who had a manly heart wrapped up in a forbidding exterior.
But it was a delicate undertaking even for a vice-king to attempt to
wrest a rich estate out of the clutches of the "Holy Office" without
himself being suspected of heresy, or of disloyalty to the Church. Yet
Ravillagigedo was never at a loss for expedients when justice was to be
done or the oppressed relieved. The best advice, however, that he could
give the old man was to hide himself again, and to send his daughters
to Mexico to accuse the monk.

Upon a set day, the vice-king was found arrayed in state, surrounded by
a council of Inquisitors, before whom the daughters, in the deepest
mourning, presented themselves as the accusers of the profligate monk.
They stated, with an artless simplicity which could not fail to
convince, the story of the wrongs the monk had done them. The
Inquisitors, sitting in the presence of the incorruptible Virey, could
not, for very shame, do otherwise than declare unanimously that the
monk, and not the old man, was worthy of the censure of the Church.

"Then let us wipe away the stain that rests upon the fair fame of these
ladies as daughters of one dying suspected, by decreeing their father's
innocence," said the Virey.

This being assented to, the record of the old man's innocence was made
up, and, when duly attested by the Inquisitors, was handed to the
daughters. A door was at this moment opened, and there entered into the
august presence a gray-headed old man, to whom the daughters presented
the record. The old man, when he had received the record, advanced,
and, bowing humbly, made confession of his fault. It was a bitter pill
for the "Holy Office" thus to be tricked into the performance of a
common act of justice, and in this way to lose a valuable estate. From
this time onward, it is said that Inquisitors were never known to hold
court with a Virey.

ASCENT OF POPOCATAPETL.

At Atlizco horses must be procured for the journey up the mountain, for
beyond this point there is no carriage-road. I here follow the verbal
narrative of Mr. Frank Kellott, the artist of whom I have already made
mention, as I dared not venture where bleeding of the lungs is produced
by the rarity of the atmosphere and by the fatigue.

"The company consisted of Mr. Corchado, the proprietor, Mr. Munez, a
neighboring gentleman, three ladies, and myself, all on horseback.
Sixteen Indians had been sent forward on foot early in the morning,
with al