"What! leave me! thus break a friendship like ours! You cannot think of such a thing."
"Do you not know that I love Maria with all the strength of my soul: as I told you it is an impossibility to give up that love, and yet I do not wish to betray your cause; so let me go and seek far from her, if not oblivion, at least death."
"Grief leads you astray, Leon. Come, listen to me."
"What!—your justification! I do not accuse you; but once again I say we must separate, for if Maria were to ask me for her brother and I should not give him to her, she would curse me, do you hear? Because she would refuse to believe that I love her, as I did not know how to die to save him whom your hatred has condemned! You see plainly that I must depart."
"Well, then," said Diego, with some amount of emotion, "an insurmountable barrier is raised between us."
"Yes, brother; but though we are parted the memory of our friendship will survive our separation."
A silence of some minutes' duration followed these words, and nothing could be heard but the hurried breathing of the two men. Diego was the first to speak.
"Leon," he suddenly exclaimed, making a violent effort over himself; "you have spoken the truth; one of us must depart, as we are both following a different road; but it shall be I, for my place is at the head of the Indians, my brothers. As for you, remain with those whom you are protecting, and ere I go to resume the life of the proscript, and continue in broad daylight the struggle which I have been carrying on for so many years in the darkness, give me your hand, that I may press it in mine for the last time; and then, to the mercy of God!"
"Oh!" Leon replied, eagerly, "most gladly so, or rather let us embrace, for we are still worthy of each other."
And the two smugglers fell into each other's arms.