Whilst this scene was enacting the sun had risen, and poured a flood of radiance upon the earth in which the sham brigands lost much of their life-like effect.  “Ha, ha!” laughed the peasant, “it would appear that those gentlemen’s guns take a long time to go off; they must be wet with dew.  But whatever may be the matter with them they are miserable cowards, to stand still there at a safe distance and leave their chief to do all the fighting by himself.”

“There is a good reason for that,” answered Matamore, as he climbed up the steep bank to them, “these are nothing but scarecrows.”  And with six vigorous kicks he sent the six absurd figures rolling in every direction, making the most comical gestures as they fell.

“You may safely alight now, ladies,” said the baron, reassuringly, to the trembling actresses, “there’s nothing more to fear; it was only a sham battle after all.”

In despair at his overwhelming defeat, Agostino hung his head mournfully, and stood like a statue of grief, dreading lest worse still should befall him, if the comedians, who were in too great force for him to attempt to struggle any longer against them, decided to take him on to the next town and deliver him over to the jailor to be locked up, as indeed he richly deserved.  His faithful little friend, Chiquita, stood motionless at his side, as downcast as himself.  But the farce of the false brigands so tickled the fancy of the players that it seemed as if they never would have done laughing over it, and they were evidently inclined to deal leniently with the ingenious rascal who had devised it.  The tyrant, who had loosened, but not quitted, his hold upon the bandit, assumed his most tragic air and voice, and said to him, “You have frightened these ladies almost to death, you scoundrel, and you richly deserve to be strung up for it; but if, as I believe, they will consent to pardon you—­for they are very kind and good—–­I will not take you to the lock-up.  I confess that I do not care to furnish a subject for the gallows.  Besides, your stratagem is really very ingenious and amusing—­a capital farce to play at the expense of cowardly travellers—­who have doubtless paid you well for the entertainment, eh?  As an actor, I appreciate the joke, and your ingenuity inclines me to be indulgent.  You are not simply and brutally a robber, and it would certainly be a pity to cut short such a fine career.”

“Alas!” answered Agostino mournfully, “no other career is open to me, and I am more to be pitied than you suppose.  I am the only one left of a band formerly as complete as yours; the executioner has deprived me of my brave comrades one by one, and now I am obliged to carry on my operations entirely alone—­dressing up my scarecrows, as your friend calls them, and assuming different voices to make believe that I am supported by a numerous company.  Ah! mine is a sad fate; and then my road is such a poor one—­so few travellers come this way—­and I have not the means