f the garden, and take refuge in
the next house. I will still watch over you."

Landon obeyed, and made his escape from the governor's garden just as
Don Rodrigo was entering his court yard. He crossed another small
garden, and entered a small house at the extremity, the door of which
was unbarred, and again found refuge in a room on the first floor,
where he concealed himself behind a screen.

He had not been here long before he heard footsteps entering the room,
and the voices of two persons in conversation, one of whom was
evidently a female, and the other an old man.

"Dear father!" said the female, "I am rejoiced to see that you are
returned. You never go forth in this city that you do not leave me
trembling for your safety."

"I have passed through much peril, Miriam," replied the man. "Snares
and violence have beset my path. I went to carry the gold and the
silver I had promised to Jacob, the goldsmith, when, lo! I was beset
by the ungodly rabble."

"Dear father!"

"Yea! and they dragged me to their place of skulls--even to their
accursed Golgotha, where the blood of mine only brother was drunken by
the ravening flames, and where thirty of our brethren perished because
they believed in the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob."

"And did they force you to witness the _auto da fe_?"

"They brought me to the place, Miriam--but there the spirit of
prophecy descended upon me, and I lifted up my voice and denounced
their abominations, even as the prophet of old did the iniquities of
the Egyptian king. And lo! Miriam, there was a miracle wrought. The
voice of Heaven spake in thunder to rebuke their impious
bloodthirstiness. The floodgates of heaven were opened, and the rain
descended in mighty torrents, and quenched the Moloch fires kindled by
the Christians. And a great wind arose, and the scaffold was
destroyed, and the goodly youth that stood thereupon was saved from
the death of fire as the multitude were scattered."

"And lives he, father?"

"I fear not," answered the old man, sadly. "For if he were not crushed
by the falling scaffold, yet verily the cruel swords of the troopers
and the men-at-arms must have sought out his young life."

At this moment, Landon stepped from his concealment.

"No, my friends," said he, "I yet live to thank Heaven for its
providential care. I have even found a friend in the household of my
bitter enemy, for Donna Florinda d'Almonte sheltered me, and commended
me