uttering blasphemies. I kept my countenance composed, stereotyped, just as I wished it to look after death. Espinosa pricked harder, but my countenance remained impassible, if I might judge by the rage it inspired him with, for recovering his lance, he gave me a horrible thrust. The blade was half a yard long and the width of a hand, and I preserved for many a day the scar which was left on my wrist by my effort in wresting it out of my side. Then the brute prepared to satiate his mocking rage. I, inspired by the sentiment of self-preservation, and calculating that it was time for Benavides' aide-de-camp to arrive, raised my hand over my head and said imperiously, 'Listen! Commandant,' and as he lent his attention, I turned round, thrust myself under the gallery to get round the other side of the horses, and as I arrived at the end they fell upon me. I warded off a cloud of bayonets with both hands, and at that moment the Governor's aide arrived with orders to suspend the farce, consenting only that they should shave me, as they had done to many others. If he had not permitted some punishment, Espinosa would have wholly lost the dominion of his passions, and I should not have had sufficient coolness to pull off the mask under which Benavides wished to hide himself. They put me into the lowest dungeon, and then occurred a scene which doubled the terror of the people: my mother and two of my sisters defied the guards, ascended the steps; they were seen to go in and out of the empty cells, then descended like a vision, and rushed to the house of Benavides to demand the son, the brother! O, the agonies that despotism inflicts!
"What passed next many know, but it was not I who supplicated or gave satisfaction! for on no day of that trial did I belie the severity of my principles nor did my spirit flag again. One thing in regard to this event I will
