yes."

"Pardon me," said the Prior, "I know these fellows a great deal better
than you, and it was a very great deal indeed. Your life hung upon the
turning of a hair!"

"Well, for that time the hair turned my way, at any rate," said Rollo,
who honestly thought nothing of the affair, and did not wish the Abbot,
if he had indeed serious business on hand, to measure him by a little
public-house _fracas_.

"Ah," said he gently, "you follow your star! It is good policy for those
who would go far. Also I think that your star will lead you shortly into
some very good society."

The Abbot paused a little ere he made the plunge. Perhaps even his
steadfast pulse felt the gravity of the occasion.

Then he began to speak--lightly, rapidly, almost nervously, with the
sharp staccato utterance with which Don Baltasar concealed his intensest
emotion.

"The commission is a great one," said the Abbot. "This great Order, and
all the servants of God in Spain, depend for their lives on you. If you
succeed, Don Carlos will assuredly sit on the throne of his fathers; if
you fail, there is an end. But it is necessary that you should carry
with you your two friends. I, on my part, will give you a guide who
knows every pass and bridle-path, every cave and shelter-stone, betwixt
here and Madrid."

"Then I am to go to Madrid?"

"Not, as I hope, to Madrid, but to La Granja, where your work will await
you. It is, as you may know, a palace on the slopes of the Guadarrama
mountains, much frequented by the court of the Queen-Regent at Madrid."

"There is to be no bloodshed among the prisoners?" said Rollo. "Fighting
is very well, but I am not going to be heart or part in any shootings
of unarmed men!"

"My friend," said the Abbot, with affectionate confidentiality, laying
his arm on the young man's sleeve, "I give you my word of honour. All
you have to do is to bring two amiable and Catholic ladies here--the
Lady Cristina and her little maid. They are eager to be reconciled to
mother Church, but are prevented by evil councillors. They will come
gladly enough, I doubt not, so soon as they are informed of their
destination."

"Well," said Rollo, "on these conditions I will undertake the task; but
as to those who are there in the palace with her? How are they to fare?"

"Your instructions," said the Abbot, "are these. You will go first to
the camp of General Cabrera, to whom I will give you a letter. He will
furnish you with such escort a