"Reserve your curses for the true criminal," said Camarga, drawing the cowl over his visage, as if no longer able to endure the fierce looks of Don Hernan: "Among others who had inflamed his wild and fiery affections, was one whom heaven had seemingly placed beyond his reach,--one whose name I need not pronounce to Hernan Cortes." "I will tell thee who she was," said the general, laying his hand upon Camarga's shoulder, and speaking with a passionate energy;--"the daughter of a family, ancient and noble as his own, though without its wealth,--a novice about to take the vows, (for to this had the poverty of her house and her own religious fervour destined her;) and thus uplifted both by rank and profession above the aims of a seducer. But what thought the young cub of Castillejo of these impediments, when he feared not God, and saw no one left to punish his villany, save an impoverished old man and a rambling schoolboy? Dwell not on this--Speak not her name neither: let it be forgotten. May her soul rest in peace! for her own act of distraction avenged the dishonour of her fall." He paused in strong emotion, and Camarga, drawing the mantle closer round his head, continued: "Know, (and I speak thee a truth never before divulged to mortal man,) that the sin of this act,--the abduction of a devotee, whose novitiate was already accomplished,--belongs not to Juan, the debauchee, but to Gregorio, the Dominican." "These are the words of a madman," said Cortes, sternly; but he was interrupted by Camarga hastily exclaiming, "Misunderstand me not. The lover and the convent-robber was indeed Juan; but it was Gregorio who provoked him to the outrage, and gave him the means of success. The sacrilege had not been otherwise attempted, and the fickle-minded Juan would have soon forgotten the object of a passion both criminal and dangerous." "If you speak the truth," said Cortes, "you have exposed an atrocity, of which, as you said, truly no man ever dreamed. On what improbable ground do you make Gregorio a villain so monstrous?"