Act II. The opportunity for this comes very quickly. As the miller one

evening is sitting with his wife in their cozy room, there comes a knock at the door. It is the drunken court messenger, _Tonuelo_, who produces a warrant of arrest. _Tio Lucas_ must follow him without delay to the alcalde who has lent himself as a willing instrument to the _Corregidor_. _Frasquita_ is trying to calm her anxiety with a song when outside there is a cry for help. She opens the door and before it stands the _Corregidor_ dripping with water. He had fallen in the brook. Now he begs admission from _Frasquita_ who is raging with anger. He has also brought with him the appointment of the nephew. But the angry woman will pay no attention and sends the _Corregidor_ away from her threshold. Then he falls in a swoon. His own servant now comes along. _Frasquita_ admits both of them to the house and herself goes into town to look for her _Tio Lucas_. When the _Corregidor_, awakened out of his swoon, hears this, full of anxiety, he sends his valet after her; he himself, however, hangs his wet clothes before the fire and goes to bed in the miller's bedroom.

(Change of scene.) In the meantime _Tio Lucas_ has drunk under the table the alcalde and his fine comrades and seizes the occasion to flee.