he curate under his dais. The car of the Virgin was preceded
by men dressed as phantoms, to the great terror of the children;
the women wore habits like those of religious orders. In the midst of
this obscure mass of robes and cowls and cordons one saw, like dainty
jasmines, like fresh sampages amid old rags, twelve little girls in
white, their hair free. Their eyes shone like their necklaces. One
might have thought them little genii of the light taken prisoner by
spectres. By two wide blue ribbons they were attached to the car of
the Virgin, like the doves which draw the car of Spring.

At the gobernadorcillo's the procession stopped, all the images and
their attendants were drawn up around the platform, and all eyes were
fixed on the half-open curtain. At length it parted, and a young man
appeared, winged, booted like a cavalier, with sash and belt and plumed
hat, and in Latin, Castilian, and Tagal recited a poem as extraordinary
as his attire. The verses ended, St. John pursued his bitter way.

At the moment when the figure of the Virgin passed the house of Captain
Tiago, a celestial song greeted it. It was a voice, sweet and tender,
almost weeping out the Gounod "Ave Maria." The music of the procession
died away, the prayers ceased. Father Salvi himself stood still. The
voice trembled; it drew tears; it was more than a salutation: it was
a supplication and a complaint.

Ibarra heard, and fear and darkness entered his heart. He felt the
suffering in the voice and dared not ask himself whence it came.

The captain-general was speaking to him.

"I should like your company at table. We will talk to those children
who have disappeared," he said.

Crisostomo, looking at the general without seeing him, asked himself
under his breath: "Can I be the cause?" And he followed the governor
mechanically.

XXXIII.

DONA CONSOLACION.

Why were the windows of the house of the alferez not only without
lanterns, but shuttered? Where, when the procession passed, were the
masculine head with its great veins and purple lips, the flannel shirt,
and the big cigar of the "Muse of the Municipal Guard"?

The house was sad, as Sinang said, because the people were gay. Had
not a sentinel paced as usual before the door one might have thought
the place uninhabited.

A feeble light showed the disorder of the room, where the alfereza
was sitting, and pierced the dusty and spider-webbed conches of the
windows. The dame, accor