Don Louis leaped off his horse, and walked resolutely toward them. At the sight of him, the adventurers involuntarily felt the feeling of duty re-aroused in their hearts, which they had vainly striven to stifle.
"The assembly!" the count shouted in a thundering voice.
Yielding to this man's magical influence, which they had so long been accustomed to respect, they obeyed orders, and assembled around him.
"Not so," he continued; "fall in."
The first step was taken, they formed their ranks. The count surveyed them, looking closely along the ranks. The adventurers stood silent and gloomy; they felt themselves guilty. These hardened men trembled, not from fear but shame. The count addressed them.
"What have you to reproach me with, comrades?" he said to them, in his gentle and sympathising voice. "Since the moment I first collected you around me, have I not done all in my power to improve your position? Have I not constantly treated you as my children? Speak: if I have injured one of you, or committed a single act of injustice, tell it me? You have been led to believe that I am deceiving you, that I was not the owner of the Plancha de Plata, that this mine did not exist. Look here," he added, as he drew a document from his chest, "here are the papers; the agreement is regularly drawn up, the stations are prepared up to the mines. Now, have you faith in me? do you now suppose that I am deceiving you. Answer!"
He was silent for a moment; but not a voice was raised to answer him.
"Ah! That is the state of the case," he continued; "now listen to me. The mines to which I am leading you contain incalculable wealth. These riches will be yours. I shall only take what you give me. You shall settle my share. Will you now accuse me of wishing to cheat you for my own profit? You ask for fresh officers chosen by yourselves. I will never consent to such a condition. Your officers are men in whose capacity I have full and entire confidence: they well keep their positions. Among you there are cowards, who have become the tools of my enemies for the purpose of destroying us. These men all belong to the second squad. They had better spare me the trouble of discharging them with ignominy."
The adventurers, carried away by their chiefs frank and honourable language, rushed toward him, uttering shouts of joy. Peace was made: all was forgotten. The emissaries, so suddenly discharged, profited by the general enthusiasm to disappear without beat of drum.
"Here is a courier!" Valentine suddenly said.