82 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



told us that they purposed going to Guatimala ; but I 

 shrank from them instinctively, eluded their questions 

 as to when we intended to set out, and I afterward 

 heard that they were natives of the town, and had been 

 compelled to leave it on account of their notorious 

 characters as assassins. One of them, as we thought, 

 in a mere spirit of bravado, provoked a quarrel with 

 the aiddecamp, strutted before the quartel, and in the 

 hearing of all said that they were under no man's or- 

 ders ; they only joined General Figoroa to please them- 

 selves, and would do as they thought proper. In the 

 mean time, a few of the townsmen who had nothing to 

 lose, among them an alguazil, finding there was no 

 massacring, had returned or emerged from their hi- 

 ding-places, and we procured a guide to be ready the 

 moment General Figoroa should return, went back to 

 the house, and to our surprise found the widow Padilla 

 there. She had been secreted somewhere in the neigh- 

 bourhood, and had heard, by means of an old woman- 

 servant, of the general's breakfasting with us, and our 

 intimacy with him. We inquired for her daughters' 

 safety, but not where they were, for we had already 

 found that we could answer inquiries better when we 

 knew nothing. 



We waited till four o'clock, and hearing nothing of 

 General Figoroa, made up our minds that we should 

 not get off till evening. We therefore strolled up to 

 the extreme end of the street, where Figoroa had en- 

 tered, and where stood the ruins of an old church. We 

 sat on the foundation walls and looked through the long 

 and desolate street to the plaza, where were a few 

 stacks of muskets and some soldiers. All around were 

 mountains, and among them rose the beautiful and ver- 

 dant Volcano of Chingo. While sitting there two 



