so it was that for the time being i found myself received into the society of the most powerful official of the north province with a favor as cloudless and warm as the blue sky above his chief town. yet, on the other hand, having been requested by his excellency to prescribe for the dropsy with which he was afflicted, i laid myself open to trouble by giving a treatment different from that previously prescribed by the monk who was his regular physician. the result was soon evident in the poisoning of his excellency's mind against the heretic.
but in the few hours of practical liberty which intervened, i had the good fortune to meet my fellow-countryman, james pursley. he proved to be one of our typical gaunt, long-legged kentuckians, with a bearded face as resolute and formidable as that of our fighting sergeant meek. still better proof of his daring character lay in the fact that he had been wandering on the prairies for two years or more before he fell in with the great company of comanches and kyoways whose encampment we had found on the headwaters of the platte, and with whom he had come south to the vicinity of the spanish settlements. venturing into santa fe, he had been fairly well received by the spanish, and though forbidden to leave certain bounds, was otherwise free, and doing quite well as a carpenter.
as my attendant corporal knew nothing else than spanish, pursley and i were able to talk with the utmost freedom. when, in the midst of the account of his truly remarkable adventures, he told how he had found gold on the upper reaches of the platte, westerly of the grand peak, and how he had refused to divulge the place to the spaniards because it might lie within the bounds of louisiana territory, i became so convinced of his stanch loyalty and patriotism that i confided in him the circumstances of our party.
he was immensely interested, but shook his head over my suggestion that he should attempt to join the expedition. he did not see how this could be of any benefit either to the party or to himself, especially, he explained, as allencaster had already sent out well-mounted spies to find and report on the party of hunters with whom i claimed companionship. he, pursley, could not hope to overtake these expert horsemen; while, on the other hand, if caught trying to escape, he would surely be jailed in the terrible calabozo.
in the midst of our argument of the question, i was summoned into the presence of the governor. he met me with a frown, and showed how closely i had been watched by peremptorily ordering me to hold no further communication with pursley. my attempt at a french shrug flung him into a passion, in which he decreed my exile to san fernandez, a tiny village four days south of santa fe, there to remain in the charge of lieutenant malgares until word should come from chihuahua.
finding his excellency thus once more harshly disposed, i was not altogether reluctant at being banished, more especially as my exile was in the direction i wished to travel. nor did i regret the change when i came to san fernandez and made the acquaintance of lieutenant don faciendo malgares.
he was, i soon learned, the son of one of the royal judges of the kingdom of new spain, and immensely wealthy. but neither his birth nor his wealth prevented him from being the most courteous gentleman i have ever met. that he was a daring and dashing officer was evident from his modest account of that remarkable excursion through the heart of the comanche country and north to the pawnees.
the question of his expedition chanced to come up within a week after my arrival, and having already gauged his gallant character, i felt free to rally him upon his invasion of our domain.
"nom de dieu!" i mocked, as he concluded by telling how his party had returned southward from the arkansas, along the outer face of the front range of mountains, and into santa fe through an easy pass eastward of that town. "nom de dieu! you invade territory indisputably ours with a force little short of a regiment; yet when i would repay the compliment,—one lone man, lost in the western wilds, your righteous governor has a mind to garrotte me!"
"not he, señor," replied malgares. "rest assured he will leave that to the decision of the governor-general."
"he will send me to chihuahua!" i exclaimed.
"i fear as much, señor. there can be little doubt that general salcedo will order you before him."
"quien sabe?" i muttered, affecting a doleful tone. my fear had been that i might be sent the other way. a sudden thought brought my hand to my bosom. "perdone, señor lieutenant, if i seem impertinent, but is it usual for spanish officers to present savages with banners embroidered by the ladies?"
he stared at me blankly. "embroidered banners?"
"i chanced to visit that pawnee town some three weeks after yourself. examining the flag you left, i observed upon its lower corner—"
"ah!" he interrupted, "i comprehend. the flag from señorita vallois. but i assure you, señor robinson, it was the lady's own whim. she requested me to fly her banner at the point where i should make nearest approach to your settlements."
"ah!" i exclaimed, in turn, masking my delight with difficulty. "so your spanish señoritas still send out their knights errant bearing their colors."
