end of the Cause that your
command was in the neighbourhood!"

"And from whom did you receive that intelligence? I thought the fact was
pretty well concealed? Indeed, we only arrived an hour ago!"

Concha cast about for a name. The necessary fiction was also, of course,
"for Rollo's sake." A thought struck her. She would serve another
comrade, as it were, _en passant_.

"From a good friend in the Carlist ranks," she said, "one Sergeant
Cardono!"

The General looked a little nonplussed, for, like many generals of all
nationalities, he had no slight _penchant_ for omniscience.

"I never heard of him," he said sharply. "Who may he be?"

Concha leaned yet closer and laid a small, soft, brown hand gently upon
the General's gold-embroidered cuff. The General, not being so simple as
he looked, drew back his arm a little so that the hand rested a moment
on his wrist ("for Rollo's sake") before it was gently withdrawn.

"You have heard of Jose Maria of Ronda?" she whispered.

The General's face lighted up, and as swiftly dulled down.

"Certainly; what Andalucian has not?" he said. "But Jose Maria is dead.
He was executed at Salamanca!"

"Ah," said Concha, "that tale was for the consumption of Don Carlos and
his friends! In fact, he is the best spy we Nationals ever had--aye, or
ever will have!"

"Ah!" said Espartero, lost in thought. There were some matters which
seemed to need clearing up, but on the whole the thing looked probable.

Espartero had but recently been appointed to the district, and, being an
Andalucian, he was naturally still imperfectly acquainted with much that
had been done by his many incapable predecessors. Now, it is true that
on this occasion our Concha was inventing or rather (for the word is a
hard one to use of so charming a personality) restating as facts certain
hints which had fallen from the lips of La Giralda. But she was also
speaking from a profound knowledge of gipsy nature, which, as in the
case of Ezquerra and La Giralda herself, never attaches itself
permanently or from conviction to any cause, but uses all equally
according to whim, liking, or self-interest.

Concha, in a whirlwind of excitement, would have liked the General to
attack the Carlist camp immediately, but the more cautious Don Baldomero
only shook his head.

"That is all very well when a small force is to be rushed at any cost,"
he said, "or a strong position taken along lines previously studied by
daylight or op