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Francisco Alvarez smiled again. It was a cold but satisfied smile and he rubbed one white hand over the other. "Your logic is good," he said, "and these reasons have occurred to me, also, but my master, Bernardo Galvez, the Governor, is troubled.
While he was away on his expedition against the latter place, the royalist Americans round Natchez rose and retook the fort from the Spaniards; but at the approach of Galvez they fled in terror, marching overland towards Georgia, then in the hands of the tories. On the way they suffered great loss and damage from the Creeks and Choctaws. A Spanish Attempt on St. Joseph.
Mighty was the power of Holy Church in the colonies of France and Spain and this priest who expected torture and death some day feared neither Bernardo Galvez nor anybody else. "Father Montigny!" exclaimed every one of the five and, "Father Montigny!" repeated Francisco Alvarez and Braxton Wyatt. Bernardo Galvez rose from his chair and saluted the priest courteously. He knew him well.
"If a higher officer rebukes you unjustly and sneers at a commander whom you respect and like, is it calculated to promote friendship?" The gaze of the two met again, and Henry understood. "I see what your choice would be if you were compelled to choose between Bernardo Galvez and Francisco Alvarez," he said.
And in the sauve-qui-peut scramble there is rarely a regard for rank, the colonel counting for no more than the corporal. Obedient to this levelling instinct, Galvez, who has arrived first on the ground, selects the best steed of the three this being the horse of Hamersley. Grasping the bridle, and jerking it from the branch, he springs upon the animal's back and starts to ride off.
Francisco Alvarez had treated him with scorn more than once, and it was not his part or that of Bernardo Galvez to insult a fallen enemy. He merely put his hand lightly on the sleeve of Alvarez, and the prisoner, without a word, followed him. When Alvarez was gone, the five rose and thanked the Governor General.
Uraga, hastening after, has reached the spot and stands contemplating it. A spectacle to melt a heart of stone, it has no softening effect on his. His brow his black with rage, his eyes shining like coals of fire. His first impulse is to call Galvez and order him to drag brother and sister apart. His next to do this himself. He is about seizing Adela's wrist, when a thought restrains him.
They were "to spread the Catholic religion," said the letter, "among a numerous heathen people, submerged in the obscure darkness of paganism, thereby to extend the dominion of the king, our lord, and to protect this peninsula of California from the ambitious designs of the foreign nations." "The land must be fertile for everything," says Galvez, "for it lies in the same latitude as Spain."
Their apprehensions are increased when the sentry returns to them, and, unfastening the cord from the doctor's ankles, raises him upon his feet, as if to remove him from the spot. On being asked what it is for, Galvez does not condescend to give an answer, except to say in a gruff voice that he has orders to separate them.
Ah, that is something like friendship, real friendship, I should like to be one of a band like yours, but I look in vain for such a thing in New Orleans." "I wish that you were going with us," said Henry heartily. "I wish it, too. Often I long for the great forests and the free air as you do, but my service is due here to Bernardo Galvez, who is my good friend.
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