teful
word which he could think of, so that some there bade him be silent for
shame; and Mr. Oxenham said, 'It is worthy of you, Don Francisco, thus
to trumpet abroad your own disgrace. Did I not tell you years ago that
you were a cur; and are you not proving my words for me?'

"He answered, 'English dog, would to Heaven I had never seen you!'

"And Mr. Oxenham, 'Spanish ape, would to Heaven that I had sent
my dagger through your herring-ribs when you passed me behind St.
Ildegonde's church, eight years last Easter-eve.' At which the old man
turned pale, and then began again to upbraid the lady, vowing that
he would have her burnt alive, and other devilish words, to which she
answered at last--

"'Would that you had burnt me alive on my wedding morning, and spared me
eight years of misery!' And he--

"'Misery? Hear the witch, senors! Oh, have I not pampered her, heaped
with jewels, clothes, coaches, what not? The saints alone know what 'I
have spent on her. What more would she have of me?'

"To which she answered only but this one word, 'Fool!' but in so
terrible a voice, though low, that they who were about to laugh at the
old pantaloon, were more minded to weep for her.

"'Fool!' she said again, after a while, 'I will waste no words upon you.
I would have driven a dagger to your heart months ago, but that I
was loath to set you free so soon from your gout and your rheumatism.
Selfish and stupid, know when you bought my body from my parents, you
did not buy my soul! Farewell, my love, my life! and farewell, senors!
May you be more merciful to your daughters than my parents were to me!'
And so, catching a dagger from the girdle of one of the soldiers, smote
herself to the heart, and fell dead before them all.

"At which Mr. Oxenham smiled, and said, 'That was worthy of us both. If
you will unbind my hands, senors, I shall be most happy to copy so fair
a schoolmistress.'

"But Don Diego shook his head, and said--

"'It were well for you, valiant senor, were I at liberty to do so; but
on questioning those of your sailors whom I have already taken, I cannot
hear that you have any letters of license, either from the queen of
England, or any other potentate. I am compelled, therefore, to ask you
whether this is so; for it is a matter of life and death.'

"To which Mr. Oxenham answered merrily, that so it was: but that he
was not aware that any potentate's license was required to permit a
gentleman's meeting his l