"Señores, I've taken the risk of convening you all--hem, hem!--because we are to celebrate, the twelfth of this month, the feast of our patron, San Diego--hem, hem!"
At this point of his discourse a cough, dry and regular, reduced him to silence.
Then from among the elders arose Captain Basilio:
"Will your honors permit me," said he, "to speak a word under these interesting circumstances? I speak first, though many of those present have more right than I, but the things I have to say are of such importance that they should neither be left aside nor said last, and for that reason I wish to speak first, to give them the place they merit. Your honors will, then, permit me to speak first in this assembly, where I see very distinguished people, like the señor, the present gobernadorcillo; his predecessor, my distinguished friend, Don Valentine; his other predecessor, Don Julio; our renowned captain of the cuadrilleros, Don Melchior, and so many others, whom, for brevity, I will not mention, and whom you see here present. I entreat your honors to give me the floor before any one else speaks. Am I happy enough to have the assembly accede to my humble request?" And the speaker bowed respectfully, half smiling.
"You may speak, we shall hear you with pleasure!" cried his flattering friends, who held him a great orator. The old men hemmed with satisfaction and rubbed their hands.
Captain Basilio wiped the sweat from his brow and continued:
"Since your honors have been so kind and complaisant toward my humble self as to grant me the right of speech before all others here present, I shall profit by this permission, so generously accorded, and I shall speak. I imagine in my imagination that I find myself in the midst of the very venerable Roman senate--senatus populusque Romanus, as we said in those good old times which, unhappily for humanity, will never come back,--and I will ask the patres conscripti--as the sage Cicero would say if he were in my place--I would ask them, since time presses, and time is golden as Solomon says, that in this important matter each one give his opinion clearly, briefly, and simply. I have done."
And satisfied with himself and with the attention of the house the orator sat down, not without directing toward his friends a look which plainly said: "Ha! Did I speak well? Ha!"