"Then you acknowledge that you Spaniards would depose me if you were able to do so?"
"In the present state of affairs in the mother-country it is natural that a Frenchman be looked upon with jealousy, not only by Spaniards but by the Creoles also. The people murmured greatly at the friendly reception you gave to the envoy sent by Napoleon last August."
"But the people at any rate were satisfied when I ordered the proclamation of Ferdinand VII.?"
"It was on that very day that some of them discussed together the propriety of setting him aside in favour of his sister the Princess Carlota."
"True, I did badly in passing over that affair without notice. In that affair the first to move was your son, and because he was your son I consented to pass it over. See now your gratitude; without doubt, if there be a conspiracy he and his friend Don Carlos Evaña are the prime movers in it, and depend upon your concurrence and that of all the Spaniards."
"If there be any conspiracy I feel quite sure that neither my son nor Don Carlos Evaña have any part in it."
"I have heard Don Carlos speak freely his ideas years ago, and I have not forgotten it; I tell you that this Evaña is by nature a conspirator, and where he goes there goes Don Marcelino also."
"In this you are mistaken, I can assure you," replied Don Roderigo warmly. "Don Carlos left the city yesterday for his estancia, saying that it was uncertain when he would return, and Marcelino thinks of nothing but of his duties at the Consulado."
"But he has his ideas, which require checking. If it were not that he is your son I should arrest him and search his papers to discover what correspondence he has carried on with this Don Saturnino Rodriguez Peña, who has certainly, as you will have seen by that letter, some regular correspondents in this city."
Don Roderigo rose from his chair and walked several times thoughtfully up and down the room, then reseating himself, he said: