"A voluptuous little wench, that Carmen! Keeping her for yourself, eh? But you will have to give her up. Belongs to the Church, you know. But don't let our worthy Don Wenceslas hear of her good looks, for he'd pop her into a convent _presto_! And later he--_Bien_, you had better get rid of her before she makes you trouble. I'll take her off your hands myself, even though I shall be traveling for the next few months. But, say," changing the subject abruptly, "Don Wenceslas sprung his trap too soon, eh?" "I don't follow you," said Josè, consuming with indignation over the priest's coarse talk. "_Diablo!_ he pulls a revolution before it is ripe. Is anything more absurd! It begins as he intended, anticlerical; and so it will run for a while. But after that--_Bien_, you will see it reverse itself and turn solely political, with the present Government on top at the last, and the end a matter of less than six weeks." "Do you think so?" asked Josè, eagerly grasping at a new hope. "I know it!" ejaculated Diego. "_Hombre!_ But I have been too close to matters religious and political in this country all my life not to know that Don Wenceslas has this time committed the blunder of being a bit too eager. Had he waited a few months longer, and then pulled the string--_Dios y diablo_! there would have been such a fracas as to turn the Cordilleras bottom up! Now all that is set back for years--_Quien sabe_?" "But," queried the puzzled Josè, "how could Wenceslas, a priest, profit by an anticlerical war?" "_Caramba, amigo!_ But the good Wenceslas is priest only in name! He is a politician, bred to the game. He lays his plans with the anticlericals, knowing full well that Church and State can not be separated in this land of mutton-headed _peones_. _Bueno_, the clever man precipitates a revolution that can have but one result, the closer union of Rome and the Colombian Government. And for this he receives the direction of the See of Cartagena and the disposition of the rich revenues from the mines and _fincas_ of his diocese. Do you get me?" "And, _amigo_, how long will this disturbance continue?" said Josè, speaking earnestly. "I have told you, a few weeks at the most," replied Diego with a show of petulance. "But, just the same, as agent of your friend Wenceslas, I have been a mite too active along the river, especially in the town of Banco, to find safety anywhere within the pale of civilization until this little fracas blows over. This one being an abortion, the next revolution can come only after several years of most painstaking preparation. But, mark me, _amigo_, that one will not miscarry, nor will it be less than a scourge of the Lord!" Despite the sordidness of the man, Josè was profoundly grateful to him for this information. And there could be no doubt of its authenticity, coming as it did from a tool of Wenceslas himself. Josè became cheerful, even animated.