"To escape from my persecutors," she replied, in a broken voice, "I feel I have strength to do anything."
"Good!" said Curumilla, "my sister is courageous. Her God will help her!"
"It is in Him alone I place my hope," she said, with a sigh.
"To horse, then, and let us begone! minutes are ages!"
He unfastened the horses, they mounted, and set of at full speed, without any sound being produced upon the road by their hoofs, which Curumilla had covered with pieces of sheepskin. The maiden breathed a sigh of relief on feeling herself once more free, and under the protection of a devoted friend. The fugitives continued to ride at a rapid pace, in a direction diametrically opposite to the one they should have taken to return to Valdivia. Prudence required that they should not yet take any route on which, according to all possibilities, they would be looked for.
We must leave our friends in this critical position for the present; but those readers who feel an interest in the loves of Don Louis and Doña Rosario, will find their curiosity fully satisfied in the following volume of this series, called "The Pearl of the Andes."