The night darkened and then a wan moon came out, casting a ghostly, gray shadow over the measureless black forest.

The great stars, pale and cold, danced in a dusky blue.

Faint moans came out of the depths of the wilderness, as a stray wind wandered here and there among the leaves.

Francisco Alvarez, resolute and self contained though he was, could not sleep.

He had taken a bold step in holding the messenger of peace, and, although one might do much a thousand wilderness miles from the seat of his authority, he was nevertheless anxious to have the full support of Bernardo Galvez, the Spanish governor of Louisiana.
Royalist to the marrow, he wished the colonists to be defeated by their mother country, and he wished, moreover, that Spain might make secure a title to all the immense regions in the valley.