the loathsome ugliness of the deformed Gitano; who, as he approached the fire, growled "Strangers here! Who has dared disclose the secret of our cavern?"

Hamet approaching him, replied aloud :-"I agreed to lead these travellers across the sierra, but night overtaking us, was fain to offer them shelter. Doubtless, the good señor will take care that our retreat is not betrayed."

"But there are women among them,-who can restrain their babbling tongues ?"

The heart of Donna Inez sunk within her, for she marked that the glance of the speaker was fixed on herself. At that moment the knight with ruffled brow arose, and was about to speak, but ere he could utter a word, the hideous being had hastily stalked to the place where the lady and her almost fainting attendant were seated; muttering as he went,

"I will be satisfied with no assurance but

my own respecting their silence,-the babbling fools!"

With a rude mockery of gallantry, he threw himself at the feet of Inez, who, rushing to the other side of her father, covered her face with her hands, as if she would exclude the very shadow of such frightful distortion.

The knight, indignant at the audacity of the Egyptian, laid his hand on his sword, exclaiming:-"Base hound! darest thou thrust thy loathsome visage within sight of a Castilian lady? Begone!"

"How now!" replied the Gitano, springing to his feet, 66 one would think I were an intruder into the halls of this lordling, instead of himself being a sojourner in our dwelling. What harm is there in my assuring the lady of my devoted homage to her charms? What think ye, my men? is this the return we ought to expect for our hospitality?"

As a confused murmur rose among the Gitani, the lady cast a timid glance around, and ob

serving their numbers, felt at once convinced that their only security was in appearing insensible to the rough habits of so lawless a tribe. For her beloved father's sake, therefore, whose safety was her first thought, she made an effort to overcome her repugnance to behold again the singular and disgusting deformity. Vainly, however, did she raise her beseeching eyes,— they were closed with a shudder of uncontrollable horror when they met his tiger-like glance; but a few low dulcet tones escaped her pale lips, which might have soothed the shaggy lord of the forest. "Forgive the hasty words of a father, and I pray thee, respect his grey

hairs!"

"Aye, aye," growled the miscreant, "we will respect his grey hairs: ha! ha! ha!" And the wide vault echoed with his harsh laughter. "What say ye, my comrades, shall the alforgas of the knight pay for his insolence, and this fair damsel be our hostage that he betray not our secret?-Nay, an' thou resist,

sir knight, 'twere easy to thrust thee hence, and fling thee, despite thy haughty bearing and vest of steel, over the side of the precipice."

The knight's sword was now unsheathed, and waving around the scarce breathing form that clung to his mailed breast. "The first who approaches me is a dead man," he loudly exclaimed," his blood be on his own head !"

But the words were scarcely uttered, when a powerful grasp from behind seized his arm, and at the same instant, by a simultaneous movement, Perez and the two troopers were overpowered and secured. On perceiving her father's weapon wrested from his grasp, Donna Inez uttered a faint cry of despair; and Sanchiza rushing to the further end of the cave, made the roof re-echo with her frantic screams.

The events of a moment are tedious to describe, those just narrated occurred with the swiftness of thought; and but a few moments had elapsed since the entrance of the hideous Gitano, when another individual, of far different costume

and bearing, appeared at the mouth of the ca vern. The sound of his voice was accompanied

by the clang of armour, as striding over the rocky floor, he exclaimed :- "Whence arose those cries? Who dares offer violence to a woman ?"

The swart figures of the Gitani reeled on each side of the advancing stranger, as if some magic wand had suddenly rendered them powerless. The captives who but an instant before stood helpless in their grasp, were free; and he of the hideous face, whose daring effrontery had caused the disturbance, quietly stole away and disappeared.

The stranger was evidently a knight of considerable rank;-he wore a splendid haubert, or shirt, of linked mail, with brassards and cuissards to correspond; the steel rings of which being flat, and highly polished, flashed in the red light of the fire at every movement. Over his closed helmet nodded a crimson plume, and of the same colour was his gambisoon, or under