"Forgive me, my friends, for having forgotten, during a moment, the character I have assumed," he said in a gentle voice.
Their hands were silently extended to him.
"Now," he exclaimed in a firm voice, in whose notes traces of the past tempest were still audible, "let us speak of that poor Doña Anita de Torrés."
"Alas!" said the elder Rallier, "I cannot tell you anything, although my sister Helena, her companion at the Convent of the Bernardines, to which I sent her in accordance with your wish, has let me know that she would have grand news for us in a few days."
"I will give you that news, with your permission," Don Martial said at this moment, suddenly joining in the conversation, to which he had hitherto listened with great indifference.
"Do you know anything?" Valentine asked him.
"Yes, something most important; that is why I was so anxious to speak with you."
"Speak then, my friend, speak, we are listening."
The Tigrero, without further pressing, at once reported, in the fullest details, his interview with Don Sebastian Guerrero's capataz. The three Frenchmen listened with the most serious attention, and when he had finished his story, Valentine rose--
"Let us be off, señores," he said, "we have no time to lose; perhaps heaven offers us, at this moment, the opportunity we have been so long awaiting."
The others rose without asking the hunter for any explanation, and a few minutes later Valentine and his comrades were galloping along the highway in the direction of Mexico.
"I do not know what diabolical plot they are forming," Ño Lusacho muttered, on seeing them disappear in the distance; "but they are worthy gentlemen, and let the ounces slip through their fingers like so much water."
And he entered the rancho, the door of which he now left open, for day was breaking.
The history of colonies is the same everywhere, that is to say, that you find the old belief, the forgotten manners and customs of the mother country intact, and almost exaggerated.
Mexico was to Spain what Canada still is to France. In Mexico we, therefore, find the Spain of the monks, with all the abuses of a degenerate monastic life; for we are compelled to state that with few, very few exceptions, the monks of Mexico are far from leading an exemplary life. A few years ago a Papal legate arrived at Mexico, who had been sent to try and introduce into the monasteries reforms which had become urgent; but he soon recognized the impossibility of success, and returned as he came. This is the history of yesterday and today, and in the way things are going on, it will be the history of tomorrow.