n
his former prison, and chuckled at the thought that he should soon have
an opportunity of revenging himself for his sufferings within its walls.
To make the most of his time before the appearance of Baltasar, he
hastily descended the naked rock on which he stood, and sought shelter
amongst the bushes and straggling trees clothing the middle and lower
slopes of the mountain. Thence he commanded a near view of the convent.
No change was visible in the grey, ghostly-looking edifice; so still was
every thing about it, that it might have been deemed uninhabited but for
the portress, who sat knitting in the shadow of the gateway, and for the
occasional apparition of some ancient nun, showing her face, yellow and
shrivelled as parchment, at a casement, or flitting with bowed head, and
hands lost in the wide sleeves of her robe, across the spacious and
solitary court. The red moss mantled the old walls, the bright green
creepers dangled from their summits, the gardens and vineyard covering
the slope in front of the convent, teemed with vegetable life. From
where he stood Paco could discover the very point where he had entered
the forest after his escape from the dungeon. As he gazed, it suddenly
occurred to him that the same friendly shelter which had enabled him to
leave the neighbourhood of the convent unperceived, put it in his power
to return thither without detection. Bold to temerity, and forgetful of
the Mochuelo's injunctions to expose himself to no risk of discovery,
Paco no sooner conceived the project than he proceeded to execute it.
The convent, it will be remembered, was situated at the extremity of the
valley; the pass or rather dip in the surrounding hills, by which
Baltasar and his companions would approach it, was to the east of the
building; whereas Paco, by the short cut he had taken, found himself on
the contrary or western side. Concealed amongst the trees, he moved
stealthily but swiftly along, and was within a few hundred yards of the
spot whence he proposed to reconnoitre the enemy's proceedings, when he
heard the jingling noise of cavalry at the trot, and, looking through
the branches, he saw Baltasar and his party sweep round the base of the
little eminence on which the convent stood, and ascend the path leading
to its gate. Baltasar alone entered the court; the troopers, about
thirty in number, halted outside, and remained mounted. Paco plunged
deeper into the forest; five more minutes completed his c