bey; and so
skilfully did they enter into her wishes, that their very companions
suspected not the identity of the prisoner, in whom, they were told,
their Sovereign was so much interested. Curiosity might have been busy
with very many, but their vague conjectures fell far short of the
truth; Catharine Pas was the only one of Isabella's younger maidens to
whom the real fact was imparted.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

'Twas a dark tale of crime, and awed and chilled
E'en indignation seeming horror still'd,
Men stood beside a murd'rer's couch of death,
Watching-the glazing-eye and flickering-breath--
Speaking with look and hurried sign alone,
Their thoughts, too terror-fraught for word or tone.--MS.

The indignation excited in the Queen's mind against Don Louis was
destined, very speedily, to be increased. Ferdinand had had time to
become half angry, and quite impatient, ere his messengers dispatched
to the village returned. Stanley had been released--was regarded by
all as innocent; but this was literally only from a peasant's word and
the half broken intelligence of an exhausted boy: he wanted proof,
and a vague dread would take possession of him that his fate was but
temporarily suspended. At an early hour the next day, however, Don
Alonzo returned; and Ferdinand's impatient anger was averted, when he
found the delay had been occasioned by their determination, to
convey the dying man to Segovia, and the caution necessary for its
accomplishment. The Hermanos had already noted down his confession;
but it was so fraught with extended and dangerous consequences, that
they felt, they dared not act on their responsibility: all suppressing
measures must proceed from the sovereigns themselves. Perez was again
summoned, and at once swore to the identity of the dying man as the
individual he had rescued from a deep pit, in a lonely mountain-pass,
about twenty miles from his village; and the man, whose eagerness to
speak was evident, though his voice was so faint, as scarcely to be
intelligible, commenced his dark and terrible tale.

The indignation of the Sovereign, and of those whom he had chosen to
be present, was excited to the utmost, mingled with horror as the
mysterious fates of many a loved companion were thus so fearfully
solved; but none felt the recital with the same intensity of emotion
as the Sub-Prior, who, with, head bowed down upon his breast, and
hands tightly clenched, knelt beside the penitent. It