"Let them come."
The captain withdrew without answering. Some minutes passed, at the end of which he reappeared, accompanied by three unarmed men, who walked in the midst of a group of partisans.
"It is well," said the General, "leave me with these caballeros, I wish to talk with them; only be ready to run here if occasion requires, at the first signal. Go."
Captain Quiroga planted two or three torches in the ground, and then disappeared in the gallery from which he had come out.
Don Zeno remained alone with the two prisoners; the latter stood upright before him, cold and haughty, their heads proudly thrown back, and their arms crossed on their chests.
There was a moment of silence.
It was one of the prisoners who broke it.
"I suppose, Señor General," said he, with a slight tone of raillery, "since that is the title they give you, that you have called us into your presence in order to have us shot?"
"You are deceived, Señor Don Lucio Ortega," coldly answered the partisan; "at present at least, such is not my intention."
"You know me," cried the Spaniard, with a movement of surprise which he could not suppress.