gay clothes--will stay with the carriage and accompany it along the road
towards Burgos, as far as it goes. A better decoy than he cannot be
imagined, and besides he is nimble and an excellent horseman. Give him
your own steed, the white Andalusian. If the blood-hounds should
overtake him...."

Here Moor interrupted the baron, saying gravely and firmly: "My grey head
will be too dearly purchased at the cost of this young life. Change this
part of your plan, I entreat you."

"Impossible!" exclaimed the Sicilian. "We have few hours at our
command, and if they don't follow him, they will pursue us, and you will
be lost."

"Yet...." Moor began; but Sophonisba, scarcely able to command her
voice, interrupted: "He owes everything to--you. I know him. Where is
he?"

"Let us maintain our self-control!" cried the Netherlander. "I do not
rely upon the king's mercy, but perhaps in the decisive hour, he will
remember what we have been to each other; if Ulrich, on the contrary,
robs the irritated lion of his prey and is seized...."

"My sister shall watch over him," said the baron but Sophonisba tore open
the door, rushed into the studio, and called as loudly as she could:
"Ulrich, Ulrich! Ulrich!"

The men followed her, but scarcely had they crossed the threshold, when
they heard her rap violently at the door of the school-room, and Ulrich
asking: "What is it?"