n is concerned."

For he thought how the last admirer of his red _boina_ had served him.
So with a little sigh of regret he tossed it into the first juniper
bush, and tying a kerchief about his head in the manner of the
Cristinos, rode forth light-heartedly to seek his fate, like a true
soldier of _fortune_.

CHAPTER XLIV

"FOR ROLLO'S SAKE"

Yet for all this brave adventure Concha was as far as ever from meeting
with General Elio. She had not even reached Vera, where it sits proudly
on the northern slopes of the Moncayo--not though El Sarria had quite
correctly pointed out the path, and though La Perla had served her like
the very pearl and pride of all Andalucian steeds.

For once more, as so often in this history and in all men's lives, the
cup had slipped on its way to the lip, the expected unexpected had
happened--and Concha found herself in the wrong camp.

She rode at full speed (as we have seen) out of sight--that is, the
sight of La Perla's owner. And owing to the red _boina_--which Master
Adrian considered to become her so well, she came very near to riding
out of this history. For, through the higher _arroyo_ of Aranda de
Moncayo, which (like a slice cut clean out of a bride's cake) divides
the shoulder of the mountain, she rode directly into the camp of a field
force operating against Cabrera under the personal command of General
Espartero, the future dictator and present Commander-in-Chief of all the
armies of the Queen-Regent.

At first she was nowise startled, thinking only that Vera and General
Elio were nearer than had been represented. "Well," she thought, "so
much the better!"

But as she came near she saw the measured tread of sentries to and fro.
She observed the spick-and-span tents, the uniforms and the shining
barrels of the muskets, which in another moment would have arrested her
headlong course.

Concha at once perceived, even without looking at the standard which
drooped at the tent door of the officer in command, that this could be
no mere headquarters of Carlist _partidas_.

As women are said by the Wise Man to be of their lover's religion if he
have one, and if he have none, never to miss it; so Concha was quite
ready to be of the politics which were most likely to deliver Rollo from
his present difficulties. Therefore, taking the red _boina_ from her
head, an act which disturbed still more the severe precision of her
locks, she dashed at full speed into the camp, cryin