Though small and somewhat ill-made, with an air that was
haughty and disdainful, he was not lacking in a certain nobility of
manner, and he seemed to have something of that delicacy of feeling
which made the Spanish chivalry of other days so famous. He was named
Juanito. The second son, Felipe, was about twenty years of age; he
resembled Clara. The youngest was eight. A painter would have seen in
the features of Manuelo a little of that Roman constancy that David
has given to children in his republican pages. The head of the old
marquis, covered with flowing white hair, seemed to have escaped from
a picture of Murillo. As he looked at them, the young officer shook
his head, despairing that any one of those four beings would accept
the dreadful bargain of the general. Nevertheless, he found courage to
reveal it to Clara.
The girl shuddered for a moment; then she recovered her calmness, and
went to her father, kneeling at his feet.
"Oh!" she said to him, "make Juanito swear that he will obey,
faithfully, the orders that you will give him, and our wishes will be
fulfilled.
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