The young officer, no doubt wishing to bring affairs to a crisis, and wearied with a hesitation he did not appear to share, advanced, making his horse to caracole, and carelessly twirling his moustache. Arrived at some five or six paces from the travellers: "Hola, good people," said he, in a sardonic voice, "what do you do there? With a frightened air like nandus in a covey altogether. You do not intend, I suppose, to bar our passage?" "We have no pretensions of the kind, Señor Captain," answered M. Dubois, in the best Castilian he could manage--Castilian which, notwithstanding his efforts, was deplorable; "we are peaceable travellers." "¡Caray!" cried the officer, turning round and laughing; "Whom have we here; English, I suppose?" "No, Señor; Frenchmen," said M. Dubois, with a somewhat nettled look. "Bah! English or French, what matters?" pursued the officer, with raillery "They are all heretics." At this manifestation of ignorance, the two travellers shrugged their shoulders with contempt. "What does that mean?" said the officer. "Parbleu," answered the painter, "it means that you are deceiving yourself grossly, that is all. We are as good Catholics as you are, if not better." "Aye, rye, you crow very loud, my young cock." "Young," said the artist, with a sneer, "you are deceived there again; I am at least two years older than you; as to crowing, it is very easy to swagger and act the 'eater up of little children,' when you are fifty to two." "Those people down there," pursued the officer, "are they not with you?" "Yes, they are with us; but what matters that? In the first place, they are inferior to you in number, and next, they are not soldiers." "Agreed," answered the captain, twirling his moustache with a mocking smile, "I grant you that; what do you wish to conclude from it?" "Only this, Captain; that we Frenchmen bear insults with great difficulty, no matter where they come from; and that if we were only equal in numbers, this would not have happened." "Aha, you are brave!" "Pardieu; revenge is sweet." "That is swagger also, it appears to me." "It is an honourable boast." "Listen," said the captain, after a moment, with exquisite politeness. "I fear I have been deceived with regard to you, and I sincerely ask your pardon for it. I agree to give you free passage, and to those who accompany you, but on one condition." "Let us have it!" "You told me a little while ago that I should not speak as I did, had I not believed I should be supported." "I told you so, because I thought so." "And you think so still, no doubt?" "Pardieu!" "Well, here is what I propose; we are both armed. Let us alight, draw our sabres, and he who shall conquer the other shall be free to act as he thinks proper--that is to say, if it is you, you can pass on your road without fear of being molested, and if it is me, well, a general battle. Does that suit you?" "Perfectly well," answered the painter, laughing.