Page:Life in Mexico vol 2.djvu/188



 Gambling — Fête at San Agustin — Breakfast at San Antonio — Report — Cock-fight — Ladies — Private gambling — A vaca — The Calvario — Bonnets — Dinner — Evening ball — Mingling of classes — Copper tables — Dresses and decorations — Indian bankers, male and fenrale — Decorum — Habit — Holders of banks — Female gambler — Robbery — Anecdote — Bet — Casa de Moneda — Leave San Angel — Celebration — Address — Cross and Diploma — Reply — Presentation of a sword — Discourses and addresses — Reflections.

10th June.

year since I last wrote of San Agustin! An entire year has fled swiftly away on rushing pinions, to add its unit to the rolling century. And again, on a bright morning in June, we set off for the hospitable San Antonio, where we were invited to breakfast and to pass the night on the second day of the fête. We found a very brilliant party assembled; the family with all its branches, the Ex-Minister Cuevas, with his handsome sister-in-law. La Güera Rodriguez, with one of her beautiful grand-daughters, (daughter of the Marquis of Ge) now making her first appearance in Mexico, and various other agreeable people. The first day of the fête, a rumor was afloat that an attack was to be made on the banks by the federal party; that they expected to procure the sinews of war to the extent of a million of dollars, and then intended to raise a grito in Mexico, taking