Page:The woman in battle .djvu/361

Rh scarcely possible that I was uninfluenced by a perusal of the narratives of their exploits.

The new page, as I have stated, easily gained the entire confidence of Don Carlos, and was employed as the messenger between him and his lady-love. She, however, soon found that he was so much absorbed in Estela, that it was useless to hope to win him, unless her rival could be removed; and she accordingly set about devising a plan for the accomplishment of this end. An opportunity soon offered; for the parents of Estela, despite her unwillingness, were determined that she should accept the hand of the lover of their choice, and made their arrangements for a speedy wedding. Estela, of course, informed Don Carlos of this, and he, seeing that his bride would be lost to him unless he acted with decision, persuaded her to consent to an elopement with him to another city, where their marriage could take place.

The fictitious page was, of course, informed of all that was proposed by the lovers, and felt that the time had now come for her to interfere. Don Carlos and Estela, having arranged for the elopement to take place on a certain night, the lady wrote a letter to her parents, stating that, unable to endure the idea of marrying, at their dictation, a man whom she did not love, she had ventured to incur their displeasure by uniting herself with Don Carlos, for whom, as they well knew, she had long borne a tender regard.

The page, to whom had been intrusted the task of conducting the lady to a rendezvous, where her lover would be waiting with horses to bear them away beyond the reach of pursuit until the marriage should take place, basely betrayed the trust confided to her, however, and, instead of delivering Estela to her lover, took her to where some Moorish pirates were in waiting, by whom she was seized, and carried off to Algiers, to be sold as a slave. The pirates, as a precaution against treachery, insisted upon the page going with them; and thus Estela became informed that her betrayer was a woman, and also learned the reason for her conduct.

On the disappearance of Estela being discovered, the only clew to the mystery was the letter she had written, announcing her intention of eloping with Don Carlos; and that gentleman, who had been waiting anxiously and impatiently for her, and who was lost in wonder at her non-appearance at the rendezvous, was accused of having spirited her away, and perhaps of having murdered her. He was not only overwhelmed