So when the Queen-Regent, with Concha in attendance and the little Isabel riding demurely alongside on her diminutive donkey, delighting in the unexpected excursion, arrived at the farm, they found that a large barn and granary, cool, airy, and with a roof of stone arched like the vaults of a fortress, had been prepared for them. The horses of the party had been fed and watered. Cloaks had been unstrapped and laid on piles of straw for the ladies to rest upon--that is, for her Majesty the Queen Maria Cristina--Concha being one of the comity, and little Isabel dancing everywhere after her as her inseparable tyrant and slave. For with the easy and fortunate memory of childhood, Isabel had ceased even to mention the nurse who had been with her ever since her birth, or at most remembered her only when she happened to be tired or hurt or sleepy. Indeed, she learned in a wondrously short space to run to Concha with all her troubles. So constant was the companionship of these two that it was with the utmost difficulty, and after several failures, that Rollo managed to exchange even a word with his sweetheart. "You have been very brave," he whispered. "I should have failed but for you!" Concha blushed hot with swift pleasure, but on this occasion her usual readiness of speech seemed to have deserted her, and she stood silent like a tongue-tied maid, greedy for the first time in her life of her own praise. Before either could speak again, the Sergeant was back to report that La Giralda and he had dinner ready for the party. "You must not expect much," he said; "there is little available for the pot which may with safety be cooked." But indeed in such weather there was need for nothing better than the _arroz con pollo_--the chicken with rice, together with the abundant _gazpacho_, for the first of which he had found the materials in the store-chamber and barn-yard of the deserted farmhouse. "Also there is an abundance of vegetables in the garden--when you get them separated from the weeds, that is," he explained; "the clear air of these heights has enabled them to keep their flavour to perfection." He did not add that he had also seen in that same garden a mound of newly-dug earth, under which lay, beside her little daughter, a mother as loving and more faithful than that Queen-Mother for whose sake they were risking their lives. The Sergeant's hurriedly prepared lunch was a prodigious success. The great folk partook as heartily as any, and (perhaps owing to their extreme youth) the _pollos_ tasted much more tender than could have been expected, considering the fact that the Sergeant had found them industriously pecking and scratching in the dust of the farmyard upon his arrival, and that, while he dug the grave, he had sent La Giralda to drive them into a wood-shed, where presently they were captured _en masse_.