“Perhaps it would be as well,” replied the governor; “but we must not break faith with the other either. So, show him first this fellow’s name; ask if he knows him; and, then, whether he objects to see him face to face. We shall then, I think, find out whether El Burgo or Grazalema be the real point of concentration of the canaille.”
The foregoing questions had led me to suspect who this other was; the concluding speech of the governor, like the sun dispersing the mirage on the Guadalquivir’s banks, made every thing clear. The information he possessed could only have been given by one of my confederates, and if he and I were confronted my fate was sealed. It was a trying moment for me; the slightest hesitation would have been my ruin; the gibbet, I might say, was prepared; but I determined not to be hanged, without making an effort to shift the rope round the neck of my betrayer. I collected myself, therefore, for the coming crisis, and, as soon as the secretary had left the room, addressing the governor in his own language, said, “Your excellency is so perfect a master of the Castillian tongue, that it would be presumption in me to stammer out the few words of French with which I am acquainted, only that I wish to avoid all appearance of deceit and——.”
“Bon Dieu de la France! mais vous parlez parfaitement!” interrupted the governor. “Pourquoi diable! ne m’avez vous pas dit cela auparavant?”
“Because I was never asked the question, please your excellency.”
“Vrai, vrai—that fellow, Leboucher, will always be cleverer than every body else! But, since you do speak French, and well too, pray have the goodness to make all further communications in that language.”
“Willingly,” I replied, “since such is your excellency’s wish; and, to speak the truth, it is much more satisfactory to me to go to the fountain-head. I have ever found, with blood as with water, that the higher the stream the clearer it runs.”
His excellency took a pinch of snuff with unequivocal satisfaction, and begged me to proceed with what I was going to state when he interrupted me.
“I was about to observe,” said I, “that I might claim the same exemption from being brought before any of my countrymen, as has been granted to this other; but I am no secret informer—on the contrary——.”
Here Señor Leboucher re-entered the apartment, and, giving the governor back the paper on which I had written my (or, rather, my lieutenant’s) name, said, “The other knows this person well, but on no account will——.”
“Hush, hush!” exclaimed the governor, “our friend here speaks French.”