"You are aware, are you not, that you are perfectly in our power!" said the Linda.
"Now," the general added, "answer categorically the questions which will be put to you."
"I have just been surprised by the Indians."
"Oh, Lord! no; I had an escort of fifty horsemen."
"Alas! I am tired of politics: my intention was to retire to my quinta in the bosom of my family."
"Had you no other object?" the general asked.
"I was only charged with a despatch; here it is."
The general seized it, broke the seal, and rapidly read its contents.
"Bah!" he said, crushing the paper, "there is not even common sense in this despatch."
Doña Maria put an end to this by saying--
"Go to Antinahuel, Don Pancho; he must demand an interview with the adventurers who are perched like owls at the summit of the rocks."
The general succeeded; when he rejoined the Linda, she was terminating her conversation with the senator, by saying to him in a sardonic voice--
"Manage it as well as you are able, my dear señor; if you fail, I will give you up to the Indians."
"Hum!" said the terrified senator; "and if they learn it is I who have done that, what will happen?"
"Demonios! the prospect is not an agreeable one."
Let us return to the hut of council, into which the count had been introduced by the general. Don Bustamente had too much personal courage not to like and appreciate that quality in another. Bowing he said, "Your observation is perfectly just, señor----"
"Count de Prébois-Crancé;" the Frenchman finished the sentence with a bow.
"Before any other question," said Don Pancho, "permit me, count, to ask you how you have become personally mixed up with the men we are besieging?"
"In the simplest way possible, señor," Louis replied, with an arch smile, "I am travelling with some friends and servants; yesterday the noise of a battle reached our ears; I naturally inquired what was going on; after this, several Spanish soldiers, running away along the crest or the mountains, intrenched themselves on the rock where I had myself sought refuge. The battle begun in the defile was continued on the plain; the soldiers, listening to nothing but their courage, fired upon their enemy."
The general and the senator knew perfectly what degree of faith to place in the veracity of this narration, in which, nevertheless, as men of the world, they had the appearance of placing the utmost alliance.