Now read these," and she opened the packet and pushed its contents towards him.
With the exception of two miniatures, which he placed upon one side, they were letters written in Spanish and in a very delicate hand.

Brant knew Spanish well, and in twenty minutes he had read them all.

They proved to be epistles from a lady who signed herself Juanita de Montalvo, written to the Count Juan de Montalvo, whom she addressed as her husband.

Very piteous documents they were also, telling a tale that need not be set out here of heartless desertion; pleading for the writer's sake and for the sake of certain children, that the husband and father would return to them, or at least remit them means to live, for they, his wife and family, were sunk in great poverty.
"All this is sad enough," said Brant with a gesture of disgust as he glanced at the miniature of the lady and her children, "but it proves nothing.

How are we to know that she is the man's wife ?" Black Meg put her hand into the bosom of her dress and produced another letter dated not more than three months ago.