But all the same, without the dog, they two were there and that meant something, eh! He with his old pistol which had never been fired, and Gabriel with his carbine, which was still standing in the corner where his predecessor had left it.

He plumed himself upon the fear he and his companion would excite, but, called back to reality by Luna's smile, he added: "At any rate, in case of emergency we can reckon on the bell that summons the canons; the rope hangs down in the choir, and we have only to ring it.

And just imagine what would happen if it rang in the silence of the night! All Toledo would be on foot, knowing that something serious was taking place in the Cathedral.

With this and those cursed markers that will not let one sleep, one might say that even the king was not so well guarded at night as this church." In the morning when the watch was ended, Gabriel would return to his house, perished with cold, longing to stretch himself in bed.

He would find Sagrario in the kitchen, warming the milk he was to drink before turning in.