ged
it so far, but that's no reason you should not use tact for the future.
It can be done by night. You have chambers here where no one is allowed
to enter--some _without windows_, if you need them. Who's to be the
wiser? Pick your men--those you can trust. You don't require a whole
troop, and half-a-dozen onzas will tie as many tongues. It's as easy as
stealing a shirt. It is only stealing a chemisette. Ha! ha! ha!" and
the ruffian laughed at his coarse simile and coarser joke, in which
laugh he was joined by the Comandante.

The latter still hesitated to adopt this extreme measure. Not from any
fineness of feeling. Though scarce so rough a villain as his companion,
it was not delicacy of sentiment that restrained him now. He had been
accustomed all his life to regard with heartless indifference the
feelings of those he had wronged; and it was not out of any
consideration for the future happiness or misery of the girl that he
hesitated now. No, his motive was of a far different character.
Roblado said true when he accused him of being timid. He was. It was
sheer cowardice that stayed him.

Not that he feared any bodily punishment would ever reach him for the
act. He was too powerful, and the relatives of his intended victim too
weak, to give him any apprehensions on that score. With a little policy
he could administer death,--death to the most innocent of the people,--
and give it a show of justice. Nothing was more easy than to cause
suspicion of treason, incarcerate, and slay--and particularly at that
time, when both Pueblo revolt and Creole revolution threatened the
Spanish rule in America.

What Vizcarra feared was "talk." Such an open rape could not well be
kept secret for long. It would leak out, and once out it was too
piquant a piece of scandal not to have broad fame: all the town would
soon enjoy it. But there was a still more unpleasant probability. It
might travel beyond the confines of the settlement, perhaps to high
quarters, even to the Vice-regal ear! There find we the secret of the
Comandante's fears.

Not indeed that the Vice-regal court at the time was a model of
morality. It would have been lenient enough to any act of despotism or
debauchery done in a quiet way; but such an open act of rapine as that
contemplated, on the score of policy, could hardly be overlooked. In
truth, Vizcarra's prudence had reason. He could not believe that it
would be possible to keep the thing