"What have you to reproach me with, comrades?" he said to them, in his gentle and sympathising voice. "Since the moment I first collected you around me, have I not done all in my power to improve your position? Have I not constantly treated you as my children? Speak: if I have injured one of you, or committed a single act of injustice, tell it me? You have been led to believe that I am deceiving you, that I was not the owner of the Plancha de Plata, that this mine did not exist. Look here," he added, as he drew a document from his chest, "here are the papers; the agreement is regularly drawn up, the stations are prepared up to the mines. Now, have you faith in me? do you now suppose that I am deceiving you. Answer!"
He was silent for a moment; but not a voice was raised to answer him.
"Ah! That is the state of the case," he continued; "now listen to me. The mines to which I am leading you contain incalculable wealth. These riches will be yours. I shall only take what you give me. You shall settle my share. Will you now accuse me of wishing to cheat you for my own profit? You ask for fresh officers chosen by yourselves. I will never consent to such a condition. Your officers are men in whose capacity I have full and entire confidence: they well keep their positions. Among you there are cowards, who have become the tools of my enemies for the purpose of destroying us. These men all belong to the second squad. They had better spare me the trouble of discharging them with ignominy."
The adventurers, carried away by their chiefs frank and honourable language, rushed toward him, uttering shouts of joy. Peace was made: all was forgotten. The emissaries, so suddenly discharged, profited by the general enthusiasm to disappear without beat of drum.
"Here is a courier!" Valentine suddenly said.
The count turned sharply. A _lancero_ was coming up at full gallop.
The soldier held out to him a sealed despatch. The count took it with an indescribable flutter of the heart, and rapidly ran over the lines. Suddenly he uttered a shout of joy.
"Listen," he said; "here is the order I have so long been expecting. The President of the Republic authorizes us to set out immediately for the mines. Comrades, we will be off at once for the Plancha de Plata."