The VELVET GLOVE

By

Henry Seton Merriman

(HUGH STOWELL SCOTT)

Contents

Chapter

I. IN THE CITY OF THE WINDS

II. EVASIO MON

III. WITHIN THE HIGH WALLS

IV. THE JADE--CHANCE

V. A PILGRIMAGE

VI. PILGRIMS

VII. THE ALTERNATIVE

VIII. THE TRAIL

IX. THE QUARRY

X. THISBE

XI. THE ROYAL ADVENTURE

XII. IN A STRONG CITY

XIII. THE GRIP OF THE VELVET GLOVE

XIV. IN THE CLOISTER

XV. OUR LADY OF THE SHADOWS

XVI. THE MATTRESS BEATER

XVII. AT THE INN OF THE TWO TREES

XVIII. THE MAKERS OF HISTORY

XIX. COUSIN PELIGROS

XX. AT TORRE GARDA

XXI. JUANITA GROWS UP

XXII. AN ACCIDENT

XXIII. KIND INQUIRIES

XXIV. THE STORMY PETREL

XXV. WAR'S ALARM

XXVI. AT THE FORD

XXVII. IN THE CLOUDS

XXVIII. LE GANT DE VELOURS

XXIX. LA MAIN DE FER

XXX. THE CASTING VOTE

List of Illustrations

"'ARE YOU SURE YOU HAVE NOT HEARD FROM PAPA?'"

"A MOMENT LATER THE TRAVELER WAS LYING THERE ALONE."

"ALL TURNED AND LOOKED AT HIM IN WONDER."

"'DO YOU INTEND TO PUNISH YOUR FATHER'S ASSASSINS?'"

"MARCOS WAS ESSENTIALLY A MAN OF HIS WORD."

"THE DOOR WAS OPENED BY A STOUT MONK."

"'HE IS NOT KILLED,' SAID MARCOS, BREATHLESSLY."

"HE LEFT JUANITA ALONE WITH MARCOS."

CHAPTER I

IN THE CITY OF THE WINDS

The Ebro, as all the world knows--or will pretend to know, being an ignorant and vain world--runs through the city of Saragossa. It is a river, moreover, which should be accorded the sympathy of this generation, for it is at once rapid and shallow.

On one side it is bordered by the wall of the city. The left bank is low and sandy, liable to flood; a haunt of lizards in the summer, of frogs in winter-time. The lower bank is bordered by poplar trees, and here and there plots of land have been recovered from the riverbed for tillage and the growth of that harsh red wine which seems to harden and thicken the men of Aragon.

One night, when a half moon hung over the domes of the Cathedral of the Pillar, a man made his way through the undergrowth by the riverside and stumbled across the shingle towards the open shed which marks the landing-place of the only ferry across the Ebro that Saragossa possesses. The ferry-boat was moored to the landing-stage. It is a high-prowed, high-sterned vessel, built on Viking lines, from a picture the observant must conclude, by a landsman carpenter. It swings across the