publicans numbered
fifteen thousand already, and more were coming daily, but as yet there
were ragged strands in the noose being woven around the beleaguered
place. Curiously enough, the most feverish to see the cordon perfected
was none other than Don Tiburcio.

"Marquez will escape! Marquez will fly the net!" he kept bewailing. "Si
senor, and the padrecito with him, curse them both!"

Two weeks passed, filled with skirmishes and ominous tests of strength.
At night fiery parabolas blazed their course against the sky, up from
the outer hills, sweeping down on Las Campanas or La Cruz. Imperialist
chiefs urged a general attack, but again Marquez foiled their hopes.
Then, at two o'clock one morning, there came to pass what Tiburcio had
feared. A body of horse stole out upon the plain, and gained the
unguarded Sierra road to Mexico. Four thousand cavalry pursued over the
hills, but in vain. The fugitives were Marquez and the Fifth Lancers,
his escort. He was gone to the capital to raise funds, and to bring back
with him, at once, the Imperialist garrison there of five thousand men.
Doting Maximilian had even named him lieutenant of the Empire, and
Mexico City would shortly have the Leopard for regent. Queretero,
moreover, was seriously weakened by the loss of the Fifth Lancers, and
there were those who remembered how, when Guadalajara was besieged by
Liberals seven years before, Marquez had likewise set out for aid, and
had returned--too late.

To his wrathful disgust, Don Tiburcio learned that Father Fischer was
also gone with Marquez. The priest had disguised himself in an officer's
cloak, and for the moment none in the town knew of his flight. The fat
padre, it appeared, no longer hoped for the luscious bishopric of
Durango. His was the rat's instinct, as regards a sinking ship.

The Leopard and the Rat got away only in time. The very next day ten
thousand ragged Inditos, largely conscripts, arrived from the Valley of
Mexico and filled the gap in the besiegers' line. Investment was now
complete, against a paltry nine thousand within the town.

CHAPTER XIII

A BUCCANEER AND A BATTLE

"The inclination to goodness is imprinted deeply in the nature
of man."
--_Bacon._

But the paltry nine thousand were the best army of Mexicans ever yet
gathered together. For weeks they kept more than thirty thousand
Republicans out of an unwalled, almost an unfor