A KIND HOST. 



103 



certain whether all this would satisfy them ; but our 

 host was warm in his efforts, the major-domo was flat- 

 tered by being made the medium of communicating with 

 the men, and his influence was at stake in satisfying 

 them. It was one of Talleyrand's maxims never to do 

 to-day what you can put off till to-morrow. On this 

 occasion at least of my diplomatic career I felt the ben- 

 efit of the old opposite rule. From the moment I saw 

 Figoroa I had an eye only to getting his passport, and 

 did not rest until I had it in my pocket. If we had waited 

 to receive this with his letters, we should now have been 

 in a bad position. If we escaped immediate violence, 

 we should have been taken to the village, shut up in the 

 cabildo, and exposed to all the dangers of an ignorant 

 populace, at that moment excited by learning the suc- 

 cess of Morazan and the defeat of Figoroa. In setting 

 out, our idea was that, if taken by the Cachurecos, we 

 should be carried up to Guatimala ; but we found that 

 there was no accountability to Guatimala ; the people 

 were in a state to act entirely from impulses, and nothing 

 could induce any party of men to set out for Guatimala, 

 or under any circumstances to go farther than from 

 village to village. This difficulty over, the major-domo 

 promised us a guide before daylight for the next village. 

 At three o'clock we were wakened by the creaking of 

 the sugar-mill. We waited till daylight for a guide, but 

 as none came we bade farewell to our kind host, and 

 set out alone. The name of the hacienda is San Jose, 

 but in the hurry of my movements I never learned the 

 name of the proprietor. In the constant revolutions of 

 Central America, it may happen that he will one day 

 be flying for his life ; in his hour of need, may he meet 

 a heart as noble as his own. 



At a distance of five leagues we reached the rancho. 



