retired, after which Don Antonio and I continued together to fettle the necessary fums destined for the maintenance of the released innocent man, the widow, and her orphan children. This done, we both betook ourselves to rest.
CHAP. XVI.
This rest, if it deserve the name, was totally interrupted by the most painful considerations of the past. I only ascribed the invention of the murder to the mystic cabal, who, to be revenged on my stubborn and indocile conduct, thought it expedient by that scheme to bring the grey hairs of my mother with sorrow to the grave, and by throwing in virtue of her last testament, all my property into the hands of strangers, hoped by involving me in temporary confusion, to compel me to have recourse to their odious councils. The access which both Francisca and her husband had to my villa during my absence, not only furnished them with fre-
