ight of the Spanish noble aroused in him, filled the latter with a sad
presentiment.

A shudder passed through the frame of Don Estevan, but he did not lower
his eyes, and by the aid of his invincible pride, he waited with
apparent calmness until Pepe began to speak.

"Carramba!" exclaimed the latter in a tone which he tried in vain to
render agreeable. "It was certainly worth while to send me to catch
sea-fish upon the borders of the Mediterranean, so that, at the end of
my journey, I might, three thousand leagues from Spain, fall in with the
nephew whose mother you murdered. I don't know whether Don Fabian de
Mediana is inclined to pardon you, but for my part," added he, striking
the ground with the butt end of his rifle, "I have sworn that I will not
do so."

Fabian directed a haughty glance towards Pepe, as though to command his
submission; then addressing himself to the Spaniard:

"My Lord of Mediana, you are not now in the presence of assassins, but
of judges, and Pepe will not forget it."

"Before judges!" cried Don Antonio; "my peers only possess the right of
judgment, and I do not recognise as such a malefactor escaped from jail
and a beggarly usurper who has assumed a title to which he has no right.
I do not acknowledge here any other Mediana than myself, and have
therefore no reply to make."

"Nevertheless I must constitute myself your judge," said Fabian, "yet
believe me I shall be an impartial one, since I take as a witness that
God whose sun shines upon us, when I swear that I no longer entertain
any feelings of animosity or hatred against you."

There was so much truth in the manner with which Fabian pronounced these
words, that, for an instant, Don Estevan's countenance lost its
expression of gloomy defiance, and was even lit up by a ray of hope, for
the Duke de Armada recollected that he stood face to face with the heir
for whom, in his pride, he had once mourned. It was therefore in a less
severe tone that he asked--

"Of what crime am I then accused?"

"You are about to hear," replied Fabian.

CHAPTER FIFTY.

LYNCH LAW.

On the frontiers of the America there exists a terrible law, yet it is
not this clause alone which renders it so--"Eye for eye, tooth for
tooth, blood for blood." The application of this law is evident in all
the ways of Providence, to those who observe the course of events here
below. "He who kills by the sword shall perish by the sword," says the
gospel.