“What are you doing up at this hour, Señora Guedita?”
“Señor,” answered the old woman, showing herself at a window which opened upon the balcony, “who can sleep during this dreadful bombardment? Perhaps a bomb may come and meddle with us here. What if the house should take fire, and the neighbors should come to drag out the furniture and put out the fire, and find us in our nightclothes? Oh, what a lack of modesty! I do not intend to undress myself while this devilish bombardment lasts.”
“Is my daughter asleep?” asked Candiola, appearing at another garden window.
“She is upstairs sleeping like a kitten,” replied the duenna. “They speak truly when they say that there are no dangers for innocence. A bomb does not frighten the child any more than a skyrocket.”
“I wonder if I can see from here where the projectile has fallen,” said Candiola, stretching his body out of the window, in order to be able to extend his range of vision. “I can see the light of a fire, but I cannot say whether it is near or far.”
“Oh, I don’t know anything about bombs,” said Guedita, who had come out on the balcony. “This one has fallen over there by the market.”
“So it seems. If only all would fall upon the houses of those who persist in keeping up the defence and causing the destruction! If I am not deceived, Señora Guedita, the fire is near the Calle de la Triperia. Are not the storehouses of the junta of supplies over there? Oh, blessed bomb, why not fall into the Calle de la Hilarza, upon the house of that cursed, most miserable thief! Señora Guedita, I am going to the Calle de la Hilarza, to see if it has fallen on the house of that proud, meddlesome, cowardly thief, Don José de Montoria. I have prayed for it tonight to the Virgin del Pilar with so much fervor, and also at the Santas Masas and at Santo Dominguito del Val, that at last I believe I have been heard.”
“Señor Don Jeronimo,” said the old woman, “do not go out! The cold of the night is bad for you, and it is not worth risking your lungs to see where the bomb has fallen. It is enough that it has not meddled with this house. If that one which passed did not fall into the house of that barbarian of an official, another will fall tomorrow. The French have a good handful. Now, your honor, go to rest. I will stay up and look after the house.”
Candiola changed his mind about going out, it seemed, in accordance with the good counsels of his servant, and, shutting the window, he was heard no more during all the rest of the night. But although he disappeared, the lovers did not break the silence, fearful of being overheard. And not until the old woman came to tell us that the señor was snoring like a peasant was the interrupted dialogue continued.
“My father wished that the bombs would fall upon the house of his enemy,” said Mariquilla. “I should not like to see them fall anywhere; but if at any time one could wish ill-fortune to a neighbor, it would be now, do you not think so?”
Augustine made no answer.
“You went away. You did not see how that man, the most cruel, the most cowardly of all who came, knocked him down in his blind fury, and trampled upon him. The fiends will kick his soul in hell like that, won’t they?”
“Yes,” replied the young man, laconically.
“Today, after it all, Guedita and I dressed the wounds of my father. He was stretched upon his bed, crazy, desperate. He was twisting about, gnawing his fists and lamenting that he was not stronger than his enemy. We tried to console him, but he told us to be silent. He struck me in the face, he was so angry when he heard that I had thrown away the money for the flour. He was furious with me. He told me that since he could not get any more, the three thousand reales on account should not be despised. He said that I am a spendthrift, and am ruining him. We could not calm him in any way. Towards nightfall we heard another noise in the street, and were afraid that the same ones who were here in the middle of the day were returning. My father was raging, and determined to get up. I was greatly frightened; but I took courage, realizing that courage was necessary. Thinking of you, I said, ‘If he were in the house, no one would dare insult us.’ As the noise in the street increased, I plucked up all my courage. I shut and fastened the doors and gates, and, begging my father to keep quiet in his bed, I waited, resolved. While Guedita was on her knees, praying to all the saints in heaven, I searched the house for a weapon. At last I found a big knife. The sight of it has always frightened me, but today I clutched it fearlessly. Oh, I was beside myself! Now the very thought of it makes me frightened. I am usually unable to look upon a wounded man, and tremble at the sight of a drop of blood. I almost cry if I see anyone beat a dog before me. I have never had the force to kill a mosquito. But this evening, Augustine, this evening, when I heard the noise in the street, when I thought those blows upon the gate had come again, when I expected every moment to see those men before me,
