Valladolid, were the King and his Court. Con- | moment she heard from papa's lips what was the na

sequently, there was plenty of regiments and ture of his errand. His daughter Catharine, he inplenty of regimental bands. Attracted by one formed the Don, had eloped from the convent of St. of these, Catalina was quietly listening to the Sebastian, a place rich in delight. Then he laid music, when some street ruffians, in derision of open the unparalleled ingratitude of such a step. the gay colours and the form of her forest-made Oh, the unseen treasure that had been spent upon costume-[rascals! one would like to have seen that girl! Oh, the untold sums of money that he had what sort of trousers they would have made with sunk in that unhappy speculation! The nights of no better scissors!]-began to pelt her with sleeplessness suffered during her infancy! The fifstones. Ah, my friends, of the genus blackguard, teen years of solicitude thrown away in schemes for you little know who it is that you are selecting her improvement! It would have moved the heart for experiments. This is the one creature of fif- of a stone. The hidalgo wept copiously at his own teen in all Spain, be the other male or female, pathos. And to such a height of grandeur had he whom nature, and temper, and provocation have carried his Spanish sense of the sublime, that he qualified for taking the conceit out of you. This disdained to mention the pocket-handkerchief she very soon did, laying open a head or two with which he had left at St. Sebastian's fifteen years " and which, a sharp stone, and letting out rather too little ago, by way of envelope for " pussy, than too much of bad Valladolid blood. But mark to the best of pussy's knowledge, was the one sole the constant villany of this world. Certain Al- memorandum of papa ever heard of at St. Seguazils-very like some other Alguazils that I bastian's. Pussy, however, saw no use in revisknow nearer home-having stood by quietly to ing and correcting the text of papa's rememsee the friendless stranger insulted and assaulted, brances. She showed her usual prudence, and now felt it their duty to apprehend the poor nun her usual incomparable decision. It did not apfor murderous violence: and had there been such pear, as yet, that she would be reclaimed, or was a thing as a treadmill in Valladolid, Kate was at all suspected for the fugitive by her father. booked for a place on it without further inquiry. For it is an instance of that singular fatality Luckily, injustice does not always prosper. A which pursued Catalina through life, that, to her gallant young cavalier, who had witnessed from own astonishment (as she now collected from her his windows the whole affair, had seen the pro- father's conference), nobody had traced her to vocation, and admired Catalina's behaviour- Valladolid, nor had her father's visit any conequally patient at first and bold at last-hastened nexion with suspicions travelling in that direcinto the street, pursued the officers, forced them tion. The case was quite different. Strangely to release their prisoner, upon stating the cir- enough, her street row had thrown her into the cumstances of the case, and instantly offered Ca- one sole household in all Spain that had an offitalina a situation amongst his retinue. He was cial connexion with St. Sebastian's. That cona man of birth and fortune; and the place offered, vent had been founded by the young cavalier's that of an honorary page, not being at all degrad- family; and, according to the usage of Spain, ing even to a daughter of somebody," was the young man (as present representative of his cheerfully accepted. Here Catalina spent a house) was the responsible protector of the estahappy month. She was now splendidly dressed blishment. It was not to the Don, as harbourer in dark blue velvet, by a tailor that did not work of his daughter, but to the Don, as ex officio visiter within the gloom of a chestnut forest. She and of the convent, that the hidalgo was appealing. the young cavalier, Don Francisco de Cardenas, Probably Kate might have staid safely some time were mutually pleased, and had mutual confi- longer. Yet, again, this would but have multidence. All went well-when one evening, but, plied the clues for tracing her; and, finally, she luckily, not until the sun had been set so long would too probably have been discovered; after as to make all things indistinct, who should which, with all his youthful generosity, the poor march into the ante-chamber of the cavalier but Don could not have protected her. Too terrific that sublime of crocodiles, Papa, that we lost was the vengeance that awaited an abettor of any sight of fifteen years ago, and shall never see fugitive nun; but above all, if such a crime were again after this night. He had his crocodile perpetrated by an official mandatory of the church. tears all ready for use, in working order, like a Yet, again, so far it was the more hazardous good industrious fire-engine. It was absolutely course to abscond, that it almost revealed her to to Catalina herself that he advanced; whom, for the young Don as the missing daughter. Still, many reasons, he could not be supposed to re- if it really had that effect, nothing at present cognise-lapse of years, male attire, twilight, obliged him to pursue her, as might have been were all against him. Still, she might have the the case a few weeks later. Kate argued (I darefamily countenance; and Kate thought he looked say) rightly, as she always did. Her prudence with a suspicious scrutiny into her face, as he whispered eternally, that safety there was none inquired for the young Don. To avert her own for her, until she had laid the Atlantic between face, to announce him to Don Francisco, to wish herself and St. Sebastian's. Life was to be for him on the shores of that ancient river for croco- her a Bay of Biscay; and it was odds but she diles, the Nile, furnished but one moment's work had first embarked upon this billowy life from to the active Catalina. She lingered, however, the literal Bay of Biscay. Chance ordered otheras her place entitled her to do, at the door of the wiso. Or, as a Frenchman says with eloquent audience chamber. She guessed already, but in a ingenuity, in connexion with this story, "chance

