CHAPTER XXIV.
THE REVOLT.
Don Miguel Zarate had marched rapidly on the Paso, and an hour afterleaving Valentine he saw flashing in the distance the lights that shonein the village windows. The greatest calmness prevailed in the vicinity;only at times could be heard the barking of the dogs baying at the moon,or the savage miawling of the wild cats hidden in the shrubs. At aboutone hundred yards from the village a man suddenly rose before the smallparty.
"Who goes there?" he shouted.
"_Mejico e independencia!_" the hacendero answered.
"_?Que gente?_" the stranger continued.
"Don Miguel Zarate."
At these words twenty men hidden in the brushwood rose suddenly, andthrowing their rifles on their shoulders, advanced to meet the horsemen.They were the hunters commanded by Curumilla, who, by Valentine'sorders, were awaiting the hacendero's arrival to join him.
"Well," Don Miguel asked the chief, "is there anything new?"
Curumilla shook his head.
"Then we can advance?"
"Yes."
"What is the matter, chief? Have you seen anything alarming?"
"No; and yet I have a feeling of treachery."
"How so?"
"I cannot tell you. Apparently everything is as usual: still there issomething which is not so. Look you, it is scarce ten o'clock: generallyat that hour all the mesones are full, the ventas are crammed withgamblers and drinkers, the streets flocked with promenaders. This nightthere is nothing of the sort: all is closed--the town seems abandoned.This tranquillity is factitious. I am alarmed, for _I hear the silence_.Take care."
Don Miguel was involuntarily struck by the chief's remarks. He had knownCurumilla for a long time. He had often seen him display in the mostdangerous circumstances a coolness and contempt for death beyond allpraise: hence some importance must be attached to the apprehensions andanxiety of such a man. The hacendero ordered his party to halt,assembled his friends, and held a council. All were of opinion that,before venturing to advance further, they should send as scout a cleverman to traverse the town, and see for himself if the fears of the Indianchief were well founded.
One of the hunters offered himself. The conspirators concealedthemselves on either side the road, and awaited, lying in the shrubs,the return of their messenger. He was a half-breed, Simon Munez byname, to whom the Indians had given the soubriquet of "Dog-face," owingto his extraordinary likeness to that animal. This name had stuck to thehunter, who, _nolens volens_, had been compelled to accept it. He wasshort and clumsy, but endowed with marvellous strength; and we may sayat once that he was an emissary of Red Cedar, and had only joined thehunters in order to betray them.
When he left the conspirators he proceeded toward the village whistling.He had scarce taken a dozen steps into the first street ere a dooropened, and a man appeared. This man stepped forward and addressed thehunter.
"You whistle very late, my friend."
"A whistle to wake those who are asleep," the half breed made answer.
"Come in," the man continued.
Dog-face went in, and the door closed upon him. He remained in the househalf an hour, then went out, and hurried back along the road he hadtraversed.
Red Cedar, who wished before all to avenge himself on Don Miguel Zarate,had discovered, through Fray Ambrosio, the conspirators' new plan.Without loss of time he had taken his measures in consequence, and hadmanaged so well that, although the general, the governor, and thecriminal judge were prisoners, Don Miguel must succumb in the contest hewas preparing to provoke. Fray Ambrosio, to his other qualities, joinedthat of being a listener at doors. In spite of the distrust which hispatron was beginning to display toward him on Valentine'srecommendation, he had surprised a conversation between Don Miguel andGeneral Ibanez. This conversation, immediately reported to Red Cedar,who, according to his usual custom, had appeared to attach no importanceto it, had been sufficient, however, to make the squatter prepare hisbatteries and countermine the conspiracy.
Dog-face rejoined his companions after an hour's absence.
"Well?" Don Miguel asked him.
"All is quiet," the half-breed answered; "the inhabitants have retiredto their houses, and everybody is asleep."
"You noticed nothing of a suspicious nature?"
"I went through the town from one end to the other, and saw nothing."
"We can advance, then?"
"In all security: it will only be a promenade."
On this assurance the conspirators regained their courage, Curumilla wastreated as a visionary, and the order was given to advance. StillDog-face's report, far from dissipating the Indian chief's doubts, hadproduced the contrary effect, and considerably augmented them. Sayingnothing, he placed himself by the hunter's side, with the secretintention of watching him closely.
The plan of the conspirators was very simple. They would march directlyon the Cabildo (Town hall), seize it, and proclaim a ProvisionalGovernment. Under present circumstances nothing appeared to be easier.Don Miguel and his band entered the Paso, and nothing occurred to arousetheir suspicions. It resembled that town in the "Arabian Nights," inwhich all the inhabitants, struck by the wand of the wicked enchanter,sleep an eternal sleep. The conspirators advanced into the town withtheir rifle barrels thrust forward, with eye and ear on the watch, andready to fire at the slightest alarm; but nothing stirred. As Curumillahad observed, the town was too quiet. This tranquillity hid somethingextraordinary, and must conceal the tempest. In spite of himself DonMiguel felt a secret apprehension which he could not master.
