ough the bars of your cell door? Look; it lacks yet an
hour of noon."

"Then, sir, you come to announce the arrival of the holy father,--of
my friends."

"They will be here anon," said the stranger.

"I do not," said Magdalena, in the same calm tone she had before
employed, "see you now for the first time."

"Beautiful girl!" cried the stranger; "no! I have for months haunted
you like your shadow. Your fair face threw the first gleams of
sunshine into my heart that have visited it from early manhood. I love
you, Magdalena!"

"This is no hour and no place for words like these," replied the
captive, coldly.

"Nay!" cried the stranger, with sudden energy. "Beautiful girl, I come
to save you!"

"To save me!" cried Magdalena, a sudden, wild hope springing in her
breast,"--to save me! It is well done. Believe me, I am innocent. You
have bribed the jailer to open my prison doors; you have contrived
some means of evasion. I know not--I care not what. I shall be freed!
I shall clasp my father's knees once more. I shall go forth into the
blessed air and light of heaven. God bless you, whoever you are, for
your words of hope!"

"You shall go forth, if you will," replied the stranger; "but openly,
in the face and eyes of man. At my word the prison bars will fall, the
keys will turn, the gates will be unbarred. I have a royal pardon!"

"Give it me! give it me!" almost shrieked Magdalena.

"It is bestowed on one condition: that you become my wife."

"That I become your wife!" repeated Magdalena, as if she but half
comprehended the words. "Forsake poor Julio! And yet the bribe, to
escape a death of infamy, to save my father's gray hairs from going
down to a dishonored grave! Speak! who are you, with power to save me
on these terms?"

The stranger tossed aside his sable hat and plume, and dropped his
cloak, and stood before her in a rich dress of black velvet, trimmed
with point lace, a broadsword belted to his waist. He was a man of
middle age, of a fine, athletic figure, and handsome face, but there
was an indescribable expression in his dark eyes, in the stern lines
about his handsome mouth, that affected the gazer with a strange,
shuddering horror.

"Peruse me well, maiden," said the stranger. "I am not deformed. I am
as other men. If there be no glow in my cheek, still the blood that
flows through my veins is healthy and untainted. Moreover, though I be
not noble, my character is stainless. If to be the wife of a