"But what have I done to you? Great Heaven, I am only a poor girl, and you cannot be so cruel to me without a motive."
"No, you have done nothing to me, and I feel for you neither hatred nor love; but you are the daughter of General Soto-Mayor. Your family dishonoured mine, and you will be dishonoured to expiate the crimes of your relatives."
"Oh, that is frightful; you will not act thus, because you know very well that I am innocent."
"Your ancestor dishonoured the wife of my grandfather, and she has still to be avenged."
"Mercy, mercy!"
"No! eye for eye, and tooth for tooth!—for you the shame, for me the vengeance!"
"In your mother's name, pity!"
"My mother!"
This word produced such an impression on the half-breed that he bounded with rage, and his face assumed a fresh expression of rage and fury.
"Ah, you speak to me of my mother! Mad girl! you do not know, then, that she found herself one day in the path of a Soto-Mayor, and that he brutally and cowardly plunged her into ignominy in order to satisfy a moment of brutal desire?"