"You wish to enter the palace?"
"Yes."
"It is too soon; come back in two hours."
"In two hours it will be too late, and so I must enter at once."
"Stuff," the sentry said jeeringly, and then added to his companion: "What do you think of that, Pedrito?"
"Well, well," the other replied with a grin; "I think that the gentleman must be a stranger, who is making a mistake, and fancies himself at the door of a mesón."
"Enough of that insolence, scoundrels," the horseman said sternly; "I have lost too much time already. Warn the officer of the guard, and make haste about it."
The tone employed by the stranger appeared to make a powerful impression on the soldiers. After consulting together for a moment in a whisper—as after all the stranger was in the right, and what he demanded was provided for in their orders—they resolved to satisfy him by striking the door with the butt of their muskets. Two or three minutes later, this door was opened, and offered a passage to a sergeant, who could be easily recognized by the vinewood stick, symbol of his rank, which he carried in his left hand. After enquiring of the sentries the reason of their summons, he bowed politely to the stranger, begged him to wait a moment, and went in, leaving the door open behind him, but almost immediately reappeared, preceding a captain in full dress uniform. The horseman bowed to the captain, and repeated the request which he had previously made to the sentries.
"I am very sorry to refuse you, señor," the officer replied, "but my orders prohibit me from letting anyone into the palace before eight o'clock; if the reason that brings you here is serious, be kind enough therefore to return at that hour, and nobody will oppose your entrance."
And he bowed as if taking leave.