refused his assistance to a man, however hard pressed.

'Cannot leave the girl in a hole,' he said to himself, and proceeded
to act upon this resolution with a steadiness of purpose for which
some may blame him.

It was evening when the two travellers reached Xeres after some
weary hours of monotonous progress through the vine-clad plains of
this country.

'It is no wonder,' said Concepcion, 'that the men of Xeres are
malcontents, when they live in a country as flat as the palm of my
hand.'

It happened to be a fete day, which in Spain, as in other countries
farther North, is synonymous with mischief. The men of Xeres had
taken advantage of this holiday to demonstrate their desire for
more. They had marched through the streets with banner and song,
arrayed in their best clothes, fostering their worst thoughts. They
had consumed marvellous quantities of that small Amontillado which
is as it were a thin fire to the blood, heating and degenerating at
once. They had talked much nonsense and listened to more. Carlist
or Christino--it was all the same to them, so long as they had a
change of some sort. In the meantime they had a desire to break
something, if only to assert their liberty.

A few minutes before Conyngham and his guide rode into the market-
place, which in Xeres is as long as a street, some of the free sons
of Spain had thought fit to shout insulting remarks to a passer-by.
With a fire too bright for his years this old gentleman, with fierce