Pavia, where the King of France was taken prisoner, and in the sack of Rome, as on other occasions where the Spanish troops were in the field, Don Diego did knightly service in every encounter. But while the Spaniards held possession of Rome, Don Diego married Doña Mencia de Sol, the lovely and still youthful widow of a Spanish officer of distinction, and again retired from the army to the enjoyment of domestic felicity in the court of Madrid.

But Don Diego did not long possess his lady,

who died a few years after their marriage, leaving only a single daughter as the pledge of their mutual attachment. Doña Catalina grew up under her father's eye, whose affections appeared to rest exclusively in her, and who sought to make her as accomplished in mind as she was beautiful in form and feature. In fact, as she gradually bloomed out into maturity of mind and person, she became one of the most fascinating beauties of the Spanish court, with the regular features, the deep-shaded eye, the full bust, the well defined arm and hand, and the rounded, but graceful outline, so common to the ladies of Spain, and all this in its highest perfection of loveliness and attractiveness. Admired and courted as she was by the gallants of the Emperor's court, there was but one eye, to which hers responded, but one voice, which sent the blood to her heart, or kindled a flush in her cheek; nor was it her fault that she was ambitious in her love; for Don Felipe of Spain was but just older

than herself, and although, in the reserve of public ceremonies, he saluted Doña Catalina with assumed indifference among the other ladies of the court, yet for her was the nightly serenade, and for her ear the whispered asseverations of constancy, which gained her affections. In evil hour she trusted to his protestations, in evil hour she yielded up her heart and promised her hand to the future heir of Spain and the Indies, unconscious of his cold and astutious temper, and of his readiness to sacrifice every natural affection on the altar of his ambition. For even Philip did not presume to approach the purity of Doña Catalina with other than honorable professions; and he prevailed over her artlessness of temper, and her trust in his honor, to consent, during a temporary absence of her father, to a secret marriage, of which only her dueña should be the witness. Don Diego might perceive that his daughter felt an interest in Philip; but, absorbed as he was in public employments, he had no means to observe, nor indeed did he suspect, its nature and That Doña Catalina's step had acquired new elasticity, that her cheek bloomed with added freshness, he might have perceived; but he little dreamed that these were signs of that brighter conception of the hopes and enjoyments of life, which Doña Catalina's stolen interviews with Don Felipe inspired. But in the change which suddenly came over her looks and conduct,—in the pallid cheek, the sunken eye, and the drooping air of his

extent.

daughter, Don Diego began to learn that sickness or care was undermining her life; and it was in the agony of a broken heart that she at length confessed to her father that she was a husbandless wife, and was about to become the mother of a fatherless child; for Don Philip had deluded her with the cruel device of a simulated marriage, and had just publicly given his hand to Doña Maria of Portugal.

Who may describe the feelings of the father, and such a father too, at this discovery? That the hopes of his heart in the person of his beautiful and beloved one were blasted forever, to gratify the transient fondness or the unbridled luxury of the Prince, -that the sole offspring of his house and of the wife of his affection was descending to the grave, a shamed and dishonored thing, although innocent of crime, intolerable as all this was, it was little, in his estimation, compared with the affront which had already been done his honor, and the disgrace which would fasten upon his name, if the facts should become known among the wits of the court and the haughty nobles of Castile. In the dark and stern resolves which settled down upon his soul in that calamitous hour, the path of reparation and vengeance was marked out by him in the map of his mind, and unshrinkingly followed up to the full consummation of his purposes.

It was a dark and rainy night in December, and El Valenciano sat dozing over his brasero, in a

kind of transitive state between sleeping and waking, when he was roused from his reveries by a tap on the shoulder, and lifted his eyes upon a masked cavalier, who, he saw by the faint light of his lamp on the wall, held a poniard in his hand, and with a threatening gesture signified to him to be silent. The cavalier commanded Gil Cano, more by signs than words, to submit to be bandaged, and to follow him without speaking; and when the terrified surgeon would have remonstrated, the stranger held the dagger to his heart, and sternly bade him to obey, on peril of his life. El Valenciano tremblingly submitted, as he was commanded; and closely muffled in his cloak he issued into the street; and as they left the shop, he heard the cavalier turn the key in his door. How far they proceeded, Gil Cano knew not; but after walking some time at a rapid pace, and making so many turns that he lost all idea of the direction in which they were going, he perceived that they entered a house, and after passing through a long corridor and two or three different apartments, at length stopped, the door having been bolted behind them by the masked cavalier.

When Gil Cano's face was unbandaged, he found himself in a small but richly furnished apartment; books, mingled with articles of female ornament and occupation, lay upon the table; a guitar beautifully inlaid with pearl and tortoise-shell hung by the window, near a large and splendid mirror; on

one side was a small Saint Catherine, a masterpiece of Lionardo, and on the other that inimitable Madonna of Raffaelle, called for its surpassing beauty the PEARL; and costly hangings of damask shaded an alcove and bed, where, supported by a dueña, lay a lady, who, but for the stifled and just audible sobs which proceeded from her, would have seemed, from the motionless repose of her form and of her beautiful but pallid features, to be past all art of the leach, and all resources of human skill. A moment's glance at the apartment sufficed to show its contents to El Valenciano; and he had but a moment wherein to observe them; for the fearful voice of the cavalier hastily commanded him to perform his office on the arm of the lady. Gil Cano started-was it a work of cure, or of death, which he was called upon to execute? The mys

terious secrecy of his introduction; the statue-like stillness of his patient, and yet the unambiguous accents of mortal sorrow, which broke from that young and lovely being; the stern bearing of the masked cavalier;-these were elements of speculation, which forced upon his mind the suspicion that he was to be made the instrument of some cruel husband, perhaps, to disguise to the world, under the forms of medical aid, the murder of an erring or it might be an injured wife. His soul revolted at the act; he fell on his knees before his conductor; he begged, he prayed, to be released from the task to which he was ordered.