"Oh, oh!" she said, in a bitterly mocking tone, "my pretty dear! This is the way you oblige people to come after you: is it?"
Doña Rosario only replied to this flood of words by a look of cold contempt.
"Ah!" the exasperated courtesan exclaimed, clutching her arm, "I will bring down that proud spirit!"
"Madam," Rosario replied, mildly, "you hurt me very much."
"Serpent!" the Linda shrieked, "why can I not crush you beneath my heel?"
Rosario staggered a few paces; her foot struck against a root, and she fell. In her fall her forehead came in contact with a sharp stone; she uttered a feeble cry of pain, and fainted. The Indian chief, at the sight of the large gash in the young girl's forehead, uttered a roar like that of a wild beast. He leant over her raised her tenderly, and endeavoured to stop the bleeding.
"Fie!" said the Linda, with a jeering laugh; "are you going to play the old woman—you, the first chief of your nation?"
Antinahuel remained silent; for an instant he felt an inclination to stab the fury: he darted a glance at her so loaded with anger and hatred, that she was terrified, and instinctively made a movement as if to put herself on the defensive. As yet the attentions of Antinahuel had no effect; Rosario remained still senseless. In a few minutes the Linda was reassured by observing that love occupied more of the thoughts of the chief than hatred.
"Come, tie the creature upon a horse," she said.
"This woman belongs to me," Antinahuel replied, "and I alone have the right of disposing of her."