leased to take the person of his most sacred majesty for
your sport and laughing-stock?"

"Don Bautista, on our honour, we knew not."

"By _our_ honour," yelled another alguazil, "you shall pay for this with
your heads, Creole hounds that ye are!"

"Don Iago," cried the insulted cavaliers in a threatening tone, "we say
that on our _honour_"----

"Say what you please," interrupted the alguazil, "but I tell you that if
I were viceroy"----

"Your turn may come. You are a born Gachupin," cried one of the
cavaliers with a bitter sneer.

"I am a Spaniard," retorted the other; "and you are nothing but wretched
Creoles; vile, miserable Creoles; _y basta!_"

The very earth-worm will turn when trodden upon, and this last insult
was too much even for Creole endurance. The young men made a furious
rush at the alguazil; but he had foreseen the storm and effected a
timely retreat.

Hundreds of Creoles of the middle classes, Metises, Zambos, and
Spaniards, had assembled in the adjoining apartment, and looked on at
the scene without showing any sympathy either with the police or the
young Mexicans. The latter gazed for a second or two at each other in
perplexity and dismay, and then separating, disappeared through the
different doors.

Some extraordinary scenes and incidents grow out of this masquerade, or
rather out of the punishment to which the young noblemen who witnessed
it are sentenced. But, lest we should exceed our limits, we must reserve
further extracts for a second notice of this very remarkable book.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 5: Gachupin is an untranslatable word of Mexican origin. The
Spaniards asserted it to mean a hero on horseback; the Indians and
coloured races, who applied it as a term of contempt and reproach to the
Spaniards and their dependent Creoles, understood by it a thief.]

[Footnote 6: The word Leperos, which, literally translated, means
lepers, is the term applied to the homeless and houseless wretches who
are to be seen wandering by thousands about the city and suburbs of
Mexico. They consist of beggars, mechanics, writers, and even artists.
The most industrious amongst them work one, or at most two, days in the
week, and the dress of these consists of thin trousers, a sort of cloak,
and a straw hat. Their dwelling is in any hole or corner, under the
arcades of the houses, or in the mud cottages of the suburbs. Some of
the work they produce is wonderful for its beauty and ingenuity. They
ma