True it is I am a gentleman of known house, of estate and property, and entitled to the five hundred sueldos mulct; and it may be that the sage who shall write my history will so clear up my ancestry and pedigree that I may find myself fifth or sixth in descent from a king; for I would have thee know, Sancho, that there are two kinds of lineages in the world; some there be tracing and deriving their descent from kings and princes, whom time has reduced little by little until they end in a point like a pyramid upside down; and others who spring from the common herd and go on rising step by step until they come to be great lords; so that the difference is that the one were what they no longer are, and the others are what they formerly were not.
Bien es verdad que yo soy hijodalgo de solar conocido, de posesión y propriedad y de devengar quinientos sueldos; y podría ser que el sabio que escribiese mi historia deslindase de tal manera mi parentela y decendencia, que me hallase quinto o sesto nieto de rey. Porque te hago saber, Sancho, que hay dos maneras de linajes en el mundo: unos que traen y derriban su decendencia de príncipes y monarcas, a quien poco a poco el tiempo ha deshecho, y han acabado en punta, como pirámide puesta al revés; otros tuvieron principio de gente baja, y van subiendo de grado en grado, hasta llegar a ser grandes señores.