came to a mountain, she climbed and climbed till she reached the very top, and then she put down the bottle and hurried off, shaking her fist at her son-in-law by way of farewell.
And their his highness stayed for ten year. And such a ten years, gentlemen! The world was like a great pool of oil. Every man minded his own business and did not meddle with what did not concern him. Nobody coveted his neighbor’s wife nor anything that was his neighbor’s. Robbery became a word without a meaning. Weapons lay idle, and were consumed with rust; gunpowder was used only in fireworks. The prisons were emptied, and in fact in this golden decade there was only one deplorable event—the lawyers all died of starvation.
But alas! such happiness could not last forever, and this is how it came to an end. A soldier named Briones obtained leave to spend a few days in his native village, Villangañanes. He took the road which led by the mountain on whose summit reposed Aunt Holofernes' son-in-law, cursing all mothers-in-law, past, present, and future, vowing that when he got out he would put an end to the whole nest of vipers by simply abolishing marriage.
When he reached the foot of the mountain, Briones did not choose to follow the road which turned off to one side, but kept straight ahead, telling the muleteers who were with him that if the mountain would not get out of his way, he should walk right over it, if it were so high that it touched the floor of the heavens.
When he reached the top he was surprised
