ARRESTED.
"Inez!--truant! I have lost you all the morning!" cried Alcala, as he
heard the approach of his sister. Inez was surprised on entering the
room to see that the wounded man had managed to rise and dress himself
without assistance. "I waited for you till I had no patience for
longer waiting," continued Alcala cheerfully; "you have carried away
my Book, and have been so buried in its contents that you have quite
forgotten your brother."
The playful rebuke was given with a smile, which, however, vanished
from the face of Alcala as soon as he turned and looked on that of his
sister.
"What has happened?" exclaimed Aguilera, alarmed at the appearance of
Inez, who stood with pale lips apart, as if still gasping for breath;
her hair, usually smooth as satin, disordered, and pushed carelessly
back from a face that bore the impress of terror and suffering.
The poor girl, exhausted both by the strain on her physical endurance
and the alarm which she had undergone, came forward, sank on her knees
at her brother's feet, and burst into tears. Inez did not, however,
long give vent to her emotions. Struggling to speak through her sobs,
she gave an account of all that had happened,--the discovery of the
treasure, the treachery of Chico, and the cruel means which he had
taken to secure his own flight with the gold.
Alcala listened with breathless attention and burning indignation. The
fiery young Spaniard bit his nether lip hard to keep himself from
uttering the vow of deep vengeance which, a few weeks before, would
have been, under lighter provocation, sternly spoken and ruthlessly
kept. It was no easy task to Aguilera to wrestle down and keep under
control the passion which he now felt to be unbecoming a Christian.
Alcala, however, said not a word until Inez had finished her story.
Then he spoke in a tone of suppressed indignation.
"This false--Chico must be tracked at once, and forced to yield up his
ill-gotten spoil. Would that Lepine had not yesterday started for
Madrid,--his intelligence, his English energy, would have been
invaluable now. Give me my writing materials, Inez. If I had but
strength to go myself to the minister of justice,--surely I have
strength," added Alcala, rising and supporting himself by the table,
"I shall be given strength to rescue my family from want, and win back
the property of my grandmother. The alguazils must at once be set on
the scent of the thief."
"The alguazils!" faltered Inez, who was still in her crouching
position at the feet of her brother; "O Alcala, have we no reason to
dread them ourselves?"
A heavy tramping in the corridor without was as an answer to the
question. Inez sprang to her feet with an exclamation of terror, as
the door was opened and the room entered by a body of the Spanish
police.
The flush which indignation had lately brought to Alcala's pale face
passed away. Still leaning on the table for support, he drew himself
up to his full height, and in a calm voice demanded of the alcalde who
headed the party what errand had brought him to the house of a
cavalier.
"I come under a warrant from the corregidor, illustrious senor," said
the alcalde, advancing towards his prisoner, and bowing low with the
punctilious courtesy peculiar to Spaniards. "It is my painful duty to
arrest the noble caballero."
"Upon what charge?" demanded Alcala.
"The charge of having held an unlawful meeting for the purpose of
reading a forbidden Book, senor," was the answer.
"And who has preferred the charge?" asked Alcala.
"Your own servant, senor, by name Tomaso Chico, who was one of the
party assembled at the meeting, and who engages to bring many other
witnesses to support his accusation against you."
"Many witnesses!" murmured Inez.
"This Chico is a false villain, who has just robbed me, and who has
doubtless brought the charge against his injured master to
incapacitate him from pursuing the traitor, and giving him up to
justice," said the indignant Alcala.
"Of that, illustrious senor, it is not my part to judge," replied the
alcalde. "I have but to perform my duty, which is to search this house
for any prohibited writings or books, and to bear you off--pardon me,
senor--to the prison."
Resistance or expostulation would have been utterly useless. Alcala,
with quiet dignity, resumed his seat, and motioned to his sister to
take one beside him, while the alguazils commenced their search. It
was more rigid than it probably would have been had the cavalier
slipped a few dollars into the officer's hands. Aguilera might,
perhaps, in that case, have been spared the personal search which made
the wounded hidalgo colour both from a sense of violated dignity and
actual physical pain. But the thought, "O my Lord, this humiliation is
for Thy sake!" took all bitterness from the trial, and Alcala's only
care was to calm and reassure his terrified sister.
The search was continued for some time, and extended all over the
mansion. Even the apartment of the imbecile old lady was invaded, and
Donna Benita was thrown into hysterics by the strange sight of
alguazils throwing open her drawers and presses, and dragging forth
and flinging on the floor even her articles of dress, notwithstanding
the loud indignant remonstrances of Teresa. Every place was explored,
every corner searched for the forbidden Book, which, unsuspected by
the alguazils, lay under the folds of the mantle of the young
senorita.
Foiled in their search for Bibles, it now only remained for the
alguazils to bear off their prisoner. A close conveyance was waiting
at the entrance, surrounded by a little mob that had gathered to see
the officers of the law bring out their captive. Inez still clung to
her brother, helping to support his feeble steps, as, with guards
before and behind, Alcala traversed the long lofty corridor, and
entered the patio. The cavalier paused when he reached the fountain,
where he wished to bid his sister farewell. He would not expose Inez
to the view of the rabble, the sound of whose voices he now heard
without in the street.
"Allow me a moment, senor," he said, addressing the alcalde, who bowed
assent to the trifling delay. Then bending down, Alcala imprinted one
kiss on the marble-cold brow of his sister.
"Be of good courage, my Inez; all will be well," whispered Alcala.
"You know not the peace and joy that is given to those who suffer for
_Him_." There was no time to speak more, but with a smile which said
more than his words--for it was as the reflection of Heaven's sunshine
upon him--Alcala pressed the hand of Inez, and so they parted. A
prisoner for conscience' sake, the Spaniard quitted the home of his
fathers, and passed over the threshold which he was conscious that he
was not likely ever to cross again.
Inez was almost stunned at first by the suddenness of the blow which
had fallen upon her. She could hardly realize that she was not in a
horrible dream. Was it true--could it be true--that her brother, that
Don Alcala de Aguilera had been arrested as if he were a felon, and
marched off to endure, in his enfeebled state, the miseries of a
Spanish prison? Alcala's danger so entirely absorbed the mind of Inez
that it left no room for a thought of self; in her desolation and
poverty the Spanish girl did not even ask herself, "What will become
of me?"
Inez was roused from her state of half-stupefaction by Teresa, who,
beating her breast, and tearing her gray hair, came up to her young
mistress.
"Ah, Donna Inez! Donna Inez!" she exclaimed, "all this disgrace and
misery would never have befallen the house of Aguilera had you not
sold the hair of Santa Veronica!"
"Teresa, this is no time for reproaches," said Inez faintly; "we must
act, we must do all in our power to aid my brother. Oh that the
English senor were not absent at Madrid!"
Teresa ground her teeth at the mention of Lucius Lepine, whom she
regarded as the original author of all these calamities, the villain
who had corrupted the faith of her master.
"I can think of no friend to consult save Donna Maria," continued
Inez, after a pause for anxious reflection. "Her husband may have some
little influence with the Governor, Don Rivadeo; and she will at least
give sympathy and advice. Teresa, let us go to Donna Maria at once."
"We cannot both leave the house," said Teresa sharply. "There's Donna
Benita almost in fits. The wretches dared to enter the presence of a
lady of the house of Aguilera, and terrify her out of her senses."
"Hasten to my grandmother,--do not leave her!" cried Inez. "How could
I be so thoughtless as to forget her helpless state for a moment!" And
as Teresa turned away to seek the room of Benita, Inez murmured to
herself, "I will go alone to the friend of my mother."