"true," he replied. "yet you mistake in part. it was not señora malgares who gave me the banner in question, but her friend, señorita vallois."
"vallois?" i repeated;—"vallois? that is a french name."
"no less is it spanish, señor; though it is in point that my friend don pedro claims descent from french royalty. one can well believe the claim in the presence of his niece."
"my word to that!" i cried. "she's the most beautiful lady under heaven!"
"santisima virgen!" he exclaimed. "you know her?"
"i had the honor of meeting her in my own country."
by a flash of intuition he divined all on the instant. "dios!" he murmured, and he swept me a wide bow. "a love that could draw a man across that vast desolation of desert and sierra! most unjust the fate that would not requite the deed!"
"you have seen her. do you wonder that i should have made the venture?"
"less than a year has passed since i won my own lady," he said. "the virgin grant that i may be the one to escort you to chihuahua! i have not seen my señora since i marched north, last year."
when a spaniard opens his heart to you, count on it you have found a friend. i nodded understandingly.
"ah, my dolores! my niña!" he sighed.
"but she is yours; you have already won her; while i—!"
he nodded, in turn. "my dolores writes that every bachelor of chihuahua, from the greatest haciendados to the youngest sub-lieutenants, are suitors for the hand of señorita alisanda. yet take heart. at the last writing, not even medina had won recognition from her."
"medina?" i inquired, full of jealous inquietude.
"salcedo's favorite aide-de-camp,—a braggadocio fellow."
"could you not take it upon yourself to hurry me south at once?" i urged.
"poder de dios! i, a soldier, to march without orders? but be assured. the order will come before many weeks. in the meantime we should prepare." he looked me over smilingly. "it will never do for you to come before your lady in this savage costume. great is my regret that in this remote village we cannot find you garments after the european mode, yet there are worse attires than that of a spanish country gentleman—a caballero rusticano."
notwithstanding my protests against imposing upon his generosity, he insisted upon at once conducting me to a man qualified to tailor the spanish modes. within the next fortnight i was completely fitted out à la española from top to toe. but although it was the first time i had ever worn the costume, i cannot say that in the company of similarly attired spaniards i felt ill at ease in these garments. in part at least they were well adapted to the needs of this hot, arid climate, particularly the broad-brimmed shade-hat, or sombrero. silk stockings and spanish breeches, buttoned down the outer seams and open below the knees, took the place of my tattered pantaloons and buffalo leggings. for belt i wore a sash of scarlet silk, with ends dangling like a lady's drape. above it was a waistcoat as large as the jacket was short, while the circular cloak over all gave me quite the air of an hidalgo. my one difficulty was with the stiff jack-boots upon which jangled my barbarously gaffed spurs. after months of freedom in pliant moccasins, my feet found this hard confinement barely endurable even when i was mounted.
in return for the numberless courtesies of malgares, i was able to make part payment by practising gratis among the people. it was, at the same time, a most interesting experience to come into intimate contact with the population, from the gachupines, or spaniards of old spain, and the native-born spaniards, whom we call creoles, to the far more numerous mestizos, or mixed-bloods, and their half-brothers, the pueblo, or tame indians.
one day i had gone up to see a patient at atrisco, a little village next below albuquerque. it was, as i remember, the seventh of march, exactly a month after i had left my comrades at the stockade in the valley. the commandant, at whose house i was staying, had borrowed for me a spanish grammar from father ambrosio, and i was deep in the verbs, when my host stepped into the room, with a bow and a sonorous introduction: "perdone, hermano! present usted señor el capitan mun-go-meri-paike, your compatriot."
i started up, and found myself confronting—pike!
he stared back at me, half in doubt that it could be i, so vast was the change in my appearance and health.
"john!" he exclaimed. "it cannot be!"
"yet it is," i replied, aglow with delight.
there could be no mistaking him, if only that he still wore his scarlet fur-lined cap and blanket cloak,—though much of his dress was new, and his face presented far other than the ghastly, emaciated aspect it had worn at our parting.
but as i reached out to clasp his hand, he suddenly recalled our agreement not to recognize one another, and drew back with feigned hauteur. "who are you, sir? i do not know you."
