ghed. It was the whole fabric of hate and passions which
quivered and crashed and flattened in a chaos of dust before his wildly
staring eyes.

"You mean, senor, you mean you do not want--as well, as _I!_--to
bring to his end this libertine, this thief of girlhood, this prince who
scatters death, who scatters shame, this--this----"

"Man alive, you're screaming! Stop it!"

With his nails the old man combed the froth from his lips.

"But you too have cause," he cried, "cause not so heavy, but cause
enough, as well as I! There was my daughter, my little girl! With you
there is that French wo----"

He stopped, for he thought he heard the sharp click of teeth. But
Driscoll was only grave.

"Well, go on," he said. "But--speak for your daughter only."

"I can't go on. I won't go on," Murguia burst out desperately, and flung
up his arms. "If you don't understand already, then I can't make you.
It's useless. A book? You're a stone! But any other, who had a heart for
suffering, in your place would----"

"Oh shut up, Murgie!" cried Driscoll wearily, but in something akin to
supplication.

With the serpent's wisdom, the tempter struck no more on that side. His
fangs were not for the blighted lover. What, though, of the soldier?

"No one doubts, senor," he whined unctuously, "that Your Mercy is loyal
to the Republic. So it cannot be that Y'r Mercy knows----"

"See here, Murgie, I'm getting sleepy. But I'll find you a comfortable
tent, with plenty to eat, and a polite guard----"

"Senor," stormed the old man, "I tell you you don't know what this means
to the Republic. Maximilian will escape, no matter the cost. At daybreak
there is to be a concentrated attack on some point in your lines; but
where, nobody knows except Miramon. Then Maximilian will cut through
with the cavalry. The infantry will follow, if it can. And after them,
the artillery. You Republicans may not even know it until too late,
because meantime you will be fighting the townspeople, thinking you are
fighting the whole army."

Driscoll roused himself suddenly. "The townspeople?"

"Si senor, they are to be a decoy. Some volunteered, the rest were
drafted. They have been armed, but they are only to be killed, they are
only to draw the Republican strength, while the Emperor and the army
escape."

Driscoll sprang from his seat, in an agitation that was Murguia's first
hope.

"Do you mean to tell me," he demanded, "that this Maximilian who makes
speec