"They order us to retrace our steps; they are resolved not to give us a passage."
"We shall force one for ourselves by passing over their corpses," haughtily cried the marquis.
"I doubt it, your Excellency. No one individually is capable of successfully contending against ten enemies."
"Do you, then, think them so numerous?"
"I have understated it; it is not ten, but a hundred, that I should have said."
"You seek to frighten me, Diogo?"
"What use would it be, your Excellency? I know that nothing I could say to you would succeed in persuading you, it would be but wasting precious time."
"Then it is you who are afraid," cried the marquis.
The Indian, at this undeserved insult, turned pale in the manner of the men of his race; that is to say, his countenance assumed a tint of dull white; his eyes flushed with blood, and a convulsive trembling agitated all his limbs.
"What you say not only is not generous, your Excellency," he answered, "but is inappropriate at this moment. Why insult a man who for the last hour has endured uncomplainingly, on the part of your enemy, deadly insults?"