the gipsy; "but before we were half-way to
Onate, we were met by a courier with despatches for the Senor Conde, who
immediately turned bridle, and ordered the escort to do the same. It was
past midnight when we again reached Segura; and, not to cause alarm, we
marched round the town, and continued our route without stopping.

"And your errand now?" exclaimed Rita. The gipsy seemed to hesitate
before replying.

"The Senor Conde is wounded," said he, at last.

"Wounded!" repeated Rita, in the shrill accents of alarm. "You are not
telling truth--they have killed him! Oh, tell me all! Say, is my father
still alive?"

And, clasping her hands together, she seemed about to throw herself at
the feet of Jaime, whilst her anxious glance strove to read the truth
upon his countenance. It was a strange contrast presented by that lovely
and elegant creature and the squalid, tawny gipsy; an angel
supplicating some evil spirit, into whose power she had temporarily
fallen, might so have looked.

"The Senor Conde's wound is severe," said Jaime. "On his way yesterday
afternoon to attend a meeting of the Navarrese Junta in the valley of
Lanz, he fell in with a party of Christino cavalry, and, although his
escort repulsed them, he himself received a hurt in the skirmish."

"My father wounded and suffering!" exclaimed Rita in extreme agitation,
passing her hand over her forehead in the manner of one bewildered by
some stunning and terrible intelligence. "I will go to him instantly.
Quick, Paco, the mules! Micaela, my mantilla! We must set out at once."

The servants hurried away to obey the orders of their mistress, and
prepare for instant departure, and the gipsy was about to follow, when
Rita detained him, and overwhelmed him with questions concerning her
father's state, to all of which Jaime replied in a manner that somewhat
tranquillized her alarm, although it produced no change in her
resolution to set off immediately to join him. This, indeed, the
esquilador informed her, was her father's wish, as he found that he
should be detained some time in his present quarters by the consequences
of his wound.

Although all haste was used in the necessary preparations, the sun was
close to the horizon before Rita and her attendants left Segura, and
took the road to Lecumberri, at about two leagues from which, as Jaime
told them, and in the heart of the sierra, was situated the convent that
was their destination. The distance was not grea