"Because, Madame—an inheritor of the paternal hatred for twenty years—it is only a fortnight ago that I have again found a trace that I thought was lost forever; that the name of our enemy has, like a thunderclap, suddenly burst on my ear, and that I have demanded of this man a reckoning in blood for the honour of my family."
"So to satisfy a vengeance which might be just, were it brought to bear on the guilty, you would be cruel enough—"
"I do not yet know what I shall do, Madame. My head is on fire; fury carries me away," interrupted he, with violence. "This man has stolen our happiness; I wish to take away his; but I shall not be a coward, as he has been; he shall know from whence comes the blow which strikes him; it is between us a war of wild beasts."
At this moment the door of the adjoining room opened suddenly, and the marchioness appeared calm and imposing.
"A war of wild beasts let it be, caballero; I accept it."
The young man rose abruptly, and darting a look of crushing scorn at the superior:
"Ah! I have been listened to," said he, with irony; "well, so much the better, I prefer it to be so. This unworthy treachery precludes any further explanation; you know, Madame, the cause of the hatred that I bear towards your husband; I have nothing more to tell you."
"My husband is a noble caballero, who, if he were present, would wither, by his denial—as I do myself—the odious tissue of lies by which you have not scrupled to accuse him before a person," added she, directing a look of sorrowful pity to the superior, "who would not, perhaps, have believed this frightful tale, the falsity of which is too easy to prove for it to be necessary to refute it."
"Be it so, Madame; this insult, coming from you, cannot affect me; you are naturally the last person to whom your husband would have confided this horrible secret; but whatever happens, a time will come—and it is near, I hope—when the truth will be declared, and when the criminal will be unmasked before you."
"There are men, Señor, whom calumny, however skilfully concocted, cannot reach," answered she, with scorn.