The arm was that of a palace guard who, on seeing our Sevillian climbing up to a window of one of the imperial rooms, detained him in order to deliver him up to justice.
This crime was a terrible one. In China it was something daring to profane one of the windows of the empress! That crime was punishable, at the least, with death.
The worst of it was that Pinchauvas did not know a word of Chinese, and was therefore amazed when the guard said to him, with a terrible air:
"Kun-chin-pon-ton!"
"What is this fellow saying to me?" thought Pinchauvas. "He seems to have a stomach-ache and is telling me that he has indigestion. Well, let him get better." And he shrugged his shoulders.
But the guard was nasty and, seizing him again by the neck, took him through the passages of the palace to the rooms of the great chancellor. The latter was found praying to God that the terrible prediction might not be fulfilled, as it might cost him his destiny. "If the empress's tooth hurts her, she will hurt me," said he.
So when he was told of the horrible sacrilege committed by a foreigner, he became exceedingly angry and wished to have him beheaded.
"Take me to this youth, that I may settle him," he said to the guard.
And facing the Spaniard he said sharply:
"Kun-chin-pon-ton?"