At this moment Dona Inez, fully attired, emerged from her room, and there was instantly a cordial interchange of salutations between her and our visitors. Then she turned to me and asked:

"What was that I heard you say just now, Don Ricardo? Surely not that Montpelier is in flames?"

"I deeply regret to say that you heard aright, Senora. Look yonder; you may see the blaze for yourself. And the blacks are dancing round it like so many demons," I answered.

Dona Inez clasped her hands together and wrung them in distress.

"Oh, Don Esteban--Dona Christina--I am so sorry for you all," she exclaimed. "It is horrible; and they will be here next. What do you intend to do, Luis? Must we really run away and leave this beautiful place to be destroyed and ourselves ruined? Is there nothing that can be done to save it?"

"I will not go so far as to say that," answered Don Luis; "on the contrary, I am strongly indisposed to abandon it without a struggle.

What say you, Don Ricardo?" turning to me. "You are a fighting man; do you think this house is capable of being defended successfully against an armed but undisciplined rabble of some three hundred blacks?"

"That depends entirely upon how strong a garrison you can muster, my dear friend," answered I. "So far as the house itself is concerned I believe that, given, say, a couple of hours for preparation, it might be put into a very excellent state of defence; but that would be no good at all unless you could raise a garrison of, let us say, thirty fighting men, and at least as many non-combatants to act as loaders, ambulance party, and so on."

"Thirty fighters, and thirty non-combatants," returned Don Luis.

"Surely that might be managed. Why, my 'boys' number more than three hundred, nine-tenths of whom were born and bred upon the estate. A few of them might possibly desert--perhaps twenty-five per cent of them, to put the figure at its very highest; but I feel certain that the bulk of them would stand by me through thick and thin; they have everything to lose and nothing to gain by going over to the outlaws. Oh yes, I am convinced that there should be no difficulty in the matter of raising a sufficient number of fighters."

"So far, then, so good," said I. "The next question is that of weapons--firearms especially. I am afraid, my dear Don Luis, you will scarcely be able to raise thirty guns, with adequate ammunition for the same."

"Ah, true," answered Don Luis, "I had not thought of that. Still--now, let me think a moment--"

"I may as well tell you here," cut in Don Esteban, "that although we could not see our way to defend Montpelier successfully, my sons and I have each brought our guns with us, and they of course will be available, should you decide to make a stand and defend the house."

"But, my dear Don Esteban, you will need them for your own protection on your way to--to--wherever you propose to make for; unless, of course, you choose to throw in your lot with us, which would perhaps be scarcely more dangerous than the attempt to reach one of the towns. For the news of this rising will spread among the negroes like wildfire, and--"

"Precisely," cut in Don Esteban again. "That is exactly my own thought.

Therefore, if our presence here will not embarra.s.s you we will gladly remain and take our chance with you."

"My dear Don Esteban," exclaimed Don Luis, "let me hasten to a.s.sure you that nothing could possibly give me greater satisfaction than to have the a.s.sistance of yourself and your two gallant sons at this critical juncture in my fortunes."

"Then that is settled," exclaimed I, breaking in rather ruthlessly, I am afraid, upon Don Luis' compliments, for which, I considered, there was scant time just then. "That makes three guns to start with. Now, how many more can we muster?"

"Four of my overseers have two guns each, while the remaining two have one each," answered Don Luis. "And each of them possesses a brace of good serviceable pistols in addition. Then, as for me, you must know, my dear Don Ricardo, that firearms are rather a weakness of mine; whenever I see an especially good gun I buy it, if I can, consequently I have a very fair selection in my gun-room, probably about twenty in all, as well as a few brace of pistols, duelling and otherwise."

"Oh, but that is excellent," I exclaimed; "far better than I dared expect. And as to ammunition?"

"I think you will find that we have as much of that as we are at all likely to need, for I always make a point of keeping an ample supply in stock," answered Don Luis.

"Good!" answered I. "The next point to determine is the ident.i.ty of your garrison. First, there is Don Esteban and his two sons; that makes three. Then there is you and myself--five. Will your six overseers fight, think you, Don Luis?"

"Oh yes, without a doubt," answered Don Luis. "They are most excellent fellows, and devoted to me."

"Then, so far, we muster eleven," said I. "We want nineteen more fighters, and at least thirty good, steady non-fighters, men who can be depended upon to retain their coolness and do exactly as they are told during the confusion and excitement of a fiercely contested fight. Now, Don Luis, can you lay your hand upon forty-nine men of the kind I have indicated--men who are trustworthy enough to be admitted inside these walls at a moment when treachery on the part of any one of them would probably be fatal to us all?"

Don Luis flushed and looked almost angrily at me as I suggested the possibility of treachery on the part of any of his people.

"Really, Don Ricardo," he exclaimed, "put as you put it, you almost make me tremble at the vastness of the responsibility that I am about to undertake. But you shall see. I will at once go down to the huts, choose my men, and bring them up here for your approval." And with that shot at me he walked out at the back door and disappeared into the darkness, while Don Silvio, at his father's request, went out to lead the horses round to the stables, and bring in the guns.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

THE ATTACK ON BELLA VISTA.

Some twenty-five minutes later Don Luis returned; and so colourless were his lips, so wild his eyes, so dreadfully agitated his entire appearance that I saw in a moment something had gone very radically wrong somewhere. Dona Inez saw it too, and approaching, laid her hand soothingly upon his arm as she anxiously asked:

"What is it, Luis? What is the matter, _mi querido_? Tell me; I can bear it."

