relos, according to
agreement, on perceiving the signals of Hermenegildo, had directed his
attack upon the town, and so brusquely that the place was carried by a
_coup de main_.

The possession of La Roqueta enabled the insurgent general to intercept
the supplies of the citadel garrison; and shortly after the fortress
itself was compelled to surrender.

This conquest, with which the humble _cura_ had been derisively
entrusted, rendered him master of the whole southern part of Mexico--
from the shores of the Pacific Ocean, almost to the gates of the capital
of New Spain. Twenty-two battles had he gained from that day, when,
accompanied by his two domestics, he rode forth from the village of
Caracuaro to raise in Oajaca the banner of the insurrection. To that
province, after the taking of Acapulco, it was necessary for him to
proceed with his victorious army--in order to assist the insurgents then
besieged in the town of Huajapam. Thither, but some days preceding him,
shall we conduct the reader, in order that we may once more return to
the hero of our predilection.

CHAPTER THIRTY NINE.

THE PLAIN OF HUAJAPAM.

It was a morning of June, just before the commencement of the rainy
season--at that period of the day and year when the tropic sun of
Southern Mexico is least endurable. His fervid rays, striking
perpendicularly downward, had heated like smouldering ashes the dusty
plain of Huajapam, which lay like a vast amphitheatre surrounded by
hills--so distant that their blue outlines were almost confounded with
the azure sky above them. On this plain was presented a tableau of
sadness and desolation, such as the destructive genius of man often
composes with demoniac skill.

On one side, as far as the eye could reach, horsemen could be seen
hurrying about the plain in the midst of pillaged houses--some of which
had been given to the flames. Under the hoofs of these horses, as they
dashed recklessly to and fro, were crushed rich treasures that had been
sacked from the deserted dwellings, and now lay scattered upon the
ground, tempting only the hand of the thievish camp-follower. The soil,
defiled in every way, presented only a scanty growth of bruised herbage,
upon which the horseman disdained to pasture his steed.

Here and there groups of black vultures told where some dead body of
horse or rider had been abandoned to their voracity; while the _coyotes_
trotted in troops far out from the mountain ridge,