"Augustine, if I marry you, I wish that you would take me away from Saragossa for several days. I want for a little time to see other houses, other trees, other scenes. I wish to live for some days in places where these things are not, among which I have suffered so much."
"Yes, Mariquilla, my soul," exclaimed Montoria, quite carried away; "we will go wherever we please, far away from here, to-morrow even; no, not to-morrow, for the siege will not be raised. Day after to-morrow, in short, sometime, when—God wills it."
"Augustine," added Mariquilla, in a sleepy voice, "I wish that, after we return from our journey, that we might rebuild the house where I was born. The cypress-tree is still standing."
Mariquilla's head drooped forward, showing that she was half overcome with sleep.
"Do you want to go to sleep, you poor little thing?" my friend said to her, taking her in his arms.
"I have not slept at all for several nights," replied the girl, closing her eyes. "Anxiety, sorrow, and fear have kept me awake. To-night weariness overcomes me, and I am so peaceful now that it makes me wish to go to sleep."
"Sleep in my arms, Mariquilla," said Augustine; "and may the peace that now fills thy soul not leave thee when thou wakest."
After a little while, when we thought her sleeping, Mariquilla, half asleep and half awake, said,—
"Augustine, I do not wish my good Doña Guedita to leave me; she took such good care of us when we were first engaged. You see now I was right in telling you that my father was in the French camp to collect his bill—"
Then she spoke no more, and slept profoundly. Augustine sat upon the ground, holding her on his knees and in his arms. I covered her feet with my cloak.