"Your companions! What companions are you talking about?" cried several voices.
Don Ramón looked round with a terrified air.
"Well, that's true!" he said. "I am alone. What on earth has become of the others?"
"What others?" the first speaker rejoined; "we see nobody."
"Caramba!" the senator impatiently replied, "I mean Don Gregorio and his soldiers."
"What! are you part of Don Gregorios troop?" the people cried from all sides.
"To be sure I am," said the senator; "but pray let me get under shelter, for the rain pours terribly."
"You need not mind that," said a joker; "you can't be wetter than you are!"
"That's true," he replied.
"Do you know whether Don Gregorio has met with Don Tadeo de León?" Several voices asked simultaneously.