"And may I know of what treason I am accused?"
"You must know better than anyone else, señor don Andrés de la Cruz, the motives which induced you to give up your own name and assume that of don Antonio de Carrera."
Don Andrés--for such in reality was his name--was startled by this revelation; not that he felt himself guilty, for this change of name had been effected with the assent of the President; but he was confounded by the duplicity of the people who arrested him, and who, for want of better reasons, even played this one to make him fall into an infamous snare, in order to seize on a fortune which they had long coveted.
Don Andrés, however, overcame his emotion, and addressed the guerillero once more.
"Take care of what you are doing, señor Coronel," he said; "I am not a nobody, and will not let myself be thus despoiled without complaining; there is at Mexico a Spanish ambassador, who will be able to procure me justice."
"I do not know what you mean," don Felipe answered imperturbably; "If you are alluding to señor Pacheco, I do not think that his protection will be very profitable to you; for this gentleman, who entitles himself ambassador extraordinary of H.M. the Queen of Spain, has thought proper to recognize the government of the traitor Miramón. Hence we of the other party have nothing to do with him, and his influence with the national President is completely null. However, I have no occasion to discuss the point with you; whatever may happen, I arrest you. Will you surrender, or do you intend to offer a useless resistance? Answer."
Don Andrés surveyed the persons who surrounded him; he saw that he had no hope or support to expect from anyone but his own servants, hence he let his revolvers fall at his feet, and folded his arms on his chest.
"I surrender to force," he said in a firm voice; "but I protest before all those who surround me against the violence which is done me."
"Pray protest, my dear sir, you are quite at liberty to do so, and it is not of the slightest consequence to me. Don Jesús Domínguez," he added, addressing the officer who had calmly and carelessly witnessed this scene, "we will at once proceed to a minute inspection of the baggage, and, above all, the papers of the prisoner."