The leathery and excessively slender chief of police don Blas Bustos y Mosquera has a handsome young nobleman, don Fernando, imprisoned for the crime of appearing before him with a fresh complexion and a cool demeanor. Don Fernando's fiancée comes to plead his case, but her beauty, which the sinister chief of police wants for himself, prompts don Blas to secure—or to attempt to secure—don Fernando's permanent removal from his native Granada.
Genre: short story
Length: 8,300 words
Date of English translation: 2012