The Freebooters Part 55

The latter went on, following their leader step by step. The deeper they got into the cavern, the ruder became the ascent. The Jaguar advanced with extreme caution and doubt, for it seemed to him impossible that this pa.s.sage should be unknown to the Commandant of the garrison. On reflection he supposed--and with some semblance of truth--that this cave had been excavated, in earlier times, by human hands, and that the abyss into which he and his comrades had all but fallen, was nought else than a well, intended to supply the garrison in the event of a siege.

He soon obtained a proof that his surmises were correct, for after marching for a few minutes longer, the conspirators were arrested by an iron-bound door, which barred their way. At a sign from the Jaguar, they remained motionless, with their hands on their dagger hilts. The moment for action had arrived: this door evidently opened into the fort.

The Jaguar examined the lock for an instant, and then ordered the lights to be put out, which was immediately obeyed, and the conspirators were again in darkness. This door, which was very old, and probably had not been opened for a long series of years, could not offer any serious resistance. The young Chieftain thrust the point of his dagger between the bolt and the staple, and pressed on it. The staple fell to the ground, but the door still resisted; it was fastened on the other side by strong bolts.

There was a moment of extreme anxiety and discouragement for the conspirators. How was the door to be opened? Must they turn back, and lose all the profit of such perils overcome, and difficulties incurred?

The position was serious; but, as we have said, the Jaguar was a man who only took a delight in impossibilities. He lit a candle again, and examined the door with the most minute attention. The wood, acted upon by age and damp, fell off in scales, and melted into dust at the slightest effort.

When the candle had been again extinguished, the young man knelt down before the door, and began cutting it with his dagger, taking the greatest care to make no noise for fear of alarming the garrison; for though he was convinced that this door opened into the fort, he could not know to what point it led. After ten minutes of slow and continued toil, the whole lower part of the door was removed. The Jaguar crawled through the orifice, and, not trying to discover where he was, he got up, felt for the bolts, drew them one after the other, and quietly opened the door, through which his comrades silently slipped.

The conspirators then groped their way along the walls, not wis.h.i.+ng to light a candle, for fear of giving an alarm, and trusting to chance to lead them in the right road. They were justified in doing so, for Lanzi reached a door, which he mechanically pushed, and which was ajar. This door opened into a long corridor lighted by a lamp, and the insurgents boldly entered the pa.s.sage, after taking the precaution to take down the lamp and put it out.

It was now about half-past four in the morning, and day was beginning to break. At the end of the pa.s.sage, the Jaguar perceived a motionless shadow leaning against the wall. At an order from his Chief, the half-breed glided like a serpent up to this shadow, which was nothing less than a sentry, who was quietly asleep, with his musket by his side, and on coming within reach, the half-breed bounded like a tiger at the throat of the sleeper, whom he threw down without giving him time to utter a cry. The poor fellow was bound and gagged, ere he was sufficiently awake to understand what was happening to him.

This sentry was stationed at the entrance of a guard-room, in which some fifteen soldiers were sleeping. The post was carried, without a blow, by the insurgents, who bound the soldiers, and took possession of their arms. The expedition was going on famously; but unluckily, while the scene we have referred to was taking place in the guard-room, the sentry in the pa.s.sage, who had been neglected, succeeded in loosing his bonds and giving the alarm. The position had become serious.

"Come," the Jaguar said quickly, "it seems as if we shall have a fight of it. Well, several of you are now armed: comrades, remember my orders--no quarter!"

The insurgents, not at all anxious to be besieged in the guard-room, where it would have been easy to overpower them, then went out. At the moment when they appeared in the pa.s.sage, they perceived some thirty soldiers, at the head of whom three officers in uniform marched, coming boldly to meet them.

"Fire!" the Jaguar thundered, "and then forward!"

Ten muskets were discharged, the three officers fell, and the Texans rushed ferociously on the soldiers. The latter, terrified by this furious attack, and seeing their leaders dead, offered but a weak resistance; after a few minutes of hand-to-hand fighting, sustained rather to save the military honour than in the hope of conquering the a.s.sailants, they asked leave to capitulate.

The Jaguar ordered a suspension of fighting, and ordered the garrison to lay down their arms, which they readily did. During the short fight, the Texans had lost eight men killed at the bayonet point. The fort of the Point, which was supposed to be impregnable, had been surprised by twenty-five men only armed with daggers. But these twenty-five fought for a holy and great idea--they were resolved to conquer or perish. The Jaguar had accomplished the task which had been allotted to him in the vast plan conceived by the Texan insurgents, and the capture of the fort must inevitably lead to the surrender of the town, if El Alferez succeeded in making himself master of the _Libertad_ corvette.

