At a short distance from the spot where I had been lazoed, the road
taken by the robbers debouched from the forest, and entered the
_chapparal_.
No longer under the gloomy shadow of the great trees, I had a better
view of the band, and could see that they were genuine _salteadores_.
Indeed, I had not doubted it from the first--at least, not after
discovering who was their leader. The wounded Jarocho had told me that
most of the guerillos commanded by Rayas, were no better than brigands;
and that such honest fellows as himself, who had been forced to join it,
would all return to their homes, after the breaking up of the Mexican
army by the defeat of Cerro Gordo.
What I now saw was no longer Rayas' _guerillas_, but a remnant of it--or
rather the individuals of that organisation, who had been his bandit
associates before the breaking out of the war.
There were in all between twenty and thirty of these patriotic brigands;
and from the opportunity I now had of scanning the faces of such as were
near me, I can justly affirm that a more ferocious set of ruffians I
never beheld--to the full as picturesque, and evidently as pitiless, as
their Italian brethren of the Abruzzi.
On their march they observed a sort of rude order--riding two and two--
though this formation was forced upon them by the necessity of the
narrow path, rather than from any control of their leader.
Where the road at intervals ran through openings, the ranks were broken
at will; and the troop would get clumped together, to string out again
on re-entering the chapparal path.
For myself, I was guarded by a brace of morose wretches, as I have said,
one riding on each side of me; and both armed with long naked blades;
which, had I shown the slightest sign of attempting to escape, would
have been thrust into me without either reluctance or remorse.
But there was no chance even to make the attempt. I was strapped to the
stirrups, with my hands firmly bound behind my back; and lest the steed,
on which they had mounted me, should stray from the track, the lazo of
one of my keepers was passed through the bitt-ring of the bridle, and
then attached to the tree of the robber's own saddle.
In this manner was our march conducted--the route being towards Orizava.
There was no mistaking the direction: for the snow-capped summit of the
great "Citlapetel" was right before our faces--piercing up into a sky of
cloudless azure.
From the top of a ridge which we crossed, shortly after coming out of
the timber, I discovered that we were yet at no great distance from
Cerro Gordo itself; so near, that on glancing back--for we were now
riding away from it--I could see the American flag upon "El Telegrafo,"
and could even distinguish the stars and stripes!
My chase after the riderless horse had carried me several miles from
Corral Falso; but I had been all the while riding back in the direction
of the battle-field--in a line nearly parallel to the main road, over
which my troop had been travelling. It was only on re-entering the
timber that the chase had conducted me in a different direction--
southward, towards Orizava.
I could now understand how I had fallen into the hands of Rayas and his
robbers.
After the battle, these worthies had lingered in the neighbourhood of
the field--for what purpose I knew not then--plunder, I supposed--and
this was, no doubt, the explanation, so far as most of them were
concerned. Their chief, however, had a different object; one which, ere
long, I was enabled to comprehend.
The character of the country around Cerro Gordo--a labyrinth of _canons_
and _barrancos_--covered with a thick growth of tangled chapparal,
rendered their remaining near the field of their defeat an easy matter--
unattended with danger. They knew the pursuit had passed up the main
road to Jalapa; and there was not the remotest chance of their being
followed across country.
They had accomplished whatever purpose had kept them near the field; and
they were now _en route_ for some more distant scene of action.
I had been actually _riding after them_--on that headlong chase which
carried me into the midst of their improvised ambuscade!
As a prisoner, my position lay in the rear--only one or two files of the
cuadrilla riding behind me.