“No, señor; in the diligencia. We were stopped by a band of ladrones, all wearing crape over their faces.”
“Well?”
“They ordered us out of the coach. Then to lie flat along the ground—with a threat, that if we looked up till they gave the word, we should be shot without ceremony.”
“You obeyed, I presume?”
“Carrai, señor! Why need you ask the question? Not to do so would have been certain death; and, of course, I did as the ladrones commanded. My daughters, I am happy to think, were spared the indignity. But what matters it, since they were carried off?”
“Whither?”
“A los montes!” “Ay de mi! Holy Virgin, protect them!”
“It is to be hoped she will. But why, may I ask, did you risk travelling in the diligencia between this place and Puebla? You had no escort, I take it; and must have known that the road is unsafe?”
“True, cavallero, we had no escort. It was very imprudent on my part, but I trusted to the counsels of our confessor—un hombre muy sabio—who believed there was no danger. The good padre assured us the roads were safe—made so by you valiant Americanos—that there was not a robber to be encountered between Puebla and the capital. Even then I might not have listened to him, but that I had a good reason for coming hither with my daughters; and as they—neither of them—were at all afraid, but rather inclined to it, I ventured to travel by diligencia. Alas! too easily did I yield consent to their wishes—as I have now reason to know. Dios de mi alma! Despoiled of my children! Robbed! Ruined!”
“I presume you had money upon your person, as well as these other valuables?”