"Go on, go on! what frightful scheme can this man have formed?"
"Oh!" the capataz continued with savage irony; "the plan is simple, honest, and highly praised by some persons, who consider it admirable, even sublime."
"You will tell me?'
"Well, know all, then; General Don Sebastian Guerrero intends to marry his ward."
"Marry his ward, he!" Don Martial exclaimed with horror, "'tis impossible."
"Impossible?" the capataz repeated with a laugh, "Oh, how little you know this man with the implacable will, this wild beast with a human face, who pitilessly breaks everyone who dares to resist him. He is resolved to marry his ward in order to strip her of her fortune, and he will do so, I tell you."
"But she is mad!"
"I allow she is."
"What priest would be so unnatural as to bless this sacrilegious marriage?"
"Nonsense," the capataz said with a shrug of his shoulders, "you forget, my good sir, that the general possesses the talisman which renders everything possible, and purchases everything—men, women, honour, and conscience; he has gold."