Part 71 (1/2)
”You seem to value the life of this Rivers,” said he at length, after a long silence.
Katie lifted her face, and regarded him with eyes all red and swollen.
”His life!” she exclaimed, with a shudder--”his life! Ah, that is it! And I see in your face that there is--no--hope. Oh, Harry! oh, Harry, Harry!”
Her voice died away in a low shudder. Lopez himself was moved. He had not been in the least prepared for such an utter break-down as this. Ah! now he saw that Katie could love, and how she could love! At the force of that love all else pa.s.sed away--pride, shame, hate, all; everything was forgotten except that name, upon which her voice dwelt with such longing.
”Yes,” he said, ”he is a spy. He is now being tried, or rather, he has been tried--for I may as well tell it--and has been condemned. I need say no more about it; I have already said enough. You know the fate of a condemned spy. Before another hour all will be over.”
At first Katie seemed about to faint, but the last sentence roused her.
She started up, and again seized his arm with her convulsive grasp. With white, tremulous lips she said, in a low voice which had sunk to a whisper,
”An hour! an hour! Did you say--another hour?”
Lopez bowed his head in silence.
”But _you_--_you_--_you_,” said Katie, fiercely--”_you_ do not believe him guilty?”
”I have nothing to do with it,” said Lopez, coldly.
”Nothing to do? Are you not commander here?”
”Yes.”
”Can you do nothing?” she asked again.
”No. The trial is over. His fate has already been decided; in another hour all will be over.”
The repet.i.tion of these words roused Katie to a fresh outburst of despairing grief.
”Oh!” said she; ”in so short a time! so short!”
”It was because he was so near his doom,” continued Lopez, ”that the condemned prisoner requested to see you, and I thought I would mention it. Had it not been for this request he would have been shot without your knowing it.”
Katie wrung her hands, in a blind pa.s.sion of despair.
”Oh!” she burst forth, ”something must be done! He shall not die! He must not! Oh, heavens! how can I live, and think of it? Harry! Harry! was there no one to speak for you? A _spy_! It's false! He was a simple traveller. Oh, Captain Lopez, there must be some way of saving him, or at least of deferring his doom. Can it not be put off--for one day?”
”That would be of no avail,” said Lopez.
”One day!” pleaded Katie, in eager tones.
”It's useless,” said Lopez; ”it's impossible. The sentence of the court cannot be revoked.”
”But time flies! Oh, Captain Lopez, can you not let him go?”
”Oh yes,” said Lopez, ”I can do that easily enough. I could let him out, so that he could escape.”