Page:Once a Week Volume 8.djvu/632

624 many an insulting and wrathful gesture, wheeled round and galloped off. In a minute more we saw the reason for this apparently capricious movement in the appearance of a strong body of Mexican lancers, whose gay uniforms of blue and silver, sparkling lance-heads, and flaunting scarlet pennons, caught the eyes of some of our party. The Apachés had evidently no idea of coping with a force so superior in numbers and equipment, and they never turned again, but lashed on, till their fantastic troop vanished in the distance.

‘Heaven be thanked!’ cried several of us by a common impulse, and instantly our martial array broke up, and we prepared to receive the advancing soldiery as friends. But, to our surprise, the lancers came forward at a brisk pace, wheeled, changed their formation from column to squadron, and brought their spears to the charge.

‘Confound the fellows!’ said Lake; ‘what do they take us for? Slingsby, give them a hail. Your Spanish is the most intelligible that we can muster.’

“I called out accordingly, explaining in few words who we were, and claiming the character of friends. But no response was given, save that several officers rode to the front, and that among them, in eager converse with the commandant, was the Indian deserter of the previous night, mounted on the stolen horse.

“Arthur Lake uttered an angry exclamation, and stepped forward.

‘Caramba!’ thundered the Mexican major, ‘keep back, you heretic dogs. Soldiers, arrest the traitors: forward!’

“And before we could close our ranks or make ready our guns, we were rudely charged, ridden down, and trampled under foot. When we scrambled, bruised and hurt, to our feet again, we were disarmed and secured by a number of dismounted troopers, who proceeded very composedly to tie our hands tightly together with scraps of rope or hide, answering our remonstrances with blows and curses. An indignant appeal which I made to the officer in command fared no better. He gruffly informed me that if I did not hold my tongue, I should be gagged; and added that I had better keep my oratory for the ears of my judges. My judges! but I had little time wherein to ponder on the matter, for we were singly placed between two mounted lancers, to whose saddle-bows our wrists were secured with cords, and in this ignominious manner we were half dragged, half driven over the eighteen miles that lay between us and the capital. Although we had been goaded to our utmost speed by the unscrupulous use of the spear-point and spear butt, our progress was necessarily slow, and it was late in the day when we arrived, dusty and exhausted, in Chihuahua.

“The silver was removed to the Governor’s palace; the peons were dismissed, the mules being detained, however, with the curt announcement that the property of the Cerro Azul Company was ‘confiscated for seditious offences.’ We heard this from a warder of the squalid jail into which we had been thrust, and were further informed that a detachment of infantry was about to set off for the sierra, to take possession of the mine and stores on behalf of government. The reason for this arbitrary proceeding we could not guess, nor could the warder—who gave us in pity a little water and fruit, heedfully emptying our pockets, at the same time, of every coin or valuable article they contained—give us any explanation of the crimes of which we were accused. After great importunity, however, we prevailed upon our guards to slacken the cords and thongs which bound us, since they had been drawn cruelly tight, lacerating the skin, and causing much suffering. Just before sunset we were conducted, under a strong guard, to a large whitewashed apartment in the principal barrack, where a drum-head court- martial, composed of seven officers, had assembled to try us. Don’t expect, Tom, that I should give you a detailed account of that most iniquitous mockery of justice. My blood boils when I think of it. We were accused of being mixed up in the recently detected conspiracy of the Mexican Liberal party. The accusation was especially strong against Lake and myself, but the only evidence, if evidence it may be called, seemed to be a rascally lying deposition on the part of our precious chaplain, Father Bartholomew. This had been despatched by his dark-skinned accomplice, the Indian deserter who had stolen Arthur’s horse. It was read aloud in court, and contained a tissue of the most barefaced falsehoods, hardly worth repeating. But we were not allowed to refute these statements. We were condemned beforehand, the manifest object of the authorities being to get possession of the rich mine of Cerro Azul, whose wealth rumour had exaggerated. Without being allowed to speak, we were removed from the court, and only brought back to hear our sentence. This was one worthy of its pronouncers. The mine, and all effects of the Company, were confiscated to the public use, a phrase pretty intelligible to Mexican ears. The subordinate agents and servants of the Company were to be set at liberty. But as some victims were necessary to give a colour to these infamous acts, Lake and I were doomed to—death! Ay, brother, you may start and look surprised—it’s Gospel truth, for all that. We were condemned to be shot within twenty-four hours, a respite granted us that we might be ‘reconciled to the Church,’ if our native obstinacy as ‘burros Ingleses,’ or English asses, a polite phrase of the president, permitted. We were then marched off under escort, ironed, and thrust into a cell. How we passed that night, I well remember. The rage, the stormy indignation, the half-incredulity,, the dull stupefaction of despair. Worn out with bodily fatigue and mental emotions, we slept at. last, upon the damp stone floor.

“Shall I ever forget how the next day dawned, how the light of the last sun we were ever to see, came sadly pouring into the dismal den where we lay in chains! I do not care to dwell on what we felt. Poor Arthur Lake suffered the most. He was a brave lad, but of a sensitive nature, and delicate in mind and body. The sudden, cruel blight to all his sweet hopes of a happy future with his darling Jane, half maddened him. I was obliged to rack my brains to find some consolation for him, but I tried in vain. As for myself, I thanked Heaven that no other heart was linked to mine on that dark day, to suffer with my