ars!" and with that she went away and left me wondering.

CHAPTER X.

July, the 16th day.

Two things have happened recently to break the sad monotony of my life
within these walls.

Dona Orosia and Melinza have had a disagreement, which has resulted in
his removal hence--at his own demand. Although I know nothing of the
cause of their quarrel, Dona Orosia's last words to me, the other day,
make it possible to understand the man's reluctance to remain here in
her care,--and yet they say it was her nursing that saved his life! I
would that I could understand it all!

Since his departure I have had the freedom of the courtyard and garden;
and yesterday, by good chance, I had speech with one of the newly
arrived English prisoners.

It had been a day of terrible heat, and just at nightfall I wandered out
into the garden all alone. There is a high wall to it, which so joins
the dwelling that together they form a hollow square. This wall is of
soft gray stone; it is of a good thickness, and about a man's height.
Along the top of it sharp spikes are set; and near one corner is a
wrought-iron gate of great strength, which is kept securely locked.

It is not often that I venture near this gate, for it looks out upon the
street, and I care not to be seen by any Indian or half-breed Spaniard
who might go loitering by; but as I stood in the vine-covered arbour in
the centre of the garden I heard a man's voice from the direction of the
gate, humming a stave of a maritime air that I had heard sung oft and
again by the sailors on the sloop, in which some unknown fair one is
ardently invited to--

"--be the Captain's lady!"

and I knew it must be a friend. So I made haste thither and peered out
into the street.

Sure enough it was old Captain Baulk, and with him a gentleman whose
face, even in the twilight, was well known to me,--he being none other
than Mr. John Collins of Barbadoes (the same who had given us news of my
poor father's end, and one of our fellow passengers on the _Three
Brothers_).

They both greeted me most kindly and inquired earnestly how I did and if
I was well treated. It seems that for days they had been trying to get
speech with me, but could find none to deliver a message; so for two
nights past they had hung about the gate, hoping that by chance I might
come out to them.

Mr. Collins related to me how the sloop had been sent back to Santa
Catalina with letters to t