mules and attendants, had at first
witnessed this inhuman hunt with more curiosity than sympathy; but when
the dragoons began to cut and slash among the defenceless Indians, the
scene evidently became painful to him; his eyes flashed, his cheeks
glowed, his features expressed the utmost indignation and anger.

The Indians were caught as in a trap; precipices on the one side, an
implacable and bloodthirsty enemy on the other. Each moment dragoons made
their appearance out of the wood by ones and twos, driving more fugitives
before them. At last, when the latter found themselves pressed together in
one dense body, they made a desperate effort to break through their
enemies and gain the entrance of the barranca. But the dragoons saw their
object, and hastened to frustrate it. Strengthening their ranks on that
side, they completely surrounded the Indians, and commenced an
indiscriminate and barbarous slaughter. The more the victims sought to
escape their persecutors, the more dense became their mass, and the more
fatal the blows of the Spaniards. There were between five and six hundred
of the patriots. On a sudden, and as if by a general impulse, the
unfortunate wretches threw themselves upon their knees, raised their
clasped hands, and, in heart-rending tones, sued for mercy.

"_Cuartel! par el amor de Dios, cuartel!_"

"_Buen viage a los infiernos!_" was the savage reply of the dragoons, and
heads and hands fell in all directions.

"Infernal villains!" exclaimed Don Manuel, overcome by his indignation at
the barbarity of the soldiery. And hardly were the words spoken, when, by
an incontrollable impulse, he raised the pistols he still held in his
hands, and fired them at the dragoons; then hurrying to one of the mules,
he snatched another brace from the holsters attached to the saddle.

"_Por el amor de Dios! Por la santissima madre!_ Think of your mother,
think of the count, of Elvira!" implored Alonzo, throwing his arms round
his young master.

"Stand off!" shouted the youth fiercely; "or by the living God I shoot you
on the spot, sooner than let this inhuman butchery continue."

Pushing the servant violently from him, he sprang forward and discharged
his two other pistols. Two dragoons fell from their saddles.

"Holy virgin!" exclaimed the old serving man, "he will be the ruin of
himself, of his family, of all of us. But it is too late to back out. Take
good aim, Pedro, Cosmo." And the three men fired their carb