"You would regret it for your whole life, brother, were it as long as a patriarch's."
"That is possible, though I greatly doubt it. I can only receive bad news from Spain."
"Perhaps so; in any case, these are the news of which I am the bearer."
"I am listening to you."
"I am, as my gown shows you, a monk of the order of San Francisco de Asís."
"At least, you have the look of one," the adventurer remarked, with an ironical smile.
"Do you doubt it?"
"Why not? Would you be the first Spaniard who was not afraid to profane a sacred dress, in order to spy our movements the more easily?"
"Unfortunately what you say is true, and it has happened only too often; but I am merely a monk."
"I believe you, till I have proof of the contrary; so go on."