"Caballeros," the latter said to them, so soon as he saw them all collected round him, "I have resolved to make a sortie against the rebels, surprise them, and fire their camp, if it be possible. Select from your soldiers one hundred and fifty men, in whom you can trust; supply them with inflammable matters, and in five minutes let them be drawn up in the Patio. Go; and before all, I recommend you the deepest silence." The officers bowed, and at once left the room. The Colonel then turned to Tranquil. "Are you tired?" he asked him. "I am never so." "You are skilful?" "So they say." "Very good. You will serve as our guide; unfortunately, I want two others." "I can procure them for your Excellency." "You?" "Yes, a wood ranger and a Comanche Chief, who entered the fort with me, and for whom I answer with my life; Loyal Heart and Black-deer. "Warn them, then, and all three wait for me in the Patio." Tranquil hastened to call his friends. "If that hunter has spoken the truth, and I believe he has," the Colonel continued, addressing the Major-domo, "I am convinced we shall have an excellent opportunity for repaying the rebels a hundredfold the harm they have done us. Do you accompany me, Don Felix?" "I would not for a fortune leave you one inch, under such circumstances." "Come, then, for the detachment must be ready by this time." They went out. CHAPTER XIV. THE PROPOSAL. On the same night, almost at the same hour, the Jaguar, seated on a modest oak equipal in his tent, with his elbow leaning on the table and his head on his hand, was reading, by the light of a candle that emitted but a dubious light, important despatches he had just received. Absorbed in the perusal, the young Commander of the insurgents paid no attention to the noises without, when suddenly a rather sharp puff of wind caused the flame of the candle to flicker, and the shadow of a man was darkly defined on the canvas of the tent. The young man, annoyed at being disturbed, raised his head angrily, and looked toward the entrance of the tent, with a frown that promised nothing very pleasant for his inopportune intruder. But at the sight of the man who stood in the door-way, leaning on a long rifle, and fixing on him eyes that sparkled like carbuncles, the Jaguar restrained with difficulty a cry of surprise, and made a move to seize the pistols placed within reach on the table. This man, whom we have already had occasion to present to the reader under very grave circumstances, had nothing, we must confess, in his appearance that spoke greatly in his favour. His stern glance, his harsh face, rendered still harsher by his long white beard, his tall stature and strange attire, all about him, in a word, inspired repulsion and almost terror. The Jaguar's movement produced a sinister smile on his pale lips.