es the view of the lowlands, I saw her open her eyes. I rode just
behind her holding the little girl with my right arm. 'The child is all
right,' I cried encouragingly.

"'Yes,' she answered faintly; and then, to my intense terror, I saw her
stand up on the footrest, staring horribly, and throw herself forward
into the chasm on our right.

"I cannot describe to you the sudden and abject fear that came over me
at that dreadful sight. It was a dread of the abyss, the dread of the
crags which seemed to nod upon me. My head swam. I pressed the child to
my side and sat my horse as still as a statue. I was speechless and cold
all over. Her mule staggered, sidling close to the rock, and then went
on. My horse only pricked up his ears with a slight snort. My heart
stood still, and from the depths of the precipice the stones rattling in
the bed of the furious stream made me almost insane with their sound.

"Next moment we were round the turn and on a broad and grassy slope. And
then I yelled. My men came running back to me in great alarm. It seems
that at first I did nothing but shout, 'She has given the child into my
hands! She has given the child into my hands!' The escort thought I had
gone mad."

General Santierra ceased and got up from the table. "And that is all,
senores," he concluded, with a courteous glance at his rising guests.

"But what became of the child, General?" we asked.

"Ah, the child, the child."

He walked to one of the windows opening on his beautiful garden, the
refuge of his old days. Its fame was great in the land. Keeping us back
with a raised arm, he called out, "Erminia, Erminia!" and waited. Then
his cautioning arm dropped, and we crowded to the windows.

From a clump of trees a woman had come upon the broad walk bordered
with flowers. We could hear the rustle of her starched petticoats and
observed the ample spread of her old-fashioned black silk skirt. She
looked up, and seeing all these eyes staring at her, stopped, frowned,
smiled, shook her finger at the General, who was laughing boisterously,
and drawing the black lace on her head so as to partly conceal her
haughty profile, passed out of our sight, walking with stiff dignity.

"You have beheld the guardian angel of the old man--and her to whom
you owe all that is seemly and comfortable in my hospitality. Somehow,
senores, though the flame of love has been kindled early in my breast, I
have never married. And because of that perhaps t