e this
precious gage; look, it is the portrait of our Queen, given by her own
royal hands, when fortune favoured my exertions in the last tournament.
The bearer of this gift is entitled to claim any boon from Isabella.
Dispatch--present her with this beauteous copy of herself. Reclaim the
promise--demand the life of Gomez Arias--it will be granted."

"Merciful heavens!" cried Theodora, overpowered with emotion, "Can it be
possible!" Then falling at the feet of young de
Leyva--"Generous--generous Don Antonio; is this the way that you repay
an injury?"

"I might," replied Don Antonio nobly, "satisfy the cravings of a paltry
revenge, by leaving my rival to perish ignominiously, when I have it in
my power to save him. But no; my heart shudders at such reprisals, and
finds joy in contributing to the happiness of Theodora."

Struck with admiration at such noble and manly conduct, Theodora seized
the hand of the high-minded Don Antonio, and would have imprinted on it
a thousand kisses of gratitude, but he modestly prevented her, urging
her to depart.

"My dear Theodora, begone; you have no time to lose. Think that the
least delay may perhaps prove fatal."

These words acted like magic on the mind of Theodora. The thought of her
husband's danger absorbed every other consideration. She rushed with
impetuous alacrity towards the palace, pressing with convulsive firmness
the valuable pledge on which all her hopes depended. Upon her arrival at
the entrance, the guards, struck with the wildness of her manner, and
sympathising with her misfortunes, expeditiously opened a passage, as
she exclaimed almost incoherently, that she must see the queen.

Meantime the Plaza de Bivarrambla was thronged with a vast multitude,
for the novelty and exemplary justice of such an execution had thrown
the people into a ferment. It was long since a nobleman had suffered
thus, and no instance occurred to their recollection of a conqueror
stepping from the car of victory to the platform of a scaffold.

All lamented the fate of Gomez Arias, and yet most of the lower classes,
amidst the feelings of pity, experienced a kind of satisfaction at the
idea that so great a personage was doomed to suffer, as well as the
meanest of their own class. In the middle of the Plaza rose a high
scaffold, covered with costly black velvet, and most of the houses
around were likewise draperied with mourning symbols of the sorrow of
their owners. A strong body of veter