The Guerilla Chief, and Other Tales. Майн Рид

the soldier’s sweetheart on the field of battle; but never before had I encountered his sister.

      I might have been more surprised at this peculiar encounter, but that on the afternoon of that very day I had been spectator of a scene calculated to explain it. In a field adjoining the hamlet-village of El Plan I had gazed upon four thousand soldiers of Santa Anna’s army made prisoners during the action; and circling among them—not as spectators, but real actors in the affairs of the camp—were at least half this number of women!

      Though most stood in a different relationship, I learned that many of these devoted creatures were the sisters—some of them the mothers—of the men who had mingled in the fight!

      I could not help contrasting this bi-sexual crowd with the invading army to which I myself appertained; in which some half-dozen hags, under the appellation of sutler’s assistants; a like number performing the métier of the laundress; and one or two virgins of still more questionable calling, formed the whole female camp-following.

      After such a scene as that witnessed by the rancheria of El Plan, it could not much astonish me to find the sister of Cairo? Vergara on the field of battle. My astonishment only arose from seeing such a sister!

      On being left alone with the Jarocho, I could no longer repress my desire to obtain an explanation of the series of mysteries, that had so suddenly and unexpectedly surrounded me.

      My interference in his behalf had furnished me with a sort of right to make the request—even to demand it.

      “Ramon Rayas,” I said, as soon as the girl was gone out of hearing—“This Ramon Rayas appears to be no friend of yours?”

      “Ah, señor! my bitterest enemy.”

      “He is not the enemy of your sister, though! He professes to be her very best friend—at least her lover, which should be the same thing? Is she of that opinion?”

      “My sister hates him.”

      “Are you sure of that?”

      ”Ñor capitan, you are a stranger to me; but the service you’ve this night performed makes me feel as if I were talking to an old friend. Excuse the freedom I take. I am only a poor Jarocho—owning nothing but my rancho, a few varas of garden-ground, my horse, my saddle, and my macheté. I was going to say my liberty, but that’s not true: else why am I dragged from my home to fight battles in which I have no interest? You may say what our military oppressors say—it is to fight for my country. Bah! what use in spilling one’s blood for a country that’s not free? It isn’t for that I’ve been brought to Cerro Gordo, and shot down like a dog. It was to fight for a tyrant, not for a country—for El Cojo, and nobody else!”

      “You have not been in the battle by your own will, then?”

      “Carrambo! nothing of the sort, ñor deconocio! I am here by conscription; and I’ve been shot down by conscription. No matter now. We have no liberty left in Mexico—at least I have none. Still, ñor capitan, there’s one treasure left to me which I prize above everything else before riches, or even liberty. It was left me by my parents—who have long ago gone to a better world.”

      “What treasure?” I inquired, seeing that the speaker hesitated to declare it.

      “Ña Lola—mia hermanita.” (Lola, my dear sister.)

      “I hope there is no danger of your losing her?”

      “There is. This very night you must have heard something to tell you that there is.”

      “ ’Tis true I heard something that sounded like a threat; but what need you fear from a man who can have no control over you or your sister? You say she scorns his suit. If that be so, I cannot understand how she is in danger.”

      “Ah! ñor deconocio! you know not our country, else you might understand. The man you speak of has power; that is, if he be still alive.”

      The speaker glanced significantly towards the blood-stained cutlass.

      “Power! How?”

      “He is my captain. I am one of a band of guerilleros, raised in our village and neighbourhood. This man, Don Ramon Rayas, is our chief. He had his appointment from the dictator himself, Don Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. It’s a puzzle to me—and to others as well—how he obtained it: for it’s well known that before the beginning of this war with the Americanos, Rayas was a salteador.”

      “A highway robber!”

      “Neither more nor less, ñor capitan.”

      “I heard you apply that unenviable appellation to him. But what can be his motive for attempting to take your life?”

      “Only to get rid of me; and then Lola—my poor sister would be more easily—carrai! you know what I mean!”

      I needed not a more ample explanation, though Calros proceeded to give it.

      ”Ñor deconocio,” said he, speaking in a low voice, so as not to be heard outside the tent, “I shall tell you all about it. You’ve seen my sister. Well, perhaps to you, whose countrywomen I have heard say are very fair-skinned, Lola may not appear much—”

      I did not interrupt Calros to tell him how much.

      “Here, among us Jarochos, though I, her brother, say it, Lolita is thought muy linda.”

      “She would be thought so anywhere, I should say.”

      “Well,” proceeded the conscript, apparently pleased at my remark, “good looks in a girl are sometimes only a misfortune to her—more especially if she be poor, and that is just what Lola is.”

      “A misfortune! How?”

      I put the question with a keener interest than the invalid suspected.

      Had Lola been already the victim of a misfortune?

      “You see, sir stranger,” rejoined Calros, “among those who have set their eyes upon ña Lola is this Ramon Rayas.”

      “An old school-fellow of yours, is he not?”

      “True—such schooling as we had. That is long ago. Since then we have never seen him till lately. He left our village, and went to live in the great city of Puebla—a wicked place, though it be called the City of the angels. We didn’t hear of him for a long time; and then we were told that he had taken to the camino real—had become, as I’ve said, a salteador.”

      “And now he is an officer in the Mexican army?”

      “That’s the strangest of all. But no. It’s not so strange to us down here, who are well acquainted with Don Antonio. Ramon Rayas isn’t the only picaro in his employ. As I’ve told you, we’d seen nothing of Ramon since he was a boy at school. Then one day he reappeared among us with a commission to recruit—no, not that, but rather to take us young fellows by force, and make soldiers of us. I was compelled to go with the rest. We were formed into a guerilla, with Rayas as our captain. It was at that time his eyes fell upon Lola.”

      “But did your sister accompany you in the campaign?”

      “She did. There were many other women with us—the wives and sisters of my comrades. They came to work for us, and make us comfortable in camp. It is our custom, ñor Americano. ’Tis not so with you, I am told.”

      “No, we don’t trouble ourselves with such company.”

      “Ah, ñor capitan, it has indeed proved a trouble to me. It has required all to protect my poor little sister.”

      “Protect her! Against whom?”

      “Our captain—Don Ramon. His importunities—cruelties I should call them—were of daily, hourly occurrence. They were growing worse, when—”

      “You