The cavalcade having arrived at the square before the palace, Don Alonso formed his Cavaliers into a squadron round about her, and the Judges sent out two ushers of the Court, who conducted her to the door of the first hall, where she was received by two of the Judges, who did her all the honor that could have been conferred on a princess, and led her to the audience. Don Alonso, and other young nobles, who had alighted from their horses at the same time as Daraxa, followed her, and entered also into the hall where the Judges were assembled, who appeared much surprised and uneasy on this account. Putting, however, a good face on the matter, they attended only to the Moorish lady, who charmed them all by the elegant and majestic air with which she presented herself before the tribunal of justice. She took her seat in an arm-chair with a cushion and foot-carpet, which had been prepared for her, and after having beheld all the Judges for some moments with fixed attention, she raised her voice, and thus addressed them:-- “There is but one reason, my Lords, sufficiently imperative to justify the step that I have taken, in thus presenting myself before you. I know the rules that modesty prescribes for persons of my sex; but there are occasions when these rules may be dispensed with. On such an occasion am I come hither, to implore justice against yourselves. A sentence is to be put in execution to-morrow, that you have pronounced upon a man, whose only crime is that of having defended his life against assassins. This is an incontrovertible fact, of which I was myself an eye-witness, as well as Donna Elvira, and two waiting-women who were also with us in the wood. Shall two peasants be allowed to come up behind two Cavaliers, and beat them with clubs most unmercifully, and shall not these Cavaliers be justified in defending themselves against so unwarranted an assault? If the Bailiff’s son came with two of his friends, all three armed with swords, and rushed upon two men who had nothing but sticks to protect themselves with, what crime have these latter committed in acting on the defensive against such dastardly villains? Who among you, gentlemen, finding himself in the same situation, but would do his utmost to kill his opponent, if no other means remained of saving his own life? but why should I enlarge upon that point? you need not be told that it is the law of nature. It is now said that it was a mistake of the Bailiff’s son: but what of that? his mistake cannot justify his actions, neither can it criminate the persons whom he wished to assassinate.