"'t is of no use, montgomery!" i cried. "i cannot hide my friendship. i should call out to you though they had the garrotte at my neck. what is more, the secret is out. i have already confessed my connection with the expedition to lieutenant malgares, who, though a spaniard, has proved himself a true friend. i could no longer endure the thought of concealment from him. it has not cost me his friendship; and i am prepared to risk the worst his superiors can inflict upon me."
"no, no, john!" he protested. "we shall all come through safely, and you shall win your lady."
"ah! alisanda! my thanks for the good wish. but you?" i demanded. "are you and the men also prisoners in the hands of that capricious governor?"
"prisoners!" he repeated, dropping his hand on his sword-hilt. "does this look like it? no! they lured us into santa fe with false promises. but my men still carry their guns and ammunition. let the tyrants so much as raise a finger against us, and we will flee to their enemies the apaches, and lead the savages against their settlements!"
"we could do it!" i cried. "yet first—"
"first you would go to chihuahua; and so would i," he assented, his blue eyes twinkling. "i made a loud protest when this over-wise governor said it was necessary for me to go south. but we are going as 'guests under constraint'—not as prisoners, please note, john. the addle-pated don did not know enough to send us packing the shortest way out of the country, to the red river,—which, it seems, lies far to the eastward, in the comanche nation. no! he must needs march us down through the heart of the northern provinces. could we ask more?"
"not if salcedo sets you free."
"sets me free? no less yourself, john!"
i shook my head dubiously. but at the moment there entered a captain d'almansa, whom i had met at santa fe, and who, i now learned, was conducting down the lieutenant and his men to place them under the escort of malgares. when pike explained to him that i had been a member of the expedition, the old captain smiled knowingly. few among the spaniards had doubted my connection with the mad americanos after the party was brought in.
we left d'almansa in the house, seated over a bottle of ardent spirits with my host, and went out to where the six privates who had come with the lieutenant from the stockade were in waiting. i was rejoiced to see that, though still for the most part clad in their tatters, their rounding cheeks showed the welcome effects of spanish hospitality, and that the ones worst frosted now hardly limped in their gait. not one of them had been required to walk a mile since leaving the fort, horses having been provided them from the first.
it was no less affecting than amusing to see the manner in which, obedient to orders, they stared at me with an air of stolid indifference even when i came up to them with their lieutenant. but the moment he had explained that all was discovered, they crowded about me with exclamations of joy. it was truly a happy meeting for us all, despite the uncertainty of what might befall us in the hands of the tyrannical spanish authorities.
as soon as i had sketched my adventures, pike, in turn, told theirs.
"for several days after you left," he began, "i spent the time in hunting, reading, and exploring the valley around the fort. but a fortnight ago, while out with brown, we fell in with a dragoon and an indian of the militia, who, after telling us of your arrival at santa fe, insisted upon following us to the fort. in the morning, after we had made them a few gifts, they started back to santa fe, from which place they had been sent out to spy upon us."
"true!" i broke in. "allencaster must have suspected from the first that my party of hunters was no less than the american expedition. i have learned that señor lisa sent word from st. louis of the expedition's plans, to the spanish authorities in texas. all the northern provinces have been on the lookout for us for months, and malgares has told me that the real purpose of his great expedition was either to capture us or to turn us back."
"that i have myself learned," replied pike. "well, they have us now. may they have joy of their find! but to return. the same day that the spies left, jackson and his party came in with menaugh. but poor sparks and dougherty, alas! neither had been able to take a dozen steps, and the others could not bear them through those deep drifts."
"good god!" i cried. "they left their comrades again, in that terrible valley, famished, crippled, sick! had i but gone—!"
"no, john, they are not famished, nor are they sick. jackson found them well nourished. the gangrene had not spread. they will recover. you yourself said they would recover if the disease did not spread in this time. jackson restocked them with meat, and within three days after his return meek and miller volunteered for a second rescue-party. as their orders were to go first for baroney and smith and the horses, there can be no doubt that this time our poor lads will be brought in."
"then they are not at the fort?" i asked.