We have seen how, on his side, that Chief had behaved, and what result he had achieved.

CHAPTER XXIII.

EL SALTO DEL FRAYLE.

The expeditious way in which the Jaguar had gained the capture of the castle, by firing, without any previous summons, on the Commandant of the garrison and his officers, was, perhaps, not strictly loyal, or recognized by the military code; but we must not forget that the Jaguar and his men were placed without the pale of the law by the Mexicans, that they were regarded as wild beasts, and a considerable reward offered for their heads.

Placed in such a position, the Texan insurgents must regard themselves as freed from any courteous obligation toward their enemies, and in fact were so. Until they were permitted to treat on equal terms with their old masters, they had only one thing to regard, namely, the object to be attained: under the present circ.u.mstances they had attained it, and no more could be asked of them.

The Jaguar's first care, so soon as he was in possession of the fortress, was to have John Davis installed in a comfortable and airy room; then he sent several men to the creek whence the expedition had started, to fetch the clothes and anything the conspirators had left there.

During the works necessitated by the new occupation and an exact inspection of the important fortress the Texans had succeeded in seizing, day had broke, and the sun risen. The Jaguar, after taking all the necessary precautions to prevent himself being surprised in his turn, took a telescope, and went up to the platform of the castle. From this point the eye surveyed an immense landscape, and a magnificent panorama was unrolled. On one side were the undulating Texan plains, which lofty mountains enclosed on the horizon; on the other, the sea with its grand and mysterious immensity.

The Jaguar first looked carelessly through the telescope at the town of Galveston, which was beginning to wake up, and whose streets were growing gradually peopled; next at the mainland, and the entrance of the Rio Trinidad, which was still plunged in a mournful solitude. Then, turning, he fixed the gla.s.s on the sea, and attentively examined the horizon. Lanzi, carelessly lounging on a gun carriage, was rolling a husk cigarette with all the serious attention he generally devoted to this important operation.

"Lanzi!" the Jaguar suddenly said, as he hurried to him.

"Well!" he answered, raising his head, but not otherwise disturbing himself.

"Do you know what has become of the Mexican flag we found in the commandant's room?"

"Indeed I do not."

"You must go and enquire at once, my good fellow. So soon as you have got it, bring it to me."

"Very good."

The half-breed rose and left the platform; in the meanwhile, the Jaguar, who was leaning over the parapet, seemed deeply interested. In fact, the chase of the privateer by the corvette was beginning at this moment! and the two vessels appeared under full sail.

"Oh, oh," the Jaguar muttered, "how will it end? The brig is very small to carry so large a vessel by storm! Nonsense," he added after a little reflection, "we have seized the fort, then why should they not capture the corvette?"

"I see nothing to prevent it," a voice said at his elbow.

The Jaguar turned and saw the half-breed standing by his side, with a roll of bunting under his arm.

"Well," he asked him, "where is the flag?"

"Here it is."

"Now, my friend, yon will hoist the flag on that staff; but, in order that our comrades may not mistake our meaning, mind and fasten a dagger to the top of the flag. The inhabitants of Galveston will not notice this addition, while our friends, who have an interest in carefully examining what goes on here, will immediately understand what it signifies."

Lanzi punctually carried out the order given him, and five minutes later, the Mexican banner, surmounted by a dagger, was majestically floating from the flagstaff. The Jaguar soon obtained the certainty that his signal was understood, for the brig, closely pursued by the corvette, waited till it had come within pistol shot of the fort ere it tacked, which it a.s.suredly would not have done had there been any cause of fear.

During the greater part of the day, the Jaguar followed with the greatest interest the progress of the two s.h.i.+ps, and witnessed the final incidents from his observatory. At about two in the afternoon, however, he went down into the interior of the fort, and, after recommending the greatest vigilance to his friends, he armed himself, threw a zarape over his shoulders, and quitted the castle. By Lanzi's care, a horse had been prepared for him near the foot of the rock: the Jaguar bounded into the saddle, and after giving one glance at the fortress, he dug in the spurs, and started at a gallop. The Jaguar was proceeding to the Salto del Frayle, where, on the previous evening, he had appointed to meet Don Juan Melendez de Gongora.

