is post; he seated himself on the stone bench, the butt of
his musket resting upon the ground between his feet, and the muzzle
leaning against his shoulder; the lighted segar dropped from his mouth;
he leaned his head against the door-post, extended his feet and legs,
and in a few seconds his nasal organ, in strains like the nocturnal song
of one of our largest bull-frogs, gave notice that he was "absent
without leave" to the land of Nod.

Isabella now arose, and, motioning to the prisoners to remain quiet,
tripped backwards and forwards through the guard-room, to ascertain that
the soldiers were asleep. Having satisfied herself on this point, she
beckoned to them to follow her. In passing through the guard-room,
Morton as well as his companions felt a strong inclination to possess
themselves of the arms of the guard, which were piled in one corner.
Their fair guide however entreated them to desist; but one of the
seamen, in attempting, to use his own language, to "unship" one of the
bayonets, made so much noise with the muskets, as alarmed himself as
well as the rest; and the whole party sallied out unarmed.

Near the door they were met by another person, that alarmed the
prisoners exceedingly; but it proved to be Transita, Isabella's Mexican
servant, loaded with two "sizeable" bundles; for the annals of
elopements, from the earliest ages down to the present day, have not
recorded a single instance of a lady's running away from "cruel
parents" or cross husband without the accompaniment of a sufficient
quantity of baggage; nay, I have heard of one young lady who
accomplished a most perilous descent from her chamber window into the
arms of an expecting lover, and returned for her favorite lap-dog, at
the most imminent risk of detection and close imprisonment at the hands
of her "ugly, old, cross papa."

Transita, like her mistress, was dressed in boy's clothes, a disguise
that so effectually imposed upon the four sailors, that in a whispered
conversation between them it it was decided that the two "young
gentlemen" were the sons of the merchant to whom the cargo had been
sold. Keeping close to the side of the plaza, the whole party advanced
swiftly and silently without meeting a human being, and turned down the
open space where Don Gregorio had met his horrid fate. As the dreadful
scene rose to Isabella's memory, she could not repress a faint
exclamation of horror, and hurried with increased speed down the narrow
path