and thought it inconceivable, that the woman who slept in apartments contiguous to her own, should not have heard the scuffle. The servants, whom we waked, were quite astonished to see we had got into their mistress's apartment through a window, and said, they only heard a faint noise, like the whining of a dog shut out from the house to which he belongs. We now proceeded to wake the maids, who still were quite fast. But Here the riddle was solved. Nothing, not even pinching could rouse them from their lethargic sleep; and it appeared, as if some opium had been given them. We therefore desisted from all farther attempts to wake them, and they remained in this state all the following day and night.
I immediately judged, that Don Pedro must have carried her off; I knew his artful conduct, and knew also he had a design against me, in which he wished to avail himself of Francisca's assistance, but finding the latter hesitate, he was afraid, lest both of us should ultimately conspire some plot against himself. He considered her as dangerous,
