A NOBLE BANDIT.
There was, after this accusation, so energetically pronounced by the
young girl, some minutes of deathlike silence in the tent.
Without, the wind lashed the trees, and intertwined the branches with
sounds almost like human wailings; the leaves were whirled in the air,
and fell quivering on the thicket; at short intervals the lugubrious
note of the owl, concealed in the hollows of the rocks, was heard,
repeated from the distance like a dismal echo. Vague and indefinable
sounds arose, carried on the wings of the wind, dying away only to be
continually repeated, and further adding to the mysterious horror of
this sombre and moonless night, the thick darkness of which gave to the
objects a fantastically deathlike appearance.
The marquis had risen, his arms crossed behind his back, his head
reclining on his breast; he strode about the tent, a prey to an
agitation which he made vain efforts to conceal.
Doña Laura, half lying on the sofa, her head thrown backwards, followed
him with a fixed and mocking look, waiting with anxiety the approaching
explosion of that anger she had not been afraid to excite.
At last, after some minutes, which appeared an age to the young girl,
the marquis stopped in front of her, and raised his head.
His face was pale, but his features had resumed their careless and
mocking expression, only a light nervous quivering of his eyebrows--an
index with him of a furious rage, mastered with difficulty--bore
witness to the efforts he was compelled to make to subdue himself.
"I have allowed you, have I not, Señorita," said he, "to speak without
interrupting you; I have in this interview--you will at least render me
that justice--given proof, not only of patience, but of good taste. In
fact," added he, with an ironical smile, "of what use is it to discuss
an accomplished fact? Nothing that you can say will change your actual
position; you are in my power; no human aid can succeed in modifying my
intentions towards you. This conversation, that I should wish to have
been conducted more amicably, you yourself, of your own accord, have
placed on the unfriendly footing on which it now is."
He stopped; the young girl coquettishly supported her head on her right
hand, and surveying him with a look, in which contempt and raillery
were equally mingled, she answered him with a careless voice--
"You make a grave mistake, caballero. This conversation, which you
value so much, I care very little for. Now that I have explained myself
clearly, and without reservation, I will allow you to speak as much as
you please, since it is impossible for me to impose silence on you, and
I am condemned to hear you; only, I warn you beforehand, in order to
avoid the expenditure of useless eloquence, that whatever you may say
to me, whatever may be the threats you offer me, you will not obtain
the honour of an answer."
The marquis bit his lip with so much violence that he drew blood, but
answered with a sneer--
"In truth, Señorita, is this resolution firmly fixed in your mind?
You will not deign to answer me? I shall be deprived of hearing the
harmonious music of your gentle voice resounding in my ear; but, in
spite of yourself, I am convinced, you will fail in your heroic vow."
"Try it," answered she with disdain. "The occasion is suitable for me
to give you a denial."
"I shall take care not to allow it to escape, Señorita."
The marquis approached a butaca, placed a few paces before the
young girl, sat down, and assuming an attitude full of grace and
carelessness, he continued in a tone as peaceable as though he had been
commencing a confidential communication--
"Señorita," said he, "you have, I admit, perfectly defined our
respective positions; that secret you possess has been revealed to me
by chance by a former servant of your family, who sold it me very dear.
It was, then, with the fixed intention of obtaining the information
necessary to the success of my plans, that I presented myself to your
father. You see that I imitate your candour. I did not love you, and,
to say the truth, I do not love you now. A woman like you, seductive
as you are, would not suit me; your disposition is too much like my
own. I should have probably married you had you consented to give me
your hand--pardon me this rude candour--but, resolved to seize the
treasure that I covet, I should, to assure myself of its possession,
have accomplished what I consider as the greatest sacrifice, that is to
say, the act of alienating my liberty forever in favour of a woman whom
I did not love."
The young girl bowed with a mocking smile, and clapped her hands two or
three times.
Almost immediately the curtain was drawn aside, and the slave appeared.
"Phoebe," said doña Laura to her, "as probably I shall not be able to
take the repose which I need till very late, and as I feel, in spite
of myself, my eyelids drooping, and sleep overcoming me, bring me the
maté, my child, and bring me at the same time papelitos; perhaps these
two stimulants combined, and taken in a strong dose, will triumph over
the sleepiness which oppresses me."
The slave went out laughing, and the marquis remained an instant,
overcome by the superb coolness of the young girl, and her heroic
indifference.
Some minutes passed away, during which they both maintained silence;
there the light step of the Negress was again heard, and she
reappeared, holding in her hands a silver platter, on which were the
maté, some cigarettes of Indian maize straw, and a silver braserito,
containing fire.
Phoebe presented the maté to her mistress, and made a movement to
withdraw.
