ndscape, and presently she
had vanished altogether.

"Gallop as you will, Mare, I shall catch you yet," screamed Black Meg
after her. "And you too, my pretty little liar, who have cheated me out
of a dozen florins. Wait till you are up before the Inquisition as a
heretic--for that's where you'll end. No fine Spanish lover will save
you then. So you have gone to the Spanish, have you, and thrown over
your fat-faced burgher; well, you will have enough of Spaniards before
you have done with them, I can tell you."

Twice had Montalvo tried to stop this flood of furious eloquence, which
had become personal and might prove prejudicial to his interests, but
without avail. Now he adopted other measures.

"Seize her," he shouted to two of the soldiers; "that's it; now hold her
under water in that hole till I tell you to let her up again."

They obeyed, but it took all three of them to carry out the order, for
Black Meg fought and bit like a wild cat, until at last she was thrust
into the icy moat head downwards. When at length she was released,
soaked and shivering, she crept off silently enough, but the look of
fury which she cast at Montalvo and Lysbeth drew from the captain a
remark that perhaps it would have been as well to have kept her under
water two minutes longer.

"Now, sergeant," he added, in a genial voice, "it is a cold night,
and this has been a troublesome business for a feast-day, so here's
something for you and your watch to warm yourselves with when you go off
duty," and he handed him what in those days was a very handsome present.
"By the way," he said, as the men saluted him gratefully, "perhaps you
will do me a favour. It is only to take this black horse of mine to his
stable and harness that grey trooper nag to the sledge instead, as I
wish to go the round of the moat, and my beast is tired."

Again the men saluted and set to work to change the horses, whereon
Lysbeth, guessing her cavalier's purpose, turned as though to fly away,
for her skates were still upon her feet. But he was watching.

"Senora," he said in a quiet voice, "I think that you gave me the
promise of your company for the rest of this evening, and I am certain,"
he added with a slight bow, "that you are a lady whom nothing would
induce to tell an untruth. Had I not been sure of that I should scarcely
have accepted your evidence so readily just now."

Lysbeth winced visibly. "I thought, Senor, that you were going to return
to the fe