Don Estevan looked much surprised, and the papers he held in his hand shook visibly.
'Father, you cannot mean it!' cried the Governor's only son, 'say it is not true! There is yet time: the messengers have not yet started. I beseech you think better of it. I heard everything.'
'You heard everything? What do you mean, you insolent boy!' cried the Marquis, angrily; 'you were not in the council-chamber. Get up, Carlo; what is done is done for the best.'
'No, no, it cannot be for the best to betray this island. The stratagem you have suggested is unworthy of you; it cannot be true that Don Estevan del Campo will allow those villains to take this fortress without so much as a blow!'
Poor Carlo was beside himself with grief; he had indeed heard only too much from his hiding-place. The Governor had entirely lost his head, and was unable to make up his mind to fight the dreaded buccaneers; and now that he had found out their real number, and the number of their ships, he could think of nothing but temporising with them. He had forced the council to agree to send two messengers to Henry Morgan with these terms: They were to say that, feeling himself quite unable to hold the island against such a body of desperate men as Captain Morgan had with him, the Marquis begged the Captain to use a certain stratagem of war in order to make it appear to the people that the place was taken in honest fight. Captain Morgan was, according to this plan, to come at night to the bridge which divided the two islands, and here he was to attack Fort St. Jerome. In the meanwhile the pirate ships were to approach as near as possible to Santa Teresa and attack it from the sea; also at the same time to land a body of men at a place hard by, called St. Matthew. Here the Governor was to be intercepted on his way to Fort Jerome, taken prisoner, and forced to give up the keys of the castles of Santa Teresa and St. Jerome, and the possession of these two strong places would virtually mean that of the whole island. There was to be a feint, much firing on both sides, but no bullets were to be used; moreover, they were to fire in the air, to make sure of no one being killed on either side.
This was the shameful plan of surrender that Carlo had heard his father propose, and not only propose but enforce on the majority of the men composing the council; though Don Francisco de Paratta and a few others had firmly refused to give their consent to such a base affair.
The Marquis also knew that Carlo, young as he was, was too bold and fearless ever to give in his obedience to this idea, and for this reason he had had him shut out from the deliberations. He was therefore all the more indignant and angry when Carlo declared he had heard everything, and his burst of indignation was terrible to witness.
'You forget your position and mine,' said the unhappy Marquis in a passion. 'What can you know, Carlo, of the defences of the island? How can I consent to a general massacre of my garrisons, when by this simple means we shall avoid all loss? And in a few days these wild robbers will leave the island for other more profitable fields, and--but why should I explain my reasons to you? What business had you to be eavesdropping? Is that the conduct to be expected from my son?'
Carlo did not seem to hear his father's personal abuse; his mind was bent on averting the terrible blot which, if this plan were carried out, must come on his father's name. However secret these negotiations might now be kept, sooner or later they would become known, and the name Carlo was so proud to bear would be for ever dishonoured.
'Let me go and stop the canoe; or if it is gone, Andreas can easily overtake the messengers. Father, be angry with me, do anything; but do not let us sell our honour!'