"How I envy you," he said, as the other paused, his face glowing with enthusiasm. "Why do you not join us? You are more clever and braver than I am. Ah! how willingly I would serve under you. The chiefs we have are zealous enough but very few of them have any brains. I have no experience, but I can see the follies they do; one man like you were worth more than all the rest put together." "Of all those you have named to me, Don Juan Martin and yourself seem the only ones at all fitted to command," replied Evaña. "Why are you only a subordinate?" "There is so much jealousy among them, all want to command, so I thought I should set a good example by showing how to obey." "Would there were more like you," said Evaña, with a sigh. "There would be one more and one better than me, if you would only join us," replied Marcelino. "It may not be, I have vowed my life to one work, the Independence of my native country. So long as Spain claims dominion over these provinces I have only one aim in life, and there is only one enemy against whom I will raise my hand." "Yet, cannot you see, Carlos, that in this struggle with the English we shall train our men and make soldiers of them, and so prepare them for a fiercer struggle which must come later on?" "What you have told me teaches me, even if I did not know it before, that the worst misfortune which can happen to us is to triumph over these English." "How so? We shall at any rate gain experience and confidence in our own strength." "And ignorance of our own weakness; that is the danger I foresee," said Evaña. "It will be painful to me to see my own countrymen defeated by a foreigner, but believe me, Marcelino, it will be the greatest good that can happen to our country, if it teach us that success can only be gained by self-abnegation." "Let the Spaniards then be our teachers, not these English, who are strangers to us." "I have talked much with their General Beresford during the last month," said Evaña. "So I have been told," said Marcelino abruptly. "You have been told? My wise countrymen with their childish plots, and their schemes which anyone can see through, object to my intimacy with the English general. Is it not so?" "It is, Carlos. Is it well that you should be a friend to the enemy of your country?" "I seek to destroy that enemy by making him our friend." "The English have taken our city by force, so long as they behave themselves as conquerors we must look upon them as enemies." "You will find them stern enemies to grapple with. Your preparations only make my work more difficult. Beresford may listen to reason, but he will meet force with force, and he is well informed of all your movements." "Yes, Carlos, there are traitors amongst us, and it was about that I wished to talk with you. Do not go any more to visit General Beresford; shut yourself in your own house, or leave the city, there are many suspect you." "Suspect me! And of what?" "Of being a spy of the English."