Here the speaker paused abruptly, and his faded eyes shifted and hardened.
“And Murguía, we came here, and–he met your child. He met her here, at this chapel, where she had been to pray for her aunt. Old man, do you hear me, the Emperor met your daughter! Then, next day, instead of going on with his journey, he complained of a cough, and stayed at Las Palmas. But every evening he rode here, he and I. Once I found a chance to ask her her name, but she would only tell her given name.–There, you will remember? Yes, you will–after you have seen her. Come, she is not far away.”
182CHAPTER XXII
“Equidad en la Justicia”
“... and I think I shall begin to take pleasure in being at home and minding my business. I pray God I may, for I finde a great need thereof.” –
Pepys’s Diary.
An hour later the candles were still guttering in the court room, and here Colonel Lopez assembled his minions of justice a second time. In his manner now there was nothing of the uncertainty, nor the feigning of penetration, which had before marked his handling of the trials. He pounded the box with his sword.
“In the light of new evidence,” he announced shortly, “the two cases of a while ago are reopened.”
Din Driscoll strolled in. “I’ve come for my belt and pistols. Dupin took them,” he said.
Lopez signed to the Dragoons to close round him. Then he gave vent. Did the Señor Gringo laugh so much at Mexican justice, since instead of escaping while he had the chance, he came back, coolly demanding his property? It was insolence!