The count had every reason to believe his plot well matured, and in a fair train for execution, and yet he felt restless and uneasy. The critical period between the conception and consummation of any conspiracy, even when the judgment sanctions and the true heart approves it, is the most trying of all the situations in which human nature can be placed; but when the object is detestable, the means base and treacherous, and the agents employed unprincipled, then, the suspense is torturing—for the slightest accident, the most trivial carelessness may frustrate, and the faithlessness of the least trusted agents betray the best concerted plot that was ever laid. For some days the count had feigned to be weaker than he really was, and no sooner had Frank and his sister left than he jumped up and leaned out of one of the ports to see them embark, and to satisfy himself that no one from the ship accompanied them. It is said that the Evil One favors his own, and in this instance the adage was verified. No one had yet descended the side, and as the count cast his scrutinizing glance in every direction, his quick ear detected the light splash of an oar. Withdrawing instantly, he extinguished the lamp and excluded as well as he could, the light of the illumination which streamed through the opposite ports. Returning then to his first position, in a few moments, as his eye became accustomed to the obscurity, he saw indistinctly the small boat which contained Talbot and Gonzalez. The outlines of the boat were alone visible, and he could not make out how many persons it contained. It was, he thought, most probably, the boat of some poor fisherman, compelled to forego present enjoyment in order to procure tomorrow’s subsistence for himself and family. Guilt, however, is always suspicious, and without being able to assign to himself a reason for his misgivings, he summoned his steward and gave him a few hurried instructions. The latter, immediately leaving the apartment, slipped through one of the gun-deck ports as Talbot and Gonzalez had done before him, and, unseen from the upper-deck, descended into the boat just before it shoved off. The fears awakened (wherefore he could not tell) by the sight of the tiny boat, had induced the count to change his entire plan. It was therefore that Talbot, when he found that the preconcerted plot they had heard discussed was not adhered to, determined not to lose sight of his mistress. When the large boat stopped at the posada, the orphans were conducted to a private room, the steward and two of the gang remaining without, soon after a servant-maid entered, and said that the consul’s lady was indisposed, and had sent her to beg that Miss Gillespie would come to her chamber. With unsuspecting alacrity the poor girl rose up and followed the maid. At a turn in the passage, she was seized, a gag instantly applied to her mouth, and then hurried to the boat.