e said; "that is for the Christmas Mass. I will tell you as we
go."

The little inn was lively enough as we emerged from the bower and
crossed the court-yard towards the road. The woman who had prepared my
supper came forth arrayed in a capulet of white and scarlet, and two
younger girls who accompanied her wore veils and long, black robes which
fell about their forms like Oriental garments. Two or three men,
attendants and hostlers of the place, were also about to start, trigged
out in queer little capes and high-crowned hats. All this fine apparel,
mine host informed me, was peculiar to Christmas, and I soon found the
highway full of peasants in similar garb.

As we got off, Jose Rosado resumed his story, which was brief enough to
beguile us just to the church-door.

"You ask me, senor, who lives in the castle now? The Donna Isabella is
alone there, now, the only survivor of the noble race, except--except
senor," (he laid a peculiar emphasis on the word,) "except a wilful son,
whom she has disowned and driven from her house. He is a handsome lad,
and married, here in Alcala, the beauty of the town, in spite of his
mother's wounded pride. It was a love-match of stolen wooing and secret
wedding,--but, ha! ha! _we_ saw it all, knew it all, before even they
did themselves. Many an evening have I met them on these roads, billing
and cooing like the doves on La Fonda's eaves. They were made by nature
for each other, though, and even the rage of the proud Donna Isabella
could never part them."

"And do they still live in the town?" I asked.

"Oh, yes," said Jose; "over there in the white house where the olive
trees are, at the bottom of the long hill."

I looked in the direction whither he pointed, but I could see little in
the dim moonlight save a white wall amid dense shadows.

"And is Donna Isabella a very old lady?" I asked, because very old
ladies are often charged with peculiar severity to very young ones.

"No, no, no," said Jose Rosado, with a quick turn of the head to each
no. "She's a widow lady of middle age; very proud and very handsome. You
shall see her presently, for she has consented to take part in the
Christmas play at the church."

As I had come a long journey to see this same Christmas play, my
expectation was doubly aroused as we approached the old edifice, whose
open belfry and rows of cloisters stood before us at the top of the hill
we were ascending.

As we entered, the bells stopped ringi