misfortune he found love for him, which perhaps was feeling my carelessness.

Dona Guiomar was visited by a noble, rich and handsome young man, whose name is Celio, both sane and false, because he knew how to love when he wanted, and forget when he liked it; because in him the virtues and deceptions are like the bouquets of Madrid, already mixed with fragrant carnations, like beautiful muskets, with peasant flowers, without any smell or virtue. He spoke well, and wrote better, being as skilled in loving as he was in hating.

This young man, I say, in a long time he entered my house no design was ever known to him, because with simplicity and friendship he entertained the conversation; being perhaps the most punctual in preventing consolations for my sadness, sometimes playing with Dona Guiomar and other times saying some verses, in which he was very skilled. Time passed, having in everything I tried more success than I wanted.

He also praised us; without offending anyone, he loved us; the maiden was already enlarging; the widow was already getting expensive; And since I also wrote verses, he competed with me in them, admiring him, not my composing them, because it is not a miracle in a woman, whose soul is the same as that of man, or because nature wanted to make that wonder, or because the men did not vanish, being they alone who enjoy his greatness, but because he did it with some success.

I never looked at Celio to love him, although I never tried to hate him; because if I liked his graces, I feared his disagreements, that he himself gave us news; particularly one day when he told us how he was loved by a lady, and that he hated her with the same truth that he loved her, boasting of the unreason with which he paid for his tenderness.

Who would have thought, Fabio, that this would awaken my care, not to love him, but to look at him with more attention than was fair? Looking at his gallantry, a bit of desire was reborn in me, and with wishing my eyes began to wipe, and I was getting healthy, because memory began to have so much fun that I completely loved him, although my love was silent for not seem light, until he himself brought the occasion by the hair, and it was to ask me to make a sonnet to a lady, who, looking at herself in a mirror, caught the sun, and dazzled her. And I, taking advantage of it, made this sonnet:

In the clear glass of disappointment

Jacinta looked carelessly,

Happy not to love without being loved,

Seeing your good in the harm of others.

Look at the deception of lovers,

The will, for firm, despised,

And of having had her chastened,

Strange behavior flees from love.

Celio, sun of this age, almost envious

To see the freedom with which he lived,

Exempt from offering spoils to love,

Galán, discreet, loving and generous,

p. 2. 3Reflections that encouraged his daring,

He hit the mirror, and dazzled his eyes.

He felt sweet anger

And putting the glass aside, she said piously:

For not having seen Celio I was courageous,

And even if it burns me,

I do not think of its rays to depart.

Celio received this role with such pleasure that I thought my luck was true: and it was not, but no one regrets being loved; He praised his fortune, made his luck more expensive, thanked my love, showing his own, and making me understand that he had had me from the day he saw me; He solemnized the plan of making him understand mine, and finally, he formed ties into which I had just fallen, solemnizing my beauty and his luck in a romance.

Oh my! that when I consider the stratagems with which men surrender women, I say that they are all traitors, and love war and pitched battle, where love fights honor with fire and blood, warden of the fortress of the soul.

About myself I tell you, Fabio, that although blind, and more captive to this will, I do not stop knowing what I have lost through it; for when it is only because I have stopped being sane, loving someone who hates me, this knowledge is enough to make me regret it if this purpose lasts.

Anyway, Celio is the wisest to deceive that I have ever seen, because he knew how to give such a true color to his love that he believed not only a woman who knew the truth of a man who prided himself on treating her, but also the most cunning and sagacious.

His visits were continuous, because morning and afternoon he was at my house, so much so that his friends got to know (in seeing him deny his conversation) that he had her with a person who deserved her; in particular one of her name, with whom she kept it more than anyone else, and to whom she counted her jobs, which according to Celio himself told me, he felt sorry for me, and begged him not to speak to me if he had to give me the payment that to others .

His roles were so many that they were enough to drive me crazy. His gifts so in time that he seemed to have the movements of heaven in his hand. I simple, ignorant of these betrayals, did nothing but increase love over love, and although I always had him, it was with the purpose of making him my husband, that he would let me die otherwise rather than make him understand my will: and in that I understood to do him a great favor.

