tranger set spurs to his horse, and galloped down the avenue at
the same rapid pace at which he had arrived. The count re-entered the
house; and, as soon as he had done so, Luis dropped from his tree, and
hurried to rejoin Mariano. In another hour they had returned to the
venta.

Luis Herrera was the son of a Castilian gentleman, who had suffered
much, both in person and property, for his steady adherence to the
constitutional cause in Spain. Severely wounded whilst fighting
against the Royalists and their French allies in 1823, Don Manuel
Herrera with difficulty escaped to England, taking with him his only
son, then a boy of eleven years of age. In 1830 he changed his
residence to the south of France, and thence, taking advantage of his
proximity to the frontier, and wishing his son's education to be
completed in Spain, he dispatched Luis to Madrid, with a
recommendation to the Conde de Villabuena, who, notwithstanding that
his political principles were diametrically opposed to those of Don
Manuel, was one of the oldest friends of the latter. The count
welcomed Luis kindly, and received him into his house, where for some
months he prosecuted his studies in company with the young
Villabuenas, and, at the end of that time, went with them to the
university of Salamanca. The vacations were passed by the young men
either at the count's house at Madrid, or at a country residence near
Tudela, north of which, in the central valleys of his native province
of Navarre, the Conde de Villabuena owned extensive estates. The count
was a widower, and, besides his two sons, had an only daughter, who,
at the time of Luis's arrival was in her sixteenth year, and who added
to great personal attractions a share of accomplishment and
instruction larger than is usually found even amongst the higher
classes of Spanish women. During the first sojourn of Luis at the
count's house, he was naturally thrown a great deal into Dona Rita's
society, and a reciprocal attachment grew up between them, which, if
it occasionally afforded the young Villabuenas a subject of
good-humoured raillery, on the other hand was unobserved or uncared
for by the count--a stern silent man, whose thoughts and time were
engrossed by political intrigues. When Luis went to Salamanca, his
attachment to Rita, instead of becoming weakened or obliterated,
appeared to acquire strength from absence; and she, on her part, as
each vacation approached, unconsciously looked forward