“Do you see? You have already lost your fear?” said the priest. “There is nothing more in these things than taking hold of them. All the Saragossan women ought to do the same, and then Augustina Casta Álvarez would not be the one glorious exception to her sex.”
“Bring another gun,” exclaimed the girl; “I wish to fire again.”
“They have already marched off, if you please! Aren’t you a good one!” said Pirli, preparing to make an onslaught on the provision basket. “Tomorrow, if you like, you shall be invited for a few ‘hot cakes.’ Well, let us make ourselves comfortable and eat.”
The friar, calling his little dog, said to him: “That is enough, my son; don’t bark so, nor take it so much to heart that you make yourself hoarse. Keep your boldness until tomorrow. Today, we have no wish to employ it, for if I am not mistaken they are hurrying away to get behind their works.”
In fact the skirmish at San José had concluded, and for the moment the French were not in sight. A short time afterwards the sound of the guitar was renewed, and the women returning, the sweet undulations of the jota began again with Manuela Sancho and the great Pirli in the first line.