roll himself in these floods of gold.

Soon, however, restored to calmer thoughts, he spread his mantle on the
sand; and as he saw the impossibility of carrying away all the riches
exposed to his view, he cast around him a glance of observation.

In the meantime, Diaz, seated at some distance on the plain, had not
lost a single detail of this melancholy scene.

He had seen Cuchillo suddenly appear, he had imagined the part he would
be required to fulfil, he heard the bandit's cry of false alarm, and
even the bloody catastrophe of the drama had not been unseen by him.

Until then he had remained motionless in his place, mourning over the
death of his chief, and the hopes which that death had destroyed.

Cuchillo had disappeared from their sight, when the three hunters saw
Diaz rise and approach them.

He advanced with slow steps, like the justice of God, whose instrument
he was about to become.

His arm was passed through his horse's bridle; and his face, clouded by
grief, was turned downwards.

The adventurer cast a look full of sadness upon the Duke de Armada lying
in his blood; death had not effaced from that countenance its look of
unalterable pride.

"I do not blame you," said he; "in your place I should have done the
same thing. How much Indian blood have I also not spilt to satisfy my
vengeance!"

"It is holy bread," interrupted Bois-Rose, passing his hand through his
thick grey hair, and directing a sympathetic glance toward the
adventurer. "Pepe and I can say that, for our part--"

"I do not blame you, friends, but I grieve because I have seen this man,
of such noble courage, fall almost before my eyes; a man who held in his
hand the destiny of Sonora. I grieve that the glory of my country
expires with him."

"He was, as you say, a man of noble courage, but with a heart of stone.
May God save his soul!"

A convulsive grief agitated Don Fabian's breast. Diaz continued the
Duke de Armada's funeral oration.

"He and I had dreamed of the freedom of a noble province and days of
splendour. Neither he, nor I, nor others, will ever now behold them
shine. Ah! why was not I killed instead of him? No one would have
known that I had ceased, to exist, and one champion less would not have
compromised the cause we served; but the death of our chief ruins it
forever. The treasure which is said to be accumulated here might have
aided us in restoring Sonora; for you do not, perhaps, know that near to
th