I offered to
relax the discipline considerably if he would behave
in a reasonable manner; and how does Your
Eminence suppose he answered me? He lay looking
at me a minute, like a wolf in a cage, and then
said quite softly: 'Colonel, I can't get up and
strangle you; but my teeth are pretty good; you
had better take your throat a little further off.'
He is as savage as a wild-cat."
"I am not surprised to hear it," Montanelli
answered quietly. "But I came to ask you a
question. Do you honestly believe that the presence
of Rivarez in the prison here constitutes a
serious danger to the peace of the district?"
"Most certainly I do, Your Eminence."
"You think that, to prevent the risk of bloodshed,
it is absolutely necessary that he should
somehow be got rid of before Corpus Domini?"
"I can only repeat that if he is here on Thursday,
I do not expect the festival to pass over without
a fight, and I think it likely to be a serious one."
"And you think that if he were not here there
would be no such danger?"
"In that case, there would either be no disturbance
at all, or at most a little shouting and stone-throwing.
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