He answered, “that he had no other appellation than that of the
employment which he exercised in the world: that he had been for a long
time in the service of an alguazil, in whom he inspired all the chicanery
and wickedness with which he plagued poor people.”
Let us remark here, that the word _alguazil_ is borrowed from the Moresco
tongue, and signifies in Spanish, a constable, a cryer, a clerk, or other
subaltern of justice.
“Why,” said I to the demon, “are you entered into the body of this man?”
“Because he was himself an alguazil, and a person of a licentious life.
After having been banished from his paternal home, finding himself
necessitous, he associated with alguazils to extort money, under pretence
of executing the decrees of justice, and in the arrest of bodies, which
he often abandoned for small sums. It was in the execution of this
business, that he stole a silver cup from the house of a country curate,
and subtracted a purse of one hundred ducats from the pocket of a man,
who, for the stuff, was delivered from the hands of justice.”