Ah, senor," she said, advancing to meet him, and taking his hand and
laying it against her heart, "how can I thank you for the lives of my
husband and my boy! One more minute and you would have arrived too late.
It seemed to me as if heaven had opened and an angel had come to our aid
when you entered."

Jack colored up hotly as the interpreter translated the words. If he had
expressed his thoughts he would have said, "Please don't make any more
fuss about it;" but he found that Spanish courtesy required much more
than this, so he answered:

"Countess, the moment was equally fortunate to me, and I shall ever feel
grateful that I have been permitted to be of service to so beautiful a
lady."

The countess smiled as Jack's words were translated.

"I did not know that you English were flatterers," she said. "They told
us that you were uncouth islanders, but I see that they have calumniated
you."

"I hope some day," Jack said, "that I shall be able to talk to you
without the aid of an interpreter. It is very difficult to speak when
every word has to be translated."

For a quarter of an hour the conversation was continued, the count and
countess asking questions about England. At the end of that time Jack
thought he might venture to take his leave. The count accompanied him to
the door, and begged him to consider his house as his own, and then with
many bows on each side Jack made his way into the street.

"Confound all this Spanish politeness!" he muttered to himself; "it's
very grand and stately, I have no doubt, but it's a horrible nuisance;
and as to talking through an interpreter, it's like repeating lessons,
only worse. I should like to see a man making a joke through an
interpreter, and waiting to see how it told. I must get up a little
Spanish as soon as possible. The earl has picked up a lot already, and
there will be no fun to be had here in Spain unless one can make one's
self understood."

The next day there were rumors current that the population were
determined to take vengeance upon Velasco. The earl marched eight
hundred men into the town, placed the governor in their center and
escorted him to the shore, and so took him safely on board a ship. He
was conveyed, by his own desire, to Alicante, as the revolt had spread
so rapidly through Catalonia that Rosas was now the only town which
favored the cause of the Duke d'Anjou.

The capture of Barcelona takes its place as one of the most brilliant
feats i