"It was signed R only, but I guessed at once and nearly fell off my
horse with surprise."
"You mean to say that Dona Rita was actually at the Royal
Headquarters lately?" exclaimed Mills, with evident surprise.
"Why, we--everybody--thought that all this affair was over and done
with."
"Absolutely. Nothing in the world could be more done with than
that episode. Of course the rooms in the hotel at Tolosa were
retained for her by an order from Royal Headquarters. Two garret-
rooms, the place was so full of all sorts of court people; but I
can assure you that for the three days she was there she never put
her head outside the door. General Mongroviejo called on her
officially from the King. A general, not anybody of the household,
you see. That's a distinct shade of the present relation. He
stayed just five minutes. Some personage from the Foreign
department at Headquarters was closeted for about a couple of
hours. That was of course business. Then two officers from the
staff came together with some explanations or instructions to her.
Then Baron H., a fellow with a pretty wife, who had made so many
sacrifices for the cause, raised a great to-do about seeing her and
she consented to receive him for a moment. They say he was very
much frightened by her arrival, but after the interview went away
all smiles. Who else? Yes, the Archbishop came. Half an hour.
This is more than is necessary to give a blessing, and I can't
conceive what else he had to give her. But I am sure he got
something out of her. Two peasants from the upper valley were sent
for by military authorities and she saw them, too. That friar who
hangs about the court has been in and out several times. Well, and
lastly, I myself. I got leave from the outposts. That was the
first time I talked to her. I would have gone that evening back to
the regiment, but the friar met me in the corridor and informed me
that I would be ordered to escort that most loyal and noble lady
back to the French frontier as a personal mission of the highest
honour. I was inclined to laugh at him. He himself is a cheery
and jovial person and he laughed with me quite readily--but I got
the order before dark all right. It was rather a job, as the
Alphonsists were attacking the right flank of our whole front and
there was some considerable disorder there. I mounted her on a
mule and her maid on another. We spent one night in a ruined old
tower occupied by some of our infantry and got away at daybreak
under the Alphonsist shells. The maid nearly died of fright and
one of the troopers with us was wounded. To smuggle her back
across the frontier was another job but it wasn't my job. It
wouldn't have done for her to appear in sight of French frontier
posts in the company of Carlist uniforms. She seems to have a
fearless streak in her nature. At one time as we were climbing a
slope absolutely exposed to artillery fire I asked her on purpose,
being provoked by the way she looked about at the scenery, 'A
little emotion, eh?' And she answered me in a low voice: 'Oh,
yes! I am moved. I used to run about these hills when I was
little.' And note, just then the trooper close behind us had been
wounded by a shell fragment. He was swearing awfully and fighting
with his horse. The shells were falling around us about two to the
minute.
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