Celio must not think this, it seemed, although he was not unaware of what he would gain from such a marriage; but with my deception I was so happy to be his, that at all times I did not remember Don Félix; Only in Celio were my senses employed, although fearful of his love, because since I began to love him, I feared losing him: and to make sure of this fear, one day when I saw him more of a gallant and more loving, I told him my thought, saying that if since he had four thousand ducats of income, he had all the riches in the world, he would make him lord of all.

Celio followed the lyrics, and in them he was more successful than I was, with which he cut off my head, saying that he had spent his years in studies of him.p. 24after divine, with the purpose of being ordained priest, and that his parents had their eyes fixed on that, apart from this having been their will; And what supposition this, that I send him other things of my liking, that not being this, the others would do, even if it were to lose his life: and that in order to make sure of losing him, he gave me his faith and word to love me while the one lasted. I had.

What I felt in seeing my hopes disappointed, confirming in all my fears and misgivings, because being who I am, it was not fair to love if it was not the one who was to be my legitimate husband, and regarding this our friendship had to end, they gave tears my eyes, and more seeing Celio so cruel that instead of wiping them, because I could not ignore that they were born of love, he got up and left, leaving me bathed in them; and I was like that all that night and another day, until Celio came to apologize in the afternoon with such warmth that instead of wiping them he increased them.

This was the first ingratitude that Celio used with me, and as many follow one, he began to neglect my love, so that he no longer saw me but from time to time, nor did I respond to my roles, being other times the object of his praise .

To these lukewarmness he gave his occupations and friends an excuse, and with them occasion to my sadness and uneasiness, so much so that already the friends, who adored my grace and entertainment, fled from me, seeing me with so much disgust.

He accompanied his lack of love with making me jealous. He visited ladies, and said it, that it was the worst, so that by irritating my anger and causing my fury, I began to gain in his opinion the name of poorly conditioned; and since her love was feigned, within six months she was as free from it as if she had never had him; and as ungrateful to my obligations, he gave in to visit a free lady and one of those who try to take pleasure and money, and he found this friendship so well, because he did not distrust or press him, that he was not given anything that I knew. , nor did he pay attention to the complaints that I gave him in writing and orally the times he came, which were few.

I heard about the case from a maid of mine who followed him and knew the steps he was walking. I wrote the woman a piece of paper, asking her not to let him enter her house. What resulted from that was not to come to mine anymore, to give himself more entirely to the other. I was sad and desperate, I spent my days and nights crying: but why do I tire you with these things? Well, just saying that you closed your eyes to everything is enough.

It was a force in the midst of these events to go to Salamanca: and because he did not see me again, he stayed there that year. What I felt in this, this suit and this mountain will tell you, where, being I who you know, you have found me.

A few days after I was in Salamanca, I knew that he was in love, for new, for gallant and courtier; whose news I felt so much that I thought I would lose my mind. Write him some letters, I didn’t get an answer.

In short, I determined to go to that famous city, and try with caresses to return to its grace; and since I did not get in the way of his love affairs, at least he had a determination to take my life.

Look, Fabio, on what occasions my opinion was seen; but what won’t a jealous woman do?

I communicated my thoughts with Dona Guiomar, with whom I was resting, and seeing that I was resolved, she did not want to let me go alone. A gentleman entered the house,p. 25 whose friendship and simplicity belonged to a brother, whom Dona Guiomar and her mother begged to accompany me: he accepted it, and by renting two mules, we left Madrid well prepared for jewels and money.

And since I know so little about roads, because those who had walked in the company of Don Félix had been with more modesty, instead of taking the road to Salamanca, the traitor who was accompanying me took the road to Barcelona, ​​and before reaching her half a league, he took away everything I had been carrying, and with the mules he turned back to where he had come.

I was left in the field alone and desperate, trying to do something crazy. Anyway, I started walking on foot, until I left the mountain onto the royal road, where I found people, whom I asked how much was Salamanca from there? That they laughed at, answering me that I was closer to Barcelona, ​​in which I saw the deceit of the traitor, who brought me there for stealing.

