"Oh! These men are wild beasts!" cried the marquis.
"Did you not know that people cannot invade the sacred territory of the Guaycurus with impunity?"
"It is true," murmured the marquis, appearing, rather to reply to his own thoughts than to the words of the Montonero.
"Give me your word of honour not to try and escape," said Zeno Cabral, "and you will be free in a moment from all constraint."
"I give it you," answered the marquis, despondingly.
His bonds immediately fell, like those of Don Sebastiao Vianna, who had also given his word.
General Don Eusebio, since he had been in the power of the Montoneros, had maintained a sullen silence; the only answer that they obtained from him, when they proposed to him to give his word, was confined to these words, "Go to the devil!"
They were obliged to carry him away, and to tie him as well as they could on horseback.
Meanwhile time pressed; it was necessary to hasten away; the air became more and more rarefied; a suffocating heat was felt; thick volumes of smoke rolled over the glade; showers of sparks were rained upon the trees; the shrubbery began to burn; there was not a moment to lose.
Zeno Cabral placed himself at the head of his troop, having at his side Don Roque and Don Sebastiao, and having cried "Advance!" in a thundering voice, he rode at full speed across the glade.