youths as they circled in the excitement of the dance. He
shuddered when he thought how soon they must fall, struck off by the sword
of the headsman. Fastened to their gilded chairs, the father and mother,
their three sons and their two young daughters, sat absolutely motionless.

Eight serving-men stood upright before them, their hands bound behind
their backs. These fifteen persons looked at one another gravely, their
eyes scarcely betraying the thoughts that surged within them. Only
profound resignation and regret for the failure of their enterprise left
any mark upon the features of some of them.

The soldiers stood likewise motionless, looking at them, and respecting
the affliction of their cruel enemies. An expression of curiosity lit up
their faces when Victor appeared. He gave the order to unbind the
condemned, and went himself to loose the cords which fastened Clara to her
chair. She smiled sadly. He could not refrain from touching her arm, and
looking with admiring eyes at her black locks and graceful figure. She was
a true Spaniard; she had the Spanish complexion and the Spanish eyes, with
their long curled lashes and pupils blacker than the raven's wing.

"Have you been successful?" she said, smiling upon him mournfully.

Victor could not suppress a groan. He looked, one after the other, at
Clara and her three brothers. One, the eldest, was aged thirty; he was
small, even somewhat ill made, with a proud, disdainful look, but there
was a certain nobleness in his bearing; he seemed no stranger to that
delicacy of feeling which elsewhere has rendered the chivalry of Spain so
famous. His name was Juanito. The second, Felipe, aged about twenty; he
was like Clara. The youngest was eight, Manuel; a painter would have found
in his features a trace of that Roman steadfastness which David has given
to children's faces in his episodes of the republic. The old Marquis, his
head still covered with white locks, seemed to have come forth from a
picture of Murillo.

The young officer shook his head. When he looked at them, he was hopeless
that he would ever see the bargain proposed by the general accepted by any
of the four; nevertheless, he ventured to impart it to Clara.

At first she shuddered, Spaniard though she was; then, immediately
recovering her calm demeanor, she went and knelt down before her father.

"Father," she said, "make Juanito swear to obey faithfully any orders that
you give him, and we shall be co