"I could never have believed it!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Don Luis, clasping his hands in front of him and wringing them, in his distress and disappointment. "I have always believed every one of my negroes to be absolutely faithful to me; yet now, upon the news that the outlaws are out, more than half of them have left me, and quite possibly will, an hour or two hence, be joining in the attack upon this house. The ungrateful wretches, the--!"

"Precisely," I cut in; "they are all that and more. But what about those who remain? Are any of them trustworthy enough to be permitted to a.s.sist us; or must we do the best we can without them?"

"Oh no," answered Don Luis emphatically. "Thank G.o.d, I can trust every one of those who remain. And, as for the forty-nine whom I have chosen to come into the house to help us--well, I am going to demonstrate the extent of my faith in them by placing all our lives at their mercy. Oh yes; I have no shadow of doubt, so far as they are concerned."

"Very well, then," said I; "in that case they had better be admitted at once, for all our defences have still to be made. What are you going to do with those who are not wanted?"

"I have given them instructions to go away and conceal themselves in the woods until we have beaten off the attack," answered Don Luis. "Then they will return and help us to put right whatever damage may have been done during the fight."

"Will they?" thought I. "I very much doubt it!" But I kept my doubts to myself, and turned instead to another matter.

"The next thing that we have to consider is the safety of the ladies,"

said I. "What is to be done with them during the fight?"

Don Luis looked at me rather blankly.

"The ladies!" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed. "But surely, my dear Don Ricardo, they will be more safe in this house than anywhere else, will they not?"

"It all depends," I answered. "If you think it would be safe for them to start on horseback for the nearest town, either alone or escorted by a few of the most trusty of your negroes--"

"Oh no, no!" exclaimed Dona Inez and Dona Christina in the same breath; "you must not propose anything of that kind, Don Ricardo. We will not be separated from our husbands. If they are to face danger, we will face danger with them."

Then Don Luis broke in. "I do not altogether like your suggestion that the ladies should attempt to make their way to the nearest town," he said. "For, you see, we have no means of knowing what is the state of the intervening country. An hour ago I might have deemed the suggestion an excellent one, but now, after the shameless desertion of half my own 'boys,' I know not what to think."

"I suppose there is no snug, secret place of concealment, such as a cave, or something of that sort, the existence of which is known only to yourselves?" I suggested.

"The very thing!" exclaimed Don Luis enthusiastically. "There _is_ such a place, and its existence and locality are known to absolutely no one but Dona Inez and myself--"

"It is useless to speak of it," interrupted Dona Inez in a tone of finality. "I will not go there, or anywhere else; I remain here with you, Luis. If Dona Christina, or Dona Eugenia would like to go, let them do so by all means."

But Dona Christina and Dona Eugenia were quite as emphatic as their hostess in their determination not to be separated from their men-folk; so that question was very soon settled. After that there was nothing to be done but to call up our black auxiliaries, and put the house in as efficient a state of defence as the means at our disposal permitted; and this we at once proceeded to do.

Don Luis seemed naturally to look to me to take the lead in our warlike preparations; and this I as naturally did, finding that he had only very hazy notions of how to set to work. In the first place, the house itself was excellently adapted for defence, the outside walls being built of stone, and about two feet thick, to keep out the heat, while the roof was tiled; there was consequently very little danger of the place being set on fire from the outside, and ourselves burnt out of it.

Its chief weakness consisted in the exceptionally large size of the door and window openings; but I thought I could see a way to minimise that evil. While out walking with Don Luis and his wife, I had noticed a spot that I remarked at the time might be very easily converted into an excellent sand and gravel pit; while only a few days prior to the eventful morning when Don Esteban de Mendouca and his party had burst in upon us with the news of the negro outbreak, Don Luis had received a large consignment of new sacks destined to receive the crop of coffee, cocoa, and other products that were at that moment coming forward upon the estate.

Now, the moment that the question of defending the house was raised, these sacks and the sand pit came into my mind. The first thing I did, therefore, was to get hold of the six overseers, instruct them to organise into gangs the blacks who still remained on the estate: equip one party of them with pick and shovel; set a second party to bring the sacks from the store, as required; a third party to fill the sacks with the gravel and sand as excavated; and the remainder to carry the filled sacks up to the house on hand-barrows and arrange them in the door and window openings under my direction. While this was being done, Don Luis produced his stock of firearms and ammunition; then he, Don Esteban, and Don Pedro set to work to clean them, oil the locks, and generally put the weapons in reliable working order; while Don Silvio, aided by his sister and Dona Inez, lighted a fire in the dining-room and went to work upon the task of casting bullets for the pistols, it proving upon examination that only a very small stock of these remained on hand.

And, lastly, while Mama Elisa and Teresita busied themselves in the detached kitchen, cooking an ample supply of food for the little garrison, Dona Christina so far laid aside her dignity as to prepare the dining-room table and set it for breakfast; for day was by this time breaking, and we had decided that it would be sound policy to s.n.a.t.c.h a meal, if possible, before the fight began.

My scheme of defence consisted in blocking up all the door and window openings throughout the building with a good substantial wall of sand-bags, leaving here and there small loopholes just wide enough to admit of a musket being pointed through them. My musketrymen would be stationed at these loopholes, each man having an a.s.sistant who would stand by to pa.s.s him a fresh cartridge and bullet as soon as his weapon was discharged; and of course the musketrymen and their a.s.sistants would be moved from room to room as required, according to the point against which the attack was most strongly directed. I considered that we ought to stand a very good chance of making an effective defence, because it would be exceedingly difficult for our a.s.sailants to force a way into the building so long as our sand-bag walls stood firmly, and I believed it would require more courage than a negro possessed to charge home to them and overthrow them in the face of such a fire as we could direct upon them from the advantageous position which we should occupy.