"We will sit down," said the sick monarch. And with the assistance of his attendants, he deposited his exhausted person in the elbow-chair. "Drink, my friends, and tell me the news. Give me a cigar, good Castillo. Senor Regato, how goes it? what is new in our fair city of Madrid?" "Little is heard," replied Geronimo, "save lamentations for the indisposition of our beloved master." "The good people!" exclaimed Ferdinand. "We will have care of their happiness." "And yet," said a little old man with a countenance of repulsive ugliness, "there be reprobates who laugh whilst all true and faithful subjects weep. There is my neighbour, the merchant Alvaro. Yesterday he married his daughter to a young nobleman, Don Francisco Palavar, who claims relationship with the Marquis of Santa Cruz. The wedding-guests were numerous; they sang and danced, and rejoiced beyond measure. Senor Alvaro, said I, are you not ashamed to be so joyous at such a time? 'Friend,' was his answer, 'let the times wag--they are certainly bad enough, but must soon change. All things have an end. We rejoice in hopes of a better future.'" "The wretch!" exclaimed another of the camarilla. "I know him well; he was always a _negro_." "A knave grown gray in the sins of the Exaltados," cried a third. "He must be looked to," said the sick King. "Salcedo, what have you to tell?" "I have gathered intelligence," replied Salcedo, "from an equerry of a certain illustrious personage." He paused, and looked meaningly at the King, whose brow contracted, and whose lips muttered a well-known name. "The equerry," Salcedo said, "tattled of great bustle and many visits at his master's palace. For days past its court-yard had been filled with carriages, bringing generals, ministers, dignitaries of the church, and many officers, chiefly of the Royal Guard." On hearing this, a feverish and uneasy flush reddened Ferdinand's pale countenance, and his dim eyes glared angrily. "I know them," he said, "the old conspirators, the Catalan volunteers, the _agraviados_. Why have I not heard this sooner? But I will take order with them. Ha, Tadeo!--you there? Why has this been kept from me?"