However, I was not kept long in suspense.

Later on in the afternoon the door opened for the third time, and the officer who had arrested me, followed by his alguazils, appeared at the threshold and announced that he had been ordered to escort me to the tribunal.
We went in the same order as before; and a walk of less than fifteen minutes brought us to another tumble-down building, which appeared to have been once a court-house.

Only the lower rooms were habitable, and at a door, on either side of which stood a sentry, my conductor respectfully knocked.
"_Adelante!_" said a rough voice; and we entered accordingly.
Before a long table at the upper end of a large, barely-furnished room, with rough walls and a cracked ceiling, sat three men in uniform.

The one who occupied the chief seat, and seemed to be the president, was old and gray, with hard, suspicious eyes, and a long, typical Spanish face, in every line of which I read cruelty and ruthless determination.

His colleagues, who called him "marquis," treated him with great deference, and his breast was covered with orders.
It was evident that on this man would depend my fate.