CONFUSION AND TERROR. 



71 



and, at all events, we would avoid the dangers of a 

 general sacking and plunder of the town. I approved 

 of this suggestion ; the fact is, I was for anything that 

 put us on horseback ; but the captain again opposed it 

 violently. Unluckily, he had four large, heavy trunks 

 containing jewelry and other valuables, and no mules 

 to carry them. I made a hurried but feeling comment 

 upon the comparative value of life and property; but 

 the captain said that all he was worth in the world was 

 in those trunks; he would not leave them; he would 

 not risk them on the road ; he would defend them as 

 long as he had life ; and, taking them up one by one 

 from the corridor, he piled them inside of our little 

 sleeping-room, shut the door, and swore that nobody 

 should get into them without passing over his dead 

 body. Now I, for my own part, would have taken a 

 quiet stripping, and by no means approved this desper- 

 ate purpose of the captain's. The fact is, I was very 

 differently situated from him. My property was chiefly 

 in horseflesh and muleflesh, at the moment the most desi- 

 rable thing in which money could be invested ; and with 

 two hours' start, I would have defied all the Cachure- 

 cos in Guatimala to catch me. But the captain's deter- 

 mination put an end to all thoughts of testing the sound- 

 ness of my investment ; and perhaps, at all events, it 

 was best to remain. 



I entered the house, where the old lady and her 

 daughters were packing up their valuables, and passed 

 through to the street. The church bells were tolling 

 with a frightful sound, and a horseman, with a red ban- 

 neret on the point of his lance, was riding through the 

 streets warning the inhabitants to fly. Horses were 

 standing before the doors saddled and bridled, and all 

 along men were issuing from the doors with loads on 



