novices is so great, that one of them cannot well be missed."

"So much, then, for your part of the enterprise. Now for mine. You know
that solitary house in the suburbs, on the high road to Fuencarral, which
I pointed out to you yesterday? Well, the owner is a creature of mine.
There, horses shall be in waiting; there, disguises shall be prepared.
Beatriz must necessarily divest herself of the professional dress; you
had better choose meaner garments for yourself. Drop those hidalgo
titles of which your father is so proud, and pass off yourself and the
novice as a notary and his wife, about to visit France on a lawsuit of
inheritance. One of my secretaries shall provide you with a pass.
Meanwhile, to-morrow, I shall be the first officially to hear of the
flight of the novice, and I will set the pursuers on a wrong scent. Have
I not arranged all things properly, my Fonseca?"

"You are our guardian angel!" cried Don Martin, fervently. "The prayers
of Beatriz will be registered in your behalf above--prayers that will
reach the Great Throne as easily from the open valleys of France as in
the gloomy cloisters of Madrid. At midnight, to-morrow, then, we seek
the house you have described to us."

"Ay, at midnight, all shall be prepared."

With a light step and exulting heart, Fonseca turned from the, palace of
Calderon. Naturally sanguine and high-spirited, visions of hope and joy
floated before his eyes, and the future seemed to him a land owning but
the twin deities of Glory and Love.

He had reached about the centre of the streets in which Calderon's abode
was placed, when six men, who for some moments had been watching him from