The coasts of Mexico are probably the most varied of all those in the New World. The seaboard of Texas especially is so strangely broken up, that the mind loses itself in trying to discover what accident or antediluvian cataclysm could have been powerful enough to produce these bold gaps and sudden fissures in the tall cliffs that border it.

Not far from Galveston, on the seash.o.r.e, there is a rather wide road, whose capricious windings follow for a considerable distance the crest of the cliffs. This road is usually followed by the muleteers and travellers of every description proceeding to Mexico. Being wide and convenient, it might justly pa.s.s as excellent in a country where the highways of communication are--or, at least, were--completely unknown, for at the present day, Texas possesses fine carriage roads, and long iron way. But at one spot, the road to which we allude suddenly breaks off: the cliff, cleft as if by a giant's sabre stroke, displays a yawning abyss, about ten feet wide, and some seven hundred feet deep. At the base of this fissure the sea constantly breaks in fury, producing a hollow and monotonous sound. On the other side of the gap the road begins again.

In Europe, where government is necessarily occupied in improving the means of communication, a remedy would easily have been found for this interruption by throwing a bridge across the fissure, but in America it is not so. The governments have something else to do than trouble themselves about the general welfare: in the first place, they have to raise as much money as they can by taxation; and next, defend themselves against _p.r.o.nunciamentos_ and ambitious men constantly on the watch to overthrow them. The result is, that all goes on as it best can, and each gets out of a hobble, in the best way he can contrive it.

Fortunately, the horses and mules, more intelligent than men, have produced a remedy for this neglect, thanks to that instinct of self-preservation which G.o.d has bestowed on them. Nothing is more curious than to see the pa.s.sage of the fissure by a recua of mules.

These animals come up gently, stretching over their necks, sounding the ground at each step, and sniffing all around with signs of the most lively alarm. On reaching the edge of the gap, they stiffen their front legs, bend the hind ones, and toss their heads; then all at once they take their spring, and fall on the other side upon all four feet, without ever making a mistake.

Still, it is necessary that the man who is astride them should completely lay aside his own will, and abandon them entirely to their infallible instinct. If he attempt to guide them, it is all over: man and steed roll to the bottom of the precipice, which both reach in small pieces.

As for the name of the Salto del Frayle or the Monk's Leap, which this spot bears, the following is the motive for it, according to the local chronicle. It is stated (we affirm nothing, and in no way guarantee the veracity of the legend)--it is stated, we say, that a few years after the settlement of the Spaniards in Texas, a Franciscan monk, the Pater Guardian, or Prior, of his monastery, being accused of insulting a maiden whose confessor he was, escaped from the hands of the alguazil sent to seize him, and fled across country. After a very long chase, and when closely pursued by the soldiers, who were furious at their inability to capture him, he reached the edge of this gap. Taking a glance at the abyss, the poor monk felt he was a lost man; recommending his soul to his patron saint, and calling Heaven to bear witness to his innocence, he leaped boldly across. The soldiers who arrived at this moment distinctly saw two angels supporting the monk under the arms, and they laid him in safety upon the other bank.

The soldiers naturally fell on their knees, and implored the blessing of the holy man, whose innocence was thus distinctly proved to them. The latter turned to them with a radiant face, blessed them with emotion, and then disappeared, to the sound of celestial music, in a cloud of purple and gold. Such was the story the soldiers told on returning from their expedition. Whether they spoke truly or falsely, no one ever knew; but one thing is certain, that from that moment nothing more was ever heard of the monk. The populace, who are always lovers of the marvellous, put the most entire faith in this story, and an annual procession was inst.i.tuted, at which we had the honour of being present, and which, at each anniversary of the worthy prior's miraculous leap, is performed with great ceremony, in the presence of an immense crowd which has arrived from very part of Texas.

Whatever may be thought as to the authenticity of this story, it is certain that this spot is called the Monk's Leap, and it was here that the Jaguar had given the meeting to Colonel Don Juan Melendez. The sun had sunk almost level with the horizon when the young man reached the gap. He looked around him; the road was deserted, so he dismounted, hobbled his horse, lay down on the ground, and waited.

He had been there about a quarter of an hour, when the sound of a horse galloping reached his ear; he rose and looked round. He soon saw a horseman turning a corner of the road and recognized the Colonel. On reaching the Jaguar he bowed and leaped to the ground.

"Pardon me, my friend," he said, "for having kept you waiting, but it is a long distance from Galveston to this spot; and you and your comrades give us so much to do, that, Viva Dios! we have not an instant to ourselves."

The young man smiled.