"i cannot say. they had not yet come in when the spanish dragoons came to lure us away. but you know the obstinacy and combativeness of meek. he will bring them in. yes, by now they must be over the mountains and on their way to santa fe, guided by the spaniards left at the fort for that purpose. allencaster has promised to send them after us as soon as they can march. by the way, he has complimented you with the return of your rifle and pistols. as i positively refused to be disarmed, the diplomatic supposition is that we need our weapons to provide against attacks of the apaches."
"your papers?" i inquired, "all those invaluable charts and journals?"
he gave me a rueful look. "the enemy have them trapped in my little paper trunk, most of them. when we first came into santa fe all the more valuable ones were concealed in the clothes of these lads." he shook his head sadly at the six privates. "but the over-hospitable ladies plied them so freely with wine and ardent spirits that i feared some of the papers might be lost during their tipsy antics. so i returned to the trunk all except your copy of my courses. immediately afterwards the trunk was seized, and is now in the charge of our escort."
"they may be returned," i argued.
he shook his head.
"you say they lured you into santa fe?"
"upon the report of his spies, allencaster sent out a force of a hundred men, under pretence that the yutah indians were about to attack us. they were extremely courteous, and invited me to come into santa fe, stating that the governor wished to know our reasons for entering his territories. when i had expressed our strategic supposition that we were on the red river, and they had explained that these were the waters of the rio del norte, i at once hauled down our flag and agreed to accompany them.
"as with yourself, allencaster was at first exceedingly haughty to me. but after i had expressed my opinion of their invasion of our territories, and stated that i had come in merely to be directed how to find the red river, that my party might follow it down to natchitoches, he mellowed exceedingly. i believe the old fox thought he was playing me a sly trick in thus sending us south through the heart of his country."
"he will be hoist by his own petard!" i cried. "papers or no papers, salcedo is bound to free you at least, and you have a fine memory. my fate will not affect the splendid advantages which will accrue to our country from this blunder of the dons."
"your fate?" he demanded.
"i am now a spy confessed. but enough of that when we reach chihuahua! until then we shall have no cause for complaint. we go under the escort of malgares, than whom there is no truer gentleman under the sky."
pike shook his head doubtfully.
but the next day i had the great pleasure of introducing him to malgares, who promptly talked himself into the lieutenant's good graces, and entertained us that evening by ordering a fandango to be danced in our honor by the prettiest girls of the vicinity.
of our southward journey, which we began on the ninth of march, i will mention only that the first stage alone carried us some three hundred and fifty miles down the valley of the rio del norte, to el paso. the most prominent features of this trip were a notorious arid desert called the jornada del muerto, or journey of the dead man, which we avoided by a long detour, and two ranges of mountains to the eastward of the river,—the glittering, snow-clad sierra blanca and the sierra de los organos,—in whose fastnesses lurk the murderous apaches, said by spaniards to be the most terrible of all indians.
the second day south of el paso we had to toil across a region of shifting sand hills similar to those at the west end of our pass through the sangre de cristo. the stop that evening was made at the presidio of carrazal, where, for the first time since our meetings with governor allencaster, we were received without the effusive hospitality to which we had become accustomed. when malgares introduced us to the commandant, the latter bowed with utmost coolness, and muttered in spanish an ungracious statement to the effect that malgares was welcome to his quarters, but that los hereticos could lodge themselves, together with their privates of infantry, in the common hovel provided for travellers.
malgares bowed his grandest. "perdone, señor!" he replied. "i could not bring myself to trouble your hospitality. what is good enough for my friends is good enough for me."
such was malgares's stateliness of manner that the commandant, although his superior officer, was bowing in most apologetic fashion before our friend had ceased speaking.
"perdone, hermano!" he murmured. "i erred most deplorably in imagining that los señores americanos came as persons under constraint. con permiso, i hasten to rectify my error by urging them to honor my humble abode with their presence."
"i fear that the señor commandant will have to excuse los americanos," i said.
"the sky is ever a welcome roof to us," added pike, no less offended than myself.
"but that is impossible, señores!" urged the commandant, with growing concern. he turned appealingly to malgares—"pray persuade them, don faciendo! should they refuse my hospitality i could never forgive myself!"
"from the first our countrymen have given them the warmest of welcomes," remarked malgares, his chin still high.
