"But that is impossible, senores!" urged the Commandant, with growing concern. He turned appealingly to Malgares--"Pray persuade them, Don Faciendo! Should they refuse my hospitality I could never forgive myself!" "From the first our countrymen have given them the warmest of welcomes," remarked Malgares, his chin still high. "_Por Dios!_ Do I deny it? Yet consider, I have but now received the gazette from the City of Mexico." "The gazette?" inquired Malgares, unbending. "With the account of the terrible Colonel Burr." "Senor, we will be pleased to accept your hospitality," said Pike. Immediately there was a general exchange of amicable bows, and the Commandant conducted us to his quarters. I could see that Malgares was hardly less eager than Pike and myself to hear the news about Burr. But diplomacy, no less than etiquette, compelled us to repress our burning curiosity until our host had exemplified his hospitality with a light evening meal. As we rose from the table, he remarked that we might better enjoy our _cigarros_ under the starlight, on the _azotea_. "_Perdone, amigo_," replied Malgares, suavely. "You spoke of the gazette. I would hardly venture to say how old was the last gazette which I saw at Santa Fe." "_Con permiso_, senores," said the Commandant, bowing to Pike and myself. At his command the attendant fetched the gazette, which he took into his own hands and tendered to us, with a polite bow. When we shook our heads over the Spanish text, he waved us back to our seats, and proceeded to translate into French a most extraordinary mess of wild and contradictory rumors regarding Aaron Burr. The redoubtable Colonel had descended the Ohio with an immense army; he had invaded the Province of Texas; he was marching upon Santa Fe; he had captured New Orleans; he was operating against Pensacola, with a view to the conquest of the Floridas; he had joined forces with the British fleet and had sailed to invest Vera Cruz; he was fighting the Eastern _Americanos_; no! the atheist Jacobin Jefferson had sent a second army to help him to conquer New Spain. Only the firm stand of the honest and most upright _Americano_ Commander-in-Chief, General Wilkinson, had prevented _los hereticos_ from breaking their sacred pledge by crossing the Sabine River into the disputed territory. Risking the anger of the hypocritical Jefferson, the brave Wilkinson had met the treacherous and ferocious Burr in a terrific battle; had defeated the desperadoes and either slain or captured the would-be conqueror of the domains of His Most Catholic Majesty, King Ferdinand.