"No--yes--" replied Baltasar, slightly confused. "I believe there were several wounded. Why do you ask?" "And the Count's death gives you the Villabuena estates?" "It does so," answered Baltasar. The dark penetrating eyes of the abbess still remained fixed, with a peculiar expression of enquiry and suspicion, upon the countenance of Colonel Villabuena. He tried at first to sustain their gaze, but was unable to do so. He looked down, and a slight paleness came over his features. "I have no time to answer questions," said he, with a rough brutality of manner which seemed assumed to veil embarrassment. "My plan is arranged, but promptness of execution is essential to its success. Rita must be detained here, where none will think of seeking her, till she becomes my wife. Your power in this place is unlimited, and your word law; you will have no difficulty in secluding her in some corner where none shall see her but those in whom you can fully confide. Make the necessary preparations. Each moment she may arrive." Whilst Baltasar was speaking, Dona Carmen remained with her brow supported on her hand, silent and sunk in reflection. She now sprang impetuously from her chair. "I will have naught to do with it," cried she; "you would entangle me in a labyrinth of crime, whence the only issue would be ignominy and punishment. You must find others to aid you in your machinations." In his turn Baltasar rose from his seat, and, approaching the abbess, led her back to her chair. "Carmen," said he, in a suppressed voice, and from between his set teeth, "is it to me that you say 'I will not?'--Carmen," he continued, speaking low, and with his face very near to hers, "there was a time when, for love of you and to do your bidding, I feared no punishment here or hereafter. Have you already forgotten it? 'I hate him,' were your words, as I sat at your feet in yon sunny Andalusian bower--'I hate him, and in proportion to my hatred should be my gratitude to him who rid me of his odious presence.' That night the _serenos_ found the body of Don Fernando de Forcadell stiff and cold upon the steps of his villa. He had had a dispute at the _monte_ table, and two men were sent to Ceuta on suspicion of the deed. Only two persons knew who had really done it. Ha! Carmen, only two persons!" During this terrible recapitulation, the abbess sat motionless as a statue, for which indeed, in her white robe and with her marble pale complexion, she might almost have been taken. She covered her face with her hands, and her bosom heaved so violently, that the loose folds of drapery which shrouded it rose and fell like the waves of a troubled ocean. When Baltasar ceased speaking she removed her hands, and exhibited a countenance livid as that of a corpse. Her almost preternatural paleness, the dark furrows under her eyes, and the tension of every feature, added ten years to her apparent age. "Is that all?" she said, in a hollow voice, to her tormentor.