“Is it true, this they tell me, señor—that you have been helping Chimu’s wife to escape, and killed Chimu?” she asked.
“It is true.”
“So you prefer this wretched pale-face woman to me?”
“No, Mamcuna.”
“Why, then, did you help her to escape and kill her husband? Don’t trifle with me.”
“Because I pitied her.”
“Why?”
“Chimu treated her ill, and she was very wretched. She wanted to go back to her own country, and she has little children at home.”
“What was her wretchedness to you? Did you not know that you were incurring my displeasure and risking your own life?”
“I did. But a Christian caballero holds it his duty to protect the weak and deliver the oppressed, even at the risk of his own life.”