?"

Don Felix d'Estaban replied that he had seen him that day two hours
before sunset.

"And where, my Lord--at home or abroad?"

"In his own mansion, which he said he had not quitted that day," was
the rejoinder.

"And how seemed he? In health as usual?"

"Ay, my liege, save that he complained of a strange oppressiveness,
disinclining him for all exertion."

"Did he allude to the council of to-night?"

"He did, my Lord, rejoicing that he should be compelled to rouse
himself from his most unwonted mood of idleness."

"Then some evil has befallen him," rejoined the King; and the
contraction of his brow denied the calmness, implied by his unmoved
tone. "We have done wrong in losing all this time, Don Alonzo," he
added, turning to the Senor of Aguilar, "give orders that a band of
picked men scour every path leading hence to Morales' mansion: head
them thyself, an thou wilt, we shall the more speedily receive
tidings. Thine eyes have been more fixed on Don Ferdinand's vacant
seat, than on the board this last hour; so hence, and speed thee, man.
It may be he is ill: we have seen men stricken unto death from one
hour to the other. If there be no trace of him in either path, hie
thee to his mansion; but return not without news. Impalpable evil is
ever worse than the tangible and real."

Don Alonzo scarcely waited the conclusion of the King's speech, so
eager was he to depart; and the longing looks cast after him betrayed
how many would have willingly joined him in his search.

"His wife?" repeated the King, in answer to some suggestions of his
kinsman's. "Nay, man; hast thou yet to learn, that Morales' heart
would break ere he would neglect his duty? No: physical incapacity
would alone have sufficient power to keep him from us--no mental ill."

If the effort to continue indifferent conversation had been difficult
before, it now became impossible. The very silence felt ominous. What
evil could have befallen? was asked internally by each individual; but
the vague dread, the undefined horror of something terrible impending,
prevented all reply; and so nearly an hour passed, when, far removed
as was the council-room from the main body of the castle, a confusion
as of the entrance of many feet, and the tumultuary sound of eager
voices, was distinguished, seeming to proceed from the great hall.

"It cannot be Don Alonzo so soon returned," remarked the Duke of
Murcia; but even as he spoke, and before the King had time