“So you are a Christian!” returned the president, almost graciously. “I thought all Englishmen were heretics. I think señores, we may grant Señor Fortescue’s request. Instead of being strangled, you shall be shot by a firing party of the regiment of Cordova, and you may see a priest. We would not have you die unshriven, and I will myself see that your body is laid in consecrated ground. When would you like the priest to visit you?”
“This evening, señor president. There will not be much time to-morrow morning.”
“That is true. See to it, capitan. Tell them at the carcel that Señor Fortescue may see a priest in his own room this evening. Adios señor!”
And with that my three judges rose from their seats and bowed as politely as if they were parting with an honored guest. Though this proceeding struck me as being both ghastly and grotesque, I returned the greeting in due form, and made my best bow. I learned afterward that I had really been treated with exceptional consideration, and might esteem myself fortunate in not being condemned without trial and strangled without notice.
[Chapter X.]
Salvador.
Now that I knew beyond a doubt what would be my fate unless I could escape before morning, I became decidedly anxious as to the outcome of my approaching interview with the ghostly comforter for whom I had asked. It was my last chance. If it failed me, or the man turned out to be a priest and nothing more, my hours were numbered. The time was too short to arrange any other plan. Would he bring with him a file and a cord? Even if he did, we could hardly hope to cut through the bars before daylight. And, most important consideration of all, how would Carera contrive to send me the right man?
The mystery was solved more quickly than I expected.
After leaving the tribunal, my escort took me back by the way we had come, the police captain, who was showing himself much more friendly (probably because he looked on me as a good “Christian” and a dying man), walking beside instead of behind me; and when we were within a hundred yards or so of the carcel I observed a Franciscan friar pacing slowly toward us.