388 APPENDIX. 



pose), or in obedience of orders from his master (which he afterwards in his 

 trial endeavoured to prove), conceived a horrid plan of assassinating all the 

 prisoners in the town, with the Spanish residents and officers. Accordingly 

 on the night of the 7th of February 1818, General Ordonez, Colonels ltiberos 

 and Murgado, and the officers of the general's staff", were invited to Dupuy's, 

 and highly entertained ; the night as usual was passed over the cards, and 

 at break of day Dupuy, impatient to commence his sanguinary undertaking, 

 violently seized on the money which Riberos had won during the night, and 

 which was placed on the table before him. 



Dupuy knew the high and unyielding temper of that meritorious officer, 

 and supposed he would attempt to strike him in the moment he had been 

 guilty of that breach of decorum ; he had a number of orderlies, or assassins 

 (as we shall here consider them synonymous terms), in waiting, ready to rush 

 forth on the first alarm. Riberos acted with a patience and sang-froid, to 

 which he had heretofore been a stranger. He recollected that he was but a 

 prisoner of war on parole, and the aggressor was an absolute tyrant and a 

 governor : he therefore calmly remonstrated with him on the impropriety and 

 baseness of the action of which he had just been guilty, telling him that if 

 he availed himself of the authority invested in him as governor for acting in 

 such an ungentlemanly manner, he found himsehj from his circumstances, 

 obliged to allow it to pass unnoticed ; but that if it were understood in any 

 other light, no man should insult Riberos and pass unpunished. Dupuy 

 declared that he only availed himself of the authority of a gentleman, not 

 that of a governor, and stood up at the same time by way of defiance. Ri- 

 beros, now, not only considered himself justified in chastising his insolence, 

 but obligated to do so ; and in contempt of the intreaties of his companions 

 he knocked down Dupuy by a vigorous blow on the face. The confederates 

 of Dupuy, then at the table, flew with one accord to a corner of the 

 room, in which was deposited a quantity of arms for the purpose. The 

 officers seeing their danger, followed the same example, and in a moment 

 every person in the room was armed. 



It is not difficult to suppose that veteran officers accustomed to brave dan- 

 gers, overawed these vile assassins, who were only active in their profession 

 when secure from danger, or screened by the darkness of night. They stood 

 motionless before the officers, who immediately secured the door, as the guards, 

 prepared without, were entering the court yard. Dupuy and his gang being 

 enclosed, and unable for the present to receive any assistance from his friends 



