"And do you imagine, you clown, that I haven't got fists also? I swear I'll break every bone in your body."
Saying this, the workman rushed on the peasant; the spectators, however, got between them, and the man of Burgos had to return to his post when only a few blows had been exchanged.
"Do the rustics imagine that the townspeople are made of sugar paste?" he said.
"And why do the townspeople insult us?"
"Why do you judge of things without understanding them?"
"Explain them, and I'll understand them."
"Then know that Doña Ximena, instead of being found fault with, should be pitied, for they are marrying her to Don Rodrigo much against her wish. She certainly was in love with him one time, but she took a dislike to him when he killed her father, and if she now marries him, it is in obedience to the command of the king, who so arranges matters, for he considers that the union of the houses of Vivar and of Gormaz will prevent the formation of bodies of partisans who would flood the kingdom with blood, and he says that public good must be thought more of than private sentiment."
"And the king is right."
"Of course he is; and the more so, because Don Rodrigo did not kill the father of Doña Ximena unfairly. Yes! Don Fernando knows well what he is about, and does not fear being accused of doing wrong. I hold, for my part, that there's not a better king in the world."
"Do you know that the maiden is worth half Castile?"