quarrelling. It was easy to see what they were
quarrelling about. An old gentleman and a lovely young girl were bound
to a tree close by, and by the tree stood a fine carriage.

"They are brigands," said Alfonso, when he returned, "who have captured
a nobleman and his daughter, I think. Let us attack them. In order, no
doubt, to prevent their quarrelling turning into a deadly affray, they
have piled all their arms in a heap some yards away from the fire. So
they cannot make much of a fight."

And they did not. We quietly surrounded them, and shot them down before
they were able to move. Don Alfonso and I then set free the captives,
while Raphael and Lamela rifled the pockets of the dead robbers.

"I am the Count of Polan, and this is my daughter Seraphina," said the
old gentleman. "If you will help me to get my carriage ready, I will
drive back to an inn which we passed before entering the forest."

When we came to the inn, the count begged us all to stay with him.
Raphael and Lamela, however, were afraid that the police would track
them out; Don Alfonso, who had been talking very earnestly to Seraphina,
was, for some strange reason, also unwilling to remain; so I fell in
with their views.

"Why didn't you stay?" I said to Don Alfonso.

"I was afraid the count would recognise me, as Seraphina has done," he
said. "I killed his son in a duel, just when I was trying to win
Seraphina's love. Heaven grant that the service I have now rendered will
make him inclined to forgive me."

The day was breaking when we reached the mountains around Requena. There
we hid till nightfall, and then we made our way in the darkness to the
town of Xeloa. We found a quiet, shady retreat beside a woodland stream,
and there we stayed, while Lamela went into the town to buy provisions.
He did not return until evening. He brought back some extraordinary
things.

He opened a great bundle containing a long black mantle and robe,
another costume, a roll of parchment, a quill, and a great seal in green
wax.

"Do you remember the trick you played on Camilla?" he said to me. "I
have a better scheme than that. Listen. As I was buying some provisions
at a cook-shop, a man entered in a great rage and began abusing a
certain Samuel Simon, a converted Jew and a cruel usurer. He had ruined
many merchants at Xeloa, and all the towns-people would like to see him
ruined in turn. Then, my dear Gil Blas, I remembered your clever trick,
and brought these