ou travelled it?" inquired Jaime.

"Only last autumn," was the reply, "and then for the twentieth time."

"Well," said the esquilador, "it may be the shortest; but if you had
ridden along it this morning, as I did, you would hardly call it the
best. The winter rains have washed away the path, and left the bare
rocks so slippery and uneven, that I could scarcely get my horse over
them in daylight, and by night I should make sure of breaking his legs
and my own neck."

"I know nothing of this convent you are taking us to," said Paco, in a
sulky tone; "but if it stands, as you tell me, to the north of
Lecumberri, this road will lengthen our journey an hour or more."

"Scarcely so much," said Jaime. "At any rate," added he doggedly, "it is
I who answer to the Count for the Senora's safety, and I shall therefore
take the road I think best."

Paco was about to make an angry reply, but Rita interfered, and the
discussion terminated in the gipsy having his own way. Three minutes
later Don Baltasar arrived at the division of the roads, paused,
listened, and heard the faint echo of the horses' hoofs upon the right
hand path. With an exclamation of satisfaction, he struck his spurs into
the flanks of his steed, and at as rapid a pace as the uneven ground
would permit, ascended the contrary road, the shortest, and, as Paco had
truly asserted, by far the best to the convent whither Rita de
Villabuena was proceeding.

Over rocks and through ravines, and along the margin of precipices, Don
Baltasar rode, threading, in spite of the darkness, the difficult and
often dangerous mountain-paths, with all the confidence of one well
acquainted with their intricacies. At last, after a long descent, he
entered a narrow valley, or rather a mountain-gorge, which extended in
the form of nearly a semicircle, and for a distance of about three
miles, between two steep and rugged lines of hill. Upon finding himself
on level ground, he spurred his horse, and passing rapidly over the
dew-steeped grass of a few fields, entered a beaten track that ran along
the centre of the valley. The moon was now up, silvering the summits of
the groups of trees with which the narrow plain was sprinkled, and
defining the gloomy peaks of the sierra against the star-spangled sky.
By its light Don Baltasar rode swiftly along, until, arriving near the
further end of the valley, he came in sight of an extensive edifice,
beautifully situated on the platform of a low hil