"Ah!" he exclaimed, on recognizing him. "At last! Well, Curumilla?"
But the Indian, without answering, thrust a folded paper into his hand, and disappeared as rapidly as he had come. The general eagerly scanned the letter, which only contained these words, written in French—"All is going on well. Charge vigorously."
The general's face grew brighter, he drew himself up haughtily, and brandishing his sword with a martial air, shouted in a voice heard by all, "Forward, Muchachos!"
Then, digging his spurs into his horse's sides, he galloped out of the circus, followed by the greater part of the troops, the remainder receiving orders to hold their present position until further warning.
"Now," said the President to the officers who pressed round him, "the game is won; within an hour the insurrection will be conquered."
In fact matters had greatly altered. This is what had occurred:
Valentine, as we said, had taken a house in Tacuba Street, and another in the vicinity of the San Lázaro gate. During the night that preceded the pronunciamiento, four hundred resolute soldiers, commanded by faithful officers, were introduced into the house in Tacuba Street, where they remained so well hidden that no one suspected their presence. A similar number of troops were stowed away in the house at the San Lázaro gate.
Don Martial, at the head of a large body of men, slipped into the small house belonging to the capataz, and, being warned by the latter so soon as the general had gone off to attend the review, he passed into his mansion through the masked door we know, and occupied it without striking a blow.
The Tigrero straightway set a trap, in which several of the principal chiefs of the insurgents were caught, believing that they would find General Guerrero at home, and were at once made prisoners.
These three points occupied, they waited. Colonel Lupo had attacked the San Lázaro gate so vigorously and unexpectedly, that it was impossible to prevent him burning it. A very obstinate fight at once began, and the colonel, after a brave resistance, had been at length compelled to retreat and fall back on the main body of the insurgents, who were still masters, or nearly so, of the centre of the city.