e contrary. I was chagrined at the
indifference exhibited in another quarter.

"She must know that I am here, since her brother is master of the fact--
here, bleeding and bound. Yet where is her sympathy? She sleeps! She
journeys within a few paces of me, where I am tied painfully; yet not a
word of consolation. No! She is riding upon her soft cushion, or
carried upon a _litera_, escorted, perhaps, by this accomplished
villain, who plays the gallant cavalier upon my own barb! They converse
together, perhaps of the poor captives in their train, and with jest and
ridicule--he at least; and _she_ can hear it, and then fling herself
into her soft hammock and sleep--sleep sweetly--calmly?"

These bitter reflections were interrupted. The door creaked once more
upon its hinges. Half a dozen of our captors entered. Our blinds were
put on, and we were carried out and mounted as before.

In a few minutes a bugle rang out, and the route was resumed.

We were carried up the stream bottom--a kind of glen, or _Canada_. We
could feel by the cool shade and the echoes that we were travelling
under heavy timber. The torrent roared in our ears, and the sound was
not unpleasant. Twice or thrice we forded the stream, and sometimes
left it, returning after having travelled a mile or so. This was to
avoid the _canons_, where there is no path by the water. We then
ascended a long hill, and after reaching its summit commenced going
downwards.

"I know this road well," said Raoul. "We are going down to the hacienda
of Cenobio."

"_Pardieu_!" he continued. "I ought to know this hill!"

"For what reason?"

"First, Captain, because I have carried many a _bulto_ of cochineal and
many a bale of smuggled tobacco over it; ay, and upon nights when my
eyes were of as little service to me as they are at present."

"I thought that you _contrabandistas_ hardly needed the precaution of
dark nights?"

"True, at times; but there were other times when the Government became
lynx-eyed, and then smuggling was no joke. We had some sharp
skirmishing. _Sacre_! I have good cause to remember this very hill. I
came near making a jump into purgatory from the other side of it."

"Ha! how was that?"

"Cenobio had got a large lot of cochineal from a crafty trader at
Oaxaca. It was _cached_ about two leagues from the hacienda in the
hills, and a vessel was to drop into the mouth of the Medellin to take
it on board.

"A party of us were