der?'" he demanded--a
question which would be strange, indeed, in the court of justice of
the present day, but of importance in an age when such words as blood
and vengeance, amongst warriors, simply signified a determination to
fight out their quarrel in (so-called) honorable combat. The answer,
after some hesitation, was in the negative. "Did you ever distinguish
any name, as the object of Senor Stanley's desired vengeance?"

Pedro immediately answered "No;" but there was a simper of hesitation
in old Juana, that caused the Sub-Prior to appeal to her. "Please your
Reverence, I only chanced to hear the poor young man say, 'Oh, Marie!
Marie!' one day when I brought him his dinner, which he put away
untouched, though I put my best cooking in it."

A slight, scarcely perceptible flush passed over the prisoner's cheek
and brow. The King muttered an exclamation; Father Francis's brow
contracted, and several of the nobles looked uneasily from one to the
other.

"At what time did the prisoner leave his apartments the night of the
murder?" continued the Sub-Prior.

"Exactly as the great bell of the cathedral chimed eleven," was the
ready reply from Pedro and Juana at the same moment.

"Did you hear nothing but his hasty movements, as you describe? Did he
not call for attendance, or a light? Remember, you are on oath," he
continued sternly, as he observed the hesitation with which old Pedro
muttered "No;" and that Juana was silent. "The church punishes false
swearers. Did he speak or not?"

"He called for a light, please your Reverence, but--"

"But you did not choose to obey at an hour so late!" sternly responded
Father Francis; "and by such neglect may be guilty of accelerating the
death of the innocent, and concealing the real murderer! You allege
that Senor Stanley returned from some military duty at sunset, and
slept from then till just before eleven, so soundly that you could not
rouse him even for his evening meal. This was strange for a man with
murder in his thoughts! Again, that he called for a light, which,
you neglected to bring; and Senor Stanley asserts that he missed his
sword, but rushed from the house without it. Your culpable neglect,
then, prevents our discovering the truth of this assertion; yet you
acknowledge he called loudly for light; this appears too unlikely
to have been the case, had the prisoner quitted the house with the
intention to do murder."

"Intention at that moment he might not have