There was a brilliant entertainment at the French embassy; and thither flocked, all the rank and chivalry of Madrid.

Calderon drew down the blind and hastily enjoined silence on Beatriz.

It was some minutes before the driver extricated himself from the throng; and then, as if to make amends for the delay, he put his horses to their full speed, and carefully selected the most obscure and solitary thoroughfares.

At length, the carriage entered the range of suburbs which still at this day the traveller passes on his road from Madrid to France.

The horses stopped before a lonely house that stood a little apart from the road, and which from the fashion of its architecture appeared of considerable antiquity.