"Oh, that is impossible!"
"It is the fact."
"How do you know it?"
"I do not know it, but I can read it plainly."
"Ah!" Don Pablo exclaimed in despair, "my father—let us fly to my sister's aid!"
The two gentlemen rushed from the house with a presentiment of misfortune. When the stranger found himself alone with the wounded man, he walked up to him, wrapped him in his cloak, threw him over his shoulders as easy as if he were only a child, and went out in his turn. On reaching the street, he carefully closed the door, and went off at a great rate, soon disappearing in the darkness. At the same instant the melancholy voice of the sereno could be heard chanting—
"Ave Maria purísima! Los cuatro han dado! Viva Méjico! Todo es quieto!"[1]
What irony on the part of accident was this cry after the terrible events of the night!
[1] Hail, most pure Mary! It has struck four. Long live Mexico! All is quiet.