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Updated: June 17, 2025
For Larralde loved Julia according to his lights, though he had another mistress, Ambition, who was with him always and filled his thoughts, sleeping or waking. Julia, her face all flushed, her eyes aglow, received his gallant greeting with a sort of breathless eagerness. She knew she had not Larralde's whole heart, and, woman-like, was not content with half.
Larralde and Conyngham had the Calle Preciados to themselves and Larralde cursed his spurs, which rang out at each footfall, and betrayed his whereabouts. A dozen times the Spaniard fell, but before his pursuer could reach him, the same obstacle threw Conyngham to the ground.
His own life Julia's life the lives of a whole Carlist section were at stake. The history of Spain, perhaps of Europe, depended on the swiftness of his foot. The little crescent moon was shining clearly now between the long- drawn rifts of the rushing clouds. Larralde turned to the right again, up a narrow street which seemed to promise a friendly darkness.
Larralde was afoot in an instant, and fell heavily down the far side of the barricade. He gained a few yards again, and, before Conyngham's eyes, was suddenly swallowed up in a black mass of falling masonry. It was more than a chimney this time; nothing less than a whole house carried bodily to the ground by the fall of the steeple of the church of Santa Maria del Monte.
'In a week, suggested Sir John again, 'it may be well settled one way or the other. Larralde glanced at him sharply. This Englishman was either well- informed or very cunning. He seemed to have read the thought in Larralde's mind. 'No doubt, went on the Englishman, 'you have divined for whom I want the letter and who will read it. We have both mistaken our man.
Toledo was at this time the smouldering hotbed of those political intrigues which some years later burst into flame, and resulted finally in the expulsion of the Bourbons from the throne of Spain. Larralde was sufficiently dangerous to require watching, and, like many of his kind, considered himself of a greater importance than his enemies were pleased to attach to him.
The old soldier looked from one to the other. 'That may be, he said, 'but he sleeps in Ronda prison to-night. To-morrow the Captain-General will see to it. 'I have a letter to the Captain-General, said Conyngham, who drew from his pocket a packet of papers. Among these was the pink scented envelope given to him by the man called Larralde at Algeciras.
His face was ashen, for it is a terrible thing to kill a man and be left alone with him. Conyngham's eyes were closed. There was blood on his lips. With hands that shook like leaves Esteban Larralde searched the Englishman, found nothing, and cursed his ill fortune. Then he stood upright, and in the dim light his face shone as if he had dipped it in water.
But on the descent there are none to stay and many to push behind, while those in front make room readily enough. Larralde had for the first time accepted a direct monetary reward for his services.
'You must not think that Madrid is always like this, said Larralde. 'But perhaps you know the city 'No this is my first visit. Larralde turned aside to give his order to the waiter. His movements were always picturesque, and in the presence of Englishmen he had a habit of accentuating those characteristics of speech and manner which are held by our countrymen to be native to the Peninsula.
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