Several times Manuel, Jesús and Don Alonso slept in churches. One night, after the trio had retired in a chapel of San Sebastian, crowded with benches, the sexton threw them out and handed them over to a couple of officers. Don Alonso tried to show the guards that he was not only a respectable person, but an important one as well. While he was thus engaged in argument, Jesús escaped by the Plaza de Santa Ana.
“You can tell all that to the court,” answered the guard to the Snake-Man’s protestations.
They made their way through a nearby street and entered by a gate before which burned a red lamp. They climbed a narrow stairway into a room where two clerks sat scribbling. The clerks ordered Don Alonso and Manuel to be seated upon a bench, which both made haste to do most humbly.
“You, the older, what’s your name?” asked one of the clerks.
“I?” said the Snake-Man.
“Yes, you. Are you deaf, or an idiot?”
“No. No, sir.”
“Well, you look it. What’s your name?”
“Alonso de Guzmán Calderón y Téllez.”