Tratado 1.
In the first “tratado,” Lázaro informs Vuestra Merced that he was born to a miller and his wife on the banks of the River Tormes, in a village close to Salamanca. Lázaro is still a child when his father is killed in a war to which he has been sent after being convicted of ”bleeding” some sacks brought to the mill for grinding. His mother subsequently moves to Salamanca and has a relationship with a black stable-man, who becomes Lazarillo's "stepfather". This relationship produces a half brother for Lazarillo, and ends when the “stepfather” is whipped and basted with hot fat for theft and his mother lashed and ordered not to have further contact with her lover. Unable to care for Lazarillo (the diminutive "–illo" refers to Lázaro as child), his mother hands him over to a blind man to serve as his guide.
Lazarillo quickly and literally learns the hard knocks of life. The first thing the blind man does is tell Lazarillo to put his head close to a stone bull and listen for an unusual sound (the stone bull still stands at one end of the Roman bridge over the River Tormes).
Roman bridge at Salamanca. The stone bull can
just be made out at the left end of the bridge.
Dominating the skyline is the 16th-century
Gothic cathedral, the younger of two cathedrals
in Salamanca
Innocently, Lazarillo does as he is told and