By this time a crowd had
collected, listening with outstretched necks and gaping mouths.
"Prithee, man, get into the carriage, out of this pestilent
throng, that I may the better hear thee," said the governor.
The escribano entered the carriage, when, in a twinkling, the door
was closed, the coachman smacked his whip- mules, carriage, guards and
all dashed off at a thundering rate, leaving the crowd in gaping
wonderment; nor did the governor pause until he had lodged his prey in
one of the strongest dungeons of the Alhambra.
He then sent down a flag of truce in military style, proposing a
cartel or exchange of prisoners- the corporal for the notary. The
pride of the captain-general was piqued; he returned a contemptuous
refusal, and forthwith caused a gallows, tall and strong, to be
erected in the centre of the Plaza Nueva for the execution of the
corporal.
"Oho! is that the game?" said Governor Manco. He gave orders, and
immediately a gibbet was reared on the verge of the great beetling
bastion that overlooked the Plaza. "Now," said he in a message to
the captain-general, "hang my soldier when you please; but at the same
time that he is swung off in the square, look up to see your escribano
dangling against the sky."
The captain-general was inflexible; troops were paraded in the
square; the drums beat, the bell tolled. An immense multitude of
amateurs gathered together to behold the execution.
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