me later news, than I have received about the
march of Hidalgo and his army?"

"Not any, I fear," replied the student; "you forget, Senor, that, thanks
to the slow pace of my old horse, I have been two months on the route?
When I left Valladolid, nobody had any more thought of an insurrection
than of a new deluge. All I know of it is what I have heard from public
rumour--that is, so much as could be divulged without fear of the Holy
Inquisition. If, moreover, we are to believe the mandate of the Lord
Bishop of Oajaca, the insurrection will not find many supporters in his
diocese."

"And for what reason?" asked the captain of dragoons, with a certain
hauteur, which proved, without committing himself to any disclosure of
his political opinions, that the insurgent cause would not find an enemy
in him. "What reason does the bishop assign?"

"What reason?" replied the student. "Simply because my Lord Bishop
Bergosa y Jordan will excommunicate them. He affirms, moreover, that
every insurgent will be recognisable by his horns and cloven hoofs,
which before long they will all have from the hands of the devil!"

Instead of smiling at the childish credulity of the young student, the
dragoon shook his head with an air of discontent, while the hairs of his
black moustachios curled with indignation.

"Yes," said he, as if speaking to himself, "thus is it that our priests
fight with the weapons of calumny and falsehood, perverting the minds of
the Creoles with fanatical superstition! So, Senor Lantejas," he
continued in a louder tone, addressing himself to the student, "you are
afraid to enrol yourself in the ranks of the insurgents, lest you might
obtain these diabolical ornaments promised by the bishop?"

"Heaven preserve me from doing such a thing!" replied the student. "Is
it not an article of faith? And who should know better than the
respectable Lord Bishop of Oajaca? Besides," continued he, hastening
his explanation, as he saw the angry flash of his companion's eye, "I am
altogether of a peaceable disposition, and about to enter into holy
orders. Whatever party I might take, it would be with prayer alone I
should seek to make it triumph. The Church has a horror of blood."

While the student was thus delivering himself, the dragoon regarded him
with a side glance; which seemed to say: that it mattered little which
side he might take, as neither would be much benefited by such a sorry
champion.

"Is it for th