sy. The coast was clear, the
forest within thirty yards. Winding his body noiselessly through the
aperture, he sprang to his feet, and with the speed of a greyhound
sought the cover of the wood. Upon reaching the shelter of its foremost
trees he paused, and turning round, looked back at the convent, hoping
to see Rita at a window. But she had disappeared, and the shutters were
closed. It would have been folly, under the circumstances, to wait the
chance of her return; and once more turning his back upon the place of
his captivity, the muleteer, exulting in his newly recovered freedom,
plunged, with quick and elastic step, into the innermost recesses of the
forest.

Rightly conjecturing that Rita, informed of her father's death, and
having no influential friend to whom to address herself for aid, had
written to Zumalacarregui with a view to obtain her release, Paco
determined to convey the letter to its destination as speedily as
possible. To do this it was necessary, first, to ascertain the
whereabout of the Carlist general, and secondly, to avoid falling in
with Colonel Villabuena, a meeting with whom might not only prevent him
from delivering the letter, but also again endanger his liberty, perhaps
his life. Shaping his course through the forest in, as nearly as he
could judge, a westerly direction, he reached the mountains at sunset,
and continued his march along their base--avoiding the more frequented
path by which he had approached the convent--until he reached an outlet
of the valley. Through this he passed; and still keeping straight
forward, without any other immediate object than that of increasing the
distance between himself and his late prison, he found himself, some
time after midnight, clear of the lofty range of mountains, a limb of
the Spanish Pyrenees, in one of whose recesses the convent stood. The
country in front, and on both sides of him, was still mountainous, but
the elevations were less; and Paco, who had a good general knowledge of
the geography of his native province, through most parts of which his
avocations as muleteer had often caused him to travel, conjectured that
he was on the extreme verge of Navarre and about to enter the province
of Guipuzcoa. He had deemed it prudent to avoid all human habitations
whilst still in the vicinity of the convent; but having now left it half
a dozen leagues in his rear, the necessity for such caution no longer
existed, and he began to look about for a con