outside of a maritime land must be the shore; so that, if she kept the shore, and went far enough, she could not fail of hitting her foot against Paita at last, in the very darkest night, provided only she could first find out which was up and which was down; else she might walk her shoes off, and find herself six thousand miles in the wrong. Here was an awkward case, all for want of a guide post. Still, when one thinks of Kate's prosperous horoscope, that after so long a voyage, she only, out of the total crew, was thrown on the American shore, with one hundred and five pounds in her purse of clear gain on the voyage, a conviction arises that she could not guess wrongly. She might have tossed up, having coins in her pocket, heads or tails? but this kind of sortilege was then coming to be thought irreligious in Christendom, as a Jewish and a Heathen mode of questioning the dark future. She simply guessed, therefore; and very soon a thing hap

the representatives of his Catholic Majesty. It cannot be denied by the greatest of philosophers, that the muleteer's stable at Valladolid was worth twenty such ships, though the stable was not insured against fire, and the ship was insured against the sea and the wind by some fellow that thought very little of his engagements. But what's the use of sitting down to cry? That was never any trick of Catalina's. By day-break, she was at work with an axe in her hand. I knew it, before ever I came to this place, in her memoirs. I felt, as sure as if I had read it, that, when day broke, we should find Kate hard at work. Thimble or axe, trowsers or raft, all one to her. The Captain, though true to his duty, seems to have desponded. He gave no help towards the raft. Signs were speaking, however, pretty loudly that he must do something; for notice to quit was now served pretty liberally. Kate's raft was ready; and she encouraged the captain to think that it would give both of them some-pened which, though adding nothing to strengthen thing to hold by in swimming, if not even carry her guess as a true one, did much to sweeten it double, At this moment, when all was waiting if it should prove a false one. On turning a point for a start, and the ship herself was waiting for a of the shore, she came upon a barrel of biscuit final lurch, to say Good-bye to the King of Spain, washed ashore from the ship. Biscuit is about Kate went and did a thing which some misjudging the best thing I know, but it is the soonest spoiled; people will object to. She knew of a box laden and one would like to hear counsel on one puzzling with gold coins, reputed to be the King of Spain's, point, why it is that a touch of water utterly and meant for contingencies in the voyage out. ruins it, taking its life, and leaving a caput morThis she smashed open with her axe, and took tuum corpse! Upon this caput Kate breakfasted, a sum equal to 100 guineas English; which, though her case was worse than mine; for any having well secured in a pillow-case, she then water that ever plagued me was always fresh; lashed firmly to the raft. Now this, you know, now hers was a present from the Pacific ocean. though not "flotsom," because it would not float, She, that was always prudent, packed up some was certainly, by maritime law, "jetsom." It would of the Catholic king's biscuit, as she had prebe the idlest of scruples to fancy that the sea or viously packed up far too little of his gold. But a shark had a better right to it than a philo- in such cases a most delicate question occurs, sopher, or a splendid girl who showed her- pressing equally on medicine and algebra. It self capable of writing a very fair 8vo, to say no- is this if you pack up too much, then, by this thing of her decapitating in battle several of the extra burthen of salt provisions, you may retard king's enemies, and recovering the king's banner. for days your arrival at fresh provisions; on the No sane moralist would hesitate to do the same other hand, if you pack up too little, you may thing under the same circumstances, on board an never arrive at all. Catalina hit the juste milieu; English vessel, though the First Lord of the Ad- and about twilight on the second day, she found miralty should be looking on. The raft was now herself entering Paita, without having had to thrown into the sea. Kate jumped after it, and swim any river in her walk. then entreated the captain to follow her. He attempted it; but, wanting her youthful agility, he struck his head against a spar, and sank like lead, giving notice below that his ship was coming. Kate mounted the raft, and was gradually washed ashore, but so exhausted, as to have lost all recollection. She lay for hours until the warmth of the sun revived her. On sitting up, she saw a desolate shore stretching both ways-nothing to eat, nothing to drink, but fortunately the raft and the money had been thrown near her; none of the lashings having given way-only what is the use of a guinea amongst tangle and sea-gulls? The money she distributed amongst her pockets, and soon found strength to rise and march forward. But which was forward? and which backward? She knew by the conversation of the sailors that Paita must be in the neighbourhood; and Paita, being a port, could not be in the inside of Peru, but, of course, somewhere on its outside-and the

