be done."

"Nothing, unless the prison door open by sunset!"

"Stay, a thought strikes me. The term of your imprisonment ceases when
you relinquish the hope of Beatriz. But what if the duke could believe
that Beatriz relinquished you? What, for instance, if she fled from the
convent, as you proposed, and we could persuade the duke that it was with
another?"

"Ah! be silent!"

"Nay, what advantages in this scheme--what safety! If she fly alone,
or, as supposed, with another lover, the duke will have no interest in
pursuit, in punishment. She is not of that birth that the state will
take the trouble, very actively, to interfere: she may reach France in
safety; ay, a thousand times more safely than if she fled with you, a
hidalgo and a man of rank, whom the state would have an interest to
reclaim, and to whom the Inquisition, hating the nobles, would impute the
crime of sacrilege. It is an excellent thought! Your imprisonment may
be the salvation of you both: your plan may succeed still better without
your intervention; and, after a few days, the duke, believing that your
resentment must necessarily replace your love, will order your release;
you can join Beatriz on the frontier, and escape with her to France."

"But," said Fonseca, struck, but not convinced, by the suggestion of
Calderon, "who will take my place with Beatriz? who penetrate into the
gardens? who bear her from the convent?"

"That, for your sake, will I do. Perhaps," added Calderon, smiling, "a