Before Don Rodrigo's arrival,
the friar had abstracted from Espinosa's house a box of papers
which he reduced to ashes. Unfortunately Espinosa had been
careless. Four letters not confided to the box were discovered by
the alguaziles. Two of them were from Anne--one of which supplies
the extract I have given; the other two from Frey Miguel himself.
Those letters startled Don Rodrigo de Santillan. He was a shrewd
reasoner and well-informed. He knew how the justice of Castile
was kept on the alert by the persistent plottings of the
Portuguese Pretender, Don Antonio, sometime Prior of Crato. He
was intimate with the past life of Frey Miguel, knew his self-
sacrificing patriotism and passionate devotion to the cause of
Don Antonio, remembered the firm dignity of his prisoner, and
leapt at a justifiable conclusion. The man in his hands--the man
whom the Princess Anne addressed in such passionate terms by the
title of Majesty--was the Prior of Crato. He conceived that he
had stumbled here upon something grave and dangerous. He ordered
the arrest of Frey Miguel, and then proceeded to visit Dona Ana
at the convent. His methods were crafty, and depended upon the
effect of surprise. He opened the interview by holding up
before her one of the letters he had found, asking her if she
acknowledged it for her own.
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