You must know, then, that in your cellar
you have a vast treasure; nevertheless you will experience great
difficulty in arriving at it, as it is enchanted, and to remove it
is impossible, save alone on the eve of Saint John. We are now at
the eighteenth of June, and it wants five days to the twenty-third;
therefore, in the meanwhile, collect some jewels of gold and
silver, and likewise some money, whatever you please, provided it
be not copper, and provide six tapers, of white or yellow wax, for
at the time appointed I will come with a sister of mine, when we
will extract from the cellar such abundance of riches, that you
will be able to live in a style which will excite the envy of the
whole country." The ignorant widow, hearing these words, put
implicit confidence in the deceiver, and imagined that she already
possessed all the gold of Arabia and the silver of Potosi.
'The appointed day arrived, and not more punctual were the two
Gypsies, than anxiously expected by the lady. Being asked whether
she had prepared all as she had been desired, she replied in the
affirmative, when the Gypsy thus addressed her: "You must know,
good lady, that gold calls forth gold, and silver calls forth
silver; let us light these tapers, and descend to the cellar before
it grows late, in order that we may have time for our
conjurations.
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