‘’Which means, Pedro, that you ran away like a coward as you are.’

’’Coward!—­nay, General, you must be joking.  The truth is, I experienced a new sensation; I felt for the first time the emotion of fear; yes, that must have been what passed over me.  It was something quite new to me, and for the moment I did not know what ailed me.’

’’Idiot! do you suppose a foreigner would be fool enough to amuse himself by shooting a Mexican at mid-day, in the very heart of the capital?’

’’Oh!  I know very well, General, that it would cost him a small fortune, if he was rich, and his life if he was poor.  But then these Inglez are so imprudent, so rash, so headstrong, and I felt that I had no wish to have a bullet in my head, just to put money into the pocket of the best judge in the city.’

’’Nonsense; but about those papers.  I must have them.  What steps do you propose taking?’

’’General and chief, were I to put my hand upon my heart, and tell you the sacred truth, I should say that I propose for a time to lie quiet and—­do nothing.’

’’Do nothing—­lie quiet!  Do you forget that I have paid you already one hundred dollars in advance, and that four hundred more are ready for you when your job is finished?’

’’Oh!  I know our bargain, General, and I have the greatest confidence in your honor.  As for abandoning the enterprise, that I have never dreamed of; but the fact is, my motive in remaining inactive for a season is, that I am certain if I make a move now I shall be undoubtedly checked, perhaps mated.’

‘’How so?’

’’Well—­because I find at the monte-table, where I usually try my luck, that there has been for nearly a week a run on odd numbers.  Now, I always remark that when there is a run on odds, I always lose in every thing I put my hand to.  Stop, then, General, till the tables turn, and when I strike a new vein, you shall hear from your servant, Pedro.’

’Of course I waited, expecting to hear the General burst forth in violent denunciations on his servant, Pedro, or at any rate supposed he would ridicule such an excuse; but I was deceived.

’’Well, Pedro, your excuse is not so bad; had you explained yourself at the outset, I should not have been so angry.’

’The Mexicans, it may be remarked, are influenced in the most important and momentous actions of their life, by superstition; this fact is readily explained, when we reflect that the vast majority of them are utterly devoid of the very first rudiments of education, and owe the position they occupy to the fortune of civil war or of the gambling-table.  Except in the mere texture and richness of their costume, nothing else in that strange country of the grotesque and picturesque, distinguishes the man of rank from the beggar or the lazzaroni.  In every class, in every rank, you meet with the same simplicity, the same vanity, the same prejudices, the same superstition,