to-day? To whom would the eyes of the people turn in the hour of kingless crisis? To him or to Don Carlos? No, no, I tell you his power in that moment would be all but supreme, and he would use it to crush relentlessly you very Carlists whom he had used to clear the way for him. Surely, surely, you can see now that you would be the dupe and naught else, and that he aims at securing power that shall be nothing less than supreme." Sarita listened to my rapid, excited speech with gradually paling cheek, and when I finished, her breath was coming fast and her eyes shining brightly. "If I thought that, I’d—— But no, Ferdinand, he dare not, he dare not," she exclaimed, in quick, bated tones. "Dare not—Sebastian Quesada?" I cried, incredulously. "Dare not. A hundred daggers would flash at his heart." "Aye, but the hundred hands that could thrust them would be rotting in his prisons." "It is impossible, impossible, impossible. I won’t believe it; but I must have time to think. You madden me. I am fevered and frozen in turns by the thoughts you kindle, I must have time." "Let me make a last appeal, Sarita. Marry me and come away. Leave all——" "No, no," she broke in, passionately. "I cannot. I cannot. This is no problem that a coward’s flight can solve." "Well then, postpone this attempt on the young King until you have had time to inquire and search and think." "I cannot think now. I will see you to-morrow—or better, will think over all and write you." "No, I will come to-morrow," I said. "Promise you will see me." "If I am in Madrid, I promise," she said; and with that, seeing how deeply she was agitated, I thought it best to leave. "One word, not from counsellor this, but from your lover, Sarita. The knowledge we have gained of each other to-day, is knowledge for all our time. My love can never change; neither will yours, that I know. To-morrow, it will be the lover who will come to you, sweetheart. I shall have all in readiness for our departure. Till to-morrow, good-bye." I took her hand and tried to kiss her, but she would not suffer me, and when I looked in her eyes, I saw, to my consternation, they were full of tears. Knowing how intensely she must be excited and agitated to shed tears, and that it would distress her still more for me to remain and see her weakness, I turned away and went out. I was scarcely less excited than Sarita, and, driving at once to my rooms, sent a messenger with a note to Silas Mayhew, asking him to come to me without fail in two hours’ time, and sat down to try and clear the tangle of my thoughts. I had guessed much of the desperate intrigue that lay behind the abduction plot, and felt that I had guessed rightly the part which Sebastian Quesada was playing. But there was more that I did not know, and I had to learn it if the project was yet to be thwarted and his scheme exposed.