his departure, a mounted messenger had been dispatched
from Buenos Ayres in the same direction as that he was about to follow;
and the city was scarcely out of sight when Quiroga manifested the most
feverish anxiety to overtake this man. His travelling companions were his
secretary, Dr. Ortiz, and a young man of his acquaintance, bound for
Cordova, to whom he had given a seat in his vehicle. The postilions were
incessantly admonished to make haste. At a shallow stream which they
forded, in the mud of which the wheels became imbedded, resisting every
effort for their release, Quiroga actually hooked the postmaster of the
district, who had hastened to the spot, to the carriage, and made him join
his exertions to those of the horses until the vehicle was extricated,
when he sped onward with fearful velocity, asking at every post-station,
"When did the _chasqui_ from Buenos Ayres pass? An hour ago! Forward,
then!" and the carriage swept onward, on unceasingly, across the lonely
Pampa,--racing, as it afterwards proved, with Death.

At last, Cordova, nearly six hundred miles from his starting-point, was
reached, just one hour after the arrival of the hunted courier. Quiroga
was besought by the cringing magistracy to spend the night in their city.
His only answer was, "Give me horses!" and two hours before midnight he
rolled out of Cordova, having _beaten_ in the grisly race.

Beaten, inasmuch as he was yet alive. For Cordova was ringing with the
details of his intended assassination. Such and such men were to have done
the deed; at such a shop the pistol had been bought; at such a spot it was
to have been fired;--but the marvellous swiftness of the intended victim
had ruined all.

Meanwhile, Quiroga sped onward more at ease toward Tucuman. Arrived there,
he speedily arranged the matters in dispute, and was entreated by the
governors of that province and of Santiago to accept of an escort on his
return; he was besought to avoid Cordova, to avoid Buenos Ayres; he was
counselled to throw off the mask of subservience, and to rally his
numerous adherents in La Rioja and San Juan;--but remonstrance and advice
were alike thrown away upon him. In vain was the most circumstantial
account of the preparations for his murder sent by friends from Cordova;
he appeared as foolhardy now in February as in December he had been panic-
stricken. "To Cordova!" he shouted, as he entered his _galera_; and for
Cordova the postilions steered.

At