"
He spoke in English that the five might understand, and Alvarez replied in
the same language.
"Your Excellency," he said, and his tone seemed frank, open, and
convincing--the five were amazed that he could have such a truthful look
and manner of injured innocence--"you know that I have been a most
faithful guardian of the interests of our master, the King. I have done
long and hard service in the far north, in a wilderness infested by
hostile savages."
"No one doubts your courage and endurance, Don Francisco," said Bernardo
Galvez.
"My devotion to Spain is the great passion of my life," continued Alvarez
in a gratified tone.
"You know how jealously I have sought to guard against incursions from
Kaintock. The settlements of the Americans there are but two or three year
old, yet these people press already upon the Mississippi and threaten His
Majesty's territory of Louisiana."
"I think that we wander a little from the subject," said Galvez, "It would
be better to state the core of your complaint."
Alvarez made a deprecating gesture.
"I deemed the preamble necessary to a full understanding of what has
followed," he said. "When I tell of Kaintock I tell what these men are.
Suffice it now to say that, of their own accord and by their own hands,
they have made war upon Spain.
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