Then followed an outcry such as never had been heard before; mother and children set upon him without mercy, and glad enough he was to escape from them, his rope safely tucked under his arm.
Once more he secured the rope, and once more the goblin appeared. “Christian!” he exclaimed, “where is your patience?”
“All beaten out of me by my wife’s blows,” replied Perrico.
“That’s no excuse,” said the sprite; “nevertheless I’ll help you once more. Here’s a stick for you—take this, and when you’re armed with it no one will venture to interfere with you.”
Perrico caught at the stick, and walked home with as much importance as a beadle bearing his mace; and when the children came clamouring round him, as they had seen their mother do, he only said, “At them! good stick!” and the stick flew out of his hand, and sent them all running helter-skelter. Then his wife came to the defence of her children, and Perrico had only to say, “At her! good stick!” and the stick soon disposed of her also.
But the neighbours, hearing her cries, sent for the Alcalde and his Aguaciles, who prepared to take him; but Perrico cried once more, “At them! good stick!” and straightway the stick sent them all flying in every direction.
Then they sent an express messenger to the king, to tell him how his officers were being treated, and he sent a regiment of grenadiers. But Perrico had one remedy against all: “At them! good stick!” he cried, and in a trice the stick belaboured away, leaving one with a broken arm, another with his eye knocked out, the colonel sprawling in the dust, and every musket or side-arm rendered totally unfit for use, till the soldiers, thinking Lucifer had been let loose among them, were glad to get away as fast as their legs would carry them.
So Perrico was left alone, and was glad to rest after all the excitement, but took care when he went to sleep to hide his stick in his breast, that it might not be taken from him.
When he woke in the morning he found his hands and feet manacled, and an officer of justice standing over him, reading aloud the sentence of death which had been passed upon him. Perrico said nothing, but as soon as they loosened his bonds on the scaffold he took out his stick, and crying, “At them! good stick!” soon delivered himself of executioners, guards, gaolers, and all who stood in his way.
“Leave the fellow alone!” cried the king, “or all my subjects will be killed—only let’s get rid of him.” So to bribe him to go he promised him a large tract of land in America, and shipped him off to the island of Cuba. Here he founded a town; but his stick did so much execution on the inhabitants, that people gave it the name of Matanzas.