"Against the king I say nothing; but Spain is our tyrant, and Spaniards come here only to plunder us. Don Carlos shows his patriotism by his enmity to Spain, and his patriotism is guarantee that he will never prove false to us who are his countrymen."
"But further, he is an enemy to the holy mother Church, he never goes to Mass, and scoffs at the priests; he is an infidel, a heretic—from a man like that one may suspect anything."
"One should suspect no man without proofs," said Marcelino, turning away. Then after taking leave with great cordiality of Doña Dalmacia and of those about her he went on to the ante-sala.
"Don Isidro," said he, "I am going to see my friend Don Carlos Evaña. I shall tell him plainly that he is suspected, and advise him to avoid the society of these English for the present."
"You will not find him," said Don Isidro; "Beresford gives a dinner to-day at the fort to the authorities, and to some of our principal men; naturally his great friend will be there."
"I doubt it," said one of the visitors, who had been talking to Don Isidro; "Don Carlos never goes anywhere where he is likely to meet Spaniards."
"My father will be at the fort," said Marcelino.
"I know he is, and the two Don Gregorios also," said another; "I saw them go together."
"Then I will go and see my mother. I have avoided our house whenever I have been in the city, for I feared to compromise my father."
"You have done well," said Don Isidro. "More than once I have been asked by English officers whether I knew anything of the eldest son of Don Roderigo Ponce de Leon. If you go to-night you will see some of them there, there are always English officers there in the evenings, tertulias are things of every day. As your father will not fight them, Doña Constancia does her part in amusing them."