Let Curador Benedicto
come forward."
A respectable man, dressed in black, and recognized at once as the
leech or doctor of the royal household, obeyed the summons, and on
being questioned, stated that he had examined the body the very moment
it had been conveyed to the castle, in the hope of discovering some
signs of animation, however faint. But life was totally extinct, and,
according to his judgment, had been so at the very least three hours."
"And what hour was this?"
"Just half-an-hour after midnight."
A brief silence followed the leech's dismissal; Ferdinand still seemed
perplexed and uneasy, and not one countenance, either of the nobles or
Associated Brethren, evinced satisfaction.
"Our task, instead of decreasing in difficulty, becomes more and more
complicated, my lords and brethren," observed the Sub-Prior, after
waiting for the chief of the Santa Hermandad to speak. "Had we any
positive proof, that Senor Stanley really slept from the hour of sunset
till eleven the same evening, and never quitted his quarters until then,
we might hope that the sentence of Curador Benedicto, as to the length
of time life had been extinct in his supposed victim, might weigh
strongly against the circumstantial chain of evidence brought against
him. Believing that the prisoner having slept from the hour of sunset to
eleven was a proven and witnessed fact, I undertook the defensive and
argued in his favor.
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