.

THE COUNTERPLOT.
Calderon had not long left the young soldier before the governor of the prison entered to pay his respects to a captive of such high birth and military reputation.
Fonseca, always blunt and impatient of mood, was not in a humour to receive and return compliments; but the governor had scarcely seated himself ere he struck a chord in the conversation which immediately arrested the attention and engaged the interest of the prisoner.
"Do not fear, sir," said he, "that you will be long detained; the power of your enemy is great, but it will not be of duration.

The storm is already gathering round him; he must be more than man if he escapes the thunderbolt." "Do you speak to me thus of my kinsman, the Cardinal-Duke de Lerma ?" "No, Don Martin, pardon me.

I spoke of the Marquis de Siete Iglesias.
Are you so great a stranger to Madrid and to the court as to suppose that the Cardinal de Lerma ever signs a paper but at the instance of Don Roderigo?
Nay, that he ever looks over the paper to which he sets his hand?
Depend upon it, you are here to gratify the avarice or revenge of the Scourge of Spain." "Impossible!" cried Fonseca.

"Don Roderigo is my friend--my intercessor.
He overwhelms me with his kindness." "Then you are indeed lost," said the governor, in accents of compassion; "the tiger always caresses his prey before he devours it.