u and let me escape."

"It would be very unjust to kill either of us; but they care little for
justice, and they wish to strike terror into the hearts of their
enemies," he remarked calmly.

"Such cruelty as they are about to perpetrate will only exasperate the
Indians the more," said I. "If they were to treat them well, and let
them go, they would be more likely to put down the rebellion."

The crowd was every moment increasing, as people were coming in from all
directions. Among them were a large number of Indians, mestizos, and
other half-castes, who seemed to look on with the same unconcern as the
Spaniards. My eye had been attracted by a man whose florid complexion
and dress showed that he was a seaman of some northern nation, and I
hoped an Englishman. He shouldered his way through the crowd with a
confident, independent air, as if he felt himself superior to any about
him. At length he came close under our window, and caught my eye
watching him. He stared at me fixedly for some time, and I thought
recognised me to be a countryman by my light hair and fair complexion.
Once he put his hand up to his mouth, as if he was going to hail me, as
he would a man at the masthead; but he again let it drop, having
apparently changed his mind, and, returning his hands to his trousers
pockets, he rolled away with the unmistakeable air of a British seaman.
I longed to call after him to tell who I was; but, afraid of being heard
by others, I restrained myself.

"Is that man a friend of yours?" asked Pedro.

"I never saw him that I know of before," I answered.

"Well, I thought that he recognised you," he observed. "I marked the
expression of his eye, and I should say that he knew you, or mistook you
for some one else."

I eagerly watched the sailor, afraid that he would go away, and that we
should see him no more. I observed, however, that though he dodged
about among the crowd with a careless air, he never got to any great
distance from our window. This circumstance kept alive my hope that he
had come for the purpose of bringing us information, or of helping us to
escape. The crowd had now begun to grow as impatient at the
non-appearance of the prisoners as they would at a bull-fight, had there
been a delay in turning the bull into the circus, when three bodies of
troops were seen marching up from the several streets leading into the
square. They formed on either side of it, making a lane from the prison
gates