pretty long time before
she could make the landlord hear her; and finally, all the answer she
could obtain was a recommendation to go to sleep again, for there was
more than half the night yet to come, and it was so dark that it would
be a very rash thing to venture upon the road. Upon this she said no
more, but shut the door, and went back to bed, sighing dismally.

The other stranger now thought it would be well to address her, and
offer her his aid in any way that might be serviceable, as a means of
inducing her to say who she was, and relate her piteous story.
"Assuredly, senor gentleman," said he, "I should think myself destitute
of natural feeling--nay, that I had a heart of stone and a bosom of
brass--if your sighs and the words you have uttered did not move me to
sympathy. If the compassion I feel for you, and the earnest desire I
have conceived to risk my life for your relief--if your misfortunes
admit of any--may give me some claim upon your courtesy, I entreat you
to manifest it in declaring to me the cause of your grief without
reserve."

"If that grief had not deprived me of understanding," said the person
addressed, "I ought to have remembered that I was not alone in this
room, and have bridled my tongue and suppressed my sighs; but to punish
myself for my imprudent forgetfulness, I will do what you ask; for it
may be that the pangs it will cost me to relate the bitter story of my
misfortunes will end at once my life and my woes. But first you must
promise me solemnly, that whatever I may reveal, you will not quit your
bed nor come to mine, nor ask more of me than I choose to disclose; for
if you do, the very moment I hear you move I will run myself through
with my sword, which lies ready to my hand."

The cavalier, who would have promised anything to obtain the information
he so much desired, vowed that he would not depart a jot from the
conditions so courteously imposed. "On that assurance, then," said the
lady, "I will do what I have never done before, and relate to you the
history of my life. Hearken then.

"You must know, senor, that although I entered this inn, as they have
doubtless told you, in the dress of a man, I am an unhappy maiden, or at
least I was one not eight days ago, and ceased to be so, because I had
the folly to believe the delusive words of a perjured man. My name is
Teodosia; my birth-place is one of the chief towns of the province of
Andalusia, the name of which I suppress, be