To our European eyes Don Miguel will perhaps appear a poor conspirator,without foresight or any great connection in his ideas. From our pointof view that is possible; but in a country like Mexico, which counts itsrevolutions by hundreds, and where _pronunciamentos_ take place, in mostcases, without sense or reason because a colonel wishes to become ageneral, or a lieutenant a captain, things are not regarded so closely;and the hacendero, on the contrary, had evidenced tact, prudence, andtalent in carrying out a conspiracy which, during the several years ithad been preparing, had only come across one traitor. And now it was toolate to turn back: the alarm had been given, and the Government was onits guard. They must go onwards, even if they succumbed in the struggle.
All these considerations had been fully weighed by Don Miguel; and hehad not given the signal till he was driven into his last intrenchments,and convinced that there was no way of escape left him. Was it not athousand fold better to die bravely with arms in their hands, in supportof a just cause, than wait to be arrested without having made an attemptto succeed? Don Miguel had sacrificed his life, and no more could beexpected of him.
In the meanwhile the conspirators advanced. They had nearly reached theheart of the town; they were at this moment in a little, dirty, andnarrow street, called the Calle de San Isidro, which opens out on thePlaza Mayor, when suddenly a dazzling light illumined the darkness;torches flashed from all the windows; and Don Miguel saw that the twoends of the street in which he was were guarded by strong detachments ofcavalry.
"Treachery!" the conspirators shouted in terror.
Curumilla bounded on Dog-face, and buried his knife between hisshoulders. The half-breed fell in a lump, quite dead, and not uttering acry. Don Miguel judged the position at the first glance: he saw that heand his party were lost.
"Let us die!" he said.
"We will!" the conspirators resolutely responded.
Curumilla with the butt of his rifle beat in the door of the nearesthouse, and rushed in, the conspirators following him. They were soonintrenched on the roof. In Mexico all the houses have flat roofs, formedlike terraces. Thanks to the Indian chief's idea, the rebels foundthemselves in possession of an improvised fortress, where they coulddefend themselves for a long time, and sell their lives dearly.
The troops advanced from each end of the street, while the roofs of allthe houses were occupied by soldiers. The battle was about to beginbetween earth and heaven
, and promised to be terrible. At this momentGeneral Guerrero, who commanded the troops, bade them halt, and advancedalone to the house on the top of which the conspirators were intrenched.Don Miguel beat up the guns of his comrades, who aimed at the officer.
"Wait," he said to them; and, addressing the general, "What do youwant?" he shouted.
"To offer you propositions."
"Speak."
The general came a few paces nearer, so that those he addressed couldnot miss one of his words.
"I offer you life and liberty if you consent to surrender your leader,"he said.
"Never!" the conspirators shouted in one voice.
"It is my place to answer," Don Miguel said; and then turning to thegeneral, "What assurance do you give me that these conditions will behonourably carried out?"
"My word of honor as a soldier," the general answered.
"Very good," Don Miguel went on; "I accept. All the men who accompany mewill leave the town one after the other."
"No, we will not!" the conspirators shouted as they brandished theirweapons; "we would sooner die."
"Silence!" the hacendero said in a loud voice. "I alone have the rightto speak here, for I am your chief. The life of brave men like you mustnot be needlessly sacrificed. Go, I say; I order you--I implore it ofyou," he added with tears in his voice. "Perhaps you will soon take yourrevenge."
The conspirators hung their heads mournfully.
"Well?" the general asked.
"My friends, accept. I will remain alone here. If you break your word Iwill kill myself."
"I repeat that you hold my word," the general answered.
The conspirators came one after the other to embrace Don Miguel, andthen went down into the street without being in any way interfered with.Things happen thus in this country, where conspiracies and revolutionsare on the order of the day, as it were. The defeated are spared as faras possible, from the simple reason that the victors may find themselvestomorrow fighting side by side with them for the same cause. Curumillawas the last to depart.
"All is not ended yet," he said to Don Miguel. "Koutonepi will save you,father."
The hacendero shook his head sadly.
"Chief," he said in a deeply moved voice, "I leave my daughter toValentine, Father Seraphin, and yourself. Watch over her: the poor childwill soon have no father."
Curumilla embraced Don Miguel silently and retired; he had soondisappeared in the crowd, the general having honourably kept his word.
Don Miguel threw down his weapons and descended.
"I am your prisoner," he said.
General Guerrero bowed, and made him a sign to mount the horse a soldierhad brought up.
"Where are we going?" the hacendero said.
"To Santa Fe," the general answered, "where you will be tried withGeneral Ibanez, who will doubtless soon be a prisoner like yourself."
"Oh!" Don Miguel muttered thoughtfully, "who betrayed us this time?"
"It was still Red Cedar," the general answered.
The hacendero let his head sink on his chest, and remained silent. Aquarter of an hour later the prisoner left the Paso del Norte, escortedby a regiment of dragoons. When the last trooper had disappeared in thewindings of the road three men left the shrubs that concealed them, andstood like three phantoms in the midst of the desolate plain.
"O heavens!" Don Pablo cried in a heart-rending voice, "my father, mysister--who will restore them to me?"
"I!" Valentine said in a grave voice, as he laid his hand on hisshoulder. "Am I not the TRAIL-HUNTER?"
PART II.--EL PRESIDIO DE SANTA FE.