"Be good enough to answer me, and not to speak to Senorita Castelar, nor use her name. He promised you that she should be your wife. How was that to be, and what was to happen if the abduction plot had not failed and the Carlist movement had been successful?"
"It was not meant to succeed. His object was to get the young King away, the Monarchy overthrown, and at the same time to crush the Carlist risings as they are now being crushed. He then intended to set up a provisional Government, as a Republic, with himself at the head of it, and his own friends filling all the offices; and then to proclaim war with America, in order to consolidate all classes in favour of the Government."
"And you were to be——? what besides the senorita's husband."
"I was to be Minister of War."
"Spain has lost a brilliant servant, then, and you a portfolio and a wife, by the failure of the plot against the King. Of course, you were not fool enough to go so deep in without something more substantial than Quesada's word. You knew him too well for this. What proofs of his sincerity did he give you?"
He hesitated again, and showed once more the signs of extreme agitation, and at length answered in a tentative, doubtful tone—
"I had only his word; nothing could be written."
"What proofs had you?" I cried again, sternly. "Do you think I don't know what I am saying?"
"We discussed it frequently. I was in his confidence. I had no need of——"
"What proofs had you? I shall not ask you again."