Cheer me up, and on foot I arrived in Barcelona, ​​where, selling a ring for up to ten ducats, which accidentally stayed on my finger, I bought this dress and cut my hair. In this way I came to Monserrate, where I stayed for three days, asking that holy image to help me and favor me in my work, and even asking the parents to give me something to eat, they asked me if I wanted to serve as a boy to bring to the mountain. this cattle: I, seeing such a good opportunity for Celio or anyone else to know about me, and I can mourn my misfortunes, I accepted the game, where I have been for four months, with the purpose of never going back where no one will see me.

This is the occasion of my unfortunate complaints, which gave you reason to seek me: on these occasions he has given me love, and on them I plan to end my life.

Fabio had been attentive to Jacinta’s reasons, and seeing that it had ended, he replied thus:

—For not cutting the thread, discreet Jacinta, to your pitiful events, as well felt as well said, I have not wanted to tell you, until you finish them, that I am Fabio, Celio’s friend, that you said I was so hurt by your employment, how eager to meet you.

With such colors you have painted his portrait, that when I did not know your misfortunes, and because of them I knew since you named him that you were the owner of those that I have as heartfelt as you, then I would meet such an ungrateful lover, whom I do not blame for being That is his condition, and so subject to it that he never used his understanding in this to be able to defeat him: I have met many garments, he has already given the same payment and had the same correspondence.

From what I can assure you, after telling you that I think that his star inclines him to love where he is hated, and to hate where they want him, is that I always heard your praise in his mouth and your person in his veneration, treating you with that respect. that you deserve.

A sign that he esteems you, and if you loved him less than you loved him, or at least you didn’t show it, nor were you so complaining, nor would he have been so ungrateful: but there is no remedy, because if you love Celio with the intention of making him your owner, as if he were who you are, I think, and I always presumed about your discretion, it is impossible; because he already had the doors closed to those claims and to whatever they may be of this quality, because he already had orders, an impediment to marry, as you know.

For your condition only this state suits you, forp. 26I imagine that if he had a wife of his own, to sheer rigors and disdain he would kill her, for not being able to suffer always being in the same place, nor enjoying the same thing.

Well, if you want, forced by your love, to achieve another fate, being a Christian will not allow it, your nobility and opinion, which would be to disdain much of it; Well, it is not fair that neither the father of Don Félix nor his sister, your relatives and the monastery where you were and were religious for so long, know about you that weakness, how impossible it will be to cover up: and being here where you are, there is a danger of being known of the bandits of this mountain, and of the people who pass by to visit these holy hermitages, it is neither decent nor safe; because as I knew you, others will be able to do it.

Your property is lost, your relatives and those of your dead husband confused, and perhaps suspecting you of greater evils than you think, blind with the despair of your love and the passion of your jealousy, so much so that you do not give room to understanding. for advice.

I who look at things without passion, I beg you to consider and think that I will not leave here without taking you with me, because otherwise I would understand that heaven would ask me to account for your life; And this with no other interest than the obligation you have put me in with telling me your story and discovering your thoughts, the one I have to be who I am and the one I owe to Celio, my friend, from whom I plan to bring many thanks, if I have lucky to get away from this attempt, so contrary to your honor and fame; because I do not want to persuade myself that he hates you so much that he does not value your peace, your life and your honor as much as his.

This forces you, beautiful Jacinta, to deviate from such a design. We go to court, where in a main monastery of her you will be more conformed to who you are; and if there were to be an opportunity for you to marry, you have to be able to do it, and the discretion to forget with the true caresses of your legitimate husband the false and lukewarm caresses of your lover; And if, forgetting about him, and knowing the misfortunes that you have experienced and the bad correspondence of men, you took on a religious status, because you already know that he is the most perfect, so much more pleasure would you give to those of us who know you.

Hey, beautiful Jacinta, we are going to the convent, the night is coming, and you will give the friars their lambs, because tomorrow, putting on your dress, because that is not decent to what you deserve, you will receive a maid to accompany you, and we will rent a car in which to return to Madrid, which from today, with your license, I want your opinion to run on my own, and thank myself for being the cause of your remedy.

And if you can’t live without Celio, I will make Celio visit you, exchanging imperfect love for brotherly love. And while with this you entertain your loving passion, heaven will want you to change your mind and send you the remedy that I desire, which I will help as if you were my sister, and as such you will go in my company.

