“I will try, your Majesty,” answered the General’s hard voice.

A moment later the panels shook violently under the old man’s weight, for he was stronger than one might have thought, being lean and tough rather than muscular.  Dolores took the moment when the noise was loudest and ran a few steps towards the window.  Then the sounds ceased suddenly, and she stood still.

“I cannot open it, your Majesty,” said Mendoza, in a disconsolate tone.

“Then go and get the key,” answered the King almost angrily.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XI

Inez remained hidden a quarter of an hour in the gallery over the throne room, before she ventured to open the door noiselessly and listen for any sound that might come from the passage.  She was quite safe there, as long as she chose to remain, for the Princess had believed that she had fled far beyond and was altogether out of reach of any one whose dignity would not allow of running a race.  It must be remembered that at the time she entered the gallery Mendoza had returned to his duty below, and that some time afterwards he had accompanied the King to Don John’s apartments, and had then been sent in search of the key to the locked door.

The blind girl was of course wholly ignorant of his whereabouts, and believed him to be in or about the throne room.  Her instinct told her that since Dolores had not gone to the court, as she had intended, with the Duchess Alvarez, she must have made some last attempt to see Don John alone.  In her perfect innocence such an idea seemed natural enough to Inez, and it at first occurred to her that the two might have arranged to meet on the deserted terrace where they had spent so many hours in former times.  She went there first, finding her way with some little difficulty from the corridor where the gallery was, for the region was not the one to which she was most accustomed, though there was hardly a corner of the upper story where she had never been.  Reaching the terrace, she went out and called softly, but there was no answer, nor could she hear any sound.  The night was not cold now, but the breeze chilled her a little, and just then the melancholy cry of a screech owl pierced the air, and she shivered and went in again.

She would have gone to the Duchess Alvarez had she not been sure that the latter was below with the Queen, and even as it was, she would have taken refuge in the Duchess’s apartments with the women, and she might have learned something of Dolores there.  But her touch reminded her that she was dressed in her sister’s clothes, and that many questions might be asked her which it would be hard to answer.  And again, it grew quite clear to her that Dolores must be somewhere near Don John, perhaps waiting in some concealed corner until all should be quiet.  It was more than probable that he would get her out of the palace secretly during the night and send her to his adoptive mother at Villagarcia.  She had not believed the Princess’s words in the least, but she had not forgotten them, and had argued rightly enough to their real meaning.