208 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



the old housekeeper who first told us the story. Many 

 of his friends had fled or hidden themselves away, and 

 the old housekeeper ran from place to place with notes 

 written by him, begging five dollars, ten dollars, any- 

 thing she could get. One old lady sent him a hundred 

 dollars. At four o'clock, with all his efforts, he had 

 raised but seven hundred dollars ; but, after undergo- 

 ing all the mental agonies of death, when the cura had 

 given up all hope, Don Juan, who had been two hours 

 at liberty, made up the deficiency, and he was released. 



The next morning Carrera sent to Don Juan to bor- 

 row his shaving apparatus, and Don Juan took them 

 over himself. He had always been on good terms with 

 Carrera, and the latter asked him if he had got over his 

 fright, talking with him as familiarly as if nothing had 

 happened. Shortly afterward he was seen at the win- 

 dow playing on a guitar ; and in an hour thereafter, 

 eighteen members of the municipality, without the 

 slightest form of trial, not even a drum-head court-mar- 

 tial, were taken out into the plaza and shot. They 

 were all the very first men in Quezaltenango ; and Mo- 

 lina, the alcalde-mayor, in family, position, and charac- 

 ter was second to no other in the republic. His wife 

 was clinging to Carrera's knees, and begging for his 

 life when he passed with a file of soldiers. She scream- 

 ed " Robertito ;" he looked at her, but did not speak. 

 She shrieked and fainted, and before she recovered her 

 husband was dead. He was taken around the corner 

 of the house, seated on a stone, and despatched at once. 

 The others were seated in the same place, one at a 

 time ; the stone and the wall of the house were still red 

 with their blood. I was told that Carrera shed tears 

 for the death of the first two, but for the rest he said he 

 did not care. Heretofore, in all their revolutions, there 



