"'It will,' I replied."

"The colonel pulled out his watch. I addressed toward the heavens,
brilliant with stars, which I thought I was looking to for the last
time, an intense and burning prayer."

"'It is time,' said the colonel."

"I answered nothing, and, with a firm hand, gathered up the bridle of my
horse, and drew it within my fingers, which were agitated by a
nervous tremor."

"'Yet one moment more,' I said to the colonel, for I have need of all my
coolness to carry into execution the fearful manoeuver which I am about
to commence."

"'Granted,' replied Garduno."

"My education, as I have told you, had been in the country. My
childhood, and part of my earliest youth, had almost been passed on
horseback. I may say, without flattering myself, that if there was any
one in the world capable of executing this equestrian feat, it was
myself. I rallied myself with an almost supernatural effort, and
succeeded in recovering my entire self-possession, in the very face of
death. Taking it at the worst, I had already braved it too often to be
any longer alarmed at it. From that instant, I dared to hope afresh."

"As soon as my horse felt, for the first time since my rencounter with
the colonel, the bit compressing his mouth, I perceived that he trembled