"Vaya, vaya! have we not had enough of it all?"
"Nay; I have made a promise. I must entreat you to tell me how Doña Maria de Bohorques met her doom."
"With unflinching hardihood. Don Juan Ponce tried to urge her to yield somewhat. But she refused, saying it was not now a time for reasoning, and that they ought rather to meditate on the Lord's death and passion. (They believe in that, it seems.) When she was bound to the stake, the monks and friars crowded round her, and pressed her only to repeat the Credo. She did so; but began to add some explanations, which, I suppose, were heretical. Then immediately the command was given to strangle her; and so, in one moment, while she was yet speaking, death came to her."
"Then she did not suffer? She escaped the fire! Thank God!"
Five minutes afterwards, Doña Inez stood by her brother's bed. He lay in the same posture, his face still shaded by his hand.
"Brother," she said gently--"brother, all is over. She did not suffer. It was done in one moment."
There was no answer.
"Brother, are you not glad she did not feel the fire? Can you not thank God for it? Speak to me."
Still no answer.
He could not be asleep! Impossible!--"Speak to me, Gonsalvo!--Brother!"