it with blood. I hear the voice of
God. Woe to them who resist it. History has not been written for them."

Elias was transformed. As he stood up, his head uncovered, his manly
face illumined by the moonlight, there was something extraordinary
about him. He shook his long hair and continued:

"Do you not see how all is awakening? Sleep has lasted for centuries,
but one day a thunderbolt will fall and new life will be called
forth. New tendencies are animating the spirits, and these tendencies
to-day separated, will be united some day, and will be guided by
God. God has not failed other peoples, nor will he fail ours. Their
cause is liberty."

A solemn silence followed these words. In the meantime, the banca
carried along imperceptibly by the waves, neared the shore. Elias
was the first to break the silence.

"What have I to say to those who have sent me?" he asked, changing
the tone of his voice.

"I have already told you that I greatly deplore their condition,
but for them to wait, since evils are not cured by other evils. In
our misfortune, we are all at fault."

Elias did not insist further. He bowed his head, continued rowing and,
bringing the banca up to the shore, took leave of Ibarra saying:

"I thank you, Senor, for your condescension. For your own interests
I ask you in the future to forget me, and never to recognize me in
whatever place you may meet me."

And saying this, he turned his banca and rowed in the direction of a
dense thicket on the beach. He seemed to observe only the millions of
diamonds which his paddle lifted and which fell back into the lake,
where they soon disappeared in the mystery of the blue waves.

Finally, he arrived at the place toward which he had been rowing. A
man came out of the thicket and approached him:

"What shall I tell the captain?" he asked.

"Tell him that Elias, if he does not die before, will fulfill his
word," he replied gloomily.

"Then when will you meet us?"

"When your captain thinks that the hour of danger has come."

"All right. Good-bye!"

"If I do not die before," murmured Elias.

CHAPTER XXXII

CHANGES.

The modest Linares was serious and very uneasy. He had just received a
letter from Dona Victorina which, translated from the most illiterate
Spanish, and omitting its many errors in spelling and punctuation,
was as follows:

"Esteemed Cousin:--Within three days I want to know from
you if you have killed the alfere