debían de quitar el sueño los cuidados del rey de Francia.⁹

     Otro día fue por el señor mi amo visto el daño, así del pan como del agujero que yo había hecho, y comenzó a dar al diablo los ratones y decir:
     —¿Qué diremos a esto? ¡Nunca haber sentido ratones en esta casa sino ahora!
     Y sin duda debía de decir verdad. Porque si casa había de haber en el reino justamente de ellos privilegiada,¹⁰ aquélla, de razón, había de ser, porque no suelen morar donde no hay qué comer. Torna a buscar clavos por la casa y por las paredes, y tablillas a atapárselos. Venida la noche y su reposo, luego era yo puesto en pie con mi aparejo, y cuantos él tapaba de día destapaba yo de noche.
     En tal manera fue y tal prisa nos dimos, que sin duda por esto se debió decir: «Donde una puerta se cierra, otra se abre.» Finalmente, parecíamos tener a destajo la tela de Penélope,¹¹ pues cuanto él tejía de día rompía yo de noche. Y en pocos días y noches pusimos la pobre despensa de tal forma, que quien quisiera propiamente de ella hablar, más «corazas viejas de otro tiempo» que no «arcaz» la llamara, según la clavazón y tachuelas sobre sí tenía.
     De que vio no aprovechar nada su remedio, dijo:
     —Este arcaz está tan maltratado, y es de madera tan vieja y flaca, que no habrá ratón a quien se defienda. Y va ya tal, que si andamos más con él, nos dejará sin guarda. Y aun lo peor que, aunque hace poca, todavía hará falta faltando y me pondrá en costa de tres o cuatro reales. El mejor remedio que hallo, pues el de hasta aquí no aprovecha: armaré por dentro a estos ratones malditos.

     Luego buscó prestada una ratonera, y con cortezas de queso, que a los vecinos pedía, continuó el gato estaba armado dentro del arca. Lo cual era para mí singular auxilio. Porque, puesto caso que yo no había menester muchas salsas para comer, todavía me holgaba con las cortezas del queso que de la ratonera sacaba, y, sin esto, no perdonaba

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was hardly likely  that the cares of the king of France⁹ would have robbed me of sleep.
     It was the following day that my master seeing the damage, to the bread as well as the hole I had made, commenced to curse the mice, saying:

     "What will we say to this? Never to have noticed mice in this house except now!"
     And without a doubt he ought to have spoken the truth. Because, if there was a house in the kingdom just so privileged,¹⁰ that one, by rights, had to be it. Mice don't usually dwell where there isn't anything to eat. He returned to looking for nails in the house and in the walls and boards to plug up the holes. The night came on and his repose, I at once got on my feet with my gear and, as many as he plugged by day, I unplugged by night.
     It was in such a way and happened to us so hastily, that without doubt it ought to be said: "Where one door closes, another opens." Ultimately, we seemed to have for piecework Penelope's¹¹ fabric, since as much as he wove by day I tore out at night. And, in a few days and nights, we put the poor pantry in such shape, that one who wished to properly speak of it would have called it "ancient armored breastplate from another time" rather than "chest," according to the nail sets and hobnails it had on it.
     Upon seeing no progress with any of his remedying, he said:
     "This chest is so ill-treated and is made of wood so old and weak, there wouldn't be a mouse from which one could defend it. And going on like this, if we continue with it, we couldn't leave the chest unguarded. And the worst part is that, although it does little, still it will be missed if it goes missing and at a cost to me of three or four reales. The best remedy I've hit upon, yet the one hitherto not made use of: Would be to arm it from inside against those evil mice."
     He at once sought a mousetrap to borrow and, with cheese rinds that he asked of the neighbors, went on to set the trigger inside the chest. This was of singular aid to me. Because, it being the case that I didn't need many sauces in order to eat, still I was delighted with the cheese rinds that I took out of the mousetrap, yet despite this, didn'tneglect gnawing the rolls.