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