Crallisa_--the great gipsy queen.*

* Maria Padella was accused of having bewitched Don Pedro.
According to one popular tradition she presented Queen
Blanche of Bourbon with a golden girdle which, in the eyes
of the bewitched king, took on the appearance of a living
snake. Hence the repugnance he always showed toward the
unhappy princess.

"'Carmen,' I said to her, 'will you come with me?' She rose, threw away
her wooden bowl, and put her mantilla over her head ready to start. My
horse was led up, she mounted behind me, and we rode away.

"After we had gone a little distance I said to her, 'So, my Carmen, you
are quite ready to follow me, isn't that so?'

"She answered, 'Yes, I'll follow you, even to death--but I won't live
with you any more.'

"We had reached a lonely gorge. I stopped my horse.

"'Is this the place?' she said.

"And with a spring she reached the ground. She took off her mantilla and
threw it at her feet, and stood motionless, with one hand on her hip,
looking at me steadily.

"'You mean to kill me, I see that well,' said she. 'It is fate. But
you'll never make me give in.'