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ound, and still more difficult perhaps to have believed that he was the _ci-devant_ "cura" of Caracuaro, Don Jose Maria Morelos y Pavon. And yet it was he. Yes, the humble curate had raised the standard of independence in the southern provinces; had long been carrying it with success; and at this moment he was commander-in-chief of the insurgent forces besieging Acapulco--that very town he had been ironically empowered to take. But notwithstanding the eccentric changes which civil war produces in the situations of men, the reader cannot be otherwise than greatly astonished when told, that the gentleman who stood in front of Morelos, encased in the somewhat elegant uniform of a lieutenant of cavalry, was the _ci-devant_ student of theology--Don Cornelio Lantejas. By what magical interference had the timid student of theology been transformed into an officer of dragoons--in the army of the insurgents, too, towards whose cause he had shown himself but indifferently affected? To explain this unexpected metamorphosis, it will be necessary to enter into some details, continuing the history of the student from the time when we left him on a fevered couch in the hacienda of Las Palmas, till that hour when we find him in the marquee of the insurgent general. It may be stated, in advance, however, that the extraordinary transformation which we have noticed, was entirely owing to a new act of parsimonious economy upon the part of Don Cornelio's father, conducting him into a series of perilous mishaps and desperate dangers, to which his adventure with the jaguars and rattlesnakes, while suspended between the two tamarinds, was nothing more, according to the simile of Sancho Panza, than "_tortus y pan pintado_" (couleur de rose). To proceed, then, with the promised details. On recovering from his temporary illness, the student travelled on to the dwelling of his uncle. He had been mounted in a more becoming manner, on a fine young horse, which Don Mariano--who owned some thousands of the like--had presented to him. Having sounded the dispositions of the uncle, according to instructions, he made all haste in returning to his father's house; which he reached in less than half the time he had employed upon his previous journey. Too soon, perhaps; for, had he been delayed, as before, two months upon the route, he might have escaped the series of frightful perils through which he was afterwards compelled to pass. Befo
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