The confession was ended, and if all the horrors which rumour ascribed to the unhappy Urquija were true, what a revelation it must have been! What a volume it would have made!
José Torquemada remained on his knees beside the penitent, who turned to him ever and anon, anxiously and hurriedly to pour into his ear some newly-remembered act of guilt, or perhaps to spin out the thread of life a little—a very little longer.
Meanwhile the solemn bell continued tolling; the people around the scaffold were nearly all upon their knees, and the grasp of the executioner was laid upon the iron wrench or screw of the garotte. The face of the culprit flushed as he did so, and then grew pale as marble.
The hand of the church clock indicated the hour of noon; then a cannon pealed from the fortifications of San Roque and the priest pointed with his crucifix to Heaven, while the executioner, at that instant, gave the screw a vigorous twist, and the head of Urquija fell suddenly on his breast. It heaved a little, and all was over.
A "viva" mingled with the prayers of the people; but the dead man remained motionless and still, under that bright sunshine of noon; and then rose the hum of many voices as if a load had been taken off every breast; while the bayonets flashed and the sharp brass drums beat merrily, as the Spanish Infantry wheeled from hollow square into open column of companies, and marched by sections through the Plaza to the fortified camp of San Roque; then the crowd, who, up to the last moment had foretold and expected a rescue from the band of Urquija, who were hovering and vowing vengeance on the Sierra de Ronda, began to disperse.
Such was the last act in the terrible career of Fabrique de Urquija, the student of Alcala; and such was the last episode of Jack Slingsby's Spanish adventures and mine.
We dined with the Commandant at the fortified camp of San Roque, and in the evening rode back to Gibraltar, where we found the garrison in a buzz of excitement.
"What is the matter?" I asked of a sentinel at the lower fortifications as we rode in; "and for what reason was that heavy cannon fired after sunset?"
"The Himalaya has come in, sir, with Sir Henry Slingsby and a detachment of the Guards on board; she is at anchor in the roads, and your regiment is ordered to embark for the Crimea by gunfire to-morrow."
"Hurrah!" cried Jack, and we dashed at full speed to our barracks, where the clusters of our soldiers in the square, laughing and talking gaily, the colonel's orderly running after the adjutant, the adjutant calling for the Serjeant major, and the evident excitement and satisfaction visible in every face, corroborated the information of the sentinel, and impressed upon us the necessity of immediately packing our baggage; but before doing so, I dispatched at once to press these little tales and episodes which have lightened and beguiled our mess-table in old Gibraltar; and if they please my readers, and win from them but half the praise they won from my light hearted and brave brother officers, my task in collecting them will be more than recompensed.