fatigue. Antonia, like some drooping blossom, stretched her fair
form on the again burning sand, and slumbered under the protection of
her lover and her chosen brother. "Sleep also," said Heimbert softly
to Fadrique; "you must have wandered about wildly and wearily, for
exhaustion is pressing down your eyelids with leaden weight. I am
quite fresh, and I will watch meanwhile." "Ah, Heimbert," sighed the
noble Castilian, "my sister is thine, thou messenger from Heaven;
that is an understood thing. But now for our affair of honor!"
"Certainly," said Heimbert, very gravely, "as soon as we are again in
Spain, you must give me satisfaction for that over-hasty expression.
Till then, however, I beg you not to mention it. An unfinished
quarrel is no good subject for conversation."

Fadrique laid himself sadly down to rest, overcome by long-resisted
sleep, and Heimbert knelt down with a glad heart, thanking the good
God for having given him success, and for blessing, him with a future
full of joyful assurance.




CHAPTER XVI.



The next day the three travellers reached the edge of the desert, and
refreshed themselves for a week in an adjacent village, which, with
its shady trees and green pastures, seemed like a little paradise in
contrast to the joyless Sahara. Fadrique's condition especially made
this rest necessary. He had never left the desert during the whole