The first thing, in such a case of distress, which a young lady does, even if she happens to be a young gentleman, is to beautify her dress. Kate always attended to that, as we know, having overlooked her in the chestnut wood. The man she sent for was not properly a tailor, but one who employed tailors, he himself furnishing the materials. His name was Urquiza, a fact of very little importance to us in 1847, if it had stood only at the head and foot of Kate's little account. But unhappily for Kate's début on this vast American stage, the case was otherwise. Mr. Urquiza had the misfortune (equally common in the old world and the new) of being a knave; and also a showy specious knave. Kate, who had prospered under sea allowances of biscuit and hardship, was now expanding in proportions. With very little vanity or consciousness on that head, she now displayed a really fine person; and, when drest anew in the way that became young officer in the Spanish

service, she looked the representative picture of a | years," which even annuity offices hear, and perSpanish caballador. It is strange that such an haps utter, without a pang. Kate, therefore, appearance, and such a rank, should have sug- wrote to Trujillo, expressing her honest fears, gested to Urquiza the presumptuous idea of wish- and desiring to have more definite instructions. ing that Kate might become his clerk. He did, These were positive. If the lady chose to send however, wish it; for Kate wrote a beautiful for the entire shop, her account was to be debited hand; and a stranger thing is, that Kate accepted instantly with that. She had, however, as yet, his proposal. This might arise from the difficulty not sent for the shop, but she began to manifest of moving in those days to any distance in Peru. strong signs of sending for the shopman. Upon The ship had been merely bringing stores to the the blooming young Biscayan had her roving eye station of Paita; and no corps of the royal armies settled; and she was in a course of making up was readily to be reached, whilst something must her mind to take Kate for a sweetheart. Poor be done at once for a livelihood. Urquiza had two | Kate saw this with a heavy heart. And, at the mercantile establishments, one at Trujillo, to which same time that she had a prospect of a tender he repaired in person, on kate's agreeing to un- friend more than she wanted, she had become dertake the management of the other in Paita. | certain of an extra enemy that she wanted quite Like the sensible girl, that we have always found as little. What she had done to offend Mr. Reyes, her, she demanded specific instructions for her Kate could not guess, except as to the matter of guidance in duties so new. Certainly she was in the credit: but then, in that, she only executed a fair way for seeing life. Telling her beads at her instructions. Still Mr. Reyes was of opinion St. Sebastian's, manoeuvring irregular verbs at that there were two ways of executing orders : Vittoria, acting as gentleman usher at Valladolid, but the main offence was unintentional on Kate's serving his Spanish majesty round Cape Horn, part. Reyes, though as yet she did not know it, fighting with storms and sharks off the coast of had himself been a candidate for the situation of Peru, and now commencing as book-keeper or clerk; and intended probably to keep the equacommis to a draper at Paita, does she not justify tion precisely as it was with respect to the allowthe character that I myself gave her, just before ance of credit, only to change places with the dismissing her from St. Sebastian's, of being a handsome lady-keeping her on the negative side, "handy" girl? Mr. Urquiza's instructions were himself on the affirmative-an arrangement that short, easy to be understood, but rather comic; you know could have made no sort of pecuniary and yet, which is odd, they led to tragic results. difference to Urquiza. There were two debtors of the shop, (many, it is to be hoped, but two meriting his affectionate notice) with respect to whom he left the most opposite directions. The one was a very handsome lady; and the rule as to her was, that she was to have credit unlimited, strictly unlimited. That was plain. The other customer, favoured by Mr. Urquiza's valedictory thoughts, was a young man, cousin to the handsome lady, and bearing the name of Reyes. This youth occupied in Mr. | sult, courteously requested him to move a little Urquiza's estimate the same hyperbolical rank upon which Reyes remarked that it was not in as the handsome lady, but on the opposite side his power to oblige the clerk as to that, but that of the equation. The rule as to him was-that he could oblige him by cutting his throat. The he was to have no credit; strictly none. In tiger that slept in Catalina wakened at once. She this case, also, Kate saw no difficulty; and when seized him, and would have executed vengeance she came to know Mr. Reyes a little, she found on the spot, but that a party of young men interthe path of pleasure coinciding with the path of posed to part them. The next day, when Kate duty. Mr. Urquiza could not be more precise in (always ready to forget and forgive) was thinking laying down the rule than Kate was in enforcing no more of the row, Reyes passed; by spitting it. But in the other case a scruple arose. Un- at the window, and other gestures insulting to limited might be a word, not of Spanish law, but Kate, again he roused her Spanish blood. Out of Spanish rhetoric; such as “Live a thousand she rushed, sword in hand—a duel began in the street, and very soon Kate's sword had passed into the heart of Reyes. Now that the mischief was done, the police were, as usual, all alive for the pleasure of avenging it. Kate found herself suddenly in a strong prison, and with small hopes of leaving it, except for execution. The relations of the dead man were potent in Paita, and clamourous for justice, so that the corregidor, in a case where he saw a very poor chance of being corrupted by bribes, felt it his duty to be sublimely incorruptible. The reader knows, however, that, amongst the relatives of the deceased bully, was that handsome lady, who differed as much from

