"I have no father now," she said, in a voice at once firm and sweet; "lead on."
On hearing this my last scruples vanished, and we set out. We traversed the court in silence. The huesped was sleeping on the ground close to the gate. I touched him with the point of my lance without speaking; he started up with the mechanical promptness of a man accustomed to be roused at all hours of the night.
"For the road already?" on receiving the reckoning. "And this cavalier also, with his two horses?"
"Yes," I replied; "this cavalier, my valet, and myself, must be at the hacienda of San Francisco before daylight."
"A pleasant journey," he cried, on opening the gate, which soon closed behind us. We at first followed the road to Mexico, so as to tally with the false direction I had given to the huesped; we then turned bridle all at once in the direction of Celaya, making a wide detour to avoid passing near the hacienda. A damp, icy fog covered the plain as far as the eye could reach; the night-wind tore aside the curtain of mist from time to time, and showed us the surrounding country covered with hoar-frost. A few paces distant appeared the watch-fire of the Biscayan: it looked like a star just about to expire. Our horses made their way rapidly through the mist, the breath that issued from their nostrils playing about their heads in immense volumes. Although not sharing in the feverish impatience of my two companions, I could not help feeling a kind of emotion when I compared the uncertain issue of the event into which they had blindly rushed with the thick vapors which enwrapped in darkness the road and the objects around. We were not long in placing a considerable distance between us and the venta. We then slackened our pace; a grayish glimmer began to light up the objects around us: in the east, and behind the hills, which were still enveloped in mist, a few pale rays heralded the approach of the sun.
"Let us stop here a minute," I said to the Biscayan, "to breathe our horses. In the mean time, I shall alight to listen if there are any pursuers behind us."
We had now covered a distance of almost eight leagues without exchanging a word, this being one of those cases in which a full heart places a restraint upon the tongue. With my ear close to the ground, I listened anxiously to catch the sound of the approach of horsemen: no noise, no echo came from the earth. We were in a vast desert plain. The slight agitation I had felt during our long gallop was succeeded by a soothing calm; I seated myself on the grass, and invited my companions to do the same. This moment of passing security brought out a burst of sentiment which had been restrained during the long gallop. As the hoar-frost immediately disappears when the first beams of the sun have reddened the grassy plain, so anxiety fled from the hearts of the two lovers, and gave place to confidence and delirious exultation. Scarcely had the lady alighted, than, obeying an irresistible impulse of her Mexican nature, she strained in her arms him who would henceforth stand to her in place of the whole world. The faded, melancholy face of the Spaniard seemed all at once lighted up with animation; but the rapture inspired by these caresses was too much for him; he turned pale, staggered, and fell to the ground with his eyes closed. Donna Luz rent the air with her shrieks.
"Don't be afraid," I said; "joy never kills."