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The eyes of men and animals shone
with wild fear. My general approached Gaspar Ruiz, who stood motionless
as a statue above the girl. He let himself be shaken by the shoulder
without detaching his eyes from her face.
"'Que guape!' shouted the General in his ear. 'You are the bravest man
living. You have saved my life. I am General Robles. Come to my quarters
to-morrow if God gives us the grace to see another day.'
"He never stirred--as if deaf, without feeling, insensible.
"We rode away for the town, full of our relations, of our friends, of
whose fate we hardly dared to think. The soldiers ran by the side of
our horses. Everything was forgotten in the immensity of the catastrophe
overtaking a whole country."
. . . . . . .
Gaspar Ruiz saw the girl open her eyes. The raising of her eyelids
seemed to recall him from a trance. They were alone; the cries of terror
and distress from homeless people filled the plains of the coast remote
and immense, coming like a whisper into their loneliness.
She rose swiftly to her feet, darting fearful glances on all sides.


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