"There is no pardon possible.

He will die to-morrow or the next day." The present truth stood out in all its frightful distinctness.

Whoever had done the murder--since Mendoza had confessed it, he would be made to die for it,--of that she was sure.

She could not have guessed what had really happened; and though the evidence of the sounds she had heard through the door would have gone to show that Philip had done the deed himself, yet there had been no doubt about Mendoza's words, spoken to the King alone over Don John's dead body, and repeated before the great assembly in the ball-room.

If she guessed at an explanation, it was that her father, entering the bedchamber during the quarrel, and supposing from what he saw that Don John was about to attack the King, had drawn and killed the Prince without hesitation.