This was quickly done, and he was suffered to rise from the ground to see before him, not Morella, as he half expected, but a man clad in fine armour beneath his rough cloak, evidently an officer of rank.

"What kind of a Moor are you," he asked, "who dare to kill the soldiers of the Holy Hermandad in the heart of the King's country ?" and he pointed to the dead man.
"I am not a Moor," answered Peter in his rough Spanish.

"I am a Christian escaped from Granada, and I cut down that man because he was trying to insult my betrothed, as you would have done, Senor.

I did not know that he was a soldier of the Hermandad; I thought him a common thief of the hills." This speech, or as much as he could understand of it, seemed to please the officer, but before he could answer, Castell said: "Sir Officer, the senor is an Englishman, and does not speak your language well--" "He uses his sword well, anyhow," interrupted the captain, glancing at the dead soldier's cloven helm and head.
"Yes, Sir, he is of your trade and, as the scar upon his face shows, has fought in many wars.

Sir, what he tells you is true.