"por dios! do i deny it? yet consider, i have but now received the gazette from the city of mexico."
"the gazette?" inquired malgares, unbending.
"with the account of the terrible colonel burr."
"señor, we will be pleased to accept your hospitality," said pike.
immediately there was a general exchange of amicable bows, and the commandant conducted us to his quarters. i could see that malgares was hardly less eager than pike and myself to hear the news about burr. but diplomacy, no less than etiquette, compelled us to repress our burning curiosity until our host had exemplified his hospitality with a light evening meal. as we rose from the table, he remarked that we might better enjoy our cigarros under the starlight, on the azotea.
"perdone, amigo," replied malgares, suavely. "you spoke of the gazette. i would hardly venture to say how old was the last gazette which i saw at santa fe."
"con permiso, señores," said the commandant, bowing to pike and myself.
at his command the attendant fetched the gazette, which he took into his own hands and tendered to us, with a polite bow. when we shook our heads over the spanish text, he waved us back to our seats, and proceeded to translate into french a most extraordinary mess of wild and contradictory rumors regarding aaron burr.
the redoubtable colonel had descended the ohio with an immense army; he had invaded the province of texas; he was marching upon santa fe; he had captured new orleans; he was operating against pensacola, with a view to the conquest of the floridas; he had joined forces with the british fleet and had sailed to invest vera cruz; he was fighting the eastern americanos; no! the atheist jacobin jefferson had sent a second army to help him to conquer new spain. only the firm stand of the honest and most upright americano commander-in-chief, general wilkinson, had prevented los hereticos from breaking their sacred pledge by crossing the sabine river into the disputed territory. risking the anger of the hypocritical jefferson, the brave wilkinson had met the treacherous and ferocious burr in a terrific battle; had defeated the desperadoes and either slain or captured the would-be conqueror of the domains of his most catholic majesty, king ferdinand.
so the account ran—a bushel of chaff heaped about a few scant grains of fact. yet even out of these garbled and fantastic details of an evidently panic-stricken spanish scribe, we could extract at least an inkling of the truth. there could be no doubt that colonel burr had actually embarked upon one or more of his venturesome enterprises, and that there had ensued more or less public agitation, if not an armed conflict.
to my wider knowledge of the colonel's schemes many things were clear which puzzled and bewildered my friend, and i was not altogether surprised to see by malgares's look that he understood the situation nearly as well as myself. when, however, at the first opportunity, i sought to obtain an intimation that he had been a sharer in the mexican end of the great project, he avoided the inquiry with his usual tactful reserve.
for my own part, i concluded that my worst suspicions regarding the treasonable intentions of colonel burr were all too true. evidently relying upon wilkinson to force hostilities on the texas border, he had planned to sweep down the ohio and the mississippi, with the rallying cry of "war with spain!" to bring the frontiersmen flocking after him in a vast army. with all the loyal-hearted marching to the conquest of mexico under wilkinson and jackson, it would then have been a simple matter to seize new orleans, declare a separation of the west from the east, and appeal to the states and territories west of the alleghanies to join in creating an empire which should extend westward to the far distant pacific and south to remote panama.
that the west was, and for years had been, far too loyal to listen to the traitorous proposal, was not the question. the point was, that, had wilkinson supported the arch-plotter so far as the seizure of new orleans, the result would have been a bloody internecine war among our people, with france and england alike gloating upon our dissensions, and waiting, eager-fingered, to tear us asunder at the first opportunity.
so it was that, taking matters at their face value in so far as i could conjecture the facts, i gladly gave general wilkinson credit for the part he seemed to have played in checkmating the alleged invasion of the lower mississippi by burr.
the manner in which our host watched our faces as he read the gazette to us, explained the discourtesy of his first greeting. it was evident that he regarded our expedition as a reconnoitring party sent out by the hated americanos to explore a road for the expected army of invasion.
for my part, i firmly believe it was in fact so intended by general wilkinson, who had been known to boast that he could take all new mexico in a single campaign. but whether or not he had intended to use our discoveries to further the treasonable projects of burr, i will leave to the verdict of history. at the time, it was enough for me that he had not joined forces with burr, but, on the contrary, it would seem had averted the possibility of the dashing colonel's capture of new orleans.
