t, "I
permitted his Excellency the Duke of Rianzares to have an interview with
his daughter, at which, for safety's sake, I was present, and gained a
great deal of information that may be exceedingly useful to us in the
future. But in one thing I confess that I was not sufficiently careful.
The girl, being left to herself for a moment, escaped--by what means I
know not. Nor" (this with a quaint glance at Concha) "was she the only
lady who left the palace that night without asking my leave!"

But without answering, the cloaked page passed him rapidly, and with the
Princess still clinging to her hand, she passed upstairs. The Sergeant
looked after her and her young charge.

"You are sure of this lady's discretion?" he said.

"I have proved it to the death," answered the young man briefly and a
little haughtily.

The Sergeant shrugged his shoulders as if he would have said with the
Basque friar, "It is none of my business." But instead he took up his
report to his superior and continued, "We buried the body of the poor
woman Dona Susana within the precincts of the _Colegiata_----"

"And an hour ago I buried the body of her slayer," said Rollo, calmly.

For an instant the Sergeant looked astonished, as indeed well he might,
but he restrained whatever curiosity he felt, and only said:

"You will let me hear what happened in your own time, and also how you
discovered and regained the little Princess?"

Rollo nodded.

"And speaking of the Princess, if she asks questions," continued
Cardono, "had she not better be told that Dona Susana has gone to visit
her relations--which, as she was the last of her family, is, I believe,
strictly true!"

"But the Queen-Regent and the Duke--Senor Munoz, I mean?" queried Rollo.
"What of them?" For the young man had even yet no high opinion of that
nobleman or of his vocation in life.

"Oh, as to the Duke," answered the Sergeant, "I do not think that we
shall have much trouble with him. The Queen is our Badajoz. She is so
set on returning to Madrid that she will not move a step towards Aragon,
and we have not enough force to carry her thither against her will with
any possibility of secrecy."

"We might take the little Princess alone," mused Rollo; "she would go
with Concha anywhere. Of that I am certain."

The Sergeant shook his head.

"The Queen-Regent, and she alone, is the fountain of authority. If you
kidnap and sequester her within the Carlist lines, you will certainly
p