The principal houses of the town were only spared from pillage; and Nocobotha, in order to save their riches, adjudged them to the most powerful Ulmens. As for himself, he established his headquarters in his own mansion in Old Carmen. Don Valentine and his daughter took possession of their house, which had escaped the fury of the Indians.
The town, crowded with Patagonians, offered an image of desolation.
A week after the capture of the colony, at about ten in the morning, three persons were conversing in a low voice in Don Valentine Cardoso's saloon. They were Don Valentine himself, his daughter, and the Capataz Don Blas Salazar. The latter, in his gaucho dress, had the look of a thorough bandit. Mercedes, standing as sentry at a window was laughing heartily at him, to the great despair of the capataz, who most sincerely wished his confounded disguise at the deuce.
"Blas, my friend," Don Valentine was saying, "get yourself ready for a dance."
"Then the ceremony is to take place today?"
"Yes, Blas. I must confess that we live in singular times, and a singular country. I have seen several revolutions, but this one beats them all."
"From the Indian point of view," Concha said, "it is very logical."
"Which of you, a month ago, expected such a sudden re-establishment of the empire of the Incas?"
"Not I," the capataz replied. "Still, it seems to me that Nocobotha is not at all magnanimous for a future emperor."
"What do you mean by that, my friend?"