Page:Life in Mexico vol 2.djvu/413

Rh for the last time we sat at the hospitable board of these our earliest and latest Mexican friends. We were thankful when it was all over and we had taken leave, and when, accompanied to the inn by Señor Ad and other gentlemen, we found ourselves fairly lodged in the diligence, on a dark and rather cold morning, sad, sleepy and shivering. All Mexico was asleep as we drove out of the gates. The very houses seemed sunk in slumber. So terminated our last Mexican New Year's Day.

When we reached the eminence, from which is the last view of the valley, the first dawn of day was just breaking over the distant city, the white summits of the volcanos were still enveloped in mist, and the lake was veiled by low clouds of vapor, that rose slowly from its surface. And this was our last glimpse of Mexico!

The diligence is now on a new and most fatiguing plan of travelling night and day, after leaving Puebla, so that, starting from Mexico at four o'clock on the morning of the second of January, it arrives in Vera Cruz early on the morning of the fifth, saving a few hours and nearly killing the travellers. The government had granted us escorts for the whole journey, now more than ever necessary. It was five in the afternoon when we reached Puebla, and we set off again by dawn the next morning.

We had just left the gates, and our escort, which had rode forward, was concealed by some rising ground, when, by the faint light, we perceived some half dozen mounted cavaliers making stealthily up to us across the fields. Their approach was first