AN ENIGMA.
After riding several miles farther, he arrived at a small village, situated in the same plain through which he had been journeying. There, as all along the route, he found the houses deserted and abandoned by their owners! Not a soul was to be seen--no one to offer him hospitality; and as nothing could be found in the empty houses--neither food to satisfy his hunger, nor water to quench his thirst--the traveller was compelled to ride on without halting. "_Cosa estrana_!"
muttered he to himself, "what on earth can be the meaning of this complete depopulation?"
In addition to the desertion of the houses, another odd circ.u.mstance had struck his attention. Almost at every hut which he pa.s.sed, he saw canoes and _periaguas_ suspended from the branches of the trees, and raised many feet above the ground! In a part of the country where there is neither lake nor river--not so much as the tiniest stream--no wonder the sight astonished our traveller, considering that he was a stranger to the district, and had not yet encountered a single individual who might explain the ludicrous phenomenon.
Just as he was pondering over an explanation of these singularities, a sound fell upon his ear, that produced within him a feeling of joy. It was the hoof-stroke of a horse, breaking upon the profound solitude. It came from behind him; and betokened that some horseman was approaching in his rear, though still invisible on account of a turning in the road, which the young traveller had just doubled.
In a few seconds" time the horseman appeared in sight; and galloping freely forward, soon came side by side with our traveller.
"_Santos Dios_!" saluted the new-comer, at the same time raising his hand to his hat.
"_Santos Dios_!" responded the young man, with a similar gesture.
The meeting of two travellers in the midst of a profound solitude is always an event, which leads to their regarding one another with a certain degree of curiosity; and such occurred in the present instance.
He who had just arrived was also a young man--apparently of twenty-four or twenty-five years; and this conformity of age was the only point in which the two travellers resembled each other. The new-comer was somewhat above medium stature, with a figure combining both elegance and strength. His features were regular and well defined; his eyes black and brilliant; his moustache thick and curving, and his complexion deeply embrowned with the sun. All these circ.u.mstances tended to show that he was a man of action; while a certain air of energy and command bespoke fiery pa.s.sions, and the hot Arabian blood, which flows in the veins of many Spanish-Mexican families.
His horse was a bay-brown, whose slender limbs and sinewy form declared him also to be descended from an oriental race. The ease with which his rider managed him, and his firm graceful seat in the saddle, betokened a horseman of the first quality.
His costume was both costly and elegant. A vest of unbleached cambric suited well the heat of the climate. His limbs were covered with _calzoneros_ of silk velvet of a bright purple colour; while boots of buff leather, armed with long glancing spurs, encased his feet. A hat of _vicuna_ cloth, with its tr.i.m.m.i.n.g of gold lace, completed a costume half-military, half-civilian. To strengthen its military character a rapier in a leathern sheath hung from his waist-belt, and a carbine, suspended in front, rested against the pommel of his saddle.
"_Puez, amigo_!" said the newly-arrived horseman, after a pause, and glancing significantly at the back of the traveller. "May I ask if you have far to go upon that horse?"
"No, thank goodness!" replied the other; "only to the hacienda of San Salvador; which, if I"m not mistaken, is scarce six leagues distant."
"San Salvador? I think I"ve heard the name. Is it not near to an estate called hacienda of Las Palmas?"
"Within two leagues of it, I believe."
"Ah! then we are following the same route," said he in the laced cap; "I fear, however," he continued, checking the ardour of his steed, "that there will soon be some distance between us. Your horse does not appear to be in any particular hurry?"
The last speech was accompanied by a significant smile.
"It is quite true," rejoined the other, also smiling, as he spoke; "and more than once upon my journey I have had reason to blame the mistaken economy of my good father, who, instead of letting me have a proper roadster, has munificently furnished me with a steed that has escaped from the horns of all the bulls of the Valladolid Circus; the consequence of which is, that the poor beast cannot see even a cow on the distant horizon without taking to his heels in the opposite direction."
"_Carrambo_! and do you mean to say you have come all the way from Valladolid on that sorry hack?"
"Indeed, yes, Senor--only I have been two months on the way."
Just then the Rosinante of the circus, roused by the presence of the other horse, appeared to pique himself on a point of honour, and made an effort to keep up with his new companion. Thanks to the courtesy of the moustached cavalier, who continued to restrain the ardour of his fine steed, the two horses kept abreast, and the travellers were left free to continue the conversation.
"You have been courteous enough," said the stranger, "to inform me that you are from Valladolid. In return, let me tell you that I am from Mexico, and that my name is Rafael Tres-Villas, captain in the Queen"s dragoons."
"And mine," rejoined the young traveller, "is Cornelio Lantejas, student in the University of Valladolid."
