“That is better, certainly.  Nevertheless, I fear that with one thousand horse and two thousand foot, and without artillery, you will not find it easy to capture a strong place, armed with ten guns and held by twenty-five hundred men, of whom half are regulars.  If I were you I would let San Felipe alone.”

Mejia frowned.  My advice was evidently not to his liking.

“Let me tell you, senor coronel” he said, arrogantly, “our patriot soldiers are equal to any in the world, regular or irregular.  And, don’t you see that the very audacity of the enterprise counts in our favor?  The last thing Griscelli expects is an attack.  We shall find him unprepared and take him by surprise.  That man has done us a great deal of harm.  He hangs every patriot who falls into his hands, and I have made up my mind to hang him!”

After this there was nothing more to be said, and I held my peace.  I soon found, moreover, that albeit Mejia often made a show of consulting me he had no intention of accepting my advice, and that all his officers (except Carmen) and most of his men regarded me as a gringo (foreign interloper) and were envious of my promotion, and jealous of my supposed influence with the general.

We bivouacked in a valley on the verge of the llanos, and the next few days were spent in raiding cattle and preparing tasajo.  We had also another successful encounter with a party of Morale’s guerillas.  This raised Mejia’s spirits to the highest point, and made him more resolute than ever to attack San Felipe.  But when I saw General Estero’s infantry my misgivings as to the outcome of the adventure were confirmed.  His men, albeit strong and sturdy and full of fight, were badly disciplined and indifferently armed, their officers extremely ignorant and absurdly boastful and confident.  Estero himself, though like Mejia, a splendid patriotic leader, was no general, and I felt sure that unless we caught Griscelli asleep we should find San Felipe an uncommonly hard nut to crack.  I need hardly say, however, that I kept this opinion religiously to myself.  Everybody was so confident and cock-sure, that the mere suggestion of a doubt would have been regarded as treason and probably exposed me to danger.

A march of four days partly across the llanos, partly among the wooded hills by which they were bounded, brought us one morning to a suitable camping-ground, within a few miles of San Felipe, and Mejia, who had assumed the supreme command, decided that the attack should take place on the following night.

“You will surely reconnoitre first, General Mejia,” I ventured to say.

“What would be the use?  Estero and I know the place.  However, if you and Carmen like to go and have a look you may.”

Carmen was nothing loath, and two hours before sunset we saddled our horses and set out.  I could speak more freely to him than to any of the others, and as we rode on I remarked how carelessly the camp was guarded.  There were no proper outposts, and instead of being kept out of sight in the quebrado, the men were allowed to come and go as they liked.  Nothing would be easier than for a treacherous soldier to desert and give information to the enemy which might not only ruin the expedition but bring destruction on the army.