“Padre dear,” she whispered, “it isn’t true––it isn’t true! They don’t really want to kill us! They don’t––really! Their thoughts have only the minus sign!”
The priest clasped her to his breast. The recriminating thought flashed over him that he alone was the cause of this. He had sacrificed them all––none but he was to blame. Ah, God above! if he could only offer himself to satiate the mob’s lust, and save these innocent ones! Lurid, condemnatory thoughts burned through his brain like molten iron. He rose hastily and rushed to the door. Rosendo and Don Jorge seized him as he was about to lift a prop.
“What do you mean, Padre?” they exclaimed.
“I am going out, friends––I shall give myself to them for you all. It is the only way. I am the one they seek. Let them have me, if they will spare you!”
But the firing had ceased, and Don Mario was approaching the door. Josè bent down and called to him. “Myself for the others, Don Mario!” he cried. “But promise to spare them––but give me your word––and I will yield myself to arrest!”
“Caramba, fool priest!” shouted the Alcalde in derision. “It is not you that the good Bishop wants, but the girl! I have his letters demanding that I send her to him! If you will come out, you shall not be hurt. Only, Rosendo must stand trial for the harm he did in the fight this morning; and the girl must go to Cartagena. As for the rest of you, you will be free. Are the terms not reasonable? Give me your answer in five minutes.”
Josè turned to the little band. There was awful determination in his voice. “Juan and Lázaro,” he said, “we will open a window quickly in the rear of the church and let you out. It is not right that you should die with us. And Don Jorge, too––”
“Stop there, amigo!” interrupted the latter in a voice as cold as steel. “My life has not the value of a white heron. Can I do better than give it for a cause that I know to be right? Nay, man, I remain with you. Let the lads go, if they will––”
Lázaro forced himself between Don Jorge and the priest. “Padre,” he said quietly, “to you I owe what I am. I remain here.”