The Bandolero Part 9

They were true highwaymen--_salteadores del camino grande_--each mounted on his own horse, and armed with carbine, pistol, lance, or long sword!

They were dressed in various fashions; but generally in the picturesque _ranchero_ costume of _jaqueta, calzoneros_, and broad-brimmed high-crowned hats; booted, spurred, sashed, laced, and ta.s.sel led.

On the shoulders of some might be seen the _serape_; while not a few were draped with the magnificent _manga_.

On joining us they were a hundred and twenty strong, with recognised officers--a captain and a couple of "tenientes," with the usual number of "sarjentes" and "cabos."

So close was their resemblance to the _guerilleros_ of the enemy, that, to prevent our men from shooting them by mistake, they had been compelled to adopt a distinguishing badge.

It consisted of a strip of scarlet stuff, worn, bandlike, round their sombreros--with the loose ends dangling down to the shoulder.

The symbol naturally led to a name. They were known to our soldiers as the "Red Hats"--the phrase not unfrequently coupled with a rude adjunctive.

Outlawed in their own land--now a.s.sociated with its invaders--it is scarce necessary to say that the Red Hats were an object of terror wherever they had a chance of showing their not very cheerful faces.

And in no place more than La Puebla; that had given birth to at least one-half of them, and to all of them, at one time or another, shelter within its gaols!

Now returned to it under the _aegis_ of the American eagle, there was a fine opportunity for the Red Hats to settle old scores with _alcaldes, reyidores_, and the like; and they were not backward in availing themselves of it.

The consequence was, that the Poblanos soon laid aside their bullying tone; and were only too well pleased when allowed to pa.s.s tranquilly through their own streets.

I was one among many other officers of the American army who felt disgust at this a.s.sociation with _salteadores_--solely an idea of our superannuated commander-in-chief, since celebrated as the "hero" of Bull's Run.

Endowed with a wonderful conceit in his "strategical combinations," the employment of the Spy company was one in which he felt no little pride; while we regarded it as a positive disgrace.

The act might have been allowable under the pressure of a severe necessity. But none such existed. In the anarchical land invaded by us we could have found spies enough--without appealing to its cut-throats.

It is not to be denied that Dominguez and his robbers did us good service. Faithfulness to our cause was a necessity of their existence.

Outlawed before--now doubly estranged by their treason--they were hated by their countrymen with an intensity beyond bounds; and, wherever caught straying beyond our lines, death was their certain doom.

In several skirmishes, into which they were drawn with their own guerilleros, they fought like very tigers--well knowing that, if taken, they had no mercy to expect.

On their side the _lex talionis_ was practised with a loose hand; so loose that it soon became necessary to restrain it; and they were no longer allowed to go scouting on their own account. Whenever their services were required, they had to be performed under the eye of an officer of mounted rifles or dragoons, with a troop of these acting in concert.

But the terror originally inspired by them continued till the end of the campaign; and the sight of a Red Hat coming along the street was sufficient to terrify the women, and send the children screaming within doors.

In no place were our red-handed allies held in greater detestation than in the city of La Puebla--partly from the striking resemblance borne to them by a large number of its population, and an antipathy on this account; partly from old hostilities; and, perhaps, not a little from the fact of our having there, more than elsewhere, permitted them to carry out their proclivities.

There was a sort of tacit consent to their swaggering among the Poblanos; as a punishment to the latter for the trouble, which _their_ swaggering had caused to us.

It was only for a time, however; and, when things appeared to be going too far, the good old Anglo-American morality--inculcated by the _township school_--resumed its sway over the minds of our soldiers; and the Red Hats were coerced into better behaviour.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

"UN CLAVO SACA OTRO CLAVO."

Now that its streets were no longer obstructed by the fear of mob violence, or midnight a.s.sa.s.sination, we had an opportunity of exploring the "City of the Angels."

A fine old town we found it--with its grand cathedral, of which, according to monkish legend, _real_ angels were the architects; its scores of _capillas_ and _parroquias_; its hundreds of ma.s.sive stone and stuccoed houses; and its thousands of _adobe_ dwellings.

Besides those standing, we discovered whole streets that had fallen to decay; _barrios_ of uninhabited ruins, covered with a weed-tangle of convolvuli, cowage, and other creepers, growing in green luxuriousness over the chaos of crumbling walls.

No other evidence is needed to prove that La Puebla, still the third city of Anahuac, was once much grander than it is to-day.

