f which he was accustomed to
avail himself whenever he could get away from his ministerial duties.
Just such an interregnum had arisen some time after the stirring
incidents we have recorded, and he went to stay at his San Augustin
house with his daughter, the Condesa Almonte going with them as their
guest. Since their last appearance before the reader, all three had
passed through scenes of trial. An investigation had been gone into
regarding the Calle de Plateros affair--private, however, before Santa
Anna himself, the world not being made the wiser for it. Its results
were all in their favour, thanks to the stern, stubborn fidelity of
Jose, who lied like a very varlet. Such a circumstantial story told he,
no one could suspect him of complicity in the escape of the _forsados_;
far less that his mistress, or the Condesa Almonte had to do with it.

Don Ignacio, too, had done his share to hinder discovery of the truth.
For, in the end, it was found necessary to take him into the secret, the
missing cloak and pistols, with several mysterious incidents, calling
for explanation. But in making a clean breast of it, his daughter had
felt no fear of being betrayed by him. He was not the father to deal
harshly with his child; besides, it was something more--a real danger.
In addition, she knew how he was affected towards the man she had aided
to escape--that he held Don Florencio in highest esteem; looked upon him
as a dear friend, and in a certain tacit way had long ago signified
approval of him for a son-in-law. All these thoughts passed through
Luisa Valverde's mind while approaching her father, and steeling herself
to make confession of that secret she might otherwise have kept from
him.

The result was not disappointing. Don Ignacio consented to the
deception, and they were saved. Whatever the suspicions of Santa Anna
and his adjutant, both were baffled about that affair, at least for the
time.

Alike had they been frustrated in their pursuit of the _escapados_.
Despite the most zealous search through the Pedregal and elsewhere,
these could not be found, nor even a trace of them. Still, they were
not given up. Every town and village in the valley, in the mountains
around, and the country outside were visited by soldiers or spies--every
spot likely to harbour the fugitives. Pickets were placed everywhere
and patrols despatched, riding the roads by night as by day, all proving
abortive.

After a time, howeve