"Nothing personally," the trooper said, "but I have to place a despatch in your Excellency's hands."
"A despatch—from whom?"
"From his most Excellent General Don José-Maria Rubio, and the contents of the despatch must be important, for the General ordered me to make the utmost diligence, and I have ridden forty-seven leagues in nineteen hours, in order to arrive more quickly."
"Good!" the Captain answered; "Give it here."
The dragoon drew from his bosom a large letter with a red seal, and respectfully offered it to the officer.
The latter took it and opened it, but, before reading it, he gave the motionless and impassive soldier before him a suspicious glance, which he endured, however, with imperturbable assurance.
The man seemed to be about thirty years of age, tall and well built; he wore his uniform with a certain amount of ease; his intelligent features had an expression of craft and cunning, rendered more marked still by his incessantly moving black eyes, which only rested with considerable hesitation on the Captain.
Sum total, this individual resembled all Mexican soldiers, and there was nothing about him that could attract attention or excite suspicion.
Still it was only with extreme repugnance that the Captain saw himself compelled to enter into relations with him; the reason for this it would certainly have been very difficult, if not impossible for him to say; but there are in nature certain laws which cannot be gainsaid, and which cause us at the mere sight of a person, and before he has even spoken, to feel a sympathy or antipathy for him, and be attracted or repulsed by him. Whence comes this species of secret presentiment which is never wrong in its appreciation? That we cannot explain: we merely confine ourselves to mentioning a fact, whose influence we have often undergone and efficacy recognized, during the course of our chequered life.
We are bound to assert that the Captain did not feel at all attracted toward the man to whom we refer, but, on the contrary, was disposed to place no confidence in him.