"Assuredly Senor Pinzon will not have neglected to denounce them.
Senora, I repeat that we have fallen upon evil days. But God will protect the innocent."
"I am going now. Don't fail to stop in at the house."
"Senora, as soon as the lesson is over--though I imagine that with the excitement that there is in the town, all the boys will play truant to-day---- But in any case I will go to the house after class hours. I don't wish you to go out alone, senora. Those vagabond soldiers are strutting about the streets with such insolent airs. Jacinto, Jacinto!"
"It is not necessary. I will go alone."
"Let Jacinto go with you," said the young man's mother. "He must be up by this time."
They heard the hurried footsteps of the little doctor, who was coming down the stairs in the greatest haste. He entered the room with flushed face and panting for breath.
"What is the matter?" asked his uncle.
"In the Troyas' house," said the young man, "in the house of those--those girls--"
"Finish at once!"
"Caballuco is there!"
"Up there? In the house of the Troyas?"
"Yes, senor. He spoke to me from the terrace, and he told me he was afraid they were coming there to arrest him."
"Oh, what a fool! That idiot is going to allow himself to be arrested!" exclaimed Dona Perfecta, tapping the floor impatiently with her foot.
"He wants to come down and let us hide him in the house."
"Here?"
The canon and his niece exchanged a glance.
"Let him come down!" said Dona Perfecta vehemently.
"Here?" repeated Don Inocencio, with a look of ill-humor.
"Here," answered the lady. "I don't know of any house where he would be more secure."
"He can let himself down easily from the window of my room," said Jacinto.
"Well, if it is necessary----"
"Maria Remedios," said Dona Perfecta, "if they take that man, all is lost."
"I am a fool and a simpleton," answered the canon's niece, laying her hand on her breast and stifling the sigh that was doubtless about to escape from it; "but they shall not take him."
Dona Perfecta went out quickly, and shortly afterward the Centaur was making himself comfortable in the arm-chair in which Don Inocencio was accustomed to sit when he was writing his sermons.
We do not know how it reached the ears of Brigadier Batalla, but certain it is that this active soldier had had notice that the Orbajosans had changed their intentions; and on the morning of this day he had ordered the arrest of those whom in our rich insurrectional language we are accustomed to call marked. The great Caballuco escaped by a miracle, taking refuge in the house of the Troyas, but not thinking himself safe there he descended, as we have seen, to the holy and unsuspected mansion of the good canon.
At night the soldiers, established at various points of the town, kept a strict watch on all who came in and went out, but Ramos succeeded in making his escape, cheating or perhaps without cheating the vigilance of the military. This filled the measure of the rage of the Orbajosans, and numbers of people were conspiring in the hamlets near Villahorrenda; meeting at night to disperse in the morning and prepare in this way the arduous business of the insurrection. Ramos scoured the surrounding country, collecting men and arms; and as the flying columns followed the Aceros into the district of Villajuan de Nahara, our chivalrous hero made great progress in a very short time.
At night he ventured boldly into Orbajosa, employing stratagems and perhaps bribery. His popularity and the protection which he received in the town served him, to a certain extent, as a safeguard; and it would not be rash to affirm that the soldiers did not manifest toward this daring leader of the insurrection the same rigor as toward the insignificant men of the place. In Spain, and especially in time of war, which is here always demoralizing, these unworthy considerations toward the great are often seen, while the little are persecuted pitilessly. Favored then by his boldness, by bribery, or by we know not what, Caballuco entered Orbajosa, gained new recruits, and collected arms and money. Either for the great security of his person or in order to save appearances, he did not set foot in his own house; he entered Dona Perfecta's only for the purpose of treating of important affairs, and he usually supped in the house of some friend, preferring always the respected domicile of some priest, and especially that of Don Inocencio, where he had taken refuge on the fateful morning of the arrests.
Meanwhile Batalla had telegraphed to the Government the information that a plot of the rebels having been discovered its authors had been imprisoned, and the few who had succeeded in escaping had fled in various directions and were being actively pursued by the military.
