pardon, which I very readily granted all this would not satisfy Don Antonio; though I used every means to palliate their conduct as the result of an excessive zeal in what they thought their master's interest, he was inflexible, and ordered them to quit his service that very instant, as he would not feed and encourage a set of barbarous miscreants, who had had the assurance of maltreating a person in the garb of poverty, because he desired to speak to him. He then instantly dismissed them, warning them against similar misdemeanours in future, and protesting that had it not been for my generous intercession they should not have got off so easily, as he would have delivered them up to the correction of the police.
I lost no time to obtain the desired eclaircissements respecting the fate of Francisca. But Don Antonio was as much in the dark on this subject as myself, and Francisca treated me with the same mysterious reserve. I also perceived, that her former fondness for me had been transferred to my friend, who seemed to be rather indifferent about it.
