"But when I felt my heart sink," continued the engineer implacably,
"was when I saw an image of the Virgin, which seems to be held in great
veneration, judging from the crowd before it and the multitude of tapers
which lighted it. They have dressed her in a puffed-out garment of
velvet, embroidered with gold, of a shape so extraordinary that it
surpasses the most extravagant of the fashions of the day. Her face
is almost hidden under a voluminous frill, made of innumerable rows
of lace, crimped with a crimping-iron, and her crown, half a yard in
height, surrounded by golden rays, looks like a hideous catafalque
erected over her head. Of the same material, and embroidered in the same
manner, are the trousers of the Infant Jesus. I will not go on, for to
describe the Mother and the Child might perhaps lead me to commit some
irreverence. I will only say that it was impossible for me to keep from
smiling, and for a short time I contemplated the profaned image, saying
to myself: 'Mother and Lady mine, what a sight they have made of you!'"

As he ended Pepe looked at his hearers, and although, owing to the
gathering darkness, he could not see their countenances distinctly, he
fancied that in some of them he perceived signs of angry consternation.

"Well, Senor Don Jose!" exclaimed the canon quickly, smiling with
a triumphant expression, "that image, which to your philosophy and
pantheism appears so ridiculous, is Our Lady of Help, patroness
and advocate of Orbajosa, whose inhabitants regard her with so much
veneration that they would be quite capable of dragging any one through
the streets who should speak ill of her. The chronicles and history,
Senor Don Jose, are full of the miracles which she has wrought, and even
at the present day we receive constantly incontrovertible proofs of her
protection. You must know also that your aunt, Dona Perfecta, is chief