"Me! That is strange. The courier was doubtlessly a native, an Indian?"
"No, he was Don Cornelio Mendoza, a Spanish gentleman, whom you probably remember."
"Certainly—a jolly, excellent companion, who was continually strumming the vihuela."
"The same man," Valentine said ironically. "Well, this jolly, excellent companion, who was continually strumming the vihuela, my dear Loyal Heart, is simply a traitor who sold all our secrets to the enemy."
"Oh, Valentine! you must be very sure ere you bring such an accusation against a caballero."
"Unfortunately," the hunter said sadly, "the slightest doubt on the subject is impossible; the count holds in his hands all the fellow's correspondence with General Guerrero."
"Cuerpo de Cristo!" Don Rafaël exclaimed, "do you know, my friend, this is very serious?"
"I am so fully of your opinion that, in spite of the fatigue that overpowered me, I begged these gentlemen to accompany me, and started at full gallop, hoping to surprise him on the road and seize him; for, beside the letter he had to deliver to you, he had others of a most compromising nature, addressed to several influential persons in the province."
"That is an awkward affair," Loyal Heart said with a pensive air: "it is evident that the scoundrel, instead of coming here, has gone straight to hand the papers to the general."
"There is not, unfortunately, the least doubt of that."