“That was worth living for—­worth being blind for,” she said suddenly, “to hear the people shout and cheer for him as he came along.  You who can see it all do not understand what the sound means to me.  For a moment—­only for a moment—­I saw light—­I know I saw a bright light before my eyes.  I am not dreaming.  It made my heart beat, and it made my head dizzy.  It must have been light.  Do you think it could be, Dolores?”

“I do not know, dear,” answered the other gently.

But as the day faded and they sat together in the early dusk, Dolores looked long and thoughtfully at the blind face.  Inez loved Don John, though she did not know it, and without knowing it she had told her sister.

* * * * *

CHAPTER II

When Don John had disappeared within the palace the people lingered a little while, hoping that something might happen which would be worth seeing, and then, murmuring a little in perfectly unreasonable disappointment, they slowly dispersed.  After that old Mendoza gave his orders to the officers of the guards, the men tramped away, one detachment after another, in a regular order; the cavalry that had ridden up with Don John wheeled at a signal from the trumpets, and began to ride slowly back to the city, pressing hard upon the multitude, and before it was quite dark the square before the palace was deserted again.  The sky had cleared, the pavement was dry again, and the full moon was rising.  Two tall sentinels with halberds paced silently up and down in the shadow.

Dolores and her sister were still sitting in the dark when the door opened, and a grey-haired servant in red and yellow entered the room, bearing two lighted wax candles in heavy bronze candlesticks, which he set upon the table.  A moment later he was followed by old Mendoza, still in his breastplate, as he had dismounted, his great spurs jingling on his heavy boots, and his long basket-hilted sword trailing on the marble pavement.  He was bareheaded now, and his short hair, smooth and grizzled, covered his energetic head like a close-fitting skull cap of iron-grey velvet.  He stood still before the table, his bony right hand resting upon it and holding both his long gloves.  The candlelight shone upward into his dark face, and gleamed yellow in his angry eyes.

Both the girls rose instinctively as their father entered; but they stood close together, their hands still linked as if to defend each other from a common enemy, though the hard man would have given his life for either of them at any moment since they had come into the world.  They knew it, and trembled.

“You have made me the laughing-stock of the court,” he began slowly, and his voice shook with anger.  “What have you to say in your defence?”

He was speaking to Dolores, and she turned a little pale.  There was something so cruelly hard in his tone and bearing that she drew back a little, not exactly in bodily fear, but as a brave man may draw back a step when another suddenly draws a weapon upon him.  Instantly Inez moved forward, raising one white hand in protest, and turning her blind face to her father’s gleaming eyes.