t
no more than the hour of his quitting the house."

"The hour of the royal meeting was ten," rejoined the Sub-Prior; "he
was noted for regularity, and was not likely to have voluntarily
lingered so long, as not even to reach the Calle till one hour
afterwards."

"Not voluntarily; but we have heard that he appeared more suffering
than he was ever seen to do. His illness might have increased, and so
cause detention; and yet, on even partial recovery, we know him
well enough to believe he would still have endeavored to join his
Highness."

"He would; but there is evidence that when brought to the castle, he
had been dead at the very least three hours. Let Curador Benedicto
come forward."

A respectable man, dressed in black, and recognized at once as the
leech or doctor of the royal household, obeyed the summons, and on
being questioned, stated that he had examined the body the very moment
it had been conveyed to the castle, in the hope of discovering some
signs of animation, however faint. But life was totally extinct, and,
according to his judgment, had been so at the very least three hours."

"And what hour was this?"

"Just half-an-hour after midnight."

A brief silence followed the leech's dismissal; Ferdinand still seemed
perplexed and uneasy, and not one countenance, either of the nobles or
Associated Brethren, evinced satisfaction.

"Our task, instead of decreasing in difficulty, becomes more and more
complicated, my lords and brethren," observed the Sub-Prior, after
waiting for the chief of the Santa Hermandad to speak. "Had we any
positive proof, that Senor Stanley really slept from the hour of sunset
till eleven the same evening, and never quitted his quarters until then,
we might hope that the sentence of Curador Benedicto, as to the length
of time life had been extinct in his supposed victim, might weigh
strongly against the circumstantial chain of evidence brought against
him. Believing that the prisoner having slept from the hour of sunset to
eleven was a proven and witnessed fact, I undertook the defensive and
argued in his favor. The sounds heard by the girl Beta may or may not
have proceeded from the stealthy movements of the accused, and yet
justice forbids our passing them by unnoticed. The time of this movement
being heard, and that of the murder, according to the leech's evidence,
tally so exactly that we cannot doubt but the one had to do with the
other; but whether it were indeed the pri