And passing his arm through the monk's, he led him away; the latter followed him passively and mechanically, not able yet to understand what was happening to him, but still beginning to regain a small amount of courage. In a few minutes, they reached the clearing.
"Ah!" Carmela exclaimed in surprise; "Fray Antonio! By what accident is he here, when he started with the conducta de plata?"
This remark made the hunter prick his ears; he examined the monk attentively, and then compelled him to sit down by the fire.
"I trust that the good father will explain to us what has happened to him," he muttered.
Everything, however, has an end in this world; and the monk for some time past had seemed destined to pass, with the greatest rapidity and almost without transition, from the extremest terror to the most complete security. When he was a little warmed, the confusion produced in his ideas by the sudden meeting with the hunter gradually yielded to the cordial reception given him; and Carmela's gentle voice breaking pleasantly on his ear, completely re-established the balance of his mind, and dismissed the mournful apprehensions that tormented him.
"Do you feel better, holy Father?" Carmela asked him, with much sympathy.
"Yes," he said, "I thank you, I am now quite comfortable."
"All the better. Will you eat? Would you like to take any refreshment?"
"Nothing at all, I thank you, for I have not the least appetite."
"Perhaps you are thirsty, Fray Antonio; if so, here is a bota of refino," said Lanzi, as he offered him a skin more than half full of the comforting liquid.