marquee, saw
the rocket and conjectured it to be some signal for the garrison on the
isle to the besieged within the fortress. Almost on the instant, this
conjecture was confirmed by another rocket seen rising from the citadel
upon the summit of the cliffs, and in turn tracing its blue line across
the heavens. It was evidently the answer.

For some minutes the General and Galeana remained within the marquee,
endeavouring to conjecture the object of these fiery telegraphs. They
had not succeeded in arriving at any satisfactory conclusion, when the
General's aide-de-camp, Captain Lantejas, entered the tent. His errand
was to announce to the Commander-in-chief that Costal, the scout, had
just arrived in the encampment as the bearer of some important
intelligence.

"Will your Excellency permit him to come in?" requested the Marshal.
"This Indian has always some good idea in his head."

Morelos signified assent, and the next moment the Indian entered the
tent.

"Senor General!" said he, after having received permission to speak, "I
have just been up to the cliff of Los Hornos, and through the grey dawn
I have seen a schooner at anchor by the isle of Roqueta. She must have
arrived during the night: since she was not there yesterday."

"Well, what of it, friend Costal?"

"Why, General, I was just thinking how easy it would be for a party of
us, after it gets dark, to slip up alongside, and take possession of
her. Once masters of that schooner--"

"We could intercept all the supplies destined for the castle,"
impetuously interrupted Galeana; "and then we shall reduce it by famine.
Senor General, it is God who speaks by the mouth of this Indian. Your
Excellency will no longer refuse the permission which I have asked?"

It is true, the danger apprehended was not diminished by the presence of
the schooner; but, overcome by the earnest appeals of the Marshal, and
the prospect of the important results which would certainly arise from
the possession of the vessel, Morelos at length consented to the attempt
being made.

"If I know how to read the clouds," said Costal, whose counsel on this
point was now requested, "I should say, from the way in which the sun is
now rising, we shall have a dark calm day and night--at least, until the
hour of midnight--"

"After midnight?" demanded the Marshal.

"A tempest and a howling sea," replied Costal. "But before that time
the schooner and the isle of Roqueta may be ours."