Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 1.djvu/219

Rh of rushes beside him. This last prisoner is almost the only redeeming point in the picture. He was but a short time ago the chief proprietor of an extensive mine in the north; upon which not only his own wealth, but that of a considerable company had been lavished. Many thousand Mexican dollars had been sunk in forming shafts and working them: but the tract of land, after all, had proved unproductive, and the vast outlay had never realized, beyond a few veins of silver upon the surface, the value of a single rial. Indignant at their losses, and unconscious of the rapidity with which capital either disappears or doubles itself in such speculations, his absent partners turned upon him, as the active agent, and accused him of theft and embezzlement of the funds entrusted; so that, ere he could make arrangements to convince them of their mistake, he found himself confined in the Accordada. And now, possessing an honourable mind, and detesting the scenes of degradation and pollution surrounding him, he is content to weave rushes into baskets, to wile away the time till tardy justice can include him among the subjects of her administration.

But now the attendant has rushed in great