his knee. The very
seconds of his life were numbered. Lovely in her grief Mercedes knelt at
his side, a great pity in her heart. The Viceroy stepped close to him.

"I thank you, too," she said. "Poor Don Felipe, he and you saved me, but
at the expense of your lives. Would God you could have been spared!"

"Nay," gasped the dying man, "thou lovest him. I--watched thee. I heard
thee call upon his name. Thou wert not for me, and so I die willingly.
He is a noble gentleman. Would he might have won thee!"

The man trembled with the violent effort it cost him to speak. He gasped
faintly and strove to smile. By an impulse for which she was ever after
grateful, she bent her head, slipped her arm around his neck, lifted him
up, and kissed him. In spite of his death agony, at that caress he
smiled up at her.

"Now," he murmured, "I die happy--content--you
kissed--me--Jesu--Mercedes----"

It was the end of as brave a lover, as true a cavalier as ever drew
sword or pledged hand in a woman's cause.

"He is dead," said the officer.

"God rest his soul, a gallant gentleman," said the Viceroy, taking off
his hat, and his example was followed by every one in the room.

"And Captain Alvarado?" said Mercedes, rising to her feet and turning to
the other figure.

"Senorita," answered another of the officers, "he lives."

"Oh, God, I thank Thee!"

"See--he moves!"

A little shudder crept through the figure of the prostrate Captain, who
had only been knocked senseless by the fierce blow and was otherwise
unhurt.

"His eyes are open! Water, quick!"

With skilled fingers begot by long practice the cavalier cut the lacings
of Alvarado's doublet and gave him water, then a little wine. As the
young Captain returned to consciousness, once more the officers crowded
around him, the Viceroy in the centre, Mercedes on her knees again.

"Mercedes," whispered the young Captain. "Alive--unharmed?"

"Yes," answered Mercedes brokenly, "thanks to God and thee."

"And de Tobar," generously asserted Alvarado. "Where is he?"

"Dead."

"Oh, brave de Tobar! And the city----"

"Is ours."

"And Morgan?"

"Here in my hands," said the Viceroy sternly.

"Thank God, thank God! And now, your Excellency, my promise. I thought
as I was stricken down there would be no need for you to----"

"Thou hast earned life, Alvarado, not death, and thou shalt have it."

"Senors," said Alvarado, whose faintness was passing from him, "I broke
my plighte