Kneeling down, I read it eagerly by the light of the fire. It was written hurriedly, in pencil, and signed “Norah.”
“I have been captured by Aqualonga’s band, and he himself is with them; I have twice seen him, though he has not visited me. I am treated with respect, but compelled to travel wherever they go. Their object is, I believe, to obtain a ransom. I asked them to send to my father; they replied that Señor Desmond was ruined, and could not pay the sum they require. I suspect, therefore, that they intend to deliver me up to the Spaniards. They will hold me as a hostage for you and Carlos, whom they know to be serving with the patriots. You will, I am sure, try and arrange some plan to rescue me. The bearer, who is attached to his chief, will inform him how I am situated; and he also will endeavour, I think, to help me. Aqualonga is marching to join the Spaniards; and, from the intelligence I can gain, I believe that we are not far off from where you are. Whatever plan you propose should be carried out speedily. Consult Carlos.”
I instantly called my cousin aside and read the contents to him. On hearing the message, he was even more agitated and anxious than I had been. We then called up the Indian and questioned him. He had found his chief, he said, and faithfully delivered the message entrusted to him. Kanimapo had, he added, bidden him hasten on to me, saying that he himself would risk everything to rescue my sister.
“This will make me doubly anxious to defeat the Spaniards,” observed Don Carlos, after he had somewhat recovered from the agitation into which this intelligence had thrown him.
We both promised the Indian a reward for his faithfulness in delivering the message.
“I require none,” he answered; “my desire is to obey the wishes of my chief.”
He then inquired whether we expected soon to be engaged with the enemy, of whose position he was well aware.
“Why do you wish to know?” I asked.
“Because I am acquainted with a defile through these hills, of which, perhaps, your leaders are ignorant,” he replied. “It is thickly overgrown with brushwood and trees, so as to be completely concealed from view; but if these impediments were cleared away, you might descend suddenly on the enemy and take them by surprise. It was here that my people once fought a fierce battle with the Castilians; and though ages have since passed away, the memory of it still survives among us.”
Carlos and I were fully satisfied, after further conversation with the Indian, that the account he gave us was correct,—the more so as he undertook to lead us to the entrance of the defile. We at once set off, therefore, discussing as we went plans for rescuing Norah, in case Kanimapo should not have succeeded in doing so. But even for her sake we could not leave the army till the battle was over; and, indeed, it would have been impossible to obtain men to accompany us.