[CHAPTER XXXVI.]
THE LION AT BAY.
"My God!" said the General, "am I the dupe of an hallucination?"
"Ah! ah!" the King of Darkness exclaimed, with an ironical smile, "you recognize me then, General?"
"Don Tadeo de Leon!" Don Pancho cried, in horror. "Do the dead then arise from the tomb? Oh! I hoped that what I heard was false. It is you!"
"Yes," Don Tadeo replied, in a stern voice, "you are not mistaken, Don Pancho; I am Don Tadeo de Leon, whom you caused to be shot upon the Plaza Mayor of Santiago. Your spies have informed you correctly."
"Man or demon," the General shouted, half choking with rage, "I will not yield to you! I will fight you as a man, and send you back again to the hell from which you have escaped!"
His enemy smiled disdainfully.
"Your hour has arrived, Don Pancho," he said; "you are due to the justice of the Dark-Hearts."