masked from the road by an orchard, and behind it a
similar growth of fruit trees seemed intended to intercept the keen
blasts from a line of mountains which rose, grey and gloomy, at the
distance of a few miles.

"Who lives yonder?" abruptly enquired Merino, pointing to the house,
which he had been gazing at for some time from under his bushy
eyebrows. The officer to whom the question was addressed referred to
another of the party, a native of that part of the country.

"Senor de Herrera," was the answer. "We have been riding for some
minutes through his property. He purchased the estate about a year
ago, on his return from France."

"What had he been doing in France?"

"Living there, which he could not have done here unless he had been
bullet-proof, or had a neck harder than the iron collar of the
garrote."

"Herrera!" repeated the cura musingly--"I know the name, but there are
many who bear it. There was a Manuel Herrera who sat in the Cortes in
the days of the constitutionalists, and afterwards commanded a
battalion of their rabble. You do not mean him?"

"The same, general," replied the officer, addressing Merino by the
rank which he held in the Spanish army since the war of Independence.
A most unpriestly ejaculation escaped the lips of the cura.

"Manuel Herrera," he repeated; "the dog, the _negro_,[1] the friend of
the scoundrel Riego! I will hang him up at his own door!"

All the old hatreds and bitter party animosities of Merino seemed
wakened into new life by the name of one of his former opponents. His
eyes flashed, his lips quivered with rage, and he half turned his
horse, as if about to proceed to Herrera's house and put his threat
into execution. The impulse, however, was checked almost as soon as
felt.

"Another time will do," said he, with a grin smile. "Let us once get
Charles V. at Madrid, and we will make short work of the Senor Herrera
and of all who resemble him." And the cura continued his march, silent
as before.

He had proceeded but a short half mile when the officer commanding the
cavalry rode up beside him.

"We have no forage, general," said he--"not a blade of straw, or a
grain in our corn-sacks. Shall I send on an orderly, that we may find
it ready on reaching the halting-place?"

"No!" replied Merino. "Send a party to that house on the left of the
road which we passed ten minutes ago. Let them press all the carts
they find there, load them with corn, and bring them after u