m, "Quare fremuerunt gentes?"

Such was the appearance which the plain of Huajapam presented on the
morning in question: houses smoking and in ruins--dead bodies scattered
over the ground--vultures wheeling above--the royalist banner face to
face with the banner of the insurrection.

We shall first enter the camp of the besiegers, where the Brigadier
Bonavia, governor of Oajaca, held command--assisted by the Spanish
generals, Caldelas and Regules.

At an early hour of the morning two dragoons, who had been scouring the
distant plain, were seen returning to the lines of the encampment,
conducting with them a third horseman, evidently a stranger to the camp.
This was on the side, opposite to that on which lay the town of
Huajapam. The horseman, guided by these dragoons, was costumed as a
vaquero--that is, he wore a jacket and wide calzoneros of brick-coloured
deerskin, with a huge sombrero of black glaze on his head, and a
speckled blanket folded over the croup of his saddle. He had already
reported himself to the dragoons as the bearer of a message to the
colonel--Don Rafael Tres-Villas. Furthermore, in addition to the horse
on which he rode, he was leading another--a noble steed of a bay-brown
colour.

This animal, startled at the sight and smell of the dead bodies among
which they were passing, gave out from time to time a snorting of a
peculiar character, which had drawn the attention of the dragoons.

These, after conducting the vaquero through a portion of the camp,
halted in front of one of the largest tents. There a groom was saddling
another steed, in strength and beauty but little inferior to that led by
the vaquero. It was the war-horse of Colonel Tres-Villas, of whom the
groom in question was the _assistente_.

"What is your name, _amigo_?" demanded the latter, addressing himself to
the vaquero.

"Julian," replied the stranger. "I am one of the servitors of the
hacienda Del Valle. Colonel Tres-Villas is its proprietor, and I have a
message for him of great importance."

"Very well," responded the other, "I shall tell the Colonel you are
here."

So saying, the _assistente_ entered the tent.

On that day the besieging army was about to make the fifteenth attack
upon the town, defended by Colonel Trujano, and Don Rafael was dressing
himself in full uniform to assist at the council of war, called together
to deliberate on the plan of assault.

At the word "messenger" pronounced by his military