"Have you any plan?"
"Unhappily, no, Madame; but perhaps with the aid of our brave and faithful Tyro, we may concert a plan."
"Let us try, then," responded she, "and lose no time, which is so precious to us."
Tyro re-entered at this moment.
"Well," asked Emile of him. "Has anything fresh happened?"
"No, my friend; Sacatripas, whom I have charged to watch the departure of the Pincheyras, has seen them go at full speed towards the plain. There is no fear of a surprise on the part of Don Zeno; for a considerable distance from here there is only one practicable road, and that is the one on which we are."
"That is to be regretted, indeed; our flight is impossible."
"Mon Dieu!" murmured Doña Eva, clasping her hands with anguish.
"So we are lost," said the marchioness.
"I did not say so, Madame. I am compelled, however, to confess that the situation is extremely critical."