appearance.

Bernardo Galvez rose with punctilious courtesy and saluted Oliver Pollock,
who introduced in turn the five, to every one of whom the Governor General
gave a bow and a friendly word. Like all others in New Orleans who had
seen them, he bestowed an admiring look upon their size, their
straightness, and above all, the extraordinary air of independence and
resolution that characterized every one of them, indicated, not by the
words they said or the things they did, but by an atmosphere they created,
something that cannot be described. They had never been in such a room
before, one containing so much of the splendor of old Europe, but they
were not awed in the least by it, and Bernardo Galvez knew it.

Oliver Pollock, the shrewd merchant and patriot, man of affairs, and judge
of his kind, observed them closely and, observing, he felt a great thrill
of satisfaction. The five, boys though two of them were, had felt the vast
importance of their mission and, now that they had come, he too, felt it.
It was a most critical and delicate moment for the struggling young
nation. He knew much of Francisco Alvarez, and he surmised more.

"I have heard of you," said the Governor General to the five, and his
tones became judicial and severe, as became the ruler of a million square
miles of fertile territory belonging to His Most Catholic Majesty, the
King of Spain. "You are the subject of formal complaint made by the
captain of our forces in the North, Don Francisco Alvarez."

It was now Paul, the scholar, youth of imagination, and future statesman,
who responded and it seemed fitting to all that he should do so.

"Will Your Excellency state the complaint against us?" he asked in a grave
and manly way.

"I will leave it to Don Francisco to state it," replied Bernardo Galvez.
"I expected that you would be here this morning, so I have chosen to
confront you with him. Each side shall tell its story."

This seemed fair, and the five, who had been waved to seats by a great
window with Mr. Pollock, made no protest. There they sat in silence for a
few minutes, while the Governor General dictated to a secretary who sat at
a little table by his side and who wrote with a goose-quill.

The wide door was at length thrown open again, and the usher announced Don
Francisco and his aide, Senor Braxton Wyatt. The five were amazed and
indignant at the assurance of the renegade, but they said nothing.

Alvarez walked into the room, cool