The luck which had gone so well with me to a point, only to change at Calatayud with such ruinous consequences, veered round again the moment I reached Madrid, where there had been a witness of my arrest who was soon to bring me help. I had been about three hours in the cell, and was passing the weary, baffling, irritating time in speculating how long I was to be left like a forgotten dog in the dirty kennel of a cell, and how long it would take Mayhew to get to work to find me and procure my release, when the door of the cell was unlocked and a warder told me to follow him. "Where to?" I asked. "There’s a visitor for you." "Bring him here, then," I answered, determined that anyone from the Embassy should see the filthy place in which I had been caged. "Come with me," he said again. "I will not," I answered, and curled myself up on the bare bench. At this he growled out an oath, and after a moment banged the door and locked it again. It was probably a novel experience for him to find any prisoner unwilling to get out of such a kennel at the first opportunity, and, in truth, when some minutes elapsed and he did not return, I was disposed to regret my own obstinacy. But I heard his returning steps later on, the door was once more opened, and the brute said, in a tone of deference: "The prisoner is here, senorita," and I jumped to my feet in intense surprise to find Dolores Quesada, holding up her skirts, and looking in dismay at the disgusting condition of the cell, and then with distress, sympathy, and concern at me. *CHAPTER XXIX* *QUESADA AGAIN* "I must apologise for your brother’s taste, senorita, in compelling me to allow you to find me in such a—palace," I said, with a wave of the hand about the filthy cell. "This is the hospitality he considers is my due." The disgusting stench of the place turned her sick and faint, and anger flashed from her eyes. I was not at all sorry for her to see for herself the hole in which I had been caged. "You must leave it at once, senor. It is horrible," she cried. "I am but one of hundreds honoured with the same treatment, and the courtesy of my host is so pressing as to render it difficult for me to leave." "I have brought the order for your release, senor. It is abominable—abominable! I wish to speak to Senor Carbonnell; take us to some place where we can breathe," she said to the warder. "I told the prisoner to come before, but he refused, senorita," said the man in a surly tone; and then we followed him along the corridor to a square, bare room near the entrance to the gaol. "I am ashamed at what you have suffered, Senor Carbonnell. My brother has deceived me, and broken his pledged word." "I shall ever remember your former efforts for me, senorita, but you will see that the subject of Senor Quesada’s conduct is one I can scarcely discuss with his sister," I answered.