A great favourite of Cardinal Loaysa came one day to speak with him on a certain matter, arriving so early that the Cardinal was asleep. The nobleman’s importunity was so great that the servants awoke his Eminence, telling him who was there. The Cardinal finally ordered him to be shown in, and learning his business, said, “My friend, I knew long ago that you wasted your time; but that you got up so early to do so, that I did not know.”
A pupil at the grammar school of Alcalá once said to the vice-rector, who, for the sake of economy, always made boys eat very stale bread, “Domine, fac ut lapides isti panes fiant.”
Bachelor N., at Salamanca, gave bad wine to some pupils, one of whom, a bold fellow, tasting it, rose, and taking off his hat, said to him, “Domine, si potest fieri, transeat a me calix iste.”
In the madhouse of Toledo a madman cried out in a loud voice to some visitors shown round, “I am the angel Gabriel, who came with the tidings to Our Lady,” and said, “Ave Maria,” &c. Another madman near him upon this exclaimed, “He is lying; I am God the Father and I sent him on no such errand.”