iego, which we shall reach in an hour.
Your mule has taken that direction; and I shall have her caught for you
by the _vaqueros_ of the hacienda. You will need a day or two of
repose, which you can there obtain. Afterwards you can resume your
route. Where were you going?"

"To Valladolid," replied Lantejas. "I was on my way to the University,
to enter into holy orders."

"Indeed! then we are of the same robe," rejoined the horseman with a
smile. "I myself am the unworthy curate of Caracuaro--Don Jose Maria
Morelos--a name, I presume, you have never heard before."

In truth the afterwards illustrious Morelos was at this time entirely
unknown to fame, and of course Don Cornelio had never heard his name.

The student was no little astonished at the appearance of the man who
had thus announced himself as the _cura_ of Caracuaro. For one of the
clerical calling his costume was altogether singular--to say nothing of
its being rather shabby. A double-barrelled gun, with one barrel
broken, hung from his saddle-bow, and an old rusty sabre in a common
leathern scabbard dangled against his horse's side.

The two domestics were still more plainly attired; and each carried in
his hand a huge brass blunderbuss!

"And you, Senor padre?" inquired the student in turn. "Where are you
going, may I ask?"

"I? Well," replied the _cura_, smiling as he spoke, "just as I have
told you--to the hacienda of San Diego. After that to Acapulco--to
capture the town and citadel in obedience to an order I have received."

Such were at this time the equipment and warlike resources of the
general, whose name afterwards obtained such heroic renown!

His response caused the candidate for holy orders to open his eyes to
the widest. He fancied that in the confusion of his head he had not
clearly comprehended the meaning of the _cura's_ speech; and he
preferred this fancy to the alternative of supposing that the worthy
priest of Caracuaro was himself suffering from mental aberration.

"What! you an insurgent?" inquired Lantejas, not without some
apprehension.

"Very true. I am, and have been for a long time."

As neither upon the head of the _cura_, nor yet of his two servants,
there appeared those diabolical ornaments which had been promised them
by the Lord Bishop of Oajaca, Don Cornelio began to think that perhaps
all insurgents were not delivered over to the devil; and, as there was
no alternative, he accepted the offer made to h