into a wild laugh. Calderon continued:

"Nevertheless, do not despair. Be patient; I am ever about the duke;
nay, I have the courage, in your cause, to appeal even to the king
himself."

"And to-night she expects me--to-night she was to be free!"

"We can convey the intelligence of your mischance to her: the porter
will befriend you."

"Away, false friend, or powerless protector, that you are! Are your
promises of aid come to this? But I care not; my case, my wrongs, shall
be laid before the king; I will inquire if it be thus that Philip the
Third treats the defenders of his crown. Don Roderigo Calderon, will you
place my memorial in the hands of your royal master? Do this, and I will
thank you."

"No, Fonseca, I will not ruin you; the king would pass your memorial to
the Duke de Lerma. Tush! this is not the way that men of sense deal with
misfortune. Think you I should be what I now am, if, in every reverse, I
had raved, and not reflected? Sit down, and let us think of what can now
be done."

"Nothing, unless the prison door open by sunset!"

"Stay, a thought strikes me. The term of your imprisonment ceases when
you relinquish the hope of Beatriz. But what if the duke could believe
that Beatriz relinquished you? What, for instance, if she fled from the
convent, as you proposed, and we could persuade the duke that it was
with another?"

"Ah! be silent!"

"Nay, what advantages in this scheme--what safety! If she fly alone,
or, as supposed, with another lover, the duke will have no interest in
pursuit, in punishment. She is not of that birth that the state will
take the trouble, very actively, to interfere: she may reach France in
safety; ay, a thousand times more safely than if she fled with you,
a hidalgo and a man of rank, whom the state would have an interest to
reclaim, and to whom the Inquisition, hating the nobles, would impute
the crime of sacrilege. It is an excellent thought! Your imprisonment
may be the salvation of you both: your plan may succeed still better
without your intervention; and, after a few days, the duke, believing
that your resentment must necessarily replace your love, will order your
release; you can join Beatriz on the frontier, and escape with her to
France."

"But," said Fonseca, struck, but not convinced, by the suggestion of
Calderon, "who will take my place with Beatriz? who penetrate into the
gardens? who bear her from the convent?"

"That, for your sake, will I do. Perha