I sought distraction in wandering through its streets; though there was one into which I never went--the Calle del Obispo.

I shunned it with as much zeal as if there had been a plague in it; though I knew it contained _una cosa muy linda_--the fairest thing in the city of Puebla.

And it was for this that I shunned it. Since I had no longer the slightest hope of possessing Mercedes Villa-Senor, I was acting in accordance with the counsel of a friend, sager than myself, to whom I had communicated the story of my illusion. The course advised by him was to forget her,--if I could.

"Don't go near again, nor see her on any account," were the words of my wise counsellor. "It's the only plan with a pa.s.sion like yours-- suddenly conceived, and, perhaps, founded on a mistaken fancy. She may not be such perfection, after all. You've had but a poor chance of judging. Beauty in the balcony is sometimes wonderfully changed when it descends into the street. No doubt this damsel at close quarters would turn out very different from what you describe her. It's only imagination."

"No imagination could create such a form--such a face--such--"

"Such fiddlesticks! Come, old fellow! Don't give way to this confounded romancing. I venture to say, that, if you could see her at six feet distance, and under a good strong light, you'd be completely disenchanted. The same tripe-coloured skin all these Spanish women have--that won't bear the sun upon it. I wouldn't give one of our fair-haired Saxon girls for a whole shipload of them."

"Take my advice," continued my mentor, whose leaning was towards light hair; "don't see her again. If she should prove plain, it would only cause you a chagrin to discover it; and, if she really be the angel you think she is, better you should never more meet her--except in heaven!

From what you've told me, she's either engaged to this young fellow, or in the fair way of being made a fool of--a thing not so uncommon among the damsels of this good city. In either case there's no chance for you. Give up fretting about her. It will be easy as falling off a log.

Don't go into the street where she lives; though I don't suppose there'd be much danger of seeing her if you did--now that those rascally Red Hats are about. In a month more we'll be on the march for the Halls of the Moctezumas; and there you'll either get a bullet in your abdomen, or another shot through the heart, from a pair of eyes perhaps as sparkling as those of the Villa-Senor."

The word "never" was upon my lips, and the thought was in my mind. I did not utter it, knowing that my friend would only laugh at me.

"_Un clavo saca otro clavo_," (one nail drives out another), continued my Job's comforter; "A proverb of their own exactly applicable to your case. Ah! well do they understand the intricacies and tricks of love.

These same Spaniards understood them three hundred years ago; while we simple Saxons only knew them as instincts. No doubt Miss Mercedes has often heard the proverb--perhaps often practised it. So take my advice, old boy, and do you the same. Take for your motto, '_un clavo saca otro clavo_!'"

"All very well for you, who have no love to be expelled. That is a thing not so easy, as you imagine."

"Bah! Easy enough. Look around you. I'll warrant you'll see plenty of beautiful women--according to your style--among these dark-complexioned senoritas. Go out upon the streets--into the Alameda--to church-- anywhere, excepting into the 'street of the bishop.'"

I followed my friend's advice, and sought for the "un clavo" that should force out the "otro clavo." I did not succeed in finding it. The first nail held its place in my heart, despite every endeavour to draw it.

Still did I persevere in the resolution to see Mercedes no more--stern struggle though it cost me.

It was not necessary I should shut my eyes, while pa.s.sing through the streets. There was little likelihood of my encountering her by chance.

More than ever did the ladies keep to their seclusion. And no wonder, during the reign of the Red Hats.

The few who sallied forth in carriages, for a drive round the Alameda, were either the wives of foreign merchants, or belonging to one of the half dozen families, who, from interested motives, had become, for the time, "Ayankeado."

With these exceptions, we saw only the little brown-skinned _leperas_, in their hideous slate-coloured rebosos; and now and then, when chance conducted us to a fandango, a few flaunting specimens of the cla.s.s "poblana," whose patriotism was not proof against our purses.

Among the _elite_ our epaulettes were not specially attractive; and our company was altogether tabooed. The gown appeared to take the shine out of the sword. The soldier might rule in the streets; but within doors the sleek _curas_ had it all their own way.

It was these last to whom we were chiefly indebted for the taboo; and of course we hated them accordingly.

For my part, I cared but little. If the _doncellas_ of Puebla had made me ever so welcome, I could not have responded to their smiles. The wound I had received from one of them was sufficient for the time; and, so long as it remained uncicatrised, I had no zest for a second _amour_.