"I left her alone and walked toward the hermitage. I found the hermit
praying. I waited till his prayer was finished. I longed to pray myself,
but I couldn't. When he rose up from his knees I went to him.

"'Father,' I said, 'will you pray for some one who is in great danger?'

"'I pray for every one who is afflicted,' he replied.

"'Can you say a mass for a soul which is perhaps about to go into the
presence of its Maker?'

"'Yes,' he answered, looking hard at me.

"And as there was something strange about me, he tried to make me talk.

"'It seems to me that I have seen you somewhere,' said he.

"I laid a piastre on his bench.

"'When shall you say the mass?' said I.

"'In half an hour. The son of the innkeeper yonder is coming to serve
it. Tell me, young man, haven't you something on your conscience that is
tormenting you? Will you listen to a Christian's counsel?'

"I could hardly restrain my tears. I told him I would come back, and
hurried away. I went and lay down on the grass until I heard the bell.
Then I went back to the chapel, but I stayed outside it. When he had
said the mass, I went back to the _venta_. I was hoping Carmen would
have fled. She could have taken my horse and ridden away. But I found
her there still. She did not choose that any one should say I had
frightened her. While I had been away she had unfastened the hem of her
gown and taken out the lead that weighted it; and now she was sitting
before a table, looking into a bowl of water into which she had just
thrown the lead she had melted. She was so busy with her spells that at
first she didn't notice my return. Sometimes she would take out a bit of
lead and turn it round every way with a melancholy look. Sometimes she
would sing one of those magic songs, which invoke the help of Maria
Padella, Don Pedro's mistress, who is said to have been the _Bari
Crallisa_--the great gipsy queen.*

* Maria Padella was accused of having bewitched Don Pedro.
According to one popular tradition she presented Queen
Blanche of Bourbon with a golden girdle which, in the eyes
of the bewitched king, took on the appearance of a living
snake. Hence the repugnance he always showed toward the
unhappy princess.

"'Carmen,' I said to her, 'will you come with me?' She rose, threw away
her wooden bowl, and put her mantilla over her head ready to start. My
horse was led up, she mounted behind me, and we rode away.

"After we had