mantle, stood before a small door deep-set in a massive and gloomy wall,
that stretched along one side of a shunned and deserted street. Without
sign of living hand, the door opened at his knock, and the governor
entered a long and narrow passage that conducted to chambers more
associated with images of awe than any in his own prison. Here he
suddenly encountered the Jesuit, Fray Louis de Aliaga, confessor to the
king.

"How fares the Grand Inquisitor?" asked De la Nuza. "He has just
breathed his last," answered the Jesuit. "His illness--so
sudden--defied all aid. Sandoval y Roxas is with the saints."

The governor, who was, as the reader may suppose, one of the sacred body,
crossed himself, and answered.--"With whom will rest the appointment of
the successor? Who will be first to gain the ear of the king?"

"I know not," replied the Jesuit; "but I am at this instant summoned to
Uzeda. Pardon my haste."

So saying, Aliaga glided away.

"With Sandoval y Roxas," muttered Don Juan, "dies the last protector of
Calderon and Lerma: unless, indeed, the wily marquis can persuade the
king to make Aliaga, his friend, the late cardinal's successor. But
Aliaga seeks Uzeda--Uzeda his foe and rival. What can this portend?"

Thus soliloquising, the governor silently continued his way till he came
to a door by which stood two men, masked, who saluted him with a mute
inclination of the head. The door opened and again closed, as the
governor entered. Meanwhile, the confessor had gained the palace of the