they had cleared the _garita_, a word to the bugler, with a note
or two from his trumpet quick succeeding, set them into a gallop; the
white dusty road and clear moonlight making the fastest pace easily
attainable. And he who commanded was in haste, his destination being
that old monastery, of which he had only lately heard, but enough to
make him most eager to reach it before morning. His hopes were high; at
last he was likely to make a _coup_--that capture so much desired, so
long delayed!

For nearly an hour bridles were let loose, and spurs repeatedly plied.
On along the _calzada_ swept the squadron, over the bridge Churubusco,
and past the _hacienda_ of San Antonio de Abad, which gives its name to
the city gate on that side. Thenceforward the Pedregal impinges on the
road, and the Hussars still going at a gallop along its edge, another
bugle-call brought them to a halt.

That, however, had naught to do with their halting, which came from
their commander having reached the spot where he had left the hunchback
in charge of the two soldiers.

He need not hail them to assure himself they were still there. The
trampling of horses on the hard causeway, heard afar off, had long ago
forewarned the corporal of what was coming; and he was out on the road
to receive them, standing in an attitude of attention.

The parley was brief, and quick the action which accompanied it.

"Into your saddle, _cabo_!" commanded the colonel. "Take that curiosity
up behind you, and bring it along."

In an instant the corporal was mounted, the "curiosity" hoisted up to
his croup by Perico, who then sprang to the back of his own horse. Once
more the bugle gave tongue, and away they went again.

The cavalcade made no stop in San Augustin. There was no object for
halting it there, and delay was the thing its commander most desired to
avoid. As they went clattering through the _pueblo_, its people were
a-bed, seemingly asleep. But not all. Two at least were awake, and
heard that unusual noise--listened to it with a trembling in their
frames and fear in their hearts. Two ladies they were, inside a house
beyond the village, on the road running south. Too well they knew what
it meant, and whither the galloping cohort was bound. And themselves
unseen, they saw who was at the head; though they needed not seeing him
to know. But peering through the _jalousies_, the moonlight revealed to
them the face of Don Carlos Santander, in the