The prince started and turned hastily away. The officer lost all favour
from that hour, and never learned his offence.

Meanwhile months passed, and Calderon still languished in his dungeon.
At last the Inquisition opened against him its dark register of
accusations. First of these charges was that of sorcery, practised on
the king; the rest were for the most part equally grotesque and
extravagant. These accusations Calderon met with a dignity which
confounded his foes, and belied the popular belief in the elements of
his character. Submitted to the rack, he bore its tortures without a
groan; and all historians have accorded concurrent testimony to the
patience and heroism which characterised the close of his wild and
meteoric career. At length Philip the Third died: the Infant ascended
the throne; that prince, for whom the ambitious courtier had perilled
alike life and soul! The people now believed that they should be
defrauded of their victim. They were mistaken. The new king, by this
time, had forgotten even the existence of the favourite of the prince.
But Guzman, who, while affecting to minister to the interests of Uzeda,
was secretly aiming at the monopoly of the royal favour, felt himself
insecure while Calderon yet lived. The operations of the Inquisition
were too slow for the impatience of his fears; and as that dread tribunal
affected never to inflict death until the accused had confessed his
guilt, the firmness of Calderon baffled the vengeance of the
ecclesiastical law. New inquiries were set on foot: a corpse was
discovered, buried in Calderon's garden--the corpse of a female. He was
accused of the murder. Upon that charge he was transferred from the
Inquisition to the regular courts of justice. No evidence could be
produced against him; but, to the astonishment of all, he made no
defence, and his silence was held the witness of his crime. He was