In Kedar's Tents Part 40

'Larralde, Excellency,' he said, 'is one of those who are never found at the front. He will not be in Toledo to-night--that Larralde.'

'Where is the Senorita Barenna?' asked the General.

'She is downstairs--commanding his Excellency's soldiers to let her pa.s.s.'

'You go down, my friend, and bring her here. Then take that door yourself.'

Concepcion bowed ceremoniously and withdrew. He might have been an amba.s.sador, and his salutation was worthy of an Imperial Court.

A moment later Julia Barenna came into the room, her dark eyes wide with terror, her face pale and drawn.

'Where is the Queen Regent?' she asked, looking from one face to the other, and seeing all her foes a.s.sembled as if by magic before her.

'Her Majesty is on the road between Aranjuez and Madrid--in safety, my dear Julia,' replied the General soothingly.

'But they think she is here. The people are in the streets. Look out of the window. They are in the Plaza.'

'I know it, my dear,' said the General.

'They are armed--they are going to attack this house.'

'I am aware of it.'

'Their plan is to murder the Queen.'

'So we understand,' said the General gently. He had a horror of anything approaching sensation or a scene, a feeling which Spaniards share with Englishmen. 'That is the Queen for the time being,'

added Vincente, pointing to Estella.

Julia stood looking from one to the other--a self-contained woman made strong by love. For there is nothing in life or human experience that raises and strengthens man or woman so much as a great and abiding love. But Julia Barenna was driven and almost panic-stricken. She held herself in control by an effort that was drawing lines in her face never to be wiped out.

'But you will tell them? I will do it. Let me go to them. I am not afraid.'

'No one must leave this house now,' said the General. 'You have come to us, my dear, you must now throw in your lot with ours.'

'But Estella must not take this risk,' exclaimed Julia. 'Let me do it.'

And some woman's instinct sent her to Estella's side--two women alone in that great house amid this man's work, this strife of reckless politicians.

'And you, and Senor Conyngham,' she cried, 'you must not run this great risk.'

'It is what we are paid for, my dear Julia,' answered the General, holding out his arm and indicating the gold stripes upon it.

He walked to the window and opened the ma.s.sive shutters, which swung back heavily. Then he stepped out on to the balcony without fear or hesitation.

'See,' he said, 'the square is full of them.'

He came back into the room, and Conyngham, standing beside him, looked down into the moonlit Plaza. The square was, indeed, thronged with dark and silent shadows, while others, stealing from the doorways and narrow alleys with which Toledo abounds, joined the groups with stealthy steps. No one spoke, though the sound of their whispering arose in the still night air like the murmur of a breeze through reeds. A hundred faces peered upwards through the darkness at the two intrepid figures on the balcony.

'And these are Spaniards, my dear Conyngham,' whispered the General.

'A hundred of them against one woman. Name of G.o.d! I blush for them.'

The throng increased every moment, and withal the silence never lifted, but brooded breathlessly over the ancient town. Instead of living men, these might well have been the shades of the countless and forgotten dead who had come to a violent end in the streets of a city where Peace has never found a home since the days of Nebuchadnezzar. Vincente came back into the room, leaving shutter and window open.

'They cannot see in,' he said, 'the building is too high. And across the Plaza there is nothing but the Cathedral, which has no windows accessible without ladders.'

He paused, looking at his watch.

'They are in doubt,' he said, speaking to Conyngham. 'They are not sure that the Queen is here. We will keep them in doubt for a short time. Every minute lost by them is an inestimable gain to us. That open window will whet their curiosity, and give them something to whisper about. It is so easy to deceive a crowd.'

He sat down and began to peel a peach. Julia looked at him, wondering wherein this man's greatness lay, and yet perceiving dimly that, against such as he, men like Esteban Larralde could do nothing.

Concha, having supped satisfactorily, was now sitting back in his chair seeking for something in the pockets of his ca.s.sock.

'It is to be presumed,' he said, 'that one may smoke--even in a palace.'

And under their gaze he quietly lighted a cigarette with the deliberation of one in whom a long and solitary life had bred habits only to be broken at last by death.

Presently the General rose and went to the window again.

'They are still doubtful,' he said, returning, 'and I think their numbers have decreased. We cannot allow them to disperse.'

He paused, thinking deeply.

'My child,' he said suddenly to Estella, 'you must show yourself on the balcony.'

Estella rose at once; but Julia held her back.

'No,' she said; 'let me do it. Give me the white mantilla.'

There was a momentary silence while Estella freed herself from her cousin's grasp. Conyngham looked at the woman he loved while she stood, little more than a child, with something youthful and inimitably graceful in the lines of her throat and averted face.

Would she accept Julia's offer? Conyngham bit his lip and awaited her decision. Then, as if divining his thought, she turned and looked at him gravely.

'No,' she said; 'I will do it.'

She went towards the window. Her father and Conyngham had taken their places, one on each side, as if she were the Queen indeed.

She stood for a moment on the threshold, and then pa.s.sed out into the moonlight, alone. Immediately there arose the most terrifying of all earthly sounds--the dull, antagonistic roar of a thousand angry throats. Estella walked to the front of the balcony and stood, with an intrepidity which was worthy of the royal woman whose part she played, looking down on the upturned faces. A red flash streaked the darkness of a far corner of the square, and a bullet whistled through the open window into the woodwork of a mirror.

'Come back,' whispered General Vincente. 'Slowly, my child-- slowly.'

Estella stood for a moment looking down with a royal insolence, then turned, and with measured steps approached the window. As she pa.s.sed in she met Conyngham's eyes, and that one moment a.s.suredly made two lives worth living.

CHAPTER XXIX. MIDNIGHT AND DAWN.

'I have set my life upon a cast And I will stand the hazard of the die.'