"What is it, master?"
"It is how I shall introduce myself into the convent to warn them."
"That is very simple; you will go in the convent in the same disguise that you assumed yesterday."
"Hum! You think that is not risking too much?"
"Not the least in the world, master. Who will care to concern himself about a poor old man?"
"Well, I will try; if I fail, I shall have done my duty as a gallant man; my conscience will reproach me in nothing."
They continued to talk thus for several hours, making their final arrangements, and trying to foresee all the chances which might, at the last moment, occur to mar the success of their projects.
The more the young Frenchman became intimately acquainted with the Guaraní, the more he discovered intelligence in this poor Indian, so simple and so artless in appearance, and the more he congratulated himself on having accepted his offers of service, and trusting to him.
It should be added that if the painter had not thus, at this critical period, met this devoted servant, he would have been in a most critical situation, and it would have been almost impossible for him to escape from the terrible danger suspended over his head. He frankly owned this, and, putting aside the prejudices of race, he wisely left his servant to act for himself, contenting himself with following his counsels without trying to have his own way—which showed that the young man, notwithstanding his apparent frivolity of character, had good common sense, and a rather uncommon rectitude of judgment.
About half an hour after sunset, the two men quitted the grotto, in the recesses of which they had remained hidden more than four hours.