Don Pedro at the same time stepped forward between the young people, and before the severe face of the Spaniard their eyes drooped.
"Father!" faltered the young man.
"Silence!" cried the old man. "Your duty is clear. What if Dulaurier were in the house, Rosita—what if, more faithful than you, he had come to claim his promise, made at the death-bed of your father? I ask you what you would answer."
Trembling and submissive as a criminal before his judge, the young girl turned her eyes from Stephano to Don Pedro.
"I should reply to Lieutenant Dulaurier that, before God and man, I am his betrothed bride, and that while he lives no other can be my husband."
"Come then, my child, prepare to receive your fiancé," and Don Pedro held out his hand to his niece to lead her away.
"You are destroying my happiness!" cried Stephano.
"But in return I give you back your honour," replied Don Pedro. "Look after the lieutenant, for here come the guerillas!" and he went out.
"What a dream, and what an awakening!" murmured Stephano as he was left alone. "Rosita vows she loves me, and at the same time declares she will never be mine while Dulaurier lives. While he lives! And I must take upon myself the peril of saving him, when I have only to let him——Oh, how despair tempts us to horrible deeds! Is there time to fly, to quit this spot where each thought is torture: to hasten and join the guerillas before they enter the house? For, alas! if they enter now and demand where their enemy is—by Heaven! I shall not have the strength to resist—I must fly!"
Picking up his gun and pistols he rushed towards the door, but recoiled at the sight of a man in the uniform of a captain of guerillas, who by a gesture forced him to pause.