Page:Madrid shaver's singular adventures, and wonderful escape from the Spanish Inquisition (3).pdf/22

22 strict injunctions not to allow of the governer’s quitting the frigate ; he put off for the shore. The emissaries of the Inquisition had traced Pedrosa, our captain had no sooner gone ashore than he was accosted by a messenger of state, for the surrender of Pedrosa ; our worthy captain then said, that Spaniard is now born on my books, and before you shall take him out of the service of my king you must sink his ship. He instantly proceeded to the house of the British Minister : here he found Pedrosa’s intelligence, expressly verified. The captain lost no time in returning to his frigate, where he imparted to Don Manuel the intelligence he obtained at the British Minister’s. The proposal was now suggested of sending letters into Spain, and the governor retired to his desk and wrote them. In the afternoon the Minister paid a visit to the captain, and received a packet from Don Manuel, and promised to forward them by a safe conveyance. In due course this fatal letter from Leonora opened all the horrible transactions to the wretched husband:— “ The guilty hand of an expiring wife, under the agonizing operation of a mortal poison, traces these few trembling lines to an injured, wretched husband. If thou hast any pity for my parting spirit, fly the ruin that awaits thee, and avoid this scene of villany and horror. I have borne a child to the monster, whose poison runs in my veins. The Inquisitor is my murderer.—My pen falls from my hand—Farewell for ever!” Had a shot passed through the heart of Don