young nobleman had scarcely said these words in a low voice, when
the hand of the old seigneur dropped upon the hilt of his dagger.
Feeling the cold iron he woke, and his yellow eyes fixed themselves
instantly on his wife. By a privilege seldom granted even to men of
genius, he awoke with his mind as clear, his ideas as lucid as though he
had not slept at all. The man had the mania of jealousy. The lover, with
one eye on his mistress, had watched the husband with the other, and he
now rose quickly, effacing himself behind a column at the moment when
the hand of the old man fell; after which he disappeared, swiftly as a
bird. The lady lowered her eyes to her book and tried to seem calm; but
she could not prevent her face from blushing and her heart from beating
with unnatural violence. The old lord saw the unusual crimson on the
cheeks, forehead, even the eyelids of his wife. He looked about him
cautiously, but seeing no one to distrust, he said to his wife:--

"What are you thinking of, my dear?"

"The smell of the incense turns me sick," she replied.

"It is particularly bad to-day?" he asked.

In spite of this sarcastic query, the wily old man pretended to believe
in this excuse; but he suspected some treachery and he resolved to watch
his treasure more carefully than before.

The benediction was given. Without waiting for the end of the "Soecula
soeculorum," the crowd rushed like a torrent to the doors of the church.
Following his usual custom, the old seigneur waited till the general
hurry was over; after which he left his chapel, placing the duenna and
the youngest page, carrying a lantern, before him; then he gave his arm
to his wife and told the other page to follow them.

As he made his way to the lateral door which opened on the west side
of the cloister, through which it was his custom to pass, a stream
of persons detached itself from the flood which obstructed the great
portals, and poured through the side aisle around the old lord and his
party. The mass was too compact to allow him to retrace his steps, and
he and his wife were therefore pushed onward to the door by the pressure
of the multitude behind them. The husband tried to pass out first,
dragging the lady by the arm, but at that instant he was pulled
vigorously into the street, and his wife was torn from him by a
stranger. The terrible hunchback saw at once that he had fallen into a
trap that was cleverly prepared. Repenting himself for having