"Remain, chica," said doña Laura; "what the marquis has to tell me
cannot be too serious for you to hear."
The young servant placed on the table the platter she held, and came
incontinently to lie at the feet of her mistress, exchanging with her
a mocking smile, which redoubled, if that is possible, the rage of the
marquis.
"Let it be so," said the marquis, bowing, "I will continue before
your slave, Señorita; it is little consequence to me who hears or who
listens to me; moreover, I have but a few more words to say."
Doña Laura sipped her maté, without paying any attention to the speech
of the marquis.
"You never put sugar enough in the maté, chica," said she; "this is
bitter."
"I was saying, Señorita," continued the marquis, "that, repulsed by
you, but not wishing to renounce projects for a long time ripened and
fixed in my mind, I at last resolved to carry you away. I will not
weary you with the recital of the means employed by me to succeed in
deceiving the restless vigilance of your family. Since you are here
alone in my power, at several hundred leagues from the residence of
your father, it is not only that I have succeeded in making you fall
into the snare laid by me under your feet, but also that I have so well
guarded against the suspicions of those who interest themselves in your
fate."
"Decidedly, Phoebe, this maté is too bitter," said the young girl;
"give me a cigarette."
The slave obeyed.
"Now, Señorita," continued the marquis, still impassable, "I am coming
to the end of this conversation, of which all that has been yet said
is to a certain extent only a preface--a rather long preface, perhaps,
but one which you will pardon me, for it was indispensable, to make
myself well understood by you. I have carried you away, it is true;
but reassure yourself, as long as you remain under my protection,
your honour shall be safe; I give you the word of a gentleman for it.
You smile; you are wrong. I am honest in my way. Give me the exact
indications that I expect from you, and immediately I grant you, not
only liberty, but, moreover, I engage to send you back safe and sound,
without your honour being suspected, into the hands of your family.
Strange as this proposition may appear to you, it is nevertheless
serious, and appears to me to merit your consideration. Answer me one
word--one word only, 'Yes' and on the instant you are free."
The marquis paused; doña Laura remained mute, and appeared not to have
heard.
"You are obstinate, Señorita," replied Don Roque, with some animation
"you are wrong; you are staking, I repeat, your fortune and your future
happiness at this moment."
"Another cigarette, Phoebe," interrupted doña Laura, shrugging her
shoulders.
"Beware!" cried Don Roque, with ill-suppressed irritation; "Beware,
Señorita we must finish once for all these continual evasions."
The young girl rose, took a step towards the marquis, measured him
for an instant from head to foot, covering him, so to speak, with a
look charged with all the contempt which she felt for him, and turning
towards Phoebe, who was motionless and mute by her side--
"Come, chica," said she to her, placing her hand on her shoulder; "the
night is far advanced, it is time for us to retire, and go to sleep."
And without granting another look to the marquis, mute and stupefied
with this audacious procedure, the young girl quitted the room.
In spite of himself, the marquis remained an instant in the place which
he occupied; his eyes firmly fixed on the curtain, the folds of which
still preserved a scarcely perceptible vibration. All of a sudden he
recovered himself, passed his hand across his forehead, moist with
perspiration, and darting a look of hatred towards the spot where doña
Laura had disappeared--
"Oh!" cried he, with a voice stifled by fury, "What tortures will I pay
for so many insults!"
He left the tent, staggering like a drunken man.
The cold air of the night, fanning his face, brought him wonderful
relief; little by little his features regained their serenity; calmness
returned to his mind; an ironical smile played upon his slender lips,
and he murmured in a low voice, as he strode towards his tent:
"Fool that I am to allow myself to be carried away thus by a foolish
child! What in reality are her insults and contempt to me? Am I not
master to subdue her pride? Patience, patience! Nay, vengeance, if it
be long in coming, will only strike her the more cruelly, and will be
only the more terrible."
The marquis re-entered his tent. After having regulated the wick of a
lamp the flickering light of which feebly illumined the surrounding
objects, Don Roque approached a round stool, which served him for a
table, and drawing from his breast a yellow and stained paper, on
which was rudely drawn, by an unskilful hand, a kind of rough plan,
he proceeded to study it with the greatest care, and was not long in
becoming completely absorbed.
The entire night was passed away without the marquis quitting the
position he had taken, and without his eyes closing for a single
instant.
The plan, rough and incomplete as it appeared to be, was that of the
diamond country, which concealed those incalculable riches so ardently
coveted by the young man.
But this plan--made from memory a long time after having seen the
country, and that in superficial manner, by an ignorant man--could
unluckily only be a feeble aid to the marquis. He felt it in spite of
himself, and this certainty redoubled his fury.
