"I fancy you are mistaken, my dear señor, and that we never saw each other before." "Are you quite sure of that?" "Man, as you are aware, can never be sure of anything; still, it seems to me--" "And yet, it is so long since we met; it is true that you possibly did not pay any great attention to me." "On my honour, I know not what you mean," the monk remarked after attentively examining him for a minute or two. "Come," the engagé said with a laugh, "I will take pity on your embarrassment; and, as I promised you, dissipate all your doubts by a single word; we saw each other on the island of Nevis. Do you remember me?" At this revelation, the monk turned pale; he lost countenance, and for some minutes remained as if petrified; still the thought of denying the truth did not come to him for a second. "Where," L'Olonnais added, "you had a long conversation with Montbarts." "Still," the monk said with a hesitation that was not exempt from terror, "I do not understand--" "How I knew everything," L'Olonnais interrupted him laughingly, "then, you have not got to the end of your astonishment." "What, I am not at the end?" "Bah, Señor Padre, do you fancy that I should have taken the trouble to bother you about such a trifle? I know a good deal more." "What do you say?" the monk exclaimed, recoiling instinctively from this man whom he was not indisposed to regard as a sorcerer, the more so because he was a Frenchman, and a buccaneer to boot, two peremptory reasons why Satan should nearly be master of his soul, if by chance he possessed one, which the worthy monk greatly doubted. "Zounds!" the engagé resumed, "You suppose, I think, that I do not know the motive of your journey, the spot where you have come from, where you are going, and more than that, the person you are about to see." "Oh, come, that is impossible," the monk said with a startled look. Lepoletais laughed inwardly at the ill-disguised terror of the Spaniard. "Take care, father," he whispered mysteriously in Fray Arsenio's ear, "that man knows everything; between ourselves, I believe him to be possessed by the demon." "Oh!" he exclaimed, rising hastily and crossing himself repeatedly, which caused the adventurers a still heartier laugh. "Come, resume your seat and listen to me," L'Olonnais continued as he seized him by the arm, and obliged him to sit down again, "my friend and I are only joking." "Excuse me, noble caballeros," the monk stammered, "I am in an extraordinary hurry, and must leave you at once, though most reluctantly." "Nonsense! Where could you go alone at this hour? Fall into a bog. Eh?" This far from pleasant prospect caused the monk to reflect; still, the terror he felt was the stronger. "No matter," he said, "I must be gone." "Nonsense, you will never find your road to the hatto del Rincón in this darkness."