"Are you perfectly sure that it is my daughter whom you come to arrest?"
"Yes Sir; I have orders to arrest the Señorita Doña Maria Elorza. I request you to hand her over to me without delay."
"Here I am," said Maria, issuing from the hollow of the balconied window, and advancing toward the chief of police.
"But it cannot be," thundered Don Mariano again, holding his daughter back. "This man is crazy or has come to the wrong place."
"Are you ready to go with me?" asked the comisario of the young woman.
"Yes, señor," was her firm reply.
"Then come along."
"Don Mariano hid his face in his hands, and exclaimed with a cry of agony,—
"Daughter of my heart, what have you been doing?"
"Nothing that dishonors me or dishonors you," replied the girl proudly, lifting her lovely face and hastening from the room. Don Mariano was held back by all his friends who clustered around him, but quickly finding himself alone, as all, warned by a cry from Marta, hastened to the assistance of Doña Gertrudis who had fainted, he darted like a flash from the room.