ve gone
to hell itself. Guanaxato had received us on our advance with open arms;
fourteen hundred Gachupins had fallen at the storming of the Alhondega.
After that, its fate was no longer doubtful. But I had not expected any
thing so bad as I found.

"Allende had ordered me to use haste, and I obeyed his orders. On the
second day after leaving him, we rode into Burras, four leagues from
Guanaxato. A solitary Zamba showed herself like a spectre at the door of
the venta. She was the first human being we had seen during our two days'
march, and the only one in the whole village.

"'All is quiet, senores,' said she in a hollow shuddering tone, pointing
with her meagre hand towards the neighbouring _canada_, or gully. I looked
into it. Holy God! it was blood red; filled with a crimson slime. It was
running with gore.

"'For three days past,' grinned the Zamba, 'it runs thus.'

"I threw away the glass of aguardiente she had brought me, for it smelled
of blood. Thousands, hundreds of thousands of gallinazos, coyotes, and
zepilots, were arriving from all quarters, and prowling, running, and
flying in the direction of the unfortunate town.

"It was a cool November morning on which we approached Guanaxato; the air
was clear and transparent, the heavens were a bright blue; over the canada
there floated a cloud of light greyish vapour that extended a full league;
here and there, this vapour seemed to assume a reddish tinge, and then a
steam like the smoke of burning sulphur gave such a look of chaos to the
atmosphere, that it seemed as if the devils of all the seventeen hells had
been roasting beneath. Now and then a flame flickered out of the vapour;
it was a foul and revolting spectacle.

"It was over the suburb of Guanaxato, Marfil by name, and over Guanaxato
itself, the rich city of 60,000 inhabitants, that this long bank of
exhalation hung like a pall. What the place resembled when we entered it,
I can hardly say, for Calleja had been there, and had sat in judgment on
the devoted town. In city and suburb, in the mines and founderies, all was
hushed; not a blow of a hammer was heard, not a wheel was turning; no
footsteps nor voice broke the unnatural stillness. We entered the suburb,
and the signs of the festival of blood began to multiply themselves; dead
bodies became more plentiful; here and there the canada was choked up with
them; while, in other places, broken baggage waggons, dead mules and
horses, were lying in pi