movements, which had hitherto been masked in darkness, now became clear
as day, while the advantages of the besieged within the palace were
greatly increased.

But (what principally concerns us) the matter happened ill enough for
Rollo and the little Queen. They had to pass under the full glare of the
fire, through groups of gipsies assembled about the great gate,
chaffering and disputing. But there appeared to Rollo at least a chance
of getting past unobserved, for all seemed to be thoroughly occupied
with their own business. Rollo accordingly settled the little Queen
deeper in the great pannier, and readjusted the hay over her. He then
hung an additional pair of copper vessels across the crupper, chirruped
to the beast, and went forward to face his fate with as good a heart as
might be within his breast.

"Whither goest thou, brother?" cried a voice from behind him, just when
Rollo was full between the portals of the great gate.

"Brother, I go into the town to complete my plunder," answered Rollo in
Romany, "and to help my kinsfolk of the Gitano!"

"Strangely enough thou speakest, brother," was the reply; "thy tongue is
not such as we wanderers of the Castiles speak one to the other!"

Rollo laughed heartily at this, his hand all the while gripping the
pistol on his thigh.

"Indeed," said he, "it were great marvel an it were. For I am of Lorca,
which is near to Granada; and what is more, I am known there as a very
pretty fellow with my hands!"

"I doubt it not," said the Castilian gipsy, turning away; "and not to
speak of the pistol, that is a pretty enough plaything of a tooth-pick
which hangs at thy girdle, brother!"

As he turned carelessly away he pointed to the long knife the Sergeant
had given Rollo, and which, owing to some mysterious marks upon its
handle, proved on more than one occasion of service to him.

Presently, as he was urging his donkey to the left out of the silent
town, he came upon a knot of gipsies who stood with heads all bent
together as if in consultation. They were deep within the shadow of an
archway a little raised above the level of the street, and Rollo could
not see them before he was, as it were, under their noses. One of them,
a great brawny hulk of a man, sun-blackened to the hue of an Arab of the
Rif, struck his knuckles with a clang on the brazen vessel which
sheltered the little Queen.

Rollo caught his breath, for it seemed certain that the child must cry
out with fea