The exile repressed a movement of anger.
"Unfortunately, your will is not free; you are here to obey our conditions, and not to impose your own: you must accept or die."
"Oh, oh, always your old means, as it seems, but I will be patient: come, what is it you expect from me?"
"We demand," he went on, laying a stress on every word, "that you should take the command of all the warriors, and direct the expedition in person."
"Why I, rather than anyone else?"
"Because you alone can play the part we give you."
"Nonsense—you are mad."
"You must be so, if, since your stay among the Indians, you have not seen that you would have been killed long ago, had we not been careful to spread reports about you, which gained you general respect, in spite of your rashness and blind confidence in yourself."
"Eh, then, this has been prepared a long time?"
"For centuries."