Speak on, nephew.' Then I sat down by the bed and told him all, keeping nothing back.

I told him the history of my mother and my father's courtship, of my own childhood, of the murder of my mother by de Garcia, and of the oath that I had sworn to be avenged upon him.

Lastly I told him of what had happened upon the previous night and how my enemy had evaded me.

All the while that I was speaking Fonseca, wrapped in a rich Moorish robe, sat up in the bed holding his knees beneath his chin, and watching my face with his keen eyes.

But he spoke no word and made no sign till I had finished the tale.
'You are strangely foolish, nephew,' he said at length.