have betrayed
those I had promised to protect. As it is, however, I am not left to my
own choice in this matter; and I am charged to say to you, on the part
of those whom you pursue, that they will poignard my two daughters and
myself before suffering themselves to fall into your hands. Our lives
depend on them, Captain Tres-Villas. It is for you to say, whether you
still persist in your demand, that they be delivered up to you."

The irony had completely disappeared from the speech and countenance of
the haciendado, and his last words were pronounced with a sad but firm
dignity, that went to the heart of Don Rafael.

A cloud came over it at the thought of Gertrudis falling under the
daggers of the guerilleros, whom he knew to be capable of executing
their threat; and it was almost with a feeling of relief that he
perceived this means of escaping from a duty, whose fulfilment he had
hitherto regarded as imperious.

"Well, then," said he, after a short silence, and in a tone that bespoke
the abandonment of his resolution, "say to the brigand, who is called
Arroyo, that he has nothing to fear, if he will only show himself. I
pledge my solemn word to this. I do not mean to grant him pardon--only
that reprieve which humanity claims for him."

"Oh! I don't require your solemn word," cried the bandit, impudently
presenting himself by the side of Don Mariano. "Inside here I have two
hostages, that will answer for my life better than your word. You wish
me to show myself. What want you with me, Senor Captain?"

With the veins of his forehead swollen almost to bursting, his lip
quivering with rage, and his eyes on fire, Don Rafael looked upon the
assassin of his father--the man whom he had so long vainly pursued--the
brigand, in fine, whom he could seize in a moment, and yet was compelled
to let escape. No wonder that it cost him an effort to subdue the
impetuous passions that were struggling in his breast.

Involuntarily his hand closed upon the reins of his bridle, and his
spurs pressed against the flanks of his horse, till the animal,
tormented by the touch, reared upwards, and bounded forward almost to
the walls of the hacienda.

One might have fancied that his rider intended to clear the obstacle
that separated him from his cowardly enemy--who, on his part, could not
restrain himself from making a gesture of affright.

"That which I wish of the brigand Arroyo," at length responded the
Captain, "is to fix