“As for his safety,” answered Duvict, who was not much of a courtier, “our commandant can very well take care of that and ours. It is for your own honor, and the putting your people in good heart, which, by the three kings, they want mightily! Monseigneur troubles himself with your absence, M. le Viceroi. Meanwhile, it would not be amiss to give our soldiers something withal to fill their mouths, especially as we may be obliged to do most of the fighting before the new levies arrive.” “You will soon have abundance for all,” the count made answer, smoothly. “Hasten down, and inform your commandant I will delay here not an hour beyond what is necessary, on the honor of a knight. You said truly, sir, we must have no cowards in our ranks, either French or Portuguese.” “M. le Viceroi, your acquaintance with your own countrymen is indisputable,” Duvict here said superciliously, “but we French are taught in a different school.” “Let it pass,” rejoined Torrevedros, biting his lip. “If I designed to wound your self-love, it would not be in my own house. I will show my willingness at least to oblige M. de Chaste, by cashiering my captain at Porta Praya in favor of one more reliable.” It was this new captain, John de Castros, who carried De Chaste a letter from the viceroy a day later, which that loyal nobleman had received from Santa Cruz by a Portuguese, caught off the coast, and forced to swim ashore with the dispatch tied about his neck—the French not suffering any boat to approach within hail. The commandant tore the paper to fragments as soon as he saw the contents. “This Count of Torrevedros,” he said, with a short laugh, to his maître-de-camp, who was present, “is either a fool, or doubts our honor. The Marquis of Santa Cruz offers him here his life, and abundant rewards, besides the freedom of his wife and children, now in Madrid, provided he surrenders the island, which he might well enough do as far as himself is concerned, but he wishes to be rid of us at the same time, and therefore risks being reckoned a traitor in hope of inducing us to accept the marquis’s conditions.” “A traitor he is!” cried the lieutenant, indignantly. “And since he proves himself so in so many ways, why not return to France as we are, without further intermeddling between him and his lackland master.” “You forget,” returned De Chaste, “all who have entered on this enterprise, are bound in honor to see it through with what success their energy may obtain. Still you, and other cavaliers who have joined of your free will, and not by the queen’s direct command, may do as you see proper, and leave us who remain to share the greater glory which must attend a defense against greater odds.”