and vapored about the bastions, and looked down fire and
sword upon the palace of the captain-general. Having vented the first
ebullition of his wrath, he dispatched a message demanding the surrender
of the corporal, as to him alone belonged the right of sitting in
judgment on the offenses of those under his command. The
captain-general, aided by the pen of the delighted Escribano, replied at
great length, arguing that as the offense had been committed within the
walls of his city, and against one of his civil officers, it was clearly
within his proper jurisdiction. The governor rejoined by a repetition of
his demand; the captain-general gave a surrejoinder of still greater
length, and legal acumen; the governor became hotter and more peremptory
in his demands, and the captain-general cooler and more copious in his
replies; until the old lion-hearted soldier absolutely roared with fury
at being thus entangled in the meshes of legal controversy.

While the subtle Escribano was thus amusing himself at the expense of
the governor, he was conducting the trial of the corporal; who, mewed up
in a narrow dungeon of the prison, had merely a small grated window at
which to show his iron-bound visage, and receive the consolations of his
friends; a mountain of written testimony was diligently heaped up,
according to Spanish form, by the indefatigable Escribano; the corporal
was completely overwhelmed by it. He was convicted of murder, and
sentenced to be hanged.

It was in vain the governor sent down remonstrance and menace from the
Alhambra. The fatal day was at hand, and the corporal was put _in
capilla_, that is to say, in the chapel of the prison; as is always done
with culprits the day before execution, that they may meditate on their
approaching end and repent them of their sins.

Seeing things drawing to an extremity, the old governor determined to
attend to the affair in person. He ordered out his carriage of state
and, surrounded by his guards, rumbled down the avenue of the Alhambra
into the city. Driving to the house of the Escribano, he summoned him to
the portal.

The eye of the old governor gleamed like a coal at beholding the
smirking man of the law advancing with an air of exultation.

[Illustration: THE NOTARY ENTERS THE CARRIAGE]

"What is this I hear," cried he, "that you are about to put to death one
of my soldiers?"

"All according to law--all in strict form of justice," said the
self-sufficient Escri