Which one do they unchain it!

A bird-woman is attacked by a clerk and a bailiff, all of them with the face of a cat. This animal was defined in the dictionary of the Spanish language published in the 18th century as "the thieving thief who steals with cunning and deceit". The scene is being watched by a magistrate who sees how one of the men violently grabs the woman by the wing, which he bites off, causing the young woman to wince. Everything is taking place against a neutral background with no spatial reference.

Goya makes extensive use of a very grainy aquatint to create the neutral background in which he has suggested a certain luminosity around the figures. The white of the woman's torso and face, as well as the white of the hilt of the bailiff's sword, is obtained with a reserve of varnish.

The three manuscripts that explain the engravings of the Caprices series coincide in their interpretation of this engraving, which shows the complicity between the judges and the bailiffs and scribes in "fleecing" the prostitutes. Goya continues with the theme of engravings no. 19 and 20, in which the prostitutes took advantage of their clients' base instincts to extract money from them, although in this case he balances the scales by making them the victims of their clients. This way of establishing a parallel between two situations to demonstrate the parity between them is reminiscent of the way Goya censures violence in all its forms in engravings no. 2 and 3 of The Disasters of War (Rightly or Wrongly ; The Same Thing ), without taking a position in favour of one or the other.

The bailiffs sometimes pursued prostitutes and extorted money from them, thus obtaining multiple benefits. Paradoxically, however, they were precisely the ones who were informed of the places where this trade was practised and gave directions to the brothels to all those who came from outside Madrid and wanted this type of service.

In The Art of Whores by Nicolás Fernández de Moratín (Madrid, 1737-1780) - a regular at the gathering at the Fonda de San Sebastián attended by José Cadalso (Cádiz, 1741-San Roque, Cádiz, 1782), Tomas de Iriarte (Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, 1750-Madrid, 1791) and Ignacio López de Ayala (Cádiz, 1745/1750-1789) - a space is devoted to the bailiffs. On p. 81, the following is said: "Everyone knows what perverse people the bailiffs and notaries are; they persecute the poor whores, not with the desire to extinguish the bad, because they eat with crimes, and their life hangs on lawless men, criminals, and holy virtue is their murderer; and although they know that swindling them is not the way to correct them, since they remain poor, they always go on whoring them, robbing them with the pretence of making amends". Likewise, in Quevedo's The Sheriff Bailiff, the author refers to the prevailing corruption in the sphere of justice: "(...) the Judges are our pheasants, our gift dishes, and the seed that gives us devils the most profit and fruit; because from every Judge we sow, we take six Procurators, two Rapporteurs, four Scribes, five Letrados, and five thousand Negociantes, and this every day. From each Notary we take twenty Officers, and from each Officer thirty Bailiffs, and from each Bailiff ten Bailiffs".