The Tiger Hunter Part 30

And without awaiting a reply from any one, the Marshal took the cigar from his lips, and held the burning end of it to the fuse of one of the rockets.

The piece of hemp became kindled at the touch, and the moment after the rocket rose hissing into the air, and described a circle of vivid red against the grey background of the sky. A second rocket was sent up, which traced an ellipse of white light; and then a third, whose reflection was a brilliant green.

"Red, white, and green!" cried Galeana, "our national colour. It is the signal I agreed upon with our General, to announce to him the capture of the isle. Our comrades in the Mexican camp have by this time seen the signal. They believe we have triumphed, and we must not deceive them.

Forward to victory!"

On issuing the command, Galeana bounded lightly forward and placed himself at the head of his men; and the whole troop, guided by Costal, advanced at a rapid pace towards the enemy.

As they approached the fort, cries of distress were heard in that direction, which at first filled the a.s.sailants with surprise. The cause, however, was soon apparent. The cries came not from the fort, but from the schooner, which was now seen through an opening between the trees struggling against the storm, and fast drifting among breakers! A row of jagged rocks stretched along to leeward; and from driving upon these rocks, the sailors aboard of her were vainly endeavouring to restrain the ill-fated vessel.

The latter, during the violence of the wind, had dragged her anchors, and was now fast hastening to destruction.

"_Jesus Maria_!" exclaimed Galeana at the sight. "Comrades, what a pity! She will undoubtedly be lost, and I had counted upon this magnificent bounty. _Carrambo_! we shall get nothing but a wreck."

The dangerous situation of the schooner was of course known in the fort, where it had already created considerable confusion. This was now changed into consternation by the approach of the insurgents; and the wild war-cry of Galeana, as he sprang forward to the walls, echoed by his followers, and accompanied as it was by loud peals of thunder, produced something like a panic among the ranks of the Spanish garrison.

So sudden was the attack, and so completely unexpected, that it could scarcely fail of success; and indeed, after a short hand-to-hand combat, one portion of the garrison fled, while the other surrendered without conditions to the triumphant Galeana.

Scarcely had the last shot been fired, and the fort delivered up to the victors, when the schooner, striking violently upon a sharp reef, leant over to one side, and, like a steed gored by the horns of the bull, the sides of the vessel were opened, and she began to sink among the foaming waves. The victors on sh.o.r.e thought no more of enemies, but now bent all their energies towards saving the unfortunate mariners, whose lives were thus placed in peril. By means of lazoes flung from the beach, most of the latter were rescued from the death that threatened them.

The sun soon after cast his yellow beams over the agitated bosom of the ocean, but his rising had no effect in calming the tempest. The storm continued to rage as furiously as ever.

Just as the last of the s.h.i.+pwrecked sailors had been got safely on sh.o.r.e, a flag running up to the signal-staff of the fort announced that a new sail was seen in the offing. In a few minutes after a vessel was perceived in the roadstead of the bay, struggling against the storm, and endeavouring to stand outward to sea.

This intention the adverse winds seemed trying to prevent; and driven by these out of her course, the strange s.h.i.+p pa.s.sed so near the isle of Roqueta that those in the fort could see the people on board, and even distinguish the uniforms and faces of the officers upon the quarterdeck.

It was evident that the vessel thus coasting past Acapulco was a man-of-war; and the uniforms of the officers aboard of her could plainly be distinguished as that of the Spanish navy. One was dressed somewhat differently from the rest. His costume was military, not naval. It was that of an officer of dragoons. Costal, Clara, and Captain Lantejas were standing on the parapet of the fort, observing the manoeuvres of the strange s.h.i.+p, when the keen eyes of the Indian became fixed on this officer.

He was a man in the full vigour of youth and strength--as was testified by his erect and graceful figure, and by the rich ma.s.ses of dark hair that cl.u.s.tered under his laced cap; but an air of profound melancholy seemed resting upon his features, and it was evident that some secret care was occupying his thoughts far more than the storm or its dangers!

"Do you recognise the officer, yonder?" inquired Costal pointing him out to Clara and Don Cornelio.

"No," replied Lantejas, "I don't remember ever having seen him before."

"He is the same," rejoined Costal, "whom we three formerly knew as a captain of the Queen's dragoons--Don Rafael Tres-Villas. He is now _Colonel_ Tres-Villas."

"_Por Dios_!" interposed a soldier who was standing near, and who had come from the state of Oajaca. "Colonel Tres-Villas! That is he who nailed the head of Antonio Valdez to the gate of his hacienda!"

"The same," a.s.sented Costal.

"_Carrambo_!" cried another soldier, "that is the officer who, after capturing the town of Aguas Calientes, caused the hair to be cropped from the heads of three hundred women who were his prisoners!"

"It is said that he had his reasons for doing so," muttered Costal, in reply.

"Whether or no," said the soldier, "if he comes this way, he'll get punished for it."

Just as the soldier spoke, the s.h.i.+p became enveloped in a ma.s.s of fog-- at that moment spreading over the water--and was lost to the view of the people on the isle. When she became visible again, it was seen that she was standing out to sea. By a favourable turn which the wind had taken, she was enabled to gain the offing, and was soon receding from view upon the distant horizon.

