"Go, then, my friend, I will keep you no longer."
After affectionately pressing the hand which the general offered him, don Jaime withdrew.
López was waiting for him at the palace gate; he mounted his horse, and at once returned home. After writing some letters, which he ordered his peon to deliver at once, don Jaime changed his dress, took certain papers locked up in a bronze casket, assured himself that the hour was not improper (it was hardly ten at night), then went out, and hurried toward the Spanish Embassy, from which he was at no great distance. The ambassador's door was still open; servants in handsome liveries were moving about the courtyard and vestibule; a porter was standing at the entrance of the zaguán, halberd in hand.
Don Jaime addressed him. The porter called a footman, and made the adventurer a sign to follow this man. On reaching an antechamber, an usher wearing a silver chain round his neck, approached don Jaime, handed him a card, sealed up in an envelope.
"Deliver this card to his Excellency," he said.
At the expiration of a few minutes the usher returned, and throwing open a door, said—
"His Excellency awaits your lordship."
Don Jaime followed him, passed through several rooms, and at length reached the cabinet in which the ambassador was. Don Pacheco advanced a few steps toward him, and bowed graciously.
"To what happy chance may I attribute your visit, caballero?" he asked him.
"I beg your Excellency to excuse me," don Jaime replied, with a bow, "but it was not in my power to select a more convenient hour."