“With these arms, noble and discreet Fabio,” Jacinta replied, her eyes filling with tears, linking them to the neck of the well-understood young man, “I want, if not to pay, to thank you for the mercy you do me;” and since heaven brought you at such a time through these uninhabitable mountains, I want to think that it has not forgotten me; I will go with you happier than you think and I will obey you in everything you want to order from me, and I will not do much, because everything is sop. 27 to my benefit.

The entry into the monastery I accept; The only thing that I will not be able to obey you will be in taking either state if my will does not change, because to admit a husband, my love hinders me, and to be of God, I love Celio; because although the gain is different, to give the will to such a divine spouse it is right that he be very well free and unoccupied.

I know well what I gain for what I lose, which is heaven or hell, that such is one of my passions; but my love wouldn’t be true if it didn’t cost me so much. Finance I have; I may well be in the state I have without moving out of it. I am a phoenix of love; I loved Don Félix until he took death from me, I love and will love Celio until she triumphs in my life.

And if you make Celio see me, with this I am happy, because as I see him, that is enough for me, although I know that he does not have to thank me for this finesse, this will, or this love, but I will venture losing; for neither he will cease to be as ungrateful as I am, nor will I as unhappy as I have been, but at least the taste of his sight will eat the soul, despite his detachments and ingratitude.

With this they got up and went around the holy church, where they rested that night, and another day they left for Barcelona, ​​where Jacinta changed her clothes, and taking a car and a maid, they went around the court, where she lives today in a monastery of hers, so happy that it seems to her that she has no more good to wish for, nor more pleasure to ask for.

She has Dona Guiomar with her, because her mother died, and before her death she asked her to protect her until she was married, from whom I learned this story, to put it in this book as a wonder, which it is, and an event so true; because unless the names of all supposed, they were of many acquaintances.

With so much grace and pleasure the beautiful Lisarda told this wonder, that hanging the listeners of her sweet reasons and prodigious story, they wanted it to last all night, and thus satisfied and with an opinion they began to praise her and give her thanks for such a marked favor, and more Don Juan, who as a lover fell to the ground in his praises, giving Lysis death with each one, so much so that, to hinder him, taking the guitar that he had on his bed, crying his soul when his body sang, he beckoned to the musicians, who stopped don Juan the praises, and Lisis the regret of hearing them with this sonnet:

My love does not faint with your forgetfulness,

Because he is a giant armed with firmness,

Do not get tired of treating him warmly,

Well, you must never see him defeated.

You are the more ungrateful the more dear,

That loving just for loving is great firmness;

Without a prize I serve, and I have for wealth

What they usually call wasted time.

If my eyes bathed in tears,

Perhaps seeing other dearer eyes,

They deny themselves rest,

I tell you, friends, you were unhappy,

And since you are not called and chosen,

Loving just for loving is an honorable prize.

p. 28There were few in the room who did not understand that the verses sung by the beautiful Lisis were dedicated to the disdain with which don Juan rewarded his love, fond of Lisarda, and naturally they were sorry to see the lady’s will, and don Juan so blind that he did not consider such a noble marriage; for although Lisarda was a debt to Lysis, and in equal nobility and beauty, she surpassed him in riches.

The one who most noticed Lysis’s passion was Don Diego, a friend of Don Juan, who knew Lysis’s will and don Juan’s detachments, because the lady had told him of her wishes; and seeing that they were so honest that they did not pass the limits of shame, he proposed to ask don Juan for a license to serve him, and to discuss his marriage.

And so at the beginning he began to enlarge, and the verses, and the voice; and Lisis, either grateful or false, perhaps with a desire for revenge, began to estimate the mercy she was doing him, with whose favor Don Diego asked permission for the last night of the party his servants to represent some hors d’oeuvres and dances, and give them dinner to all the guests; and granted, as happy as Don Juan, angry at his audacity, gave place to Matilde to tell his wonder; which, having exchanged with Lisarda, began like this:

—Since the beautiful Lisarda has proven in her wonder the firmness of women, encrypted in Jacinta’s misfortunes, it is for the reason that, following her style in mine, we are obliged to do so, which is not to be fooled by inventions. of men, or since as thin and misunderstood we fall into their deceptions, knowing how to seek revenge, because the stain of honor only comes out with the blood of the one who offended him.