d Pepita this seemed strange as anything else--a perfect
mystery. Merry after parting with all those pretty things; costly,
too--worth hundreds of _doblones_! Withal, they were so; their
lightness of heart due to the knowledge thus gained, that their own
lovers were still living and safe; and something of merriment, added by
that odd encounter with the _enano_, of which they were yet conversing.

If their behaviour mystified their servants, not less were they
themselves puzzled when Jose presented himself before them with hands
held out, saying:

"I ask your pardon for intruding, but don't these belong to your
ladyships?"

They saw their watches and other effects obtained from them by "false
pretences," as they were now to learn.

The revelation that succeeded put an end to their joyous humour; their
hearts that had been light for a moment were now becoming heavier than
ever. The treachery of the hunchback and his intentions were manifest.
He meant to guide Santander and his soldiers to the old monastery, where
they would take the _patriotas_ by surprise.

"What is to be done, Ysabel?" despairingly asked the Donna Luisa. "How
can we give them warning?"

To which the _cochero_, not the Countess, made answer, saying:

"I can do that, _Senorita_."

His confident tone reassured them; more still his making known the
design he had already conceived, and his ability to execute it. He was
acquainted with the old convent and the paths leading to it--every inch
of them.

It needed not their united appeal to urge him to immediate departure.
He was off the instant after, and long before the clock of Talpam had
struck the midnight hour, well up the mountain road, with eyes looking
to the right, in the direction of the Cerro Ajusco.

CHAPTER FIFTY FOUR.

MONKS NO MORE.

The surmise which had influenced Zorillo to leaving the convent cell
earlier than he intended was a correct one. The goings on in the
Refectory were, at the time, of an unusual kind--a grand occasion, as he
had worded it. There were some fifty men in it; but not one of them now
effecting either the garb or the behaviour of the monk. Soldiers all;
or at least in warlike guise; a few wearing regular though undress
uniforms, but the majority habited as "guerilleros," in the picturesque
costumes of their country. They were booted, and belted, swords by
their sides, with pistols in holsters hanging against the walls, and
spurs ready for bucklin