"No, no! the time is past for sweet speeches, Estella. I have resolved to take you in hand. While I am doing what I can for our noble country, you are playing the part of the rebel, both outside and in our home." He stamped his foot savagely. "This must not be! Here is an end of it!" "Father, your opinions cannot sway me. I believe the rebels are in the right, and, what is more, my prophetic soul tells me that Cuba will one day be free--she must be free!" "Tut, tut, child! I want no more of this. Things have come to a pretty pass when women are allowed to talk in this fashion! Put those things away, and let us come to business. The lieutenant told you of my wishes." "You have told me of them yourself." "You are to marry Lieutenant Mazenas to-morrow evening, at seven o'clock. The ceremony will take place in the parlor below." "I cannot marry him, father." "You must! Say not another word. The stories that villainous American spy circulated about Mazenas are all false. I believe he told you the fellow is dead. We both saw him slain, mowed down by a discharge from one of our cannon." She shuddered, but he kept right on. "I am glad he is no more. I wish I had kept you away from all Americans. They have poisoned your mind." "It is your mind that is poisoned, father. If you would but----" "Silence!" He advanced and made a movement as if to strike her, but she did not flinch, and his arm fell as suddenly as it had been raised. "I am master here. Not another word, Estella, and, remember, to-morrow night, at seven o'clock." And he strode from the apartment as quickly as he had entered it. Utterly overcome in mind and heart, she threw herself upon the bed. She lay there for fully half an hour, then sprang up, her lips tightly compressed. "I will do it," she murmured, "I must!" Hastily she summoned Cara, who, seeing the plan of escape had fallen through, and fearing the general's wrath, had kept out of sight. "Cara," she whispered, "do you think you can leave the city without detection and find the rebel camp? Can't you do it, for my sake?" "What--alone, my dear mistress?" "Yes, you must go alone, for my father will now have me watched more closely than ever. Leave in the darkness to-night, and try to find Captain Martinez, and deliver to him a letter that I will write." "I will do it," cried the maid. "I want to get out--to find out what has become of Tomasso." "Then prepare at once. And, remember, you must not fail to deliver the letter. To me it is a matter of life or death; for rather than marry Lieutenant Mazenas, I will stab myself to the heart with this." And she exposed the hilt of the dagger she had purchased in Santiago. "I will do my very best," murmured Cara, and then Estella sat down to pen the letter, requesting that the rebels make an immediate advance, and come directly to her father's mansion.