Poet's Sentence

"I am no swindler, only a poet," pleaded the handsome would-be lawyer Faustino Valentin. Citizens of Valencia, jamming the lofty, oak-paneled courtroom where he was standing trial, applauded lustily, for the swindles that Faustino had perpetrated were just such poems as all their dreams were made of. For 15 days last year, he had convinced them all--and many a harder head into the bargain--that a certain penniless foundling named Maria del Rosario was in reality a marquesa possessed of vast lands and riches. A local bank had cheerfully advanced money to Maria to clothe her new dignity. Maria had established herself and her foster parents in a new home to await delivery of her lands and castles. All Valencia reveled in her good fortune (TIME, Sept. 24) until the bubble burst. It was all a fake, dreamed up by young Faustino, a onetime law student who had flunked out.

"I wish the code had a stiffer penalty for those taking advantage of poor people," said the prosecutor. "This man made a fool out of a poor, honest working girl." The presiding judge agreed. Last week he sentenced Valentin to four years and three months in prison, plus an indemnity of 20,000 pesetas to be paid to Maria. But the 27-year-old ex-marquesa, who had taken time off from her job as a charwoman to testify, bore no grudge. Her work-reddened hands hidden in the folds of a rich, black silk dress, the one remnant of her marquesal wardrobe, she told the court: "Of course, he lied. But it could have been true . . . And for 15 days I was happier than I've ever dreamed of being. I am grateful to him."

Faustino bowed low. "Gracias, Marquesita," he said.

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