258 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



in a pocket-handerchief, which was stained witl. biood. 

 The old man looked at him with the sternness of a Ro- 

 man, and told him that he knew this would be the con- 

 sequence of his running out at night ; the mother and 

 sister cried, and the young man, with a feeble voice, 

 begged his father to spare him. His companion car- 

 ried him into the back room ; but before they could 

 lay him on the bed he fell again and fainted. The 

 father was alarmed, and when he recovered, asked 

 him whether he wished to confess. Chico, with a 

 faint voice, answered. As you please. The old man 

 told his daughter to go for the padre, but the uproar 

 was so great in the street that she was afraid to venture 

 out. In the mean time we examined his head, which, 

 notwithstanding the cut through his hat, was barely 

 touched ; and he said himself that he had received the 

 blow on his hand, and that it was cut off. There was no 

 physician nearer than Guatimala, and not a person who 

 was able to do anything for him. I had had some 

 practice in medicine, but none in surgery ; I knew, 

 however, that it was at all events proper to wash and 

 cleanse the wound, and with the assistance of Don 

 Manuel's servant, a young Englishman whom Don 

 Manuel had brought from the United States, laid him 

 on a bed. This servant had had some experience in 

 the brawls of the country, having killed a young man in 

 a quarrel growing out of a love affair, and been con- 

 fined to the house seven months by wounds received in 

 the same encounter. With his assistance I unwound 

 the bloody handkerchief; as I proceeded I found my 

 courage failing me, and as, with the last coil, a dead 

 hand fell in mine, a shudder and a deep groan ran 

 through the spectators, and I almost let the hand drop. 



