are qualities, he was true
to friendship as to his country's cause, and would not be false to love.
And he had no fear of her. His _liens_ with Ysabel Almonte were such
as to preclude all thought of her affections ever changing. He knew
that she was his--heart, soul, everything. For had she not given him
every earnest of it, befriended him through weal and through woe? Nor
had he need to assure her that her love was reciprocated, or his fealty
still unfaltering; for their faith, as their reliance, was mutual. His
letter, therefore, was less that of a lover to his mistress than one
between man and man, written to a fellow-conspirator, most of it in
figurative phrase, even some of it in cypher!

No surprise to her all that; she understood the reason. Nor was there
any enigma in the signs and words of double signification; without
difficulty she interpreted them all.

They told her of the anticipated rising, with the attempt to be made on
Oaxaca, the hopes of its having a success, and, if so, what would come
after. But also of something before this--where he, the writer, and his
Free Lances would be on the following night, so that if need arose she
could communicate with him. If she had apprehension of danger to him,
he was not without thought of the same threatening herself and her
friend too.

Neither were they now; instead, filled with such apprehension. In view
of what had occurred on the preceding evening, and throughout the night,
how could they be other? The dwarf must know more than he had revealed
in that dialogue overheard by Jose. In short, he seemed aware of
everything--the _cochero's_ complicity as their own. The free surrender
of their watches and jewellery for the support of the escaped prisoners
were of itself enough to incriminate them. Surely there would be
another investigation, more rigorous than before, and likely to have a
different ending.

With this in contemplation, their souls full of fear, neither went that
morning to matins. Nor did they essay to take sleep or rest. Instead,
wandered about the house from room to room, and out into the grounds,
seemingly distraught.

They had the place all to themselves; no one to take counsel with, none
to comfort them; Don Ignacio, at an early hour, having been called off
to his duties in the city. But they were not destined to spend the
whole of that day without seeing a visitor. As the clocks of San
Augustin were striking 8 p.m. one pre