The Jeweller, who was not willing to allow this jewel to escape him, took his cloak immediately, and hastened to the place where I told him we lodged, and did not fail to question several of the officers and soldiers, as to the character of a certain Don Juan de Guzman who described himself as belonging to their company. Every man of them (for I was generally beloved) assured him I was a young man of quality, who intended to pass over to Italy with them, and that they had known me make a most brilliant figure. In short, they spoke so well of me, that he soon returned to look for me on the quay, where he had no great difficulty to find me, for I had no other business there but to wait for and entrap him. He requested me, as soon as he came up, to allow him to see the Reliquary again, which he was come to treat for. “Willingly,” replied I, “but let us retire a little, as I have no wish to have a crowd assembled about us.”
I then drew the jewel out of my purse and handed it to him: he looked at it on all sides, and after having examined it minutely, asked me what I would have for it. I told him two hundred crowns; and though that was not half its value, the old usurer pretended to be quite astonished at such a price, and began to tell me that the gold was by no means of the finest quality. Besides which he found great fault with the workmanship, as well as with the diamonds: nevertheless, he offered me one half, and I was surprised in my turn. “That will not do,” cried I, “you take advantage of my situation; but distressed as I am for money, I declare that you shall not have it for less than a hundred and fifty crowns.”
He still continued to make so many objections, that I was at last contented to conclude the bargain at a hundred and twenty, and he requested me to accompany him to his shop to receive the money. This I refused, telling him that I expected a person to meet me on the quay, and, therefore, could not leave it; that if he would return home and procure the sum agreed on, he would find me again in the same place. The Jeweller, finding that I could not be prevailed on to accompany him, and being apprehensive that the person whom I expected might be another Jeweller, whom I had appointed to meet on the same subject, ran home with great haste, lest he should be deprived of his bargain before his return.
The old rogue soon returned to me again, quite out of breath, bringing with him in a small bag the hundred and twenty crowns, which he counted into my hand. I requested the bag of him in which I put the money, and offered him in exchange the purse that the Reliquary was kept in; but affecting to find great difficulty in untying the strings, which I had purposely well fastened, I snatched, as though from impatience, a knife which I observed in a sheath at his girdle, and cut them asunder. Although this action seemed to surprise him a little, he was so far from guessing the cause, that he departed and walked towards home, well satisfied with his purchase, and very far from suspecting the snare that I had laid for him.
After having allowed him to proceed a few steps, I beckoned to one of my comrades, as great a rogue as myself, whom I had stationed near at hand so as to be ready when called for, and desired him to carry the crowns to our Captain. Then I ran as fast as I could after my Jeweller, for I had not lost sight of him, and overtook him at a part where the roads met, where there happened to be some soldiers assembled, to whom I pointed him out, crying aloud, “stop thief, fellow soldiers, stop thief! for God’s sake stop that old rascal there, who has just robbed me; let him not escape!” The soldiers, some of whom belonged to our own company, stopped the poor Jeweller immediately, asking him how he had given me cause to complain thus of him. He was at first so bewildered with fear and astonishment, that he had not the power of uttering a word. Had he spoken, however, it would not have availed him, for his voice would have been drowned by that of his accuser: nobody was to be heard but myself, who kept up a continued roar; and to make more impression on the soldiers, I fell down on my knees before them, and forcing some tears into my eyes, implored their assistance.
“Gentlemen,” said I, “you see before you in that old rogue one of the greatest hypocrites in Spain. I chanced just now to be standing by him on the quay, where he remarked that I had a purse in my bosom, and asked me what was in it? a Reliquary, answered I, which my master the Captain accidentally left at the bed’s-head this morning, and that I have taken care of to give it to him again; upon this, the old rascal whom you have secured requested me in a civil manner to shew it him, telling me that he was a Goldsmith, and was curious in jewels. I satisfied his curiosity, and he asked me if I would dispose of this Reliquary. That cannot be, said I, for it is my master’s; at the same time I replaced it in my purse which was tied to my button; whereupon my thief, while he amused me with words, drew forth a knife which he had in a sheath at his girdle, and suddenly cut the strings, the ends of which are still to be seen. Take the trouble. Gentlemen, of searching him, I beg of you,” added I, “and you will find the purse containing the jewel somewhere about his person, for I have followed him so closely, that he has not had an opportunity of otherwise disposing of it.”
The soldiers instantly began to search him: they drew forth the purse containing the Reliquary from his bosom where he had placed it, and perceiving that the strings had really been cut, they no longer doubted the Goldsmith’s guilt: in vain did he protest and swear that I had sold it him; they would not believe him, it being so extremely improbable that an old and experienced Jeweller could consent to purchase so rich a Reliquary of a young soldier, without suspecting that it must have been stolen. “Once more,” cried the accused, “I assure you that I paid this young man for the Reliquary a hundred and twenty crowns in gold, which I reckoned into his hand, and which he must now have about him: you have only to search him also to find these gold coins, which I paid him only a few minutes since.” The soldiers, to satisfy him, rummaged my pockets out; and finding no money about me, they began to revile him most unmercifully, and even to beat him. Nevertheless, as he insisted on being conducted to a Judge, they carried us both before one.
Here I related my case in the same manner as I had reported it to the soldiers, who, upon being interrogated by the Judge, said more than was sufficient to convince him that the Jeweller had really seized this Reliquary from me by force; in addition to which, this citizen being so well known as a covetous man who would not scruple at a trifle, they were the more disposed to think him guilty. The Magistrate, however, out of consideration for his family, which consisted of some of the first persons in the city, was content to reprimand him severely, and delivered the jewel into my hands again, desiring me to carry it to my master, which I did immediately.
When I related this adventure to the Captain, he returned thanks to Heaven that it had ended so well: he had feared, and with some reason, that I should have come but scurvily off in so slippery an affair, and my boldness made him tremble. Although he was the only person that profited by my rogueries, yet he resolved to get rid of the rogue, fearing that I should at last ruin him as well as myself by some unlucky adventure. He was impatient for the day when we should embark, which at length arrived. The galleys left the harbour of Barcelona, and transported us in safety to Genoa, where we were no sooner landed, than my Captain said to me in private, “my dear Guzman, we are now in the country whither you have been so extremely anxious to come,” for I had communicated to him my intentions of visiting my kindred; “we must now, with your leave, begin to think of parting, for I am not more afraid of all the devils together than of the consequences of these legerdemain tricks of yours: farewell, my friend,” added he, putting a pistole into my hand, “I much regret that I am not in a situation to make you a better acknowledgment for your services.” Thus saying, he departed, leaving me so thunderstruck with his compliment, that I could not utter a word. But what could I have said to him? was it necessary to represent to him all the dangers I had faced on his account? he was well aware of them, for what else was it that caused my dismissal. I could not be surprised at his behaviour. I had only the common fate of rogues, who, like vipers and scorpions, are made use of, while any thing useful can be extracted from them, and afterwards thrown to the dogs.