He turned away, and talked to the two leading Spaniards for a few moments, the elder of the two stamping his foot imperiously as he frowned and pointed to us. The man shrugged his shoulders, and came back.
“Look here,” he said, roughly; “the Dons say they won’t stand any nonsense, and you are to go.”
“Tell him he has had his answer, Preston,” said the General.
“Oh, yes, I know about that answer,” said the man; “and I’m to tell you that if you do not give up at once, you will all be driven off, and you must expect no mercy then.”
The colonel glanced at the General, who nodded, and the former said, half-mockingly—
“Tell your leaders we are here, and if the King of Spain wishes for this part of his Britannic Majesty’s possessions, he will have to send a stronger force than you have brought, to take it; and as for you, my friend, your position as a kind of envoy protects you; but if I were you I should be careful. Your speech tells me plainly that you have been a sailor.”
“Well, suppose I have,” said the man, sharply.
“And I should say that you have deserted, and become a renegade.”
“What?”
“I would not speak so harshly to you, but your conduct warrants it. An Englishman to come with such cowardly proposals to your fellow-countrymen! Faugh!”