Of the Calle De La Machincuepa

Naturally, Senor, this matter which gave its name to the Calle de la Machincuepa created a scandal that set all the tongues in the City to buzzing about it: every one, of course, blaming the young lady -- even though she did it to win such vast riches -- for committing so publicly so great an impropriety; but some holding that a greater blame attached to the Marques, her uncle, for punishing her -- no matter how much she deserved punishment -- by making her inheritance depend upon so strange and so outrageous a condition; and some even saying that the greatest blame of all rested upon the Viceroy: because he did not forbid an indecorum that was planned to -- and that did -- take place in the Plaza Mayor directly in front of his Palace, and so beneath his very nose. For myself, Senor, I think that the young lady deserved more blame than anybody: because she was free to make her own choice in the matter, and that she chose riches rather than propriety very clearly proved -- though that, to be sure, was known before she did her choosing -- that she had a bad heart. As the Viceroy who did not forbid that young lady to do what she did do was the Duque de Linares -- who, as you know, Senor, took up the duties of his high office in the year 1714 -- you will perceive that the curious event about which I now am telling you occurred very nearly two full centuries ago.

At that time there lived in the street that ever since that time has been called the Street of the Machincuepa a very rich and a very noble Spanish gentleman whose name was Don Mendo Quiroga y Saurez, and whose title was Marques del Valle Salado. In his beginning he was neither rich nor noble, and not even of good blood: having been begotten by an unknown father and born of an unknown mother; and having in his young manhood gone afloat out of Spain as a common sailor to seek his fortune on the sea. What he did upon the sea was a matter that his teeth guarded his tongue from talking about in his later years: but it was known generally that -- while in appearance he and his ship had been engaged in the respectable business of bringing slaves from Africa to the colonies -- his real business had been that of a corsair; and that on his murdering piracies the corner-stone of his great fortune had been laid.