“But you would not be able to hold it, so long as we are masters of the citadel.”
“I know that also.”
“Ah, then, your Excellency, we are likely to understand one another.”
“It is just for that reason that I decline taking the town till I have first captured the castle.”
“Now I think we are still nearer comprehending each other: since it is just that which you wish to have, that I come to offer you. I will not say to sell: for my price will be so moderate that it will deserve rather to be called a gift I am making you. Apropos, however, of the price—is your Excellency in funds?”
“Well, you have heard, no doubt, that I have just captured from the Spanish general, Paris, eleven hundred fusils, five pieces of cannon—to say nothing of the eight hundred prisoners we have made—and ten thousand dollars in specie. That is about ten times the price of a fortress, which in a short time I may have for nothing.”
“Be not so sure of that, your Excellency. We have no scarcity of provisions. The Isle of Roqueta—”
“I shall capture that also.”
“Serves us,” continued the Spaniard, without noticing the interruption, “as a port of supply, by which the ships can always throw provisions into the castle. But not to dispute the point, am I to understand that your Excellency fixes the price at a thousand dollars? I agree to that sum. You say you have captured ten thousand. Unfortunately for me, I have the opportunity of selling the fortress only once.”
“A thousand dollars down, do you mean?” inquired the General.