“’The woman said no more, I heard a door open, I felt the warm air of the house, and we stole in like thieves.  Presently the girl’s light hand removed the bandage.  I found myself in a lofty and spacious room, badly lighted by a smoky lamp.  The window was open, but the jealous husband had fitted it with iron bars.  I was in the bottom of a sack, as it were.

“’On the ground a woman was lying on a mat; her head was covered with a muslin veil, but I could see her eyes through it full of tears and flashing with the brightness of stars; she held a handkerchief in her mouth, biting it so hard that her teeth were set in it:  I never saw finer limbs, but her body was writhing with pain like a harp-string thrown on the fire.  The poor creature had made a sort of struts of her legs by setting her feet against a chest of drawers, and with both hands she held on to the bar of a chair, her arms outstretched, with every vein painfully swelled.  She might have been a criminal undergoing torture.  But she did not utter a cry; there was not a sound, all three speechless and motionless.  The husband snored with reassuring regularity.  I wanted to study the waiting-woman’s face, but she had put on a mask, which she had removed, no doubt, during our drive, and I could see nothing but a pair of black eyes and a pleasingly rounded figure.

“‘The lover threw some towels over his mistress’ legs and folded the muslin veil double over her face.  As soon as I had examined the lady with care, I perceived from certain symptoms which I had noted once before on a very sad occasion in my life, that the infant was dead.  I turned to the maid in order to tell her this.  Instantly the suspicious stranger drew his dagger; but I had time to explain the matter to the woman, who explained in a word or two to him in a low voice.  On hearing my opinion, a quick, slight shudder ran through him from head to foot like a lightning flash; I fancied I could see him turn pale under his black velvet mask.

“’The waiting-woman took advantage of a moment when he was bending in despair over the dying woman, who had turned blue, to point to some glasses of lemonade standing on a table, at the same time shaking her head negatively.  I understood that I was not to drink anything in spite of the dreadful thirst that parched my throat.  The lover was thirsty too; he took an empty glass, poured out some fresh lemonade, and drank it off.

“’At this moment the lady had a violent attack of pain, which showed me that now was the time to operate.  I summoned all my courage, and in about an hour had succeeded in delivering her of the child, cutting it up to extract it.  The Spaniard no longer thought of poisoning me, understanding that I had saved the mother’s life.  Large tears fell on his cloak.  The woman uttered no sound, but she trembled like a hunted animal, and was bathed in sweat.

“’At one horribly critical moment she pointed in the direction of her husband’s room; he had turned in his sleep, and she alone had heard the rustle of the sheets, the creaking of the bed or of the curtain.  We all paused, and the lover and the waiting-woman, through the eyeholes of their masks, gave each other a look that said, “If he wakes, shall we kill him?”