n attack had been conceived. Was there any one in the insurgent
army who could pass the Royalist lines, and carry a message into the
town? That became the question, which, as it so happened, Don Cornelio
Lantejas was able to answer in the affirmative.

The Captain was in command of the Indians, one of whom had informed him
that he knew a secret way by which the town could be entered. The
patriotic Indian at the same time declared his willingness to carry a
message to Colonel Trujano.

On communicating this information to the General, Lantejas had no
thought of the honourable commission it would be the means of obtaining
for himself. Perhaps, had he suspected what was in store for him, he
would have withheld it. He did not do so, however; and, on disclosing
the fact to Morelos, the General at once ordered him to accompany the
Indian, taking along with him some half-dozen of his trustiest men.

An honour thus offered by the Commander-in-chief of an army cannot,
without difficulty, be declined; and Don Cornelio was constrained to
accept it.

Choosing for his companions Costal and Clara, with some half-dozen
others, and, preceded by the Indian guide, he set forth towards the
town.

After two hours spent in climbing the hills, they came within sight of
the bivouac fires of the Spanish camp--towards which they proceeded
without making stop, until they had arrived near the line of pickets.
Here the guide halted the party, concealing them behind a ruined wall.

From this point a road, deeply sunk below the surface of the plain, ran
past the place where one of the Spanish pickets held post. It was the
same post where, but a short while before, the earless Indian had
succeeded in deceiving the sentry. The one now on post was not the
same. The guard had been meanwhile relieved and another sentry had
taken the place; who, by the uneasy glances which, from time to time, he
kept casting around him, was evidently under the belief that his
position was a dangerous one.

Many causes combined to render the new sentinel sufficiently
uncomfortable. The night was disagreeably cold; the companionship of
the corpses, whose mutilated state presented death before his eyes in
its most hideous aspect; their odour horribly infecting the air;--all
these causes, coming together, could not fail to inspire the soldier
with a secret fear.

To chase away his unpleasant reflections--as well as to keep his blood
warm against the chill b