Then the pioneers rushed in and dragged him out. But the spirit of the fiend was yet strong within him, for as he was borne past Don Luiz, bleeding from three wounds, he clenched the hand which yet retained power, and struck him a violent blow.
On that instant the sword of the fiery young lieutenant would have been passed through his heart, had not Fra Anselmo arrested the blade by grasping it.
Just as José Estremera had reached this point in his narrative of the morning's proceedings, we heard a tremendous hubbub, and on hurrying to the front windows of the posada, saw a vast crowd running after a low hurdle that was drawn by two mules past the end of the street which led straight toward the great Plaza.
It bore the miserable and half-dead form of Antonio el Cubano to the final scene of his crimes and recent sufferings,—the garotte.
So perished this sinner!
CHAPTER LIV.
CONCLUSION.
I have but little more to add, for with this last episode the course of wild adventures upon which I had been so strangely hurried, nearly closes.
A few hours after the death of Antonio, when Hislop and I, with Lambourne, Carlton, and other survivors of the Eugenie were waiting in the office of the British Consul to make some arrangements for rewarding José Estremera for his great kindness to us all, we met Captain the Hon. Egerton B——, of H.M. ship Active, who was so struck with our story that he offered us all a passage to England, an offer which we accepted with gratitude.
His ship was leaving the African squadron, and returning home to be repaired.