"Well, Senor Don Cornelio, can you give me the solution of an enigma which has puzzled me for two days, and which I have been unable to ask any one else, for the reason that I have not met with a soul since I entered this accursed country. How do you explain this complete solitude--the houses, and villages without inhabitant, and skiffs and canoes suspended from the trees in a district where you may go ten leagues without finding a drop of water?"
"I cannot explain it at all, Senor Don Rafael," replied the student; "it has equally astonished myself; and more than that--has caused me most horrible fear."
"Fear!" echoed the captain of dragoons; "of what?"
"The truth is, Senor Capitan, I have a bad habit of being more afraid of dangers which I cannot comprehend, than those which I know. I fear that the insurrection has gained this province--though I was told to the contrary--and that the State of Oajaca was perfectly tranquil. Like enough the people have abandoned their dwellings to avoid falling into the hands of some party of insurgents that may be scouring the country?"
"Bah!" exclaimed the dragoon, with a contemptuous toss of his head.
"Poor devils like them are not in the habit of fleeing from marauders.
Besides, the country-people have nothing to fear from those who follow the banner of the insurrection. In any case, it was not for sailing through these sandy plains that the canoes and _periaguas_ have been hung up to the trees? There"s some other cause, than the panic of the insurrection, that has breathed a spirit of vertigo into the people here; though, for the life of me, I can"t guess what it is."
For a while the two travellers continued their journey in silence--each absorbed in speculating upon the singular mystery that surrounded them, and of which neither could give an explanation.
CHAPTER FOUR.
THE HUNGRY TRAVELLERS.
The dragoon was the first to resume the conversation.
"You, Senor Don Cornelio," said he, "you who have come from Valladolid, perhaps you can give me some later news, than I have received about the march of Hidalgo and his army?"
"Not any, I fear," replied the student; "you forget, Senor, that, thanks to the slow pace of my old horse, I have been two months on the route?
When I left Valladolid, n.o.body had any more thought of an insurrection than of a new deluge. All I know of it is what I have heard from public rumour--that is, so much as could be divulged without fear of the Holy Inquisition. If, moreover, we are to believe the mandate of the Lord Bishop of Oajaca, the insurrection will not find many supporters in his diocese."
"And for what reason?" asked the captain of dragoons, with a certain hauteur, which proved, without committing himself to any disclosure of his political opinions, that the insurgent cause would not find an enemy in him. "What reason does the bishop a.s.sign?"
"What reason?" replied the student. "Simply because my Lord Bishop Bergosa y Jordan will excommunicate them. He affirms, moreover, that every insurgent will be recognisable by his horns and cloven hoofs, which before long they will all have from the hands of the devil!"
Instead of smiling at the childish credulity of the young student, the dragoon shook his head with an air of discontent, while the hairs of his black moustachios curled with indignation.
"Yes," said he, as if speaking to himself, "thus is it that our priests fight with the weapons of calumny and falsehood, perverting the minds of the Creoles with fanatical superst.i.tion! So, Senor Lantejas," he continued in a louder tone, addressing himself to the student, "you are afraid to enrol yourself in the ranks of the insurgents, lest you might obtain these diabolical ornaments promised by the bishop?"
"Heaven preserve me from doing such a thing!" replied the student. "Is it not an article of faith? And who should know better than the respectable Lord Bishop of Oajaca? Besides," continued he, hastening his explanation, as he saw the angry flash of his companion"s eye, "I am altogether of a peaceable disposition, and about to enter into holy orders. Whatever party I might take, it would be with prayer alone I should seek to make it triumph. The Church has a horror of blood."
While the student was thus delivering himself, the dragoon regarded him with a side glance; which seemed to say: that it mattered little which side he might take, as neither would be much benefited by such a sorry champion.
"Is it for the purpose of pa.s.sing your thesis that you have come to Oajaca?"
"No," replied Lantejas, "my errand into this country is altogether different. I am here in obedience to the commands of my father, whose brother is the proprietor of the rich estate of San Salvador. I am to remind my uncle that he is a widower--rich--and without children; and that he has half-a-dozen nephews to provide for. That is my business at San Salvador. What can I do? My honoured father is more attached to the good things of this life than is perhaps right; and I have been obliged to make this journey of two hundred leagues, for the purpose of sounding our relative"s disposition in regard to us."
"And ascertaining the value of his property as well?"
"Oh! as to that, we know exactly how much it is worth; though none of us has ever been on the estate."
This answer of the young student did more honour to his heart than to his discretion.
"Well," continued he, after a pause, "I may safely say, that never did nephew present himself before an uncle in a more famished condition than I shall do. Thanks to the inexplicable desertion of all the houses and villages through which I have pa.s.sed--and the care which their owners have taken to carry with them even the leanest chicken--there is not a jackal in the country hungrier than I at this minute."
The dragoon was in pretty much the same case. For two days he had been travelling without seeing a soul, and though his horse had picked up a little forage along the road, he had been unable to obtain food for himself--other than such wild fruits and berries as he could gather by the way.