s rewarded; it suddenly flew open! she had at last
touched the hidden spring, and here, in her own room, as she had
suspected, was Dona Isabel's secret passage! Greatly was she tempted to
explore the dark and narrow way, and to descend the stairs she saw
through the gloom; but prudence prevailed, and she comforted herself
with the thought that she had made discoveries enough for one day.

Another awaited her, however: she had scarcely closed the panel and
replaced the tapestry, when there was a knock at the door; it was Maria
bringing in wood and water. Poor Maria appeared to be the general drudge
of the house, and her slender, delicate frame was borne down with labor.
Clara's bright and cheerful kindness had quite gained the young girl's
heart, unused as she was to aught but harshness and reprimand. Her soul
expanded, and her silent lips were opened under the genial influence--it
was like the sun shining upon the little flower, shut up against the
chilling dews of night, but spontaneously opening under his joyful
beams. She told her her history: she was the only grandchild of the
former castellan, the faithful servant of the house, so beloved by Don
Alonzo: at his death she was a little child, and had ever spent her life
in the service of his successor. When very young, she had met with
kindness from the other servants; but they were soon dismissed, and for
years there had been none in the castle but those she now saw--the
castellan and his wife, the half-witted Sebastiano, and herself. But she
said that occasionally Senor Baptista had company--and she shuddered as
she said it--ferocious-looking men, armed to the teeth, and generally
wearing masks. She always kept out of the way when they were about; but
one thing she knew, that they did not enter nor depart by the gate of
the castle, and that Senor Baptista must have some other way of
admitting them. "Do you think they can be the banditti they talk of?"
"I do not doubt it, and I have so longed to get away from this wicked
place, that I often lie awake at night thinking about it. They would
kill me if they thought I had betrayed them;--will you protect me?"
"[**missing words**] my poor Maria: and so you are the old castellan's
grandchild! I remember hearing my father say that he yearly transmitted
to Baptista a handsome annuity for this poor orphan: of course you never
got any portion of it?" "Not a single quarto: but now I must go, I
should be missed; a Dios, senorita