“Impossible; though I heard the rumor.”
“It’s marked upon the muster-rolls of Romero’s command.”
“Are you sure?”
“Certainly!”
“Then if alive his name would surely be on the roster of his regiment?”
“As sure as there is paymaster in the army. Guido Amati is not a gentleman to let his pay lapse by any negligence of his; but he is surely dead. There are men, I think, in the garrison who saw him fall.”
“Ah! in the battle on the ice?”
“Yes. Young De Busaco, a lieutenant here on sick leave, and Sergeant Gomez.”
“Send for them at once,” says Alva, quite astounded and shaken at these curious words. [[245]]
And De Busaco, coming into the apartment, salutes.