ollections; but these only carried him
as far as the hacienda of San Diego.

"You must be mistaken?" said he. "It is the hacienda of San Diego, is
it not?"

"Oh, no," replied the domestic. "We left San Diego yesterday; we were
no longer safe there. What folly of you, senor, to act as you did! No
matter how good a patriot one may be, it's not necessary to proclaim it
from the housetops."

"I do not comprehend you, my good friend," said Lantejas. "Perhaps it
is the fever that is still troubling my head."

"What I have said is clear enough," rejoined the domestic. "We were
obliged to quit San Diego, where the royalist troops would have arrested
us--on account of the loud declaration of his political opinions made by
a certain Don Cornelio Lantejas."

"Cornelio Lantejas!" cried the student, in a tone of anguish, "why
that's myself!"

"_Por Dios_! I well know that. Your honour took good care everybody
should know your name: since out of the window of the hacienda you
shouted with all your voice--proclaiming my master Generalissimo of all
the insurgent forces; and we had the greatest difficulty to hinder you
from marching upon Madrid."

"Madrid--in Spain?"

"Bah! two hundred leagues of sea was nothing to you to traverse. `_It
is I_!' you cried, `_I, Cornelio Lantejas, who take upon me to strike
down the tyrant_!' In fine, we were obliged to decamp, bringing you
with us in a litter--for my master would not abandon so zealous a
partisan, who had compromised himself, moreover, in the good cause.
Well, we have arrived here at San Luis; where, thanks to a strong body
of men who have joined us, you may have an opportunity of proclaiming
your patriotism as loudly as you please. For yourself, it can do no
further harm, since, no doubt, there is a price placed upon your head
before this time."

The student listened with horror, and completely stupefied, to this
account of his actions.

"And now, cavallero," continued the domestic, "my master, whom you were
the first to proclaim Generalissimo, has not permitted you to go without
your reward. He has appointed you an _alferez_, and named you to be his
aide-de-camp. You will find your commission under the pillow."

Saying this, the servant left the room, leaving the unhappy _alferez_
crushed beneath the weight of the astounding disclosures he had made to
him.

CHAPTER THIRTY.

A SOLDIER AGAINST HIS WILL.

As soon as the man had gone out of the apartmen