The young man, seeing that his adversaries had apparently no longer any hostile intentions, quietly uncocked his pistols, and, replacing them in his girdle, he turned towards him who had so unexpectedly come to his aid-- "I thank you, Señor," said he, "for the good opinion that you have of me. Although your voice is not unknown to me, I shall be, nevertheless, happy if you will be good enough to refresh my memory, by informing me, if you can, where I have had the honour of meeting you before." "Vive Dios, Señor. Don Émile," he resumed in a tone of good humour, "you have a short memory." "How do you know my name?" "And you know mine, unless you have forgotten it--which would not astonish me after what I see!" "I am really astonished, Señor; but I cannot the least in the world recall where we have already seen one another." "Come, since it is absolutely necessary that I tell you my name once more, I will do so. I am Don Lucio Ortega." "The Spanish captain!" cried he. "And whom you so dexterously disarmed. The very same, caballero." "Oh! How could I forget that meeting, which has left me so charming a souvenir?" he said, holding out his hand. "So this gentleman is a friend of yours?" pursued the count. "Yes, my dear count; and one of the most intimate." "Pardon me for saying it, but you know what would be the consequences of indiscretion." "They would be terrible. Continue." "And you think yourself still in a position to answer for the discretion of this caballero?" "As much as for my own, I repeat." "Good; act in your own way, then," he continued. "Listen," said the captain; "I can understand how you, who do not know this gentleman, may entertain secret anxiety; we are not engaged in child's play at this moment, we are risking our lives in a desperate undertaking; each of us has a right to demand of his companion a strict account of his conduct." "Just so; it appears to me it ought to be so." "Very well. This account I am going to give you. In spite of himself, and without having wished to do so, Don Émile has discovered secrets of the greatest importance. These secrets, I am convinced, he will keep at the bottom of his heart; but the certainty that I have you do not share: this is your right, and I have nothing to object to in it; but, with the design of merely reassuring you, I will take all the precautions, with respect to my friend, that you can demand. Of course, these precautions will have in them nothing to wound the honour or self-respect of Don Émile, whom I hold above all as my friend." "I will act with the captain," briskly answered the young man; "and I place myself completely at your disposal as to anything you are pleased to exact from me. I humbly confess that politics cause me a shudder, and that I most sincerely regret to be so unfortunately discovered here, when it would have been so easy for me to have been elsewhere, where, without doubt, I should have been much better off."