of listeners, might well endanger the necks of the daring
representatives of the Caliph and his courtiers; but nevertheless,
without allowing themselves to be discomposed by the vicinity of spies,
the Moslems had played out their parts, and the Caliph now rose from his
ottoman with all the dignity of an eastern despot, repeating, as he did
so, to his attendants, what great things he would do, and how he would
stitch with his own hands a twelfth under petticoat for the mother of
the Prophet. The procession had nearly reached the door by which it had
entered, when one of the young Mexicans, recovering apparently from the
state of inaction in which this extraordinary scene had plunged him and
his companions, suddenly sprang forward, gazed earnestly in the face of
the Caliph, and then started back again with a cry of horror.

"_Por el amor de Dios! Fernando el Rey!_ 'Tis his majesty, King
Ferdinand!" cried the young nobleman. "Stop, traitor!" he exclaimed,
again advancing and endeavouring to seize the Caliph. But even in this
moment of peril, the latter did not forget his assumed dignity. With a
look of the most profound contempt he strode out of the apartment, while
the gigantic mollah, seizing the Creole by the collar, raised him from
the ground like a feather, and hurling him back into the room, followed
the Commander of the Faithful, and shut the door.

Before the Mexican cavaliers had recovered from their alarm at the
daring and treasonable dramatic satire of which they had so unwittingly
been made spectators, the other doors were thrown violently open, and
several alguazils burst into the apartment. After a hurried glance round
the room, perceiving that the objects of their search had disappeared,
they darted out again at the opposite door, and hastened through the
adjacent saloons, uttering loud curses and cries of treason. This
furious but fruitless chase led them through the whole suite of
apartments, till they came round again to the room where the young
noblemen were still assembled.

"_Todos diabolos!_" cried one of the police agents, running to the
window, "yonder go the villains, they have escaped us this
time.--Demonio!" vociferated he, with a fury that made the foam fly from
his lips.

"And so, Caballeros!" snarled he to the Creoles, who now stood in
trembling alarm, and fully enlightened by the rage of the alguazils as
to the enormity of the treasonable pasquinade they had witnessed; "so
you have been p