The old Marquis, in his night-gown, night-cap, and slippers, with a dark lantern in his hand, was most attentively on the watch at the window. It was one of those clear star-light nights so common in hot countries; from which circumstance they soon discovered the shadow of a man, at the distance of about two hundred paces. No sooner did Don Lewis hear the clock strike twelve, than, recollecting that it was at about that hour his gardener had heard the noise the preceding night, his heart began to beat most violently, and he was seized with a cold shivering in all his limbs. This agitation, which sufficiently betrayed the feelings of his soul in time of danger, was by no means diminished when he thought that he could perceive somebody walking along the wall on the side next the gallery. To be more convinced that he was not mistaken, he pointed to the place that his equerry might also look, and asked him if he saw any thing; but he, either that his sight was really not so good as his master’s, or through fear, persisted in asserting that he saw nothing. They were both, however, soon released from doubt by two of their sentinels coming up to apprise them that there was a man conversing, at the gallery window, with some person within the house. Don Lewis was the more astonished at this information, having all the keys of the house in his own possession. These were brought to him every night at nine o’clock; so that he could not possibly conceive who it could be that was supporting the conversation either from within or without, but could think of no other but Daraxa, whom one of her lovers must have come to visit at midnight through the assistance of one of the servants that he had bribed to introduce him into the garden, and that she must have procured another key for the gallery door by means of the same agent. This conjecture appeared the most probable. He desired all his followers to be in readiness, and formed the bold design of beginning the expedition himself, by surprising the beautiful Moor, so that she could not deny her crime. It is true, that, not daring to venture alone upon so over-bold a project, he took with him two of the most resolute of his musketeers, and his intrepid equerry before mentioned.