“Proceed gently to the Casería with your burthen; I will hasten forward, and send assistance, and such cordials as may be required to restore my Ana.”
On my return I was surprised to see Alonzo sitting up, and his wife at his bedside. I cannot describe the joy of that moment; but there was a fearful expression of determination in my son’s contracted brows, that almost led me to fear for his mind. He turned to me for explanation, but as yet I could give him none. The party shortly arrived, however, and the women gave us a full account of the overwhelming disaster that had befallen us.
On leaving the Casería they had proceeded with such speed as the darkness of the night permitted, towards the Casa de Castañas, and had reached within a quarter of a league of the house, when the trampling of horses behind them, spread the greatest alarm amongst these defenceless females. It was clear that those who were in pursuit could not be their friends, otherwise they would call to them to return; and concluding therefore, that the enemy had prevailed at the Casería, naturally considered their danger imminent.
My wife and daughter-in-law, with their children, and three of the women, being well mounted, pressed forward to the solitary house for shelter; the others, finding the Frenchmen—whom they could now hear conversing—gaining rapidly upon them, with more good fortune took to the woods; and, as we eventually learnt, reached Los Barrios in safety.
On arriving at the Casa de Castañas, it was found to be totally abandoned. They had barely time to close the outer gate, and shut themselves up in a loft,—that could be ascended only by a ladder, and through a trap-door, which they let fall—before their pursuers rode up to the house. At first the Frenchmen civilly demanded admission; but this being refused, they—guessing, probably, how the case stood, from none but female voices replying to their demands—proceeded to threaten to force an entrance.
My daughter-in-law, who speaks a few words of French, then appeared at the window; told them it was an abandoned house, and contained absolutely nothing, not even refreshment for their horses; that, by keeping down the valley to the left, they would, in less than an hour, reach the Hermita of El Cuervo, where they would find all they might stand in need of.
The beauty of her who addressed them—for in those days my daughter-in-law was a lovely young woman of eighteen—awakened the most lawless of passions in these ruthless profligates. Affecting, however, to disbelieve her statement of the unprovided condition of the house, they forced open the outer gate, and, after vainly endeavouring to persuade the terrified females to descend from their place of refuge, collected all the straw and other combustible articles that were scattered about the premises, in the apartment beneath, and threatened to set fire to the house.
In vain was appeal made to their clemency, to the boasted gallantry of their nation, to every honourable feeling that inhabits the breast of man. And at length, exasperated at the determination of these devoted women, and possibly—it is a compliment I am willing to pay human nature—thinking that a little smoke would soon induce them to descend, the reckless monsters fired the straw. The whole building was quickly enveloped in flames.
For some minutes the unhappy beings above thought that the straw, being damp, would not ignite so as to communicate with the wooden rafters of the floor which supported them, and hoped that they were free from danger; but the smoke which ascended soon, of itself, became intolerable. Two of my children dropped on the floor from the effects of suffocation; and one of women, taking her infant in her arms, jumped from the window and was killed on the spot.
My daughter-in-law, seeing that for herself there was but a choice of death,—for the flames had now burst through the crackling floor,—determined to make an effort to save her child. Pressing him to her bosom, and covering him with her shawl to protect him from the flames in her descent, she lifted the trap-door and placed her foot upon the ladder. The fire had yet spared the upper steps, but ere she reached the bottom the charred wood gave way, and she fell. The child escaped from her arms and rolled amongst the blazing straw; she started upon her feet to save him, but the rude hand of one of the ruffians seized and dragged her from the flames into the court-yard. Vainly she implored to be allowed to go to the rescue of her helpless infant; the monster—even at such a moment looking upon his victim with the eyes of lust—would not listen to her heart-rending appeals. The agonizing screams of her writhing offspring gave her superhuman strength; she seized her knife; plunged it deep in the Frenchman’s breast; and, released from his paralyzed arms, rushed back into the flames.