etter protection they were brought to the hut
he and I inhabited, on a hill a short distance from the town.

Among them was a man whose deep dejection, and countenance and manners,
deeply interested me. Though his dress was soiled and bloody, I at once
perceived that he was a gentleman.

"Alas!" he said, "I have been the child of misfortune from my earliest
clays. Whenever any bright prospect has appeared before me, it has
vanished ere I could enjoy it. I married a wife; she was young and
beautiful; but poverty oppressed us, and she had been accustomed to
wealth and luxury. A child was born to us, and I trusted it would
reconcile her to our lot; but as we were travelling through the country,
we were attacked by the Montoneros, and the infant, and the nurse who
had charge of him, were carried away to the mountains and slain, for we
could never again hear tidings of either of them. For years I toiled on
till I amassed a handsome fortune; but scarcely was it obtained, when
death deprived me of my wife. I had laid out my money in the purchase
of an estate, in the cultivation of which I had resolved to employ
myself till heaven should allow me to join my wife and child in another
world, when this dreadful outbreak commenced, and reduced me to beggary.
By a strange fate, though all my companions have been destroyed, I
still am bound to life, which I would gladly have quitted."

Don Gomez de Castro, I learned, was the prisoner's name. Our
conversation, which had been prolonged till a late hour, for it was now
night, was interrupted by a blaze of light, which illuminated the whole
sky. Hurrying to the door of the hut, the cause became apparent. The
unfortunate town of Sarata was on fire. In every direction the flames
were bursting furiously forth, till the entire place became one burning
mass. Don Gomez, as he looked at the scene, wrung his hands, and wept
bitterly. The fire raged all night; and next morning nothing remained
of Sarata but a heap of smouldering ashes. The Indians triumphed, as
savages alone may be excused in triumphing, over their fallen enemies.
The priests who had been rescued, were, however, treated with respect;
which showed the extraordinary influence they had obtained over the
minds of the people. Had it been more beneficially exerted, by teaching
them the simple truths of pure Christianity, it would assuredly have
prevented the horrors of the outbreak; but I fear their aim had rather
been