oming forward,
asked Gaspacho, in a tone of indifference, what had taken him out at
that hour of the night.

"Well!" exclaimed the cloak-robber in reply. "They say that the
mistress of the hacienda has escaped by a window. Her husband says she
is absent. I don't care whether it's true or not. All I know is, that
we can see nothing of her without; and we should have returned
empty-handed, if good fortune hadn't thrown into our hands this
gentleman here. I have no doubt he is a royalist spy, since he wanted
to pass himself off for our old comrade--the Lieutenant Lantejas."

"Ah!" rejoined the other, "he would ill like to be Lantejas just now."

And as the man said this he returned to the fire, which he had for the
moment forsaken.

The captors of Don Cornelio were soon lost amidst the groups of their
associates--Gaspacho alone staying to guard him.

Only a few seconds did the cloak-robber remain in the courtyard; after
which, making a sign to his prisoner to follow him, he commenced
reascending the stone _escalera_ that led to the second storey of the
building.

CHAPTER SIXTY SEVEN.

THE COLONEL OF COLONELS.

The day upon which these various events took place was anything but a
happy one for Arroyo. It appeared to him as if the re-appearance in the
neighbourhood of his deadliest foe--Don Rafael Tres-Villas--had been the
signal for the series of disappointments which had occurred to him. Ten
of his followers had fallen in a sortie of the besieged, besides two
more killed by the hand of Don Rafael--who had himself escaped, as well
as the prisoner Gaspar and the deserter Juan el Zapote.

The bloodthirsty disposition of the guerilla chief had been strengthened
by these disappointments, and in order to give solace to his vexed
spirit, he resolved to possess himself of the hacienda of San Carlos
without further delay.

In addition to the wicked desires--which the promptings of Bocardo had
excited within him--there was another reason urging him to carry out
this design. The hacienda of San Carlos, with a little labour, could be
converted into a fortress of considerable strength, and such as he might
yet stand in need of.

He saw that he had miscalculated the power of resistance of the royalist
garrison of Del Valle; and, still ignorant of its real strength, he
deemed it better to call off the besieging force until after the taking
of San Carlos. Then he could go back with his whole band, and make a
de