olling onward. Already it resembled the
noise of the loudest thunder, when the mass of dense waters was seen
glistening under the light of the fires, only a few hundred paces
distant from the western wall of the hacienda!

"Oh, sister!" cried Gertrudis, in a voice of despair, "look again! Is
no one in sight? O mercy!"

Marianita still stood by the window, eagerly directing her glance over
the plain, and endeavouring to penetrate the obscure gleam outside the
circle lighted by the glare of the fires.

"No--no one," replied she; and then her tone suddenly changing into one
of terror, she shrieked out--"O mercy! I see two horsemen--yes; they
are horsemen. _Madre de Dios_! they are flying like the wind! Alas!
alas! they will be too late!"

As she spoke, loud shouts were heard from above--from the _azotea_ of
the house--to which Don Mariano and a crowd of servants had ascended.
Other men, mounted on horseback, galloped along the terrace upon which
the house stood, waving long lazoes around their heads, and ready to
fling them out as soon as the two travellers should approach within
reach. The men below were also uttering loud cries, unable to restrain
their voices at the sight of the two horsemen thus desperately
struggling to anticipate the approach of the mass of roaring waters.
Already the flood was rushing forward upon the walls of the hacienda,
approaching like waves of fire under the glare of the flaming beacons.

The sisters within the chamber heard the cries, without seeing those
that gave utterance to them, or knowing aught of the movements that were
being made for rescuing the two horsemen from their perilous position.

"Oh, Gertrudis!" cried Marianita, now leaning out from the window, and
clinging convulsively to one of the iron bars, "come hither and see
them! You can tell whether it be Don Rafael. I do not know him. If it
be he, your voice might encourage him."

"I cannot--I cannot!" replied Gertrudis, in a voice quivering with
emotion. "Oh, sister! I dare not look upon such a spectacle. 'Tis
he--too well my heart tells me it is he--oh, I can only pray for him!"

"They are both mounted on dark-coloured horses. One of them is a little
man. He is in the costume of an arriero. That cannot be Don Rafael!"

"The other? the other?" cried Gertrudis in a low but anxious tone.

"The other," answered Marianita, "is a head taller than the first. He
sits his horse like a centaur. Now I can see hi