"What is your name? Who are you?"
"Pardon me, sir," the stranger replied with easy raillery, "if we go on thus it will take a long time, and you will learn nothing, or very little."
The count repressed with difficulty a gesture of impatience.
"Proceed as you think proper," he said.
"Good! In that way we shall soon understand each other."
"I am listening."
"You are strange, señor, in this country. Having arrived a few months back only, you do not yet know the habits and customs of the inhabitants. Relying on the knowledge you attained in your own country, you fancied, on arriving among us, that you could do exactly as you pleased, because your intelligence was so superior to ours, and you have acted accordingly."
"To your story, señor!" interrupted the count passionately.
"I am coming to it, señor. Owing to powerful protectors, you found yourself at once placed in an exceptional position. You have founded a magnificent colony in the richest province of Mexico, on the desert frontier. You then asked and obtained from government the rank of captain, with the right to raise a free corps composed exclusively of your own countrymen, specially intended to hunt the Apaches, Comanches, &c. That is easy to understand for we Mexicans are such cowards."
"Señor, señor! I would remind you that all you are now saying is at least useless," the count angrily exclaimed.