"The English have been too strong for you," said Doña Dalmacia, seating herself beside him, and laying one soft arm on his neck.
"They were few, and we fled from them like sheep, like sheep. We are disgraced for ever. Never more shall we dare to look them in the face."
"You are tired; to-morrow will be another day."
"Ah! Dalma, if you only knew how they made us march; all the blessed day without a morsel to eat and nothing but muddy water to drink," said Don Isidro, raising himself on his elbow and venturing at last to look at his wife. What he saw in her face was a tender look of pity and of sympathy.
"Are you not ashamed of me, Dalma?" he asked her, with a brightening eye. "I am a runaway and a coward. Are you not ashamed of me, Dalma?"
"You are no coward, Isidro," said Doña Dalmacia, throwing her arms round his neck; "you are tired and have eaten nothing; to-morrow will be another day."
Don Isidro bowed his head upon her shoulder, and for a minute there was silence between them.
Don Felipe Navarro, who had come in with his brother-in-law, had thrown himself wearily into an arm-chair.
"Yes, Dalma, my sister," said he, "to-morrow will be another day, and we without an army shall have all the invaders upon us. Those we saw to-day were only the vanguard."