264 



THE STREET OF RE VILLA-GIGEDO. 



that I await him here," he concluded, in a tone that had the effect 

 of bringing that functionary at once to the spot, and he received 

 orders to open, without delay, a broad and straight avenue through 

 the quarter as far as the barrier of the city. It must be finished, 

 — was the imperious command, — that very night, so as to allow 

 the viceroy to drive through it on his way to mass the next morn- 

 ing. With this the count turned on his heel, and the corregidor 

 was left to reflect upon his disagreeable predicament. 



The fear of losing his office, or perhaps worse consequences, 

 stimulated his energy. No time was to be wasted. All his subor- 

 dinate officers were instantly summoned, and laborers were col- 

 lected from all parts of the city. The very buildings that were to 

 be removed sent forth crowds of leperos willing for a few reales to 

 aid in destroying the walls which had once harbored them. A 

 hundred torches shed their radiance over the scene. All night 

 long the shouts of the workmen, the noise of pick-axe and crow- 

 bar, the crash of falling roofs, and the rumbling of carts, kept the 

 city in a fever of excitement. Precisely at sunrise the state car- 

 riage, with the viceroy, his family and suite, left the palace, and 

 rattled over the pavements in the direction from which the noise 

 had proceeded. At length the new street opened before them, 

 a thousand workmen, in double file, fell back on either side 

 and made the air resound with vivas, as they passed. Through 

 clouds of dust and dirt, — over the unpaved earth, strewn with 

 fragments of stone and plaster, — the coach and train swept on- 

 ward, till at the junction of the new street with the road leading 

 to the suburbs, the corregidor, hat in hand, with a smile of con- 

 scious desert, stepped forward to receive his excellency, and to 

 listen to the commendation bestowed on the prompt and skilful 

 execution of his commands ! 



Should any one doubt the truth of this story, let him be aware 

 that the Calle de Re villa- Gigedo still remains in Mexico to attest 

 its verity. 



These anecdotes impart some idea of the authority exercised by 

 the viceroys, which was certainly far more arbitrary and personal 

 than that of their sovereign in his Spanish dominions. 



There is another adventure told to display the excellence of Re- 

 villa- Gigedo's police, in which the count figures rather melodra- 

 matically. It seems that among the Creole nobles, who, with the 

 high officers of government, made up the viceroy's court, there 

 was a certain marques, whom fortune had endowed with great estates 

 and two remarkably pretty daughters, and it was doubted by some 



