"Hang it, General, it is easy to assure yourself whether I speak the truth, by going to see. However, it appears that the Mexicans were in a hurry to be off, for they left behind them cannon, forage—everything, in a word."
"That is strange," the general muttered, as he fixed on the Canadian a glance that seemed trying to read his very heart's secrets, which the hunter sustained without evincing the slightest confusion, "that is strange," he repeated; "and do you not know the cause of this precipitate departure?"
"How should I know it? I am a stranger. Perhaps, though—but no, they cannot know it yet, as I expected to obtain a good reception from them by telling them of it."
The hunter spoke with such simple frankness, his face displayed such candour, that the general had not for a moment a thought of suspecting him; on the contrary, he listened to him with the most earnest attention.
"What more?" he asked eagerly.
"What, do you not know it?"
"It seems not."
"And yet it has caused a regular disturbance. It is reported that General Iturbide has been surprised by the Viceroy's troops and taken prisoner, after an obstinate resistance, so that the insurrection is once again subdued."
At this moment an officer, who had gone off with several others to obtain information about the Canadian's statement, ran up breathless.
"General," he said, "what this man has told you is true; the Mexican army has abandoned its camp with such haste that hardly anything has been removed."