You will then marry Marie.  The secret of the mutual love against which you fought was no secret to me, and I have prepared the old Count to see you take my place.  Marie and I were merely doing what was expected of us in our position and carrying out the wishes of our fathers; everything else is in your favor.  You are beautiful as a child of love, and are possessed of Marie’s heart.  I am an ill-favored Spanish grandee, for whom she feels an aversion to which she will not confess.  Some slight reluctance there may be on the part of the noble Spanish girl on account of my misfortunes, but this you will soon overcome.

Duc de Soria, your predecessor would neither cost you a regret nor rob you of a maravedi.  My mother’s diamonds, which will suffice to make me independent, I will keep, because the gap caused by them in the family estate can be filled by Marie’s jewels.  You can send them, therefore, by my nurse, old Urraca, the only one of my servants whom I wish to retain.  No one can prepare my chocolate as she does.

During our brief revolution, my life of unremitting toil was reduced to the barest necessaries, and these my salary was sufficient to provide.  You will therefore find the income of the last two years in the hands of your steward.  This sum is mine; but a Duc de Soria cannot marry without a large expenditure of money, therefore we will divide it.  You will not refuse this wedding-present from your brigand brother.  Besides, I mean to have it so.

The barony of Macumer, not being Spanish territory, remains to me.  Thus I have still a country and a name, should I wish to take up a position in the world again.

Thank Heaven, this finishes our business, and the house of Soria is saved!

At the very moment when I drop into simple Baron de Macumer, the French cannon announce the arrival of the Duc d’Angouleme.  You will understand why I break off. . . .

October.

When I arrived here I had not ten doubloons in my pocket.  He would indeed be a poor sort of leader who, in the midst of calamities he has not been able to avert, has found means to feather his own nest.  For the vanquished Moor there remains a horse and the desert; for the Christian foiled of his hopes, the cloister and a few gold pieces.

But my present resignation is mere weariness.  I am not yet so near the monastery as to have abandoned all thoughts of life.  Ozalga had given me several letters of introduction to meet all emergencies, amongst these one to a bookseller, who takes with our fellow-countrymen the place which Galignani holds with the English in Paris.  This man has found eight pupils for me at three francs a lesson.  I go to my pupils every alternate day, so that I have four lessons a day and earn twelve francs, which is more than I require.  When Urraca comes I shall make some Spanish exile happy by passing on to him my connection.