---

It had got to be noon, with the sun at fire heat; but for all the
_forzados_ were kept on at work. No rest for them until the task should
be completed, and they taken back to their prison quarters at a late
hour of the afternoon. The cruel gaoler told them so in a jeering way.
He seemed to take a pleasure in making things disagreeable to them, as
he strutted to and fro along their line, flourishing his _quirt_, and
giving grand exhibition of his "brief authority."

A little after midday, however, there came a change in their favour,
brought by unlooked-for circumstances. Groups of people began to gather
in the Calle de Plateros, swarming into it from side streets, and taking
stand upon the foot-walk. Soon they lined it all along as far as the
eye could reach. Not _pelados_, but most of them belonging to a class
respectable, attired in their holiday clothes, as on a _dia de fiesta_.
Something of this it was, as the scavengers were presently told, though
some of them may have had word of it before without feeling any concern
about it. Two, however, whom it did concern--though little dreamt they
of its doing so--were only made aware of what the crowd was collecting
for, when it began to thicken. These were Kearney and Rivas, who,
knowing the language of the country, could make out from what was being
said around them that there was to be a _funcion_. The foundation-stone
of a new church was to be laid in the suburb of San Cosme the chief
magistrate of the State himself to lay it--with all ceremony and a
silver trowel. The procession, formed in the Plaza Grande, would, of
course, pass through the Calle de Plateros; hence the throng of the
people in that street.

_Funcions_ and _fiestas_ are of such frequent occurrence in the Mexican
metropolis--as indeed everywhere else in that land of the _far niente_--
that this, an ordinary one and not much announced, excited no particular
interest, save in the suburb of San Cosme itself--a quarter where a
church might be much needed, being a very den of disreputables. Still,
a large number of people had put on their best apparel, and sallied
forth to witness the procession.

This did not delay long in showing itself. It came heralded by the
stirring notes of a trumpet, then the booming of the big drum in a band
of music--military. A troop of cavalry--Lancers--formed the advance, to
clear the way for what was to follow; this being a couple of carriages,
in which were