“Sir,” replied the other, mingling truth and falsehood with great tact, “I had heard, nay knew, that the government were suspicious of you: the number of massacres the preceding night alarmed me for your safety. Making an excuse of a criminal complaint against a servant, I repaired to the _juez de paz_, to find out, if possible, upon what grounds their suspicious were founded. Thus we were engaged when Thorne entered. Whether he heard your name mentioned I know not, but Mr Thorne, sir, is suspicious of me. Yes, sir, I verily believe that Mr Thorne, in his jealousy--yes, it must be jealousy of my favour in the eyes of your daughter, that makes Thorne suspect me. Good God! Mendoza, to what have I fallen when I should be suspected by an idle, champagne-swilling babbler, of betraying the man to whom I am so much indebted, who, I may say, has made me what I am, and who has it in his power to make me happy or miserable for life. Oh, sir, sir! what a wretched country this is, when one learns to distrust even their best friends.” “Come, come, Le Brun, not so bad as that yet. But, Don Felipe, have I not often told you that you were in too high favour with these hypocritical cut-throat miscreants in office?” “And if I have found favour, which I never sought for, have not you reaped the benefit more than me? What have I to fear from them? I, who am supposed to be of their party, rat them! Should _your_ skins have passed the custom-house? Could Mendoza’s gold in Mendoza’s name have been shipped to invest abroad? Could Mendoza, the Unitarian, have procured passports for the Unitarian brothers or _compadres_? And now, sir, at this very moment I am seeking to do for you what you have often asked me to do for others. That remark of yours, Mendoza, has nearly driven me distracted.” “Don Felipe, forgive me! we are too much bound up together for me to suspect you now. Have you not the promise of my daughter’s hand? have you not the command of all my means? I believe, I know that I am an object of suspicion. I know that, at the present time, the miscreants stand at no obstacles; that my money would be instruments to strengthen their hands. I know you have saved my friends, and I believe you are anxious to save me. Forgive me for expressing my sentiments of horror against those who render it necessary that honest men and quiet citizens should seek of security at the hands of others.” “Ay, sir, and these others not only thereby risk their own safety, but may be branded as traitors for so doing.” “So, Don Felipe, you think that body on my pavement was a warning for me?” “No, Don Luis, it was not intended as a warning for you, but you are intended for the same fate.” “You can have no proof of that, Don Felipe.”