"Yes, and I am not ashamed to confess that, without them, I should probably have not only been robbed, but murdered by the bandits. Unfortunately these men obstinately refused to tell me their names. All my researches up to the present have been fruitless. I have been unable to find them again, and show them my gratitude, which I assure you vexes me extremely."
"Yes, papa, I know that you have often in my presence regretted your inability to find the courageous man to whom you owe your life, as well as I do, who was but a child at the time."
The young lady uttered these words with an emotion that affected all her hearers.
"Unfortunately," the general said a moment later, "three years have elapsed since that adventure. Who knows what has become of that man?"
"I do, papa."
"You, Angela!" he exclaimed in surprise. "It is impossible."
"My father, the questions I addressed to the gentleman, and which he answered so kindly, had only one object; to acquire a certainty by corroborating through the answers I received certain information I had obtained elsewhere."
"So that—?"
"The man who saved your life is the Count Don Louis, who started this very morning for San Francisco."
"Oh!" the general said in great agitation, "it is impossible. You are mistaken, my child."