way together in the profoundest silence. Then, stretching
out his hand, "Keep straight on," he Said, "and you will find the
bridge."

With that he turned his back on me, and walked rapidly away. I returned
to my inn a little crestfallen and depressed. Worst of all was that, as
I was undressing, I discovered my watch was missing.

I departed for Seville next day, and after several months of rambling in
Andalusia, was once more back in Cordova, on my way to Madrid.

The good fathers at the Dominican convent received me with open arms.

"Your watch has been found again, and will be returned to you," one of
them told me. "The rascal is in gaol, and is to be executed the day
after to-morrow. He is known in the country under the name of Jose
Navarro, and he is a man to be seen."

I went to see the prisoner, and took him some cigars. At first he
shrugged his shoulders and received me coldly, but I saw him again on
the morrow, and passed a part of the day with him. It was from his mouth
I learnt the sad adventures of his life.

_III.--Don Jose's Story_

"I was born," he said, "at Elizondo, and my name--Don Jose
Lizzarrabengoa--will tell you that I am Basque, and an old Christian. If
I take the _don_, it is because I have the right to do so. One day when
I had been playing tennis with a lad from Alava I won, and he picked a
quarrel with me. We took our iron-tipped sticks, and fought, and again I
had the advantage; but it forced me to quit the country. I met some
dragoons, and enlisted in the Almanza regiment of cavalry. Soon I became
a corporal, and they were under promise to make me sergeant when, to my
misfortune, I was put on guard at the tobacco factory at Seville.

"I was young then, and I was always thinking of my native country, and
was afraid of the Andalusian young women and their jesting ways. But one
Friday--I shall never forget it--when I was on duty, I heard people
saying, 'Here's the gipsy.' And, looking up, I saw her for the first
time. I saw that Carmen whom you know, in whose house I met you some
months ago.

"She made some joke at me as she passed into the factory, and flipped a
cassia flower just between my eyes. When she had gone, I picked it up
and put it carefully in my pocket. First piece of folly!

"A few hours afterwards I was ordered to take two of my men into the
factory. There had been a quarrel, and Carmen had slashed another woman
with two terrible cuts of her knife across the face. T