"She looked," &e. If ever the reader should visit Aixla-Chapelle, he will probably feel interest enough in the poor, wild impassioned girl, to look out for a picture of her in that eity, and the only one known certainly to be authentie. It is in the collection of Mr. Sempaler. For some time it was supposed that the best (if not the only) portrait of her lurked somewhere in Italy. Since the discovery of the picture at Aix-la-Chapelle, that notion has been abandoned. But there is great reason to believe that, both in Madrid and Rome, many portraits of her must have been painted to meet the intense interest which arose in her history subsequently amongst all the men of rank, military or ecclesiastical, whether in Italy or Spain. The date of these would range between sixteen and twenty-two years from the period which we have now reached (1608),

Thus stood matters, when a party of strolling players strolled into Paita. Kate, as a Spaniard, being one held of the Paita aristocracy, was expected to attend. She did so; and there also was the malignant Reyes. He came and seated himself purposely so as to shut out Kate from all view of the stage. She, who had nothing of the bully in her nature, and was a gentle creature when her wild Biscayan blood had not been kindled by in

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sort of procession formed, for the purpose of doing honour to the interesting guest, and escorting him in pomp to his bed-room. Kate viewed it much in the same light as the procession to which for some days she had been expecting an invita-1 tion from the corregidor. Far ahead ran the servant-woman as a sort of outrider. Then came Urquiza, like a Pasha of two tails, who granted two sorts of credit, viz. unlimited and none at all, bearing two wax-lights, one in each hand, and wanting only cymbals and kettle drums to express emphatically the pathos of his Castillian strut. Next came the bride, a little in advance of the clerk, but still turning obliquely towards him, and smiling graciously into his face. Lastly, bringing up the rear, came the prisoner-our Kate-the nun, the page, the mate, the clerk, the homicide, the convict; and, for this day only, by particular desire, the bridegroom elect.

