past, Tizoc said, had success attended an
effort on the part of the Tlahuicos to release themselves from their
cruel slavery, and that they then eluded the vigilance of their masters
was due to their employment of strategy against force. The whole matter,
he continued, was now but a half-remembered tradition, yet the main
details of it were clear. In that far-back time a vein of extraordinary
richness had been followed for a very long distance in the direction of
the Barred Pass; and, as the event proved, the gallery was carried
beyond the bars, passing far beneath them, and so went onward, steadily
rising, until an outlet was had into the canon. That the secret of this
outlet might be kept among the men who had opened it, these slew the
guard that watched over them and thrust his body out into the canon,
thus most effectually placing it beyond the reach of the search that
would be made for it; and the opening that they had made they closed
carefully, and continued a little way onward into the rock the gallery
in which they were working: so that the superintendent of the mine might
see clearly (what, indeed, was the truth) that the vein of ore had been
followed to its end.

Tizoc knew not how long a time passed before the Tlahuicos made use of
the way of escape thus opened to them; but their flight could not have
been taken hastily, because it included a very great number of them, and
included also carrying with them large quantities of arms for warfare,
and of useful household stores. He could say certainly no more than
that when all their well-laid plan was ready to be executed, they rose
against the soldiers which guarded them with such suddenness and brave
violence that they succeeded in seizing and in holding the Citadel;
which gave no chance for grave uneasiness, for the officers of the force
thus for a moment driven off thought that because of their retiring
within so narrow a place they speedily must surrender for dread of being
starved there; and it was held to be but a sign of their still greater
simplicity--since thus would there be more hungry mouths to fill--that
they carried their women and children with them into the stronghold
where they lay besieged.

But so strange was the desolate silence that hung over the place into
which so great a multitude had retired, that the besiegers presently
were moved by it to a wonder wherein was a strong feeling of awe; and
still greater was the marvel that they had to