"What do we wait for, chiefs of the Aucas?" cried the chief who had advised retreat, in a shrill, excited tone; "Do you not hear the cries of your wives and children calling upon you for succour? Do you not see the flames which are consuming your dwellings and devouring your harvests? To arms! warriors, to arms!"
"To arms!" the warriors yelled, rising as one man.
Indescribable confusion followed. General Bustamente retired with death in his heart.
"Well!" the Linda asked, on seeing him enter, "what is going on? What mean these cries and this frightful tumult? Have the Indians revolted?"
"No," the general explained, "Don Tadeo, that demon, bent upon my destruction, has disconcerted all my plans. The Indian army is about to retreat."
"To retreat!" the Linda cried furiously, and rushing towards Antinahuel—
"What! you! you fly! you confess yourself conquered! Don Tadeo de León, the executioner of your family, is marching against you, and you are frightened! Coward! coward! put on petticoats; you are not a warrior! you are not a man; you are an old woman."
The Toqui put her back with disdain.
"Woman, you are mad!" he said. "What can one man do against fate? I do not fly from my enemy, I go to meet him."
"My sister cannot remain here," he said, in a softened tone; "the camp is about to be broken up."