He then permitted him to rise, and proceeded to question him further. He soon found that the ruffian could be as readily employed to defeat as to forward a nefarious plot. Gonzalez knew the hacienda well, and with the aid of the boatman procured a horse and was enabled to reach it some ten minutes before the count. Like the latter, he too had asked for la señorita, (the young lady,) and by a similar mistake of the servant, who knew nothing of the plot, he was shown to his sister’s chamber. He had heard of her ruin, but knew not that she had been decoyed from their father’s roof. He found her very ill, and her agitation at seeing him brought on a profuse and fatal hemorrhage. All this, let it be borne in mind, occurred before the carriage had entered the grounds. When Frank recovered his consciousness in the closet where he was confined, he could not conceive where he was, or what had befallen him. By slow degrees the events of the night were recalled to his recollection, and in great alarm he began to grope about in the darkness. When he found the door, and vainly tried to open it, he knocked and shouted loud and vehemently. The landlord and several others, astonished at the uproar, hurried to the parlor and threw open the closet-door. To their rapid and noisy questioning he could only reply in his own tongue, which was to them unintelligible. When, however, by his gestures, the landlord understood that he complained of ill treatment in his house, he swore that the stranger must be some robber, who had concealed himself in the closet, and that some one in passing had locked the door. Improbable as was this supposition, in face of the mark of the blow which Frank exhibited, all present concurred in professing that they believed it true. A police officer was accordingly sent for, and the unhappy youth taken to the guard-house. The next morning he was summoned before the alcalde, who, too indolent to send to the frigate to identify the prisoner, and, to do him justice, wholly discrediting the latter’s statement of being thrust into the closet, condemned him to be transported for six months to the Castle St. Juan de Utloa, off Vera Cruz, the last place held by Spain on the eastern shore of North America, and next to the last held by her on the continent. Frank was taken immediately on board of a transport filled with troops and convicts, the first to recruit the garrison, the last to assist in repairs of the old, and the construction of additional fortifications. The youth, although well-grown, it was evident was not accustomed to, and could not perform manual labor. The alcalde had therefore sent a message to the commander of the detachment, recommending that he should be assigned to some light employment. The magistrate saw that the youth was a foreigner, he believed him to be a vagrant if nothing else, and he knew that hands of all descriptions were needed at that fortress. He therefore made no inquiries. That afternoon the transport sailed.