UNINTERlingua 2023

52 For some reason, however, once he retur- ned home, neither his human wife nor his old master, the archpriest, recognized him. His wife insisted that her husband had been dead for four years, and his master accused him of disturbing the peace in the middle of the night. For this reason, Lázaro was thrown in jail and was told that he would not be released until someone confirmed that he was indeed Lázaro de Tormes. In jail, once again he begged God for help, and in a dream the being of Tru- th appeared to him. She scolded him for lying, although in the text Lázaro is never seen lying to anyone. He might, perhaps, have exaggerated his adventures in the ocean to some students he met at the uni- versity of Toledo, but all this is just conjec- ture. At any rate, Lázaro repented and told the Truth that he was sorry. The Truth then forgave him and told him that the very next day his wife and master would recognize him, and he would be set free. Everything occurred the way that he had seen it in his dream, and he was finally let out of jail. Back in the world of men, the pícaro had to struggle to survive from day to day. He wanted to get ahead, and he even came up with the idea of starting a university in Toledo to teach the language of the tuna fish, but this never materialized. Lázaro’s economic situation had reversed, and he was no longer the prosperous and respec- ted subject of the tuna king. The cycle was complete. He had started as a mem- ber of the lower class whose wife was the lover of his master, the archpriest. Later on, in the world of the tuna fish, he had