consider me disloyal. I desire that you should esteem me even if you may not love me.”
The youth in the meantime had arrived at his home, mounted his horse and immediately sallied forth to the house of Luis. He sent a message to his former friend by a servant, begging him that he would come outside, which Medina did immediately, well bred and polite as he was.
“Gonzalo!” said Medina, extending his hand.
“I come to arrange with you a very serious matter,” replied our youth, without extending his.
“You have me at your orders,” replied Luis, exchanging the friendly expression of his face for another more severe.
“Only we cannot do it here. Mount your horse and take your arms. I await you.”
And by the contraction of his features and the pallor of his countenance, Medina knew that Gonzalo had come on a warlike errand, and was not slow in divining what was the cause of his annoyance. Without replying a single word he entered the house and soon reappeared and mounted his horse, with a pistol at his belt and a sword at the saddle. “Here you have me,” he said to Gonzalo.
“Come,” replied Gonzalo, “let us go to the field.”
Together they took the street which most quickly would bring them to the end of the village, and went a considerable stretch outside the town. Leaving the road they went into the meadows and stopped at a little open space formed by four immense camichines, which, extending over