HEINRICH HEINE - Repositories

xlviii
^introduction*
then it is cool in summer, and not intolerably
cold in winter.
" '"Their fare is rye-bread, which tastes
as sweet as if the goddess Ceres had
baked it express for her beloved Proserpine.
"'Not unfrequently, too, he sends a
scullion to them with garbanzos, and
then the young gentlemen know that it
is Sunday in Spain.
"' But it is not Sunday every day,
and garbanzos do not come every day;
and the master of the hounds gives
them the treat of his whip.
" * For the master of the hounds, who
has under his superintendence the kennels
and the pack, and the nephews'
cage also,
"' Is the unfortunate husband of that
lemon-faced woman with the white ruff,
whom we remarked to-day at dinner.
'"Andshe scolds so sharp, that often
her husband snatches his whip and
rushes down here, and gives it to the
dogs and to the poor little boys.
" ' But his majesty has expressed his
disapproval of such proceedings, and
has given orders that for the future his
nephews are to be treated differently
from the dogs.
"' He has determined no longer to
entrust the disciplining of his nephews
to a mercenary stranger, but to carry it
out with his own hands.'
"Don Diego stopped abruptly; for
the seneschal of the castle joined us.