opposed to him. He is retrograde; the Spain of to-day is and must be
progressive. The nation is uneasy; it hates despotic government and the
inquisition; it ferments from north to south, from Portugal to the
Mediterranean; but that fermentation would lack a rallying point without
the decree which commands all to cling to Christina and her children,
and repel the Infante. The partisans of Carlos have striven to obtain by
craft what they could not hope to conquer by the strong hand, and they
have succeeded in making a dying monarch revoke in a moment of delirium
or imbecility that all-important act. The revocation is in the hands of
the Infante; the Salic law is once more the law of the land, and
Christina's children are in their turn disinherited. And if it is
impossible to restore the king to consciousness, I fear----"

"What?" cried the Marquis of Santa Cruz.

"That we are on the eve of a great revolution."

"Hush!" said the Duke of San Lorenzo, looking anxiously around him.
"These are dangerous words, my friend." And his eye fell upon the
handsome countenance of Martinez de la Rosa, who smiled thoughtfully.

"Call it reform, Cambronero," he said; "wise progress of the times,
moderate, cautious, adapted to the circumstances; not rash, reckless,
sweeping revolution."

The lawyer cast a keen glance at the former minister of the Cortes.

"Reform!" he cried. "Ay, certainly; but what reform? Does Senor de la
Rosa mean such reform as he helped to bring about? I bid him beware:
these are no times for trifling. Here we stand, but a few paces from the
death-bed of a powerful prince. He fettered this revolution or reform;
but, Senores, it was only for a while and in appearance. Like the mole,
it has laboured and advanced, surely and unseen. Happy for our king if
he expires before the vanity of his efforts, and the inutility of the
bloodshed and misery they have occasioned, are demonstrated; before he
learns that a principle never dies, though all the artillery of the
world be brought to bear upon it. History judges the dead; nations judge
the living. Let us so act that we may stand with honour before both
tribunals."

"The subject leads us too far," said the poet and minister, rising from
his chair and glancing at Federico, who, struck and delighted by
Cambronero's words, gazed at him with expanded brow and flashing eyes.
"Let us beware of kindling fanaticism: coolness and prudence are
becoming to men, and, God knows, we