"It may not be, I have vowed my life to one work, the Independence of my native country. So long as Spain claims dominion over these provinces I have only one aim in life, and there is only one enemy against whom I will raise my hand."
"Yet, cannot you see, Carlos, that in this struggle with the English we shall train our men and make soldiers of them, and so prepare them for a fiercer struggle which must come later on?"
"What you have told me teaches me, even if I did not know it before, that the worst misfortune which can happen to us is to triumph over these English."
"How so? We shall at any rate gain experience and confidence in our own strength."
"And ignorance of our own weakness; that is the danger I foresee," said Evaña. "It will be painful to me to see my own countrymen defeated by a foreigner, but believe me, Marcelino, it will be the greatest good that can happen to our country, if it teach us that success can only be gained by self-abnegation."
"Let the Spaniards then be our teachers, not these English, who are strangers to us."
"I have talked much with their General Beresford during the last month," said Evaña.
"So I have been told," said Marcelino abruptly.
"You have been told? My wise countrymen with their childish plots, and their schemes which anyone can see through, object to my intimacy with the English general. Is it not so?"
"It is, Carlos. Is it well that you should be a friend to the enemy of your country?"