"If your Excellency will deign to open the windows of this cabinet, you will hear the cries of death which the army and the people are raising in concert."
"Ah!" Miramón muttered. "Political assassinations committed in cold blood after the victory: I will never consent to authorize such odious crimes. No, a thousand times no! I at least will never have that said of me. Where are the captured officers?"
"In the interior of the palace, under a guard in the courtyard."
"Give orders for them to be at once brought into my presence: go, General."
"Ah, my friend," the President exclaimed with discouragement, as soon as he found himself alone with the adventurer, "what can be hoped from a nation so devoid of moral feeling as ours? Alas! What will the European governments think of this apparent barbarity? What a contempt they must feel for our unfortunate nation! And yet," he added, "this people is not bad-hearted, it is its long slavery which has rendered it cruel, and the interminable revolutions to which it has been constantly a victim for forty years. Come, follow me; we must put an end to this."
He then left the cabinet accompanied by the adventurer, and entered an immense saloon, in which his most devoted partizans were assembled. The President seated himself in a chair raised on two steps, prepared for him at the end of the room, and the officers who remained faithful to his cause, grouped themselves on either side of him. At an affectionate nod from Miramón the adventurer remained by his side, apparently indifferent.
A noise of footsteps and the rattling of arms were heard outside, and the captured officers, preceded by General Cobos, entered the hall. Although they affected calmness, the prisoners were rather anxious as to the fate reserved for them. They had heard the cries of death raised against them, and were aware of the ill feeling of Miramón's partizans towards them.
The one who walked first was General Berriozábal, a young man of thirty at the most, with an expressive head, firm and delicate features, and a noble and easy demeanour. After him came General Degollado between his two sons; then two colonels and the officers composing General Berriozábal's staff.
The prisoners advanced with a firm step toward the President, who on their approach, hastened from his chair and walked a few steps toward them, with a smile on his lips.
"Caballeros," he said to them with a graceful bow, "I regret that the circumstances in which we are now unfortunately placed do not permit me at once to restore you to liberty, but at any rate I will try, by all the means in my power, to render you comfortable during a captivity which, I hope, will not last long. Be good enough first to receive back the swords which you wield so bravely, and of which I regret having deprived you."