nting, led his horse to a tree. He then
commenced groping about, to find some spot where he might in safety
obtain a few hours of repose, after the fatigues he had encountered
during the day.

A few paces further on he perceived a cedrela tree of gigantic
dimensions, and so thickly loaded with leaves that it seemed to promise
a secure hiding-place among its branches. Still apprehensive that his
pursuers might discover his track, Don Rafael resolved to climb the
cedrela, whose dark foliage would screen him from the sharpest eyes. On
approaching the tree, he perceived by the vast circumference of its
trunk that he could not climb up by embracing it. Neither could he
reach to even the lowest of its limbs. A means, however, presented
itself of getting over the difficulty.

An enormous lliana, stretching from among the top branches, reached the
ground in a diagonal direction; and up this Don Rafael was enabled to
make his ascent.

Placing his body between two large boughs, he disposed himself, as best
he could, to pass the remainder of the night, leaving it for the day to
bring him to some further determination.

He commenced reflecting upon the pursuit. He was in hopes that his
pursuers, having lost his track, might separate into small parties of
two or three, in order the more thoroughly to scour the woods. In this
case, he might be able to defeat the whole party, taking them in detail,
and favoured by his own superior courage and strength, in which he felt
the most perfect confidence.

The night had already advanced, and the moon from the high vault of the
starry heavens poured down her floods of light over the spray of the
forest. A few feeble raylets, penetrating through the thick masses of
foliage, reached the retreat where Don Rafael had hidden himself.

He remained for some moments listening attentively. He could hear
nothing--at least no sound that betokened the presence of human beings.
The breeze sighing among the leaves, the distant howl of the coyote, the
sweet note of the mimic night-thrush, or perchance the rustling caused
by the iguana as it scampered over the dead leaves, were the only sounds
that broke the stillness of the night.

The fresh balmy air that he was breathing, the shadow of night that
enwrapped him, the imposing tranquillity that reigned around, all
conspired to beget the desire for repose. He felt his eyelids gradually
grow heavier and heavier; and after a while an invincible