o work out the divine ends. It is well known to you that there is one
man who is driving this estate of Spain to the verge of a devil's
precipice."

With a look of dark shrewdness the priest dropped his head closer to his
superior's ear.

"Mendizabal," he said, "Mendizabal, the Jew of Madrid, the lover of
heretic England, the overgrown cat's-paw of the money-brokers, the
gabbler of the monkeys' chatter called 'liberal principles,' the evil
councillor of a foolish queen."

"Even so," sighed the Abbot. "To such God for a time grants power to
scourge His very elect. Great is their power--for a time. They flourish
like a green bay tree--for a time. But doth not the Wise Man say in the
Scripture, 'Better is wisdom than many battalions, and a prudent man
than a man of war'? You and I, father, must be the prudent men."

"But will not our brave Don Carlos soon rid us of these dead dogs of
Madrid?" said the Confessor. "What of his great generals Cabrera and El
Serrador? They have gained great victories. God has surely been with
their arms!"

The Prior shrugged his shoulders with a slight but inconceivably
contemptuous movement, which indicated that he was weary of the father's
line of argument.

"Another than yourself, Anselmo, might mistake me for a scoffer when I
say that in this matter we must be our own Don Carlos, our own
generals--nay, our own Providence. To be plain, Carlos V.--that blessed
and truly legitimate sovereign, is a donkey; Cabrera, a brave but cruel
_guerrillero_ who will get a shot through him one fine day, as all these
gluttons for fighting do!--The rest of the generals are even as Don
Carlos, and as for Providence--well, believe me, reverend father, in
these later days, even Providence has left poor Spain to fend for
herself?"

"God will defend His Church," said the Confessor solemnly.

"But how?" purred the Abbot. "Will Providence send down three legions of
angels to sweep the Nationals from sea-board to sea-board, from Alicante
even to Pontevedra?"

"I, for one, place neither bounds nor limits upon the Divine power!"
said the dark monk, sententiously.

"Well, then, I do," answered the Prior; "those of common sense, and of
requiring us who are on earth to use the means, the commoner and the
more earthly the better."

The monk bowed, but did not again contradict his superior. The latter
went on--

"Now I have received from a sure hand in Madrid, one of us and devoted
to our interests, an in