Costal was correct in his identification. The officer thus accidentally seen, and who was a pa.s.senger on board the man-of-war, was indeed Don Rafael Tres-Villas, who from one of the northern ports was now on his return to Oajaca, bearing with him to the sh.o.r.es of Tehuantepec a profound and incurable melancholy.

The capture of the isle of La Roqueta was an important step towards the taking of Acapulco. The town itself had fallen into the hands of the insurgents, almost at the same instant; for Morelos, according to agreement, on perceiving the signals of Hermenegildo, had directed his attack upon the town, and so brusquely that the place was carried by a _coup de main_.

The possession of La Roqueta enabled the insurgent general to intercept the supplies of the citadel garrison; and shortly after the fortress itself was compelled to surrender.

This conquest, with which the humble _cura_ had been derisively entrusted, rendered him master of the whole southern part of Mexico-- from the sh.o.r.es of the Pacific Ocean, almost to the gates of the capital of New Spain. Twenty-two battles had he gained from that day, when, accompanied by his two domestics, he rode forth from the village of Caracuaro to raise in Oajaca the banner of the insurrection. To that province, after the taking of Acapulco, it was necessary for him to proceed with his victorious army--in order to a.s.sist the insurgents then besieged in the town of Huaj.a.pam. Thither, but some days preceding him, shall we conduct the reader, in order that we may once more return to the hero of our predilection.

CHAPTER THIRTY NINE.

THE PLAIN OF HUAj.a.pAM.

It was a morning of June, just before the commencement of the rainy season--at that period of the day and year when the tropic sun of Southern Mexico is least endurable. His fervid rays, striking perpendicularly downward, had heated like smouldering ashes the dusty plain of Huaj.a.pam, which lay like a vast amphitheatre surrounded by hills--so distant that their blue outlines were almost confounded with the azure sky above them. On this plain was presented a tableau of sadness and desolation, such as the destructive genius of man often composes with demoniac skill.

On one side, as far as the eye could reach, hors.e.m.e.n could be seen hurrying about the plain in the midst of pillaged houses--some of which had been given to the flames. Under the hoofs of these horses, as they dashed recklessly to and fro, were crushed rich treasures that had been sacked from the deserted dwellings, and now lay scattered upon the ground, tempting only the hand of the thievish camp-follower. The soil, defiled in every way, presented only a scanty growth of bruised herbage, upon which the horseman disdained to pasture his steed.

Here and there groups of black vultures told where some dead body of horse or rider had been abandoned to their voracity; while the _coyotes_ trotted in troops far out from the mountain ridge, going to or returning from their hideous repast.

Looking over the plain in another direction, the standard of Spain could be seen floating over the tents of the royalist camp, whose night-fires still sent up their lines of bluish smoke; while from the same quarter could be heard the neighing of horses, the rolling of drums, and the startling calls of the cavalry bugles.

Farther off in the same direction--above the low, flat-shaped _azoteas_ of a village--could be seen the domes and belfries of several churches, all breached with bombs or riddled with round shot. This village lay at the distance of a few hundred yards from the lines of the royalist camp, and was evidently besieged by the latter. Rude earthworks could be perceived extending between the scattered suburbs, upon which a few pieces of cannon were mounted, and pointing towards the entrenchments of the Spanish encampment. Between the hostile lines the plain was unoccupied, save by the dead bodies of men and horses that lay unburied on the dusty surface of the soil.

The village in question--or town it might rather be called--was the famous Huaj.a.pam, that now for more than three months had been defended by a body of three hundred insurgents against a royalist force of five times their number! The heroic leader of this gallant resistance was Colonel Don Valerio Trujano.

At mention of this name the reader will call to mind the n.o.ble muleteer Trujano, whose firm voice he has heard intoning the _De profundis_ and _In ma.n.u.s_ while struggling against the inundation. Beyond a doubt his religious zeal had inspired the besieged of Huaj.a.pam: for, every now and then, from out the sad and desolate town may be heard the voices of his men, chanting in chorus some sacred song or prayer to the G.o.d of battles!

In that moment when the priests of Huaj.a.pam have left the altar to take part in the defence of their town, there will be observed, neither in their acts nor words, aught to recall their former profession. At such a time Don Valerio Trujano may be said to reproduce one of those ascetic heroes of the old religious wars--great repeaters of _paternosters_, whose blows always fell without mercy, and who marched into battle reciting quotations from Scripture. Perhaps he might be more happily likened to one of the old Templars, careless of personal renown, kneeling to pray in front of the foe, and charging upon the Saracen to the accompaniment of that famous psalm, "Quare fremuerunt gentes?"

Such was the appearance which the plain of Huaj.a.pam 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--a.s.sisted 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 Huaj.a.pam. 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 n.o.ble steed of a bay-brown colour.

This animal, startled at the sight and smell of the dead bodies among which they were pa.s.sing, 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 _a.s.sistente_.

"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 _a.s.sistente_ 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 a.s.sist at the council of war, called together to deliberate on the plan of a.s.sault.