He laid his jet black finger upon the rich golden bracelet that surrounded his arm. "Think you," asked he, "that that chain, because it happens to be gold, does not weigh as heavily as if it were of iron? It does--I tell you, Frenchman, it does. True, I am slave to the best of masters, the noblest of lords--true, if I were free this moment, I would dedicate my life to serve him. But still I am a slave--still I have been torn from my home and my native land--still I have been injured--wronged--oppressed; and every one I see injured, every one I see wronged, becomes my fellow and my brother. But you understand not that!" "I do, my good friend, more than you think," replied I, convinced by the earnestness of his manner that what he said was genuine. "Whether you do or not," said he, "there is one principle on which you _will_ understand me. You can fancy that I love my benefactor. I love him; but I also know his faults. He is of a soft and idle humour, so that his virtues, like jewels cast upon a quicksand, are lost, unknown, and swallowed up. His idleness is a disease of the body, not a defect of the mind--though the mind suffers for the fault of the body--and so much does he value repose, that nothing seems to him of sufficient importance to embitter its sweetness. Fearless as a lion of death or of danger, he is a very coward when opposed to trouble and fatigue; he is just, honourable, and wise, but this invincible apathy of nature has brought him to the brink of a precipice, over which he would sooner fall than make one strong effort to save himself. For two years he has governed Catalonia, and during those two all the reports of the brute soldiery have been believed--few of the complaints of the injured peasants have reached him. Those few have been through me, for his guards and his officers, who all join in the pillage of the people, take care to cut off from him every other source of information. Thus the soldiers have heaped wrong upon wrong, till the people will bear no more; till at Lerida, at Taragona--over half the country, in short, they are already in revolt. Barcelona still remains quiet; and, by the exertion of proper authority--by showing the Catalonians that the viceroy will do equal justice between them and the soldiery, that in future he will be the defender of their rights and liberties--the province--his government--perhaps even his life, may be saved. For this object, when the news reached him last night of the insurrection at Lerida, and, at the same time, the charge against you, I persuaded him to examine you himself, without the presence of his officers or his council. You answered wisely, and saved yourself. When next he shall examine you, do more--answer nobly, and save him, and perhaps a whole people! Tell him the oppression you have seen, tell him the murmurs you have heard; aid me to stir him up to exertion, and you may, if it be not too late, avert the evils that are gathering round so thickly!"