. They nevertheless defended themselves furiously,
and their sharpshooters did us some harm. Novales was everywhere,
encouraging his soldiers by words, exploits, and example, while
Lieutenant Ruiz was busy pointing one of the cannons, that swept the
middle of the street we were coming up. At length, after three hours'
contest, the rebels succumbed. The troops fell upon everything they
found, and Novales was taken prisoner to the governor's. As to Ruiz,
although he had received a blow on his arm from a ball, he was
fortunate enough to jump over the fortifications, and succeeded,
for the time, in escaping; three days afterwards he was taken. The
conflict was scarcely over, than a court-martial was held. Novales
was tried the first. At midnight he was outlawed; at two o'clock in
the morning proclaimed Emperor; and at five in the evening shot. Such
changes in fortune are not uncommon in Spanish colonies.

The court-martial, without adjourning, tried, until the middle of the
following day, all the prisoners arrested with arms. The tenth part
of the regiment was sent to the hulks, and all the non-commissioned
officers were condemned to death. I received orders to be at Government
Place by four o'clock, on which spot the executions were to take place;
two companies of each battalion of the garrison, and all the staff,
were to be present.

Towards five the doors of the town-hall opened, and between a double
file of soldiers advanced seventeen non-commissioned officers, each one
assisted by two monks of the order of Misericordia. Mournful silence
prevailed, interrupted every now and then by the doleful beating of
the drums, and the prayers of the agonising, chanted by the monks. The
procession moved slowly on, and after some time reached the palace;
the seventeen non-commissioned officers were ordered to kneel, their
faces turned towards the wall. After a lengthened beating of the drums
the monks left their victims, and at a second beating a discharge
of muskets resounded: the seventeen young men fell prostrate on the
ground. One, however, was not dead; he had fallen with the others,
and seemed apparently motionless. A few minutes after the monks
threw their black veils upon the victims: they now belonged to Divine
justice. I witnessed all that had just happened. I stood a few steps
from him who feigned death so well, and my heart beat with force
enough to burst through my chest. Would that it had been in my power
to lead one