utely independent, owing authority to no man, save to the King
alone. It is mine to give or to withhold, to punish or to pardon.
Therefore I, General Ramon Cabrera, having sworn publicly to avenge my
mother, when, where, and how I can, solemnly declare that, as a
retaliation, I will shoot these three prisoners to-morrow at sunrise,
even as Nogueras, the representative of this woman who calls herself
Queen-Regent of Spain, shot down my innocent mother for the sole crime
of giving birth to an unworthy son! Take them away! I will hear no
more!"

* * * * *

Thus in a moment was Rollo toppled from the highest pinnacle of
happiness, for such to a young man is the hope of immediate success. He
cursed the hour he had entered the bloodthirsty land of Spain. He cursed
his visit to the Abbey of Montblanch, and the day on which he accepted a
commission from men without honour or humanity. He was indeed almost in
case to do himself a hurt, and both Concha and the Sergeant watched him
with anxious solicitude during the remainder of the afternoon as he
wandered disconsolately about the little camp, twirling his moustache
and clanking Killiecrankie at his heels with so fierce an air, that even
Cabrera's officers, no laggards on the field of honour, kept prudently
out of his way.

The royal party had been disposed in a small house, a mere summer
residence of some of the _bourgeois_ folk of Aranda, and there, by an
unexpected act of grace and at the special supplication of the Sergeant,
La Giralda had been permitted to wait upon them.

The beauty of Concha was not long in producing its usual effect upon the
impressionable sons of Navarre and Guipuzcoa. But the Sergeant, whose
_prestige_ was unbounded, soon gave them to understand that the girl had
better be left to go her own way, having two such protectors as Rollo
and El Sarria to fight her battles for her.

To the secret satisfaction of all the Sergeant did not resume his duties
in the camp of Cabrera. The troop to which he belonged had been left
behind to watch the movements of the enemy. For Cabrera had barely
escaped from a strong force under Espartero near the walls of Madrid
itself, by showing the cleanest of heels possible. Cardono, therefore,
still attached himself unreproved to the party of Rollo, which camped a
little apart. A guard of picked men was, however, placed over the
quarters of the royal family. This Cabrera saw to himself, and th