"Oh heavens!" cried Zambullo; "Death stoops upon the palace of the king. Alas! one stroke of his fatal scythe, and ail Spain will be plunged in dreadful consternation." "Well may you tremble," said the Cripple; "for the barbarian has no more respect for kings than for their meanest slaves. But be not alarmed," he added, a moment afterwards, "he aims not at the monarch yet; his business now is with a courtier only, one of those noble lords whose only occupation is to swell his master's train: such ministers as these are not exactly those the state can least afford to lose." "But it would seem," replied the Student, "that the spectre king is not contented with so mean a prize as the parasite you speak of. See! he hovers still about the royal house; and, this time, near the chamber of the Queen." "Just so," replied the Devil, "and he might be worse employed: he is about to cut the windpipe of an amiable dame who delights to sow divisions in her sovereign's court; and who is now mortally chagrined, because two ladies whom she had cleverly set by the ears, have been unreasonable enough to become sincerely reconciled with each other. [Illustration: the grieving wife tears her hair] "And now, my master, you will hear cries of real affliction," continued the Demon. "Death enters that splendid mansion to the left; and a scene as touching as the world's stage offers is about to be acted there. Look, if you can, on the heart-rending tragedy." "In truth," said Don Cleophas, "I perceive a lady struggling in the arms of her attendants, and tearing her hair with signs of deepest grief. Tell me its cause!" "Look in the room adjoining, and you will see cause enough," replied the Devil. "You observe the man stretched on that stately couch: it is her dying husband,--to her a loss indeed! Their story is affecting, and deserves to be written:--I have a great mind to relate it to you." "You will give me great pleasure in so doing," interrupted Leandro: "the sorrows of this world do not move less than its vices and follies amuse me." "It is rather long," resumed Asmodeus, "but it is too interesting to annoy you on that account. Besides, I will confess to you, that, all Demon as I am, I am sick of following the track of Death: let us leave him in his search of newer victims." "With all my heart," replied Zambullo: "I am more curious to hear your promised narrative Of suffering humanity, than to see my fellow-mortals, one after another, hurried into eternity." The Cripple then commenced as follows, after having transported the Student on to the roof of one of the highest houses in the Strada d'Alcala. CHAPTER XIII. THE FORCE OF FRIENDSHIP.