"All right, captain."
And the German dashed down the stairs at a tremendous pace. Leon then turned to Maria, who was sobbing.
"Courage, Señora. I cannot take you back to the convent, where you would no longer be in safety; but will you join your father at Santiago?"
"Do not abandon me, Leon, I implore you," she answered. "You alone can protect me. Oh, my poor sister!"
"If I cannot save her, I will avenge her in an exemplary manner."
The maiden no longer heard him. Absorbed in her grief, she dreamed of the fatality which had weighed on her ever since the day when her eyes first met Leon, and derived from them the love which was destined to change the calm life which she led at the convent into such terrible trials. Still, on seeing near her Leon—whose eagerness in lavishing attentions on her was incessant—she gave him a look of ineffable sweetness, while asking his forgiveness for having suspected him of complicity in the outrage of which she had been the victim.
"Maria," Leon said in reply, as he covered her hand with kisses, "do you not know that I would joyfully sacrifice my life at a sign from you?"
"Forgive me, Leon, for I should die if your love ceased to be as noble and pure as your heart."
"My love, Maria, is submissive to your wishes; it is the most fervent worship—the purifying flame."
"Leon, my sister is perhaps at this time abandoned defencelessly to the insults of her cowardly ravisher."