But what could be done with a woman more than he had done with doña
Laura? How was he to vanquish her resistance, and constrain her to
speak?
For more than three hours the sun had already risen; the marquis, still
plunged in his thoughts, had not appeared to perceive the return of the
light, when the gallop of a horse which approached rapidly, caused him
suddenly to raise his head.
At the same instant the curtain of the tent was withdrawn, and the
captain entered.
The Indian was covered with dust; his flushed features, and his
forehead covered with perspiration, showed the velocity of his journey.
"Ah, it is you, Diogo!" cried the marquis on perceiving him. "Welcome,
what news?"
"Nothing, my lord," answered the captain.
"How nothing? Have you not been able to succeed in discovering the
track of that Malco?"
"Pardon me, my lord; I have, on the contrary, followed that track for
more than three hours."
"Then you have news to give me?"
"I have, my lord, but not what you expect."
"Explain yourself, my friend; my head is a little fatigued."
"Here is the fact, in a few words, my lord. After having, as I have
told you, followed for three hours, without the slightest deviation,
the track of Malco--a track, let it be said to his honour, thoroughly
devious, and as to which everybody but myself would inevitably have
been deceived, so skilfully was it made--I arrived on the borders of
a forest, into which I did not hesitate to enter. Absorbed by the care
I took in not losing this frightfully involved track, I did not care
to look much around me, so that I suddenly found myself in an Indian
encampment."
"An encampment of Indians so near us!" cried the marquis, with surprise.
"Yes, my lord, of Indian bravos, and moreover, the bravest of this
country."
"H'm--already!"
"Yes, I found myself suddenly face to face with three Indians, of whom
one was a Guaycurus, the other a Payagoas; as to the other, he was
simply a Monduruka slave."
"Oh, oh! That is serious for us."
"It could not be more serious, my lord."
"And how did you escape from this trap?"
"These savages have honour. Although my uniform revealed me as one
of their most deadly enemies, they, nevertheless, received me in a
friendly way, and invited me to sit near their fire."
"That is strange," murmured the marquis.
"Seeing that they received me thus, I accepted their invitation
frankly, and sat myself near them. My design was to make them talk, in
which I succeeded."
"Aha! What did they say?"
"They informed me that Malco had come to seek them some hours before
me; that he had had a long conversation with them, and that he had
informed them of your arrival, the number of men at your disposal, and
even the very spot where you encamped."
"The wretch! The double traitor!" cried the marquis.
"This revelation, I admit, made me reflect seriously, and placed me in
great embarrassment, from which I did not know how to escape, when the
Indians themselves furnished me with the means to make an honourable
retreat."
"How is that?"
"The Guaycurus chief informed me that the truce concluded with the
whites had been broken."
"Oh!" exclaimed the marquis, "What fatality! To fail so near the end."
"Permit me to finish, my lord."
"Speak! Speak!"
"The chief added, that probably as you had for a long time left the
plantations, you were ignorant of this rupture, and that consequently
it would not be right to abuse your good faith by attacking you."
"Ah!" said the marquis, breathing heavily.
"As they do no not wish to be wanting in the laws of hospitality, they
give you two days to go away."
"H'm," cried the marquis, whom these last words plunged more profoundly
into the perplexity from which, for an instant, he thought he had
escaped; "What did you say then, Diogo?"
"The most strict truth, my lord, on my honour."
"I believe you, my friend; but finish."
"Oh, I have nothing much more to add, except that they informed me
that, in case you refused to accept this condition, you would be
inevitably attacked."
"And about Malco? Did they tell you nothing more about him?"
"Not a word, my lord."
"So that you are completely unaware where this wretch hides himself?"
"Absolutely, my lord; I thought that what the Guaycurus chief had told
me was of such great importance, that you would desire to be informed
of it as soon as possible, so I have returned as rapidly as I could."
"You have done well, my friend; I thank you. But in such circumstances
as these," he asked, "how would you act?"
"I should beat a retreat."
"Beat a retreat; never!"
"Then we shall be massacred to the last man."
"No matter, I will push ahead. You will not abandon me?"
"I, my lord? My duty is to follow you; wherever you go I will follow.
What is it to me to be killed?"
And after having respectfully saluted the young man, the captain
withdrew with as tranquil and careless a step as though he were not
certain beforehand that the order just given him was equivalent to a
condemnation to death.
When he was alone the marquis remained an instant motionless; then,
stamping his foot with rage, and darting to heaven a look of defiance--
"Oh!" cried he, with a stifled voice, "These cursed diamonds; I will
have them, although it were necessary, in seizing them, to walk in
blood up to the girdle."