eding to the rear of the hacienda to inquire
the cause.

All remained listening and alarmed--Don Rafael, more than even the young
girls: for too much happiness has the effect of weakening the heart.
The most profound silence reigned throughout the building; for the
firing, heard by the servants of the hacienda, had inspired one and all
of them with the same mute alarm; just as pigeons asleep upon the tree
aroused by the first scream of the kite, remain for some moments
terrified and motionless in their places.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.

A MEXICAN MAJOR-DOMO.

Don Mariano, the dragoon officer, and the two sisters rushed up to the
_azotea_, the hearts of all filled with a dread presentiment.

From the roof, already crowded with servants, a view of the ridge could
be obtained--its whole slope from top to bottom being visible at a
single glance. A horrible spectacle came under the eyes of all at once.

At the upper end of the path which led towards the Hacienda del Valle, a
horse and horseman were seen lying upon the road close to one another.
Both appeared to be wounded--the man struggling to regain his feet--the
horse making only the slightest motion, as if in the last moments of
life.

"Haste!" cried Don Mariano to his domestics. "Haste! Procure a litter,
and have the wounded horseman carried down here to the house."

"If my eyes don't deceive me," said the young officer, casting uneasy
glances to the hill, "yonder unfortunate man is poor old Rodriguez, the
oldest of my father's servants."

The head of the wounded horseman was in fact covered with grey hair, as
could be seen from the _azotea_.

"The name Antonio Valdez," continued Don Rafael, "now recalls to me some
facts connected with that wretch. I remember something of a punishment
inflicted upon him; and I have a dark presentiment--Oh, heavens! Senor
Don Mariano, such happiness to be thus interrupted--"

And without finishing his speech, the young officer hastily pressed the
hand of his host, and rushed for the postern that opened towards the
hills.

In a few seconds after, he was seen climbing the ridge, followed by the
domestics of Don Mariano, who carried a _litera_.

On reaching the wounded man, Don Rafael had no longer any doubts about
his being old Rodriguez; though having seen the latter only in his
childhood, he remembered little more than the name.

Rodriguez, enfeebled by the loss of blood, and by the efforts he had
been making to ge