“No, nor you. Why do you not take some rest, like our companions?”
“One cannot sleep, Fabian, in a spot consecrated by so many sacred memories,” replied the old hunter. “This place is rendered holy to me. Was it not here that, by the intervention of a miracle, I again found you in the heart of this forest, after having lost you upon the wide ocean? I should be ungrateful to the Almighty if I could forget this—even to obtain the rest which He has appointed for us.”
“I think as you do, my father, and listen to your words,” replied the young Count.
“Thanks, Fabian; thanks also to that God who ordained that I should find you with a heart so noble and so loving. See! here are still the remains of the fire near which I sat; here are the brands, still black, though they have been washed by the rain of an entire season. Here is the tree against which I leant on the happiest evening of my life, since it restored you to me; for now that I can again call you my son, each day of my existence has been fraught with happiness, until I learnt what I should have understood, that my affection for you was not that to which the young heart aspires.”
“Why so frequently allude to this subject, my father?” said Fabian, with that gentle submission which is more cutting than the bitterest reproach.
“As you will. Let us not again allude to that which may pain you; we shall speak of it after the trial to which I have submitted you.”
The father and son—for we may indeed call them so—now maintained a long silence, listening only to the voices of nature. The sun approached the horizon, a light breeze sprung up and rustled among the leaves; already hopping from branch to branch, the birds resumed their song, the insects swarmed in the grass, and the lowing of cattle was heard in the distance. It was the denizens of the forest who welcomed the return of evening.
The two sleepers awoke.
After a short and substantial repast, of which Gayferos had brought the materials from the Hacienda del Venado, the four travellers awaited in calm meditation the hour of their great trial.
Some time passed away before the azure sky above the open clearing was overcast.