LEGENDS OF THE CITY OF MEXICO
—it is called La Heroina—where pulque of the best and the freshest is to be had every morning of every day the whole year round.
I do not know, Señor, when this matter happened; but I have heard it told that this gentleman, who was named Don Alvaro de Villa-diego y Manrique, came to Mexico in the train of the Viceroy Don Gastón de Peralta—so it must have happened a very long while ago.
This Don Alvaro was a very handsome gentleman—tall, and slender, and fair; and he wore clothes of white velvet worked with gold, and a blue cap with a white feather; and he rode always a very beautiful Arabian horse. His hair and his little pointed beard were a golden brown, Señor; and he was a sight to behold!
It happened, on a day, that he was taking the air on his Arabian; and he was wearing—because a festival of some sort was in progress—all of his fine clothes. So he came prancing down the Calle de Migueles, and in the balcony
of that corner house—the house on which the green cross now is—he saw a very beautiful young lady, who was most genteel in her appearance and as white as snow. He fell in love with her on that very instant; and she—
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