her cousin in her sentimer ts as to Kate, as she did | desirable, Kate assented, and instantly rose. A in the extent of her credit with Mr. Urquiza. To her Kate wrote a note; and, using one of the Spanish King's gold coins for bribing the jailor, got it safely delivered. That, perhaps, was unnecessary; for the lady had been already on the alert, and had summoned Urquiza from Trujillo. By some means, not very luminously stated, and by paying proper fees in proper quarters, Kate was smuggled out of the prison at nightfall, and smuggled into a pretty house in the suburbs. Had she known exactly the footing she stood on as to the law, she would have been decided. As it was, she was uneasy, and jealous of mischief abroad; and, before supper, she understood it all. Urquiza briefly informed his clerk, that it would be requisite for him to marry the handsome lady. But why? Because, said Urquiza, after talking for hours with the corregidor, who was infamous for obstinacy, he had found it impossible to make him "hear reason," and release the prisoner, until this compromise of marriage was suggested. But how could public justice be pacified for the clerk's unfortunate homicide of Reyes, by a female cousin of the deceased man engaging to love, honour, and obey the clerk for life? Kate could not see her way through this logic. "Nonsense, my friend," said Urquiza, you don't comprehend. As it stands, the affair is a murder, and hanging the penalty. But, if you marry into the murdered man's house, then it becomes a little family murder, all quiet and comfortable amongst ourselves. What has the corregidor to do with that? or the public either? Now, let me introduce the bride." Supper entered at that moment, and the bride immediately after. The thoughtfulness of Kate was narrowly observed, and even alluded to, but politely ascribed to the natural anxieties of a prisoner, and the very imperfect state of liberation even yet from prison surveillance. Kate had, indeed, never been in so trying a situation before. The anxieties of the farewell night at St. Sebastian were nothing to this; because, even if she had failed then, a failure might not have been always irreparable. It was but to watch and wait. But now, at this supper table, she was not more alive to the nature of the peril than she was to the fact, that if, before the night closed, she did not by some means escape from it, she never would escape with life. The deception as to her sex, though resting on no motive that pointed to these people, or at all concerned them, would be resented as if it had. The lady would resent the case as a mockery; and Urquiza would lose his opportunity of delivering himself from an imperious mistress. According to the usages of the times and country, Kate knew that in twelve hours she would be assassinated.

People of infirmer resolution would have lingered at the supper-table, for the sake of putting off the evil moment of final crisis. Not so Kate. She had revolved the case on all its sides in a few minutes, and had formed her resolution. This done, she was as ready for the trial at one moment as another; and, when the lady suggested that the hardships of a prison must have made repose

It was Kate's fixed opinion, that, if for a moment she entered any bed-room having obviously no outlet, her fate would be that of an ox once driven within the shambles. Outside, the bullock might make some defence with his horns; but once in, with no space for turning, he is muffled and gagged. She carried her eye, therefore, like a hawk's, steady, though restless, for vigilant examination of every angle she turned. Before she entered any bed-room, she was resolved to reconnoiter it from the doorway, and, in case of necessity, show fight at once, before entering-as the best chance, after all, where all chances were bad. Everything ends; and at last the procession reached the bedroom door, the outrider having filed off to the rear. One glance sufficed to satisfy Kate that windows there were none, and, therefore, no outlet for escape. Treachery appeared even in that; and Kate, though unfortunately without arms, was now fixed for resistance. Mr. Urquiza entered first-" Sound the trumpets! Beat the drums!" There were, as we know already, no windows; but a slight interruption to Mr. Urquiza's pompous tread showed that there were steps downwards into the room.

even better. She had watched the unlocking of Those, thought Kate, will suit me the bed-room door-she had lost nothing-she had marked that the key was left in the lock. At this moment, the beautiful lady, as one acquainted with the details of the house, turning with the air of a gracious monitress, held out her fair hand to guide Kate in careful descent of the steps. This had the air of taking out Kate to dance; and Kate, at that same moment, an swering to it by the gesture of a modern waltzer, threw her arm behind the lady's waist, hurled her headlong down the steps right against Mr. Urquiza, draper and haberdasher; and then, with the speed of lightening, throwing the door home within its architrave, doubly locked the creditor and debtor into the rat-trap which they had prepared for herself.

The affrighted out-rider fled with horror: she already knew that the clerk had committed one homicide; a second would cost him still less thought; and thus it happened that egress was left