on this existence of slaves to the sword, the nation who pays grumbles at seeing you inactive, and forgets other superfluous expenses to fix its complaints solely on the military.  Believe me, for a modern army, you are too few and badly organised; to keep the peace at home you are too many and too dear.  The fault is not yours, your vocation has come too late, when fate has rendered Spain powerless for adventurous undertakings.  If she revives she will have to follow a direction which will certainly not be that of the sword.  For this reason I say that these youths stray from the right path when they seek for glory where their ancestors thought to find it.”

The appearance of Silver Stick cut short the dialogue.  He ran in, pale with excitement, gasping, rattling his bunch of keys.

“His Eminence is coming,” he said, hurriedly.  “He is already under the arch; he wishes to spend the evening in the garden; it is a whim!  They say he is quite unmanageable to-day.”

And he ran on to open the staircase del Tenorio, which put the Claverias in communication with the lower cloister.

The cadet was alarmed at the unexpected proximity of his uncle.  He did not wish to meet him there, he feared the cardinal’s temper, and fled towards the tower staircase on his way to the bull-fight, sacrificing his sweetheart sooner than meet with Don Sebastian.

Gabriel, who now found himself alone in the cloister, leant against a column and watched the progress of this terrible prince of the Church.  He saw him come out of the doorway leading to the abode of the giants, followed by two servants.  Luna was able to examine him well for the first time.  He was enormous; but in spite of his age carried himself erectly; over his black cassock with the red borders hung his gold cross.  He was leaning with a martial air on a staff of command, and the gold tassels of his hat fell on the pink skin of his fat neck, which was fringed with white hair.  His small and penetrating eyes looked on all sides in the hopes of discovering some delinquency, something contravening the established rules, which would enable him to break out into shouts and menaces and so give vent to his ill humour and to the anger which furrowed his brows.

He disappeared by the staircase del Tenorio, preceded by Don Antolin, who, after opening the iron gates, had placed himself at his orders, shaking with fear.  The silence and solitude of the Claverias were undisturbed, it seemed as though the people hidden in their houses remained absolutely still, guessing the danger that was passing.

Gabriel, leaning on the balustrade, watched the cardinal enter the lower cloister, walking round two sides till he came to the garden gate.  A slight gesture from the prelate was sufficient to stop the two servants, and he walked on alone through the central avenue towards the summer-house where Tomasa was fast asleep between its leafy walls, her knitting in her hands.