e has been for nearly a week a run on odd numbers. Now, I
always remark that when there is a run on odds, I always lose in every
thing I put my hand to. Stop, then, General, till the tables turn, and
when I strike a new vein, you shall hear from your servant, Pedro.'

'Of course I waited, expecting to hear the General burst forth in
violent denunciations on his servant, Pedro, or at any rate supposed he
would ridicule such an excuse; but I was deceived.

''Well, Pedro, your excuse is not so bad; had you explained yourself at
the outset, I should not have been so angry.'

'The Mexicans, it may be remarked, are influenced in the most important
and momentous actions of their life, by superstition; this fact is
readily explained, when we reflect that the vast majority of them are
utterly devoid of the very first rudiments of education, and owe the
position they occupy to the fortune of civil war or of the
gambling-table. Except in the mere texture and richness of their
costume, nothing else in that strange country of the grotesque and
picturesque, distinguishes the man of rank from the beggar or the
_lazzaroni_. In every class, in every rank, you meet with the same
simplicity, the same vanity, the same prejudices, the same superstition,
the same purity of language, the same grace of elocution. The beggar,
wrapped in his tatters, displays the self-same exquisite polish of
manners, the same courteous bearing, as the senator or the millionaire,
in velvet and gold. After all, it must be ever remembered that perhaps
the senator was once a beggar, and that ere long the beggar may be a
senator. One or two lucky hits at monte, and in a few, short hours, lo!
the metamorphosis is complete.'

'You can readily believe that the conversation I had thus overheard
interested me greatly; however the promptings of curiosity would have
riveted me to my seat, the dictates of prudence warned me to retire as
quickly and stealthily as possible.

'With a tread as noiseless as practicable, I therefore turned my
footsteps to the main avenue, and keeping an eye always on the spot I
had left, I took another seat near the main entrance. Not much more than
a quarter of an hour could have elapsed, when along the same path I had
myself taken, I saw two men approaching. One of them was a tall and very
handsome man; he flourished in his hand a cane with massive gold head,
and walked with a military air, in fact, with the air of a hero and a
conqueror;