"Be a man! be firm! collect all your courage to bear worthily the blow you are about to receive."
Don Tadeo walked two or three times round the room, with his head cast down, and his brow contracted; then stopped suddenly in front of Valentine with a pale brow, but with a stoical countenance. This man of iron had subdued nature within him; as if aware of the rudeness of the shock he was about to receive, he had ordered his heart not to break—his muscles not to quiver.
"Speak!" he said, "I am ready to hear you."
While uttering these words his voice was firm, his features calm. Valentine, though well acquainted with his courage, was struck with admiration.
"Is the misfortune you are about to announce to me personal?" said Don Tadeo.
"Yes," the young man replied, in a tremulous voice.
"God be praised! Go on, then; I listen to you."
Valentine perceived that he must not put the soul of this man to too hard a trial; he determined to speak.
"Doña Rosario has disappeared," he said; "she has been carried off during our absence; Louis, my foster brother, in endeavouring to defend her, has fallen, pierced by two sword thrusts."
The King of Darkness appeared a statue of marble; no emotion was perceptible upon his austere countenance.