t, do murder, and feign sleep during Pedro Benito's
brief interval of absence."

"We will grant that so it may be, Reverend Father, but what proof have
we that the murder had not been just committed when the body and the
assassin were discovered?"

Father Francis replied, by commanding the appearance of Don
Ferdinand's steward, and after the customary formula, inquired what
hour his late lamented master had quitted his mansion the night of the
murder. The man replied, without hesitation, "Exactly as the chimes
played the quarter before nine."

"But was not that unusually early? The hour of meeting at the castle
was ten, and the distance from Don Ferdinand's mansion not twenty
minutes' ride, and scarce forty minutes' walk. Are you perfectly
certain as to the hour?"

"I can take my oath upon it, your Reverence, and Lopez will say the
same. Our sainted master (Jesu rest his soul!) called to him a few
minutes before he entered my lady's room, and told him not to get his
horse ready, as he should walk to the castle. Lopez asked as to who
should attend him, and his reply was he would go alone. He had done so
before, and so we were not surprised; but we were grieved at his look,
for it seemed of suffering, unlike himself, and were noticing it to
each other as he passed us, after quitting my lady, and so quickly and
so absorbed, that he did not return our salutation, which he never in
all his life neglected to do before. My poor, poor master! little did
we think we should never see him again!" And the man's unconstrained
burst of grief excited anew the indignation of the spectators against
the crime, till then almost forgotten, in the intense interest as
to the fate of the accused. Lopez was called, and corroborated the
steward's account exactly.

"If he left his house at a quarter before nine, at what hour, think
you, he would reach the Calle Soledad?"

From ten to fifteen minutes past the hour, your Reverence, unless
detained by calling elsewhere on his way."

"Did he mention any intention of so doing?" The answer was in the
negative. "According to this account, then, the murder must have taken
place between nine and ten; and Senor Stanley was not heard to quit
his apartment till eleven. This would corroborate his own assertion,
that the deed was committed ere he reached the spot."

"But what proof have we that Don Ferdinand was not detained on his
way?" replied the chief of the Santa Hermandad. "His domestics asser